Chapter 52: Muddy Banks

  The grueling trek from Verdant Reach down to the Silt-River Delta took three hours of hard, relentless marching through the suffocatingly dense, unpaved undergrowth. As they descended entirely from the elevated, highly manicured higher ground of the city, the environment changed drastically. The air grew significantly heavier and infinitely wetter, smelling strongly of raw sulfur, rotting, ancient vegetation, and deep, stagnant mud. The ground beneath their boots transitioned from bouncy, pleasant moss to a thick, sucking, foul-smelling grey sludge that actively tried to pull their boots off with every single step.

  Zeno didn't mind the mud in the slightest. He actually found the loud, wet, squelching noise it made when he pulled his boots free to be highly entertaining. He marched comfortably with his heavy backpack, the massive iron cauldron clanking rhythmically like a battle drum, while Lyra hopped carefully from exposed root to flat rock, desperately trying to keep her new, high-quality leather boots relatively clean.

  "The Silt-River is dead ahead," Lyra announced, balancing flawlessly on a massive, moss-slick log. "It's a wide, slow-moving tributary. The crabs burrow deeply into the soft mud banks and attack absolutely anything that disturbs the sediment near their territory. We need to draw them out into the open."

  They emerged from the tree line onto the wide banks of the river. It was a massive, sluggish flow of opaque brown water, bordered by expansive, foul-smelling mudflats heavily littered with large pieces of pale driftwood and smooth, grey river stones.

  "Where are the angry rocks?" Zeno asked, his amber eyes scanning the empty, flat expanse of mud. He didn't see anything moving.

  "They are the rocks, Zeno," Lyra corrected, pointing a gloved finger to a cluster of what looked like six grey, jagged boulders resting near the water's edge. "Watch."

  She picked up a heavy, smooth river stone from near her boot and hurled it with perfect accuracy directly into the center of the mudflat, right next to the boulders. It landed with a loud, wet, echoing splat.

  Instantly, the mud erupted violently.

  Three of the massive "boulders" stood up on six thick, heavily armored, spiky legs. They were River-Dredge Crabs, and they were utterly terrifying. Their main bodies were massive, easily four feet wide, covered entirely in a thick, jagged carapace that looked exactly like weathered, unyielding granite. One claw was utterly colossal, designed for absolute, crushing power, while the other was smaller, serrated, and built for terrifying speed. Their long eyestalks swiveled mechanically, instantly locking onto the two intruders standing on the bank.

  They let out a horrifying, bubbling, wet hissing sound that vibrated in the air and began to scuttle sideways across the mud toward Zeno and Lyra with surprising, unnatural speed, their massive crushing claws snapping menacingly, easily capable of snapping a man in half.

  "Three of them," Lyra calculated instantly, drawing her twin daggers, the pale green wind Tena flaring to life. "I will distract and dismantle the one on the far left. Zeno, you take the center and the right. Flip them over if you can, their bellies are their only unarmored point. But absolutely watch out for that oversized claw—it has enough kinetic force to snap a tree trunk."

  "I will crack the shells!" Zeno shouted cheerfully, his dark wraps igniting with a brilliant, highly stable blue light as he charged aggressively forward.

  He stepped heavily onto the open mudflat, ready to launch a devastating strike. Immediately, he realized his catastrophic tactical mistake.

  As he planted his right foot firmly to throw his weight into a punch, the soft, incredibly deep mud gave way entirely under his massive weight and the explosive, raw force of his movement. His heavy climbing boot sank a full foot and a half deep into the sucking grey sludge, completely and utterly killing his forward momentum and trapping him in place.

  "Whoops," Zeno said calmly, realizing he was completely stuck in the mud.

  The center crab didn't politely wait for him to recover his footing. It lunged forward with terrifying speed, swinging its massive, boulder-sized crushing claw like a devastating wrecking ball aimed directly at Zeno’s exposed knees.

  Zeno couldn't use the Flowing Step to dodge. His feet were completely trapped in the earth.

