The next day we didn't end up going to some gambling den or fighting pit. Instead, Abel brought us out to a corner of Doomtown where a large cavern lake sat, and paid a guy in a small shack a few chits to rent us a boat. As he was doing this, Wren, Vector, Sloane, the other Beast Lord Initiates, Callie and I all stood off to one side looking confused. I glanced over at Mel. "Is this...fishing? Is he taking us fishing? Because honestly I didn't think he'd scheduled leisure activities. Like...I guess the inn, but that's more necessity than anything."

I'd kind of started talking myself into the idea when Mel started to snicker. "Yes and no. Riot Bay IS a fishing spot, but it isn't the kind that you go to when you want to relax. This place is going to be good training." She stepped meaningfully away. "For you. I'm not going into that fucking lake again for as long as I live. It's wet and it smells awful. Enjoy your training though kids, here comes Apollyon with the boat keys!"

Sure enough, Abel was on his way over with a few pairs of keys. He held up one, tossing the others to Wren and Sloane. He addressed the latter casually. "I'm not buying boats for all your minions. You can all squeeze into one or some of them can stay with Mel. I don't really care. I'd recommend not packing in too tight though. Room to move is key in Riot Bay." He gestured to the boats docked at the shore, all of which were surprisingly roomy.

He pointed to me and Callie. "You two are with me. Mostly because I want to watch you flounder." He snickered at his own joke, or at least I assumed it was a joke since we were next to a lake, and then turned and strolled away. Before he got too far he turned his head, calling over his shoulder. "Big man, you and your buddy should be fine on your own, but probably stick close to our boat if you can. Worst case I can probably get over to save you if you need it."

Wren glared at him, muttering under his breath. "I don't even know what the hell is out there but I already want to kill it just to prove to that asshole I can." He paused. "Probably not the most sensible instinct, but oh well." With a shrug he headed for the shore, clicking the fob on his boat keys. There was a loud chirp like a car door unlocking and one of the boats shuddered slightly. He nodded to us. "See you both out there I guess...probably."

Heading for the boats, he dragged Vector along. Abel was already aboard what I assumed was our boat. I turned to Sloane, who was bringing Beric and Croll and leaving all the randoms behind. "You have any idea what this is about? Because whatever it is I have a bad feeling about it." I did too, but I didn't bother saying so since it wouldn't change anything. If Abel thought this was something that would be helpful to use, we'd do it.

With a nonchalant shrug I informed her I had no clue, and we separated from her and the other two to meet Abel on the boat. Climbing aboard, I could see further out into the lake, and I couldn't help but be struck by the beauty. The water of the lake was a flowing, opaque liquid, like the kind of thing you would find in some kinds of glow tubes. Still, despite that common imagery, there was something hypnotic about the swirl of the softly glowing blue substance. Looking back, I could see it rolling up and down the black sand beach to the side of the boat, and the image was hypnotic.

Callie smiled out at the lake, eyes closed as she inhaled deeply. "Ok. This is really nice. Kind of curious how it's going to try to kill us, but for the moment I'm enjoying the trip." I chuckled at that, not able to disagree on either count, and slipped a hand into hers. After a minute or two staring off into the distance though, we heard a loud noise as Abel cleared his throat.

"Hey." He said lazily. "It's nice that you two are bonding, but I need some help to steer this thing. A ship this size can't be crewed by one person." He paused. "Well, I guess it COULD if I was willing to actually work at it, but I'm not, so you're going to help." He pointed me over to the jutting spear of wood in the middle of the deck. "Solomon, go unfurl the lightsail. There's no wind down here, but the ships use an insubstantial energy screen that harvests the light from the lake."

Walking over, it took me a second to find the controls, but they were surprisingly uncomplicated. I pressed the button, and missed what he told Callie to do as I stared in awe at the sheet of glowing blue energy. It unfurled along the length of the mast, and I could see it pulse slightly brighter every few seconds as it absorbed the energy. Abel walked over to check on the thing. Knocking on the mast, he nodded amiably. "Good, still works. These things are discount transportation at best. They cost almost nothing to maintain, so they're profitable as hell, but they do break down regularly."

Shaking off the sight of the pulsing energy screen, I turned to Abel, who kicked the deck and stood by, watching a podiom rise from the wood. One it was up he fiddled with the controls a bit and we began to smoothly glide through the water, going from stationary on the beach to mid motion so suddenly I had trouble isolating when the motion began. "Alright." I say, tired of waiting. "What the hell are we doing here?"

