It felt like they were cheating.

“Did you see it?” I looked over at Rix.

“See what?” Aelin pulled back on her bow. "MAGIC ARROW!” The arrow sheared off the tip of one of the tendrils. “I’m being robbed!”

Rix pulled back her chain knife and began retracting it into the handle. She pointed at where the tendrils were connected to the main body. “They’re parasites.”

I nodded. "How do we kill them?”

The redhead shrugged. "The cores are clear and their tendrils are deep in the body.”

“Magic Arrow!” Aelin shot another bolt. "Blah, Blah, WHERE DO I SHOOT THIS THING!?!”

Rix was looking instead of attacking it. I could see she was thinking, but we didn’t have the luxury of observing.

“Cover me." I called over my shoulder as I charged. I pulled out the sword and started moving. My stomach was still turning, but I was able to move faster than walking, but not up to running speed.

I was able to drive the tendrils back, but I wasn’t making any progress.

Rix was beside me and with Aelin’s help, we were able to cut the tendrils back to the main body.

“Focus on one at a time!” Ether was keeping her shield up while we were rotating around the main body. We had the tendrils under control, but even with the three of us, we were only able to keep it contained. We needed another damage dealer.

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“Justia!” We couldn’t keep the pressure up and once we slowed down, all it would take was one slip and a tendril would pull us into the main body. "We need you!”

A brunette rushed over to help us, but it wasn’t Justia. Fray tried to cut into the body, but her cuts were too shallow to justify having her that close.

“Your sword isn’t strong enough!” I stabbed at the base of a tendril, but it rotated, putting Fray in between me and it. Rix was on the other side and Aelin was only trimming them back if they started growing on her side.

The tendril began to slide out and grabbed her. I pulled her by the collar, which got her away from it, but she dropped her weapon. The slime grabbed it and pulled it into the main body.

With Fray no longer in between me and the slime, I sliced off the tendril. "Fray, I’m glad you’re trying to help, but your gear is not strong enough.” I looked at our Healer. "Justia! I’m sorry, but we need you!”

I trimmed the tendril again. It was starting to gain ground. Slowly, but we were starting to tire.

The SnakeBlade stabbed into the middle of the tendril. I made a cut above it. The tendril tried to move and The brunette rotated with it, stabbing it again.

Rix rotated towards us and gouged into it. The SnakeBlade came out and I sliced under it, cutting the tendril out. It flopped on the ground, trying to get back to the main body.

“Aelin!” I sliced into it. "Harden it!”

“Harden!”

I kicked the tendril away from the body. "Blow it up!”

Aelin rained magic arrows on it until it vanished in a puff of smoke.

“SCORE!” Aelin pumped her fist.

“Justia, thanks…” I turned and realized it wasn’t Justia.

Fray was staring at her hands. They were covered in burns and glowing in a soft blue light.

I had never seen gear burns before. “What did you do?”