I saw the five stars studded on the monster’s forehead and immediately began barking orders. Stop retreating. Listen to me. We couldn’t retreat. The monster was too big and too close. Instead, I told the humans to close ranks behind me, and slowly inched backwards myself.

The giant mud blob howled. Mud flung through the air, slinging off the monster’s strangely long fur. What purpose did fur serve on a muddy blob monster? I did not know. But my mind raced through some possibilities. The most promising idea was that this monster did not actually live in the bottom of a lake, and had only gone down there for some reason. If so, we might have a chance to take it down while it was still in the middle of the lake.

“The people on my left, shoot fireballs, the people on my right, throw rocks,” I said as I prepared my own spells. “Kelser, you’re with me.”

I took a deep breath and sprinted. The air in front of me parted, and my legs seemed to stride through the air without ever hitting the ground. I raced forward, air whistling past my ears and my vision growing blurry.

Kelser should be running far behind me, ready to launch some spells as I approached the edge of the lake. Fireballs and large stones passed by me as I came to a halt right next to the lake. The monster roared as it swatted the spells out of the air with an oozing hand. The hand broke the surface of the lake, sending waves scurrying towards the shore, where one broke on the banks and showering my face with water.

Cold water mixed with my sweat, trickling over my chest and making my hair stick to my scalp. I could see the monster more clearly now. It was still a blob of mud, but its ears and ears were more pronounced. The fur on its head was brown like mud, but I couldn’t see any fur on its arms. Arms that were fast approaching my position, trailing globs of muck behind them.

I dashed to the side with motion and air magic. The ground beneath me was pulled into the lake, as the mushy earth was swallowed by the water. I used balance magic to stand on top of a rock, jutting out of the now enlarged lake like the tip of an iceberg.

The humans continued their barrage of fire and earth magic, which forced the monster to pull back and shield its head. The fact that a monster of this size was protecting its head made me think that was its weakness. The rest of its body was protected by water and thick layers of mud. None of our spells was going to hurt it anywhere but on its head.

With its attention diverted, I prepared a slingshot using motion magic. This spell had gotten stronger since I combined it with air magic to reduce air resistance. From this distance, it would burst out like an explosion.

The monster, perhaps sensing something, turned around and shot a column of water towards me. I jumped out of the way, letting my magic slingshot dissipate. Water splashed around me as I fell into the shallow edge of the lake. I spat but my mouth was gritty. Another loud roar rang out behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kelser pelting the monster with magic slingshots. His weren’t as powerful as mine, but they were about as hard to block. The other humans were firing at the monster from three different directions, making it impossible to block all of their attacks. The monster was clearly hurting after having its head hit so many times.

The monster roared. The lake receded, putting me on muddy ground. A wall of water appeared around the monster, stretching about as high as its ears. The wall of water absorbed the fireballs, earth magic, and slingshots that the humans had sent towards the monster.

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Another loud roar. The wall of water fell like a tidal wave in every direction. I hugged the ground and used water and air magic to make an air bubble for myself. The water burst the bubble, knocked the wind out of my lungs, and dragged me far along the ground and away from the lake.

I forced my aching, soggy body to move as debris rained down from the sky. A rock hit the mud with a splotch, and I rubbed the water from my eyes, and pressed my back against a large rock.

The lake was much smaller now. The monster stood in the middle of it, the water reaching much lower along its body. I could now tell that this monster did not have any fur on the rest of its body, and that the rolling layers of mud might very well have been a part of its body in the first place.

The water had washed a lot of the mud from its head, which revealed its animal-like ears and beady black eyes, but that revelation only made it look stranger. It looked like a slime from the neck down, but with a bestial head. Its arms were slimy. It could spew jets of muck from its hands, which is what helped me realize that the monster was still fighting some of the humans on the far side. They had somehow avoided the wall of water.

I groaned as I stood up. The mud clinging to my body and the battering that I had received made me feel heavier than before. Still, I slowly crept up closer to the lake, and used balance magic to quietly make my way across the muddy ground from where the lake had receded. Now, I could tell the monster was fighting Kelser and a couple of other humans.

I prepared another powered up magic slingshot, this time putting in a ball of natural copper as ammunition. The ball had a sharp edge, which I pointed towards the monster, although the monster had gotten so far pursuing Kelser and the others, that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hurt it much from this distance.

I grit my teeth. I had to take the shot. I held my breath, positioned my magic, and waited for the monster to turn towards me. The back of its head was protected by a thick layer of hardened mud. If I could hit it from the other side, I might make a difference.

A fireball whizzed over my head. There was someone behind me. The monster sensed the magic, turned its head a little bit, and swatted the magic out of the air. It almost turned right back around, but it must have seen me in the corner of its vision. It howled angrily, before unloading a stream of mud with one hand towards the people it had been fighting. Then, it turned towards me, and charged forward while raising its hand.

I yelled as I released my slingshot and my breath. The copper ball shot through the air, with motion and air magic propelling it to ridiculous speeds. My body fell backwards from the recoil, as the immense energy required drained my reserves.

A cry of pain, so loud it shook the ground. I hit the earth, and had to pick myself up by my elbows so I could see if I’d hit the monster. Judging by the way it was holding its head, I could tell my shot had connected, but although it was swaying in agony, and had both of its muddy brown hands on its head, I didn’t know if this was going to be enough.

Layers of mud rolled over its head like chocolate syrup, hiding its most vulnerable spot inside the mud. The monster seemed to melt into the shallow lake, its body flattening while its arms floundered over its head and betrayed the agony occurring underneath.

Bubbles burst over the surface of the muddy mound as the monster receded into the lake. The mound grew smaller and smaller, the monsters floundering gentler and gentler, until the mound fell below the surface of the lake, and tiny water bubbles popped over the surface.

Soon, the bubbles stopped, and the lake’s surface stilled. Somebody walked over to me and helped me stand up. I saw Kelser and many others on the other side. Doing a quick head count, I figured we hadn’t lost anyone, which was a relief. Somebody shouted while pointing at the lake. My heart jumped into my chest again. I looked over.

A strange stone had floated to the water’s surface. It turned on top of the water, before coming to a rest like a leaf on still water.