Hattie refused to return to the outpost camp. She insisted that we needed as many as we could get against the armored snake, that her blessing to make holes in the ground could come in handy. No one could deny that even if her words were slurred and her reaction speed wasn’t anywhere near what it needed to be going into a fight.

Mishtaw and Melka gave her the task of trying to communicate with the rest of the whisper women, just in case she could break through the turbulent winds and get others here to help with the living disaster in front of us. However, Hattie wasn’t to move from her spot unless the sea snake suddenly abandoned destroying the cave’s ceiling and came after her. The chance of Hattie getting in touch with anyone or the snake abandoning its cause were slim, but the calculated risk allowed us to have another able fighter rather than lost as an escort of the squad leader.

Despite Hattie’s argument for staying, both she and Melka thought we shouldn’t go get the fire starter watching over the fire and shadow at the outpost camp.

Melka shook her head. “Not Peacekeeper trained. It’s better for her to stay where she is. The shadows being what they are today that’ll be the best path for anyone who can come join us.”

And that was that.

So, for the actual fight, we were left with three whisper women and three seedlings. All of which were largely unused to fighting with each other.

We rushed through what our blessings were and we rushed through a plan. I didn’t like it, but the snake wasn’t slowing down its destruction for us. The flimsy excuse we had for a plan was to deal enough damage to the snake that it would flee back to the ocean, similar to what I had Prevna do to the monster that ambushed us on the beach. Except we didn’t have fast acting deadly poisons.

Mishtaw hadn’t forgotten about Juniper’s deadly water sphere from our first fight after coming her squad. Unsurprisingly, Juniper had never tried to use the tactic on a creature as large as the armored snake, but if we couldn’t drive the creature off then she was supposed to kill it with her water.

The sound of cracking, tortured stone rent through the air followed quickly by heavy thumps and a few splashes. We turned to see a new section of the cave system crumbling to the snake’s blows.

Then Mishtaw snapped an order and we were running.

As we ran, I saw her take out her prayer needle and prick her wrist before she spoke her ritual words. “Blessings be upon the death I bring today.”

Melka followed suit with Beet. “Blood and honor we offer the goddess.”

Juniper, Idra, and I were too slow to say the words with them, but we pricked our wrists in offering. My mind was only partially on the group and the act of readying my spear while running. The rest still turned over a half-formed plan in my mind to kill the armored snake. I’d need Idra’s shield and Juniper’s water if the plan had any real chance of working, so my first order of business was making sure they made it through the next few minutes.

We reached the lip of the destroyed cave tunnel near the snake’s tail. It ignored us. Beet leapt from the edge without a hint of hesitation and stuck onto the monster’s back. It thrashed like a sheep trying to get rid of an annoying bug but she shifted to the side before it could slam her into the wall with its tail.

Mishtaw and Melka were running along the new ravine’s edge towards the snake’s head. The other seedlings and I followed. There weren’t any weak spots in the creature’s scales for our spears to stick into that I could see and I wasn’t about to jump after Beet. That way seemed like a quick leap to getting crushed or drowned for anyone who couldn’t stick to whatever they wanted.

Melka reached the snake’s head right as it was about to smash its three layered crest up into the next unbroken section of cave ceiling. I glanced ahead as Mishtaw let out her whooping yell and new strength and speed surged through my limbs. Five hundred or so feet before we hit the tree line.

Melka threw her spear. The creature screamed and aborted its upward movement to sweep its head protectively to the side. The cave ceiling cracked but didn’t crumble. Some time bought then.

When the snake moved back into position I saw that the whisper woman had gotten a perfect throw in. The snake’s right eye was ruined.

That didn’t seem to slow it down much.

The next portion of cave ceiling exploded into a rain of rubble. We had to sprint to the side away from the snake and its ravine so that we didn’t get hit by one of the bigger pieces. I hoped that Beet dodged the worst of it.

Mishtaw threw her spear next as soon as we drew alongside it again. It stuck in the back of the snake’s throat. Yellow blood ran from its eye and mouth, coating gray-white scales, and for a brief moment I thought we could win.

Then the creature struck.

Blinded on one side, it missed Mishtaw by a foot and left a long, deep furrow in the ground in front of us. I tried to stab it with my spear but my reach was too short and the snake was gone in an instant.

Melka wasn’t so lucky. The snake snapped forward again and got her around the shoulder and torso before flinging her up in the air. My teeth ground together. It was playing with us.

It had its head back, jaws open wide, ready to swallow Melka whole when the whisper woman’s aura burst out from her and the snake recoiled back from the sudden terror that washed over the area. I struggled against the urge to flee, knowing that it was an effect of her blessing and that doing so wouldn’t help the fight. She must not have had the control to choose who her blessing affected.

Beet appeared around the side of the snake and caught Melka before her second-in-commander slammed into one of the snake’s hard ridges. Rather than flee, the snake tried to constrict around the both of them. Beet pulled Melka along out of the coils but Melka didn’t seem to be moving as well as she should have and Beet’s mobility wasn’t nearly as good with another to support.

