I found that as long as I kept my eyes fixed on Lancelot - and just let the Kraken exist in my peripheral vision - the sight of the thing only drove me partially out of my mind. Thus, what with with concentrating on maintaining the corridor of air for the barbarian to stand on, that was pretty much taking up all my mental space.

"Big M?" I gasped, feeling a wash of vertigo. "You're going to need to keep track of the other Krakens for me."

On it.

I remembered what Merlin had said about the necessity to focus on my cycling, and although this didn't necessarily feel like the most appropriate time - the other two are on the opposite side of the lake. No sign they're bothered about Lancelot yet - I would need to tap a mana stone if I planned to keep this up much longer.

Fixing the position of the Kraken in my mind - it blazed a horrible, pulsing blackness to my senses - I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the weft and wane of my Qi. Oddly, my sense of the monster's wrongness was helpful as it gave me something to push against. With each breath in, it was like my body pulled in little strands of ambient Qi, quickly converted them into paint and then pressed against the presence of the Kraken on my breath out.

To be honest, I felt like a bit of fraud standing on the edge of the lake meditating whilst Lancelot was in a fight to the death, but then if I ran out of Qi and dropped the tunnel of air he was fighting in, he'd be dead in seconds.

I was doing my bit.

"Any movement yet, Big M?"

Nothing. If you are interested, Lancelot is currently earning the title of 'Ballsiest Underwater Battle' since I accidentally sank Atlantis. I am rarely impressed with swordplay, but this young man is quite something. He is, nevertheless, being sliced into tiny little pieces.

I sent another wash of down the tunnel, hoping that would be enough to keep the barbarian in the game. That pretty much wiped out any Qi I'd been able to gather since the fight had started.

It kind of felt like we were just marking time until one of the other great beasts noticed us, and then the jig would be up.

"Dude, if you can hear me," I called out to Lancelot, "now would be the time to pull out any special moves you have."

"Your suggestion noted is!" Lancelot's voice sounded no different than if he were engaged in a little light warm-up. "Up your arse, you can stick it. Busy."

I guess that was fair enough.

I half-opened one eye and watched Lancelot move in a blur at the midpoint of the tunnel of air. He seemed to be fighting a spirited retreat, leading the creature back towards me. I somehow managed not to immediately run screaming, shortening the air tunnel to match his progress. At least that went some way to stop all my Qi flowing away.

"Is there a plan here?" There was probably more of a quaver to my voice here than I wanted, but - you know - I was the girl who hid behind the sofa when the Daleks appeared on the screen, so I think I was doing pretty damned well to be a going concern against this thing still.

"I'm killing it," he shouted back.

"Is he, Big M?"

There was a brief silence. Hard to tell. Lancelot is still alive which is causing the creature some significant surprise but . . . it is something like witnesseing a battle between a mouse and tiger. I cannot help but think that the second the latter gets bored, it will be all over and done with.

Almost at that very moment, there was an ear-piercing, stomach-churning shriek. Good news and bad news, my dear.

"Spill."

The tiger had lost one of its paws, if you will allow me to strain that metaphor a touch further. On the other hand, the largest of the other two Krakens is coming to find out what all the fuss is about.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Shit! Lancelot, we got company!"

*

Arthur ground his teeth in frustration. There was little he could do to help either the wizard or his finest warrior. Watching Lancelot twist, turn, slice, and roll, the king was not too proud to recognise that he would just be in the way if he sought to join him at the bottom of the lake.

He wasn't even sure what it was that Lancelot was fighting.

As he watched, the colossal thing undulated and shivered like a giant leech, but one with a full complement of tentacles, teeth and claws. Arthur did not scare easily, but he was unsure he could stand, much less fight against such a thing.

And yet there was Lancelot, step-by-step kiting the monster to the surface. He felt such a wave of affection for the barbarian. He hadn't known him long but already counted him - alongside Bors - as his closest friend. If anyone was going to be able to defeat a nightmare monster single-handedly, he did not doubt it would be Lancelot.

