Storm Strider

[Option #4: Water Strider]

[Brief Description: Hydrophobic, long-legged, fearlessly fast—the ‘Water Strider’ is anatomically built to run and skate across water. Its hydrophobic hairs allow it to bend water beneath its legs and prevent drops from weighing it down. On the open seas, there is no insect that can move and dance faster than the water strider]

[Please do not pick this class]

“And… if I can walk on water, will I be able to push forward through the storm?” Marisol asked, staring pointedly at the little Archive.

[...Yes,] the Archive said, very reluctantly. [The tier one core mutation of the ‘Water Strider’ class is ‘Striding Glaives’, which will mutate your legs into hydrophobic glaives, allowing you to repel water and, in turn, manipulate water beneath your feet. With that said, it is a remarkably difficult to control tier one core mutation. Please do not pick this class. Please do not pick this class. Please do not–]

“Confirm ‘Water Strider’ class.”

[Are you certain you want to select the ‘Water Strider’ Class?]

“I’m certain.”

[Initiating system integration for ‘Water Strider’ Class.]

And it was like a phantom butcher just came and severed the nerves in her legs, making her topple over unceremoniously.

She used to sit on her knees for long hours of posture training, and whenever she got up it’d be like the devil’s thousand needles were in her thighs; this wasn’t what it felt like. Her legs weren’t just numb. Her bones were shattering, her muscles were rearranging, her skin was ripping and tearing and stitching itself back together, and when she finally looked down with her throat clenched, her teeth gritted–

Her legs from the knees down were the sharpest blades she’d ever seen, and any semblance of feet or toes or bones were completely moulded into the blade’s silver exoskeleton.

[T1 Core Mutation Unlocked: Striding Glaives]

[Brief Description: Your lower legs have become water-repelling glaives. You can now stand and walk on water so long as you are able to maintain your balance]

[… I told you not to pick the water strider class,] the Archive hissed, making her wince as she pressed her hands to her ears. [This tier one core mutation is not reversible. You will have to live with blades for legs for the rest of your life, and even if you were to sever them and consume a healing potion made from that monster’s flesh, you will never regenerate your feet. Can you even walk like this? Can you even stand up like this? I do not understand–]

“So you can read my mind, but you can’t read my resolve?”

It was difficult. It was painful. Her thighs burned and her arms quivered as she pushed herself onto the tip of her blades, and her eyes watered as she felt stabbing throbs where her knees connected with the glaives—but damn if she’d picked one of the other three classes and just flew away, flying downwind and betraying the core tenet of being a Sand-Dancer.

“... A Sand-Dancer always dances against the desert, and against the world for just a sliver of attention,” she hissed back, biting her lips, stabbing her right blade through the floorboards as she rose on one knee. “Ten years I’ve saved up for this once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Whirlpool City, and ten years I’ve waited to bottle just one small flask of healing seawater—do you think I’ll go back now and watch mama’s life tick away without doing anything about it? Do you think a Sand-Dancer launches into a mid-air twirl without thinking about sticking the landing?”

[...]

“I’m going to the Whirlpool City,” she said, shooting to her feet, snapping her arms out, and assuming the Sand-Dancer’s neutral one-legged standing posture. “Whether you like it or not, you’re coming along with me, so… help me get off this ship, will you?”

The Archive was silent for one more moment, as though calculating her survival percentage and not liking the results, but then it started warbling. Shifting. Its six legs extended, its antennae became more jagged, and its teardrop-shaped body thinned into something akin to a stick.

She managed a small smile in response; it was now a perfect mirror of a tiny water strider.

[... Understood,] the Archive said. [Please exit the captain’s cabin first and survey your surroundings. I know only what your senses can perceive, so I cannot determine a proper escape route if I cannot see the ocean with your eyes.]

She took her first step slowly, careful not to slip her blades between the floorboards, but quickly found it wasn’t as hard as the Archive had made it out to be. It was a bit difficult trying not to wobble after her first step, sure, but not impossible. Walking only on her tiptoes in scorching golden sands was much tougher than this.

