Siren's Reach - Fallen Lands Book 3

Chapter Thirty-Six

The Silence of the Crabs

Evelyn

It was really sad to say, but by this point, finding myself unexpectedly flying through the air was something I had grown accustomed to. I quickly oriented myself and reached out to Sibylla. She was tumbling with a look of shock and even a bit of worry, but that all calmed as soon as my hand closed on hers. There might not have been any shadows soaring through the sky for her to jump through to safety, but with me beside her, she knew she wouldn't need them.

I pulled her toward me, and she twisted in sync so we were right side up. We locked arms in a tight, secure grip as I began using [Channel Wind] like a magical airbrake. Now, that might sound like we were hugging, but I would never call it that. Sibylla is very skilled with poisons and curses, and she prepared a lot of our food. Still, that didn't stop a small smile from reaching my lips as our momentum finally dropped enough for me to switch to a proper [Slow Fall], easing us toward a much softer landing.

With that crisis averted, I looked around, using the time floating down to figure out where we were and what was going on. We'd been flung nearly straight up, at least twenty meters. Either by fluke or trick of physics, we'd managed not to be thrown nearly as far away from K'thralis as the shattered chunks of shell. I didn't think we were actually much more than a dozen meters or so from where the others were below, and I began to nudge us in their direction.

They were making it easy for us. Amélie had shifted to her fox form to keep up with Haunt as they ran in our direction, leaping from one island to another through the shifting sand. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't just to meet up with us. They were running away from K'thralis and the destruction spreading out from his chaotic dance in the sand.

Below us, the sea churned in messy spirals, half of the beach dragged away or submerged. At the center, framed by the wreckage of his own shattered shell, K'thralis stood reborn. He was no longer the armored beast we'd been fighting. That creature had been a fortress. This thing was a true monster. His body was long and gleaming now, too slick and wet for proper carapace, with exposed muscle threaded through translucent plating. Patches of barnacles and twitching polyps still clung to him like parasites.

His legs moved with jarring speed, whipping the sand with every step, and his front claws had changed. He was still peeling away their old shells, but one looked sleek and serrated like a mantis blade. The other was only half exposed, but as he frantically tore away at what remained of his old carapace, we could already see something jagged and twisted below.

His eyes had multiplied. What used to be two massive orbs on stalks had unwound into a cluster of glowing, asymmetrical orbs, some pulsing with soft blue light, others dark as abyssal depths. His mouth had split open into something more like a starfish turned inside out, ringed with rows of teeth and proboscis-like tendrils flickering for prey. It was as if whatever had corrupted the last spawn point we destroyed had infected the rest of K'thralis below, and we'd just set whatever he'd become free.

"I changed my mind," Sibylla told me quietly as we drifted toward part of his discarded shell floating on the sand. "I'm not eating that."

Casually forgetting to inform her she could let go any time, I gave a comforting squeeze. "It's okay, Sibyl. You collected plenty of normal giant crab limbs already. Besides, now you can blow that thing up for ruining your dinner plans!"

She slumped, actually laying her head on my shoulder. "No, I can't. I'm almost out of reagents for the good bombs. I'll have to spend some more time in the spirit world to stea… acquire some more. We're going to have to stab him to death the old-fashioned way."

I opened my mouth to reply, but immediately forgot what I was going to say when we were hit by a wall of noise that drove our ears flat. K'thralis' maw was wide open, roaring out a deep call that resonated with mournful pain and fury. The base note was so loud that I could see the air vibrating as much as I felt it. It went on and on, forcing us to let go of one another to clamp our hands to our heads in a useless attempt to block it out.

Movement on the ground caught my attention, making me think the sound was yet another way it was moving the beach, but I looked down, and my breath caught. Below us, the crab corpses were rising. As I watched, every one of them began to move, staggering toward K'thralis in the crab approximation of a zombie shuffle. Disembodied limbs just dragged themselves along. Sloughed-off organs and even some pieces of the shattered carapace with bits of meat clinging to them began squelching their way across the beach.

They weren't moving quickly, but there were enough close to K'thralis that we could already see what was happening. The first to reach him were waves of the smaller crabs he'd been spitting at us earlier in the fight, the ones meant to pin us in place. As they reached the base of what his legs had become, they began to melt and flow together, oozing around the base of the massive limbs before solidifying again.

The roar finally ended, leaving behind an echoing pulsing song, as they merged into the beginnings of a new shell, though I only noticed the change because the air finally stopped vibrating. I wasted no time pulling one of my emergency health potions from my belt. It took a few seconds, but the ringing, dead tone that had replaced my hearing began to fade, and I could finally hear Sibylla speaking.

"…stop him somehow! He's trying to reset the fight! If he replaces his entire shell, we're back to square one!"

I spared a moment to adjust my [Channel Wind] spell, nudging us back on course before replying, "Maybe we have to hit him, like when we interrupted his summoning."

