Mantle of the Gods

We traveled together the rest of the way to the boss room.

All of the Beach Crawlers that we fought the rest of the day were Elites, but now that Oz was up front and we had Jenne and Jovena both providing ranged support, we didn’t have any more accidents.

“Jovena was so mad…” Aelin couldn’t stop herself from telling us about the fight. “It dropped a tentacle staff.” She mimicked tentacles with her fingers. "It’s kinda boring though, it can only be used to wrap up something, but still…” The blonde grinned. "Jenne was the only one there who used a staff, so she got it. Vena tried to argue with Gesai about it, saying they should just sell it.” She lowered her voice. "Gesai told her that if she disrespected her one more time, she’d have to walk back on her own!”

“Without her weapon.” Ether didn’t seem as concerned about keeping her voice down. “I’m not looking forward to this fight.”

“It’ll be fine!” Aelin puffed out her chest. "You’ll have me there to save you!”

“Listen up!” Gesai clapped her hands in front of the door to the second floor boss. “You all did really well against the last boss, but this one is going to be more difficult, so we’re going to change things up.” She started pointing. "The first round will go the same way with Atlas, Justia, Aelin, Mitchel, Fray, and Jovena.”

She looked around. "The second round will be Oz, Mitchel, Jovena, Jenne, Ren, and Atlas. This will be the main time that I am evaluating your skills, so don’t expect Atlas to be helping much here.” She glared at me to emphasize her point.

“The last run will be just so I can see how well those who I haven’t worked with much and it will be; Fray, Ether, Aelin, Jenne, Ren, and Atlas”

I noticed how she put me on every team this time. I thought about asking her about it, but she was in full teacher mode and didn’t seem like she wanted to be interrupted.

“This boss is different from the last one because it has a bubble that it will use to protect itself from magic.” She looked at me. “As well as a tentacle on either side with a pincer on it.”

So much for the binding trick I’d been using.

“There’s also a difference in there other than what those of you who have done a few bosses have experienced.” Gesai splashed her foot in the water. “This terrain continues in there. Be careful, because that monster will drown you if you give it a chance.”

“How are we supposed to beat it then?” Jovena had her crossbow propped on her shoulders.

The redheaded teacher turned to her prospective student. “Did I sound like I was finished?”

The other woman was at least smart enough not to make a snarky comment. But that didn't dull the defiance in her eyes. “Sorry.”

“As I was saying…” Gesai turned back to us. “This becomes a timed fight, because that sticky stuff mixes with the water and before long it will be nothing but goo.” She made sure to look at all of us. "That is going to really slow you down and could get someone really hurt, so the first thing you need to do is get rid of those pincers. The Tanks aren't going to be able to kite as much since they have to stay close to take the hits from the pincers, which means the Hitters will be the second ones slowed down. The key is not to focus on the pincer itself, but where the tentacle connects to the body. The pincer moves around too much, but the shoulder won't.”

Gesai looked at me. "I have you in each team because you should be able to sever the tentacle’s fast if things go wrong. Don't do that unless you have to, this is supposed to be an evaluation and I can't do that if you finish their work for them.”

She knew me well enough to know that had been exactly what I'd been planning on doing.

“You can interrupt the charging, which is what your primary focus should be. Hit it in the face with enough damage and it'll stop charging.” She looked around at us. “Any questions?”