"He's got lacerations over two-thirds of his body doctor, he's missing most of his fins and he only has a single eye left."

"Heart-rate?"

"The cuttlefish only has two hearts still working, and one is slowing down..."

"Do we have any [clerics] available?"

"There was a huge rush at the forward lines, they're all swamped with higher priority patients."

"Sounds like we'll need to operate. There's only one [Doctor] good enough to give him a fighting chance."

"The Sturgeon?"

"The Sturgeon."

--Conversation at the Emergency Room, [Doctor] and [Nurse]. Incursion City 1289.

We're not going to do this all day are we?

...

......

Turns out we did do it all day. We went from physical training to mental training back and forth for an entire day. At the end of it, I was so exhausted that I could barely move, much less think. And still that lobster had a smug grin on his face,

"Fantastic work Privates! You're not literally the worst I've ever seen! You're merely close! You should be proud of yourselves!" He looks over at all of our slumped bodies and focuses on me. Here we go... "PRIVATE CRABBY! Are you proud of yourself?"

Even in my destroyed, exhausted state I still manage to feel the incoming trap. I struggle to provide a response that won't result in more physical or mental exercises. I fail and just wearily answer the first thing I think will work.

"I'm proud..."

I can see his smile growing larger...

"...because you told me to be? Drill Sergeant?"

The smile stops growing. I can see a twinkle in his eye as he maintains his deranged grin for seconds longer than he should. He slowly leans away from where he was inching closer to me second by second and looks at all of us. Finally, he yells, "GOOD ANSWER PRIVATE CRABBY!"

He waves his claw and another mana ripple soaks into our bodies. He then says, "I unlocked a portion of dinner chow for tonight. Go rack out, and I'll see you in the morning! Private Crabby! Come see me over here!"

The other's wearily walk back to the bay and I'm standing in front of the looming lobster. He looks at me with a critical eye, then says. "Tomorrow night, you all will have fire guard. That is, someone will need to be awake at all times during the night to make sure nothing catches on fire."

He leans in grinning at me as he says it and I almost blurt out, "but we're underwater!!" I manage to restrain my claw jerk reaction and hold in my response. I decide to just roll with it and say, "Yes, drill sergeant."

He waves a claw, dismissing me and I turn to join the others. As I'm turning to walk away the lobster adds, "Oh! And Private Crabby... I don't know what skill is helping you, but it's a rare one. You may give them hints on how you merge mana, but refrain from spelling it out. Each person does it in their own way and you will only hurt their progress if they try to follow your method."

"Yes Drill Sergeant."

Seeing that nothing else was forthcoming, I leave to go eat food and get some rest.

***

As I enter the bay, everyone huddles around me. They're slumped, but that doesn't stop them from barraging me with a pile of questions.

"How did you do it?"

"What's the trick?"

"Does it get easier?"

"What did the Drill Sergeant want you for?"

I wave off their questions and manage to get them calmed down enough that I can explain. I say,

"So, the trick is to want it. Just want it more than anything you've ever wanted before."

They look at me first with confusion, and then skepticism. Finally, Mina says, "It can't be that easy... can it?"

She asks the last with a raised fin to the others. They all shrug and accept my answer for the moment. I'll think of a better way to give them tips later, I'm too tired and I just want to eat and sleep. I remember the last person asking me what the drill sergeant wanted and I explained the concept of "Fire Guard." to them. Their confusion mirrored mine,

"But what's the point? We're underwater!!!"

I wearily shrug and lift my arms in a universal, "I don't know." Motion. Finally, Wilhelm mumbles in his usual off handway, the following,

"They want us tired, too tired to think. Too tired to do anything but react. And when our reactions fail... we have to fall back on our training."

That.... that made alot of sense actually. I take a closer look at Wilhelm. For a quiet guy he says some insightful things sometimes. Hmm... must have a high wisdom stat or something. Moving on!

We all sit down to dried rations. They were packed up in individual packages, and when they made contact with the water, they reheated. There were tiny mana packs inside the bags they came in that served as a heater, so at least it was warm...

Still tasted terrible though.

Fred spoke up, "This... this is supposed to be something called Fishy Mac?"

His brother leaned in to look. He says, "It looks more like something I got caught in my gears one time... You remember that? After the slime fight?"

The two brothers reminisced over old battles as I looked in my own bag. I didn't even bother trying to figure out what it was or what it tasted like. I just placed it in my mouth and fed my body. I stared off into the distance, hardly noticing my surroundings.

A touch on my claw brought my attention to the present. I look and see Luna right next to me. She asks me, "Hey, are you okay?"

I nod my head. "Yeah, sorry... just not feeling well."

"Are you okay? Did you hurt something?"

