Chapter 370: The Waterline

Chapter 370: The Waterline

The newt opened its eyes before Glitch reached the pool.

It rose slowly, plates grinding together as its legs took its weight. Water streamed off the broad tail. It moved between Glitch and the cache, then opened a pale mouth lined with short, thick teeth.

Jin had been hoping it would stay in the pool while he tested its reach.

"All right," he murmured. "Come out, then."

He kept Glitch on dry stone and sent Flicker along the western wall, high enough to stay clear of the jaws. The newt followed the drake for several heavy steps before stopping.

It wouldn’t willingly leave the cache far behind.

Jin eased Glitch forward at an angle. The newt swung its head, forcing him to shift again. It wasn’t fast on land, but the reach of that thick neck made the safe space smaller than it looked.

Glitch struck at the shoulder.

His claws scraped across overlapping plates without finding purchase. The guardian snapped back. Jin pulled him away before the jaws closed, then tried the other side.

Another scrape. No useful damage.

Jin considered Rending Dragon Claw, then held off. The ordinary strikes hadn’t found an edge to get beneath. Spending more energy on the same angle might only leave deeper scratches in the plates while the jaws reached Glitch.

He shifted the view lower. When the newt lifted a forefoot, the skin above it stretched clear of the armour. When it planted the foot again, most of that opening vanished.

He needed to catch the step.

Fine. You have armour. So do we.

He let the next attack come closer. Glitch braced with Harden, taking a glancing blow across his shoulder as he slipped past the head. This time Jin aimed lower, towards the pale fold above the foreleg.

The claw caught briefly.

The newt jerked away with blood running down its leg.

Jin leaned towards the screen. "There. That’s where."

The guardian answered with its tail.

Glitch tried to turn with it, but the broad strike caught his hindquarters and knocked him into the edge of the pool. Water splashed over his back. He regained his feet before the newt could bite down on him.

[Avatar Condition — Glitch: 84%]

Jin sent him straight back to dry ground.

Behind him, the real Glitch breathed steadily in his straw. The sound helped Jin loosen his grip on the phone, though it did nothing for the damaged avatar on the screen.

He needed the guardian looking elsewhere when Glitch closed in.

Flicker dropped from her ledge and sent an Ember Shot towards the side of its face. The fire broke against the armoured cheek. A translucent eyelid slid over the nearest eye, protecting it.

The head still turned towards her.

Glitch took the opening. His claws caught the same foreleg seam, deeper this time, before Jin drew him away.

You don’t have to hurt it, he thought, watching Flicker climb. Just make it look.

He waited for the newt to commit towards Glitch before using her again. She fired from the opposite side, keeping above the head rather than flying across its mouth. Glitch stepped in low, cut, and withdrew.

The third time, the guardian kept its eye shielded and lunged at him anyway.

Jin barely got him clear.

"Yes, you can learn. I noticed."

He let Flicker return to the ledge while Glitch circled. The bird had spent energy scouting and attacking; making her throw fire continuously wasn’t going to improve the plan.

The newt’s right foreleg dragged slightly when it turned. Jin tried to keep that side exposed, shifting Glitch a few steps at a time.

The guardian followed. Its good foreleg planted, its wounded one scraped, and the heavy head tracked the drake without committing.

Jin saw the pale joint open and moved Glitch in.

The newt shoved towards him instead of snapping. Its shoulder struck his armour and drove him sideways. He stumbled, recovered, and backed away from a second push.

Now the retaining wall was behind Glitch.

The diagonal crack showed over his back.

Jin glanced towards the open floor on his left. He’d let the fight carry them east while trying to stay beside the damaged leg. The guardian stood between Glitch and the room’s centre, lowering its body over its remaining sound limbs.

Move. Don’t fight from there.

He sent Glitch sideways along the wall.

The newt charged.

It came low and straight, much faster over that short distance than its lumbering steps had suggested. Glitch pushed hard from his hind legs. The jaws passed his flank, close enough that Jin saw one blunt tooth catch the edge of an armour plate.

Then the guardian hit the wall behind him.

The sound came through the phone as a deep crack.

Jin stopped breathing.

A white jet burst from the old fracture. The guardian scrabbled backwards as the mineral crust split around the point of impact. A boulder shifted, taking a slab of the crust with it.

Water punched through the opening.

"Shelf," Jin said, already turning Glitch. "Go."

The first surge spread across the floor before he reached the room’s centre. It struck his legs, shoved loose stones past his feet, and climbed his chest. Glitch dug in as the current tried to turn him sideways.

The water marks vanished beneath brown foam.

Jin had prepared for a rising floor and time to climb. The broken wall had emptied the adjoining chamber into their fight all at once.

He’d seen the weakness. He’d still let Glitch get trapped in front of it.

Move first. Hate that later.

The newt disappeared beneath the surface.

It hadn’t retreated. A dark shape passed Glitch’s side with a speed it hadn’t shown on land. The drake flinched as something struck his hind leg.

[Avatar Condition — Glitch: 76%]

Jin tried to follow it through Tremor Sense, but the swimming body offered none of the heavy footfalls he’d used before. Water battered Glitch’s planted feet. Falling stones and the broken wall filled the ground with useless disturbance.

The guardian surfaced behind him, jaws closing on a fold above his hind foot.

Glitch twisted and tore free, losing ground towards the flooded centre.

[Avatar Condition — Glitch: 68%]

Jin sent Flicker across the room towards the rubble slope, keeping her above the spray. Glitch followed as quickly as the water allowed.

The lower entrances were filling. Brown water poured into both tunnels, taking the ordinary route out with it.

The upper passage remained dry.

He watched that dark opening and kept Glitch moving towards it, resisting the urge to turn and strike at every ripple. The newt wanted him stopped in deep water. Every second spent chasing it was another second away from the slope.

Something brushed his rear foot again.

Glitch lunged forward before the jaws closed. His claws caught a large stone at the ramp’s base, and he pulled himself onto it. The guardian’s head broke the surface behind him.

Jin kept the command fixed on higher ground.

Glitch hauled his chest out, then his hindquarters, scrambling hard enough to send pebbles rattling into the flood. He reached the shelf and turned, dripping, with his feet spread on solid rock.

[Avatar Condition — Glitch: 63%]

Below him, the newt floated beside the submerged ramp. It looked up once, then sank until only its eyes remained visible.

It wasn’t coming after them.