Venti: "I don't need to beat them."
Venti: "I just need to render them unable to fight."
But immediately, his mind tempered his enthusiasm.
Venti: "Careful..."
Chaining skills together consumed mental energy.
Too many debuffs cast too quickly, and he risked exhaustion.
A migraine.
A loss of concentration.
And at the worst possible moment.
He glanced toward the large blue cage.
The mother crab.
Venti: "I only get one shot."
A plan then began to take clear shape in his mind.
1) Remain hidden, out of their line of sight.
2) Apply Resistance Reduction from a distance, discreetly, to several targets.
3) Observe their reactions:
- Clumsiness
- Sudden fatigue
- Loss of balance.
4) Follow up with Stat Reduction, prioritizing those who are armed or appear to be leaders.
Once the poachers are weakened, you will need to free the crabs or intervene directly without risking Arthur's life.
Venti slowly closed the crystal.
His gaze hardened, but became determined.
Venti: "I am a genius."
He inhaled deeply, feeling the wind around him, almost as if it silently approved of his choice.
In the shadows of the cave, while the poachers continued to laugh, Venti prepared to bring them down…
Venti: "This is going to be fun."
In the shadows of the rocks and dangling seaweed, Venti briefly closed his eyes and let his breath synchronize with the subtle flow of the Anemo around him.
He extended his hand slightly.
FFFFFFFffffffffffffffff
Without any visible incantation, without any overly obvious flash of light, Resistance Reduction activated.
An imperceptible current of air crossed the cavern, slipping around the poachers like an unhealthy breeze.
FFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffffffff
Nothing abrupt enough to raise alarm, nothing clear enough to be identified as an attack. Yet, the effect was immediate.
One of the men frowned.
Poacher: "Don't you think it's a little cold all of a sudden?"
He muttered.
A woman shrugged her shoulders, as if trying to shake off an unpleasant sensation.
Poacher: "Strange… I feel like my boots are heavier."
They laughed nervously, attributing it to the constant dampness of the cave, the sandy floor, and the normal fatigue of a workday.
No one looked up.
No one searched in the shadows.
Venti watched their movements closely.
They were still efficient.
Still alert.
But a little less so.
So, without hurrying, he moved on to the next step.
Three minutes later :
He focused his energy again, more deeply this time.
Stat Reduction
Stat Reduction spread like an invisible web, settling over their bodies without leaving a visible trace.
The effects were subtle.
A man nearly knocked over a cage when he lifted it.
Another had to lean against a rock, overcome by a slight dizziness.
A woman rubbed her temple, blinking.
Poacher: "It's really stifling in here."
She sighed.
Venti remained motionless.
He mentally counted the time.
He absolutely mustn't rush things.
If he pushed himself too hard, the fatigue would set in too abruptly.
Poacher: "There's a problem."
The poachers would realize something was wrong.
They would panic.
They would look for an enemy.
No.
It had to look like a natural decay.
Three minutes later:
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffff
Then three more.
He repeated the operation a second time.
FFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Then a third time.
Ten minutes later, Venti had used Stat Reduction three times.
At this point, the changes were more noticeable.
The laughter had become less frequent.
The voices slowed.
The movements less precise.
One of the men stumbled quite badly this time, falling to his knees in the sand.
Poacher: "Damn..."
He grunted. "My head is spinning."
Poacher: "It's the oxygen."
Another replied, waving his hand away the air.
Poacher: "We're too deep."
"That must be it."
No one questioned this explanation.
It was logical.
Reassuring.
And above all, she avoided thinking about something far more worrying.
In his hiding place, Venti felt a surge of tension ease.
Venti: "It's working."
He waited a while longer.
He listened to their breathing.
He watched their shoulders slump.
Their eyes gradually lost their sparkle.
Then he started again.
Ten minutes later:
Ten more minutes passed.
Stat Reduction
He activated Stat Reduction three more times, always spaced out, always controlled.
The total reached six uses.
This time, the fatigue became impossible to ignore.
One of the women had to sit down against a cage, panting.
Poacher: "I can't catch my breath..."
Another man looked at her, worried.
Poacher: "Me neither."
"It's not normal, even for a cave."
Some began to sweat profusely.
Others had trembling hands.
Their physical strength was visibly diminishing:
- Lifting a cage now required two people where one had previously sufficed.
And yet… none of them considered an attack.
Venti stifled a sigh.
Venti: "They're looking for an external cause… not an enemy."
10 minutes later:
He himself felt a slight mental fatigue setting in, but nothing uncontrollable.
He had learned to pace himself.
