Ariagoria and Marionette had reached their destination, a small village at the the edge of one of the larger lakes the island nation of Bramble had to offer. The lake was used by the village as a sort of fish farm. The two were there on a quest. Somehow a monster had made its way into the lake. This was affecting the fish farm and the village's ability to feed its citizens. Ariagoria sighed. “You know, were the entire squad here, I'd bet Racknar would start droning on about the monsters stats and habits. Bombarding us with information we don't need and useless facts.”

  Marionette shook her head. “Not useless. He usually lets us know what something is weak or resistant too. Sure, he's a big nerd with a habit of rambling, but things would be a lot harder without him.” Ariagoria lets out a grinding sigh. “Yeah… I know. I mean we've defeated threats we had no business fighting. Multiple times. Probably mostly thanks to him. Doesn't mean he's not a total dork.” Marionette nodded. “Yeah, he is. A massive dork.” The two continued to talk as they entered the town. Once there they started talking to people about their lake monster problem.

  Based on the descriptions the monster seemed to be something resembling a plesiosaur, though how it got to the lake was unknown. Ariagoria laughed after hearing the description. “Looks like this world just got its own Nessy.” Marionette made a confused face with her illusionary face. “I don't know what or who that is. I was seven when I died during the blitz.” Ariagoria chuckled. “Right, so even if it wasn't after your time you wouldn't know about the Loch Ness Monster.”

  Marionette looked in the direction of the lake. “So how do we kill it exactly? We can't hit it with most attacks while it's in the water. So even if it's not that strong we're at a clear disadvantage.” Ariagoria sighed. “Racknar would know exactly how to deal with this. Well radiant damage from my holy abilities should work without causing problems and you do still have the infinite throwing knives. It's not optimal but it's workable.” Marionette nods. “Sounds like a solid enough plan. See? We can do this without Racknar just fine.”

  Ariagoria lets a small smile creep through on her red face. “Well then let's go. We've got a discount Nessy to kill.” The two quickly make their way to the green blue lake. The waters were calm, with no signs of activity. In fact the lake was quite tranquil with the way the light of the sun was reflecting off of it. Ariagoria looks at the lake in awe. “It's beautiful. If I didn't know better I'd think this was a slice of paradise.” Marionette looks at the lake with concern. “I'm starting to have doubts we can actually do this effectively. I mean there's nothing stopping the monster from diving under once we start attacking and avoid us.”

  Ariagoria puts her hand on her chin. “I'm also not exactly sure how to draw the monster into the open to even start with.” Marionette shifted back and forth, trying to think of something. “It's not ideal but the thing has been spotted so it comes up on its own occasionally. We could just wait for it.” Ariagoria sighed. “We don't exactly have that long. I'd rather not spend several days camping out when we only have two weeks.” Marionette nodded. “Good point. I wonder if the others are having similar issues.”

  Ariagoria laughed. “Are you kidding? Davy and Krys'tal are probably trying to figure out how sex works for them and Racknar is… being Racknar. Elizabeth will be lucky if she sees any action outside of combat. Those two are probably bouncing from encounter to encounter like there’s no tomorrow. Guy seems about as interested in sex as Krys'tal was at first. He's too damn busy thinking about “the mission” to make room for anything else.” Marionette let out a humming sound. “I don't know, he was talking like he was going to actually let go and try to take a vacation. It's rare but he's taken down time before. Maybe… this time is different.”

  Ariagoria rolls her head around as she thinks. “Maybe. And you're okay with that? With the fact he didn't choose you?” Marionette shifted a bit. “Actually, yeah. I'm oddly fine with it. Maybe it was just a crush, or me misunderstanding my feelings. But I'm not mad or jealous that he didn't pick me. Besides, first crushes never work out anyway from what Davy told me. I'll have better luck next time, hopefully.” Ariagoria nodded with a smile. “Yeah, you're right. You've definitely matured a lot from the girl so obsessed over her crush she made a deal with a succubus.”

  Marionette’s illusory face scowls. “I was young and foolish. Thanks to time issues and realm travel I've had more time to work through that than you guys.” Ariagoria nodded. “Right. I forget about that sometimes because you don't age.” Marionette scowled again with her illusionary face. “Don't remind me.” There is then a pause in the conversation for a bit. “Wait, didn't Racknar say something about him not aging anymore because we hit level twenty or something? Does that mean none of us age normally?”

