“The sword?” I asked.
“Was thinkin’ the same thing. Should I?”
“Maybe we should cut the side open first and look for the runes. It might be another trap we can disable.”
Marissa frowned. “But that takes soooo long.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Go for it.”
“Watch my back, yeah?”
I nodded, taking up a defensive position behind her.
Marissa stuck the sword in the slot.
I heard a ‘click’, followed by what sounded like a musical chime.
Weird.
Then the waterfall subsided, and the pool of water in the center of the room began to drain.
Behind where the waterfall had been, we could see another passage into a small chamber. A glimmering golden axe hovered in mid-air.
“Okay, I have to admit, that’s a pretty impressive effect.”
We were so distracted by the shiny object that we barely noticed that the room was getting darker.
That wasn’t shadow magic at work.
It was the gigantic serpent that had emerged from the draining water, and was now looming above us.
The creature was much smaller than Mizuchi, but still terrifyingly huge. A good twenty feet of it was exposed, and I couldn’t tell how much was still below the water or coiled up. It was only about four feet wide, but that still meant that it was big enough to swallow a person whole.
I noticed it first. “Uh, Mara?”
She was just about to reach for the axe when she turned. “Huh?…oh. Fudgenuggets.”
The serpent roared, reared up, and took a deep breath.
And, in spite of my better instincts, I didn’t run.
I attacked.
As the creature swooped down, jaws wide, I jumped and activated the ring. I aimed for its head, but it twisted to the side and tried to bite me out of the air.
I activated the ring again, blasting myself backward. The creature’s jaws snapped shut where I’d been floating a moment before.
Marissa charged and did exactly what she promised.
“Rising thunder!” Her first swirled with mana as she pulled it back, then slammed it into the creature’s scales. The serpent roared and recoiled at the impact.
I floated to the ground a moment later. “Let’s keep it flanked!”
“Got it!” Marissa punched it again, while I ran behind it.
I’d considered that a valid tactic right up until the creature’s tail flashed out of the water and slammed right into my chest.
I flew backward, crashing into the stone cavern walls. My barrier and shroud softened the impact, but it still knocked the wind right out of me.
It took me a few whole seconds to stand, and another couple to steady myself.
By that point, Marissa had fallen back on the defensive. The serpent descended to bite her, but she nimbly dodged to the side and landed another punch on the side of the creature’s head.
Its tail whipped out to slam into her, but Marissa was ready, and she hopped several feet in the air to launch herself over it. She couldn’t quite get the height that I could with the ring, but her attunement enhanced her physical capabilities far beyond what an ordinary human could muster.
Marissa drew back for another punch, charging mana in her fist.
The creature whipped its tail — but not at her, this time.
It smashed the water, sending a tidal wave across the room.
We braced ourselves, but the water still impacted us hard and threw us off our feet.
Cold.
I shivered as the water subsided. The chill didn’t bother me as much as the weight — my clothing was soaking now, and that would limit my mobility.
Before we had a chance to recover, the serpent reared up and took a deep breath.
“Dodge!” Marissa yelled.
“You don’t have to tell me that!”
We rushed to opposite sides of the room, both thinking that would help us avoid whatever came next.
We were mistaken.
When the creature exhaled, the temperature in the chamber plummeted, and I realized our first mistake.
We weren’t dealing with a creature of water.
This was a monster of ice.
The serpent turned toward me, still exhaling. The breath was freezing everything in its path solid. I couldn’t trust my shroud to defend against that.
“The wall!” Marissa screamed.
Shivering and barely capable of movement, I realized what she meant just before the serpent’s breath reached me.
I jumped to the side, activating my ring, and threw myself straight at the wall.
Or, more specifically, at the closest enchanted torch.
I slammed right into it. Normally, that would have been a terrible idea, but I was currently both wet and half-frozen from the serpent’s breath, so the flames didn’t burn me in the slightest.
After a moment of hugging up against the torch, I sliced it off the wall and grabbed it with my off-hand, pulling it dangerously close to my skin to evaporate what I could of the clinging ice and water.
The serpent turned away from me and back toward Mara. She had already grabbed a torch and was trying to warm herself in the same way.
Fortunately, the creature had stopped using its breath to freeze the room, but much of the damage had already been done. Part of the lake that hadn’t drained away was frozen solid, and ice clung to nearly every surface of the room. Even maneuvering would be difficult.
That made it all the more dangerous when the creature lunged for Marissa again, jaws wide.
I’m making a bad habit out of this.
I threw my sword at the creature’s back.
It was, fortunately, a much easier throw than hitting the spider had been. The serpent was basically one giant target.
The blade pierced the creature’s scales easily. The serpent screamed and thrashed, abandoning its attack.
I rushed forward, slipped on the ice, and hit the floor.
The serpent turned, howled into the air, and rose up like a snake about to strike.
I barely managed to stand, then fired a blast from my demi-gauntlet into the creature’s head.
That just made it angrier.
The serpent’s head descended, jaws side.
Snap.
The creature’s head continued downward…but fell off to the side, severed from the rest of its body.
Nearby, Marissa lifted the golden axe into the air and cheered. “Yeah! This thing is great!”
I blinked, turned my head to the headless serpent, and then back to Marissa.
Then I burst into laughter. “Talk about dramatic timing there, Mara. That thing was seconds from eating me.”
“I know! It was great!”
Mara twirled the axe around, grinning. “Think this is the real thing we came for. Cut through that thing like paper.”
“Sounds about right.” With my attunement active, I could see several runes glowing on the surface. I couldn’t identify them with Mara swinging it gleefully all over the place, though. “You did great there.”
“Thanks! Couldn’t have gotten a clean shot if you hadn’t thrown your sword at it. Do you practice that? You seem to do it a lot.”
I laughed. “I actually did used to practice throwing weapons, but mostly knives and darts. Swords aren’t great for throwing, but sometimes I don’t have better options.”
“What about that shockwave thing you can do when you swing it?”
“That’s not bad for small stuff, and it hits harder than a dueling cane, but it’s hard to aim and—”
I heard a rumbling to my side. I frowned.
Mara paused, too. “Did you hear that?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it sounded like it was coming from—”