"Oh no..." Shelby muttered.

  The horrible toxic dew drops that the monster shed raced towards them. Every second a couple more flopped to the stone and started to roll. Shelby glanced to her side and Thimble's eyes were as wide as saucers. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him, shouting, "Run!"

  He turned and leapt over a pair of the orbs, which popped under him and narrowly missed scouring him with its acidic contents, then he sprinted between two steaming pools to draw the attack away. Shelby coughed as a puff of toxic smoke blew across her face, and she took 10 damage. She stumbled back and Coda retreated with her. Thimble was fast, but the orbs were gaining momentum and he would be caught by one at any moment.

  Shelby fired off a shot and popped one of the jelly-like drops, sending sizzling fluid spraying out in a cone behind the arrow. We have to destroy them! She gestured for Coda to take flight and strafe around the natural arena, blasting away orbs and smoke with his wind attacks. While he cleared away the damaging smog, Shelby fired at the orbs chasing her partner. Every shot mattered, and she quickly took down a pair of orbs then lanced two more with her Cutting Shot.

  The horde of chasing droplets was thinned down to a a few stragglers as Shelby worked her way backward to the sea faerie. As the last orbs sloughed off the monster's fur and hit the stone, they were cut down by well placed arrows, and the monster hissed as it was stung by its own acid. It even took a dozen damage from the spray. Shelby mentally noted that it was vulnerable to its own attacks. Next time it does that I can start shooting the orbs before they have time to chase!

  Thimble quickly got back into position, slashing away at the fluffy nightmare as he kited it around the battlefield. It had one more round of sizzling raindrops to shed, but they backed away and finished it off before they took additional damage. Coda's wind attacks were excellent for pushing the harmful gasses away and making a path for Thimble to re-engage through. Overall, they had taken a lot less damage than Shelby had thought they would. I guess the monster's high health is offset by being slow and predictable.

  Tara cheered on mic, "That was amazing, Shells! You two have already grown so much! I'm glad you picked up on the mechanics so fast!"

  "Thanks Tara! That was actually fun!" Shelby said as she crouched and patted the dissolving monster. It was very soft when it wasn't trying to eat you.

  "Keep that up and you'll have no problems with the big bad wolf!"

  Jorunnamanders were difficult to find, but when they did stumble across a second one basking in a pit of roiling water, they had an easier time with it. Shelby's plan to burst the drops during the chasing phase resulted in a chain reaction that caused the enemy to take 100 damage and cease the attack. That alone saved them several minutes. After the fight, they ducked out of the sulfur vent area to take on some blue dragons when they couldn't find any more sea bunnies. Weaving in between the coral maze and the vent area eventually got them credit for four of each species and they were able to go back to the fishing village.

  The three contract completions got Shelby very close to level 6, about 175 points away, and triggered the start of the event that AIDAN had told Shelby about. The capybara fisherman they had talked to earlier came shuffling up the beach with a worried expression and waved them down, "Great! You two, I need your help! Come quick!"

  They jogged towards him and he turned back to the beach, pulling out a short, blunt knife and pointing towards the row of drying racks near the pier, "A swarm of crabs're attacking. They'll pick our racks clean if we don't drive them off."

  A dozen crabs were scuttling out of the breaking waves and winding their way towards the racks. Two beavers who were fishing on the pier scrambled to their feet, throwing their fishing rods back onto the shore and retrieving the same dull blades the capybara held. They leapt into the waves and slashed away at a nearby crab, doing 2 to 3 damage per swing. The crab extended a massive claw and snapped at a beaver's side, sending a red "10" floating away from the shocked fisherman.

  Shelby ordered Coda to fly in and use his healing attack, although she wasn't sure if he could find a place to bite the armored monster. She was relieved when his bite cracked through a joint on the monster's crimson shell and the beaver was healed for 5. She didn't know if characters outside of her party would be affected, but since they were all fighting the same enemy it seemed to work.

  Shelby silenced her wandering thoughts and targeted a crab that was closing in on a rack, hitting it with a perfectly timed shot that cracked through its shell and sent it tumbling backwards. She ran forward and shot it twice more before it died. These things don't have very much health...

  She turned and scanned another crab with Shadow:

  Oh, more than I thought. I just got lucky? Indeed, the next crab she confronted needed 4 Measured Shots to finish off. They were fast and moved in a funny zig-zagging pattern, making them difficult to track, but since they were pretty weak she didn't need any help with them. Thimble had charged into the water and was hacking away at crabs next to the beavers. The capybara was kicking away a trio of crabs farther up the beach, and Coda was circling overhead. Shelby directed Coda to help the capybara and she sprinted up the row of racks to intercept another two crabs that were encroaching on her bonus prize.

