The tendrils were throwing off the fight.

Ether could keep the main body occupied without it ever touching her, but that meant that she was basically out of the fight. The tendrils were ignoring her, which meant the rest of us had to deal with them.

Aelin was trying to hit the core, but it was able to move through the main body so fast that when she lined up a shot, the core moved right after she shot it. The travel time of the arrow was long enough that the core was able to move out of the way. I watched as she tried aiming at a different spot, but the core didn’t bother to move as that pink arrow harmlessly burned into the boss..

That left the two tendrils to target Fray and Justia. Rix was slinging her chain knife around and doing a decent job of protecting Fray. I watched the brunette try to slice at one of the tendrils, but the level of the weapon made a difference and she was only able to cut it. Then the tendril retracted and healed itself.

“Is this thing getting any weaker?” I looked around.

“NO!” Rix and Ether yelled at the same time.

“So much for that idea.” I grumbled as I cut off the tendril again. I was wondering why it wasn’t letting up, but then I understood.

We were going to start getting tired and it wasn’t.

All it had to do was wear us down and then it could take us out one by one.

“Ether! Justia! Move to Rix!” I looked at Aelin as I backed up. "Keep shooting at that thing!”

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We started rotating until the five of us were together.

“Isn’t it a bad idea to have the Tank and the Healer together?” Fray looked at the two women.

“That thing is moving slow enough that it doesn’t matter.” I picked up my discarded sword and handed Justia hers back. I turned to Ether. "Can you keep those tendrils off of them?” I nodded at Justia and Fray.

“From one? Yes, from two..?” Ether looked at her shield. "Maybe?’

“Do what you can.” I looked at the redhead. "Rix…”

“Got it.” She started rotating around the monster towards Aelin.

“What..?” Fray looked at me. "You didn’t tell her anything?”

“Rix is…” I tried to think of the right word. "Rix. Don’t overthink it, just be glad she’s on our side.”

I slashed away another tendril attack and looked at Justia. "I know you don’t want to, but you may have to use that thing to protect them.” I looked into her blue eyes. "Can you do that?”

Justia took a nervous breath and gripped the sword with both hands. "Yes.”

“Good.” I turned to Fray. "Just try to stay out of harm’s way. If you try to be a hero, they are both going to try to protect you and that could get all three of you killed.”

The other brunette swallowed and nodded.

I nodded at Ether, sliced another tendril attack and rotated the other way towards Aelin. "You’ve got this!”

I ran the opposite way that Rix had until I was on the other side of the monster.

Aelin and Rix were both attacking the monster, but weren’t making any headway.

“Are you ready?” I looked at Rix, who nodded

“Ready for what?” Aelin looked between us.

I pointed about two thirds of the way up the monster. "When Rix tells you to, Harden that space on the monster.”

“I already tried that.” Aelin shook her head. "Harden only hardens the outside, not the inside of the monster.”

“Just be ready and then shoot as many arrows as you can.” I turned to Rix who nodded.

I sheathed my sword and began to hop from one foot to the other. "This is going to hurt a lot.”