Chapitre 6: Crabs
I double-checked the air filters, making sure there were no faults or errors in the luggage. We had prepared as much as possible for this excursion, hoping to map the area. We had all decided on roles based on our abilities.
"It will be fine... "I muttered to myself.
I looked around and saw Yutong doing the same as me. He was a responsible guy despite his attitude, he takes being the team's shield with great importance and knows how much we depend on him. A big pressure on his men but unfortunately necessary. And then there was Lily. She was calm and collected, she had customized her armor again with her green and black colors, she said they were good luck, which seemed to work because of the confidence it gave her. Honestly, I was afraid of what would happen, but it was good to feel confident again because of my friends.
We quickly trained everything we needed to be a functional group. Nothing complicated, following commands and necessary combat positions was the only thing we could accomplish with so little time. We had also decided to go out at the slightest unexpected event, so we had prepared some countermeasures to help with that.
We all felt as prepared as we could when we felt the gas on our faces, we waited at the entrance to make sure of everything possible.
"We'll have six hours for oxygen, Yutong, you'll go in front, along with Lily, I'll cover the backs while Mark will be mapping."
"What if we fill our bags early?" Mark's concern could be heard in his voice, he was the one who was least comfortable with the idea of going in.
"We'll leave them on the way to pick them up on the way back. Reconnoitering the area is our top priority."
I watched as he nodded in response and clutched his piece of charcoal in his hands again.
I turn to Yutong and see him raise his mace and step forward to adjust his new shield. He had done his best with the junk he had found,
"Do you need help with that? It's the first time you'll be using it so it might be a little annoying the extra weight."
"Trust me, besides it's my only task in the group, I can't let you guys down on this" It's the only answer he gives before stepping forward and moving towards the gas.
We follow the same path as last time, this time making sure to check all areas and buildings, securing what could be sold, and keeping our weapons primed and ready. However, we hadn't faced any difficult combat besides a few packs of look-alike dogs, which we had dealt with easily.
"What the hell are those things?" Mark's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, as he pointed to a wall. I didn't know it, but I recognized it immediately.
"Light blisters. Don't worry" clap " They're harmless." I turned away from the wall that lit up at the applause and continued to concentrate on our backs. There were ducts all over the ruins that the dogs seemed to be moving through.
As we rounded the corner, we saw the square where we decided to turn back in the distance, stone buildings covered in blue and orange paint. At least a kilometer from the settlement seemed to use the same colors. I turned to focus on the roads in front of us and noticed how each road seemed to use different colors, I almost seemed to see the order of everything when the city was in its full splendor.
I raised my hand to signal for us to stop, as I thought about which road we should take.
"They seem to use a color system to define and organize their streets."
"Information that won't do us any good, some have fallen over time and to be guided by something like that will only confuse us" Mark said as he took his hand away from the paper and stopped to look around and then continued making the map.
"But we'll use it for the map, it will help us get familiar with the area." I pointed to the different directions we could go. "This looks bigger than we thought and although we could use a system of our own."
After we all agreed and chose one of the routes that still had the paint on its walls, things got complicated quickly, although I expected that. We only encountered three more groups of dogs, which we could easily dispatch now that we had a fully effective routine. But that was the easy part. No, the complication came after a few minutes. The confidence of dealing with all the problems so far had dulled my senses, when a rumbling sound, along with the crashing of walls brought into view a creature I had never seen before.
It had a crustacean appearance, with two arms and pincers, six legs, and a head. Although that head was difficult to separate from its body. It seemed to have a large purple lining and we probably wouldn't be able to hurt it with simple blows.
My mind felt sluggish due to the surprise and the unexpectedness of the situation, the guilt that this had happened also did not allow my body to avoid the pincer that seemed to go straight to my abdomen. The momentum and the lack of preparation pushed me to the ground after a few meters.
-Fortunately, it didn't go all the way through the armor," I thought as I touched my abdomen, checking my wounds. I had created the armor to resist specific cuts and blows, with the result that it had reduced the maximum damage, but it only protects you to a certain extent. Therefore, I could still see some of my blood on my hands and feel the sting of the gas interacting with my wounds.
I tightened my grip on my knife, leaning around the corner of the rock behind which I had taken cover. as I sprayed water and bandaged my wounds. Lily and Yutong had completely cleared their path into space, and quickly established a safe perimeter of combat, while Mark seemed to be replacing the rear guard with the slingshot.
"Damian, are you okay?" yells Lily with her knife pointed as she keeps her sights on the creature. Which seemed to back off due to Yurong's continued intimidations, or because it saw no opportunity to finish us off easily. I hoped it was the former, it wouldn't be easy to deal with an intelligent creature.
"All right, it was just a glancing blow" Mark walks over to where I had slid to cover and offers me a hand, helping me to my feet.
"What the hell was that thing?" Lily said, as she checked my wounds and made sure she had bandaged them properly.
"It doesn't look familiar to me either, but its pincers are no joke, without my armor, I could have easily died."
"I've heard tales of them when I was at the docks, but I thought they were only at sea" Mark said, his voice sharp as he looked at the scary place he had come from, before attacking us. It looked like he had been waiting in the collapsed buildings for his next prey to pass by.
"What the hell are they doing here?" from Mark and Yutong's reaction it seemed obvious they knew about it, I had heard stories about the dangers of the sea too, but Mark and Yutong had grown up on the docks of Zaun, I had met the duo of a tall guy and a slightly funny lame guy, so I had decided to join them. Kids' stupidities for which I would never regret.
"They are Karkinos, they say they can reach up to eight meters, so this one was just a hatchling, sailors say their mother usually leaves dozens on the coasts, where they can find food and compete with their siblings."
"You're saying that these are just their offspring and that there could be more of them all over this place."
I could almost feel the danger of this place rising exponentially, with giant crabs that had the intelligence of a predator. We could listen intently as the whole place seemed to wake up with heavy footsteps.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
MrCheshire
MrCheshire I've wanted to make images with AI of what I think the characters would look like, but I haven't found something that doesn't make a weird image yet. I will keep looking and I will bring something that will be useful for you and will not bother you, I am a true believer that illustrators should be supported, but there is no money to support them, if that changes in the future believe me that would be the first thing I would like to do.
patreon.com/MrCheshire
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone