The water was quickly growing thick and murky from the cascades of dust and debris sinking to the ground as an entire wing of the second floor collapsed onto the first. Iris caught only a glimpse at the creature before the swirling rush of incoming cloudy water obscured her vision -- the back of its body was that of a giant shark with red scales and too many fins, while the front was a massive lobster's head and claws. Even now she heard crashing as it slammed against the walls of the throne room, knocking loose bricks from the ceiling that sank quickly enough to be dangerous debris.
The grit of the dirty water bit into her eyes, forcing her to squeeze them shut. The water all around her overwhelmed her awareness ability, filling her extra sense with an all-encompassing sensation. A hand grabbed hers -- Milo. She clenched tight, focusing her attention on his hand, the arm attached to it, and then his body until she learned to distinguish his flesh from the water. Explosions erupted from elsewhere in the throne room and sent shockwaves through the water that made Iris's heart skip beats. Milo's hand tugged on hers, and she followed.
Seconds later they entering a hallway, she sensed Milo pushing shut a door behind them. She forced her eyes open, finding the water less cloudy but still full of grit. Only a few glowing coral flowers lit the hallway, giving an eerie glow to the water and illuminating Milo's terrified face. He was wearing goggles, she'd seen him use them before while working on the printing press, and she smiled at his quick thinking. She wanted to reassure him, to comfort him, but she couldn't speak. Instead she squeezed his hand tight, gave him the best reassuring look she could manage, and let go to move towards the door.
He lunged after her, grabbing her hand once more and shaking his head in panic. An empathetic look crossed her face as she turned back to him. She couldn't stay here, she had to help the others. She pulled him close, his normal, nonmagical strength no match for her attributes, and planted a kiss on his lips. As they kissed, she pried his hand from hers and shoved him backwards. He flailed in the water, reaching out towards her to no avail. In the instant he realized what she was about to do, he ripped the goggles from his head and flung them towards her. They didn't travel far in the water, but she blipped them into her hand and nodded, then blipped away.
Somewhere in the Throne Room, Titus clung to the lobster shark's carapace just behind its eyes. One hand fit between the plates of the carapace while the other clenched a spear of light which he drove deep into the lobster's head. The spear left black burn marks in the shell where it passed through without piercing, and he channeled an enormous amount of mana into the spear to force it to burn brighter and hotter as he hoped to cook the lobster from within.
An explosion in the distance launched Cameron through the cloudy water, between the lobster's snapping claws, and directly in front of its mouth. Cameron placed a foot on either side of the creature's grotesque mincing jaws, holding himself back even as the smaller limbs around the mouth acted as hands to try pulling him. Forcing his eyes to stay open in the gritty cloud, he snatched a pouch off his belt and prepared to throw it into the lobster's mouth, but was knocked loose from his perch as the creature slammed against a wall. Still holding his pouch, he tumbled and twisted in the water as the creature thrashed and spun about.
Eli used his staff for propulsion, releasing a blast of red magic behind him that propelled him forward towards the thrashing lobster shark. He landed with a thud against its scaly shark body and grabbed hold of a fin. His grip slipped at first, and then a tarot card appeared above his head and gave him the strength he needed to hold on. Even as the beast shook and thrashed, he choked up his grip on his staff and placed the tip against the scales where the fin met the body. The runes began to glow bright red, soon burning into the flesh of his hand and bubbling the water around the staff as a short but constant beam of magic erupted from the tip of the staff and carved through the scales. He sneered and grunted as he pulled the staff down the length of the fin, sheering it off the creature's body. With the fin went his handhold, and he was soon thrown away into the dust. As he was flung away the creature, he passed by Iris and watched as she blipped and left an implosion in her wake.
Iris appeared beside the lobster shark, great sword in hand, with an abundance of momentum that carried her the opposite direction of the creature. The opposing speeds helped her blade slice into the scales and bury deep into its body, leaving a long, smooth gash down its length before the blade eventually slowed to a stop. She twisted around and planted her feet against the creature to hoist the sword free, kick off and blip away.
Elsewhere, a claw collided with Autumn and shattered her stone chest plate. The strike sent her backwards to collide hard against a wall on the second floor mezzanine, where she instantly reformed a new chest plate from the brick along with a long, jagged harpoon that she pulled from the wall as it formed into shape. A strong kick from both legs launched her from the wall and back towards the shark lobster, harpoon reared back to strike. Two magically conjured tarot cards formed around her from wisps of purple magic, orbiting her body and imbuing her with focus and agility. Her lunge carried her into the creature's underbelly, where she struck out with the harpoon and pierced its scales just behind the carapace. Using the harpoon for leverage, she brought her body around to plant her feet against the scales and sharply twist the harpoon, releasing a gush of blood into the water.