Stat Reduction
FFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffffff
When he activated Stat Reduction for the tenth time, something changed definitively.
Bam
The bodies gave way.
A man collapsed without a word, unconscious, his weapon falling into the sand.
Then a second.
Then a third person, who tried to speak before their legs gave way.
Poacher: "It's... it's the air..."
Several poachers panicked.
Poacher: "We have to get out!"
Someone shouted.
Poacher: "We're all going to die here!"
But their bodies no longer obeyed their commands.
Coordination was gone.
Strength too.
Their resistance was so weakened that simply standing became a struggle.
In less than two minutes, more than half of them were unconscious, lying between the cages, breathing faintly.
The last few still awake tried to crawl, convinced they were running out of oxygen, that the cave itself was killing them.
In the shadows, Venti watched the scene without triumph.
Only with icy calm.
Venti: "They didn't even realize..."
He lowered his bow slightly.
Arthur, further away, barely dared to breathe, his eyes wide with what he saw, unable to comprehend it.
Arthur: "How did he do it?"
Venti hadn't struck.
He hadn't shouted.
He hadn't fired a single arrow.
And yet...
The poachers lay on the ground.
Unable to fight.
Unable to flee.
The coast was now clear.
Silence gradually returned to the cavern.
A heavy silence, broken only by the irregular breathing of the sleeping poachers and the distant lapping of water against the rock walls.
The air seemed almost still, as if the cave itself were holding its breath after what had just happened.
Venti remained motionless for a few more seconds, his bow still in hand, his senses on high alert.
He only moved when he was absolutely certain that the last of the poachers had fallen unconscious.
Only then did he slowly rise.
His steps were silent, light, almost ethereal on the damp sand.
Every movement was calculated.
Even asleep, these men remained dangerous if they woke up too soon.
Tap tap tap tap
Venti first crept toward the nearest man, crouched down, and cautiously searched his belt.
A muffled metallic clink.
A set of keys.
Venti inhaled softly, relieved, and gathered everything before sitting up.
He repeated the process on two other bodies, just in case.
Soon, he found himself with several sets of keys, some heavy, others thinner, clearly intended for different cages.
Venti: "They were organized… far too organized for mere opportunists."
He then turned toward the cages.
As he approached them, he truly grasped the scale of what he was seeing.
The cages stretched almost everywhere in the cavern, arranged in a semicircle around the central space.
Venti: "They were really organized."
Some were small, meant for young crabs barely bigger than a shield.
Others were much larger, big enough to hold several specimens at once.
Inside, the crabs were curled up, motionless, their claws pressed tightly against their bodies.
Clack clack
Some stirred slightly as Venti approached, their bright eyes reflecting the bluish light of the seaweed.
He knelt before the first cage and inserted a key into the lock.
Clack
The door opened gently.
The crab inside froze for a second… then began to move abruptly, crabbing out, almost clumsily, before disappearing behind a pile of shells.
Venti smiled slightly.
He continued.
Clack
One cage.
Clack
Then another.
Clack
Then yet another.
With each opening, a crab was released, some immediately rushing towards the tunnels, others pausing to observe Venti, as if trying to comprehend what had just happened.
Arthur, keeping his distance, watched the scene with wide, silent eyes.
The further Venti moved, the more his gaze was drawn to the central cage.
The largest one.
The one he had glimpsed earlier.
When he finally approached it, his breath caught slightly.
The enormous blue crab was… far more massive than he had estimated from afar.
Its deep orange carapace seemed almost iridescent, flecked with silvery reflections in the light filtering through the seaweed.
Its pincers were thick, powerful, and marked with ancient scars.
Each breath made the cage vibrate slightly, proof that the creature was not only alive, but incredibly robust.
Venti: It's even bigger than the Emperor of Fire and Iron…
Or perhaps not more aggressive, but certainly more imposing.
He examined the cage.
And his stomach clenched.
There wasn't just one lock.
There were several.
Three on the front.
Two on the sides.
Venti: "I wonder how much the cage cost."
Another one, massive, positioned high up, like an extra layer of security.
Venti slowly ran his hand along the bars.
Venti: They were really afraid it would escape…
He tried a key.
Click.
Nothing.
A second click.
Click.
Still nothing.
He changed his keyring, trying methodically, lock by lock.
Each click echoed in his head like a reminder of the passing time.
At any moment, one of the poachers could wake up.
Or worse.
Wake up and attack Arthur.
As he worked, a thought imposed itself upon him, becoming increasingly urgent.
Venti stopped.
He raised his head, his gaze suddenly darker.
Venti: "Wait…"
He sat up slowly and glanced around, scanning the cavern:
- The cages.
