Working Overtime

Henry: “Agh, these ruins better have something. All these purple vines I cut down just keep growing back every second. Why’s the whole jungle gotta be this color?”

Henry approached large stone ruins with vines encasing the large stone piece in the center. The door at the front was even purple, matching the scenery around him. The back of the jungle where he had entered from closed off completely with the regeneration of the vines.

He approached the door to open it, but before he did, he listened in to hear the screaming of a woman. “Help me! Help me!” She screamed out.

Henry sighed knowing that this was a trap. “Why make it so obvious?” He looked down at the ground and bent down to sniff the bottom of the dirt. He slightly smelled it before, but confirmed that the door was rigged with explosives. He stepped back down the stairs to the ground and pointed his sword at the door.

“Sonic Blur,” he chanted. Ultrasonic waves came out in doses at the door, making it crumble to the ground instead of blasting it open. Doing this didn’t set the explosives off, so Henry stepped right over them and continued forward down broken wood stairs that formed not even a crossable bridge. Some people still breathing were trapped in vines and called out to him. “Save me! It is gonna kill us all!” they yelled out.

Henry ignored them without the slightest glance and walked across the bridge using his own abilities. “Precision’s Walk,” he called out and he was able to form blue and white circles similar to rings that he walked across with ease to the other side.

An old man wearing nothing but underwear stared him in the eyes. He was sitting in a puddle of muddy water with drawings attached to the rock wall behind him. Stick figures of children playing childish games appeared on all of them in a row until leading to the last few papers, which just became messy lines.

The old man pointed towards a large stone slab that had been rusting for years. Cracks appeared all over it. Henry touched the top of it and it crumbled to the ground. He looked at the old man who then pointed to another stone slab across the other side of the cave where he touched it and it crumbled yet again.

Henry: “What’s the deal old man? Just tell me where it’s at. You know why I’m here.”

The old man went to speak, but then closed his mouth and pointed at the water underneath him. Henry was hesitant to go through it. He didn’t sense any mana coming from it.

Henry: “Well, if I die, at least I don’t have any regrets.”

Before Henry hopped in the muddy water, the old man stood up slowly and chains were tied to his wrists. He opened his mouth beyond what a human could do. Henry wasn’t scared, but confused, as the man turned into bats that flew at him and then beyond into the rest of the cave.

Henry jumped into the water and disappeared from the surface. He held his breath on the way down through the minute of dirty water that blasted him somewhere else before exiting onto a large rock in the middle of an even larger pond. He stayed still and looked around, but ultimately sensed nothing.

Henry: “Ahh, I guess the old man was too senile for his own good. Now, where is this thing? I’ve been searching places for years now. Can’t I get a break? Oh? A glowing spot in the water? I don’t like that, but what other choices do I have? Agh, Mugen will kill me if I don’t get all these stupid chaplets. He knows the odds of me finding all of these are low. He’s gonna have to hire half the world to find all these. I know you like to rely on me boss, but this is gonna be another half a year to find maybe 5 more of the better ones. Whatever, he can’t hear my right now anyways. I’m just venting out for no reason. Alright, upsy daisy!”

A splash surfaced ten times the size of his body as he headed towards the blue light in the water. He couldn’t see underneath him. It was an empty bottomless pit where nothing grew.

He could see the edge of the rocks though as he got closer to the light, which was in the actual side of the rock. Henry used his sword to hack away at it.

The noise echoed through the water until reaching a blue stone. It wasn’t a chaplet, but more oval shaped, and looked like a simple rock. He accidentally banged it with his sword and a ringing sound hurt even his ears that continued throughout the depths.

Before taking it out, he paused…

He thought he had heard something and stayed floating in the water to listen. If he was proud of one thing, it was his ability to hear things at a very long distance. Something was approaching, but it was far. He had time to pull out the rock, or so he thought…

He looked down to huge dark red eyes approaching him.

“Precision’s Boost!” he called out.

Blue and white rings appeared underneath his feet, the same as before, and flung him back onto the rock. He didn’t have much time in between with the creature emerging from the waters. ‘What the hell?’ he thought.

A giant snake appeared in front of him with not even half its body sticking out. He could see the rest of the body wrapping around him in the water. Its dark blue slimy scales glistened amongst its massive figure. Its dark red eyes peered down upon him attached to an intimidating looking face where its fangs dripped down red venom, eager to feast upon Henry.

The snake opened its mouth and shot out mana lines laced with venom directly at Henry, which followed him around. Henry boosted himself yet again and used “Precision’s Walk” to glide along the water, trying to avoid the main body.

‘He can control mana and release mana lines? How come I can’t sense it?’ he thought. ‘He’s too big for me to slice in one swing. It would take me over 100 swings and I’d have to avoid whatever attacks he has. If this is the first ability it's using, then I’m in trouble. Where is its core? If I can cut off the main source, then it should only take a few swings.’