Taking my own advice, I pointed toward a cluster of eyes and let loose with a [Sun Ray]. A blinding flash ignited the air between us and K'thralis, only to slam harmlessly into a shimmering blue shield that flared up just before impact. Clear trails of mana streaked from the shield back to a glowing point on the sand near the base of his legs… and that's when I realized we had a much bigger problem.

Not all the corpses were being used to rebuild his armor. Plenty of them were going into building something else entirely. At first, I didn't understand what I was looking at. Several spots in a rough semicircle between us and K'thralis were drawing the corpses together, but they weren't just piling up. They were combining and … fusing?

Legs tangled with carapace, shattered shell locked with rotting muscle, chunks of dead meat pulling themselves into a single, hulking shape. Dozens of eyestalks swiveled in different directions before melting down into one oversized mass, and jagged claws snapped into place where no anatomy should allow.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is," I muttered.

"That's not what you think it is," Sibylla replied instantly. "It's worse."

The first creature lurched upright. Its shape was vaguely crab-like, but twisted and wrong. Too many legs, no symmetry, and a gaping, vertical maw where its entire face should have been. The meat still sizzled and popped where it fused together, and strands of dark magic flickered like nerves beneath exposed breaks in its shell.

Instinctively, I hit it with an [Insight].

[Undertide Maw – Sub-Boss, Level 37]

It dropped into motion with terrifying speed for something so large, skittering sideways in broken bursts of motion, snapping through debris as it went. I saw Haunt whirl to face it, barking once as Caeda slid off his back. She raised her hands, already weaving a spell, and I knew she was about to try something desperate.

"We can't leave them to fight that thing alone!" I shouted, looking down and trying to figure out a way to hasten our descent without crushing Sibylla.

Far below, we could see the other corpse piles beginning to twist and bubble. A second creature was already forming, and more would follow.

Sibylla clapped her hands, grabbing my attention. The moment my eyes met hers, she pointed toward the others. "Just go! I will be down in a few seconds. I'll catch up!"

I nearly growled in frustration, but nodded. "Okay. Stay safe."

She gave me the flattest look imaginable, but nodded once. In the next second, I was off. I blasted in their direction with a [Squall Step] and began sprinting through the air, [Channel Lightning] already crackling at my heels. I nearly missed a step with a notification that [Wind Walking] had gained a level, but I dismissed it and focused on the fight ahead. Below me, the second monster was nearly complete, and the third was already beginning to rise, but I forced myself to focus on the current threat.

The moment it came within range, I used [Heroic Leap], hurling myself, glaive first, directly at it. In an arc more like a cannonball than my usual meteoric plunge, I slammed the blade of my weapon through the thing's disturbingly jelly-like face, knocking it back nearly three meters. My glaive didn't stick, instead sliding free of the rotted meat and nearly throwing me off-balance. The remains of its face sloughed off with a sickening splat, but rapidly filled back in with a wet slurry of worming tendrils of flesh.

The smell of it all nearly staggered me, but in that moment, I didn't have time to complain, because it was already attacking. With insect-like single-minded aggression and disregard for its own well-being, it reared up and charged. Pincers were snapping down at me from above, several legs were kicking their bladed tips at my stomach, and whipping tentacles were slashing at my throat.

Only then did I realize how big this monster was. Coming head-on at me, its body was at least three times as wide as I was tall, giving it the reach to attack me from nearly every direction all at once. My glaive spun in a chaotic flurry, cracking shell and sending snapping arcs of electricity with every deflection, but I had no opportunity to strike back. I was nearly overwhelmed in the first few seconds, staggering back on the narrow walkway of sand we were fighting on. When I finally gained my footing and began to hold my own, I was able to take in the damage my defense had been doing to him.

His shell was full of missing notches and chunks, but more carapace had flowed in, making it all look more like scars than wounds. Worse, I could see the lightning crawling and snapping up his limbs as I knocked them away, but other than leaving webworks of charred burns behind, it wasn't having any noticeable effect. The thing only continued its berserk, single-minded attacks.

A burst of movement caught my attention, and I half turned, ready to defend against another attacker, only to see a swarm of illusions rushing past. It was dozens of copies of our entire party, all rushing out together, no doubt the spell that Caeda was working on. The distraction might have saved my life, too, because that pull away from my current fight let me see that another sub-boss was charging directly at me, and this one was ignoring the illusions scattering out toward the others that were nearly done forming.

The new attacker wasn't much larger than the one I was already struggling with, but it was a tank of a crab, layered in thick, interlocking armor. Its claws were absurdly oversized, even for something that size, which I knew because one of them was already coming down to crush me from behind.

Willing to take a few scratches from the first sub-boss over getting my head flattened, I dropped my defense and dove beneath the newcomer. The claw slammed down just behind me, missing by inches—but the Undertide Maw took full advantage of the opening. Instead of the glancing slashes I'd expected, one of its legs shot forward, the razor tip punching clean through my battlegown and deep into my side.

