“We have to get to your father,” I said to Kumi. “The anglers have hypnotized him.”
“No,” she said. “He’s meditating.”
“Meditating?” Vesma asked. “At a time like this?”
“When Father is lost to the world, nothing can reach him.”
Three anglers charged a fishfolk guard, and one of their claws caught hold of his arm and twisted. I raised my hand and bathed the space around the anglers in an Ash Cloud. There was a sickening snap as the bone broke and blood sprayed from the wound. The guard howled in pain as the angler reeled back and snapped viciously at the clouds of ash that whirled around its head.
Labu turned aside a strike and hissed as a claw raked him across the open arm and added to the blood that clouded the water. He dived clear of another slashing claw, and it missed him but claimed the life of the guard behind him.
Vesma lit up the pool with a blast of fire to catch the anglers’ attention. They vanished into the water despite the lack of depth, and I froze in place. I couldn’t kill what I couldn’t see, but, at least, the anglers had taken their focus off Beqai. I advanced slowly through the water and kept my eyes peeled for even the slightest ripple that would indicate the location of an angler.
“We have to draw some of them off,” Kumi said. “Otherwise, Labu will be overwhelmed.”
I fixed my eyes on the nearest gong. “I’ve got it.”
I focused for a moment and aimed a single, large thorn of Stinging Palm at a gong at the other side of the pool. The wooden projectile burst from my palm and struck the gong. A note resonated throughout the palace hall. I didn’t stop there. I sprayed a series of smaller thorns into the other gongs hanging from pillars and sent up a cacophony of ringing.
“There’s your distraction!” I yelled to Kumi above the echoing gongs.
The anglers melted out of the water and swiveled their huge, sightless heads from pillar to pillar. Two blindly rushed toward the gongs, but the third bounded toward us and lunged in with claws outstretched.
I turned aside a handful of claws and and slid around the confused angler. Vesma joined me, and we hit the angler from different sides. The echoing sound of the gongs had it confused. The creature couldn’t fix its attention on either of us, but Vesma was too focused on not looking at its lure to strike with her spear. I couldn’t say I blamed her after our last fight against these things.
I channeled the power of ash and cast it through the air in front of me. A black cloud appeared around the angler and further confused it. It backed away from us as my ash technique muted the distracting light of its lure. Its claws snapped at the empty air.
Vesma charged straight at the creature and rammed her spear into its side with all the force of her charge. The blade sank deep into its flesh and found a vital organ. The angler flailed at Vesma, but she ripped her spear free and slid out of range.
Kumi sensed an opening, jumped in, and plunged both knives into the monster’s side. The princess dragged her blades back along its body, and blood poured as she sliced a long chunk from the angler’s flesh. It screeched again, but this time, it was a fading noise that turned into a mass of bubbles as the creature fell dead in the water.
The second angler stood at the next gong and slashed at the bronze disk with a serrated claw. For a moment, I found my gaze drawn by its lure, and I had to force myself to look at the ground beneath the angler’s feet.
“Stay focused, sweet man,” Nydarth warned me. “I will guide you, should you need it.”
I raised the Sundered Heart Sword as the pathways for Untamed Torch ignited within me. I was about to raise my hand and send a fireball to blind the creature when I spotted Vesma’s flaming spear and had an epiphany. Instead of throwing a fireball, I gripped my sword with both hands. My left hand was still drenched in Vigor, waiting for release into an Untamed Torch technique. Instead of manipulating the energy into a flaming sphere, I let it flow out of my hand and along the Sundered Heart.
The blade burst into flames, and I heard Nydarth chuckle to herself.
“Excellent,” she said.
With my flaming sword held aloft, I closed the distance between myself and the angler in a single bound. Nydarth hummed happily as I brought my sword down in a cleaving blow that bisected the creature’s head. The weapon cauterized the wound instantly, and no blood spilled from the corpse.
Kumi stood in the center of the pool as she chanted and swayed from side to side. She wound her arms around each other, and the water rose in obedience to her Wild magic. The liquid formed tendrils glowing with the power of Vigor. Her movements changed as she directed the water across the hall to where the fiercest fighting was.
The enchanted liquid ran down her brother’s body and those of his comrades, washed away their blood, and healed their wounds. The guard’s broken arm shifted back into its normal shape, and the skin healed over as Vigor made the broken strands of life whole again.
Labu and his companions attacked the anglers with fresh enthusiasm and energy. They worked together like a well-oiled machine and took their turns to attack while the others provided defence.
Inspired by Kumi’s example, I called upon the power of water. It was stronger here than anywhere else I had been outside of a Vigorous Zone. I realized that the pool and gongs were more than mere decoration. This was a place of
