“Over here!”

I swam to where Turk had come from in the water and motioned to Dirk to keep working with Vreek. He was trying to teach Vreek to swim but things were not going well. Even with the heart he had eaten and the endless energy he felt right now, Vreek was barely able to doggy paddle. That meant he could not use his sword or anything else. I was really trying to figure out how I was going to fight. Swinging my sword felt like I was moving in slow motion. I knew most of the power behind the attack was gone.

“There are what we would call Merefolk down there. A group of five of them, armed with tridents.”

I dove underwater and tried to see where Turk was pointing. I saw some shapes but could not make out any more details. Turk could still see further than all of us, regardless if underwater or not.

“Think we can fight them?” I asked after coming back to the surface.

Turk was staring at his bow.

“Let me try something. Move away a little bit.”

I started swimming away as I knew the look he had on his face. He was going to try something that might end up badly for us.

Turk dove underwater, and I suddenly felt electricity build up around me. A second later, Turk broke to the surface, gasping for air and shaking his hands.

“That was a terrible idea, but it kinda works.”

“What did you do?!”

Turk laughed and moved to where he could stand up without swimming.

“I fired off a lightning shot. Not at the group we saw but just into the ocean. I wanted to see if I could do it and what it might do to me.”

“And?”

“So it doesn’t feel good, but I can deal with it. Since it’s my own spell, it doesn’t hurt as bad as I think it might hurt the three of you. It still flies off toward the direction I send it, but it acts weird. It is like an area of effect spell now. Since electricity in water conducts, I think it will continue to conduct all the way through the water. It just does not fly as fast or as far.”

“So, are you going to try and drag them here?” I asked. I really had no clue how this whole zone would work. Fighting in water was going to tax us and we were going to give up a lot of our strength.

“I’ll see if I can hit them and get them to swim to us. I should be able to beat them back here. Just stay close and do whatever you can to help.”

I grumbled but nodded. There were not many options for fighting these creatures, and we did need to see how strong they were.

I whistled at Dirk and Vreek and called them over and we explained the plan to them. Both of them thought we were crazy but set up in the shallow water to where it was almost over our heads.

“Remember to thrust more. Slashes won’t work here.”

Vreek nodded at me. We both had left our shields on the small island. There was no hope of using them at all in the water.

Turk dove underwater. I kept lowering my head under the waves, trying to watch him and see when he was coming back.

I saw him swim off and then I saw the lightning attack he had talked about head off into the water where I assumed the pack of mermen were. Turk suddenly turned, and I saw his hands and feet glowing a little as he swam faster than usual toward us.

A few seconds later, I saw a pack of four mermen rocketing through the water toward Turk. Based on how fast he was traveling and how fast they were coming he should easily make it to us.

Turk suddenly stopped, and I felt the energy in the water build up again. My skin tingled and spasmed from the current running through it. As the ball of electricity flew through the water at the mermen, I saw them try to split up and dodge it, but the two of them did not get away in time and stopped swimming and started to float towards the surface.

Turk had already turned around and was swimming toward us. I could tell that he was not swimming as fast. I only imagined what he experienced releasing an attack like that.

The last two mermen made it to us, and each of them was focused on Turk like a laser-guided missile. Turk moved out of the water till he was standing ankle-deep in the surf.

We moved back and let them pass us and then surrounded them. It was weird seeing two men with massive chests and arms and huge quads start to rise up out of the water. Their blue skin was dark, and it looked like rubber almost. Huge gills were on their necks, and I could see webbing on their hands and feet.

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They approached Turk with their tridents out, making some weird clicking language at him.

Turk smiled, and a lightning bolt shot out from his hand and hit the one on the left in the head, putting a huge hole in his forehead and making the air smell like burnt fish. The other stood there stunned and turned around just as Dirk had reached him.

Dirk engaged the warrior who kept him at bay with the trident. He realized the mistake of having been so focused on Turk. He turned his head and saw Vreek coming up to help box him in.

“Don’t kill him!” Turk shouted as he motioned to the one he had shot in the head. “Get his heart before we kill the other!”

I realized Turk had planned on this and had not told us yet. I broke off from trying to pinch in the merman and let Dirk and Vreek keep him pinned toward the shore. As soon as I reached the body, I plunged my dagger into his chest and quickly cut out his heart. It was cold and shaped weirdly. It reminded me of the one from the slendals.

“Got it!” I shouted as I held it up into the air.

The merman saw me holding the heart of his dead ally and shouted something, and started to charge toward me. Dirk intercepted him, parried the thrust of his trident with one dagger, slipped in close, and plunged his other one up his chin and into his head.