I hung in mid-air on the end of that leg, breathless, stunned by the sheer shock of it. Then the pain hit. The first monster began pulling its leg back, dragging me with it, and the second was already shifting for another attack. Not that it mattered. The Maw was lifting me straight toward the massive tunnel of teeth that passed for a mouth. I grabbed at the leg with a numb hand, trying to push myself free, but there was no time.

Its rotting, oversized mouth lunged toward me—only to vanish in a sudden roar of flame and violence as I was hurled clear. Amélie stood where the creature had been, fist extended in a low, grounded stance, a massive drake of fire erupting from her strike and tearing through the sub-boss as it staggered, barely staying upright. She didn't even glance my way before the second monster was on her, forcing a sideways leap—yet even in motion, she flung another shimmering shield in my direction.

My fingers were numb and sluggish as I fumbled at my belt for the second-to-last health potion. I didn't wait for it to take effect before launching into a dizzy, unsteady crawl toward where I'd dropped my glaive. The Undertide Maw was already recovering, its furious eyes locked on me. I reached the weapon and closed my fingers around the haft, but I wasn't stable enough to stand. Still, I raised the blade in trembling defiance.

Then Sibylla vaulted into view, sprinting up the creature's back. Her blade carved a dark, hissing crescent through the air, severing every eyestalk from its shell in one brutal stroke.

The Undertide Maw let out a shriek so high we could barely hear it, staggering wildly before nearly toppling onto its back and sending Sibylla diving off into another shadow, vanishing just as the monster began spinning in frantic circles, striking blindly while its eyes slowly regrew. I wanted to take advantage of the moment, but I'd only barely regained my feet. I turned my head to check on Amélie just in time to catch the tail end of what looked suspiciously like her suplexing the other sub-boss. It landed on its back, and I used the opportunity to hit it with an insight.

[Tidewrought Husk – Sub-Boss, Level 38]

I hadn't noticed before, likely due to his claw being about to crush me, but his movements were far slower than the Maw's. Even now, struggling to flip himself back over, he seemed almost sluggish. But with his size, that slow pace was deceptive. Every motion carried massive weight and force, like a falling tree that looked graceful… right up until it flattened you.

I shook that nonsensical thought away. It only reminded me how much blood I'd probably lost. Amélie had turned and run back to my side in the time it took my head to clear, and I felt her magic flood through me, patching up all the damage left after the healing potion had run its course.

Seeing I was alright, she said, "Evelyn, you stick with the Maw. There is no way I could keep up with that thing. I will distract Husk. Sibylla, you focus on killing them."

"Uh-huh," Sibylla said, appearing beside us. "And what about the other eleven? They're nearly done murdering all of Caeda's illusions. These two don't even look like the worst of them."

I looked across the beach. K'thralis still hadn't moved, but the armor had crept further up his legs. And between him and us, eleven more sub-bosses were rampaging through the remnants of Caeda's illusions. Sibylla was right. These weren't the worst. I watched one, a mountain of rot-spewing barnacles skittering on a swarm of thin, spidery legs, tear through several illusions in a blink. The others were no less grotesque, and all of them jostled and knocked each other aside as they fought for the chance to murder our tiny, flickering decoys. One accidentally stomped a blue Haunt, who vanished in a puff of glittering light.

Amélie saw it too, but snapped, "We'll deal with them when they get here. For now, we need to kill these ones quickly!"

"What about Caeda?" I asked, realizing suddenly she hadn't rejoined us. Haunt and she were both missing. My heart leapt into my throat, but Amélie cut me off,

"She's out of mana — nearly passed out. Haunt's hiding her on the outskirts of the fight. Can you hit them while they're grouped up? It's the only way we stand a chance!"

I nodded and reached for my storm… only to find it stretched thin and scattering. Somehow, I hadn't noticed until now that something, or someone, was pushing it apart. The spirits didn't even seem to hear my calls, thoroughly distracted by something else when I instinctively reached out to them.

"I… Can't!" I sputtered in disbelief, entirely unable to comprehend my level sixty [Weather Control] failing to do anything at all. "Something is breaking up my storm!"

Sibylla squinted upward, shading her eyes. "Is it just me, or is it getting... brighter?" I shot her a look, and she huffed, "I mean, way too bright, even without the clouds!"

I didn't answer right away, but I knew she was right the moment I turned my gaze back to the sky. The clouds were parting in deliberate spirals, sunlight pouring through in shimmering waves that danced off the sand. It wasn't just bright, it was golden. The kind of warm light that didn't belong in a battlefield, or anywhere near this hell of claws and blood and reanimated seafood.

A golden aurora shimmered across the clouds, bending in slow arcs toward the beach. The more I looked, the less it looked like just light, and the more it looked like intention. The rampaging sub-bosses froze for just a second, enough for Caeda's final illusion to vanish in a flicker of blue sparks… and then the world exploded in light.

