Fortunately, they had lashed each log to its neighbor, rather than simply looping the vines around them all. Otherwise, they would have lost the whole raft then and there. Nick suspected that the rest would give way within a matter of minutes regardless.
They resumed paddling with everything they had, dodging the occasional bullet as they fought to reach the other side before being plunged into the water, where they would be easy prey for the predators prowling below.
At least they were making steady progress. Dodging the gauntlet of watery blasts was a lot easier now that there were only two would-be snipers firing at two separate targets. Especially since Sophia’s summon was harassing the beasts and their attack was no longer a surprise.
Nick was still deeply uneasy. He was certain that the raft wouldn’t hold out much longer, and they were still a few hundred feet away from the riverbank. Worse, the current was growing stronger, making it that much harder to paddle across.
The vines still holding their ride together were groaning, their lengths drawn tight with strain. Nick judged that the rest could go at any second, transforming the situation from moderately manageable to unquestionably deadly, all in the blink of an eye.
That was when he realized that no shots had been fired over the last several seconds, as Sophia’s spear-tongue leapt back onto the raft. “Something isn’t right,” they said at the same time… just as a massive shadow rose from the depths, heading straight for their failing vessel.
As his stomach dropped with a sinking feeling, Nick realized that he had seen that profile before. “It’s an angler,” he said. “Carnivorous fish the size of a whale. If it catches us, we’re dead. It will swallow us whole, raft and all.”
His mind raced as he tried to figure out his best course of action. What will offer us the best chance of living through the day? “Send your summon back out,” he suggested. “Have it attack and try to draw the angler in the opposite direction to buy us some time.”
Sophia didn’t waste the time it would take to reply. She merely nodded and continued to paddle, her spear-tongue diving back into the river before he finished his sentence. The situation had become deadly serious over the last few seconds, the shore growing closer agonizingly slowly. Nick and Sophia began burning through their remaining stamina, racing the giant beast as the raft continued to come apart.
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When the angler’s shadow came to an abrupt halt before darting off to one side, relief shot through his adrenaline-saturated veins… only to falter and die a handful of heartbeats later when Sophia swore. “Another angler caught my frog from behind. They’re both headed our way fast.”
Their oars slapped the water time and time again, as the partners pulled against the resistance, fighting for their lives with every stroke. The good news was that the shore was only fifty feet away. The bad news was that in addition to the anglers coming to get them, the vines were fraying faster by the heartbeat. If they lost another log, the whole raft was going to fall apart.
Judging by their progress so far, he thought that they would make it to the other side in another two or three minutes at most, but they didn’t have that long. The colossal anglers would catch them well before that happened.
The first killer fish would reach the raft sometime over the next thirty seconds, and the second wasn’t far behind. “Keep us on course while I slow them down.” He set down his oar and turned to face the rear of the raft, where he had a clear view of the middle of the river.
He could see on Sophia’s face that she wanted to ask what he was doing. Instead, she nodded and returned her attention to her oar. It was a gesture of trust that Nick would have found deeply touching if he wasn’t so distracted by the prospect of their imminent demise.
Piercing ray, he signaled his intention to cast the spell, focusing intensely for the ten seconds it took for the magic to coalesce. Meanwhile, the massive profile of the angler approached the raft. Its titanic jaws spread wide, coming at them even faster than he had anticipated.
He watched in helpless horror as its hulking maw opened further, ready to devour the raft and its riders in a single bite. Half a heartbeat before it arrived, a ball of churning, twisting force manifested in the space between Nick’s hands. With no time to hesitate, he visualized its trajectory and unleashed the ray.
The spinning drill bit formed as the ball of force shimmered into existence. It went shooting out in a flash, crossing the distance between the raft and the angler faster than the blink of an eye. The predatory fish must have sensed the spell coming, because it lurched its scaley body to one side with a flick of its oversized tail. Fortunately for Nick and Sophia, it wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way in time.
The drill bit attached to the side of its colossal body and started spinning, picking up speed as the ball of mana in Nick’s hands transferred more power into the ray, increasing its kinetic energy. For a moment, as the swirling maelstrom between his hands began to shrink, he was worried that it wasn’t going to be powerful enough to break through.
But then the ray penetrated the beast’s thick scales, boring into the flesh below. It burst out the far side a few seconds later, releasing a great plume of blood into the water before the spell ran out of juice and fell apart.