3. The Law of the Fishes

I doubled back and wound up the tall stone staircase, passing back around the oracle's little mummy bundle seated on its throne.

Ascending above the cella and reaching the domed brick ceiling, I saw a hole borne into the vault which I managed to climb into.Inside was a narrow, dark room fenced in by massive wooden beams, layered crossing into one another in a triangular arch. Wood of such thickness must have been exceedingly ancient, and given the temple's parched surroundings, must have demanded a great deal of influence and labor to transport here.

Leading up from the room was a wooden ladder that led to a hole of sky that hovered above the dark shaft. The flayed man carefully climbed the steps and emerged onto the roof of the long temple. To either side I could see the paths I had walked around the sanctuary, and in the distance were titanic mountains, their tips glowing hot orange, that spanned across the horizon before me. As I looked out from the roof upon the barren desert stretching around me, the game's mirage effect seemed to swirl together the deep gold of the dunes, and the vast expanse of the aquamarine sky, like the brush strokes of an impressionistic painting.

Location Discovered: The Forest of Trophies

Across the roof itself was a grim colonnade of strung up corpses and heads on spikes that looked out at me with petrified expressions of contrasting terror-filled eyes and cruel rictus grins. Some men were crucified, their flesh warped and shrunken as their bodies had dried out to little more than husks. Others had been impaled like meat on spits, reduced to mutilated torsos, their exposed heads and limbs having long since withered or been torn off by scavengers.

Up ahead, on the far side of the temple, there stood a hanging body, above which circled a flock of vultures with wide wings which cast a ring long dark shadows across the roof. I assumed this meant the body was an item drop or some event trigger, like the last mummy along the path outside, and drew closer. As I approached, rather than flying off into the sky, three of the enormous black buzzards descended and gaggled towards me in a jerky advance, sallying forth with their talons to defend their quarry.

However low level my character was, I wasn't going to be intimidated by big-ass birds. I arrogantly tapped quick attack four times in quick successsion and with the Puku-Man's cane, whittling each of the birds down by -45. With each ventured blow, I was careful to avoid the monstrous birds' heavily telegraphed beak jabs and the lunge of their claws. The last even hurried to flee, but my finger on the R1 trigger was quicker than its stubby scaled feet.

+ Item Gained - Pebble

Now with the carrion-feeders fought off, I came upon the man that hung impaled at the center of a grove of upstanding lances, languishing in the hot sun. His intestines had leaked out from his stomach and were wrapped around and tied into knots between the jutting spears that surrounded him. I noticed the body begin to move and turn towards me, apparently he was deeply misfortunate enough to still be alive.

The man started to speak in a slow, monotonous groan.

"Looks like the jig is up, comrade.

We lost the war, ergo this land outgrows us.

It's naught but the law of the fishes out there now.

Big fish eats little fish. Bigger fish eats big fish.

Me? I'm just trying to accept my depreciated status with a bit of grace.

But if you've got any ambition towards stomping and roaring again, you'll need something to wet your whistle."

+ Item Gained - Venator's Sacremental Chalice

A counter appeared in the corner to the bottom right of the screen.

"Drink of your prey. Consume their confluence. Let your veins surge like rapids.

Anyways, I wouldn't keep Old Man Murrup waiting up ahead.

The Stony Lord seldom shows a hint of favoritism.

Now kindly leave me here to digest in peace."

Opening the item menu I took a look at the use effects for the chalice: 'Allows for the collection of blood drops.'

The lore description read: 'A venator's sacred goblet, cast in silver by the ladies of Moro themselves.'

Before I left, I paced back around and slapped the NPC with the cane, just for fun.

The guy, whose guts were a shibari exhibition, sighed and lamented. "Things can always get worse I suppose."

After that, I felt like a jerk, so I continued onward, dropping off the roof of the temple and onto the bridge where I had initially spawned at the start of the game, and standing before the gates to the temple wherein lurked the area's boss.

Now that I had familiarized myself with combat and amassed a meagre arsenal, I felt ready to face the jaguar boss in the temple again. I looked through my inventory to see how I could prepare going into the fight. I chewed some koka leaves for a buff +1 to my weapon's output via DEX, a boost in DEF, and a meagre crit bonus.

