The creature slowly swam out of the gate, seemingly lost in its new surroundings. At the same time, Lukey was still fumbling with his equipment to get out his net. He figured that the best weapon for close combat would be a net and knife, so he abandoned his fishing rod and bucket of bait, letting them float away from him as he took on a battle stance.

  Lukey had never fought anything before. Whenever he saw something stronger than him, his first instinct was to hide or run away. He never held a weapon in his life, nor did he need to, as the island was relatively safe. Inside, he was terrified of this creature and wished he had never come here. Outside, his eyes were wide, but his hands were steady as he hurriedly picked what tools he needed and discarded the rest.

  That turned out to be an unplanned boon, as the bucket ended up spilling its contents into the water. The crab meat and voli berries spilled into the water, and the scent wafted over to the Trollfish, who sped over to the food the second it got its bearings. Lukey moved out of the way while keeping his eyes on the fish, side-stepping to avoid being caught off guard.

  “Your final test,” Triton yelled, “is to defeat the Armored Trollfish!”

  The Trollfish had a large body, about Lukey’s size, and it was fast as it moved towards the bait. Watching carefully, Lukey could see how the Trollfish attacked it. Slowly, swimming toward the perimeter of the bait before lunging for it.

  Within a second the Trollfish managed to close a gap of half a meter towards its ‘prey,’ catching it in its maw before crushing it in its teeth. Lukey assumed that this ugly monstrosity of a fish had a diet of crabs and crawfish that necessitated those crushing teeth.

  This monster isn’t used to fighting humans. I can probably trap and overpower it if I’m careful.

  Lukey decided to capitalize on this opportunity while his opponent was distracted. He took his net; one hand raised it up, and the knife hand opened it to prepare for the throw. He threw the net as he had done a thousand times, with a horizontal throw that sent the outstretched net forward. The net gracefully flew over the water as it fell on top of the trollfish.

  It must have noticed something, however, because as soon as the net hit the water, the Trollfish rushed out of the trap. It swam to the corner of the room and waited there as it once more assessed its surroundings. It clearly understood it was being attacked, but it couldn’t tell where, as it swam in circles trying to understand what had just happened.

  Lukey underestimated the Trollfish. He assumed it could be caught in his net like any other fish. After all, most fish had small brains that couldn’t comprehend things like nets. The trollfish, however, was a predator that spent its life in caves, presumably running away from much larger predators that sought to kill it.

  First, Lukey gathered his net and fixed it, holding it up as he did before. He didn’t plan on throwing it again, but he needed to be ready in case the Trollfish decided to rush him. Right now, he was out of his element; he was used to drawing the fish towards him and subduing them before delivering a finishing blow. The Trollfish wasn’t easily trapped, however, as it had senses that allowed it to dodge unseen threats. This was an ability that it evolved to have after being trapped in caves for generations.

  It’s blind, but its other senses are sharp. I need to find a better way of attacking it, but how…

  Lukey did his best to think of a strategy. He couldn’t attack it directly, as that would require a weapon that could put space between him and the fish. If he approached with his knife, the Trollfish would just attack his legs, and he needed them to finish the trial. The only thing he could think of was grabbing it and wrangling it, but it looked strong enough that Lukey would have trouble keeping it in place.

  Lukey had no choice but to do what he did best: lure it towards him.

  Lukey threw the net over his right shoulder, the side with the knife. He then crouched down to pick up some of the berries and gather them in his left hand. He closed the hand with the berries and took the net back in his left hand. He lowered the net into the water, letting the attached stones reach down to the submerged floor. The trap was set; it was time to execute.

  “C’mere fishy, fishy,” Lukey said in a squeaky voice. “Time to die.”

  Lukey waved the net a bit to let it spread out more in the water, then crushed the berries in his left hand above the center of the net as he held it, letting it fall behind the net. He moved his hands wide apart to keep the net open as he braced for the Trollfish to ram him.

  Sure enough, the predator smelled the bait and swam straight towards Lukey. He could only hope that the Trollfish didn’t somehow sense the net and swam around.

  The Trollfish must sense things through underwater vibrations. That’s why it only swam away when it felt the net splash over it.

  Since the net was still, it didn’t create vibrations like before, so the Trollfish couldn’t ‘see’ anything. He had his net held out in front of him to brace for the impact and trap the Trollfish the second it hit the net. As he had hoped, the Trollfish swam into the net and immediately began flailing about.

  Lukey fell down on the fish with the net that he held in his hand. He grabbed the Trollfish through the net and began the process of wrapping it up before pulling the rope with his free hand to seal the net shut. With his other hand, he prepared his knife to go on a frenzy once he had an opening.

  Lukey held the rope up, so the net was raised slightly out of the water. He could finally see his target clearly and began jamming the knife through the holes in the net. He stabbed at the fish’s eye first, then the side, and any other open spot he could hit. He intended to stab the fish until it died, but that wasn’t going to happen, as Lukey soon realized.

  As it turns out, the Armored Trollfish is called that for a reason. With every stab, Lukey found himself poking at a thick layer of scales and muscle. Even the eye had armored eyelids that protected the worst of Luke's cuts.

  Still, Lukey persisted; he was still doing damage, even if it wasn’t visible. The Trollfish still had bones, organs, veins, and muscles. The more Lukey stabbed it, the worse the fish would be. This continued until Lukey glanced at his net and realized another problem.

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  The net! It’s coming apart!? Why now?

  It was only a matter of time, really; the net was made of twine and stones and wasn’t exactly durable. After being used to haul such a large catch in the previous trial, the net needed maintenance. On top of that, the net was never made to catch such a vicious fish.

