Kaldalis launched himself towards the boss as fast as he could. Balrim was making for the thin layer of air at the top of the room, and Courbois was going with him, but all the damage dealers were at his back on the charge.

He just had to play conservatively until Balrim caught up to them.

The huge monster was engaged and ready to fight well before he got within reach of it. Tentacles whipped through the water at him, and he had a sudden memory of their first encounter. This monster had grabbed and grappled the adventurers who had been on the ship, dragging them into the water and holding them immobile during the fight.

Kaldalis slowed his charge specifically because he didn’t want to leave his team without him.

He also didn’t want to get held down and drowned. But mostly it was for the good of the group.

As the tentacles reached for him, he whipped the head of his glaive out at them. He got lucky and the blade carved into one of them for seventy-three physical damage and nine earth damage. It wasn’t much, but it was his start on the path to keep the monster’s attention on him while Myrin, Reno, and SeventyEight spread out and started attacking it wherever they could reach.

He got two more solid hits before one of its tentacles came from an angle he wasn’t expecting. It came up at him from below, and slapped across his legs in an impact that felt like getting hit by a car. The blow dealt two hundred and thirty-three physical damage to him, and ninety-three water damage. It tried to wrap around his legs, but the impact had been too forceful, and he spun out of its grip, slamming the edge of his weapon into the tentacle to trade it back for the damage it had done.

One of Balrim’s potions crashed into his back, restoring most of what he’d lost to the strike, but not all.

Kaldalis knew he had to conserve his hit points as much as possible, or else Balrim’s healing would be quickly outstripped. Getting hit again before the potion cooldown was back meant the damage on him would stick, leading to his inevitable death.

Speaking of inevitable death, the boss had more mechanics beyond just filling the water with flailing tentacles that Kaldalis had to keep ahead of. The wall of tentacles around the enormous beak at the far end of the room rippled, creating a narrow opening. A half-dozen small nautilobsters poured out from behind the monster. Each one was only about the size of a small dog, but they jetted through the water at tremendous speed, closing in on the members of his party like missiles.

Luckily, he wasn’t tanking alone. Courbois darted through the water, her staff spinning wildly to strike the nautilobsters before they could intercept and attack the non-tanks among them.

Kaldalis wanted to call for the DPS to move to the adds to get them down - especially Ess, since her spear would give her the Sweeping Strikes ability to enable her to batter down the whole group of them at once - but he was unable. Being underwater meant he couldn’t talk. Opening his mouth to shotcall would just make a bubbling noise and empty his breath bar.

Luckily, Myrin knew the drill, and Reno and Ess followed her lead as they broke off from the boss and their combined damage tore the adds apart in seconds.

It was starting to be more and more understandable that Voker’s group had suffered in this fight. If Kaldalis had to work on picking up adds, that would increase the chances of the boss landing another hit on him faster than Balrim’s healing could keep up. If he were more single-minded, he might not even notice them, since nobody could call for help, or suggest changes in strategy. But with their numbers advantage, second tank, and wordless cooperation, the major complications of the fight were trivialized.

Well, most of the major complications. The other one - his gradually emptying blue breath bar - was inching closer and closer to the point where it would demand his attention.

The boss parted its tentacles again to unleash another wave of nautilobster adds after another minute of everyone chipping away at it. The motion was accompanied by a pause in its attacks, allowing Kaldalis to swim to the ceiling, around the chandelier. He needed to take the spare moment to refill his breath bar before the situation became truly dire.

There was only about an inch of air between the ceiling and the surface of the water. It was slightly awkward trying to get his mouth and nose out, especially with his horns in the way, but by doing a vague backfloat he was able to get his airways out of the water long enough for him to blow his breath out and inhale new air. It was far from fresh - it smelled like an old dish sponge - but it turned his mostly-black breath bar blue again, and that was all he required.

As soon as the relief hit him, so too did a giant tentacle.

The three hundred and twenty-six total damage hammered against his hit point total again, but this time, the thick tentacle snaked around his chest after impact, establishing a firm hold. He barely managed to stop from gasping out the one breath he’d been allowed to sneak before he was yanked back under the water.

The first instinct was to kick and flail wildly. Obviously, though, that wasn’t going to be much help. Kaldalis knew full well that unarmed attacks did no damage - they just kinda hurt. What he needed to do was to keep his wits about himself. He was in a compromised position, certainly, but a reasonable, intelligent response would be his way out of it.

He couldn’t allow the less educated parts of his brain to demand an ineffective, suicidal solution.

Gripping his glaive firmly near the head of the weapon, he stabbed into the tentacle wrapped around himself.

He realized it wasn’t terribly wise when he felt the tip of his own weapon scrape against his own armor. But the water around him shook as the boss snarled in response to the strike, its grip tightening around him. He struggled to not let the breath be squeezed out of him as the plates of his armor ground together by the pressure.

Twisting the weapon in the wound didn’t do any more damage, but Kaldalis could feel the muscles in the appendage tensing in pain.

