Mantle of the Gods

Gesai wasn’t going to let me do the binding trick again.

While I stood in the darkness waiting for the rest of the group to show up, I knew I had to think of something.

She also hadn’t given me a chance to comfort Fray. It wasn’t Fray’s fault that things went down the way they did. Yes, she could have focused more on not letting the splashing drive her back, but still… There were other ways to get a point across.

I also had a feeling that there was more to the story between Justia and Gesai than I had been let in on. During our captivity they’d simply explained it as Gesai had been mean to Justia, but I had a feeling it went deeper than that. I knew that Gesai was on our side, the scars and permanent burns on her hands and arms proved that, but still. Just like those scars would always be there, the damage between the two would always linger even if they had more or less patched things up.

There was a splash and another right after it.

“Here!” Oz sounded really close.

“I’m back.” Mitchel sounded tired. The Bubble shield was earmarked for him even though it was a level three piece of gear, so he wouldn’t be able to use it for a while.

The next voice began speaking before their splash had a chance to die down.

“Here.” The angry voice of Jovena let me know that I wasn’t the only one upset with Gesai at the moment. But for different reasons. Jovena really did need to reevaluate her weapon. Though there wasn’t really a way to do that in the dungeon. Which was probably what was frustrating the young woman the most. There was nothing she could really do about her loadout until after the evaluation was over.

The fourth splash sounded the furthest away.

“Ready!” Jenne seemed nervous and I didn’t blame her. She was all magic, which meant she was going to have trouble finding a way to not draw the teacher’s ire after this fight.

“Everybody ready?” I hadn’t heard the splash for Ren. ”Here we go! LIGHT!”

The boss started the rise out of the floor and Oz didn’t wait for Mitchel to grab aggro. She was still holding the two axes and made it to the boss before it got into position. The raven-haired woman slammed one hatchet into the neck of the monster and started hacking at the front tentacle with the other.

“DO IT!” Oz let out a scream as she severed the first tentacle off.

I watched as she grabbed onto the monster’s neck and pulled her whole body next to it. The monster was screaming as the lone pincer was trying to dislodge her.

“HARDEN!” Ren was focused on her friend and I wasn’t expecting the voice beside me.

“FREEZE!” Jenne pointed the staff that looked like a tentacle under the monster.

The water under it froze, locking most of the tentacles in ice.

Oz let go of the monster’s neck and let the pincer pull her to her feet as she hung on to it. She used the ax that was still in her hand to chop off the pincer which dropped her in front of the monster.

“BIND!” Jenne did the thing I’d just been yelled at for doing.

Vines grabbed the monster’s head and pulled it forward.

“QUICKDRAW!” Oz flashed forward, sword in hand. Two more slashes and the boss’s head came off and it vanished in smoke.

Oz held up her sword in triumph as the ice melted around her.

I hadn’t cast a single spell. The three of them must have been watching our fight and devised a plan to win by learning from our mistakes.

Ren and Jenne ran over and hugged Oz.

“I never taunted…” Mitchel stared at the celebrating women. "What..?”

“I guess that’s how we should have done it.” I shook my head. I was going to need to look into getting some environmental spells. I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face though. That had been impressive to watch.