I was pulled under the water.

I was supposed to be the backup plan in case other people got incapacitated. Instead of being ready to jump in to rescue the others, I was now in need of rescue myself.

I tried to hold my breath, but the impact knocked the wind out of me and I sucked in a lungful of water. There wasn’t much thrashing I could do in my restrained condition and it felt like I was breathing in all the water in the room, I couldn’t hear or see anything until I felt the restraints loosen and I was pulled out of the water.

I don’t know how much water I coughed up while Fray held me up. As soon as I could talk I motioned for her to rejoin the fight.

“Go!” I coughed more water. "I’ll be fine.”

I shook my head and tried to get my bearings. Everything seemed distant and muffled until I felt my ears pop and the sounds of the fight became normal.

The boss had already shot the ink at Mitchel and he was rotating to his left to bring the monster away from me, but now the party had been split in half with Aelin, Justia, and Mitchel on one side and Fray, Jovena, and myself on the opposite side.There was a big part of me that wanted to grab my sword and start hacking away at it, but we weren’t in trouble yet and there was still a chance that we could turn this around.

“Fray! When that thing starts charging again, I’m going to bind it! Vena! I need you to pop that bubble as soon as it comes up!”

Both women nodded and got ready. We didn’t have to wait long.

The monster’s back was already towards us when it started charging, which gave Fray an opening to get close to the shoulder joint. She swapped from attacking the left and focused on the right.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jovena started firing bolts until the shield popped, then she rotated to the right to focus on the head.

I pointed my hand at it. “BIND!”

The vines came out and wrapped around it. This time it did hit the water, which was enough to stop the charging. As soon as I saw the pincers coming for the vine, I changed my focus and cast it again.

“BIND!”

The body was released since I could only keep one up at a time, but I hit what I was aiming for. The pincer on the right was dragged into the water.

Fray focused on the restrained tentacle and was able to take the tip off in one slash. The monster roared as it lost a pincer.

I pointed at the left side. "That one’s going to be harder!”

Fray motioned for me to follow her and ran around the monster..

“SWITCH SIDES!” She cupped her hands to make her voice louder.

She gestured with her hands to explain what she wanted Mitchel to do. He nodded and started moving about halfway through the tradeoff the monster started charging again. It was going to be messy if we didn’t pull this off, but it was at least a plan.

Jovena popped the bubble almost as soon as it came up.

“BIND!” I pulled the monster down again and focused on the pincer.As soon as it grabbed the vine, I cast the spell again.

“BIND!”

The pincer was dragged into the water and Fray was waiting. She took that one off as well. I refocused on the body as soon as it was off,

“BIND!”

The body hadn’t had much time to get up before it was pulled back to the ground. Fray started working on the tentacles on the left side again. I put my pistol away and took out my sword. The test was essentially over now. All that was left was cutting off the tentacles and finding the crystal in the body to finish it off. Plus, I felt like I had some payback that I owed it.

I joined in on hacking the tentacles off, then helped Fray try to find the crystal until the body vanished into smoke.