It also felt extremely satisfying.

At least, until the tentacle gripping him whipped him around to slam him against the ceiling.

Like the twisting of the weapon, it didn’t count as an attack to deal damage, but it still hurt like a bitch.

Kaldalis’s primary focus was on keeping his breath in his chest. While he was being swung around wildly, his friends were hammering away at the beast’s hit points. It was his job to hold the monster’s attention. Being manhandled by a tentacle wasn’t the most conventional way to do that, but it still counted.

The monster roared again, the sound deafening through the water, and the giant beak snapped twice before the tentacle holding him started to pull him in.

Kaldalis could see where this was going, and he didn’t like it.

Unfortunately, in the absence of other options, he just withdrew his spear and started stabbing in at the tentacle again, hoping to do enough damage to make it release him.

He failed.

As the tentacle pulled him before the giant beak, he saw that the monster was in a rough state. Its flesh-toned tentacles were covered in cuts and darkened bruises, little trickles of blue blood filling the water around it. But it had more than enough strength to snap its beak down on his shoulder. Despite the creature’s mouth being the size of a small car, the attack only added another three hundred and twenty-six total damage.

The real danger was its tongue.

The tongue was covered in small barbs. As soon as it touched him, it stuck to his armor like velcro, and before he could try anything, he was swallowed whole.

Being swallowed whole kinda sucked. His darkvision meant that he could see his surroundings, but the tightness of the muscular action drawing him deeper into the monster’s esophagus meant he couldn’t bring the edge of his weapon against the leathery interior.

He tried to reassure himself that his team would be fine. They could finish the fight without him. They had another tank, right? It might take a moment for Courbois to catch up in aggro to everyone else, but if they were smart, they could finish the boss off and they could be ready to move on as soon as he respawned.

A moment after that thought, the esophagus deposited him into what he assumed Hell was going to be like.

He was suddenly surrounded by searing pain. He closed his eyes to try and shut out the burning sensation that surrounded him. What was worse was the pressure and grinding from what felt like a mountain of gravel coming from every angle. From his undirected education on animal anatomy, he guessed he was in a gizzard of some sort. A combination of acidic enzymes and small swallowed stones would break him down in a toothless animal’s replacement for chewing.

Even with his eyes closed, he could see his UI, and a little debuff appeared, notifying him that he was being digested. His HP was draining slowly, and suddenly all of the armor was a detriment. The damage reduction it offered meant he was going to be suffering the creature’s acids for significantly longer.

He tried to flail around with his weapon, but the inside of this part of the beast had been designed to endure the punishment of its own digestive process. There were rocks in here at least as sharp as a blade, and nothing was breaching the leathery barrier from the inside, especially since he couldn’t get any leverage from here..

All he could do was sit and wait to become a ghostly spirit, so that he could get out of the gizzard.

About half of his hit points slowly burned away before he got the notification that the boss - the Royal Nautilobster - was defeated, awarding him a few hundred experience points. The digestion debuff didn’t wear off, though, so he just kept his eyes closed and his lips pressed together and hoped it would be over soon.

It turned out that it was. There was a sudden rush of cold as the tight space he was in filled with outside water. He didn’t really have any options to get leverage to push his way out, but there was a brush of sensation on his leg, and four hands grabbed him and pulled him out.

Emerging into the boss room didn’t do much for his visibility. The water was clouded with blue blood. He was, however, able to see the vague outline of what could only be Reno - the horns were a dead giveaway - and she gestured for him to follow.

Swimming through the blue cloud of blood, Kaldalis was surprised at how dense and far-reaching it was. He didn’t actually get his vision back until he emerged into open air - enough for his whole head to emerge. It let him take a full breath for the first time in what had felt like half an hour.

“We thought we lost you for a minute,” Reno said as he caught his breath.

“More than a minute,” Balrim said from nearby. There was an impact of a potion against Kaldalis’s shoulder and a chunk of his hit points returned. “We thought we were waiting for you to respawn.”

“Thanks,” Kaldalis said, looking around. Balrim was standing on a stone staircase that emerged from the water and vanished up into darkness.

“Ess didn’t want to wait,” Reno said, gesturing as the finnian broke the surface right after. “She wanted us to go back and get you out, since your hit points were still chipping down.”

“I appreciate it,” Kaldalis said, reaching over to pat Ess on the shoulder as he paddled towards the stairs. “I wasn’t looking forward to adding another fifteen minutes to our time just because I couldn’t die any faster.”

“That was nuts,” Courbois said from nearby as she broke the surface next, before swimming towards the stairs.

“Easy for you to say,” Kaldalis shot back as he finally felt the first of the stone steps under his feet, “you didn’t get swallowed.”

“Maybe the next time a boss tries to grab you and pull you towards its mouth,” she said with a smirk, “you don’t go along with it. I promise you, there’s not going to be an enemy where getting eaten is the optimal strategy.”

Kaldalis grinned. “Seems fake, but okay.”