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  The event was fun. The crabs did moderate damage if they got too close, and there were a lot of the quick little creatures, but it was more like playing whack-a-mole then a life or death battle. Shelby found herself grinning as she darted between lanes and fired quick shots to push back the angry crabs. This was also a great fight for her Cutting Shot, and she enjoyed finding a good angle to clip two or three crabs at the same time. Thimble seemed to struggle to keep up with the fight, but when he caught a crab's attention his attaché of knife wielding beavers quickly hacked them down. The capybara fisherman seemed happy to have Coda's support, and he was a bit stronger than the other fishers, often putting the crabs down in a few powerful swings.

  All too soon, the event was over. The crabs awarded 5 experience each, and between Coda, Thimble, and Shelby, they had tagged 36 of the 40 crabs. That was enough to push Shelby over the edge to level 6. We really are making great progress!

  Shelby frowned at the failed advancement, but opened her inventory to investigate the shield. She popped it into her hands and held it up. It was a small, rusty shield with an intricate front that looked like a gigantic coin, complete with an engraved face and filigree on the outer edge. She frowned even harder. It was pretty, but for some reason she had assumed that Thimble would get a shield that was shaped like a crab. She looked at the stats and was relieved to see that it was a rare quality item:

  Huh! Apparently small shields don't block as big of a percentage as greatshields. I guess that makes sense. Shelby's greatshield had blocked 20% damage, but this one only blocked 10%. She waved to Thimble as he trudged through the sand towards her. His wavy hair was sticking out at odd angles from fighting in the salty water. She handed the shield over to him with a smile, "A gift!"

  "Where did you get this?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

  "C-crabs dropped it?"

  "Those crabs had an ancient shield?"

  "Yes?"

  He looked her up and down, "Okay... well it's a nice shield. Better than mine by a good bit. Thank you."

  He held it up and swung it around on his arm. Shelby looked around at the beach, which was littered with crabs. A few of them were glowing with white sparks, and the beavers and capybara were slowly walking between them and collecting the bodies. Shelby knelt down by one and looted a hunk of [Crab Meat]. Another item to take back to Nisa?

  It didn't say it was edible, but now that she thought about it the spirit kumquats she had gotten from fruit rats didn't say so either. Hmm, well, best not to figure out what's safe to eat from seafood. I'll try the next fruit I find, Shelby noted as she grabbed another 7 chunks. The capybara caught up to her and gave her a hearty slap on the back, "Great work there, really saved us a lot of heartbreak. Say, I noticed you've been doing lots of contracts too. They might seem frivolous, but we don't get a lot of helping hands around here, so our little problems add up fast."

  The capybara looked like he wanted to say something, and he twisted his mouth up in contemplation as his tiny brown ears flapped against his broad head. Shelby bowed, maybe he just needs a little push? "No problem at all! We're happy to help out since we're in the area training up!"

  "Right, you're going after those wolf people, ain't you?"

  Thimble looked back towards the cliffs, "We need to rescue the captives they've taken."

  "Right, right. Well, I might have something to help you," the capybara said while he scratched the back of this head, "or maybe it'll hurt you. I can't say. You're the adventuring types, so I'll just tell you what I know and you can decide whether it's worth looking into."

  "Ooh, a lead!" Shelby exclaimed, "what do you know?"

  "Thing is, those caves in the cliffs used to be a shortcut that fisherfolk would take if we wanted to walk directly to the trade road, instead of going all the way down to the fork in the road. This was a long time ago, mind you. Those caves flooded years back, and by the time the tide rolled out one of those dragons had taken up residence. Normally we would deal with such a nuisance by getting the whole village together, but this one was bigger than your average critter. Anyhow, we couldn't get it to leave, so the cave path has been abandoned since then, or I guess until those wolf folk moved in."

  Shelby nodded, "So we could sneak in from this side of the caves, but there's a dragon in the way..."

  Thimble leaned forward, "Where is the entrance on this side?"

  "I could mark it for you," the capybara said, "just don't get yourselves killed. I know I teased you for being green earlier, but that thing really is in a league of its own."

  The marker was deep within the maze of coral that the blue dragons lived in. Shelby tilted her head, "This must have been difficult for you to get to back when you used it for travel."

  The capybara sighed, "Ever since that big dragon moved in, more and more critters have set up shop. That whole section of the beach is overrun now. It's a shame, my favorite fishing spot used to be up around there."

  With that, the capybara picked up a crab carcass and wandered off towards a rack. He cracked the crab over a rock and got to work preparing it. Shelby looked back to Thimble, "What do you think? That might let us confront their leader without having to fight our way in."

  He rubbed his hand over the surface of his new shield, apparently deep in thought, "That seems like our only chance..."