“Fuck, it’s better than nothing,” Locke says, reaching for the sword. “You mind if I take this one?”
“Go ahead,” I say, picking up the dagger and tucking it in my inventory. A brief description pops up that I immediately flick away. I know it’s a shitty blade. It doesn’t need to be repeated. The pouch jingles when I pick it up. Frowning, I shake it out into my hand and six golden coins fall out. They sparkle in the golden light emanating from my medallion and both of our eyes widen. They each have a large glittering H, just like the coin for our soul, but these one’s have the H on both sides. They’re just regular gold coins.
Locke looks from the coins to me and back at the coins again. “You found the chest first. So those are yours.”
I could take them. These coins are probably important. We don’t yet know what kind of currency they will be, or how we spend them. I should keep them. But . . . we’re a team.
I split the coins in half and hand Locke three of them. “You take half.”
His brows go up. “You’re sure?”
When I nod, he says, “Inventory.” The coins disappear. “You ain’t gotta tell me twice.” He frowns at his menus. “Harrow Coins is what they are. They don’t count in your regular inventory either.”
“Well, we’re each three Harrow Coins richer,” I say, standing up and dusting my knees off. “Maybe they’ll come in handy.”
“Your compassion is going to get you killed,” Cipher warns me as I start to move again.
“Compassion is what makes me human,” I snip. “I know you can’t relate.”
He chuckles. “Oh, Vespera. Compassion, as all emotions, can be programmed. It’s just unnecessary in the Harrow.”
I snort and take three steps forward. Three steps. That’s how close we’d already been and hadn’t even known.
BOSS BATTLE INITIATED: WATER GODDESS RISING
Cipher’s sensual voice booms around the cave, echoing so that I hear it over and over again as it bounces back at us. The moment the echo fades away, another noise can be heard in the otherwise quiet cave.
The soft, the sliding of flesh skin against the ground. Something large. Something in the dark.
Something that hisses as it moves.
CHAPTER11
VESPER
Light flares to life in front of us and then trails around the room as lanterns illuminate in a large ring. We hadn’t even realized we were near a cavern, but I don’t have time to think about it. I can’t even focus on the rushing river cutting through the middle of the cavern, the sound finally reaching my ears. Instead, I’m focused on the large creature in front of us in the center of the room.
“What the actual fuck is that?” Locke croaks, staring at it in horror.
A menu pops open in the air above the creature that Cipher reads out loud in that same sexy voice.
Boiúna: Minor Boss
Medium difficulty
You thought you knew snakes? False! This snake knows you. It’s not the bite you need to be worried about from this water goddess. It’s the squeeze . . .
“Words,” I whisper. “These are all just words to us.”
Cipher laughs, as if our fear is amusing to him. “Don’t let it wrap around you, Vespera. Anacondas crush their prey with their coils before they consume them to make them easier to swallow.”
My eyes widen. “Fuck. Don’t let it wrap around you,” I tell Locke.
“I don’t want anything to do with that thing,” Locke grunts. “Maybe we can just run away?”
“Once a boss battle is initiated, you cannot cancel it unless you defeat it, or it defeats you. Defeat is categorized as death or the inability to continue. Some bosses may be trapped within a certain zone, and therefore, you could cancel a battle by leaving the current zone. As you are too far from the edges of any other zone, this is not possible. The boss will pursue you until the battle is complete,” Cipher chips in. “Cowards do not prosper in the Harrow.”
Locke scowls and pulls his sword. “Self-preservation isn’t cowardice when all you have is a rusty ass sword to fight with.”