Abel just chuckles, not bothering to take his eyes from the distant skyline...lakeline? Caveline? From the horizon. "We're here for the Riot Tide." He said casually. "It's an excellent training tool. Basically, when we reach the deeper parts of the lake, we'll stay put. After an hour or so, the tide will come in. A wave of lake water will carry hundreds of fish right over the surface of the boat. we should be able to stay planted fine, but the fish will pummel everything on deck."

He pointed down into the opaque water. "You can't see them, but they're pretty big. They're all G-rank...well, mostly. The F-ranked ones only come up deeper into the lake, they're too big for the smaller waves here to lift. Anyway the value of the fish varies based on color. They come fast and hard, and your job is to punch them out as they attack and then grab the tails to chuck them into a basket you'll keep at your side. The fish change color as they climb higher up G-rank, with red being the lowest and purple being the highest."

That sounded...insane. "So you want us to what? Catch a bunch of fish? How exactly will this help us progress?" I could see how this would be fun, but it didn't seem like any kind of training. I wouldn't complain if we were just screwing around, but I definitely didn't want to miss the point and lose out on valuable training if it was there. I came down here to improve, and I wasn't really confident yet we could achieve decent results in the tournament.

"Good question." Abel said approvingly. "The answer is simple. You're being graded. I'll be assigning points based on the fish you catch. Minus two for red, minus one for orange. Yellows are nothing. Green is one point, blue is two. Purple is three but those are stupid rare so I wouldn't hold my breath. This exercise is to help you judge the danger of incoming attacks at your partner without looking. It'll help with recognizing feints and things like that. Plus we can cook or sell the fish. They taste great."

Huh, that was fair enough. I could see the usefulness, plus I hadn't really had a chance to work with fish in the kitchen much. Might be fun to take some home to make fish tacos for Callie or something. I turned to see her smirking with anticipation and rolled my eyes. It was nice to know I could read her so well at least. "Alright." I said, getting into the idea. "What do we need to do to get ready. You said we shouldn't get washed off the boat? I don't know exactly what that stuff is but I'd prefer not to fall in."

"Good call." Said Abel blandly. "If you swim too deep you can run into the F-rank fish, they're mean bastards. Plus you can drown, but that's rare. Because of our higher Might we can condense way more air into our lungs on a strong inhale, plus Vitality makes oxygen use more efficient. Anyway, don't fall in, yes. I could come save you, but it would be annoying and I might not find you before you got fish slapped to death. If you DO fall in, make sure to swim for the surface as fast as you can, if you can figure out what direction that is without being able to see anyway." I winced as I imagined getting sucked in upside down and swimming for the bottom by mistake. That would be bad.

The next hour passed without much drama. I'd expected this place to be crazy even outside the Riot Tide. Riot Bay didn't exactly sound like a scenic get away, but to my surprise, it was pretty much exactly that. Staring off into the distance the swirling blue lake water was like a glowing pane of opaque crystal, flat and smooth for as far out as I could see. Despite that, the swirl of the glowing substance created a sort of shifting effect that varied the glow from spot to spot. It was almost hypnotic to watch.

Still, despite the beauty, it was hard to relax and take it in. We were about to be literally pelted with fish. I wasn't sure what that would be like but it was bound to be unpleasant. It was impossible not to constantly brace for an attack from all sides, which made the faux serenity of our surroundings even worse. This was the calm before the storm, and we all damn well knew it. I could see Wren and Sloane's boats nearby, scything through the lake water, leaving barely any distortion in the surface.

My first clue that something was coming was Abel. He'd been sitting back looking bored for most of the time we'd been out here. Between one breath and the next though, his eyes snapped open, focusing sharply on the surface of the water. He crossed the distance to the railing of the ship in a blink, looking down into the water as if to confirm something, then nodded. Turning back he walked over and opened a hatch, pulling out a series of heavy looking braided metal baskets. He dropped one next to each of us, then walked to the other side of the ship and dropped the third next to himself.

"Alright." He said solemnly. "We're about to get hit. Plant your feet, try not to move around too much. I put your baskets close enough together to let you cover each others backs. No weapons and no poison fire or any of that shit. If you ruin the fish it defeats the purpose. Stun them and toss them in the basket, it's enchanted to keep them in stasis. Any questions?" We both indicated we had none and his solemn expression melted into his usual anticipatory grin. "Good." He pointed off into the distance where the shape of a cresting wave could be seen rolling across the surface of the lake. "Because it's about to start."