Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 23.2 - corrosion!

The irradiated downpour was relentless, but so too were the more aggressive enemies that began to rise out from the sea in the rain. Acid Eels launched themselves from the water, trying to clamp onto Sid's face, while strange-looking toads sat around doing nothing except explode into goo whenever someone got too close. Flying mites named Sulphurous Skaters swarmed above the sea. Sid summoned his own swarm of Ice Claspers and some Daedalus Golems to keep them away. He saw Meg firing her Icicle Trident at some Irradiated Slimes, the shards of ice carving their way through the enemies. Red Beard the Pirate was standing on the wooden platform bridge, firing cannonballs and his minigun at a swarm of Orthoceras that kept launching themselves from the water only to end up flopping onto the bridge. One of the Orthoceras burst apart and dropped its shell.

Sid landed there and picked it up. Another summon weapon! Instantly using it, he saw it spawned in a floating Orthocera that kept itself in mid-air using a pair of leathery purple wings, and it began to spit glowing green acid at nearby enemies. It was a sentry weapon like the Staff of the Frost Hydra he had once used back in Firstworld. This would be a welcome addition to his growing army.

He watched as the rest of his summons kept on attacking the enemies, but Sid himself was attacked and knocked off the bridge by a school of flying fish. He fell in the water, but wasn't too worried – the Effigy of Decay he had placed earlier was still active and keeping the water non-toxic. A few enemies began to swarm him – Skyfins and Trilobites and Acid Eels, but his Ice Claspers were already on the scene, their frozen jaws tearing the creatures to pieces. A Flak Crab leapt at him, which Sid had mistook for a brown spike-shaped rock, but it was knocked away and torn to pieces before it could even reach him. It dropped some Corroded Fossils and a weapon named the Flak Toxicannon, which rushed into Sid's inventory.

That was when he spotted another enemy disguising itself as an underwater rock formation. But much bigger – about the size of the Hive Mind. It was constructed from hard brown scales with jaws and spikes ringing its top. A massive mouth embedded in the ocean floor, named the Cragmaw Mire. But as soon as he laid his eyes on it, the creature seemed to disappear, burrowing into the sulphuric sand.

Yeah, you'd better run!

That was when he was slammed down from above.

The Mire had crashed down on him like a Thwomp, a gaseous mushroom cloud erupting from it. An array of green shots was also launched upwards, curving through the water and down towards Sid. He thrust out his grappling hook, dodging the shots, and began to flap his wings so he could rise out from the water, dodging Trilobites and Leeches on the way up.

"Meg!" Sid shouted. "There's something quite strong down there!"

"And you're running screaming to me to help?"

"I don't need help, I just thought you'd be interested!"

That was when a massive green laser pierced upwards from the ocean's surface, seeming to come from where the Mire was. It lingered for a couple of seconds, shining with its radioactive radiance, before dissipating.

"Sure you don't," Meg said.

She and Sid dived down into the water, Meg firing at the Cragmaw Mire with her Icicle Tridents while Sid summoned some Daedalus Golems to shoot at it. The Mire kept on burrowing and thwomp-ing a few more times, and fired its green laser directly upwards again, but it was quickly destroyed. Sid picked up its drops and flew up to the surface, landing on the platform bridge next to the Pirate.

"A Nuclear Rod," Sid read out on one of the items, "+1 max minions and minions release an irradiated aura on enemy hits... awesome!" He equipped the accessory. "And a Spent Fuel Container. 50 Rogue Damage. War never changes. Throws a fuel container with trace amounts of plutonium that causes a nuclear exp–"