Mantle of the Gods

I felt insulted.

The item that the monster dropped was a bubble shield. It was the same color as the back of the monster and looked like a bug's shell. It allowed the holder to activate it on a cooldown to create a bubble shield around them that would reflect magic until it was broken or the timer expired.

I looked at the item in my hand and knew exactly who was getting it, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like it was a personal dig at me.

“What’d we get?” Jovena called as she started picking up her bolts out of the water.

“A shield that lets the holder cast Bubble.”

Seriously?” Aelin ran over. "Lemme see!”

Justia walked up to me and put her hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?” She moved so that she could look me in the eye. "That was a lot of water you breathed in.”

“It wasn’t that much.” I lied. It still felt like I was harboring an aquarium inside me.

“I tried to heal you, but apparently Heal doesn’t work on drowning.” She looked sad and slightly scared.

“It’s okay, we won.” I smiled and felt strangely better. I looked down at myself and saw a red glow on my chest.

“You need Cure Drowning.” Gesai announced as she walked into the room. "And they have to be out of the water, but that’s kind of a given.”

I smiled at the teacher. "Thanks, Gesai. I feel much better.”

“Good.” She walked over to me and slapped me on the back of the head. "I told you that binding it wouldn’t work. I told you that it reflected magic, but you went and did it anyway and almost got yourself killed.”

“Binding actually did work?” I held up my hands even though I knew they wouldn’t do any good if she wanted to slap me again.

“Yes, you found a way to get it to work. Congrats on almost dying to figure that out.” Gesai kicked up water at Fray who flinched. In a blur, the older woman was on her and took her sword out of her hands.

Fray backed away and almost fell down.

“Gesai…” Justia moved in between the two and stretched out her arms.

The older woman walked up to her cousin and put her hand on the other woman’s shoulder,

“Jus…” Gesai flipped the sword around and offered the hilt and the two women locked eyes. “Yes, I’m going to scare her, but she needs to learn what to be scared of.”

Fray looked absolutely terrified. I didn’t blame her. Gesai was Tier Four. She could thrash us and the boss in less than a minute.

“I’m not moving.” The younger cousin took the sword.

“Fine.” Gesai kicked more water at the trembling woman. "How much did that hurt?”

I started to move and felt pressure from Gesai come my way.

“Is it startling, yes. Cold? A little, maybe. But is this..?” Gesai splashed her again. "Going to hurt you?’

Fray shook her head.

“Next time, don’t let a little water scare you.” She pointed at me. "Or someone might drown for real.” She looked over at Jovena. "And you need to either get a bigger crossbow, or find something to dip those things in. Atlas could have done your job and his." She motioned towards the second floor opening. "Let’s go so we can run it again!”