by Dante Doom
“Again with the crazy running?” Sang called after him as she followed. They ran through the thick waters until eventually they reached a large body of water in an alcove.
“Are you ready to observe the awesome?” Van asked as he pulled out the seemingly worthless amethyst necklace.
“Sure, whatever,” Sang said as she took a seat on a nearby tree stump. She was growing weary, and didn’t have the energy to put up with whatever he was up to.
“Ahem, ladies of the lake! I beseech you! I have an offering, one of worth and value! Again, I say! Come forth!” Van bellowed into the water. There was a stirring in the waters as three female faces emerged from the surface.
“Hellooooo,” said one of the women, giggling a little as she splashed a bit.
“What a pretty necklace that is!” said one of the women, who had red hair.
“Van, what is this?” Sang asked.
“Mermaids! I’m gonna trade them this fine necklace in exchange for lessons on how to sing,” Van replied as he walked closer to the waters.
“Dearie, what do you want to learn?” asked the one in the middle, this one wearing a wreath of seaweed atop her head.
“Teach me to bewitch and enchant people!” Van said as he dangled the jewelry above the water. All three of the Mermaids swam close together and pointed at the necklace.
“Very well, we shall teach you our powerful mermaid song, but be warned, for our music is not to be taken lightly. Our secrets are stronger than regular bardic magic!” said the seaweed-wearing maiden.
“Of course,” Van said, “I shall treat it with utter respect!”
The Mermaids all began to sing together, spinning in a circle as they chanted in unison:
Hear our call! One and all!
Come to the water and you will find
Joy, love, and peace for all mankind.
Hear our call! Hear our call!
The beauty of the siren songs
Will right all of humanity’s wrongs...
Sang sat in quiet contemplation as she listened to the melodic tune come from the hypnotic women. It was such a nice song, she almost felt an urge to walk into the waters, but she was too tired to walk. Van was happily singing along to it, as well, and she could see a skill meter above his head, indicating that he was learning the music for his bardic skills. No wonder he had been so excited, as getting a hypnotic singing spell would come in extremely handy when they were surrounded by people who were trying to kill them—which was an occurrence that was happening far too often for her taste.
As she hummed along to the song, a word stuck out to her: Siren. Why did they use the phrase ‘siren song’ if they were mermaids? She quickly checked the stats of the creatures, and indeed saw that they were called Sirens.
“Van!” Sang cried out. “Van!”
“I did it!” Van said, looking back at her. “I learned their song!”
“Van, those aren’t mermaids, they’re sirens!”
“Oh, I know, but they’re the same thing; Siren is just a different way to say it. Kind of like how people say pop instead of soda?”
“No, Van! Not even close! Sirens are entirely different from Mermaids!” she replied.
“How so?”
“In Greek myth, Sirens lured innocent people to their waters and then devoured them,” she said, even as she realized that he was standing ankle deep in the water.
“Oh,” he said. “Then I think I’m in trouble.” As if on cue, the waters erupted around him and he was pulled into the water.
“Crap! Van!” Sang shouted as she rushed toward the waters. The water was violently splashing as she heard the Sirens cackling and laughing before vanishing into the deep blue water. Sang ran to the edge of the lagoon and looked down, but she couldn’t see her companion. “Ah, come on!”
It was a tough decision. Should she leap into the water and look for Van? If the Sirens were waiting for her, they’d easily be able to fight her. Yet, she couldn’t just abandon Van and wait for him to die. She didn’t have time to go searching for him wherever he would respawn. Growling, she pulled out her dagger, kicked off her boots, and took a deep breath. With a running start, she dove into the waters and began to swim.
The water was cold but somewhat refreshing, as the humid temperature of the lagoon had been drenching her in sweat earlier. As she swam, she searched around, but didn’t see any signs of Van or the Sirens. She had to surface for air a few times, but regardless of how long she searched, she couldn’t find any of them. She tried sending a few messages to Van, but didn’t receive any kind of reply. His corpse definitely wasn’t at the bottom of the waters, though, which was somewhat of a relief.
