Chapter 277: Portal Extreme-ity

Chapter 277: Portal Extreme-ity

Camping in the Wilderness wasn’t exactly the ideal place to exercise and train one’s Skills. Even though Reivyn and the others trained their bodies to operate while being tired, there was a difference between fighting for your life until tired and fighting for your life already tired. That kind of intense exercise would have to wait until they were in a safer location.

That didn’t mean they didn’t do anything. They did some light sparring and Reivyn and Refix supervised Kefira, Teilon, and Kimberly in their weapon forms. They only did enough to build up a light sweat, and afterward, they took turns doing some short Mana Skill practice. Even with the Honor Guard providing support, they still maintained their own watch system. It was better to stay in practice than to get used to not having to do it. The Honor Guard weren’t going to stick around with them for their entire expedition.

The Party had been true to their earlier expectation of finding a place that allowed them to use the river uphill of where Kefira had sensed the Space Mana anomaly. The simple training they usually did in the evenings was cut short so everyone could have some fun and relaxation in the water.

“YAAaaaah!” Teilon yelled as he sprinted toward the bank and launched himself into the air. He came crashing down into the water with his knees tucked up and his arms around his legs. They had already tested the depth of the water, so there was no risk of hitting a shallow spot in the river.

Reivyn followed suit but without the yelling. He kept an eye on Teilon’s position, and right as his friend surfaced from the water with a splash, Reivyn grabbed him and pulled him back down with a surprised yelp. Teilon’s arms flailed and his feet kicked up out of the water.

Reivyn relented and let go of his friend to allow him to break the surface once more. They had high enough stats that rough housing a bit wouldn’t cause any harm, and he knew from their time in the underwater Dungeon that Teilon could hold his breath for a long time. He had memories of certain etiquette needing to be followed in the water from his Dreams, but those sorts of concerns weren’t an issue beyond Tier 2 for the most part.

“Gah!” Teilon spluttered. He glared at Reivyn with mock outrage. “I cannot let this stand!” He lunged toward a laughing Reivyn.

Reivyn kicked off in the opposite direction, intentionally splashing as much as he could in Teilon’s face.

“Hahaha, take that!” Reivyn taunted. Teilon came to a stop and shielded his face.

“Alright, alright!” He exclaimed. “I yield. You’re the big man in the water. Happy?”

“You know it,” Reivyn smirked.

Reivyn saw his father tip-toeing to the bank with his Divine Sense, but he didn’t react. Teilon did a good job of not giving it away, either, by not glancing at his sneaking dad. Reivyn mentally smirked as Refix abruptly launched himself in the air toward Reivyn. He calmly swiped his arms to dodge his falling father, but once Refix realized he wasn’t going to get the drop on his so, he turned his maneuver into another bomb like Teilon and sent a large splash into Reivyn’s face.

“Hah! Can’t dodge them all!” Teilon taunted.

“Uh, huh. You would know.”

Refix came up from beneath Reivyn and grabbed ahold of him. Reivyn and his dad started wrestling in the water, but neither one was being too serious about it. They were trying to get into position to dunk their opponent without resorting to full body grapples, showcasing more their Swimming Skill than Grappling. Reivyn had never specifically trained in Grappling, but with a mental switch viewing it as a weapon, he was immediately Skilled and understood exactly how to move.

He refrained from doing so, though. They were just having fun, though they each occasionally sent splashes toward each other when one would break away from a move.

Reivyn felt a tingling in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite place it. He wasn’t getting a ping from his Danger Sense, but there was something in the back of his mind calling to his attention. He stopped and held up a hand to Refix for a second.

“Wait, something’s off...” He looked around and tried to figure out what was bothering him. With a flash, it came to him. “I can’t sense Teilon anywhere!”

Reivyn began looking around for threats immediately, suspecting something had snuck up on them and abducted their friend while he was preoccupied with his father. He turned to Refix who was just floating there, looking at him with a strange expression on his face.

“What are you doing?” He asked. “Help me - Gah!”

Teilon lunged up from beneath the water, suddenly coming into focus in Reivyn’s Divine Sense, and wrapped his arms around Reivyn’s neck from behind. He pulled his torso back, dragging Reivyn along with him into the water.

After fully submerging Reivyn, Teilon released his grip and surfaced. Reivyn came up, spluttering, and heard Teilon and Refix both laughing.

“Hah! Gotcha!” Teilon taunted.

“Yeah, you did,” Reivyn said, wiping the water from his face. “How did you do that? You disappeared from my Divine Sense.”

“Well, I’ve had my Sneaking Skill at the Level 75 bottleneck for quite some time now,” Teilon said, treading water. “Our encounter with the bird gave me an epiphany. I realized that there was more than just sight and sound that I could hide from.

“I imagine the normal path for those upgrading their Sneaking Skill would be to mask their scent or something like that. I took a bit of a different direction with it, though. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it, but I used inspiration from my Class Skills that allow me to merge through solid matter, and I sort of merged my presence into the surroundings.

“It’s not really intuitive to explain, but that’s the best I can do.”

“Hmm, I think I actually understand,” Reivyn said, nodding his head. “That sounds like quite an advanced ability for the Skill.”

“Yeah. I have a feeling that it’s more than it seems, too. I can’t explain it, but I feel like I won’t have much of a bottleneck at 100. It’s sort of like an instinctual understanding. Wait a moment...” Teilon’s vision seemed to focus on something right in front of his face for a moment. “Oh wow! I got an Achievement for that!”

“Really? What is it?” Reivyn asked curiously.

