New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth was quick to meld with White, not wanting to get caught off guard. Not a moment later, a salvo of harpoons came at them from the darkness of the water.

Most of the group dodged the weapons, while Gulnur and Astaroth batted aside the ones aimed at them. Once the harpoons had hit the ground, the rope tied to them became taut.

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He grasped a passing harpoon, planting his feet firmly into the ground, before yanking with all his might. Gulnur saw him act and did the same.

Soon enough, two figures flew inside the bubble, holding onto harpoon guns. The figures looked very similar to the boss they had fought recently, with just minor traits being different.

Their colours were darker blueish, while the Grippli Lieutenant had gray-green skin. But their physical appearance was practically the same.

Astaroth and the rest made quick work of the two frog people before a second salvo came at them from the depth of the lake. They repeated their previous tactic, pulling in some enemies from the harpoon ropes.

Athena joined in too, having a good strength score, and their targets numbered three instead of two. After doing this two more times, a pulse of water hit the bubble of air they were in.

The air bubble fluctuated and rippled as the water from outside tried pushing back on Violette’s control. Astaroth could see the mana on the outside, pushing against Violette’s, and it was slowly gaining in power.

“We need to drink our potions! They have a mage and he’s pushing the water back on us,” Astaroth said, pulling out his own bottle.

He rapidly chugged it down before rushing to Violette’s side and helping her drink hers while she held the water back. Once they had all consumed their potions, Violette let the water flow back to them, while containing the pressure.

This put them back in the water, without washing them away. But their problems were only beginning. No one in the party was adept at underwater fighting.

Harpoons kept flying at them, the amount of them slowly going up.

“I think they are getting reinforcements!” Phoenix cried out, noticing the number of projectiles slowly increasing.

“This might be a wave stage,” I’die said, frowning slightly.

Wave stages were not uncommon in dungeons, but they were something you needed full parties to defeat. If you couldn’t clear a wave before the next one arrived, the situation rapidly became exponentially dangerous.

And it seemed like they couldn’t get rid of all their enemies, since they could barely see how many they had to kill to start with. The party fought on, trying to keep the situation under control.

Over the next ten minutes, they killed and killed frogmen, without end, hoping they would soon reach the last wave. But their troubles kept growing.

The more waves came at them, the larger they were, and the stronger the enemies became. At one point, a second mage joined the enemy side, and Violette had to focus on pushing their attacks back.

The mages kept trying to split them up, using underwater currents. Violette was holding the surrounding flow as dead as she could, for now.

But if they couldn’t take down the mages, and another one joined in, they would rapidly be in big trouble. Astaroth was now melded with Somnus, and he gained an extra sense.

He could echo-locate, like Athena with her amulet, and he tried using it to find out the whereabouts of their enemies. And what he saw made him frown.

The frogmen were not that many, but they were slowly schooling around them, forming a small funnel. If they were allowed to finish their manoeuvre, they would assault the group from every side, and they would perish.

Astaroth racked his brain, trying to find a solution to their predicament, until he remembered a video he had watched on the internet once. It was a video on how to split water into gas.

The man had used an electrolyzer to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen, and then burned the gas to show how flammable hydrogen was.

They didn’t have an electrolyzer at hand, but he still thought they could replicate the feat. He rapidly explained his thoughts in the group chat.

I’die was the first to agree to his plan. The kid was a student at a very science-oriented school, and he knew how electrolysis worked.

He rapidly formed a makeshift tank, with a stone slab separating the middle. Astaroth was on one side, while Phoenix was on the other.

Phoenix was most proficient with fire magic, but her master had taught her the basics of lightning magic, since they worked off the same base mana. I’die formed a hole in the stone, where Phoenix could hold Astaroth’s hand.

They would serve as the power source for their improvised electrolyzer. Phoenix would be the positive charge, pushing out lightning magic into Astaroth, who would serve as the negative charge.

Sadly for the ash elf, that meant he would have to take on the magic damage with his body. And he knew it would hurt.

In the meantime, Athena redoubled her efforts to keep the enemy at bay, firing arrows like a madwoman. Gulnur did his best to protect all of them, burning through his defensive skills at a rapid pace.

“Hurry up! I don’t have many skills left!” he eventually said.

After setting everything in place, I’die smiled and gave a thumbs up.

“We’re ready!”

Phoenix nodded, before apologizing to Astaroth.

“It was my dumb idea,” he responded, brushing aside her concern.

Not a second later, a high-voltage current flowed into his body, passing through his hand, and he started convulsing.

‘Jesus Christ! This hurts more than I thought!’ he shouted in his mind.

Not long after the current started flowing, bubbles started forming around him, as the water was splitting into its two basic elements.

They used this method for almost a full minute, before Phoenix let go of Astaroth’s hand, as his health was getting dangerously low.

Now came the second part of the plan.

“Here goes nothing!” Phoenix shouted, before unleashing a very weak fireball toward the rising bubbles.