A thunderclap of sunfire ripped down from the sky, searing through the massed horrors like divine retribution. For one impossibly bright instant, I saw their outlines in silhouette. A still frame of writhing tentacles, shrieking mouths, spiked limbs, before the storm erased them all in a pillar of radiant plasma. I had to turn away, eyes watering. Even the lightning crackling around me dimmed in the flood of light.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

When it faded, the battlefield was… still. Not quiet, certainly not safe, but still. The rampaging horrors were gone, and what little was left of them twitched in piles of scorched shell and boiled meat, strewn across a shimmering field of heat-warped glass and rising steam. Only the two we were fighting remained.

And then, just ahead of us on a floating shard of crab shell, her nine tails spread wide and shimmering with residual sunlight, stood Chiasa. She smiled gently, as if she hadn't just erased half the beach in a sunlit apocalypse. Her warm, calm voice rang out like a breeze through wind chimes.

"You were falling behind the encounter curve. I adjusted the field to bring the challenge level in line with your current party size."

Sibylla gawked. "You set the ocean on fire. With the sun. That's not adjusting, Mom! That's divine intervention!"

Chiasa's expression didn't change. If anything, her smile deepened with serene amusement. "I was very careful not to touch your objectives. The remaining two are well within your capabilities, provided you stop arguing and finish the task. The rest…" she gestured idly to the scorched ruin behind her, "were not intended for a party of three."

She paused, and when we all only continued to stare in disbelief and confusion, she entirely misinterpreted our stares. Her tone softened slightly while her eyes passed over each of us.

"Do not think of this as interference, darlings. It was a correction of scale. One that ensures you still have a chance to succeed. You were doing quite well, but some balancing was needed. If you're feeling rested, now would be a good time to reclaim the pace."

I finally managed to blurt, "Mom! You're here!" but Amélie squeezed my arm.

"She will still be here when we're finished, Evie. And she is right, we need to seize the initiative. Just as we planned, let's go!"

Reluctantly, I nodded. The two remaining sub-bosses had been blinded and stunned by the flare, but they were already beginning to recover. As I moved to intercept them with Amélie, I saw a visibly frustrated Sibylla stomp her foot, but rush over to quickly hug Chiasa before dropping into a shadow. Wisely, I kept the smile off my face, pretending I hadn't noticed and focusing on how to kill the monster in front of me.

The Undertide Maw was regenerating nearly everything I threw at it, and seemed frustratingly impervious to my [Channel Lightning]. It wasn't that it was immune to the damage; I could see the burns being left behind. The problem was that it completely ignored the effects that usually came with it. No stunning, no slowing, no staggering, not even a twitch at the smell of ozone. It just continued the steady, relentless advance. The damage was real, but it was too slow. I needed something stronger. Something with finality.

I started drawing the storm back together, but there wasn't enough time for its slow build. If my normal strikes weren't cutting it, it was time to bring out a classic. I launched myself into the air with [Heroic Leap], aiming my descent squarely for the center of the beast's armored back. My glaive struck first, primed with a [Heroic Strike] as I slammed down with all the force I could muster. Its legs, already spread wide from its wild flailing, shot out straight as the full weight of my momentum drove it to the ground. The impact sent me bouncing off its shell, but the attack had been savage.

For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of violet light from somewhere inside the wound. Then the flesh began to knit back together again, slower this time.

Feeling optimistic, I called out to the others, "I think it can only regenerate so much! It looked slower to begin healing this time!"

Sibylla darted behind it with a brutal swing of her sword that ricocheted off the shell. Annoyed, she called back, "Then talk less and stab more!"

Ignoring the snark, Amélie shouted, "This one is taking more damage from fire and divine attacks!"

Sibylla snorted, "Watch them turn out to be undead." She leapt over a leg swinging out at her, then dove away, hurling a sickly green hex in her wake. It hit the shell and glanced off just as easily as her sword had. She huffed, "I'm going to help Amélie. This stupid thing is immune to curses."

I… didn't know what to say to that. But that was fine. Before I could respond, the Undertide Maw managed to orient itself again and charged. This time at least, I knew what to expect, and I was ready with some new tricks. Standing my ground, I cast [Stormbloom] twice before it reached me, both times letting the spell take root where I expected him to start attacking.

I wasn't sure how the spell would react to the weird dungeon magic-laced environment, and it was slightly more difficult to cast without a staff, but it took root without issue. Before I had a chance to see what would come of it, the sub-boss was on me. This time, when it reared up and started swiping at me with its claws and legs coming from every direction, I didn't fall back. Instead, I used [Illusion Craft], giving it two more targets to swing at, and rather than fighting defensively, I used [Heroic Strike] on my first parry.