I got this.

First, out of the cabin, and then–

As the heavy waves rocked the ship from side to side, she stumbled out of the cabin and nearly went over the railings. Lightning cracked the sky and cold rain slammed against her face, and if her blades weren’t literally stabbed into the floorboards, she’d have been thrown off the ship already. Throwing her hands around the ratlines to stabilise herself, she forced herself to squint through the rain, out at the stormy seas—and it was a much more dreary sight than she’d thought.

Captain Antonio had set off the voyage with four full-rigged ships, twenty crew and twenty passengers on each, but now the only ship with a mast still standing was the one she was on. The other three ships were split down in half, ripped to shreds, littering the dark and wavy seas with torn sails and rotten timber. Water-logged crates and barrels bobbled on the sea’s surface, corpses lay face-down and hung limply on floating debris. For a few seconds she even thought she saw the ghost of a man standing on a plank of wood at the very far edge of the wreckage, but then rain blew into her eyes and she had to blink; the ghost was gone in the next second.

Strange.

And although the storm would swallow everything out there in due time… she thought she still had a chance.

If she really could ‘stand’ on water with her glaives for legs, just like a water strider could, then she could vault over the railings and try to walk out of the storm. She didn’t know where she’d go, but–

[Before you do that, toss something into the middle of all that wreckage. Anything will suffice.]

The way the Archive said that made her hesitate to climb overboard immediately, so she listened, picked up a rolling water gourd, and chucked it out as hard as she could.

A shudder of animalistic fear rippled up her spine as a giant shadow swam out from under her ship, kicking slowly towards where the gourd plopped into the sea.

She thought it was some sort of serpent at first, but then she noticed the dozen tiny legs, the glowing orange fork tail, and the gigantic curved tusks jutting out from under its jaw. Its legs and tusks were poking out the surface as it swam upside-down, like someone doing backstroke in the sands, and then a tiny whirlpool formed as it sucked in everything in the gourd’s vicinity—she swore she could hear its mandibles crunching down on everything it managed to drag under.

“... W-What?” she breathed, looking down at the Archive standing on her shoulder, pointing out with a shaky finger. “That thing… it just… what? What kind of insect is that?”

A status screen popped up next to her head, and thank the Great Makers rain phased through it like a mirage; she wouldn’t have been able to read a single word otherwise.

[Identification Complete]

[Scientific Name: Anostraca Branchiopoda]

[Common Name: Fairy Shrimp]

[Brief Description: Twenty body segments, eleven pairs of legs, and lacking in rigid carapace—fairy shrimps are best known for swimming upside-down and feeding on organic particles from water surfaces. They have two pairs of antennae, one pair especially elongated and resembling tusks, which they can control and are specifically evolved for grasping motions]

[... Ah,] the Archive muttered. [I thought they were tusks, too.]

She shot the little water strider on her shoulder with a dumbfounded look. “I thought the ‘Swarm’ that’s attacking humanity and trying to conquer our world are all giant insects. Shrimps aren’t insects, right?”

[It is a common misconception that the Swarm is only made out of creatures from the class of ‘insects’. More accurately, the Swarm is made out of creatures from the phylum of ‘Arthropoda’, which consists of all manners of insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and myriapods, so on and so forth,] the Archive explained. [Shrimps are crustaceans. Thus, they are part of the Swarm, and thus they are enemies of humanity.]

The rainshower in her ears pounded like a drum as she read the description box over and over. It didn’t do the actual leviathan any justice—it completely failed to mention the fairy shrimp was at least twenty metres long and nearly as wide as the ship was. She would’ve continued staring dumbly out if the ship didn’t suddenly lurch backwards, her hands on the ratlines the only thing keeping her from falling off her blades.

[It would appear the hull has been breached at long last,] the Archive said plainly. [In twenty or so minutes, this vessel will sink by itself, but the fairy shrimp will likely become impatient and destroy it in ten. You must bypass it before then.]