  He reacted on pure, ingrained survival instinct. He didn't waste time trying to frantically pull his legs out. He dropped his center of gravity even lower, bending his knees deeply, turning his entire upper body into an immovable fortress. He crossed his thick, dark-wrapped arms in front of his legs, channeling a massive burst of highly compressed blue Tena into a solid defensive block.

  CLANG!

  The massive crab's claw slammed brutally into his crossed arms. The sheer kinetic impact was incredibly heavy, driving Zeno another three inches deeper into the foul mud, but his monstrous Strength stat of 26 held perfectly firm. His bones didn't break. He didn't budge an inch backward.

  "You are very strong for a bug," Zeno grunted at the massive crab, his muscles bulging with the effort of holding the claw back. "But you are standing lightly on top of the mud while I am sinking. That is cheating."

  He quickly realized he absolutely couldn't fight like he did on the solid stone of the ruins or the hard dirt of the plains. He couldn't plant his feet and pivot his hips to generate power. He looked around the mudflat. He saw the heavy, waterlogged logs of driftwood and the large, flat river stones scattered across the sludge.

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  "If the ground is too soft," Zeno declared, his amber eyes blazing with sudden, tactical realization, "I will just make my own ground!"

  Zeno roared, pulling his left leg entirely free with a massive, violent heave of his incredible thigh muscles. He didn't step back into the soft mud. Instead, he kicked a massive, heavy piece of driftwood resting nearby. The sheer force of his kick sent the fifty-pound log sliding rapidly across the mud until it wedged firmly in front of the crab.

  He leaped, landing perfectly on the solid wood. He didn't stop. He kicked a large, flat river stone, sending it skidding into position. He used his immense strength to literally arrange his own battlefield, hopping from log to rock, creating solid stepping stones that fully supported his heavy frame.

  The crab snapped its massive claw at him again, frustrated by his sudden mobility.

  This time, Zeno was firmly planted on a flat stone. He slipped smoothly inside the crab's wide, clumsy guard.

  "Heavy Punch!" Zeno yelled, pulling power from his core.

  He drove his glowing blue fist directly downward, executing a flawless, devastating strike onto the absolute top center of the crab's granite-like carapace.

  CRACK.

  The shell didn't shatter completely into dust like the brittle beetle's armor had, but a massive, deep spiderweb fracture appeared across the entire back of the beast. The immense downward force of the D-Rank blow drove the crab's body violently down into the deep mud, temporarily pinning its legs.

  Zeno didn't wait for it to recover. He grabbed the jagged edge of the cracked shell with both massive hands and heaved upward with everything he had. With a loud, disgusting, wet sucking sound, he flipped the five-hundred-pound armored beast entirely onto its back, exposing its pale, soft, unarmored underbelly.

  "Sleep now!" Zeno commanded, delivering a single, precise, un-enhanced punch to the creature's exposed central nerve cluster. The massive legs twitched once, and the crab went completely, permanently still.

  To his right, the third crab was charging blindly toward him. Zeno spun, his confidence in his improvised stepping stones completely absolute. He met the third crab head-on, vaulting over a log, ducking smoothly under a lethal claw swipe, and delivering a brutal, rising uppercut directly to its armored faceplate. The sheer upward kinetic force flipped the massive creature backward, sending it crashing heavily into the sluggish brown water of the river, completely incapacitated.

  Lyra, meanwhile, was executing a flawless, lethal dance around her target on the drier, firmer ground near the tree line. She used her pale green wind Tena to pepper the crab's exposed joints with throwing knives, blinding and frustrating it until it foolishly exposed its weak point. With a blinding flash of wind-enhanced green steel, she severed the thick muscle completely controlling its main crushing claw, rendering the beast entirely helpless before finishing it off with a thrust to the underbelly.

  The heavy silence of the jungle returned to the mudflats.

  Zeno stood proudly on his wooden log in the center of the sludge, covered in foul-smelling brown muck entirely up to his knees, but grinning wildly. "The mud is very tricky! You have to build a floor before you can punch!"

  "You adapted incredibly quickly," Lyra praised, walking over carefully, highly impressed by his raw battle IQ. "That's three confirmed bounties. Fifteen silver. And... a massive amount of very expensive meat."