The man twitched as Dirk held him up in the air. Dirk did not miss a beat and plunged his dagger into the chest of the merman and cut out the heart of the one he had killed before letting it fall from the dagger that had kept it upright.

“We got two!” Dirk proclaimed as he watched the corpse of the one he had just killed dissolve in the shallow water.

“Cut them in half fast, and we need to eat them just in case!” Turk cried out as he splashed his way toward me.

Without wasting time, I cut mine in half, handed Turk half, and watched as Dirk and Vreek ate the other one.

We all stood around watching each other, and suddenly, I felt my neck on fire. I watched as the other three grabbed theirs, and a minute later, we all had gills in our necks.

“What the hell?” Dirk cursed as he ran his fingers along the four-inch gills on both sides of his neck. “The heart did this?”

Turk simply dove in and stayed underwater for a few minutes. When he finally popped up he was smiling.

“I wondered how the floor would work. It turns out my hunch was right.”

Vreek gazed at Turk and shook his head in disbelief.

“You really expect me to believe you knew this would happen?”

Turk shrugged and then laughed.

“I was not sure how it would work, but why would a labyrinth have a floor that is impossible for us to get through without a way to stay underwater? It reminded me of a boss zone in that one game where we had to farm for everyone to get a water-breathing item. I just figured it was the same.”

I nodded and felt we had been lucky with Turk’s fast mind. Waiting to kill the last one allowed us to farm a heart that might not have been there. Dirk was also using his brain by immediately acquiring the heart of the one he had killed.

“So what now?” I asked. "We can’t take the shields, and I do not know how long these hearts will last.”

“I can deal with most of the creatures, I think,” Turk declared. “Now that I don’t have to worry about shocking the breath out of me, I can get a few more spells off before they reach us.”

I glanced at Vreek and saw he was still fingering his gills.

“Let’s all practice breathing underwater for a few. Then we can start trying to find the next portal.”

After about twenty minutes, Vreek had finally relaxed some, realizing he would not drown. With that taken care of we gave him the backpack and started swimming to the bottom of the water. Staying near the top was not an option with all of our gear. The heart had given us the ability to breathe underwater. It also appeared to give us a boost to our swimming speed.

Soon we encountered our next group of mermen. Four of them died before they ever reached Turk, who had figured out how to increase the damage and radius of the area-effect spell he was casting. I was amazed at how fast his mind worked and wondered what one would call his class in a game. Elements of a mage, combined with an archer and something else. I knew whatever we called him, he was deadly. I was not sure if I could win against him in a duel. Only Light Drinker's ability to deflect some spells seemed my only chance against him.

What felt like at least six hours of swimming and fighting finally resulted in us finding the brown portal we sought. All of us were tired and ready to end this zone. We had picked up two tridents and used them and decided to bring them with us. The real test was the heart we had harvested and were holding on to. We wanted to see what happened when we took the portal with it.

We swam through the portal and found ourselves standing at the end of the bottom of a massive chasm. It reminded me of the grand canyon in some ways with two massive stone walls off to each side. The walls were easily a half mile high.

“Well, at least we aren’t still wet,” Dirk stated as he stomped on the hard-packed dirt. “I just wish there was some brush or tree to be seen.”

“The heart is gone,” Turk informs me after he came through the portal. “I guess now we know that the hearts we acquire on each floor must be eaten there.”

I nodded and looked as far as I could. The canyon curved and blocked our vision further down the canyon area. The light on this floor casts shadows. It is as if the sun was in the position of being later in the day. Shadows were everywhere, lining the walls of the chasm at the bottom.

“Looks like a good place to scout some,” Dirk informs us as he points to a shadow near us. “I can shadow jump ahead and see what I can find.”

“Getting separated isn’t a good idea,” Vreek says as he the trident he picked up in a ready position. “We have no idea what is out there and running out by yourself is a good way to die if you get surprised.”

Dirk sighed but nodded. After letting Turk do most of the fighting on the last floor, I could see he wanted a chance to prove himself on this one.

“Let’s just take it slow. No point causing a problem and getting pinned at the end of this cavern and overran.”

Dirk nodded at me and moved back to protect his brother.

As we slowly walk through the open space in the middle of the canyon, I wonder where our first enemy will be. Nothing seems to be present.

After about twenty minutes of slowly walking, I hear a thundering sound all around us. Rocks start to fall from the canyon walls all around us.

“What do you see?!” I call out as I frantically search for what is happening.

“The rocks!” Turk exclaims. “They’re alive!”