Chapter 34

While they were originally happy to see a new, and live, animal the trio soon realized that they might have to defend themselves against the sizable crab in front of them.

It quickly became evident that a confrontation was inevitable, so Peter and Sarah gestured their plans towards each other, since they believed it to be faster than explaining it in words.

As a sign of the twins' almost non-existent teamwork, their plans ended up contradicting each other. Both of them wanted the other to pick up their limping companion and flee, while they handled the situation. The end result was that Peter rushed in front of the creature to, in his mind, hold it off, while Sarah started throwing rocks at it as a distraction.

Peter was the closest to the crab so he was swiftly attacked by two of its four claws. To block the attacks, he summoned his weapon which he could hold properly this time due to finally recovering recently and being prepared for the weight.

The weapon itself was a lamp post, about the same size as him, which was mostly black with some silver decoration on it and a dim white flame shimmering inside it. On the other side it also had a pointed end, which Peter firmly planted into the ground knowing that his strength alone couldn't stop the incoming attacks.

Recognizing the misunderstanding between them, Sarah changed her strategy from throwing rocks at the animal to picking up a larger one and using it to break its legs. She managed to incapacitate two of them before retreating to avoid having her head snapped off.

With the creature focusing on his sister, Peter picked up his lamp with some difficulty and used its heavier end to break another leg. Sarah carefully made her way towards Peter and the two of them prepared to lift the heavy piece of metal to deal a finishing blow.

The crab was attempting to turn after the two of them but the injured bird-man threw his crutches at it, which served as enough of a distraction for the other two to finally attack. The strike did penetrate the carapace but it wasn't enough to kill.

The twins were about to let go of the weapon, since the crab monster was once again after them, but a large icicle that came out of nowhere hit the back end of the lamp, denting its top and giving it the final push to go deeper and kill the animal.

The saving shot came from a man who none of the three recognized. The only thing they could say for certain was that he was wearing the coast guards' uniform, who they encountered a few times since arriving.

"Sorry I'm late! Are any of you hurt?"

The young man was panicking and was visibly out of breath, which was a significant achievement if he was simply running, especially at his level.

[Entity class 11]

[Abilities: Water manipulation, Temperature manipulation, Underwater breathing, Hibernation]

Sarah was looking for a replacement crutch and their friend was stuck on a rock until one was found, so Peter was left alone with the guard.

"We're fine, none of us got injured. Could you explain why it attacked us?"

"I don't know what to tell you kid. Crab season is supposed to be in the spring but this is the third incident just today. We might have to close down the beaches until we figure out what's going on."

With everything seemingly handled and not much else to talk about, the three kids left the beach to go home and rest, also to find proper crutches, since all they found as replacement was some driftwood. Sarah did take a crab leg before leaving, as getting proper meat was considered a luxury even for someone with Anthony's wealth.

At home, the entire family plus one had some nice cooked crab for dinner, right after Anthony had time to swear about the sloppy security. Afterwards, Peter retired to his room for the night and took out his lamp to check it for damages.

It was mostly fine, aside from some scratches and the top bending in the opposite way of what was intended.

[Asteri]

[Level: 1]

[Divinity required for next level: 0.20]

[Recommended strength: 3.00]

[Piercing: 1.00]

[Durability: 5.00]

[Ability -]

[Reconstruction time: 168 hours]

[Remaining time: 164:47:51]

This was the first time Peter had seen his weapon's attributes and he had to spend some time figuring out what everything meant exactly. When asked, the interface gave reasonable explanations for everything except piercing. For that, he was given a long and complicated answer which would have been difficult to understand even for some physicists, let alone him. After asking for multiple simplifications he finally got an answer that he found reasonable.

[Piercing: Reduces The target's endurance by the equivalent amount. Works on inanimate objects.]

While Peter was lamenting over the long reconstruction time, Anthony was preparing for the next day's interview. He wasn't scared, since he had figured out what he was going to ask in the past two days and some of it even before that. He didn't even worry about his own safety because he was immortal anyway. He was, however, concerned about the answers he would get.