Tiller was the first to notice something was wrong. He began to yell, saying that something had just swum underneath us. He then started firing into the water, leaving behind traces of blue energy with every shot.

Catayla reacted to the warning almost immediately, she jumped onto the boat’s canopy roof and began to fire, the familiar peal of her rifle was like thunder ringing out in quick succession. It was chaos, no one else knew what was happening and yet they all began to shout out orders and questions, even as most of them fired blindly into the water.

“It’s in the water,” Tiller yelled. “Something is circling us, at least ten of them. Probably more. Line up and focus your shots and we can work together to take these things out one at a time.”

Worthy and Bridgett immediately lined up next to Tiller and began to concentrate on the same targets. The blue lines left behind by Tiller’s mana bullets made it easy for the other two to follow his shots and pick out the same foe. It seemed effective, as blood would rise from the areas where the group focused their attacks.

Unfortunately, the creatures were tough and fast and so far, our group had only struck glancing blows. Even Catayla had yet to get a kill.

I looked around, taking the time to activate my arcane shield. The water seemed calm, with only the splash of bullets and a few gentle waves disturbing the surface. It was too dark to see beneath the water, and the explosion and collapsed bridge had kicked up silt and dirt to further cloud the water. Still, I could barely make out areas of the water that seemed darker than the water around them. Faint shadows that were circling us.

I used my connection to the Dark Gemini, and it immediately awoke and dove into the black water beneath us. It changed into an abomination of eyes and tentacles as it did so. A form I had come to call the ‘Gazer.’ It was now healed of damage, without the burns or missing tentacles and eyes it had suffered from originally. It was also considerably smaller, perhaps due to limitations on the creature’s shapeshifting talents.

As my companion dove under the water I was able to share its senses enough to get a vague idea of what was around us. Dozens of fish surrounded our boat, I could only make out silhouettes, but it was enough to see that each creature had large, dagger-like teeth and long stalks growing from their heads. Each ‘fish’ was roughly the size of a dolphin, but fatter and misshapen.

They lacked symmetry and were covered in lumps and protrusions that looked like tumorous growths.

I reached for the sheath at my hip. It was empty.

I had lost my sword on the bridge, so I created a weapon in my left hand. Dark smoke-like energy flowed through my arm and twirled around my fingers before quickly lengthening and solidifying into a spear, black with bits of burning crimson. It smoked and gave off sparks and embers.

The javelin was massive, half again as tall as I was and as thick around as my wrist. It was a scaled-up version of a real weapon I had pulled from my memory, something I had seen at the local aquarium. The blade at the tip was jagged and asymmetrical, with a cruel sickle-like blade that curved behind it.

I didn’t bother creating a line or chain to tether the weapon, as I didn’t want myself, or my boat, dragged under the waves. I would simply create a new weapon after I lost the first.

My strategy was simple – I would use my Dark Gemini to locate the creatures and pin them down with its tentacles, and then harpoon them. Rinse. Repeat.

It worked well, quickly landing me five kills. Tiller, Worthy and Bridgett had managed to take out another two and Catayla had killed at least as many by herself before the school of fish fled, leaving behind floating corpses to bob on the surface of the river.

“Is that all of them?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” Tiller replied. “I can’t hear or see anything, but it doesn’t feel finished.”

“You two,” said Worthy. “You need to learn how to keep your fucking mouths shut. You think whatever is out there isn’t listening to us? Paying attention? You jinx us and it’s liable to fuck with us just for kicks.”

“That’s an interesting theory,” said Catayla. “You might even possess some inexplicable wisdom masquerading as ignorance, but right now we need to focus. Tiller is right. That was just the opening salvo. Something else is coming.”

Without orders the Dark Gemini sank beneath the boat, stretching out its tentacles and searching with a hundred eyes. If would be hard to get past its gaze, even in the dark and murky water.

Hard, but not impossible. I quickly learned that fact as the boat was brought to an immediate stop. The bow of the boat was lifted above the water, and I could feel the eldritch energy the craft was made from begin to distort and bend.

Before I could use the Dark Gemini to confirm what had happened, a large tendril of thick slimy flesh shot out of the water and wrapped around the hull of the boat. The tentacle was massive, long enough to wrap around the small craft twice.

Two more tentacles shot out of the water, hanging above us like executioners waiting for the command cut us down. They cast a shadow that blocked out what little light there was from the moon and the fading sunset that still tentatively clung to the horizon.

The last rays of daylight disappeared behind the horizon. I struck out with everything I had.

Thick spikes grew from the hull of the boat, extending outward and skewering the tentacles around us. A high-pitched scream, just barely within the range of human hearing, rang out as the tentacle that had been wrapped around the boat withdrew beneath waves.

I released the spikes and created a dome above us, just in time to catch the remaining tentacles as they began to pound, denting the dome like hammers upon thin sheet metal.

