Joseph’s tentacles slipped off the monster’s tail as it grew too large to be held. Eli zipped out from the darkness and smashed into the monster’s underbelly, his thorny head piercing through the armor and cracking it.

A purple syntial glowed on gigafish’s neck and it roared. The shockwave smashed the raid party up against the wall, hitting them over and over with multiple waves. Rhen felt like he was going to lose his mind, not just his stew.

~Transforming! Jakira called out.

Jakira’s nautilus body burst off the wall, blocking the team from the waves. A syntial flared on her side and she channeled the gasses in her shell through a vocalizing chamber. A low horn-blast reverberated out of her body, counteracting the gigafish’s opposing spell.

Rhen swallowed his guts and took a breath.

The gigafish lunged at Jakira and she retracted into her shell. It clamped down on her and pusher her toward the wall. Rhen grabbed the nearest delver and used swift twitch, pulling them out of the way. Jakira slammed into the rock, sending a shudder through the dungeon. Crystals fell from the ceiling, making splashes above that filled the water with noise.

Rhen looked up to see the crack in the gigafish’s armor made from Eli’s attack. He swam up and placed his hand on the shell, triggering tremor blast at full strength. The spell vibrated through the plate and it split farther, revealing its orange belly.

Gigafish pulled back and rammed Jakira into the wall again, snapping her shell open. Blood leaked out from the cracks, and her legs drooped. The boss shoved its face into the opening in her shell and used its teeth to pry it open, exposing her organs.

“Eli, underbelly plate shattered!”

~I’ll make him pay!

Joseph wrapped his tentacles around the monster’s tail again, doing his best to keep it still. The boss dug into Jakira, pulling out her guts and feasting. Eli rocketed in from below and slammed into the monster’s belly, but he missed the armor opening. The force of his attack pushed Rhen back and sent him floating away from the action.

Another cephalon-raider appeared in the darkness, this one a pale octopus with black diamond designs covering their legs. They climbed on top of the gigafish and pried up the shell plating. The boss finished off Jakira, letting the empty shell drop to the ground.

Eli lined up for another attack run, but mid-swim, reverted to his human form. Gigafish turned and in a single lunge, swallowed the kid whole. Joseph beat at the monster’s back with his tentacles, as if trying to get him to regurgitate his son. Compbombs went off all around its face, but it didn’t even flinch.

Gigafish turned, smacking its tail into the wall and jostling Joseph free. Rocks from the shore above tumbled into the water, turning the area into a dangerous debris field. The monster charged at Bort, who was passionately casting compbombs.

Another raider transformed into a billowy squid with fat, fluffy tentacles. They descended on the boss monster’s face, wrapping around the four deadly claws and clamping them shut before it could swallow up Bort.

Gigafish flailed, twisting and turning all the way over to try and shake off its attackers. Bort transformed, becoming a purple cuttlefish that looked almost like a giant Aki. He brought two of his tentacles out like wings, then speared the rest. Then, his skin shifted from purple, to blue, to green, in undulating waves.

The boss’s rolling stopped, and it floated to the bottom, immobilized.

“Nice work, Bort!”

“I taught him that.” Aki said, pridefully.

The raiders descended on the hypnotized gigafish, stabbing, bombing, and pummeling with tentacles. Bort lowered himself to keep in line of sight with the boss, ensuring that the tranquilizing effect of his spell didn’t lose its hold.

Joseph’s transformation ended and he took up position with the other bombing any exposed space they could find. Leslie transformed into a razor-sharp squid and covered her skin in a layer of the sea floor crystal debris. She grabbed the fallen rocks from above and used them like hammers against the gigafish’s back.

Purple glowed from under the boss, and it too donned a layer of sea-shell.

“Don’t!” Rhen thought in a panic, but it was too late.

Leslie slammed the stone down against the creature’s shell, causing a massive blast of energy that ripped her in half. The concussive force sent Bort spinning, unable to maintain his hypnosis spell. The gigafish thrashed free, head-banging the fluffy octopus on the ground until their grip failed. In three big chomps, it shredded their fat tentacles clean off, leaving them stranded. Two more chomps and their body was turned to pale debris.

Icy dread filled Rhen’s lungs. Five raiders dead, and seven of the thirteen transformations were already used up, but the gigafish didn’t show any signs of slowing down. They just weren’t strong enough to take it the traditional way. He needed to get creative… or use the forbidden ability. With so many witnesses it would surely be the end of Rhen’s ruse, and if they failed, his freedom, too.

Gigafish turned its gaze on the floundering Bort who was getting back in position for hypnosis. Valine morphed next, becoming an enormous, long-tentacled octopus. Gigafish surged forward and she snatched it by the tail. She slapped three of her tentacles against the wall, finding suction enough to hold the monster back.

The boss twisted, mouth open wide, ready to chomp off Valine’s tentacles. That’s when Rhen saw it: the perfect opportunity. Its wide-open throat was big enough for Rhen to swim right inside.