- The number of crabs.
- The organization.
- The estimated values.
- The keys.
- The size of the camp.
Then a stark realization hit him.
Venti: "How…"
He gritted his teeth.
Venti: "How did these people get here?"
He remembered their own arrival perfectly:
- The water tornado.
- The near-drowning.
- The loss of consciousness.
- Waking up in this underground cave.
Access was neither easy nor safe.
He and Arthur had almost died.
And yet…
These poachers had brought:
Heavy cages
Weapons
Tools
Food
And even enough to transport dozens of crabs.
Venti felt a shiver run down his spine.
Venti: "There's no way they came the same way we did."
He straightened up completely and looked at the walls, the tunnels, the side galleries.
Some areas seemed more worn than others.
Some of the tracks on the ground weren't crab tracks… but boot prints.
Venti: "There has to be another entrance."
His gaze hardened.
Venti: "And if there is another entrance…"
He gripped the set of keys tightly in his hand.
Venti: "Then these poachers aren't alone."
A weight settled on his shoulders.
This meant there could be:
Other groups, elsewhere in the cave
Lookouts
Or worse… reinforcements that could arrive at any moment
He glanced quickly at Arthur, still standing back.
Venti: "We don't have much time."
".........."
"I don't have much time."
He resumed his work, faster this time, but without panicking.
Each open lock brought him closer to the essential:
Freeing the mother.
When he finally felt one lock give way, then a second, then a third, the cage vibrated slightly.
The blue crab moved.
Slowly.
His eyes rested on Venti.
There was no hatred, no panic.
Only an old vigilance… and a suppressed anger.
GGGGGGggggggrrrr
Venti swallowed.
Venti: "Just a little more…"
But deep down, one certainty was now clear:
What he had faced here was only part of the problem.
Venti remained motionless before the large cage, his eyes slowly sliding from one lock to the next. He examined them one by one, analyzing their shape, their thickness, the quality of the metal.
Some seemed old, corroded by salty moisture, but others were surprisingly new, reinforced with riveted plates.
Bzzzzzzzz
He lightly drew his bow, letting a thin breeze of Anemo energy flow around the string, then released the tension without pulling.
Venti: "Even fully charged… it wouldn't be enough."
He knew it.
An Anemo arrow could shatter brittle stone, unbalance an enemy, sever a poorly maintained chain… but these locks had been designed to withstand such force.
They were made to restrain a monstrous creature, not to give way to a mere projectile.
Venti exhaled slowly and turned away from the cage.
It was then that his gaze fell upon an object lying near one of the unconscious poachers. An object he hadn't noticed before.
A horn.
It was yellowish, slightly curved, polished by use. Crude symbols had been carved near the mouthpiece.
Venti bent down and carefully picked it up, turning it between his fingers.
At once, he understood.
Venti: "A rallying horn..."
Blowing into it, the sound must carry far, very far, amplified by the rocky tunnels.
BBBbbbbbbboooooo
A call meant to warn the other groups, to gather the poachers scattered throughout the cave.
A double-edged sword.
Venti straightened up and turned his head toward the darkness from where Arthur was observing the scene, hidden behind a pile of shells and abandoned nets.
Venti: "Arthur."
"Come on, it's okay."
The little boy hesitated for a second, then came out of his hiding place. He advanced cautiously, lifting his feet high so as not to trip over the outstretched bodies.
Tap tap tap tap
His gaze constantly shifted from the sleeping poachers to the open cages, then to the immense central cage.
Arthur: "Okay... have the bad guys been defeated?"
Venti froze for a moment.
Then he answered simply.
Venti: "No."
Arthur frowned, visibly troubled by this answer.
Arthur: "But... they're all asleep, aren't they?"
Venti lowered his head slightly, searching for the right words. He crouched down in front of Arthur to be at his level.
Venti: "Those ones, yes."
"But there are others."
"And as long as they're still free... the danger isn't over."
Arthur remained silent.
Venti then straightened up, still holding the horn.
Venti: "That's why I'm going to give you a mission."
Arthur looked up at him, surprised.
Venti: "I can't ask you to come with me."
"From now on, it's becoming too dangerous."
He paused.
Venti: "So you'll stay here."
He handed the horn to Arthur.
The boy took it in both hands, as if the object were much heavier than it looked.
Venti: "If you blow into this horn, it will make an enormous noise."
"A sound that will echo throughout the cavern."
Arthur looked at the horn, then at Venti.
Venti: "I'm going to continue exploring the cave to find the other poachers."
"You, you stay here."
"You're keeping an eye on the large cage."
Chapter 54: The poachers who sleep
The End