"MOVE OUT!"
I shout to Athena, who was way ahead of me.
I swim to the left, and Athena to the right, just as the giant manta ray swims by at the speed of a healthy horse at full tilt.
"Wow, that was a little too close!"
Athena shoots her thought to me subconsciously.
"Hey, Athena... Can Himora hear us?"
I ask her, not knowing so, but also not thinking so.
"Yep."
He answers before she gets the chance.
He goes on.
"But we don't have time to talk. That thing is too fast, too smart, and too strong to slow down now... Let's go."
Himora kicks off and swims full speed at the manta, which stops, flips about in place, and swims right back at him. The swift swordsman slides to the right just as the beast flies by. It took the opportunity to lash out, aiming a deadly slice at the boy's chest with its lethal tail blade.
Himora raised his sword in the nick of time, managing a sloppy yet effective parry.
"WOW! It's faster than I thought!"
Himora thought to himself, the thought spilling over into our minds as well.
He braces himself and blocks a string of attacks from the manta's deadly tail blade, which it wields with the confidence of a seasoned swordsman, before charging forth to counter.
"I'm growing impatient... This isn't as fun as I thought it was going to be."
Himora dodges one last blow, then lashes out with a swift strike that takes the beast's entire tail off at the point where it became a blade. The wounded creature jerks about several times before unleashing an ear-splitting shriek and disappearing in a flash into the distant darkness.
Athena and I look on in shock, scanning the darkness before us for signs of motion.
"Was that the last of it?"
I think to Athena, who I figured would know.
"I... I don't know."
But before we had a chance to wonder much more, we all noticed a pair of glowing eyes growing rapidly closer in the dark.
"Well, it's time to move!"
I mentally shout to Himora and Athena.
I turn from them, not really having a plan, and swim to a corner, conjuring up some energy for a powerful attack.
Off to my right, Athena swims like a dolphin at top speed, desperately trying to lose the manta ray, who apparently had chosen her as its target from among the three of us.
"Dammit!"
I think to myself.
"Not her..."
Athena screams as it draws nearer with its mouth open, prepared for its final blow.
"ATHENA! SWIM THIS WAY, I HAVE A PLAN!"
At the time, I didn't have a plan... but I figured I'd give her some hope. I could feel her fear and anxiety in my own mind, and it threatened to paralyze me.
"I... can't... make it! I'm too tired."
She pants in all of our minds.
"NO!"
I kick off the wall behind me and shoot towards her at full speed, hoping to get to her before it does.
Luck was with both of us that day.
"Ricodai Shien!" (Stone sphere.)
I slammed into her and summoned a sphere of stone around us just in the nick of time. The sphere jolts violently as the manta continuously rams into my impromptu shielding like a shark to a giant clam.
"Himora! I've got Athena with me. Can you handle that thing alone?"
I think outwardly, having no way of knowing where he was exactly. For a moment, all is silent outside of the constant pounding until Himora's voice bursts into both of our heads.
"Yep... Copy that. I'm all good. That thing can't do me much damage without its tail."
Athena nods and looks up at me meekly.
"Thank... Thank you."
She whispers into the hollowed sphere where we could actually speak out loud for the time being. She shivers and shakes, fear racking her bones. I felt kind of weird holding a girl in my arms for the first time. I break our eye contact and turn my face from hers.
"Ah, it was nothing."
I blush as much as my caramel-colored skin would allow.
We could speak, yes, but the air supply was not going to last very long
"Himora... We have less than five minutes before we have to come back out there. If you could at least weaken that thing, I can help you finish it off... But for the moment, Athena is too shaken up to fight."
A handful of seconds pass before his voice rolls calmly into my mind.
"That's more than enough time."
He says.
I trust and believe him.
Himora swims skillfully through the false liquid, swinging his sword in an attempt to menace the great fiend.
"Man, this thing is annoying!"
He thinks to himself, forgetting that we could hear him regardless.
The manta ray slips and slides past Himora, easily dodging his attacks, and occasionally nipping at him with its five-inch teeth and nine-inch fangs.
"Why won't you die!?"
He thinks as he grows more irritated and resolves to summon some help.
"Himoraki!"
He shouts in his head, a pulse of powerful Aether rolling outward from his core.
The entire room trembles as the huge Sea Dragon appears behind Himora and rears its huge head for the attack. The water-like liquid vibrates and shifts about as its massive form suddenly occupies a portion of the space. It was only a solid Aether construct, a manifestation of his own power, but it was just as alive and just as dangerous as the real thing.
The pressure on the outside of my stone sphere increases as well, and I wench as my personal Aether pool is taxed.
"Now to finish this."