“That idea is madness!”

Valine released two of her tentacles and the boss missed. She latched on at a new spot, dodging his every assault.

“I’m going for it. Tell Valine to use her mage powers to slow him down.” Rhen activated swift twitch and kicked his legs with all his might.

Aki appeared beside him, swimming for the same opening. “I am smaller and faster, let me.”

“But if it doesn't work—”

“Then you can still use Piercing Detonator. We will lose the core but win the fight.” A surge of water pushed Rhen back from the mouth of the monster and Aki passed him. “I can do this.”

“Gods’ speed, buddy.”

The gigafish twisted for another attack and a bright orange syntial came to life between Valine’s eyes. Coral colored magic glowed around the boss and it slowed to half its speed. Valine closed her eyes, channeling all her remaining power into the spell to hold it still.

The last two raiders used their transformation, grappling the boss. Aki swam through its open mouth and down into its throat, disappearing in darkness. A moment later, the monster bulged around the middle. Its rubbery flesh pushed out against the protective plates like a cat trying to fight its way out of a knapsack.

Valine’s spell faded, and gigafish snapped his mouth around her legs. Despite the war inside his guts, he bit into her ferociously, not stopping to swallow. Aki continued to beat on the monster from the inside, but he was slowing down.

“The acid is strong,” Aki’s transmission was quiet.

Gigafish curled in on itself and regurgitated Aki, then bit down before he could escape.

Two of the mecheels surged forward, their heads transformed into deadly harpoons. They jammed themselves between the gaps in the armor made from Aki’s banging. They used their legs to burrow deeper into the beast. Gigafish reeled against the other two raider’s holds, but it couldn’t reach the smaller mecheels burrowing inside it. They disappeared into the beast and then detonated with electric zaps.

It still wasn’t enough.

Gigafish turned on one of the octopus and bit down on their head. Their tentacles went limp, and the boss started swimming for escape. No, not when they were so close.

Rhen was torn between cephaloshifter and piercing detonator. Who knew if he could summon enough anima and hit the core with enough force to kill the beast? But could his squid form be strong enough to finish him off with the help of just one other raider?

Gigafish was wiggling to escape. He had to choose now.

Rhen activated swift twitch and charged forward. He found the hole made by the mecheel and held his breath, then climbed inside. His head was getting woozy, and the acid from the beast’s stomach burned his skin, but he crawled deeper.

He summoned every last ounce of anima left in his body and forced it into his palm. The pressure mounted, threating to blast his arm apart. He pointed his hand toward the creature’s chest, hoping his aim was true enough. Would this kill him, too?

The power in his hand became unbearable, and he released piercing detonator. White light ripped through the space and Rhen clenched his eyes shut. His body trembled at a monstrous roar—then he was ejected. His head hit something solid, and the darkness swallowed him.

Rhen jolted awake in the black, his heart racing. Chunks of gigafish littered the sea floor, slowly dissolving into the dungeon as red sparkles. Rhen was barely strong enough to pull in breath, so for a while, he just laid there, hoping nothing swam by and decided to make a meal of him.

“Time is short,” the dungeon voice whispered, and a purple glow beckoned him from beyond the monster chunks.

You can wait ten minutes. Rhen thought. He placed the soles of his boots on the dungeon floor, soaking up the spare anima radiating off it. After a few minutes of this, he had enough energy to sit up.

A lone mecheel scanned the sea floor with its light, what it was looking for, Rhen didn’t know. Its long legs picked up and discarded pieces from one pile, then moved on. Its light cast over Rhen, and the mech moved with purpose toward him.

Rhen waved, though he wasn’t sure if Wyland could see him, or if the machine was just going off the programming it had been given. The mecheel did a turn around Rhen, then pointed toward the nexus node.

“I know,” Rhen mouthed the word, since his vocal cords could make no sound when full of water.

The mech circled him again, then squeezed its fat head under his armpit. Rhen grabbed onto the plating of its side, and it took off across the sea floor toward the node. Rhen’s vision faded in and out. His head was so heavy.

He dropped to the ground at the foot of the nexus node pedestal. The purple light flared and pulsed, excited by Rhen’s presence. Rhen grabbed onto it and hoisted himself up, then patted his interior pocket. Map was still in there.

He stared into the clear depths of the multifaceted node. Little zaps of anima fired within at random intervals, making it look alive.

“Time is short,” the node glowed with the syllables.

Rhen lifted his hand to the glassy crystal, feeling warmth radiating off it. His fingers touched the surface and a shockwave rippled out across the dungeon. Light beamed straight up through his fingers, past the ceiling and into the sky. Rhen could see it open, felt his body pulled along too.

He entered the stream and knowing donned on him. His existence was so small, but so essential. Grow the great Tree of Being. Return the realms to their natural states. Connect, learn, evolve, live.

He was one with the universe.

And then he was gone.