Sang emerged from the lagoon soaking wet. She walked over to her bag and opened it up to find Jet eagerly chewing on some beef jerky that she had thrown in there. She wasn’t exactly sure what it ate, so she’d just been throwing meat in there on occasion and hoping that the contributions would help the creature grow.
“Can you find Van for me?” she asked as she pulled Jet out of the bag. He growled a little, unhappy to have his lunchtime interrupted. “Come on, please? He’s in trouble and he needs our help. Again. This is kind of going to be a running theme for us, by the way.”
Jet hopped out of her arms and began to sniff around. He began to crawl alongside the ground, moving up toward the rocks that were overlooking the alcove. Once he reached the top of the rocks, he started pawing at the ground, growling loudly.
“Did you find something?” Sang asked as she climbed up the rocks and stood where Jet was clawing away at the ground. She knelt down and pressed her ear to it... she could hear a rushing sound, as if the ground was hollow. “A cave maybe?” she guessed as she grabbed her sword and began to shove it directly into the ground. The stone wasn’t well-made, and gave way as she dug into it with her sword over and over again. As the rocks crumbled out of the way, they revealed a hollow entryway into a cavern.
“Aha!” Sang said as she knelt down and began to pull the rocks apart, making a wide enough hole so that she could fit though. “Nice work, Jet!”
Jet puffed a little snort of flames at her and nipped her on the boot. She grabbed some more jerky out of her pockets and threw it to the dragon. Jet caught the food in midair and began savagely chewing on it.
Sang climbed down the hole, keeping her sword pressed against her in case of some kind of attack. She had no idea what this secret cavern would lead to, but she had a hunch that it belonged to the Sirens. They probably took their captives back to their lair before devouring their victims. If that was the case, then there was some time before Van was killed.
She landed on the ground and crouched down. She could hear several ethereal, melodic voices echoing throughout the cavern. Van’s words were echoing throughout the cave, as well—she could hear him singing the same lyrics that he had been taught before. The words made Sang feel a little dizzy, so before she continued moving through the cavern, she knelt down and began to rummage for something that she could plug her ears with. There was some seaweed growing in between the cracks in the dank cavern, so she plucked the dark green plant and tied the strands into little balls. These would hopefully block enough of the Sirens’ music to where she wouldn’t be entranced by their words.
The cramped cave slowly grew less constrained as she continued following the echoing voices of the Sirens. The seaweed was helpful, but it didn’t entirely block out sound, allowing for her to still hear the voices. It appeared as if the Sirens were in some sort of song battle with Van, given the way that their voices were trying to overpower his. He wouldn’t let up, however, and would sing loud enough to overpower them. This continued as Sang searched for them.
Sang poked her head from around a corner to see that Van was in the center of a large cave, tied to a pole. The Sirens were walking on the land, and Sang could see that they didn’t have tails like mermaids at all. The three of them were crouched down around Van and were hissing, but unable to get close to h
im due to his singing. It appeared as if his magical singing was strong enough to repel them, which was an impressive feat.
“Hey!” Van said in between verses, “A little help here!”
The cavern had grown wide enough for Sang to be able to draw her bow. She aimed her weapon at the Sirens and tried to figure out which one would be the toughest to beat. The one in the center, wearing the crown of seaweed, had the highest amount of Hit Points at nearly 700. Sang released an arrow, sending it into the back of the singing Siren. The Siren’s song turned to screeching as it hissed and whipped around.
“Awwahhhhh,” it shrieked as Sang felt a powerful blast of sonic energy crash towards her. The sound was strong enough to knock her onto her back.
“Take courage, Sang!” Van shouted as he began to sing his song of bravery. She saw the words IMMOVABLE appear above her. This status meant that she would be immune to knockback spells. She leapt up and drew her sword right before one of the weaker Sirens tried to tackle her. This Siren had begun to transform from a beautiful, pale woman into a hideous, scaly humanoid. It had bulbous, yellow eyes and razor-sharp claws.