Himora rushes at the manta ray as it, in turn, charges towards him. This would be the foul creature's final stand, for there was simply no way that Himora's summoned dragon would fall to it.
Meanwhile, I take my chances and unwrap my arms from around Athena, hoping that she is at least a bit more relaxed.
"Hey... Um... Uh... I know it was scary and all, but..."
I kind of didn't know what to say, as I had never been very good at comforting the opposite sex.
She shook herself a bit and wrapped her arms around her shins, pulling her knees up to her chin and making herself just a bit smaller.
"It's okay... You didn't have to be there for me, and you were... That's all that matters."
I was at a loss for words, but I wouldn't let that be readable on my face.
"It's what I was born to do... Protect."
Athena smiled at me brightly in the dark as she looked me squarely in my eyes.
I blinked a couple of times, then looked away.
I felt a sudden weight on my right shoulder and side as she leaned heavily against me.
As glad as I was that she was okay, I was just as ready for this to be done.
Himora braces his sword and swings at the manta ray, clipping its left wing-like fin.
With an ear-piercing scream, it swung about and swam at the lone warrior in a straight line.
Reeling from pain and desperation, it had obviously forgotten about the massive dragon that lurked behind Himora.
In the blink of an eye, the manta ray was taken into its mouth in whole as the raging dragon shot forth over Himora's left shoulder and snapped its gapping jaws shut.
The Aetheral Sea Dragon chomped down several times, finishing its "meal."
As it swallowed once, twice, and a third time, it began to slowly disappear, and strangely, with it went the gelatin-like liquid.
With a loud and resounding crash, Athena and I hit the floor from a couple of meters up.
My sphere of stone shattered, and we both lay flat on our backs in confusion, waiting for the pain to leave our bodies.
"Uugh... You could have at least warned us..."
I say as I slowly sit up and glance about for my spear.
"Nah, it's funnier this way."
Himora says as he lends Athena a hand in climbing to her feet, then me.
"Let's move on."
He says as he skillfully places his lethal sword back into its sheath.
Athena and I exchange a weary glance.
"Wait... for a moment. Let's rest. There is no way we can take on that golem right now. I'm exhausted."
Even if Himora wanted to protest, the doors couldn't be opened without Athena, so he had no choice but to oblige.
"Yeah, I know what you mean..."
He counters.
"I was gonna say something like that, but I thought you two were ready."
I didn't believe him in the least, for I knew very well his hasty nature.
But alas, a win was a win, and I was not about to point out his eagerness to move on.
We all just lay on our backs and rested as best we could for a couple of hours before forcing ourselves back to our feet.
I was grateful for the magically sealed doors that separated us from each new threat.
After seeing to our weapons and gear, we made our way towards the next door and the next threat.
"Okay, let's go... Wait, how do we beat this thing again?"
Himora and I stop and look at Athena as the answer had slipped both our minds within the heat of the last few battles. Only she held the answers.
She didn't seem to mind explaining once more.
"There is a hole in its mid-section that's about three inches wide. If we can somehow puncture that, it would destroy the thing... Easier said than done, I assure you."
"Oh, man..."
Himora says, crossing his arms over his chest.
I was of a similar mindset, as none of us had the immediate means or weapons types that would be of any help in that area. An idea came to my mind.
"I hate this thing already... But hey, can't you just aim a light beam into the thing's chest hole and kill it?"
Athena laughed the idea off, waving her hand dismissively.
"Nope. If I did that, its body would only absorb the attack and send it back twice as fast and twice as strong."
Himora rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Well, that would be a bad idea, now wouldn't it?"
He said sarcastically.
He went on.
"Now, let's be realistic here... Have we ever had a REAL plan in any of the last three pests that we killed? No. I didn't think so. So, let's just freelance it as usual, and do whatever comes to mind when it comes to mind!"
I look at him, then shift my gaze to Athena.
"...He has a point."
I say.
"Let's just do what we do best, I guess... May the best of luck come to us."
Athena steps up and opens the door.
"Good luck, then!"
She says before she turns and runs into the room that was newly revealed before us.
"Well... Let's go!"
I say, mustering as much courage as possible.
We had already made it this far, right?
Himora draws his sword, I brace my spear, and we rush into the huge room behind Athena.
As we came up alongside her, we both stopped and stood there with our eyes glued to the rear of the huge and daunting golem.
It hadn't turned around yet, nor had it noticed us, but we all stood fear-struck from the sheer size of this earthly beast.
Athena spoke first.
"Oh... My... God... That is one huge son of a b-"
I moved first.
"HEY, LOOK OUT!"
I shout as I push Athena (who was understandably stiff with fear) out of the way just as a huge boulder came crashing down right where she had been standing but a second ago.
