“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Dorrik stood next to Kat on the rock face overlooking the beach, the wind rustling the giant lizard’s crest.

She glanced at her companion. Her head only came up to the dusky scales of their upper shoulder, but the giant four-armed, muscle-bound lizard was more scholar than warrior. That didn’t mean that Dorrik couldn’t hold their own in a fight, far from it. They were one of the most adept swords-beings that Kat had ever seen.

It was just that Kat suspected her companion thought their combat prowess secondary. At their heart, Dorrik was a scholar. History, anthropology, physics, the lizard devoured everything they could related to learning.

Dorrik was a skilled combatant almost without trying. Like her, they blended a casting class with combat prowess, but Kat wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the lokkel practice with their swords. Like many of Dorrik’s skills, swordplay was another thing that came to them with infuriating ease.

“We wade in and kill as many of the float fish as possible,” Kaleek responded, his whiskers twitching. “Once enough of them are down, the Deep Terror will come partially to shore. At that point I head into the water to attack it directly while Kat and you do your best to deal with its tentacles and deflate it.”

Kaleek had been chosen for the direct attack for two reasons. First, he was a desoph, a semi-aquatic quasi-mammal that closely resembled a giant terrestrial otter. The three of them suspected that his experience swimming and fighting in the water would be useful in the coming battle.

Perhaps more importantly, Kaleek was the team’s frontline fighter. The huge two-handed sword on his back was only a little smaller that Kat herself, but Kaleek could use it with deceptive speed and dexterity. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had stamina-based skills specifically to help him offset its weight and momentum.

“Just be careful,” Kat replied, frowning. “I might be able to heal you if you get hurt, but Dorrik said that the tentacles carry a paralytic agent too. If you’re waist deep in water and paralyzed, that sounds like a good way to drown.”

“Desoph don’t drown,” Kaleek snorted. “Even our cubs spend more time in water than they do on land. It’s unthinkable.”

“Unthinkable or not,” Kat crossed her arms as she stared him down sternly, “that’s the sort of attitude that will end with you paralyzed and dead face down in a puddle”

“She is right, Kaleek,” Dorrik spoke over the desoph’s snort. “You won’t be wearing your heavy armor so that you can fight in the water. If the Deep Terror even brushes you with a tentacle, that should be enough to paralyze you unless your fortitude attribute can overcome the poison.”

“Come on,” Kaleek wrinkled his whiskers at them. “In the past two months we’ve blazed through four dungeons here on the second floor. I’ve been careful that entire time. Nothing is going to change just because we’re challenging the floor guardian. Don’t worry about it, I’m not going to let this thing tag me.”

Kat just rolled her eyes. Kaleek could back his bold words up. Probably.

She called up her status.

Name

Katherine Debs

Class

Elementalist Initiate

Max Level

Marks

HP

Dodge

Insignificant

MP

Damage Mitigation

Insignificant

STA

Strength

Agility

Fortitude

Endurance

Mind

Reaction

Charisma

Spirit

Spells Known

Gravity’s Grasp

Levitation

Pseudopod

Dehydrate

Dazzle

Shadow

Water Jet

Gravity Spike

Skills Known

Knife I - 8, 79%

Gravity I - 7, 42%

Water I - 8, 14%

Cat Step - 5, 61%

Light I - 5, 16%

Cure Wounds I, 4, 62%

Penetrate

Perks

Nightvision

Leaping