Saltwater erupted in a massive circle, and the glass barrier shattered behind Tori and me as a gigantic steel cage crashed into the pool we’d just climbed from. It pressed down around Bobby, pinning him under the water with only a tiny air pocket at the very top of the dome-shaped bars; he could just get his head out next to the rusted chain connecting it to the ceiling above.

  My fist tightened on the Trip-Hammer’s grip—none of us had noticed the cage. In fact, I doubted it had even been there a minute ago. Then I squeezed even harder as a massive, streamlined shape appeared in the water. Its triangle-shaped tail cut through the water, leaving a white wake in the dark liquid before it slid underwater again.

  Blood in the Water: Level Forty-Two Boss

  Current Difficulty: Underpowered

  What you gonna do when there’s blood in the water? This school of fish is relentless once it smells prey, and there’s no escape once the slaughter begins.

  Insatiable - This boss will feed on any viable food sources within its range.

  Berserker - This boss will become Elite if certain conditions are met.

  Myriad - This boss’s Elite state consists of innumerable members of a swarm, and will continue swarming until conditions change.

  Entrapped - This boss is trapped within its arena, and cannot escape. So are you.

  Bobby didn’t waste any time; he readied his fists and focused in on the gigantic shark, locking his gaze on it as he sucked in a big breath of air and pushed himself under the suddenly-churning waves. I leaped into action, too. The Trip-Hammer revved as I tried the simplest solution first. I slammed it into the steel cage.

  The grid buckled in with a horrific, ringing screech. But at the same time, the chain overhead creaked and popped. If I hit it again, it’d plunge into the depths—and drag Bobby with it. “Dammit! That’s not going to work!” I shouted over the racket.

  “Hal, plan?” Tori asked.

  I looked around the room as Bobby punched the shark’s nose like a pro, redirecting the monstrous boss away from him. He pushed himself backward and out of the way with his other hand. His body spun in the water, whipped in a spiral by the shark’s passage.

  The thing was, I didn’t have a plan, and I really needed one. Every fight had a solution, but I wasn’t sure what this one’s was. I could use my rail gun, but I’d only get two shots, and I wasn’t confident I could actually kill the boss in only two—in fact, the water would likely slow down the shot, making a kill even more unrealistic.

  At the same time, I couldn’t get to the boss, and I definitely couldn’t break the cage; any further damage would probably crack the chain and send the whole thing to the bottom. Tori and I just didn’t have that many options.

  The shark looped around for another pass. “Can you keep it off Bobby?” I asked, watching it cut through the water, tail thrashing the surface into froth as it closed in.

  “I’ll try!” Tori started casting, and I turned toward the arena. There had to be a solution; the boss’s abilities all implied that the fight was based on conditional changes. If I could figure out what they were, we could control the flow of battle—and probably make the fight a cakewalk.

  Tori Pushed the boss away from Bobby just before it would have made contact; its fin sliced across his chest, leaving a trail of red instead of a gaping wound where its gnashing teeth had been aimed. Bubbles erupted from the water as he screamed in pain, and he kicked for the air pocket.

  At the same time, the water turned bright red. It looked less like someone had bled in it and more like ten tons of Kool-Aid mix had been dumped into a blender set to ‘frappe.’

  Blood in the Water: Level Forty-Seven Elite Boss

  I braced myself as the light overhead grew an even brighter red-orange than the water. The shark didn’t grow any larger, and its turn wasn’t faster than it had been. Bobby sucked in a pair of breaths and slipped below the churning waves, ready to face off against the boss again.

  But a second shadow slid through the depths, coming closer to the well-dressed man even as he punched the first shark in a series of warbling bell-rings.

  “Tori, watch Bobby’s back! Keep him safe!” I yelled.

  “There’s no such thing as safe!” Tori yelled back, but she pivoted, boots crunching on the shattered glass that coated the concrete walkway, and started casting as fast as she could. The spells flew, and the already-choppy water pressed up and down as she Pushed and Pulled the two sharks with everything she had.

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  Tori Crushed the first shark, and the dozens of weak spots coating its body collapsed into massive puncture wounds that poured even more blood and gore into the churning water.

  That’s when two more sharks joined the melee, and I tore my gaze away. If I wanted to save Bobby, I needed to work on solving this puzzle, not on wishing I could fight something.

  The campfire was nearby; I headed toward it and toward the glowing orange coral over it. Maybe the solution had to do with it, but I couldn’t see how. The half-burned, half-waterlogged hunks of wood left black patterns on the concrete as my foot kicked them aside. They didn’t give me a single clue, though.

  So, the solution didn’t have anything to do with the campfire.

  Bobby shouted something I couldn’t understand, then pushed himself back down. Now there were five sharks—the pool was starting to get crowded. This fight was way harder than the other first-floor bosses had been.

  I felt like a complete waste. Even shooting one of the sharks a couple of times did nothing; yeah, it died, but the gore only attracted more. Bobby’s reflexes and Awareness—not to mention his experience in the water—would only get him so far.

  We needed a solution, and we needed it now.