  Ariagoria tilted her head. “I… that's a good question actually. I'll have to ask Racknar later. I mean, I could just call him but I'd rather not bother him with something small. Especially if he happens to be in the middle of combat right now.” Marionette nodded and looked at the lake again. “You still have no idea how we're going to do this, do you?” Ariagoria let out a long drawn out sigh. “Yeah… not really.” Marionette let out her own short sigh. “We're hopeless.” The two decided to get a boat and go out into the water. Even if the monster never showed up they could at least enjoy the lake for a bit.

  Ariagoria let out a sound of frustration. “I'm trying to relax in this boat so we at least get something out of this trip but it's still frustrating that I have no idea how we're going to solve this problem yet outside of just camping and waiting.” Marionette let out a laugh. “Maybe we should tie a rope around me, stick rocks in my pockets, and toss me overboard. I don't need to breathe after all.” Ariagoria gives Marionette a look. “I know that was a joke, but that's actually not a bad idea.” The two of them start setting up to finally set forth a plan in hopes they can get rid of this discount Nessy.

  Once everything was ready Marionette was put into the water and started sinking like a rock. Wearing manic goggles that allowed her to see she started looking around at the bottom of the lake. “The biggest downside about this is the only way to communicate with Charity is pulling the rope.” Marionette commented to herself under the water. She starts walking around and looking for the monster. Seeing only fish and the occasional body of a sunken ship. “Maybe I should check these wrecks for loot. Though I doubt I'll get much of anything worth the effort.” Marionette continued to talk to herself as she explored the lake’s depths.

  Eventually she sees something dark moving in the distance. Definitely too big to be a natural denizen of the lake. Marionette knows it's most likely their Nessy and starts moving towards it. “Get over here ya oversized amphibious dinosaur. It's last call. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here.” She tossed some throwing daggers but they didn't fly like they do on land and stopped short. “Oh…. Right. Duh.” Marionette starts moving to close the gap more when the monster notices her and starts moving towards her as well. As soon as her target is closer, Marionette throws more daggers at the monster to make sure it's attention is on her.

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  Once it's after her and close enough she cuts into it three times before pulling the rope to let Ariagoria know it's time to pull her out. Marionette is pulled out of the water at surprising speed followed shortly by the discount Nessy surfacing with a pissed expression on its face and a few wounds. Ariagoria gave Marionette a thumbs up. “Good job, now we can both attack it properly.” She pulls out her revolvers and starts shooting at the monster while Marionette tossed daggers that hit the mark now that they aren't moving in water.

  The monster is hit and lets out a mighty roar before swimming at them at high speeds. The monster reaches the boat and slams its body into it from below as it passes by, causing the whole thing to rock. The girls work to keep their footing before attacking from range again. Ariagoria used the elemental enhancement on her revolvers to add lightning damage to her bullets before firing and Marionette starts adding poison to her throwing knives before tossing them. The two still remember what Racknar told them during their first ever quest together before the Monster Mashers fully formed. Even if a monster is resistant to a damage type, as long as it's not immune, damage is damage and every little bit counts.

  The monster flails wildly in the water before charging at the two again. This time it whips the boat hard with its tail and shatters it, sending the two into the water. They continue to make attacks. Gun shots echo in the distance and daggers are thrown. The two are in serious danger now that they are in the water as it is the domain of the monster. It has the home field advantage. It flails again as it turns around and gets ready for another charge. One without the boat in its way.

  It charges at them fast and Ariagoria feels her heart skip a beat. For a moment it's like time slows to a crawl. The monster opened its mouth for an attack and Ariagoria can't help but think about how she's not as durable as Racknar even with her shield. For the first time since joining the party she's in real danger rather than most of the people focusing on someone else. She's the tank now. She's the priority target. She can't evade in water like she can on land, she can't move fast or far enough to avoid the attack and her shield isn't even out.

  Somehow she manages to pull out the shield and cast the spell shield to further increase her defense before the attack hits her. The monster's teeth chomp hard on the magical barrier, shattering it before finding shield and armor. As soon as she is hit Ariagoria's Divine Retribution ability triggers, burning the monster in holy light. Marionette slashes at the monster's body as it passes and Ariagoria now in its mouth slams it with her mace using Divine Strike plus the weapon's natural enchantments. The monster finds itself heavily damaged but still not dead as it starts doing an alligator death roll.

  Ariagoria is flailed about in the water taking a solid amount of damage. Marionette teleports above the monster, dropping down on it with several slashes as Ariagoria combines Divine Retribution with Divine Strike once again. The monster finally stopped thrashing and let Ariagoria go. It was finally dead and Ariagoria could cast healing magic on herself. “That…. Sucked.” *She huffed. The two ladies then swam back to the shore before turning in the quest for the money. “On to the next one. Something far away from water.”

