The players appeared in the Undead Frontier. Escorted by Dave, none of the undead moving in the settlement tried to attack his friends.
"Follow me, it's a couple of minutes walk to the lake from here," Dave said to his party members.
The players followed after Dave on dunlord back. They reached the acidic lake in a while after. The undead were still repairing the corroded boats on the shore. When Dave arrived, they turned and saluted him.
"Captain," Dave called to the leading undead on the shore.
"Yes, commander Kis'Shtiengbrah."
"I brought some assistance for the task. Can we have a boat to use?" Dave asked.
"I can lend you some rowboats commander. Anything larger will be too risky to use in the battle as it will be damaged."
"I understand, anything is good," Dave replied.
The undead captain waved for a few of his underlings to take the shored boat down the lake.
After the boat was floating, the captain turned to Dave and said, "You may start, commander."
"Thanks," Dave thanked the captain and got on the boat. "Guys, let's get this over with," Dave said, addressing his party.
The players got on the boat and sat adjacent to Dave, who took the rows and began rowing the boat into the lake.
"I never fought on a boat before. You think this will work?" Lone asked.
"I have a plan, don't worry," Dave said.
Dave kept rowing the boat into the lake. After a while, the water bubbled near them.
"We'll start from here," Dave said. He stood up and opened the small bag on his waist.
"Tiny, I promised you plenty of food before, now's the time," Dave said.
The black slime wiggled in ecstasy at the mention of food.
"I need a manticore, Tiny."
Dave grabbed the slime and threw him in the air. The slime transformed into its larger form and dropped like an anchor into the water, and thankfully he was big enough that half of his head remained above water.
"He's gonna drown!" Lone shouted.
"Undead don't drown, Lone. Don't worry."
"What about the acid in the lake? It will melt Tiny," Mercy said. Dave didn't think about that at first, so he leaned over the boat and put his hand on the acidic lake. His hand sizzled for a bit. He lost 1 HP. Then nothing more.
"Nope, the acid doesn't work on undead either. Okay tiny, Manticore, get one out!" Dave called.
Tiny raised his hand above water and summoned a golden sarcophagus. The sarcophagus opened and released a deathly black aura that morphed into the shape of a giant half bull half scorpion creature in the air.
The manticore dropped into the lake, sending giant waves coursing through it. The waves almost tipped the rowboat over into the lake.
"Big guy, we need a ride!" Dave called to the manticore.
The chimeric creature grabbed the rowboat and placed it on his back. Dave and his party left the boat and stood on the broad carapace back of the manticore. The creature was big enough that it looked like a giant moving fortress.
Suddenly, the manticore crouched, until the plastron of his carapace made contact with water. It folded its legs and raised its scorpion tail up. The manticore was actually capable of swimming.
"Damn, this is like a Monster-boat." Flanker commented.
"This is pleasantly unexpected," Fortress added.
Tiny climbed on the manticore and joined the group.
"Here you go guys," Dave said and shared his quest with everyone.
"We need to kill these serpents, spread along the manticore's back if you spot one tell me," Dave said.
The players spread and began inspecting the lake as the manticore slowly made its way through it.
After a few moments, Flanker shouted, "I see something!" he said.
The rest of the players ran toward Flanker, there were a lot of bubbles just a few meters away from the moving manticore.
"How are we going to fight that if it's underwater?" Flanker added.
"We'll drag it out," Lone said. She aimed an arrow at the bubbling spot in the lake and shot it.
The arrow broke through the water surface and penetrated something as a loud screeching sound echoed from under the water.
Suddenly, a glistening chain of ice materialised from Lone's arrow and extended right to where her arrow went through.
"Everyone, help me pull it out," Lone said and pulled on the icy chain.
The party dragged the chain, but it barely moved, whatever that was pinned to the other side was strong enough to fend off the strength of six players with ease. Yet the hungry Tiny wasn't having it. He moved toward the players and grabbed at the chains. He yanked the chain and pulled from the water a mass of writhing, and wriggling snakes.
The creature was like a group of snakes melded and fused together; they were white and had several heads. It screeched at the players with all its leaders and spewed a torrent of yellow liquid.
Dave jumped in front of the snake and took the poison splash in his party's stead. He was undead, and poison did not affect him.
Dave inspected the serpent.
***
***
Torab Serpent Juvenile
Level: 250
Tier: Ferocious
Base damage: 20,000-40,000
Danger Level: low
HP: 250,000
PD: 15,000
MD:10,000
Skills:
[Poison Spit] Shoots a spray of poison that deals 20% serpent base damage and 30,000 poison damage over 20 seconds.
[Strangle] wraps itself around a target, rendering them immobile. After 30 seconds of strangling, the Torab Serpent deals 20% of target's max health in flat damage.
[Slippery Escape] When the Torab Serpent loses 80% of its max HP, it will attempt to escape in the lake.
Lore:
A strange mutated serpent with a vague history. It was known that these creatures had never existed before in this lake, someone or something had placed these Torab Serpents in this lake to grow and raise them. But their caretaker had had long since forgotten their existence in this forsaken lake, and so the serpents grew to plague the lake with their poison.
***
"This is an easy fight, we have to kill 200 of these, shouldn't be hard guys," Dave said.
Fortress equipped his shield and sword and charged the serpent. Dave switched to his gauntlets and attacked with a [Dragon Fist] chipping a third of the serpent's HP in one hit.
Mercy stabbed through one of the serpent's head and destroyed the remaining HP bar.
"Damn, that's a lot of damage," Flanker commented, "You should learn from her, Skelly."
Dave shook his head. This priest never knew when to keep quiet.
"Uhm, guys," Fortress said.
"Yeah?" Dave replied.
"When the lake bubbled, it meant that there was a snake under. So what does that mean?" Fortress said, pointing at a faraway spot in the lake.
Dave traced Fortress's finger and noticed a change in the lake's water. There were bubbles, but there were so many of them that the lake looked like it was boiling.
"Shit, I think all the serpents had noticed the death of their friend, and they are coming, ready up there's a big fight coming."
