Broken

Chapter 36

Standing on the beach, my footing questionable, and salt crusted in places I rather not mention, I realized just how psychotic of a guild I had entered into a contract with...

I stood on that sandy beach, just flabbergasted at the events- if you could call it that- taking place around me. We had been in this instance for just over two hours now, and I had seen enough to know that the men in this guild were insane... all of them!

To my right, flinging sand and kelp all over me, were Greyson and Eric. Their spectral fangs and claws dug deep into the hide and shell of a very large sea turtle. One that was currently alternating between high pitched screeches that made my eardrums feel like they were about to burst, and shooting jets of water in every direction. In its desperation to be free of the two animalistic maniacs on its back, it didn't seem to care whether it hit humans or the other monsters on the beach.

"Shut it's mouth you moron!" Greyson shouted from a top the turtle's shell. His words may have sounded harsh, but his eyes were full of a mischievous glee.

"Why don't you shut yours?" Eric snarled back. He now stood at the very dangerous front end of the monster, and using his abnormal strength, was trying to clamp its mouth shut.

I looked away from them, unconcerned. Amongst all the members here in this ocean like dungeon, they were the closest to being of an appropriate level to be here. The others were all over leveled. Still, even the twins were barely breaking a sweat, so I wasn't too concerned. No, this was what I had come to expect from the crazy pair.

It was the other Chaos members that I felt overwhelmed by. Though, at this point I wasn't really sure why I surprised...

Coming into this instance I had been quite nervous. Yes, because it was a three-stared, but mainly because the last time I went into one of these swirling gates I had been kidnapped and forced to kill or be killed. I had trauma, okay?

Upon entering, I had first been awestruck if I was being honest. The wide ocean vista and the sandy beach surrounded by high cliffs was actually quite breath-taking. I had never been in such an instance before. The lower tiered ones that had been my bread-and-butter until now were almost always winding cave systems- often with varying biomes- and rarely anything else. And the few times I had been in the higher stared instances, they had been meadows or forests. The beach was an interesting change of scenery.

That wonder had not lasted long. From the moment we entered this damn instance, we had been swamped by waves and waves of monsters. At first even the seasoned Chaos members had been stumped. Until we all came to the same realization, and all eyes fell on me.

Of course I would be given a new random skill just as we entered the damn thing. Though, I wasn't sure why I was surprised by that either. <Sword Aura> had been a big one, so of course it had a fast turnover. My new skill was actually late in getting assigned.

Using my new nifty item, I checked what new horror awaited me this time, while the others plowed through the first wave of what I assumed were some sort of fish people. They were ugly and loud, but weak. Their numbers might have been an issue, but not for these guys.

Looking into the skill, I saw: [ <Earth Break> A skill used to violently shake the ground, opening a fissure and then crushing opponents within it.]

Well, shit... It was another high level skill. And of course it was basically useless here! It was an AOE skill that would swallow friends, as well as foes, on this cramped beach. Not to mention we were surrounded by and ocean. If I even tried using this skill I would simply cause a damn tsunami, killing us all!