The combination of the powerful counter-strike and confusion caused by the illusion stopped the Undertide Maw in its tracks. It was only for a moment, but it was enough. I followed up with a heavy thrust into a gap in its mismatched carapace. My glaive tore free in a burst of bloody seawater… which promptly rained down on the storm-touched fauna I'd planted earlier.

Both patches of growth exploded upward, a dense, white ivy unfurling in every direction, but especially toward the source of "nutrients" above. The wound sealed shut just before the vines could reach it, sending the creeping mass searching elsewhere, trailing after the scattered gore on the ground.

But that motion drew my attention to something else. The sand at the tips of the monster's legs was rapidly drying, as if the creature were sucking water straight from beneath the beach. I stared in near disbelief for a moment too long and nearly took a claw to the head for the trouble.

I snapped my glaive back into motion, forcing my rhythm to return as I shouted, "I think he's healing using the water in the sand!"

Amélie replied from far closer than I expected. "This one is not!" There was a loud crack and roar of flames, and she bounced to land only a few feet away from me. "He is only taking damage from fire and divine abilities! I am very confident he is undead now!"

She charged ahead again, and from somewhere behind and above, Sibylla chimed in, "A DPS race inside a DPS race? That's stupid."

I wanted to turn and check on them, really wanted to, but I couldn't afford even a glance. I was using everything I had to stay alive. The ghost-pain of that earlier impalement still ached deep in my side. I was never fighting without heavy armor again. But more important than the pain was the positioning. I was keeping the Undertide Maw circling tight, spinning just above the patches of Stormbloom I'd planted earlier. I had a plan.

That was, if I didn't run out of stamina just trying to keep up the pace. I was doing my best to avoid the limbs coming at me from every direction, my glaive a blur as I parried everything I couldn't dodge. I never just blocked. I angled each deflection to take advantage of the sundering enchantment, turning every parry into a counterattack when I could. But without a skill or spell backing my strikes, I wasn't doing enough damage.

The problem wasn't that his shell was too strong or that I was too weak. It was the sheer volume of attacks. I didn't have the time or space to put real force behind my swings. The Undertide Maw, reared up to balance on four legs, still had five more and two claws slashing at me in a constant blender of motion. Worse, my arms were starting to feel heavy. I wasn't moving enough for [Windbound Resilience] to kick in, and I couldn't get the distance I needed to use my momentum properly.

There was a simple solution to both problems—but if I leapt away, he'd just charge after whoever else was closest before I could strike from above. And that was really what I wanted to be doing, not just for the effect of [Death from Above], but even more so to stop his lowest legs from constantly trying to slash at my ankles. Sure, he wasn't very flexible, and that was really the only place that he could attack me with them, but it was still really annoying. As I hopskotched through his latest series of attacks, another of my attacks glancing off, the frustration was enough for me to finally miss a step.

Only instinct saved me. I stomped down hard on the edge of his bladed leg, using it like a springboard as I bounced back. [Channel Wind] kept me from tumbling, and I pulled him a little farther from the growing Stormblooms. Before he could rush me again, I kicked off solid air with [Wind Walking], shooting back toward him, but had to waste the momentum to deflect a claw coming for my face.

It worked. I landed just right, keeping him circling in place. I was just going to drop right back into the same mess… Unless I just kept [Wind Walking].

I stepped onto the air several feet above the ground, letting two wide swings pass harmlessly below before slipping back into the rhythm of his attacks. It took a few seconds to adjust, but everything suddenly felt easier. The Frankencrab still towered over me, tipping back farther to bring every limb into play, but his lower strikes came in at awkward angles, making them easy to avoid. Even better, I spotted the perfect opening and cracked one of his claw joints with a clean [Heroic Strike].

Fetid seawater sprayed from the damaged shell, just briefly, but enough to feed the Stormblooms below. They surged outward again, white vines unfurling toward the wound, but once more, they stopped short. The growth quivered in his direction like it could smell the blood, then stilled. I sighed inwardly. Fine. I'd just have to hit him harder.

Darting sideways to avoid another swipe, I stepped higher, dodging a leg aimed at my feet. I nearly sighed again as I had to parry a wild downswing, but my footwork held, carrying me in a slow upward spiral around the sub-boss. Within a few more steps, I had the rhythm. Parrying downward gave my strikes more force, and the added height threw off his coordination. His attacks turned frantic, then wild, then erratic as his frustration mounted—until he let out a sudden, hissing shriek.

It caught me off guard. I froze for half a heartbeat, and that was all the Undertide Maw needed. Both claws came down like hammers, and his disgusting crab-tentacle mouth lunged forward like it meant to bite me in half. I felt the rush of air as the claws closed in, one even clipped the edge of my hair, and then I was gone.

I dissolved into wind just as the attack landed, my [Squall Step] carrying me a few feet above and behind him. As I reappeared and activated my [Levitation Aura], I couldn't help smiling. Watching Snapzilla flail on the way down was almost worth the near-death experience.

