Dungeon Sniper

Well, we found the starfish easily enough. Other problems remained, however.

"Why is it so freaking big?"

"Is it even alive?"

"It's glowing, so it must be alive... or I don't know. I've never seen a glowing starfish, dead or alive."

The biggest question was, of course, whether it could fight against Lord Cephalos.

"It's a key. It's supposed to lead us to the Bane of Kraken," reasoned Hermana.

"Yeah, but I'm starting to feel like that key is our biggest weapon. And can you even call that a key? It's almost as big as the two Gates I've seen."

"The book said a small star. Small. Shot right out of his hand! The book lied to me. My life is a lie!"

Hermana shook her head, still in shock since her first encounter with the giant D-Bug half an hour ago and now entering a random existential crisis.

"Really? No one's bothered that it's called a D-Bug and it's not a bug? I would've accepted a gold shrimp, but this—"

"Irrelevant topic, boy. Let's use that small brain for some good use and talk about our plan from now," said Baha firmly.

Baha, with or without a ship, still had that captain's authority in him. We settled down and sat in a circle, throwing theories and thoughts at one another to grab a sense of the current situation.

We all agreed that the starfish was once a small, pretty gold key that swam across the vast sea as a dutiful, elusive D-Bug it was supposed to be. But one day, it realized that no one was chasing after it, around the same time the inhabitants of this Level started to call the unsearchable, undiscovered Gate to Level Four the 'Forevershut Gate.'

"Very misleading, I know, but you have to understand us sailors' pride when we claim that we own the sea... well, all of the surface and share some parts with Lord Cephalos deep down—"

"Share?" I asked incredulously.

"You're an outsider. You don't get to question our beliefs," Baha raised his finger threateningly, making me shrug awkwardly.

"But, yeah, we were too proud to admit that we never found the Gate, so we called it the Gate that is forever shut. Same meaning, different nuance—"

"Sounds more impressive than Unfound Gate, sure."

"I'm not asking you to understand. I'm just saying that's how it has been."

So the twinkle twinkle little starfish stopped running. It settled and waited for any chaser, just like the butterfly D-Bug at Level Two. It could never stop glowing because that was the only characteristic of the D-Bug that separated it from other regular starfish. The light was supposed to attract those wishing to find the key to the Transcendent Gate, but the reality was that it attracted hungry predators and other curious sea creatures more than it caught the attention of people cruising on the surface of the water.

What could the D-Bug do? Was it even capable of dying? Being eaten? Well, whatever its deal was, it survived. It more than survived, actually. It fought and ate off all the challenges on its way... and got fat and more powerful as a result. And probably just out of reflex rather than through actual planning or for a goal...

The goal was to wait for the one looking for the key. Then there would be a chase, the fulfillment of its destiny.

This was, of course, purely off our heads, pure guesswork. Elysia was not much of a help this time due to her lack of imagination. Instead, she listened intently to our—mostly Hermana's—narrative, checking for any error in our reasoning.

"Do you think it will start running away once we start chasing it?" asked Elysia poignantly.

"I hope not. There's always a chance that it wants to be caught, like its butterfly brother."

"But will it fight against the Kraken?" asked Baha seriously.

"I told you it's leading us to the weapon. It's not a weapon. It's only a starfish!" said Hermana sharply.

"Right. A starfish that's as big as a galley," scoffed Baha adamantly.

"And it also lights up in gold."

"Irrelevant, again, boy."

Sure. Let us just ignore the aesthetic value of the big guy.

"Looks like there's only one way to find out," interrupted Elysia with a calm, focused voice.

"... Who's going for the big dive?"

.

.

.

"Why me!"

"It has to be you, Beta."

It had to be me.

"The pressure is too strong for us to swim down there without proper equipment. But you can ask the whales to take you there," said Baha patiently, which was highly uncharacteristic of him.

"You told me that already, but why me? I can ask them to take you, for instance. Why don't you go? You're a seasoned man of the sea. I'm sure you're a great diver too."

"Nah, I'm too old for it."

Unbelievable.

I turned to Hermana and Elysia, both nodding apologetically.

