The boy flees toward the other side of the river as a sliver of shadow ripples towards him. He’s only managed to wade about ten feet in. It’s possible he’ll make it across. It’s more possible he’ll get eaten.

“We have to go after him!” shouts Luci.

“I’ll get him!” volunteers Ron.

Elias shakes his head. “The monster will reach him first.”

Shit. That little thief counts as an enemy right?

Chilled air bites at my arms as I rip off my jacket and toss it to whoever’s behind me. “Someone keep this dry.”

“What are you doing?” Elias shouts.

“What I can. Be back in ten seconds.”

I take two longs steps back from the ledge. God, I’m going to regret this.

With as much speed as I can muster, I race toward the water’s edge, chest high and arms pumping. Just as I hit the ledge, I hurl myself over the side. I’m airbound, my legs bicycling. For a moment, I soar. Then, the second my toes clip the water, I focus everything I have on Éogan and shadowstep towards him.

I collide into him, incidentally tackling the boy face-down into the river - and me with him. My head plunges below the surface and Jesus goddamn motherfucking Christ that is cold. The icy water burns my skin and grabs my face like a vice. I feel like I’m imploding.

I flail, my shoes scrambling for purchase against the slimy rocks below. Whether I mean to or not, I grab a fistful of Éogan’s tunic as I try to remember how to stand.

Okay, I have ten seconds to get that bracelet and shadowstep back before my ability times out. Dash in, dash out. Easy peasy.

With a push, I break through the surface, gasping and accidentally gulping down a big swig of nasty-ass filth. The boy swings an arm back at me, but I manage to hold tight. With my other hand, I fumble for his wrist. It’s bare. Other wrist? Also bare. His hands are empty, and there’s nothing on his cinch. Shit, does he have pockets somewhere?

Five seconds left.

Sputtering, Éogan squirms out of my grasp. He whirls around as if to say something, but then his mouth just hangs open, his eyes wide.

A shadow falls as a great beast erupts from the depths, showering us in stinking rain. Standing on its hindlegs, there looms ten feet of slick, greasy fur. Gooey saliva drips from two long fangs that stick out from its gaping mouth. Its whiskered muzzle is so damned big that I can’t see its eyes.

Time slows as a description forms.

Dobhar-Chú (Lv 12)

Also known as the King Otter, this carnivorous, seven-foot water hound takes on the form of a dog and an otter. How cute! It enjoys keeping its home tidy when it isn’t playfully swimming or hunting for fish. But keep a lookout for its romantic partner; these adorable little creatures mate for life and will never leave each other’s sides, even unto death.

The reprieve doesn’t last long. The moment the words disappear, the monster bares its fangs as it lets out a deep, reverberating growl.

Dammit, my seconds are up. Time to retreat.

Uh oh. I try to teleport back, but it’s like pushing against a brick wall. I must have miscounted. Shit, shit, shit. I can’t just stand here. I’m no tank. I could shadowstep behind the monster, but that’ll just get the kid killed and leave me drained of stamina for the inevitable fight.

That leaves me stuck, thigh-high in a river with just two daggers and a thieving little brat. We stand poised in the monster’s towering shadow, moments away from landing on its quite literal shit list. I weigh whether I can cut its belly open before it bites off my head, but I don’t fancy my chances.

Also, where’s the damn bracelet?

Bam! Elias breaks through the water and slams into the monster with a brutal shoulder charge, solid as linebacker. The dog-otter falls to its side. Elias hoists his axe, but before he can bring it down, the monster contorts its snake-like body, ducks into the water, and slithers away.

We glance at the water. We glance at each other.

Um.

Elias turns. “What happened to ten?”

I shrug. “I fucked up.”

The boy moves to escape when Elias smacks him with the butt of his axe.

“Ow! Who the devils are you?” the boy whines, clutching his chin.

Before he gets another jab to the face, I grab him by the hood of his mantle and rummage around inside. The bracelet isn’t there either.

“Look, just give it back,” I say. “We can still go to town together.”

His eyes dart to his chest. “I don’t know what you’re goin’ on about.”

The damn bracelet’s in his shirt?

Skill Proficiencies Increased:

Observation 3 (+3 Resolve Bonus)

I push the notification away and dive toward him.

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But suddenly there is no him. All I hear is a “wah!” and the boy’s gone, taken by the beast below.

The river seethes in choppy waves. Elias and I hastily dig at the murky clouds floating below the surface. It’s pointless. The monster is fast and the river impenetrable. Even if we get the bracelet, there’s no chance of us winning this while we’re half-submerged.

“We can’t fight here!” I shout.

Something furry slides past my leg. Then a slender arm breaks free. I grab for it and tug as Elias angrily stomps at the shadow winding around us.

Trying to lug the kid upright, I nearly tumble over myself. Finally, the boy emerges screaming and sputtering.

He leans into me, hair dripping as he cradles his hand. Blood seeps through his fingers and dribbles in diluted droplets. When he opens his palm, there are three fingers missing.

“He ate my bleedin’ hand!”

Beside me, Elias swings his axe haphazardly, chopping more water than beast. After the third swipe, a curtain of blood sprays. The monster is undeterred.

With a splash, the otter lunges at Éogan. I’m sure it’s the end of him - and our ticket into town - but the kid surprises me. He pushes off my shoulder and with his one good hand, he wrestles the dagger free from his wet sheathe and slices it across the monster’s flesh. It’s not a great hit, but it’s enough. The monster slakes off, if only for a moment.