Sand flew, and the ground rocked with the impact, but it was only a moment before the thing was spinning wildly to find me again. Our eyes met, and I saw it crouch to jump again. So, I did what anyone would do in my place.

"No! Bad crab! [Sun Ray]!"

Now, this was the first time I'd used that spell on this particular enemy. Some might assume I'd been cautious, maybe still spooked from the whole spell reflect incident with K'thralis. Others might credit prudence, especially after Amélie had warned me twice that these clawbominations were undead.

But anyone who knows me well would tell you the truth: I wasn't reluctant. I just hadn't had the chance. It's incredibly difficult to aim and cast a precise, high-power spell while flipping through the air and swinging a stick like your life depends on it. And [Sun Ray] is, was, and forever shall be, my favorite spell. I am deeply committed to blasting monsters in the face with it whenever possible… So, I probably deserved the shockwave that launched me three meters back.

[Channel Wind] stabilized me mid-air, but I still winced. The spell had hit like a bus, slamming into the thickest part of the Undertide Maw's shell. The impact rippled through its entire body, and then the monster exploded in flames. Not vampire-style incineration, but definitely a solid zombie-grade combustion.

The blaze didn't last long. Gouts of bloody seawater sprayed from the cracks, and the wet sand did the rest. Still, it was the first serious damage I'd landed, and it felt amazing.

Good thing the murder crab was stunned and flipped over, because I needed a second myself. From my new vantage, I had a perfect view of the Tidewrought Husk—and of Sibylla, half-doubled over on its back, pointing at me and cackling like a gremlin. My smug grin faltered. Not because of her, but because of what I saw next.

Their monster was getting obliterated. Amélie danced around it effortlessly, weaving through its slower strikes and hammering it with holy fire. The Tidewrought Husk staggered and smoked, weak to everything she did. And with Sibylla darting freely across its back, hexing and stabbing, it hadn't stood a chance. Several of its limbs were missing, its shell was cracked open all over, and gorewater sprayed in every direction. Unlike mine, it clearly wasn't regenerating.

Sibylla wiped a smear of gore off her cheek with the back of her hand. "Well. That was flashy. Exploded the crab and yourself in the same attack. Very you, Evelyn."

I shot her a look. "I meant to explode it more than me!"

Amélie didn't look up from where she was ducking another claw. "Then perhaps next time you should stay further away from your explosions."

"Oh, come on—" I started.

"I am not saying it was ineffective," Amélie continued, a little too calmly. "Just that we are still working, and you appear to be… basking."

Sibylla gave me a smug little wave. "Take five, hero. We've got the grown-up crab covered."

"Oh really?" I said, spinning my glaive. "Let me know when you want help with the difficult one."

I turned back toward the Undertide Maw just in time to see it begin to rise, only to jerk violently as something yanked it back down. The monster shrieked, legs flailing, but the stormblooms had already anchored deep into its joints. It thrashed again, trying to rock side to side and pull free. Each motion only drew the vines tighter before they snapped back like rubber bands and burrowed further inside its shell.

Even as I watched, more vines erupted from cracks in its carapace, coiling and bulging with a sickly green shimmer as they pulsed, draining the thing dry from within. It let out a gurgling rattle of protest, then collapsed again, twitching, with leaves unfurling from its wounds like blooming flags of victory.

I tilted my head and shot them a grin. "You were saying?"

The moment I saw the death notification, I braced myself on a solid breeze, dropped my [Levitation Aura], and launched myself across the battlefield with a [Heroic Leap]. My arc was perfectly aimed to land beside Sibylla, but her eyes flew wide as they tracked my movement. Deciding it was too close for comfort, she dove off the side of the sub-boss with very lady-like, "Oh crap!"

I didn't mind. Honestly, it was kind of considerate of her to get out of the way so I could go all out. My glaive slammed down into the Tidewrought Husk, powered by a [Heroic Strike] and sparking with so much lightning it arced down the monster's back. Just like the other one, this crab-shaped abomination didn't even flinch at the electricity, but it definitely cooked under the blast, and the snaps still leaping off me were adding chip damage as I stood on its shell.

Sibylla shouted up as she struck at its vulnerable joints, "Be careful with that! Not all of us are immune!"

Huffing, I moved toward an already-damaged leg joint and raised my glaive. "I know that! I wasn't gonna zap him with you up here!"

"Maybe," Amélie added, ducking another claw, "you should just blast this one like the last. That seemed to work."

My glaive slammed down, the sundering enchantment biting through the shell and sending the monster stumbling as yet another leg snapped free. "Cooldown… I need to recover mana. I can't ignore the cooldowns, or I'll lose the storm."

"Oh! I have an idea!" Sibylla chimed, and I groaned.

