Beginner's Luck: 33

"Oh, this can't be good." Fluke muttered as they watched in horror, not knowing how to act.

The hermit crabs slowly moved about the beach, only stopping when they found the remnants of the resonant shard. The tiny fragments were glittering all over the sand. When they found the shards, they quickly spun them in their littler arms and consumed them. Within moments, new resonant crystals began growing out of the eye sockets and nasal cavity of the human skulls. When the shards had grown a sufficient size, the hermit skulls half turned to face the chaotic mass of spider crabs, only to begin launching their Cobalt shards into the fray. Small explosions of brilliant blue began popping all over the horde.

"For a moment, I thought that was going to end differently." The Librarian said letting out a long breath. As if the hermit crabs had heard him let down his guard, half of them turned and began firing on the humans watching them from a short distance.

"Q! Smash those skulls now!" Fluke ducked a shard that almost hit him in the head and ran behind the golem for cover. Q marched forward and began waffle stomping skulls with a series of satisfying crunches. The Librarian ran for cover in the forest, diving behind a tree as a blue flash cut its way clean through another tree close by. Activating his Insight, Fluke managed to see brief trajectories of the shards just before they were launched.

"Librarian! Use Insight! Try to catch the shards!"

Focusing his own resonance, Fluke tried to catch the Cobalt shards as they flew past him. They were not launching with the power or destructive force that happened when he launched the shards, but they still whistled in the air dangerously like arrows. After a half dozen attempts, he managed to time it just right, snagging the shard with his resonance and pulling it in a wide arc around Q. With a turn, he threw the shards back at the hermit crabs. His first attempt at redirecting the shards had terrible accuracy, so on the next attempts he changed targets, and began to hammer throw the shards he caught towards the churning spider crab pile.

Following the boys lead, the Librarian stood and tried to do the same. Using his barrowed Insight, he tracked the paths of shards that were incoming. However, he found that the one he did manage to catch and sling around, almost hit Fluke who was down now in front of him, following behind Q. Adjusting, the Librarian decided he was just going to try and catch the shards instead of redirecting them. Activating his shield emblem, he found that when the shards flew close, they became lodged in his resonant energy, losing all energy in their flight. Seeing he could see their path and catch them, he marched out confidently and began intercepting as many crystals as they would throw at him.

Chaos reigned for what felt like hours: The flashes of blue lights, the low roar of scurrying crabs, and the crunching of human skulls filled the air around them. After so long of constant focus and exertion, Fluke was starting to get dizzy and tired. The mental and physical focus required to keep up their tactics was rapidly draining him. But the tide of the assault slowly began to wane. Just then, Q lifted his leg to crunch down on the last hermit skull aiming at the humans, the crab managed to launch two of its three shards, which both hit Fluke in the thigh.

THWACK-THWACK...the wet noise of impact was quickly followed up by a final- Crunch. Crunch. Q killed the hermit skull that was focused on Fluke and the Librarian, then started working on the hermit skulls that were shooting at the spider crabs. One by one the hermit skulls that weren't paying attention to the golem were smooshed under his metallic foot. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Fluke yelped and fell down holding his leg. Each shard had buried themselves several centimeters into his muscle, and with each flinch, he could feel the crystal tear more flesh like glass. Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes- he yanked each one out, and they automatically added themselves into his quick slot inventory. Hot blood oozed out the wounds and then began to clot with sand. Gasping for air, he limply held his leg, not wanting to move at all. But recognizing that he was in danger if he stayed on the beach, decided to risk moving despite the pain. Slowly, Fluke crawled away from the insanity before him. The spider crab mountain must have smelt the blood or sensed his vulnerability because as he clawed his way up the sandy beach a string of spider crabs broke off from the main group. In a single file line they scurried closer and closer to Fluke, stopping only to consume the clump of sandy blood he left behind. Just as Fluke was beginning to panic that they would swarm him- he was quickly lifted up by the Librarian who carried him to cover behind a fallen tree.

They both gasped for air, and that was when Fluke saw that his mentor had a shard in his shoulder. The older warrior pulled it out with a grunt and put pressure on the wound. Bleeding and in pain, they both tried to calm their breathing. They heard the slow thump of Q's steps marching up the shore towards them having run out of skulls to crush. Quick snaps of attacks could be heard followed by the accelerated whirring of Q, telling the two hiding humans the golem had also joined the single file line of spider crabs and was making short work of them.

"You just had to flip that coin..." The Librarian joked sarcastically.

Fluke was going to make a remark when finally, something caught his attention: the Emerald resonant shard slot in his mask was pulsating slowly. Fluke pulled it out of his inventory not knowing what to do. Jinx popped into existence, walking up the fallen tree like it was a balance beam with arms extended.

"You guys look rough!... And to think you haven't collected a single crab for Fisk!" She spoke in a sarcastic tone, squatting down to look at both of them when she got close, putting both fists on her cheeks.

Fluke angrily sat up to yell at the goddess when a spasm of pain lanced through his body at that precise moment. In that brief fit of pain, he squeezed the shard, which caused it to break in his hand. Luckily, the crystal didn't cut his hand open. Instead, the crystal popped into a cloud of green light, washed over himself and the Librarian. Tiny green shards remained in his hand, which he put into his pocket. Looking down at his leg, he realized that his wounds were healed. Laughing he exclaimed,

"HAHA! Librarian look my leg! HAHAHA Look! Your shoulder is healed too!"

Gingerly, the old warrior moved his shoulder and sure enough it was fully recovered. Standing together, they both looked down towards the carnage below. Crab limbs, blood, and exoskeletons floated on the shore and out to sea. Smooshed hermit skulls littered the sand, and Q continued exterminating any spider crabs that broke away from the main group. Quite a few stragglers still walked on the sand either wounded or lost. But the ever-ravenous mound of creatures seemingly were retreating back to the ocean.

"Help me get some sharp sticks, maybe we can still complete this quest!" Fluke jumped up and began breaking branches, gathering them up in a set of bundles. A black dragonfly darted around, across the beaches, even diving quickly into the water from time to time. Relief and confidence flooded into Fluke, knowing this day of chaos wasn't going to be wasted. The two masked warriors walked back down to the beach and began picking up the large crabs and spiking them on sharp sticks, stacking five crabs to a stick. When they had gathered all of them that they could, Fluke checked his menu in the mask.

Current Event: Mass Migration- Sudden changes to the environment have caused chaos in the migratory patterns of the local sea life. A new food source is now washing out to sea. Something from the depths comes to investigate.

New wave: 23:59:30

Current Quest: Help Fisk gather crabs for a feast! 75/50

Despite the overwhelming smell of dead crab and ocean life, both warriors sat down on the beach as it continued to rain lightly. They lifted their masks and breathed deep taking a small moment to recover. A lightly bandaged Fisk walked up and laughed at the sight of the harvested crabs. He seemed completely unbothered by the wounds he had sustained at the onset of the swarm.

"Oh, I can't wait for our feast later! Come back to the village tomorrow to get your reward!" Fisk then marched off and started the tedious task of gathering all the crab branches.