Thinking about how the beast had lunged at me the moment it heard my footsteps, I had an idea.

I opened the double door and walked into the sanctuary. Before stepping any further, I equipped the pebble and threw it into the far side of the room. Just as I had hoped, the white Jaguar roared, lunging out towards where I had hurled the stone and exposing its flank. Again now, the boss's HP meter lit up again across the top of the screen.

I brandished my wooden cane and my buckler and rushed in, slashing and wailing at the Lunar Rak's tail, sneaking in four quick strikes with the wooden cane for -47, -55, -45, and -59 damage, dropping the lunar beast's health down by more than a fifth of its HP.

In little time the beast had managed to whip around, now reaching at me with its massive paws. I caught the first clawed swipe with the shield, but the impact diminshed my stamina to nothing, and the beast's counter-slash raked me for -134 damage, a quarter of my HP.

My actions having seized up with the decline of my stamina, I turned around and fled, the Lunar Rak continuing to charge after me. With only a half-second of grace I dove past the jaguar's pounce, and spun around in circles, nimbly side-stepping as my stamina bar returned to full.

The Lunar Rak again dove towards me and missed, knocking into the temple wall, and then I took the opening to roll back into the fray. I wailed on the big cat with two heavy attacks on its tail for -109 and -117 damage, driving the boss down again to a third of its full HP. This time, when the ferocious cat turned around to wrend down on me, I didn't bother to try to deflect it with my shield, but kept diving and somersaulting around it

For a little while I thought my plan worked, but with the fight down to the wire, the wild cat changed its tactics. The beast took me by surprise by leaping up into the air and tackled me down before I had anticipated where its assault would come from. The jaguar bore down on the flayed man's throat with its jaw, sinking its teeth into my neck. It lifted me up off the ground and flung me face first into one of the hall's great pillars for -225 damage. My remaining HP was just a hair's breadth.

The buff offered by the koka leaves to my defense and my character's agility at low HP was probably the only thing that had saved me.

Again, I looked across the temple as the beast jumped into the air, planning to slam down straight on top of me.

Right at the crucial moment, just before the furious jaguar touched ground, I dodged out of the way. Then I double-tapped dodge and rushed straight back at the monster, mashing the heavy attack with grit teeth and a cold sweat on my forehead. I smashed into it with the wooden cane for -111 and -122 damage.

The Lunar Rak froze for a moment and recoiled. Then it let out a spine-chilling shriek of hatred and agony as its HP bar drained to zero and it collapsed onto the stone floor, burying its head in its paws.

The sound of a gravel shifting and crumbling echoed throughout the hall, and after that the sound of wind chimes rustled through my speakers as the blood drop counter increased.

Sacrifice Devoured

+ Blood Drops gained - 1350

+ Item Gained - Head of Lunar Rak

I checked the item description: "A rare kind of pygmy rak found in the valleys before The Great Salt Sea. They are circulated as pets and beasts of war by only the most feared and prestigious of lords."

Oh? So what the hell was it doing here?

The answer to that mystery was seemingly impossible to grasp for the moment, so I tried to figure out... well... what was I gonna do now?

I looked out over the floor of the sanctuary to see that a hole had fallen through in the center of the room. I thought for a moment and remembered there was one loose end in the path on my way here.

I dropped down the hole and walked down the spiral stone staircase past the oracle's throne once more, and then down below the cella itself.

Finally, I stood before the peering door, seemingly filled with owls. A cutscene took over, and the flayed man poured the blood out from the lunar rak's severed head and into the sacred silver goblet. The flayed man walked towards the door of eyes and presented the blood-filled chalice, offering it to the strange doorway.

The door's multitude of yellow eyes widened in alarm and then closed, parting and opening up passage into a great burrow which seemed to dig deep into the ground underneath the temple. The flayed man disappeared into the black earthen tunnel and another loading screen began.

I checked my phone's clock.

6:20. 'Shit. Gotta get ready to go meet Jess.'