Then the wizard called out and pointed towards the far side of the lake, where a massive fin was moving towards the battle. Due to the size of the body of water, it was easy to think the movement was slow, but after a moment, Arthur realised how quickly the distance was being eaten up.

An unfortunate turn of phrase.

Arthur needed to buy Lancelot some more time. He picked up his spear and began running around the lake's edge, away from the initial struggle and towards the approaching creature. The others in the party paused for a moment, then gathered up their own gear to follow him.

"Is this wise?" Owain had a surprisingly decent burst of speed for a big man.

"Compared to letting that thing double-team them?"

"Good point."

*

Lancelot wasn't exactly living his best life, but it sure wasn't a million away.

There was an art to fighting something where it would only take one substantial hit to wipe you out. It was all a matter of degrees. You accepted the lesser injuries to keep the catastrophic ones at bay. That's where most people got it wrong.

They thought fighting was about not getting hit.

Lancelot had discovered, when he was barely old enough to talk, that this was not the case. It was all about knowing hard you could be hit and still be able to the fuck the other guy - or girl - up. Warriors who were scared of a little pain didn't take chances. They didn't put themselves in a position to do damage.

You didn't have to not care if you died to win. But it certainly helped.

He let a flailing tentacle catch him on his chest, his skin bubbling at the contact, and chopped down, severing it with a spray of purple goo. But the shrieking from the monster, it had not enjoyed that exchange as much as he had.

Lancelot grinned and took another step backwards, leading the creature towards the shore. He didn't really have a plan beyond the next step, the next slice, the next blur of movement, but sometimes that's all you needed.

That, after all, was what life - and death - were about.

*

I felt Lancelot's presence vibrate in my mind - fuck, he's taken another massive injury - and let loose another . I wasn't sure how many more of those I had up my sleeve, especially if Lancelot wanted anything from me when he finally got this thing to the surface.

And particularly if the second Kraken reached us.

Running feet grabbed my attention, and I opened my eyes to see the rest of our little group quickstepping it around the lake. Fuck me. They were going to try to intercept the second creature.

"Big M, in the most charitable of terms, what chance do they have of being able to do what they're planning?"

Well, they seem to be aiming to grab the attention of the second beast. I am happy to confirm that they will likely be one hundred per cent successful in that endeavour.

"And then survive that success?"

Not so much, my dear.

"Fuckadoodledo."

I dropped into my Artist's Studio and took a deep, cleansing breath.

"I have absolutely no idea how we get out of this." At this stage, I hoped the Big M would have some thoughts for me. But, no. He was worryingly quiet. "I don't have enough Qi to keep the air tunnel open, the healing going, and to try something against the second creature. I can pull Lancelot out, I guess, but that's not going to help over much. Especially if Arthur and company get wiped. The water's stupidly cold, so I guess dropping Drynwyn in there on full blast will - eventually - piss them off. But it's a fucking huge pool of water, and we don't have the time. Feel free to chime in anytime you want, mate?"

I'm thinking, my dear. I just cannot figure out a course of action that leaves enough of you alive to be worth the effort. If you are looking for an upside, in most scenarios I envisage, you come out of them alive.

I licked my lips and reran the options.

"Fuck it," I popped back into real-time and yanked on my connection to Lancelot. As he was tethered in a , he flew backwards out of the water to land behind the treeline. A slightly disconcerting side-effect was that as he had a tentacle wrapped around his leg, he dragged the Kraken with him.

The weight of the pull, as I feared it would - even without the fucking monster on the other end of the line - sent me sprawling into the water.

As I hit the freezing liquid, I reached out to the bigger, uglier presence swimming towards Arthur and hit it with , draining everything I had to give it the full beans.

You ever seen a toaster drop in a bathtub? It was a tiny, tiny bit like that.

I wasn't sure which caught up with me first: the Qi exhaustion or the devastating electric shock.

It was one of them.