“It’s not going to hold,” I yelled. “We need to attack those tentacles, drive this thing off.”

I hardly needed to have spoken, however, as the small crew had already begun firing under the dome to hit the tentacles around us.

Maintaining the dome, reforming, and reinforcing it with each blow it took, cost me every drop of mental energy I had.

The Dark Gemini could act separately from me. I cutoff our connection, dropping the sensory input I received from it, and ordered it to follow the tentacles downward and find the main body of this creature. If the creature could be distracted or driven off, we might be able to escape.

“Catayla,” I heard Worthy yell. “Got any more of those explosives? A shockwave might be able to injure this thing, or at least convince it that we aren’t easy prey.”

“A few,” she yelled. “But they’ll be useless unless we can get them close to the main body. These tentacles are boneless and flexible and abomination flesh is notoriously tough, they’d barely feel it. Even if we did take them out, there is a good chance they can regrow, or more are waiting in reserve.”

“Besides,” she continued. “You don’t want to be anywhere near that blast when it goes off.”

An idea hit me, and I ordered my dark Gemini to return.

“Wait,” I stammered. “Will that work? If we can get the explosive close to the main body can we kill this thing?” My words were formed slowly between gasps. The dome was being damaged faster than I could repair it, and it was taking a toll on me physically as well as mentally.

“Theoretically,” said Catayla. “Or at least drive it off, even if we can’t kill it.”

“Good,” I said. “Throw everything you have into the water directly in front of you.”

Catayla either trusted me or guessed at my plan because she didn’t hesitate. She immediately threw three small beads, each no larger than a marble, into the water.

Three splashes were immediately followed by a large bubble that rose to the surface as the beads disappeared beneath the waves.

Strikes continually struck at my barrier, and more tentacles had begun to target the gap I had left at the bottom of the dome, trying to pry it open. I responded by shattering the dome, sending out shrapnel in all directions, severing or wounding the tentacles immediately next to the boat.

For a few glorious moments I was able to catch my breath. I looked around the boat and found that the tentacles had withdrawn, giving us a small gap of time to prepare.

“I’m going to turn this whole boat into a capsule,” I yelled. “We’ll be totally cutoff and defenseless, and those tentacles are going to smash through in a matter of seconds. We’ll have to hope those explosives do their job.”

I looked up at Catayla and then back down towards Tiller. “Anyone else have a better plan?” I asked.

“How long can you hold out for?” asked Tiller.

“A minute,” I said. “Probably less.”

“And Catayla,” Tiller said. “How much time left on those bombs?”

“Fifty-six… fifty-five seconds and counting. Do it now, Finn!” she yelled.

We were immediately surrounded by a darkness that was all encompassing. I had closed the top of the boat, leaving us entombed and unable to react to the danger beyond the thin walls I had created.

It was like being in a bell, the constant barrage of strikes vibrating the craft with deafening cracks. My bones shook, and I felt a sharp piercing pain as an eardrum burst. The attack persisted for several seconds, before seeming to relent.

The reprieve lasted no more than a second, soon I could feel us being lifted out of the water. The stress and fractures that were forming on the construct showed me that three thick tentacles had wrapped around it and were slowly constricting with terrifying strength.

I copied my previous trick, creating long thick spikes around the hull. It worked once more, causing the tentacles to pull away. This time, however, we were not released so gently.

As the tentacles pulled away we were thrown into the air. A rising feeling of vertigo and nausea filled me as we hung weightless for a moment before beginning to speed back down again. As we struck the water the shell I had created around the boat was completed smashed. The stars were visible through a latticework of cracks in the shell above us, and water was beginning to leak in through the hull.

I released the form of the shell and boat, concentrating on the much simpler form of a flat plane beneath us – like a small raft woven of dark and corrupting energy.

“I’m spent,” I moaned. “Hold them off as long as you can.”

“How much longer?” asked Bridgett. “Can we hold off long enough for the bombs to work?”

“Thirty more seconds,” Catayla said. She seemed calm, almost emotionless.

“Might as well be a lifetime,” said Worthy. “I’m not sure we can hold out that long.”

“Just fire at anything that moves,” Bridgett added. “We have to make it through this. I’m not going out as fish food.”

I lay panting while they fought. For what felt like hours, but was actually seconds, they held off the tentacles, shooting, and hacking at them as they rose from the depths. There seemed to be an unending number, each limb quickly being replaced faster than they could be cut down.

“Five more seconds,” Catayla yelled out.

I counted down the final seconds. As I reached zero a shadow reached out above me, speeding downward, seeming to gain speed and size as it descended.

“Now,” yelled Catayla. “Hold on.”

I was once more tossed into the air, quickly losing consciousness as I felt something tightly wrap around my ankle. I recall the sensation of movement and the cool darkness and weightlessness of sinking beneath the waves, and then… nothing.