Before either of us could stop her, she appeared next to a giant marble claw half-buried in the sand, part of the weird crab shrine that used to sit on K'thralis's back. Just as Amélie slammed the sub-boss low and made it stumble, Sibylla dropped her massive cauldron into the hollow under the claw, hopped up onto it, and ripped from her inventory… a full decorative fountain. Complete with a life-sized, rearing unicorn. Still spraying water.

The fountain slammed down on the crab statue's raised end, launching the claw like a catapult into the Tidewrought Husk's underbelly. The impact crunched through its shell, sending the monster hurtling into the air, legs flailing in slow motion. It made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a "Weeeeeeez" as it flew, then crashed down upside down a few meters away, nearly landing atop the now stormbloom-devoured Frankencrab.

Unfortunately, I had still been standing on its back when Sibylla unleashed her makeshift siege weapon, so I was also slightly hurled to my doom, though only slightly. I saw what was coming an instant before it hit, braced, and launched myself clear. [Slow Fall] and [Channel Wind] caught me midair, letting me glide down with at least a little dignity intact. By the time I landed beside my sisters on their little island of shattered stone, the fountain, crab statue, and cauldron had all mysteriously vanished.

The sub-boss didn't even twitch as the vines overtook it. Its shell was nearly cracked in half, and though it squirmed a little, it clearly didn't have the structure to flip back over. The invasive growth spread so fast that it began dragging the corpse crab across the sand, toward the central mass of the stormbloom.

"I'm afraid to ask why you have a plant monster like that up your sleeve, Evelyn," Sibylla muttered as we watched the gruesome sight.

"It's just [Stormbloom]. A better question is, why the heck do you have an entire fountain in your inventory?!"

She snorted and shrugged, "I like how judgmental the unicorn looks."

Amélie nodded like that wasn't the most ridiculous thing in the world. "It did look very judgmental. Almost adorably so."

"Right?!" Sibylla said, clearly vindicated.

"What? That… how does a unicorn even look judgmental? That doesn't make any sense. And where did you find it? Someone's going to notice it's missing."

Sibylla turned toward me, beaming. "Oh, it looks judgmental because it was modeled after a real unicorn! And by all accounts, he's not only judgmental, he's a huge jerk. And you're probably right. He's very likely noticed it's missing by now."

"You… stole a unicorn fountain from a unicorn?" I wasn't sure I was following her anymore. I was also a little exhausted.

She nodded enthusiastically. "I'd say I liberated it. That's what the British Museum says when they acquire art through questionable means. Besides, he wasn't using it. It just sat there in his sacred forest, burbling unappreciated all day."

"I'm starting to worry about your habit of 'finding' things that aren't yours."

"Hey! I like that. Finding things that aren't mine. Ha!"

Amélie cleared her throat. "Do you two hear that?"

When we both stared at her blankly, she pointed toward K'thralis. "He's not making that rumbling song anymore."

My head snapped toward the looming beast. When he'd first begun his call, summoning all the dead crabs to him, it had been agonizing. But as the battle dragged on, it had become background noise. Now, it was gone.

As I watched, he seemed to come back to himself. His eyes scanned the battlefield and the wreckage we'd left in our wake. One by one, every glowing orb atop his shell turned and fixed on us. His entire body rose with a sound like a breaking mountain, half-formed armor cracking and falling away from his legs as he began to turn. Each step pounded the beach in an earth-shaking cadence until his ruined, furious face locked onto us. I hadn't known crabs could glare until that moment. He screamed again, loud and raw, a sound made of nothing but pain and rage, and charged.

His warped claws lifted high and wide, his movement suddenly much faster than anything we'd seen before. It wasn't just fury behind it. It was desperation. Something in the motion, the posture, made that clear. He was bleeding, sending infected slime oozing down his sides. The damage from breaking his armor had gone deep, and without that shell, he was dying. It was only a matter of time, and he knew it. His only hope now was to kill us before time ran out. The realization that he wasn't just a mindless beast, at least not anymore, was not something I needed while he was charging at us.

Our small island vibrated with his thundering steps, and the quicksand rippled, making it stand out more. That was good because he was going to be on top of us in seconds, and we needed to move. There was only one path leading around toward the town, but I didn't need a path, did I?

"I'll draw him toward the water! You two go around and—"

I didn't get to finish. The moment K'thralis' jagged spear of a leg came down onto the scorched remnants of the battlefield, everything changed. A sharp crack rang out, then another, as his massive weight shattered the thin surface of fused glass left behind by Chiasa's earlier barrage. What followed was a roar of steam and an eruption of superheated air that turned the sand into a death trap.

The molten layer beneath the glass surged up around his legs. Each step forward ripped through half-melted glass and soft, searing earth, clinging like tar and solidifying in uneven chunks. He tried to tear free with brute force, but the glass wouldn't let go. Steam blasted from the holes left behind, and his claws scraped and struggled for purchase as he slowed, his momentum dying with every thunderous, melting stomp.