  The two hop back on their spiders to go to the nearest guildhall to look at quests, taking no rest between jobs so far. Ariagoria looks through the options. “Jesus, how many undead outbreaks can one island nation have? Bandit raiders are also on the rise. I suppose someone has to clean up all the small fry. It's just ridiculous how many issues we have just in Bramble.” Marionette nodded while looking at the postings. “Let's not take this one with the swamp zombies. I'm done with water for a while.” Ariagoria nods in agreement before grabbing a different quest. “Let's go then.”

  The two then hop on their spiders and start heading to the next mission. They arrive at the wall outside a massive old graveyard getting ready to clear out the zombies. Ariagoria lets out a long sigh. “This is normally something lower level adventurers would handle but we've got time and there's no reason not to clear this out.” Marionette nodded. “I mean no one else has taken this job yet. It doesn't help that the average level of adventurers in Bramble has been going up since Elizabeth took over as queen.”

  Ariagoria put her hand on her chin. “Maybe that's why this got ignored. Everyone thinks they're above a mission this low tier.” Marionette shrugged. “Maybe. More garbage mobs for us.” Ariagoria opened the gates of the cemetery and started walking in with Marionette behind her. Ariagoria looks around. “There shouldn't be any high level undead here. Just regular trash zombies. So this should be a cake walk.” Marionette sighs. “You should be careful saying stuff like that. You might… How did Davy put it? Trigger a flag.” Ariagoria shook her head. “This isn't an anime, we're not going to jinx it just like that.”

  Then they noticed the undead shambling forward. Run of the mill common zombies. Nothing even remotely threatening. The two started making quick work of the hoard where every bullet and every thrown dagger resulted in a dead zombie. Ariagoria then cast Turn Undead to kill an entire large group with ease. The pair was hardly even trying and was cleaning house like nobody's business. Ariagoria couldn't help but chuckle while thinking of how difficult this would have been for their entire party just two years ago.

  Basic zombie after basic zombie fell and eventually the way the zombies looked started changing as the two worked through the hoard. The zombies started appearing with armor and weapons with bodies that moved as if alive rather than basic shamblers. The pair was now facing proper undead warriors. Although definitely more threatening than an ordinary zombie, one use of Turn Undead was more than enough to clear entire groups of them

  Ariagoria started to grit her teeth. “Why the hell are there so many of them!? There's not a necromancer nearby but this doesn't look like the normal outbreak either. The heck is going on?!” Marionette takes out four zombies with her throwing knives. “How should I know? You're the one who has knowledge of undead here.” Ariagoria grumbled. “Right, sorry. Just thinking out loud.” She cast another use of Turn Undead to clear another large group of undead warriors.

  Ariagoria huffs. She's used more magic than she expected. Marionette continued to throw daggers non stop while Ariagoria considered using a mana potion to restore her magic pool but for now she still had a few uses of Turn Undead to clear out crowds. “They just keep coming. There must be a source of cause.” Ariagoria starts looking for one as she clears her way through with Marionette following close behind. Eventually Ariagoria spots a magic circle that's spawning the undead. Drawn and set up, then left behind by someone. She cast a spell to end the effect of the circle, ending the spawning of undead.

  With the spawn point shut off it's just a matter of time before the remaining undead are dealt with and Ariagoria can investigate the summoning circle. She's fairly sure she recognizes the handwriting but can't quite place it. “These little flourishes in the letters are familiar but I can't recall who does that. But if it's someone I know, maybe someone from the church drew it. Such an activity would normally be frowned upon but since they see us as an enemy I guess that doesn't matter.”

  Marionette sighed. “Can we take a rest now? I'm exhausted.” Ariagoria nodded and the two once again hopped onto spiders and started riding. This time returning to the castle to sleep and eat. Ariagoria was hoping one of the other groups would be resting at the same time but no such luck. The two each retired to their own rooms for the night, taking a much needed and well deserved rest. Once they've rested the two start heading off again looking for another mission to kill the time with. They still have over a full week until they need to return to prepare for the war.

  Ariagoria let out a soft bunch of sighs as they went to the main guildhall in Londinium to grab a quest and started to head out once again. “Honestly, I am starting to miss the constant banter. It feels too quiet without the others.” Marionette nodded in agreement. “Davy being a pervert, Racknar being a big nerd. There's always something.” Ariagoria let out another sigh as the two rode into the sunset in another adventure with just the two of them. It was strange that after looking forward to some time away it really didn't take long to miss everyone.