  I hefted the Trip-Hammer and swung it into the glowing red-orange coral, which didn’t crack or shatter. In fact, it felt less like hitting rock and more like flesh. I fired it again, this time revving the engine and feeling the click in my wrists as the ratchet-wheels caught and grabbed.

  The blow gouged two bleeding wounds into the glowing coral, and another nameplate appeared.

  Stalk of the Chthonic Abysslord: Level Fifty Boss

  Current Difficulty: Extreme

  A mere appendage of the monstrous boss inhabiting the Watery Grave’s deepest recesses, the Stalk of the Chthonic Abysslord controls all. It sees all. It consumes all.

  “Shit!” I swore, staring at the monstrous, multi-armed tentacle that slowly unfurled where the coral had just been. A single eye opened at its tip, and a half-dozen mouths—each with two smaller tendrils and a dozen suckers around it—burbled and clamped beaked jaws open and shut. “Tori! Help!”

  But even as I said it, I realized the real solution. This wasn’t a straight-up boss fight.

  “What do you need me to do?!” Tori yelled. She cast another Pull, ripping a shark away from Bobby, whose body looked like it was more cuts and bites than not.

  I told her.

  “This is the dumbest possible idea,” Tori said.

  “Ready!” Bobby shouted from the churning, splashing chaos in the shark tank. They’d stopped fighting him specifically; now, they were just fighting everything. That was part of what made my idea so stupid.

  “Just do it!” I shouted. Then I revved the Trip-Hammer and swung it, not at either of the bosses, but at the cage.

  It shattered, a wide-open gap big enough for us to swim through—and for sharks to escape out of. I swung again, crushing the side of a shark’s skull as the chain creaked and groaned ominously. I’d gotten lucky—and so had Bobby. Then I nodded. “Pull it!”

  Tori Pulled it, but it wasn’t the cage.

  It was the Stalk of the Chthonic Abysslord.

  As the Level Fifty Boss zoomed toward her, its body extended, and all its six mouths warbled and screamed. She took one look and threw herself into the cage—and the melee beyond it. I revved the Trip-Hammer again and, as the Stalk shoved past me and into the cage, swung again.

  The chain snapped. The whole steel structure collapsed into the frothing, blood-red water below, and I dove in after it. My hammer’s weight pulled me down toward Tori and Bobby, and I didn’t fight it.

  I landed next to the massive tentacle. The cage had ripped it in half, and yellow-orange gore fought a valiant fight against the blood in the water. But even with the huge damage we’d dealt, it wasn’t dead. That was for the best; I didn’t need it dead. I just needed it angry.

  The railgun bolt to its bloody stump accomplished that, and the cage sank even further into the abyss below. As it did, it dragged Tori and Bobby with it—along with dozens of sharks and half of the Level Fifty Stalk.

  There was no space around the edges; it I wanted to get my team out, I’d need to clear the exit—or make a new one. Underwater, and with little to brace on, the Trip-Hammer wouldn’t hit hard enough to wreck steel. But flesh? That it could pulverize.

  The Trip-Hammer revved again and again until, after what felt like an eternity, the Stalk pulled itself fully inside the cage. Tori dragged herself out a moment later, then Pulled Bobby free; he floated freely, unmoving.

  I didn’t have time to deal with him, though. I needed air; black spots crept into my vision as I pushed myself through the gore toward the surface. Chunks of Stalk and shark bumped into my face and filled my nostrils as I broke the surface, and my first breath tasted like salt and death. Tori surfaced a second later, then went under before she could gasp for air. A second later, she Crushed the shark that had bitten her leg and kept Pulling Bobby toward the surface.

  I helped pull Bobby’s body out of the water. He was still alive, but when I pushed on his chest, a comically large amount of pink water erupted from his mouth.

  Then I collapsed on the side of the shark tank and waited as chunks of sashimi and gigantic, weird octopus floated up through the water. We’d done what we could, and if the boss wasn’t dead, we’d have to find another way.

  Gradually, the froth died down, and though a few sharks broke the surface, they were badly enough injured that Tori’s Crush or Gravity Well was enough to kill them. It took four more kills before their nameplates changed back to the non-elite version, and another five to end the fight.

  Boss Defeated: Blood in the Water

  Level Up! Forty-Six to Forty-Seven.

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  “That was worth four!” Tori shouted. I ignored her, though. Instead, I put both my points in Charge and watched as Bobby’s wounds slowly healed and he opened his eyes.

  “Alright, Hal, I know I said one of you two could have first pick, but I think I definitely deserve it for that fight,” Bobby said, his trademark grin a little unsteady as he pulled himself together. His suit was shredded, but a few seconds and a spell later, he looked almost as good as new. He stood and cracked his neck. “Also, since I’m fresh and clean while both of you are completely disgusting, you can pick up the loot this time.”

  Tori opened her mouth to protest something Boby had said—or maybe everything—but I held up a hand. “That’s fair, Bobby. That’s very fair.”

  Then I dove back into the gore-covered pool, looking for the tell-tale blue lights of equipment.

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