The creature obviously could have devoured the deer whole, but it deliberately didn’t do so. Wicked fangs completely covered the interior of the sudden abyss from the tentacle and crunched down on the deer. The deer started screaming in pain as it writhed in agony. From Reivyn’s perspective, he could see that the tentacle monster had deliberately avoided injuring any instantly fatal points on the deer’s body. It was almost like it enjoyed the torture it inflicted on the innocent prey.

They were too far away and too close to the waterfall to hear, but they could see the tentacle chew. The muscles on the tentacle convulsed in a way that it was obvious. It took its time as it slowly consumed the deer alive. Eventually the animal did die, but it was anything but fast.

The tentacle stopped chewing and started swaying back and forth along the coast of the lake. A bulge appeared at the base of the tentacle near the portal along the skin and quickly moved along the tendril to the end. Without being able to tell exactly how it happened, the bulge arrived where the maw had been, and now the break where the mouth had been was replaced by the ball.

It seemed to rotate, and then a line opened alongside the outer curvature. An eye blinked as it seemingly came into being. The pupil darted about left and right as the tentacle swayed from side to side.

A soft choking sound came from Reivyn’s left and he could see Kimberly attempting to repress a gag.

The tentacle suddenly jerked and whipped up vertically. Just as fast as it had traversed the radius of the lake, it was suddenly at an equal height as the Party watching from the cliff. It twisted about like a periscope and the eyeball zeroed in on the Party members.

Everyone collectively froze and held their breath. The tentacle didn’t immediately make any other moves. Reivyn didn’t know if it was because there wasn’t enough mass still within the portal for it to reach their position or if it was some other reason. He didn’t care. All he knew was that they were in a stalemate staring competition with a creature straight out of a nightmare.

Dozens of balls rushed up the tentacle from the portal. They randomly positioned themselves all along the tentacle beneath the first orb. The same rotation movement happened, and another couple of dozen eyeballs opened, staring directly at the Party members.

Reivyn could tell that the main focus of the first eye was straight at him. It wasn’t just the first, main eye, either. He could see it and feel it that 90% of the monster’s attention was focused solely on him.

His Divine Sense and Mana Skills warned him that something was brewing within the tentacle. He didn’t care what it was. He knew they had to get out of there now.

Acting completely on instinct, Reivyn dug deep within himself. He wrestled control of his Qi and once more flooded his body with the mysterious energy. He reached out with Mana tendril and wrapped all of his friends and family, binding them to him, and simultaneously launched himself into the air as powerfully as he could.

He and the rest of his Party rocketed into the sky. A bellow of rage with a visible soundwave erupted from a new maw formed on the side of the tentacle. Just like had happened when faced with the robed archer while on deployment in Vairo, Reivyn’s movements while flooded with Qi were exceptional. His perception of time slowed, and he could tell that he was moving at least as fast as the tentacle had before.

He had jumped straight up into the air, and with a brief glance of the expansive Wilderness around him, he quickly created a solid barrier at his feet with his Mana. The air solidified to as hard as stone, and he once more launched himself off of it, but this time he jumped in the direction the Honor Guard was waiting for them.

The landscape blurred below them, and he noticed that they quickly flew past where the Honor Guard were waiting. He hadn’t had time to gauge his own strength, and he ended up moving considerably farther than he had intended. Luckily the Honor Guard were paying attention, and even with the slowing of his perception of time, he could see that they noticed their passing.

Very quickly Reivyn’s horizontal momentum stalled and the Party descended toward the ground. He once again used his Mana to manipulate the Gravity around them to soften the blow of their fall. The time dilation resumed a normal speed once more.

“Urk!”

Teilon, Kimberly, and Kefira all three bent over and retched. Serilla looked pale, but Reivyn could see that she was mustering all of her willpower to resist the urge to vomit. Ameliyn looked a bit dizzy, but Refix seemed completely fine.

Reivyn sat down and panted. He checked his Status and saw that he had expended 60% of his Qi in those two actions. He knew one could suffer a backlash from using too much Mana at once, so it made sense to him that one would with Qi as well. He guessed they shared symptoms, though, because he could feel that he had a tolerance built up to it. If he had never experienced a Mana backlash before, he would probably be much worse off.

“What happened?!” Teilon asked, wiping his mouth and sitting up straight. “Wha- Wher- How?”

“I got us out of there,” Reivyn explained.

“Ugh, I hope to never experience something like that again.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his friend. Teilon just tared mutely at him for several seconds.

“Wasn’t that bad?!” He finally yelled. “You moved us like three quarters of a mile in a second! I didn’t know you could move that fast. How much Mana did you have to use to reinforce your body to do that?”

“That was Qi,” Reivyn shook his head. “I only used Mana to bring you with me and make a platform to jump off.”

“Jeeze,” Teilon exclaimed, scratching the back of his head. “If I knew Qi could do something like that, I would have joined you in making some. Well, no I wouldn’t have. It was already too late for me. But, dang.”

“Anyway, the Honor Guard is catching up, so get up and get ready to move out,” Refix cut in. “The journals mentioned the thing didn’t seem to leave its lair, but that tentacle was also way bigger and scarier than I was anticipating.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Teilon muttered.

Teilon, Kimberly, and Kefira visibly mustered the strength to stand. Teilon and Kimberly helped each other, and Reivyn lent an arm for Kefira to steady herself. The Honor Guard came running through the woods, and after one look at Refix, they immediately setup their normal formation.

“Let’s go, go, go!” Refix commanded.