"You said you communicate with the whales through your heartbeats, not voices. You should be able to talk and hear the whales underwater, guide them to the target, improvise accordingly along the way."

Elysia, always attentive, never forgetful, and sometimes not helping at all, like right now.

"I would go if I could talk to the Black Whales," said Hermana, feigning envy.

"I would kill to be able to talk to them," blurted Baha, in all earnestness.

"I never even scuba dived before. What if my eyes pop out from the pressure?"

"Relax, boy, that's not going to happen."

"Yeah?"

"The blood veins pop all over your body before you even reach the pressure strong enough to squeeze your eyes off your sockets. You'd be long dead by then.

"You're not helping."

"We're talking a hundred miles down for something like that to happen. It's only a mile deep where our Bane is sitting pretty. Go and fetch the starfish like a man!"

Did he really just say 'go fetch?'

I grumbled a lot of curses under breath as I took a deep breath and turned to face the open sea.

"Don't push me," I turned sharply back to warn Hermana.

"I wasn't going to," said Hermana, with a look of regret that she had not done so sooner.

I sighed again and called out to the Black Whales, in a normal voice as heard by my humanoid companions, but as Elysia pointed out, through the minute vibrations of the heart.

"I want you to take me to the giant starfish. To Bane of Kraken."

The whales responded right away, singing in unison.

WITH—

P.L.E.A.S.U.R.E—

Damn. I was hoping they would say no.

.

.

.

Two things happened down at the sea. Two major events, all within just a couple of minutes that I could safely hold my breath until, well, I drowned.

First, we stopped midway and did not go down further.

Once I jumped into the water, the Black Whales circled me gently, one of them gingerly approaching me with its fin pointed at me, as if asking for me to grab it.

I feared that the whales would swim too fast to reach the starfish and that would lead my head to burst from all the sudden pressure changes. Thankfully, the whales swam downward slowly. Too slowly. At the rate in which I would be out of breath even before reaching the midway point between the surface and the starfish.

As I tried not to panic, several of the whales sped up and rushed down past me toward the gold light.

Then I realized what they were doing. They were too smart to let a Human reach the deep below and risk death. In other words, my sea friends were more considerate than any of my land companions above.

The whales would bring the starfish to the depth where I would be safe and still in breath. But I still did not know how they would accomplish that feat. Would they lift the giant starfish off the floor? It was underwater and weight felt differently from the surface (or not, what was I, a marine biologist?), but to lift something the size of a normal ship with just a dozen whales seemed impossible.

And I was looking at the impossible before my eyes.

The whales were swimming back toward me, circling the glowing starfish between them. I watched the gold light approaching and growing bigger through the foggy, hazy vision, to the point that the sheer size of it made me hang my mouth open and let off precious air bubbles.

I was staring at a giant wall. Beautiful, sturdy, and very much alive. It got so close that I could almost count the bumps on its spiny skin—

And then, to my surprise, it began to grow smaller before my eyes, retreating again back to the bottom, away from me...

Only that it was not moving backward. It stayed the same few feet in front of me.

It was shrinking. Slowly but surely, it was literally growing smaller, looking as if retreating backward but not really.

The gold starfish shrunk to the point that it was roughly the size of a baseball base, compact and lively.

It stayed still, beckoning me to touch it.

So I did.

.

.

.

"I don't know what to say," said Baha, his voice both awed and let down, while the two ladies nodded in complete agreement.

I had come out of the water and the four of us were all staring at the gold starfish on the backs of the Black Whales.

"It's beautiful, I'll give you that, but I was expecting the giant starfish would help us fight against Lord Cephalos, said Baha, expressing his disappointment.

"I was right. It's going to show us the way to the weapon," said Hermana smugly as she ran her hand over the spiny skin of the starfish as if appraising a piece of jewelry. In her defense, the thing looked like an artistic ornament as it lay still and hard while flashing and sparkling in gold.

I would have commented meaninglessly on my observation and hear another scorn from Baha, but there was something else to be discussed.

"Sorry to burst your bubbles, Hermana, but there's no other weapon. This is it, but it will show us the way to something."

Everyone looked at me, surprised by the certainty and deliberation in my voice.

