The mana surrounding me flowed around my body, forming a vaguely Cyrus-shaped bubble. The same thing occurred around Arturous' body, and I could feel the portal travel come to an end. Like a pillow cushioning our fall, we landed on wet stone.

I got up slowly, using the bear's larger body as a brace. Within seconds my vision adjusted to the gloomy light of the hallway. Looking down, I lifted my foot from the clear water and set it back down with a splash.

Arturous growled, and I gave him a couple of pats on the head. "Sorry about the fur, Artu. When we're done, I'll roast a nice big fish for you on the beach."

I received a huge bear tongue to the face. Using the water, I cleared the residual slime and summoned my spear. I immediately worried that Zharia would be disadvantaged inside a water-themed dungeon.

Releasing my mana, I summoned Áine and then Zharia. The girls settled on my shoulders and looked around.

"Strange place, Master. Too much water."

I rubbed Zharia's head and held up my spear. "Looks like we'll be playing it safe this time. Are you okay being the scout?"

"No problem! I'll burn whatever monster comes our way."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but let's take it easy. I don't want you getting hurt. And if we need help, we have Arturous here to back us up. Okay?"

Zharia pouted, and I could feel her disappointment through the bond. "Yes, Master. I shall fly ahead."

Shaking my head, I held a hand out to Áine so she could hop on. After one last spin around the room, she stepped onto my hand, and I placed her on Arturous' head.

"Be prepared to heal me when I ask for it, okay? Arturous here can keep you safe." She gave me a tiny thumbs-up, and I chuckled.

Zharia flew ahead, but I kept within a dozen meters. So far, the hallway continued in a maze-like fashion leading down a winding path. And throughout the entire thing was water. It rose to my knee in some places, but that was all. It did not flow in any direction; it existed, unmoving and ever-present.

It took another five minutes of traveling empty hallways till Zharia spotted the first dungeon monster. Using our connection, I saw the thoughts she sent me and saw what she had seen.

Of all the things I expected to face inside a dungeon called the Drowned Necropolis, it was not that. The monster was in the form of an ethereal blue fish floating above the water. Strange red strands fluttered on an unseen gust of wind that seemed to float around the fish's body.

But the strangest of it all was not the floating nor the glowing blue energy that made up its body. Rather, it was the elongated skull that connected to the thickened spine that replaced the fish's head.

It looked humanoid but was not human, not that I was an expert on strange, undead ghostfish.

"Master," Zharia chirped uneasily. "There's another one coming."

"That's fine. Fly up and keep an eye on it. I'll engage the first one."

Before turning the corner and confronting the monster, I turned and had Arturous stop and wait. If things went wonky, he'd be a whistle away. Though, a significant part of me hoped things got crazy.

Slowly as I could, I moved forward with my spear held out. I didn't lift my feet; instead, I slid one foot forward and one back to minimize how much I disturbed the water.

When I saw the undead creature, it looked almost beautiful, in an eerie sort of way. Noiselessly, it skimmed through the air from one side of the wall to the next. When it turned and faced my direction, I was ready to launch my spear at the thing, but it turned away a second later. Unbothered and unchanged, it continued its lazy swim between the walls.

I could feel Zharia's confusion layer over my own, and I couldn't help but stop and lower my spear. As it kept swimming, I waited to see if it would keep ignoring me if I stepped closer. Cautiously I moved within an arm's reach and held still.

Three...two...one. I counted slowly for the moment it would turn away from the wall and be forced to come within a few feet of me. Tightly gripping my spear, I waited, ready to jump back and slash upward with my spear the moment it showed any sign of hostility.

As it approached my fist, it came within inches and lightly brushed against my fingers. The sensation felt like dipping my hand in freezing water, stealing away my warmth.

I pulled back and lifted my spear, but the undead fish continued swimming, ignoring me altogether. A glance at Zharia showed her sitting in a shady nook with her head cocked to the side.

"Master? Why didn't it attack you? Why didn't you?"

I lowered my spear and watched the monster float away. After it reached a half dozen meters, I pulled up a specific entry on my status sheet.

 

Status:

Dread Guardian's Apology:

• An oath broken, a duty betrayed, a debt owed and fulfilled. A sliver of power given by the Dread Guardian to the ascendant Cyrus.
• Marked by one of the heralds of its aspect, Death grants you its favour.
• Minor resistance to death-based mana.
• Unintelligent undead will view you as one of their kin. (This effect loses potency the more harm you bring to their ilk.)
• Intelligent undead will find you pleasing to their senses and be more inclined to trust you.

 

Zharia could read my thoughts and understood what I was focusing on. She flew down from her perch and landed on my shoulder while keeping her eye on the two monsters in the distance. "What now? Do we move on?"

I shook my head. "No, I can't leave enemies behind me. Brelten would kill me if he found out." Less carefully, I casually moved closer to the first fish and put weight on my back leg. "If the other one attacks, unleash hell."

Zharia launched off my shoulder and glided past the first monster. With her handling the other one, I focused entirely on the monster before me.

Timing my thrust so that the head of my spear hit the flesh of the monster right as it began turning in the other direction, I launched myself forward and extended my arms. The blade pushed through the ethereal water covering its body and met the hard bone of its spine.

The change in hostility was instant, and the red strands extended out in all directions like needles. Twisting my body so that my shoulder glided past the attack, I stepped closer, extended the blade past the spine, and pulled back, hooking the monster's body with the wings of my spear.

There was a brief moment where the water surrounding the monster spasmed and cushioned it mid-air. Using my body's entire weight, I tugged sharply, felt the resistance break, and managed to swing the spear to my right. A loud crack sounded as the monster's skull impacted the stone wall.

Suddenly, the gloomy hallway lit up in golden light. Luckily, my eyes auto-adjusted to the radiant flames bathing the end of the hallway, and I kept my focus on the monster falling to the floor.

Rather than prevent it from falling into the water, I gambled on its ability to control the water around it, weaker than my physical strength. Plunging my spear downward, I raised my foot and stomped down.

My boot met the fish first, and the monster was shoved into the ankle-high water faster than my spear could reach. It was then I realized I made my first mistake. The monster didn't fail to stop my foot from crashing into it. The undead let itself be pushed into it. The bone that my foot pushed against disappeared. In its wake were three of the red strands. Two wrapped around my ankle while the third stabbed at my calf, but the leather greave covering my leg prevented it from penetrating my flesh.

Another flare of golden flames erased the shadows covering the walls, but again, I had to ignore it and trust in my familiar. Frantically I looked around for the monster while I used my spear to cut through the bindings around my foot.

I managed to cut all but the third strand before the monster attacked again. Two more strands launched at my hand, causing me to pull it away and position it to intercept the attack.

I blocked one while the other nearly severed my fingers at the second knuckle. Growling in pain and anger, I grabbed it with my free hand and tugged.

More resistance, followed by breaking whatever energy animated the glowing water near my waist, battled against my muscles. Thrashing silently, the monster's skull emerged from the water floating around my left side.

I stabbed my spear into its face without giving it a chance to attack. When it opened its jaw and the wings of my spear slipped past its teeth, I cursed. It moved fast, faster than I could swing my arm. With a skeletal body, it rushed down the length of the shaft and opened its jaw wider.

The monster bit down with the force of a medium-sized dog, and I felt the blunt edges of bone sink into my leather armour. Beyond the threat of having my hand crushed, mana around the monster pulsed in steady waves. The glowing water surrounding its skeleton frame crawled past my wrist and up my arm. Even through the leather armour, I could feel a tinge of cold cut through the padding.

Out of options, I released the red strand in my grip, thick drops of blood staining the water red. Grabbing the upper jaw, I leveraged the open nose socket and tried to pry the monster loose. I could hear Zharia's distress as she held off the other monster.

The monster's body was exposed, with only a thin stream wrapping around its spine. The rest of the ethereal water had managed to crawl up my shoulder and tighten around my throat. Struggling, I released the skull and clawed at my neck. If I could leverage enough space, I could whistle for Arturous.

Then another flash of fire flared out, revealing what I had failed to notice while struggling to free my airway. The third strand I failed to cut early had released its hold on my leg and was now floating behind my head, looking like a viper ready to strike.

With wide eyes, the flames disappeared, taking away the revealing light. Panicking now, I tried to bend my body lower, but I knew I was too slow. There was nothing I could do to stop the monster from piercing into my skin. Hoping Áine could heal me before I bled out to death, I leaned as low as possible and waited for the pain.

Only, it never came because a wall of blinding light overtook my vision. It was the equivalent of holding a flashlight directly into my eyes. A deep guttural roar echoed across the hallway walls, nearly deafening me.

The monster, strands, teeth, and glowing water scattered as a giant furry claw knocked it aside with a swing. Without the monster's strange magic holding me up, I collapsed to one knee thanks to the sudden disappearance of pressure. A shotgun spray of bones hailed across the hallway floor, skipping several meters before they smashed into the wall where they embedded themselves.

Coughing with a bruised throat, the smell of grass and wild berries overtook my nose, and a rush of healing mana started to diffuse through my body.

