Broken

Chapter 37

Another two hours later, and the group was still mowing down sea creatures. However, this act was so easy for these people- who found three-stared instances nothing more than a joke- that they had started to take it in turns. One group would handle a wave, while the other rested, and once another wave started they would switch.

Currently Argus, Eric, Nick and Bryce were cutting their way through a group of twenty fish on the beach while the rest of us sat back and watched. It looked as if Argus and Eric were betting on who could kill more, while Nick was mostly going around collecting drops. Bryce was basically just supervising, cutting down anything dumb enough to get close to him, but mostly just being sure the others didn't get overwhelmed.

At the moment I was standing with my back against the cliff wall while Aiden cast his magic over my left arm and leg. When it had been my turn to fight we were not blessed with the high defense, low attack power fish. No, we got saddled with a wave of large crabs, each with rock hard shells, giant claws that could crush us in an instant, and that spat out some kind of acidic foam from their ugly faces.

It was this acid that was the cause of my current wounds. Damn <Broken> and its cursed luck. If it weren't for <Curse of misfortune> I probably would have been in even worse shape, and that just put me in and even sourer mood. I did not want to feel indebted to that bastard demon, Misfortune, in any way, shape, or form.

"You are an incredibly calm patient." Aiden stated, looking at my face over his glasses as he worked. "Doesn't this hurt?"

I raised and eyebrow, looking down ant my mangled flesh, red and blistered as it was. At least it wasn't totally melted and the bone wasn't exposed. "It does hurt." I stated with a shrug. "But I can handle it so long as I don't move around too much."

"You'll have to get your rocks off with another person." Greyson growled. He himself had just gone though his own round of treatment, grunting and whining the whole way. In the blonde man's defense, his arm had nearly been turned to jelly by the crushing power of crab claw, and I was sure it was extremely painful, unlike my burns.

As usual, Aiden didn't confirm or deny the claims of the younger man, simply shooting him a neutral glance and focusing back on his work. I was starting to think that Aiden enjoyed aggravated the pair of best mages almost as much as he did observing the pain of others. What ever the case, Greyson made sure not to leave me alone with the man. I thought it was a bit overkill as I didn't think that Aiden was a monster- no matter his perversions- and wouldn't intentionally do me any harm.

"It is amazing just how effective this <Unlucky> passive is..." Marveled Carson, watching the other half of his squad wipe out the instances population of fish-like monsters. "The number and strength of the monsters are clearly greater than average."

"It's extra clear right now due to the strong random skill I was just given." I sighed, not finding <Broken> 'marvelous' in the slightest. "The greater the last random skill I received, the more unlucky I am."

"It's fascinating." Observed Kuro, bouncing a large mana stone in his hands, a drop from one of the giant crabs. "Even the loot drops are better."

"So long as they don't get too good." I sighed, wincing once as Aiden's spell moved from my now healed arm down to my partially melted leg. I had just received this armor and now it was totally ruined. Not that Carson or the others seemed overly worried at the loss. I supposed the high number of large mana stones we had picked up in the last four hours made up for the trashed gear. "If we get any high-grade items then <Unlucky> kicks in double time. And given how nasty it is being right now, any more bad luck and we might have a damn dragon jump out of the sea next."