Mishtaw yelled again and another burst of vitality shot through me. The pair on the snake began to move better but it couldn’t last.

I turned to Juniper. She had been making water overflow from her hands ever since the we returned near the creature’s head. Idra stood by her, ready to create her invisible sphere at a moment’s notice while Juniper’s small stream flowed over the lip of the ravine. The flow wasn’t strong enough though to do more than run down the cave’s wall.

It wasn’t even close to touching the snake.

“Beet! Over here!”

She didn’t hear me.

Mishtaw grabbed my spear out of my hand and threw it. The spear hit in the softer scales just under the snake’s jaw. More yellow blood covered its scales before my spear snapped in half from the snake’s movement.

A malevolent eye settled on Mishtaw and the snake snapped forward to take a bite out of the whisper woman who kept wounding it. Mishtaw and I scrambled backwards.

The snake made another long furrow in the snowy ground—and touched Juniper’s stream just as it was about to reach our squad leader.

“Surge!” Juniper screamed.

Her hands shifted to make an enclosed sphere as the pearl on her forehead flashed brighter. A sphere of water large enough to enclose the snake’s head, crest and all, bubbled up from her tiny stream.

My heart beat in my throat as we all waited for its head to bloat. The giant fish had taken a minute or two. Perhaps—

The snake sucked in most of the water and spat it back out in a stream at Mishtaw causing the sphere to burst. Mishtaw stumbled back from the force of the water and one of her feet slipped over the ravine’s edge. I reached for her but I wasn’t quick or tall enough and she fell.

Juniper and Idra went flying as the snake swung its head to the side before Idra could get her dome up. The snake swung its head back in the opposite direction to do the same to me.

I leapt for its crest.

The world blurred by as I scrambled for a hold and then desperately tried to not get thrown off. I braced myself on the backside of its crest, clutching to one of the rounded nubs that branched off from the crest. It smelled of brine and algae. The crest felt like a rough stone under my hand.

Then the world tilted and suddenly I was falling even as I held onto the creature. A thundering crack resounded all around me before we hit water.

I lost my grip on the snake. Of course, the only reason why I wasn’t smashed flat was because I had perched behind the snake’s impenetrable crest. The snake rolled away from me and I did my best to find the water’s surface as rocks continued to splash in around me. One hit me in the back and another sliced me along the arm but that helped me locate the surface.

Thrashing snake destroying more of the cave system. No one else to be seen and the forest looming a lot closer than it had been.

I swam quickly toward a large rock pile the snake was ignoring and settled behind it, trying to figure out what happened. What I should do next.

I drew in long, heaving breaths as the cold, salty water made me shiver. The snake must have slammed its whole body into the last section and caused most of it to collapse. Apparently, it didn’t like being delayed or distracted from its task.

I was nowhere near its head now and all I had was my waterlogged sling and eating knife. Neither was strong enough to punch through its scales. I could maybe take out the other eye but I doubted blindness would prevent it from crashing into rock.

Rawley’s spear was still in its mouth. If I couldn’t get it from the outside perhaps I still could from the inside?

I swallowed.

This was a foolish idea. It wasn’t even a plan.

But as far as I could tell there wasn’t anyone else left to do anything and risking the snake’s gut seemed safer than risking the goddess’s wrath.

Nothing would come of it though if I didn’t first get its attention. The snake was preparing to destroy another part of the cave’s ceiling.

I stood up from behind my rock pile and threw a rock at it. The snake didn’t even twitch. I threw another rock with my sling. The water made the weight of it off but this time my rock hit it in the nose.

A minor miracle.

The snake turned and glared at me with its one good eye. I slung another rock at it for good measure and that one bounced off the part of the crest above its eye. Still did the trick though.

The snake hissed and I glowered at it.

“Bite me.”

It dove for me.

One second, two…

I cursed everything about this horrible day and jumped for the spear stuck in the back of its throat. The snake’s mouth closed before I got both my legs all the way and pain bloomed around my calf. The spear was slimy and wet in my hands but it still felt strong. I felt the monster trying to swallow me, pull me down into its gullet, so I kicked it in the roof of its mouth with my free leg.

It reared back with its mouth open. I pulled my injured leg in and repositioned the spear so it pointed straight up, bracing myself against its gums and throat, one hand with a death grip on its horrible tongue.

The snake snapped its mouth closed again and as it did I felt the spear do its work. Soft tissue parted until I thought I hit something vital. My world spun again as the snake thrashed and shook its head but I held on, not sure if anyone would think to check the snake’s stomach if I was swallowed. Each of its movements was weaker than the last until, finally, there was one last crash and water burst into its mouth.

I shoved my way through the opening and swam as best as I could to a small boulder that wasn’t completely submerged. For a brief moment I was reminded of the time Fellen and I barely made it onto the bank of the underground lake in Flickermark as I pulled myself up onto the rock, exhausted.

I never ever wanted to see another gigantic water snake again.

But if I did, next time I would make sure there was a better plan than dive into the thing’s mouth.