“And how do I do that?”

[If you had wings, you could simply fly downwind and return to the shoreline within a few hours–]

“I’m going to swat you,” she warned, clicking her tongue at the little bug on her shoulder as the ship eventually rocked back forward; her palms were starting to bleed from how hard she was holding onto the ratlines. “I know it’s big, and professional bug-slayers probably train years and decades just to be able to hunt these leviathans, but… is there a way I can kill it? Any weaknesses I can exploit? A blindspot in its defences?”

The Archive tilted its head quizzically. [Engaging it in a battle is foolish. You should look to bypass it instead. With your ability to stand on water, there is a chance, no matter how slight, that you can simply glide a wide berth around it and circumvent it completely. Its antennae may not detect you if you walk slowly and carefully–]

“It’s weaknesses, Archive,” she said again, gritting her teeth. “I ain’t gonna run or glide around it. I’m killing it here and now, so tell me how to clean a shrimp.”

[... But why must you engage it in battle?] the Archive asked. [You said it yourself. A bug-slayer—a Hasharana—trains years and decades before they even think about challenging a leviathan this size. Granted, the size of crustaceans are not generally proportional with their ‘strength’ compared to their terrestrial counterparts, but it would still be a nigh-impossible undertaking to kill the fairy shrimp–]

“So I’m just gonna let it scurry away after killing Captain Antonio, everyone on board, and potentially every other ship that comes sailing by this strait?”

[...]

“I don’t know what orders the people who made you gave you, but if you serve the bug-slayers and your first tenet ain't avenging those who have lost their lives to the Swarm, then I’d say you can use a little reckless Sand-Dancer in you,” she said, forcing a cheerful, confident grin onto her face. “The shrimp will pay for what it did, and you’ve already come this far with me, eh?"

She was pushing the Archive again, and she knew it, but if she was just going to run, there’d have been no reason for her to pick the water strider class.

So show me, Archive.

What are its weaknesses, and can I exploit any of them?

[... Very well,] the Archive said, sighing reluctantly. [The fairy shrimp has the following notable strengths: thin and flexible exoskeleton, specialised grasping antennae, automatic food filtration, and an adaptable distribution. That means it is tough, grabby, sensitive to surface movement, and can survive in both salt and freshwater environments.]

“O…kay,” she said, nodding and gulping hard as she watched the shadow of the shrimp swim out again, swirling beneath the wreckage. “What are its notable weaknesses, then?”

[None.]

She blinked.

Looked down at the Archive.

Then blinked again.

“Say that again?”

[It has no notable weaknesses,] the Archive repeated, just as curt as the first time. [We, the Archive of Altered Swarmsteel Systems, only know as much about the Swarm as the bug-slayers have collected information on them. Because our forces are currently lacking in the far west, much of our information on many western crustaceans are regrettably incomplete—if the fairy shrimp has any notable weaknesses, we will discover it after we either kill it or die trying.]

“...”

[It is perfectly acceptable if you do not wish to proceed with a battle. Trying to skate around it will still be extremely difficult in this storm, but at the very least, you would not have to face an enemy with unknown weaknesses–]

“Actually,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the fairy shrimp’s shadow as it surfaced to swallow a few more planks of wood, as though searching for survivors it could gnaw on, “it does have one very notable weakness if I just use a bit of common sense, right?”

The Archive lifted its head to stare at her. [And what would that be?]

She pointed at its upside-down legs breaking the surface like shark fins, and the Archive followed her finger.

“It’s swimming with its belly up,” she said. “Even if my glaives for legs can’t slice it open as it tries to eat me, something long and hard falling on it really, really fast would still impale it right through, no?”

[... Ah.]

[I see.]

[You do stand a chance if you can impale it like that.]

[In that case–]

[Objective #1: Slay the fairy shrimp]

[Time Limit: 10 minutes]

[Reward: 15 points, 12x fairy shrimp phyllopodia, 4x fairy shrimp antennae]

[Failure: Death]