By the time he raised one claw to lunge again, the glass had fused around his limbs like a cast, locking him halfway into the beach. He slammed his claw down in frustration, but it came down dozens of feet short. For a breathless second, we all stared. Then Sibylla slowly turned toward where Chiasa had been waiting only a moment before, a look of total offense and betrayal on her face.

"And what exactly happened to not touching our… objectives… Mom?"

Only a lingering shimmer of air and the faint sound of wind chimes remained.

Amélie snorted. "Oh, that is rich. Though in her defense, I do not think this was intentional."

Grumbling, Sibylla turned back to us. "At least we know where Evelyn gets it from."

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?"

The ground rumbled as K'thralis struggled to tear free again, steam pouring off his legs. Amélie cleared her throat. "We need to finish this fast. Who knows how long that will hold him."

"Right," I said quickly, grateful for the change of subject. I tightened my grip on my glaive... then hesitated. "He's just so big. Where do we even start?"

There was a tug at my waist, and Sibylla's sarcastic, singsong tease followed. "Ooh, what's this?"

I turned to snap at her just in time to see what she had in her hands, and my eyes went wide.

"Sibyl, wait! The spell reflect—"

But it was too late. The Flameburst scroll turned to ash, and the air cracked as the shockwave ripped outward. My ears flattened, and my gaze shot to K'thralis just in time to see flames licking around the clusters of his eyestalks.

"Breathe, drama queen. His magical mirror armor is already decorating the beach like crab confetti. I'm not going to nuke us."

I exhaled, a little shakily. "...Right."

Then I grinned and turned my full attention to the storm above. It was still in tatters, slowly spiraling overhead in a dark, unsettling churn—but it was perfect for building charge. With the time to really focus, it was far easier to pull it all together and start rebuilding something closer to the storm I'd opened the battle with.

K'thralis let out a horrible hissing noise as he tried to reach us, but a few scattered sheets of rain and distant thunder must have warned him what I was up to. He shifted tactics, slamming a claw down near one of his front legs. The first two strikes did more damage to him than to the glass and sand holding him, but on the third, there was a crack like a steaming gunshot. The limb tore free, and he roared.

Sibylla pulled several scrolls from my satchel in a rush. "I'm just going to borrow a few more of these."

I heard Amélie sigh as she unshouldered her own pack to grab from it, but I didn't let myself get distracted. I was deep in focus, breathing in the storm. A beam of light flashed by, searing into one of K'thralis's eyestalks, and I heard Caeda's voice cut through the chaos, asking what she should do. I tuned it all out.

Instead, I brought down the first bolt of lightning. It wasn't anything special, but lightning rarely needs to be. A quick double snap cracked out from the clouds, sending a spray of sparks and plasma into the air from K'thralis's back. He roared, this time in pain. With a violent jerk, he surged forward and tore another leg free, ripping it off at the joint.

But he didn't stop. He lurched forward again, dragging his ruined body a few more feet. Molten glass and shredded limbs clung to him like anchors. Steam vented in sharp bursts as the motion split the cooling glass around his legs, hissing where blood and seawater ran into the cracks.

I landed another strike, then another. Explosions followed as more spells hit, each one chipping away at the mountain. One claw slammed down into the sand, twitching. Another leg tore free with a nauseating crack, and he pulled himself just a little closer. His many eyes flared wide and hateful with each strike, staying locked onto me.

A beam of radiant fire burst in from the side from Amélie, Sibylla kept up a barrage of spell scrolls, curses, and insults, and Caeda did her best with the few attack spells she knew. Finally, with a rumble that shook the shore, K'thralis collapsed flat onto the beach. His exposed underbelly met the still-steaming glass and sand with a stomach-turning sizzle.

The mournful roar that followed told us that even K'thralis knew the fight was over. The sound almost sent a shock of guilt through me, but I knew how many people he'd killed. That was enough to toss the thought out of my mind. I pushed everything I had into calling down one final, powerful bolt from the storm. The sky crackled and flashed, and a final bolt slammed into the boss's back, bursting through the softened shell and blowing it apart in a rolling shockwave of light and thunder.

The world rumbled with one last, low call. And then, slowly, impossibly, the monstrous titan began to sink. His limbs collapsed beneath him one by one, vanishing into the glass-crusted sand. The beach shuddered as his bulk gave way. And then he was simply… gone.

The sand settled, leaving nothing but the sound of the crashing waves on the beach.

Until Sibylla muttered, "He's going to pop back up like a shovel-wielding beach zombie, isn't he?"

... He didn't. Instead, the surf rolled in, washing away the raised sand where he'd fallen. We stepped forward cautiously. The waves dug deeper with each pass, and shapes began to emerge. A few large forms in the center, surrounded by a wide circle of smaller ones. As more sand pulled away, we all froze.

"They're all... treasure chests?" I asked, breathless.

"So… many!" Caeda gasped.

Amélie straightened, brushing hair from her face. "Of course. He was a raid boss."