"Hey! Let's be a bit more careful, shall we!?"
I yell at her in annoyance.
A sad look appears on her face as the words leave my mouth.
Tears began to gather at the corners of her sparkling eyes.
I swallowed my irritation.
"I'm-I'm sorry, I just was afraid that we'd lose another team mate... Just be a bit more vigilant, okay?"
"Okay."
She says as she jumps to her feet, readies her axes, and prints off behind to the rear of the golem.
Meanwhile, Himora was to my right, muttering something that sounded very much like a spell.
"Himora?... No offense, but we don't have time for tha- AAAAAUGH!"
In my distraction, I didn't see the giant-of-a-golem swing its massive fist at me, which was more of a huge, rounded boulder. It slammed into me like an avalanche, lifting me from my feet and sending me flying across the room and into the wall.
I slammed into it hard, pain shooting up my spine, and fell to my hands and knees, my spear clanging across the floor before me.
"Ouch... Okay...God, that didn't... feel too good."
I climb to my feet, stumbling a bit before regaining my balance. I glance about to see what Athena was up to, this time being sure to watch my own back.
Athena was circling the giant boulder beast, launching great and powerful rays of white-hot light at every part of its looming body.
"Maybe she'll distract it long enough for Himora to do whatever he was trying to do. I'd better go help her out."
I think to myself.
Athena's attempts to slow the beast failed as I had assumed, but in the end, the distraction was worth it, or so I had thought.
As the golem spun around and around in an attempt to crush Athena, it soon grew dizzy and fell over just inches from where Athena stood.
"Wha! That was too close for comfort!"
The shaken woman shouts as she hops backward.
"ATHENA!"
I shout in alarm and dismay.
From my point of view, it looked as if the golem had landed hard right on top of her.
Her response rings out a second later, quelling my fears.
"Bastion... I'm fine! But where is Himora?"
I ran to her side beside the dazed golem, who I could easily tell was not yet dead.
"We shouldn't be this close to this thing... Let's move away. Don't worry about Himora; he is meditating."
Athena shoots me a puzzled look.
"Meditating? Why? He-"
But I cut her off.
"He killed that manta-thing alone. He needs rest. We can handle this thing together until he is good to go."
Athena just nods her head in agreement, and we both turn to face the huge rock menace.
"It's not dead."
I playfully nudge Athena in the ribs.
She giggles and scoots out of range of my elbow.
"Well, we can change that! But... How?"
Before Athena even started voicing the question, I was already in mid-air, above the slowly-rising golem.
"THIS IS FOR MARAKAI!"
I flip forward twice, aiming my spear as best I could at the tiny hole in the center of the monster's chest.
"I hope this works!"
I think in the split-second before impact.
I came down hard on the thing's chest, and a loud growling sound flowed from the crude hole in its face that was its mouth.
My spear was lodged into the small hole with enough force -I thought- to blast through the organic stone deep and into the core.
Alas, I was wrong.
My spear didn't even manage to penetrate even an inch inside.
My impromptu mission had failed on the spot, and to make it worse, my spear was now stuck like some horrible glue in his chest, and to make it even worse, it was moving to stand up.
"OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"
I shout in annoyance.
Athena readies her axes, but her body refuses to take action.
"BASTION! GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
She says, as she stands helplessly on the spot in abject fear, watching me hold on for dear life to my still-lodged-in-the-golem spear.
"Fack that! I am not leaving without my spear!"
As I hang just over nine feet from the ground, I begin to swing back and forth as the golem's giant body -now vertical- stomps towards the helpless girl before it.
"Don't even think about it!"
I think aloud, knowing that the monster had nothing else in its mind but crushing her.
I used the swinging motion to gain momentum, then, with as much power as possible, I swung up and kicked out, catching the golem on what I assumed was its chin, causing it to stumble back in pain and surprise.
"ATHENA! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
I yell to her in mid-air.
"We have no time to stand around! Without Himora, this is going to be a lot harder!"
But as I come down swiftly, landing beside her, I suddenly spot from the corner of my eye a small, bright streak of silver.
"What the hell was that!?"
I think aloud.
As the words leave my mouth, I hear a loud cracking sound, and turn to see the golem reeling about, clutching at its chest in seemingly overwhelming pain.
"An arrow!? But how? Who? Where!?"
I whip my head around in alarm, in an attempt to spot the hidden marksmen.
"It couldn't have been Himora..."
I think to myself as I spot him over in the corner of the room, still on his knees.
I had little time to think, for suddenly, the entire room began to shake, and the walls themselves seemed to moan in pain as the core of the golem violently exploded.