The Trials of Ascension, Day Two: Anticipation

Camellia had never been good with crowds. Giving a presentation to her fellow marine bio majors for her degree had almost given her a heart attack, and that was an audience of barely twenty people. Now, here in the center of a fantastical arena, thousands of eyes all stared at her and her friends with glee.

The arena reminded Camellia of the actual Coliseum in Rome, though on a smaller scale. Well, she had never been, but this was what she imagined it to look like.

Although, this place was far from ancient ruins. Countless growths of coral lined the edges of the ground floor, decorating the blackstone walls with countless rainbows. The walls reached up higher than anyone could possibly climb, keeping the audience safe from whatever Camellia was about to face.

Looking up, Camellia saw a small box protruding from the middle of the stands. A middle-aged woman, a man she didn’t recognize, and the goddess herself sat there, watching the contenders eagerly.

Ringing out over the whole coliseum, the woman’s voice boomed, “Phoebe and Friends, the task before you is as follows: to dispatch a host of servants of those malevolent minor deities bent on harming humans. Lady Tethys herself has graciously rounded them up for us. Let the Trial of Anticipation… begin!”

The crowd roared as Lysandea finished, and another stone gate opened on the opposite side of the arena.

“Here we go!” Phoebe hollered with glee.

Without any warning, eight huge objects rocketed out of the opening in the wall, aimed straight for them. The team braced themselves, but the monsters just surrounded them, encircling the group. Giant spiraled seashells floating above the sand, they were maybe a meter tall each and appeared to be nothing more than clusters of calcified minerals.

“Cammy, what are we lookin’ at, here?” Phoebe called, summoning her aspect with dramatic flair.

Whipping out her own spectral power, Camellia scanned the shells. “I’m not sure, they haven’t—” Before she could finish, two of the shells shot at her, forcing Camellia to bring her wings up in front of her in defense. The shells bounced off, but circled back and straightened again. She finally got a good look at one as they did: two beady, angry eyes atop bright red stalks poked out from the base of the shell above a pair of huge, spiked claws.

“Hermit crabs! They’re giant hermit crabs,” she yelled at the team, who were busy fending off shell attacks of their own.

Phoebe wrestled with one of the shells, trying to wrap a tentacle around it as another badgered her from behind. “Okay, great, but what do we — get off! — do for them?”

“Try to get them to come out of the shell,” Camellia advised, pulling out her good dagger and swiping at one.

Camellia failed to provoke the crab in front of her, which glared at her from behind its claws. She heard a cry of frustration from behind and turned to find Damos blindly swinging his sword at one, only for the crab to deflect every hit with its claws.

Lynn, too, appeared to struggle, engaged in a match of swipes back and forth with one of the crabs. She used her sharp claw to try and hit the crab’s arm, but it ducked back into its shell before she could reach it. Phoebe swung her broadsword hopelessly at one of the shells, every blow glancing off the side with a lovely ting.

Camellia returned to the ones in front of her. Running in close to a floating shell, she aimed to jab her knife directly into its opening. The blade bounced off two chitinous masses completely blocking the entrance, projecting a magical barrier. The crab had retreated into its shell entirely, putting its claws up as an impenetrable door. As if the claws themselves hadn’t been enough, it was using magic to reinforce its protection.

“Alright then, you little piece of…” Camellia muttered angrily, steadying one hand against the shell, and preparing an arm to shimmy her dagger inside and pry the thing out. Right as she reached in, however, she saw the other shell float up and start spinning. She barely had time to throw up a wing to block the full-body launch, which knocked her away from her target.

She growled in frustration. Are we really gonna lose to a bunch of hermit crabs? Camellia wondered, ridden with despair. Think, Camellia!

“Guys, I need a second to think. Going up,” Camellia warned her allies.

Phoebe offered a tentacle. “Need a hand?” Camellia accepted, and Phoebe threw her upwards.