Henry sliced the mana lines that came at him, but to his surprise, they didn’t break. They bent instead and continued to attack his lower half, which he recognized right away and leaped through the air. The tail of the snake hid beneath the spot where he was at and whipped up above the water, launching him at the top of the rock where he coughed up blood. Henry’s body fell back down and he maneuvered midair before the snake could whip its body at him again.

However, the mouth opened and spit out continuous thorns laced with venom at him. “Echo Resonance!” he shouted out. This ability allowed him to send ultrasonic waves through the air that pulsed and turned the enemy's power against them, which would ultimately disorient them.

The thorns flung back at the giant snake, who retreated back into the water to avoid its own attack. Henry was able to hang on to the wall and listen closely for 10 seconds before it made a move again. He found the core of its mana, and of course, it was in the hardest spot to reach. It was in the middle of the body, which was submerged halfway through the water. Even if he could get down there, he would have to avoid any incoming attacks before trying to slice the core.

The snake opened its mouth and turned in a circle, encompassing the whole area in a thick frost. The water did not freeze over though, but the surrounding areas were glazed in a blue and white rime.

The air was thin.

Henry realized what it had done. The snake was dropping the temperature of the cave slowly. The oxygen was beginning to thin. ‘I have about 2 minutes before this place gets too cold for oxygen to release to my body. Slimy bastard,’ he thought.

Henry: “I’ll rip those scales right off! Harmonic Chains! Symphony Bind! Soundless Stealth!”

Henry’s abilities appeared in the air one by one as his blue mana lines appeared thicker on his body than before. Blue chains shot across and strangled the head. Symphony Bind allowed those chains to not be broken for a minute, but it prevented the chains from being able to strangle the head. However, that was not Henry’s goal. He knew that trying to choke the snake would not work and its mana was too strong for it to not break out. If anything, he only had about 20 seconds until it broke free from the chains.

Henry: “There, there, now. I just need to slice you in two!”

Soundless Stealth allowed him to go invisible. He used his sword to slice open the snake from the mouth down its neck where blue blood squirted all over the place uncontrollably.

“Precision’s Boost!” he yelled out as he darted into the water. Even though he had dealt a lot of damage to the upper portion of the snake, the bottom half still responded evidently. The tail chased him and was gaining on him while heading down. ‘Come on!’ he screamed out in his head. He raised his sword right before the center of the body and focused heavily for 1 second before the tail reached him in order to track where the source of mana was coming from. ‘Impossible,’ he thought, having had undetectable mana through his ability.

He didn’t have enough time, but he dashed out of the way and the tail pierced its own main body for him. He circled back immediately as he could hear the snake screech out even from the surface this far deep. Henry mumbled something underneath the water, but just enough to activate his ability.

Henry: “Sonic Cleaver!”

His blade extended both in height and width. It became a massive sound blade forged from vocal frequency, lighting up in white flames that extended from the sides and sliced the body in 2 pieces. Henry broke the core, and the snake screamed like never before. The body reacted on its own from the pain, but the lower half sank to the bottom. The head darted at Henry who was not expecting it and he didn’t have time to activate an ability. He had to rely on the strength of his mana lines and sword.

“Come at me!” he yelled out under the water.

Right before the snake could reach him, not more than a foot away, it stopped and the eyes rolled back. It sank to the bottom with the rest of its body. Henry swam over to the blue stone in the wall and pulled it out before returning to the rock in the middle.

Henry: “Whew! That was a close one. I let my guard down on that. Wonder what the boss would think if he saw that. Probably would be screaming my head off. This is why I need a vacation, Mugen. I’m getting overworked here. Now, what are you, you little stone? All that hassle for a blue rock? Shows what my life has come to. I might take it as a decoration in my room if this doesn’t lead to a chaplet. Oh? Hold on a second.”

The stone lit up like a magnet, and flew over to an area on the opposite side of the water. Henry thought in his head how stupid all that was just to move a stone to the other side of the wall.

When the stone attached to the wall, it pierced a hole big enough for even Henry to enter through, leading him into somewhere right above the water that he could not have gotten to without the help of the stone.

The blue rock darted off again further out of reach from him into an opening. The path started to get tighter and tighter. Henry had to squeeze through the foundation before entering into a small room with 2 lights shining down onto a wooden crate, no different than one that would carry fruits and vegetables. On top of it though, was a red chalice, missing 3 large gemstones in it, but now two due to the blue stone that had made its way to it.

Henry: “Great, so I have to find 2 more? I have to battle 2 more of those things? Is that right? What if I just…”

Henry tried to break the wooden box underneath the chalice, but it repelled him every time. It didn’t matter what ability he used, he couldn’t even scratch it. In fact, whenever he tried to even touch the box, he couldn’t reach it. It was like his physical body was not allowed to even come near it.

Henry: “So, what’s the deal here? Where am I supposed to go next? Because, there is no other way to enter here.”