Aquatic Soul
Chapter 3: Tutorial Mission
Disclaimer: I do not own Log Horizon or any of the characters involved except Guardian W. Water
Water blocked an overhead axe slash from one of the skeletons, grunting with the exertion as she did.
"Minori, Serara, I need healing!" she shouted.
The two girls lifted their weapons and began to focus. They both began to glow and soon the same light was coming off of Water as her wounds healed themselves and her HP bar refilled.
"Good work," Water said as she sliced the skeleton, destroying it.
"Rudy!" Water shouted.
"Orb of Lava!"
Another ball of molten rock screamed past Water, avoiding her with a quick dart to the left, before slamming into a group of skeletons. While that was going on, Touya disengaged from a skeletal warrior and retreated to the group. He turned to stand beside Water as the two faced down a horde of skeletons.
"There are too many!" Water shouted.
"We need to retreat!" Minori called back.
Water nodded, "Go! I'll cover you!"
Touya began to turn, hesitating as he glanced back over his shoulder at the skeletons.
"Go!" Water shouted, shoving him to get him moving.
The group turned and fled, Water following a few seconds behind them. She stopped and lifted her weapon above her head as they turned a corner.
"Wave of Water!"
She brought the blade down, and the air it cut erupted with a tidal wave of water that flooded the cave and pushed the skeletons back. As the water receded they looked amongst themselves and realized they were unharmed, but Water had already taken the opportunity to widen the gap between them. After a few seconds, the skeletons returned to their patrols and returned to the cave.
Outside the cave
Touya's group was panting from their sprint through the tunnel as Water emerged.
"Well, that was certainly a thing," she said as she hopped down from the elevated entrance.
"Why did we run?" Rudy shouted.
"There were too many of them, if we hadn't run we would've been overwhelmed and died," Water told him.
"You don't know that! We could've kept going, I had plenty of mana, and Minori and Sarah could've kept healing you!"
"Serara," Water corrected him.
He scoffed, "It's unbecoming of someone of my skill to run away from such weak monsters. This is ridiculous!"
Water sighed, "If you're as skilled as you claim, then why didn't you cast any other spells? You had nineteen whole seconds to do anything else."
"Why would I need to cast my other, useless spells when Orb of Lava is so powerful?"
She sighed again.
"Because that's how things work," Minori spoke up now, drawing everyone's attention.
"You use your more powerful attacks like Orb of Lava, then while it's on cooldown you use other skills to keep dealing damage. That's your job," she continued, "Shiroe taught me about party dynamics before we left for this training camp. I don't know what everyone's skills are, but I know what role you should be playing in the party."
Water nodded, "Good work."
"That skill you used earlier, the one that made the skeletons change targets to you. That was a tank skill wasn't it?"
Water nodded, "It comes from my subclass. It's called Shrouding Mists. It allows me to very briefly render my allies invisible and reset enemies aggro to me."
"And I heard you shout something about Wall of Water?" Touya asked.
"Wave of Water. A lot of my go-to skills come from my subclass. That attack augments any weapon strike I make with a wave of water that knocks back enemies from me. It's great for creating gaps to escape or if I need to get an enemy away from someone who isn't a tank."
Minori nodded, "This is the information we need to focus on. We can't just go charging in, we need to come up with a strategy using all of our skills together."
Touya nodded then looked to Rudy, "I think they've got the right idea."
Rudy hesitated, thinking to himself for a few seconds before Water cleared her throat to draw him out of it.
"Well?"
Rudy nodded, "I think we go with Minori's idea."
"Great! Then we can plan a strategy for our next delve into the dungeon," Minori said triumphantly.
The group sat on the grass and went over their skills, what they did, their cooldowns, and if they worked well with any other skills. It took them the rest of the day, but they had formulated a strategy and were ready to head back into the dungeon tomorrow. As they returned to camp they noticed some of the other groups celebrating clearing the dungeon and the loot they had obtained in doing so.
Touya seemed particularly crestfallen as they returned to their campsite. Water gave him a light punch on the shoulder.
"Don't look so glum, chum. We'll get our chance tomorrow," she said.
Touya smiled at her, "Right."
The group retired for the night, but it took some time for any of them to fall asleep. They were eager to try the dungeon again the next day, but eventually, they all nodded off.
The next day
After waking up and getting breakfast, the group stood outside the dungeon.
"Ready?" Water asked.
The group nodded before she and Touya led them inside. They retraced their path from yesterday and were quickly facing off with a group of skeletons again.
"Ok Touya, just like we discussed!" Minori shouted.
Touya nodded before charging toward the skeletons, "Samurai's Challenge!"
The skeletons were covered in a thin, blue aura. They turned their attention to Touya before charging him.
"Rudy now!" Water shouted.
"Orb of Lava!"
His spell shot forth, bathing the skeletons in molten rock. As they began to turn toward him Water held out her hands.
"Shroud Mists!"
The same silver glow overcame the group, and after a few seconds, the skeletons turned their attention back to Touya.
"Good work, now let's mop 'em up!" Water shouted.
The group cheered before turning their focus to the skeletons.
Meanwhile, on a nearby beach
Naotsugu was relaxing in the sun with Marielle and a few of the other instructors. They had planned a cookout that evening and had just finished their preparations.
"Oooh, the kids will be so excited!" Marielle shouted as she paced in the sand.
Naotsugu smiled at her, "Let's not ruin the surprise by shouting about it."
She nodded, then her smile turned into a curious frown as she gazed past Naotsugu and out into the ocean.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the water.
Naotsugu followed her gaze and spotted something splashing in the distance.
"Not sure," he said, covering his eyes with his hand to better see what it was.
But before either of them could discern anything more the splashing stopped.
"Maybe it was just a large fish?" Marielle asked.
"Possibly. But something tells me that's not right…"