“Ugh! Hideous!” Sang shouted as she used her short sword to cut into the monster’s flesh. The Siren shrieked at her, but Sang felt extremely rooted to the ground. The word Resist appeared over her. Sang noticed that the Siren’s songburst was a powerful spell, but it didn’t do any damage whatsoever. Sang’s short sword, however, certainly did do damage. With each swing, Sang could see the lesser Siren’s health drop down rapidly. Without the ability to stun its prey, the Siren wasn’t particularly well defended.
“Haha! I’m free!” Van shouted as he wriggled out of his ropes. He fell off of the pole and rolled past the two Sirens who had remained behind to try and kill him. He scrambled to his feet and ran past Sang.
“Where are you going?” Sang demanded as she slashed through her foe, dealing 50 damage and killing it.
“They put all my gear in a treasure chest over there!” Van said, pointing into the darkness. “You distract them while I grab my stuff!”
“I’m going to be distracting them by killing them,” Sang replied as she switched her weapons out and drew her bow.
“Good luck!” Van said as he disappeared into the darkened cave.
“More fun for me,” Sang mumbled as she released another flaming arrow into one of the advancing Sirens. This one was shorter than the others and had begun to transform, too. It howled, but Sang was immune to the sonic burst thanks to Van’s musical buffing. She figured this kind of fight would be hard, but without the ability to inflict status damages due to her buff and the fact that she had her ears blocked, the fight was going to be mopped up rather quickly.
Sang finished killing the lesser Siren and turned her attention the one wearing the crown of seaweed. This one had transformed while Sang had been distracted. The words Siren Queen Level 18 hovered over her head. The Siren had completely transformed, to the point where it was nearly unrecognizable. Its scales were a deep red and it stood tall, nearly eight feet in length. All beauty of the creature had vanished, and what remained was a hideous and hulking creature with long, spindly arms.
“Well…that’s not great,” Sang said as she narrowly dodged the claw attack from the Siren Queen. Its arms were long enough for it to be able to reach Sang without fear of being stabbed in the torso by her blade. Sang ducked underneath the hideous creature’s grasp and scrambled back to where she had emerged from. The cave would get too small for the big monster to follow her, meaning that she could just lay on her back and shoot arrows at the creature until it died. This wasn’t the most sporting of strategies, but it would work.
Sang dodged a swinging hand again as she pressed deeper into the cave. The ceiling grew lower with each step that she retreated, making it impossible for the Siren to be able to follow. It pressed its body up against the entrance and shoved its claws in, desperately grasping for Sang, but she was unable to find her.
Sang grinned as she laid on her back and began to shoot arrows at her opponent. The words 50 damage repeated endlessly as she fired off as many arrows as she could. The Siren stepped back away from the opening and let out a powerful roar. This roar was different from the other sounds that the Sirens had been making; this one was extremely overwhelming and, while it didn’t do any damage to Sang, the sonic power was strong enough to cause the ground around her to shake impressively. A few rocks began to chip off from the ceiling above her.
“Aw crap!” Sang shouted as she realized that the Siren’s song was only getting stronger. The intensity of the singing caused more pieces of rock to come loose, almost hitting her in the skull. “Van! We gotta get out of here!” she called as she tried to retreat back the way she’d come. The rumbling was growing more fierce with each passing moment.
As she rushed toward the opening that she had come through, she felt a hand grab her and pull her backwards. At the exact time that she was pulled back, the entire opening that she had been trying to get through collapsed in front of her.
“Whoa!” she said, spinning around to see Van. “Thanks!”
“Yeah, that was a close one,” Van said. “We’re going to have to kill that thing if we’re going to get out of this place.”
Sang noticed that a timer had appeared in the right-hand corner of her UI. It read: 2 minutes to total collapse.
“Alright, let’s do this!” Sang said, rushing forward with her bow in hand. Van was rushing alongside of her, carrying his bagpipe.