  They spent the next grueling hour carefully harvesting the massive, heavy claws and the rich, white meat from the main bodies, packing it into enchanted, cold-storage canvas bags Lyra had brought specifically for the task.

  As Zeno pulled the last massive chunk of meat from the largest crab he had flipped, his hand brushed against something incredibly hard and strangely sharp embedded deep within the thickest part of the cracked carapace. He wiped away the mud and foul blood, his brow furrowing.

  Sticking out of the shell was the jagged, heavily rusted, broken blade of a steel broadsword.

  "Lyra, look," Zeno called out, pulling the broken blade free. "Someone tried to stab the rock before we did. But their sword broke."

  Lyra walked over, taking the rusted metal. Her emerald eyes narrowed, a sudden chill running down her spine despite the heat. She recognized the specific forging pattern of the steel. It was standard Vanguard issue.

  "This isn't just an angry crab, Zeno," Lyra said softly, looking at the massive, dead beast with entirely newfound respect. "This specific crab survived a fight with a heavily armed adventurer in the past. It won. We didn't just clear a trade route; we just killed a man-eater. The old man at the Guild wasn't joking about crews not coming back."

  The realization made their victory feel significantly heavier, and much more important.

  Once the harvest was finally complete, the overwhelming stench of the sulfur mudflats became entirely unbearable.

  "I am not cooking in this smelly mud," Zeno declared firmly, his nose wrinkling in absolute disgust. "It smells like rotten eggs. The stew will taste like sadness."

  "Agreed," Lyra nodded, equally eager to leave the foul swamp. "Let's carry the meat a mile upriver. The water moves faster there, and the banks are mostly clean stone."

  They hauled their heavy, bloody prizes upriver, leaving the sulfur stench entirely behind. They found a beautiful, pristine spot where a small, clear waterfall emptied over smooth, sun-baked rocks into the main river.

  Before doing anything else, they waded into the freezing, crystal-clear water of the falls, fully clothed. The icy water was an absolute shock to the system, but it brilliantly washed away the foul-smelling mud, the sweat, and the grime of the battle. Zeno scrubbed his face and his tunic, feeling entirely refreshed, the simple act of washing away the dirt feeling like an incredible luxury.

  Once clean, Zeno hauled his iron cauldron to a flat rock, thoroughly scrubbed the inside with clean river sand, and built a roaring, cheerful fire.

  He filled the massive pot with clear river water, boiled it to completely kill any lingering impurities, and then dropped in massive, generous chunks of the fresh, sweet crab meat. He added a handful of sharp wild onions he had found growing near the falls, and a very heavy, liberal dusting of his fiery southern spices.

  Within minutes, the mouth-watering, incredible smell of boiling crab and spices wafted beautifully through the humid air, completely masking any remaining scent of the swamp.

  Zeno sat on a smooth rock, holding a steaming wooden bowl of the absolute freshest, most luxurious seafood stew imaginable. He took a massive bite, the incredibly sweet, perfectly tender meat literally melting in his mouth, entirely elevated by the sharp heat of the spices.

  "This is the exact taste of victory," Zeno declared, closing his amber eyes in absolute, pure bliss. "Building the floor and washing in the cold water made it taste even better."

  Lyra sat comfortably beside him, eating from her own wooden bowl. She looked at the boy, then at the clean, rushing water of the falls, and finally at the endless, deep green jungle towering around them. They were exhausted, and they were entirely alone in the wild. But they had faced a true monster, they were perfectly fed, they were highly paid, and for the first time in a very long time, they were truly free.

  "It really is," Lyra agreed softly, taking a highly satisfying bite, the warm broth soothing her tired muscles. "Not bad at all for our very first day on the job."

  Zeno opened his eyes, looking happily at the setting sun reflecting perfectly off the clear water. "Tomorrow, we find even bigger crabs. And maybe a very large mushroom that doesn't taste like dirt."

  "One step at a time, sledgehammer," Lyra laughed, a bright, genuine sound that echoed over the water. "One step at a time."