“We need to leave,” says Elias.

“I know!” I grab the kid by the collar. “Éogan, give me the goddamn bracelet.”

He crosses his arms. “No! You’ll just leave me.”

That’s true.

Fuck it. Dumb idea time.

“Elias, are you strong enough to throw him?”

“Pardon?”

“Can. You. Throw. Éogan. Like, onto land.”

He looks toward the riverbank, then back at the kid, those little calculations churning in his head. “Possibly.”

“Then do it. I’ll use my shadowstep on him to get back. You charge.”

“I could kill him,” Elias argues.

The river broils as another burst of bubbles pops nearby. “Just do it!”

Without another word, Elias hitches the axe to his back and scoops up the boy like a sack of dirt. To his credit, the kid looks aggrieved but doesn’t fight it.

Then, with one preparatory swing, Elias flings him into the air. The kid flails and flops face first into the bank. A breath later, I’m inches behind him.

I can hear the water seething behind me. I don’t look back. I scramble up the bank, feet slip-sliding in the mud. A meaty hand wraps around my wrist as Ron pulls me to safety.

“You okay?” he asks.

“For now,” I reply, shivering. Luci hands me back my hoodie, and I drape it over my chest, my teeth chattering.

The kid is already lying beside me. I turn just in time to see Elias charging towards us, splitting the water like an angry shark, before he similarly faceplants into the riverbank.

And that’s how we discover that his “clash” ability doesn’t work vertically.

Behind him, the otter explodes from the surface and digs his fangs into Elias’ leg - his metal leg, I think. I hope. The beast shakes it like an old chew toy, yellow foam spilling from its mouth.

There’s something wrong with the monster. The damned thing is shedding greasy chunks of fur. Greenish froth bubbles from its pores. After a moment, it snarls and retreats into the river, disappearing once again.

With another hand from Ron, Elias clambers up the bank. One of his steel joints has a wonky two-pronged dent.

I stand up. “Okay kid, you want to give it back now?”

The boy grimaces, his bleeding hand tucked in the opposite armpit. With his other hand, he shakes the bracelet loose from his shirt. Luci snatches it up and sticks out her tongue.

“Not cool,” she sneers, slipping the bracelet back onto her wrist.

Éogan opens his mouth to reply but, instead, his eyes begin to glaze over as his head droops. With an exasperated huff, Elias snatches the kid’s tunic, tears off a strip, and ties it tight around the half-eaten fingers. He then grabs the waterskin from the fisherman’s bag. There are a only a few drops left, which the boy gulps hungrily.

At first, I don’t understand why Elias would help him given that he just tried to use the NPC as monster bait two minutes ago, but then I see Luci visibly relax.

Aw, he’s trying to keep her little video game crush alive. That’s so sweet. Also, Luci really needs to learn to pick ‘em better.

Éogan nods in appreciation, pale, but surviving. “Are you magicians? I ne’er seen a person move so quick.”

“Um, nope. Just suuuper fast…” I reply unconvincingly.

“So, are we fighting this thing or what?” asks Luci.

We look back toward the river. For a moment, it’s almost peaceful. Then, the water bursts as the beast thrashes and pitches itself backwards like a humpback whale before it slinks below the surface once more.

“Hey, look at the little dude. He’s havin’ fun,” says Ron.

“What’s wrong with it?” I ask.

At this, the boy manages a tired smirk. “Nicked it with my knife, I did. Poison tip. It won’t work on him for long though, a monster that big.”

“Stab it again,” says Luci.

“Sure,” he replies. He takes a deep breath. “Only it just works once an hour. Before that, it’s just a regular knife.”

“Well, what in the heck kinda poison is that?” She shakes her head. “So lame.”

“Eh, it’d be too OP otherwise,” I say. “Anyway, poison knife is out then, unless we want to wait until dark, which I really don’t. We can’t fight it while it’s in the water, and it doesn’t seem all that interested in coming out.”

“Well what do we know about otters?” asks Luci. “They hold hands. They swim on their backs. They juggle? There’s gotta be something there, right?”

“Oh!” Ron raises his hand. “I know, I know! They’re uh, what’s the word. It’s on the tip of my tongue, dude. Nepo… Nitro… The word, man. You know. The word for when you bang corpses.”

I gape at him. “Necrophiliac…?”

“Yeah, man! That’s the one!”

“Ew, no, Ron!” squeals Luci.

“I’m serious. I binge nature docus all the time when I’m way sto- er, uh, stoked for nature, uh…”

Luci rolls her eyes. “I know what being stoned is.”

“Anyway, those dudes are little freaks, man.”

I pat Ron’s shoulder. “While that is valuable trivia, I don’t see in any possible world how that helps us.”

Again, the water erupts as the monster tosses and writhes. It climbs onto its hindlegs and licks its paws furiously, wiping away the poisoned foam from its mouth and chittering like a demonic squirrel.

Taking advantage, Luci looses an arrow, puncturing the flesh just below its armpit.

The beast’s head swivels toward us. Teeth bared, it lets out a shrill, ear-piercing screech before sinking back into the water.

I shrug. “Nice, Luci. We could just keep doing that.”

The boy nods lazily. “You could. If it didn’t just summon her.”

And that’s when the reeds part as a second 7-foot otter waddles toward us and lunges directly at Luci’s back.