She places an arm over my carapace and legs, trying to check to see if I'm alright.

"No, I just... today was hard you know?"

Luna nodded an arm, silent and supportive. We passed the rest of the meal together, friends sitting aside each other once more.

The next morning...

*BANG!*

"GOOD MORNING PRIVATES!*

Oh... gods... is every morning going to be like this? And the lights! Is there a special "pain" setting that I don't know about?

"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

We line up, much the same as the day before and begin our training. As we take the second lap and my tired legs stumble for the third time, I decided I had enough. This was about to get easier for me. Under my breath...

"Sir."

"Sir."

"Sir Crab...*

"AHH!!!"

A shooting pain erupts from somewhere deep in my mind, I fall to the ground and Wilhelm swims above me. Everyone grinds to halt, out of step from my sudden collapse and scream of pain. I'm not able to pay attention to it though, as only a searing golden red color clouds my vision. I lay there, unmoving on the track for what feels like forever until I can register the gentle shaking of a much larger claw.

The group is huddled around me, but two crabby lengths distant as the Drill Sergeant speaks to them. I realize he's moving my limbs around, explaining what he's doing as he goes.

"No obvious signs of bleeding, shell and skin appears to be intact privates. Airway appears to be clear, no damage to gills. He's breathing and circulation seems to be alright. There's no obvious signs of discoloration or leaking that you'd see with internal bleeding. Temperature appears to be normal, but you'd need to continue to monitor that if he goes into shock...."

As the pain recedes, I finally reach full awareness and jerkily try to get to my feet. My body is weak and unresponsive to my efforts. Finally, a gentle claw keeps me down as the lobster quietly says,

"Stay down Private. Give yourself a minute to recover. Let me finish the tactical evaluation."

He continues on for a few more minutes and I see Luna shaking in the back. I can tell she wants to rush over, but is being held back by the situation. Finally the Drill Sergeant says,

"Alright Private Crabby. You appear to have suffered some kind of mental injury. Any common physical ailment short of amputation would have been resolved by now. What were you doing when this happened?"

I explained to him that I just tried to activate Crabby's Story. It was my buffing skill and as I speak, I realize this is the first time since the [dungeon] that I've tried to use it. I tell him that as well. He stares at me, thoughtful for a moment. Then he stands, turns to Wilhelm and says, "Private Wilhelm, you know where the medic's office is don't you? Take Private Crabby there to be assessed."

The fish swims over to me and stares for a long few seconds before staring at his fins for seconds longer. Then he turns to the Drill Sergeant and says, "Uh, I can't carry him Drill Sergeant."

A wave of his claw and a bright flash reveals a long stretcher from the lobsters spatial storage. He loads me onto it as he speaks to the other's.

"Lack of limbs is no excuse for not being able to move a wounded soldier. You will be expected to either have or develop a new skill that will enable you to lift the wounded onto a stretcher. See me after training today if you currently lack this capability."

A mana stone flashes on the arm of the stretcher and I'm encased in a bright blue dome, protecting me from the outside. I sense Wilhelm using his mana with the provided controls to move it through the water. As the other's recede into the distance and I stare at Luna's worried mannerisms, there's only one thing that comes to mind...

Gods, this is so embarrasing.

I lay on the stretcher, staring through the dome as we progress through the hallways. Eventually, we start to slow down and I see a door with a strange symbol on it. On it, a tree grows from the ground, and wrapped around the tree a long lithe serpent reaches from the foot to the top. I hardly take a second look before the door opens and we're inside.

As we enter, a kind friendly voice tells Wilhelm.

"Thank you dearie. I'll take him from here. You can head on back now."

Wilhelm pauses at my side before leaving. He looks at me for a moment longer than strictly necessarily before gruffly saying,

"Get better."

And then promptly leaves. Oddly enough, despite his mannerism's, I think he's growing to like me. The thought cheers me up some from my glum mood as the owner of the voice emerges from the back. She's... well, I've never seen something like her before.

She's a couple sizes larger than I am, and almost purely grey. Large and round she practically floats in the water from her bulk alone. She's wearing a pure white uniform, some of the first clothing I've seen down here and a tiny white folded hat. All that is eclipsed though by the sheer warmth and compassion I see in her tiny black eyes. Without even thinking, I blurt...

"What.. what are you?"

She lifts a long flipper from a tablet she holds in her other arm to cover her laugh. She says,

"I'm a manatee dear. My name is Nurse Joy. Now, tell me what brought you into my office today?"

I recount my experiences at the track. When it gets to the part where I mentioned I used my skill last time in the dungeon she lifts a flipper. She says, in a quiet voice,

"I'm sorry dear, I'll need you to explain that part in more detail."