Mantle of the Gods

I walked in first.

Again.

After being shown up, I was ready to switch over to a melee weapon. Plus, I was worried that Fray was going to try something brazen after the lecture she got and the way Oz had shown her up. I gripped the handle on my SnakeSword, the serrated teeth actually cut through the tentacles really well. And it had been rather satisfying.

“Here.” Fray’s voice was weak, but full of determination. I turned my mind back to my surroundings. I hadn’t heard her come in.

I heard the next splash.

“Here.” Ether’s voice let me know who the splash belonged to.

“I’m ready to do this thing!” Aelin was dancing, which made her splash as well as the rest of them impossible to distinguish.

“Are we all ready?” Ren had to raise her voice to be heard over Aelin.

“Wait!” I don’t know why I looked around when it was pitch black, but I did. "I didn’t hear Jenne come in.”

“I’m here!” The short black-haired woman sang.

“That’s everyone?” Ren didn’t have to shout this time because Aelin had stopped making noise. “Okay, LIGHT!”

The boss started rising out of the ground and Fray let out a scream and dashed.

“DASH!” I shot forward with my sword out. I knew she wasn’t going to be able to take the tentacle off in one hit and she didn’t have a second weapon to keep the boss from being able to bite her. I angled for the same side she did and held my sword up defensively as the boss tried to bite into her exposed back.

“LOOK AT ME!” Ether was able to pull the head away, but when I’d hit her, I’d knocked her away from her sword.

I tried to reposition myself and caught a tentacle in the chest. I tossed my sword under the monster as I was knocked clear. I rolled in the water as I tried to find a way to right myself and it wasn’t until I got my feet under me that I realized I hadn’t been breathing. I was starting to get used to having the wind knocked out of me. I didn’t know whether I should be proud or scared. Probably both.

Fray was under the monster and stabbing at it with my sword. There was no way I was going to get back to her with the boss charging. Ether had tried to move in between me and the monster, which did provide me with cover, but it also locked me out.

The bubble was still up and I realized that Fray was our physical weapon person, but she’d just essentially locked herself in a room with the boss.

“You good?” Ether looked over her shoulder at me.

“Yeah.”

“Then get her out of there.” The white-haired woman tossed her sword in my direction and gripped both hands on her shield as started running towards the monster.

I picked up the sword and realized it wasn’t a sword. It was the dagger that had been a sword that Edard Rene had bought off Trent and broke our second day in the dungeon. I picked up the familiar weapon and followed after the Tank.

“SHIELD ATTACK!” Ether tucked herself behind the shield and collided with the monster’s face.

“BUBBLE’S DOWN!” I pointed at Fray. "Jenne Freeze it now!” I didn’t bother to see if she was following my lead. I just pointed at Fray. “BIND!”

One thing that I’d learned during our captivity training was that I could set the root points of the bind. But it would always be so that the two vines tugging at my target were on opposite sides of each other. But my bind would last if there was only one pulling on it.

I sliced through the vine in front of me. The vine behind the monster was still attached to Fray and pulled her out from under the monster. The water underneath it froze. With the monster stunned, all the tentacles were in the water, which meant now they were all frozen.

Now we could win.