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Cameron arrested his tumble against a pillar somewhere near the third floor mezzanine, looking down at the dense cloud of dust that filled the bottom half of the room. He could track the glow of Titus's light through the dust, and thus the creature's head, but with no idea where his companions were in the dust he had no way to safely attack without going back in. The appearance of Iris in the distance above the dust caught his attention. She soon disappeared, leaving an implosion in her wake before reappearing a short distance away with momentum that carried her towards him.
She reached out with hands and feet to land against the wall, and then made a motion with her hands mimicking an explosion. He looked at her curiously, and she rolled her eyes. She pointed at the pouches on his belt, then made the motion again, this time more larger and exaggerated. He glanced at the pouch of explosive clay he still clutched his hand, then back at the strange girl. She noticed the pouch too and nodded furiously as she held out her hand. Cameron simply shook his head. Besides maybe Autumn, she was the last person he wanted to have a bomb.
Iris threw her head back in frustration just as the lobster shark erupted from the cloud below and slammed into the ceiling, crushing Titus against the brick and finally knocking him loose from the creature's back. Several jellyfish were squished against the ceiling as well, their tentacles zapping against the scales and carapace of the shark lobster. An errant tentacle grazed Titus on the shoulder and sent crackles of electricity through his arm, stunning him as he drifted back into the clouds of dust. As the shark lobster spun towards Iris and Cameron, Iris frantically pointed towards it and repeated the hand motions along with several additional gestures. Cameron quickly glanced between the girl and the creature, then released bubbles from his mouth as he attempted to swear. He reached out with the pouch and she snatched with one hand while the other pulled a full length walking stick from the small bag at her waist. She kicked off the wall, jabbing the stick against the brick and sending shock waves through the water as an unseen force launched her forward.
Iris twisted in the water to dodge sinking debris and fleeing jellyfish as she rocketed towards the lobster shark. It had noticed her too, and its claws were open and poised to intercept. Just before entering their range, she blipped. The explosion in her wake caused the claws to recoil back in shock, distracting the lobster shark as she appeared just in front of its mouth, too close for the creature to see her over its own carapace. Inches from the weirdly mechanical mincing motion of the otherworldly maw, she dropped the pouch in front of her and blipped away.
The pouch ignited from the implosion she left behind and erupted in a devastating blast that flung Iris back as she reappeared. The lobster shark reared back, its face completely unrecognizable as anything other than a gaping wound. One claw was ripped off entirely and drifted away while the other thrashed and snapped around wildly. The creature swam forward but had been blinded by the explosion and soon slammed into the wall below Cameron. Eli was across the room and charging a powerful blast, the bolt of magic erupted from the staff and ripped through the water leaving a wake of bubbles before piercing the scales on the creature's side, erupting just below the surface, and releasing a jet of viscera from the wound.
The beast recoiled from the blast, only adding to its disarray. It tumbled and twisted upside down as it began to sink, revealing Autumn still clinging to its underside. She had converted every piece of her armor into spikes, spears and harpoons that were now embedded in the creature's scales, even forming a few from passing chunks of debris she had been able to grab. Now, she glanced up at the ceiling, and formed the plan for her final strike. She kicked off as hard as she could, using every last ounce of her augmented strength to shove the creature downwards and launch herself upwards. The kick was so powerful it caused a shockwave of its own and briefly depressed a wide area of the shark-like abdomen. The shark lobster’s momentum pushed away the clouds of dust as it was flung downwards and bounced off the castle floor.
Autumn hit the ceiling with great force, knocking loose a huge chunk of it that was already threatening to collapse. She used her matter molding abilities to fuse the bricks on impact and hold the chunk together as a solid object. At first she lifted the chunk, rising just above the ceiling of the throne room to the open water above before the mass of the chunk quickly slowed her to a stop. The chunk began to sink, only growing in speed as Autumn twisted it around to point lengthwise at the castle floor while she molded the tip of the debris into a sharp spike. As the spike sank she climbed her way to the top of it and kicked off with all her strength once again. The spike shot downwards and impaled the shark lobster through the carapace, piercing through the floor beneath and pinning the creature in place before the throne.