"Thank you, Áine," I said as I stood up and leaned on my spear for leverage.

Checking my connection, I noted that Zharia was halfway through her mana pool. The little bird must have channeled more mana into her flames than usual. To say it was effective against the monster would be a lie.

If it wasn't for the unique properties of Zharia's fire and the sheer amount of mana available to her to use for her abilities, I doubted the undead fish would have looked nearly as rough as it did.

The shiny blue-tinted skull and several spots on its spine were charred black and flaked into dust when the monster moved. The ethereal flowing water that should have surrounded its body was trimmed to nearly a quarter of what it should be. And several of the monster's weird threads floated in the water, charred to a lump of black dust.

"Zharia, you okay?"

She dived out of the way, dodging a red strand that suddenly shot at her right wing. "Yes, Master! Dumb fish won't burn! Are you okay?"

"I'm alright. Arturous and Áine came to my rescue. Start leading the thing to me. We'll take it down together, okay?"

"Yes!"

I glanced back briefly at Arturous, who stared intensely at the monster Zharia was fighting. Several golden runes blazed across his fur, and I could feel the thrum of mana centered around his legs. If I had to guess, the big guy probably had his own version of Teddy's Runic Charge skill.

Walking slowly, I positioned myself near the left wall and waited. I didn't have to bother ordering Áine to move away as I felt her skill end and her tiny fingers tap my neck before she flew back to Arturous.

Zharia got within thrusting distance after she dived under another attack. Using our connection, I ordered her to wait and dodge at the last second. My own building emotions echoed the frustration and excitement flowing through our bond. There was no need to have Arturous destroy this fish.

Flapping her wings quickly, she hovered in the same spot. The undead fish continued like a determined ghost swimming closer and closer while the water around its body pulsed. With only two strands left, it would be limited in how it attacked my familiar, and I only needed Zharia to dodge the first.

The moment it fired both strands, Zharia pushed against the air with her wings and shot toward the ceiling. Aiming my spear carefully, I sliced through one of the strands and looped my spear's wing into the monster's spine. If it worked once, there was no reason it wouldn't work again.

I smashed the monster's body against the wall and dropped my spear. Using one hand to grab the final strand, I yanked it closer. My claws hooked into the monster's empty socket and pulled in the opposite direction. With two forces pulling at opposite ends, the glowing water around the monster's body struggled to flow correctly, losing cohesion.

At that moment, Zharia dived like an arrow and landed like a mini meteor on the monster's spine. As Zharia was baiting the thing closer, I noticed a small spot below the seventh vertebra where the mass of the monster's mana sprouted from. Before she flew to the ceiling, I shared my thoughts and had her aim for that spot.

Even as she crashed into the fish like an angry fireball, her body was too small to break the monster's bones. But that wasn't the end of her retaliation. Bathed in golden flames that licked at the air unimpeded by floating water, she released a focused blast below her talons and shattered the hidden core animating the monster.

Once the vertebra shattered, the monster collapsed like a puppet with its strings snipped. The strand in my hand stopped resisting, and as the monster's corpse sank to the floor, the strand stayed in my hand, disconnected.

Releasing the fleshy thread, I reached a hand out for Zharia to land on. She zipped over and bounced on my palm. Her joy and pride at her victory over the creature were felt before it was heard.

"I did it! We did it! We beat the stupid fish!"

I chuckled while motioning for Arturous to come closer. Using my finger, I gently bopped the little firebird on the head. "You were amazing, Zharia. Thank you for your hard work. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you."

Flames sprouted from feathers, and I expected her to start hopping again, but instead, a different emotion came through the bond. It wasn't joy or pride, even though I still felt them lingering behind the new emotion. No, it was anger. Looking behind me, I found what she was staring at and sighed. It was the puddle of water that had been stained red from my blood.

Probing the connection, it wasn't hard to understand why she was angry. "It's not your fault. You are at a massive type disadvantage here. And you still managed to hold off the other monster all by yourself. Be proud of yourself, Zharia, because I certainly am."

Reluctantly, Zharia nodded and flew over to where Áine was resting on Arturous' head. The bear lumbered closer and pushed his snout into my hand. I laughed and scratched behind his ears.

Summoning a pack of spiced jerky from my inventory, I unwrapped it and dumped its contents into the bear's mouth. He devoured the thing within two bites which caused me to laugh louder. "Thank you, Artu. Really saved my hide back there." The bear roared softly, and I smiled.

Reaching down and picking up the girls, I hugged them before they disappeared back into my soulspace. Cracking my neck, I walked over and grabbed the two halves of the undead fish.

Let's see if Cal's hint was what I needed.