Hovering above the battlefield with her wings, Camellia had a clear view of the situation. Damos continued to flail around, currently lashing out at three of the crabs around him. Phoebe held one of the shells in one tentacle while she used the other to try and pick at the crab inside, which was keeping its home shut off from all intruders just as Camellia’s target had. Lynn swung out with her raptor claws at a few others, but it was futile. Her blows did nothing to the crystalline exterior.

She wracked her brain for an answer, lambasting herself. God, why didn’t I pay better attention in that class on crustaceans? Who even cares about hermit crabs, anyway?

As she watched Lynn struggle, the memory of the combat against the eels swam to the front of her mind. Those claws, and her mallet-like clubs. Each was good for one thing or another.

Then, it came to her, and she nearly fell down to the ground in surprise. A video a TA had put on during one of the professor’s absences, talking about mantis shrimp kinematics. That’s where she remembered cavitation bubbles from! That video mentioned the power of the blast underwater — the very thing that had propelled Camellia above the surface when she got her aspect. Shelled gastropods were natural prey of some species of mantis shrimp. Rather than swiping at their prey, these shrimp would unleash a powerful punch with enough force to rival a gunshot to smash their way to their prize. Vividly, the image of a colorful mantis shrimp breaking a shell wide open to consume the soft flesh inside flashed before her eyes.

“That’s it! Guys, I’ve got it.”

Damos glanced upwards, but made no comment. Lynn and Phoebe, on the other hand, jumped back, looking up with raised eyebrows.

Still hovering above the fray, Camellia called down to Lynn, “Lynn, this whole thing is going to hinge on you. You need to swap to punching.”

“But their shells, there’s some kind of protective magic at work. There’s no way it’ll do anything,” Lynn protested.

“Just trust me!”

Lynn looked up to Camellia, and their eyes met. A moment passed by that felt to Camellia like an eternity, wherein she and Lynn gazed right into one another’s soul.

Trust me.

After a few seconds, Lynn nodded, and her claws faded into green mist. Replacing them, big, chitinous clubs overlaid on her gauntlets like boxing gloves shimmered into view. Watching Lynn concentrate her power into her fist, Camellia let herself fall down to the sand once more.

Resolute and determined, Lynn marched up to one of the crabs still hidden in its shell. She brought her fist back. She paused for a moment. Then, a bright flash of olive green light blinded Camellia, Lynn’s punch too fast for the human eye to even see.

In an instant, the hermit crab’s home shattered, pieces of the shell exploding outwards and revealing a much smaller shivering, angry creature inside. The Coliseum shook with the cheers of the crowd.

“Hell yeah! That’s what I’m talking about, Lynn,” Phoebe cheered. Grabbing another one with a tentacle, she swung it around and presented it to Lynn. “Crack this bastard.”

Lynn obliged, obliterating another shell with ease. A slight smile crept onto her face.

“Okay, Damos, our turn,” Camellia said, readying her dagger.

Damos glared back at her, but after a moment, he closed his eyes and shook his head. He reopened them with renewed vigor, though his brow remained knit. Camellia took that as a sign that for now, they could cooperate.

It was good enough. She rushed in next to him as he attacked one of the de-shelled enemies, and the two slashed the thing to bits. Without speaking any further words, the two continued.

It wasn’t long before all eight of the monstrous shelled beasts had been reduced to crab sticks.

As they finished the final enemy, Lysandea’s deep voice echoed through the arena: “Contenders, congratulations. You have completed the Trial of Anticipation.” The crowd roared. A third stone gate opened on the side. Camellia looked up to the box where Tethys sat. She smiled, and waved her hand towards the opening.

Team Phoebe and Friends thus departed the arena, finding themselves in a second, smaller chamber.

“Now what?” Phoebe asked, looking around at the stone walls.

“Now, it is time for you to follow me.”

All four nearly broke their necks as they whipped their heads to see the source of the voice, one so undeniably comforting and familiar.

Tethys herself stood before them with a grin. “Shall we continue?”