“Do you have any idea how to kill that thing?” Van asked.
“Same way we kill everything, I guess,” Sang replied. “We shoot at it until it stops moving.”
“What about the regen?” Van asked, pointing at the Siren Queen’s health bar. It had filled itself all the way back up to its starting position of 1,000 hit points.
“Oh, come on, I hit that thing like six times!” Sang grumbled. As they emerged from the opening, the monster immediately noticed them and began to swipe its long claws again.
“Certain types of damage can counter regeneration. Usually, it would be fire, but since this is a water-based creature, fire won’t do as much damage as normal,” Van instructed. “We need to find some kind of weapon that can stop regeneration.”
“Like what?” Sang asked as she leapt to the side, shooting an arrow into the arm of the tall beast. The Siren Queen roared in anger, but continued her swiping assault. The good news was that the creature’s speed was significantly lower than Sang’s dodge rating, meaning that she’d be able to avoid the creature until her stamina ran out.
“Maybe some kind of… acid?”
“Where are we going to get acid?” Sang shouted as she snapped an arrow right into the throat of the Siren Queen. The words CRITICAL 150 damage appeared over the queen, but Sang could see that the health bar was already beginning to increase.
“You should have some in your alchemical kit!” Van replied as he bleated into his bagpipes, increasing Sang’s stamina by 25%.
Sang opened up her inventory and looked at the alchemical kit.
Alchemical Kit
Uses: 50
Contains: Phosphorous, Acid, Formaldehyde, Herbs, Glass
Effects: The Alchemical Kit gives any user +5 on their Alchemy skill when brewing potions or making salves.
Perfect! Sang knelt down for a second and pulled out the kit. It was a small parcel that was tightly bound, and she struggled for a moment to untangle it. “Distract it while I get the acid ready!” she ordered.
“Yo! Horrible Siren! Over here!” Van said as he ran right into its field of view. The creature hissed at him and turned its body to focus on grabbing him. Fortunately, Van also had a high dodge rating. He leapt around, narrowly avoiding getting grappled by the beast as Sang fumbled with the bottles. There were so many different colors that she wasn’t sure which one did what. The word ‘acid’ was nowhere to be found. She looked at her alchemy skill and realized that it was too low for her to be able to i
dentify the right kinds of properties. She’d have to use a trial and error solution.
“Ahhhh!” Van shouted. Sang looked up to see that Van was in the clutches of the Siren Queen. The creature had grabbed hold of him with both of its large hands and was currently trying to drag him closer to her body. Sang didn’t have time to test around with potions and bottles, so she just did what made sense. Standing up, she chucked one of the bottles straight at the creature. The glass bottle shattered as it struck the Siren Queen, splashing liquid all over her back. A terrible hissing sound emanated from the liquid as it began to burn the queen’s flesh. The stench of cooked meet almost caused Sang to wretch as she grabbed another bottle of silvery liquid and threw it.
“Nice work!” Van said as he slipped out of the Siren Queen’s clutches and threw a few darts at the beast. “I think you disabled the regeneration for a few seconds, so kill it quick!”
Sang grabbed one of the little pouches containing white phosphorous powder. Phosphorous was flammable, wasn’t it? She couldn’t remember where she had heard that, but was confident that she could use the powder to increase the damage of her flaming arrows. Pouring the white powder atop an arrowhead, she aimed her bow and released. The arrow immediately ignited, burning far brighter than usual and then crashing into the Siren Queen. The words CRITICAL 200 damage appeared above the Siren as she screamed. Between Sang’s phosphorous arrows and Van’s darts, it wasn’t long before the creature was slain.
“Whew, that was crazy!” Van said as the Siren Queen fell to the ground, motionless.
“Tell me about it!” Sang replied as she walked up to the corpse and kicked it. The body was slowly melting into the ground. She opened up the loot interface to see what was available.
Siren’s Scales: Grants player ability to regenerate 5 health per second when swallowed.
Crown of Seaweed: When worn, makes player immune to hypnotic magics.