"When I touched the D-Bug—when it 'asked' me to touch it, I knew it was trying to say something to me."

"It's not saying anything to me," frowned Hermana, her hand still on the starfish.

"But it did. You have to trust me on this."

"What are you trying to say, boy?" asked Baha somberly.

"Lord Cephalos. It's not just hoarding the lost ship of Doby Mick I. It's also guarding the Gate. That's why no one's been able to find it. The Kraken's carrying the Gate wherever he goes."

That was the image I saw when I made contact with the D-Bug down below.

"Damnable squid," cursed Baha, but cl.i.c.k.i.n.g his tongue in enlightenment.

"It's only a theory. You want us to believe you without any proof?" asked Hermana cautiously.

"You're right. It's only my words, but you have to trust me."

"We'll find out if the thing is indeed taking us to Lord Cephalos, or the Gate, or ... the sunken ship."

Everyone fell silent. It was clear that we were all thinking the same thing again.

"You think Doby Mick I was looking for the Gate when it crashed? And that's why it got attacked by the Bald Kraken?"

The thing we were all thinking about, even the less imaginative Elysia.

"Like I said, we'll find out soon," said Baha curtly, but his mind not at ease at the intertwined connection... and the concomitant denouement ahead.

"The Black Whales can locate the Bald Kraken but not the Gate. The Gate and Doby Mick I are stashed away together at a secluded place, somewhere the whales have not ventured, nor dared."

I picked up the gold starfish and lifted up to everyone's eye level.

"But this will lead us to the Gate, and that's where we hit our enemy. At his home."

Blinking eyes. More silence.

"I see that, but what are we going to 'hit' with?" asked Baha.

"The Black Whales are ready. We have an army with us."

As if on cue, the whales bellowed a short note, a war cry. Everyone, including me, shivered a little but also felt empowered by the belligerent pulse that rumbled on for extended seconds even after the initial tremor ended.

"... And while these kind creatures fight to the death, we just sit on their backs and watch? That's not only irresponsible. That's disgraceful!" erupted Baha.

"It's their fight. Elysia is an outsider, but Hermana can write about the epic battle so that the future generations know what happened."

"I most certainly will," said Hermana promptly.

I turned to Baha with a thoughtful face.

"We have no idea how violent this battle is going to be. That means Doby Mick I may not be left in one piece after everything is over. Heck, who knows what kind of state it's in right now."

Baha understood right away what I was trying to say.

"You want me to get inside the ship... and gather what I can."

No one said aloud what Baha was going to be looking for. We all had a sense of what a Human body would become after more than four decades of staying underwater.

The air got too heavy, so I put on a nonchalant smile.

"Me? I want nothing but bail out of this shit case. It was the Black Whales. They understand what losing kin means... more than they'd like to, sadly."

I remembered the floating mass of Black Whale carcasses I had seen atop the deck of Doby Mick II. I had thought that I had imagined seeing another group of the Black Whales near the horizon. But now I knew they had been watching the catastrophe, grieving from afar, crying silently lest they became the next target of a superstitious, heinous hunt.

"The Black Whales are framed for the Kraken's atrocities. The missing cases, the deaths, the ominous sightings... they're victims just like us. More than us, if you think their habitats are constantly raided by the monster and so they're forced to find food and shelter near us... and so the vicious cycle repeats. Misunderstanding and meaningless deaths repeat, and will repeat until the tyrant is gone."

The last whale song I had heard while resurfacing from the dive was short, but it conveyed all of the emotions and sadness the Black Whales had to endure all this time. With the warm gold starfish held in my c.h.e.s.t and the cold seawater brushing against my cheeks, I cried openly, freely.

And now I was tearing up again, to the point that I could no longer give out getting saltwater in the eyes as an excuse for the redness.

"The whales are ready once we are. They'll take us there while we sleep," I said, brushing and blinking my eyes nonchalantly. The time really flew by, and it was almost dusk now.

"I thought the whales didn't know where to go," said Hermana poignantly.

"They do now. The D-Bug has given me the name of the location, which I told the whales and they have an idea where to look."

"What's the name of the location?" asked Baha curiously.

I reiterated the name that flashed before me as I had touched the starfish.

"A place named Crab's Victory? Funny name," I laughed, but the two seasoned veterans of the sea did not.

"... Are you sure that's where we're headed?" asked Hermana grimly.

"What's wrong?"

"You don't know what that rocky island looks like, do you, boy?" sighed Baha.

"No... why?"

"Because you look like you have no idea what you're talking about."

"But it makes sense. No ship enters there, let alone try to look for what's under. It's really the perfect place. Too perfect."

"Wait. If it's so perfect a spot, why haven't you looked for Doby Mick I there before?"

Baha and Hermana blinked at me with pity and exasperation.

"Why? Because Doby Mick I went off in the opposite direction. Because Crab's Victory was, and is, never a destination for any sailor. And finally because no ship enters there. Never. Willingly or unwillingly," said Hermana with as much patience she could muster. But again, she was not the most tempered person I knew, so.

"The currents, they swerve right around the island. Inhabitable as hell, too. It's called Crab's Victory for a reason. The jagged rocks, narrow strips, looks exactly like the crab's pincer, down to the details with the sharp edges along the concave v-shaped coast... Like Hermana said, the place is a no-go for sh.i.p.s, but the whales can probably take us there."

Baha's eyes flashed expectantly with the orange tint of the setting sun reflecting off.

"Finally, after all these years..."

Baha turned away, hiding his face from us. Wait. Was I that obvious too when I was trying to hide my tears just minutes ago?

"So, outsider, what's your role in all this?" asked Hermana abruptly.

"What do you mean?"

"I can see that you're putting your girlfriend out of danger by emphasizing that she's an outsider from a different Level. But so are you, but I doubt you'll sit back and just watch these whales suffer. What do you have in mind?"

Elysia c.o.c.ked her head in my direction with a quizzical expression. Was she touched, or was she annoyed that I was leaving her out of the battle?

Things with Elysia had been too awkward the past few days, so instead, I directed my anger toward the one capable of taking it. Or responsible for it, on a second thought.

"I never said I was going to be a spectator," I said indignantly.

"And now I'm asking what you'll be doing," retorted Hermana coolly.

I hesitated and raised the D-Bug I was holding again.

"This is a weapon."

"Figuratively?" scoffed Hermana.

Instead of saying, I decided to show her. Baha, who had recovered from the sudden hit of melancholia, and Elysia were eyeing me with interest now.

"Watch."

I placed the starfish over my wrist.

And I enjoyed the uniform look of shock as my three audiences started at the bizarre movement of the D-Bug.

"... What the f.u.c.k?"

Well, Baha was honest in his assessment. The two ladies still had not said any word.

The gold starfish wrapped my hand with its four legs while leaving its one, topmost leg protruding under my palm.

"What—how did you know it was going to do that?"

The truth was, I wanted to know myself. But for now, I just felt as if a manual of some sort installed itself in my head.

As if someone programmed to let the starfish weaponize for the selected user.

"Magic, I guess," I shrugged.

I knew I said this a lot, but there were too many things in this world I did not understand, so there it was.

"What is that, exactly?" frowned Baha.

"I'm not sure, but it's supposed to be some kind of a gun."

I pointed to the protruding leg, presumably the barrel of this grotesque, wrist-mounted gun.

"No gun looks like that, ever."

"I know, but I'll show you."

I took a stance confidently as I pointed safely to the horizon and aimed.

I took a different stance and pointed directly at the setting sun and aimed.

I stood sideways, supported my one hand with the other, and aimed.

Nothing happened.

"Anytime now," smirked Baha.

"I know it works. Why else would it wrap around the wrist like this? ... Great, now it won't come off."

I struggled and stared around at my three companions, all eyeing me with pity, finding me pathetic without a word exchanged.

"When the battle starts, you're coming with me to explore the ship. The least we can do to help these whales is getting out of their way," said Baha gruffly.

"... Aye, captain," I said dejectedly.

I tried all night but the D-Bug would not come off my wrist. Meanwhile, the Black Whales sailed quietly under the cloudy, moonless night.

The foggy morning came, and Crab's Victory was nowhere in sight.

But I knew we had arrived.

We were here.