  The Trollfish’s flailing ended up creating a series of tears in the net, and Lukey’s stabbing frenzy also created several gaps in the net that made the damage worse. Eventually the troll fish escaped and swam in a circle before facing Lukey, who was still trying to get his net in order after the previous scuffle.

  The Trollfish made a beeline for his exposed leg and bit with a force that could rip flesh and bone.

  “GAAAAAH!”

  The pain in his leg made Lukey go down to one leg, and he could see blood beginning to flow into the water around him. His gambit had failed, and now Lukey had a crippling wound to deal with. He almost panicked, but the pain had the unintended effect of bringing him back to reality. As the Trollfish gnawed at his shin, Lukey tried to figure out what to do next.

  ‘Stabbing it will take time, and I’m bleeding out now! I could punch it, but I’m so weak I doubt I could do anything to that armored hide. Trying to pry it off would just result in losing my leg, and I doubt it would let go easily. I could lure it away like I did before, but what good would that do?

  Lukey suddenly had an idea, but it was risky.

  If this doesn’t work, I could lose another limb. Still, would it really be as bad as losing my leg?

  Lukey got to work extending his arm out to grab as many berries as he could, then placed them in his left hand along with the bone knife. He then wrapped his left hand in what was left of his net, making a big, soft glove around his fist with the knife sticking out. This was completely insane, but great risk wasn’t without great reward.

  Lukey put his hand under the water and crushed the berries in his palm. The Trollfish immediately reacted and let go of his leg, then prepared to lunge and go for his fist. At this point Lukey escaped, so he was free to pull his hand out; however, he wouldn’t. He intended to kill the armored menace here and now. The Trollfish lunged at the mitten and opened wide, intending to swallow it whole.

  The Trollfish swallowed his hand as planned, its teeth reaching all the way to his wrist. Lukey had hoped he didn’t guess wrong, and his plan had worked. The Trollfish only relied on its crushing bite to eat crayfish. It didn’t swallow its victims whole, so its mouth didn’t need to be that big.

  The glove he was wearing wasn’t a hard shell but rather something soft and malleable. Instead of crushing his hand, its jagged, flat teeth got stuck on the fibers of the net. Even worse, it couldn’t open its mouth again; the Trollfish didn’t understand that it had to let go, only relying on the instinct telling it to bite harder.

  “Dammit all! Can this thing bite any harder!?” Lukey said aloud.

  ‘Bite harder,’ it did; Lukey could feel the bones in his hand being crushed. If the fish struggled harder, it could probably drag Lukey around like a ragdoll. Lukey was certain it wouldn’t do that, since that would mean making the internal damage worse, but he had underestimated this thing already. Without waiting for it to retaliate, Lukey made his move.

  The knife had been in his hand when it was swallowed whole, and now it was inside the soft insides of the Trollfish. Lukey wasted no time hoisting the entire fish with his other arm and moving towards the wall. The Trollfish was heavy, easily an eighty-pound beast. Lukey struggled to move towards the wall as he kept the fish hugged close to his body. His strength would give out at any time, so it was all or nothing.

  Lukey shoved the Trollfish to the wall and pressed his body into it to keep it trapped. Once this was done, the Trollfish was trapped from multiple angles. First, Lukey’s weight kept the fish from moving too much and tearing his arm off. Second, the fish struggled to breathe because it was in open air and would dry out sooner if it struggled. Third, Lukey had his knife inside the Trollfish’s mouth, so it wouldn’t dare move or risk getting cut.

  The time had come for Lukey to end it. He pulled the hand that was in the Trollfish’s mouth and rammed it further in, attempting to do more internal damage. He ended up scraping something inside, enough to make the Trollfish jerk, but not enough to kill it.

  Lukey tried stabbing its insides repeatedly, opening new wounds in its mouth and throat, but never being able to deal the killing blow. The knife was dull from repeated use and not nearly as sharp as Lukey had once hoped. Lukey tried again, but something new had occurred; the Trollfish was biting down harder now, and Lukey found his hand immobilized.

  Lukey could tell that this was the sorry creature’s last attempt at preserving itself, but now he was at a loss for what to do. He looked around for a weapon and found nothing below him within reach. He eventually just decided that he would beat the fish until its stamina gave out. He had inflicted several different wounds across the fish, and sooner or later it would succumb.

  Lukey held the Trollfish up with the hand in its mouth and one of his knees that leaned against the wall. He punched it in the gills to see if that did anything, and to his surprise he saw some blood trickle through the slits. Curious to see if he could do some damage, he stuck his hand in the gills and reached inside. To his shock, he could reach his whole hand in there and even grab the knife that was held by the other hand.

  With a renewed vigor, Lukey grabbed the knife through the gills and continued his assault on the insides. The fish’s mouth got so bad that both hands were covered in blood and sloshing around the mouth. Blood poured through the gills as Lukey kept cutting. Eventually, he had the tip of his knife pointed at what he believed was the area underneath the plate on the Trollfish’s head.

  Lukey gave it his all as he attacked the spot with a furious wrath. He even braced his elbow against his chest to pressure the knife from the outside. With slow but steady progress, the knife made it through, with the tip of the knife hitting the plate. The fish jerked a few times and fell still.

  The Trollfish looks dead, but it could be faking it to escape. Let’s do some more damage just to be sure.

  Lukey dragged the knife across the inside of the Trollfish, making sure to destroy everything inside. Only after Lukey was sure he had destroyed the brain and severed the spine did he attempt to remove his hand from the fish.

  First, he pulled the knife and his right hand out from the gills of the fish. To his shock the knife ended up being broken from having been dragged across its muscular insides. It was broken in half, with only a cracked edge sticking out from the handle.

  Lukey threw the knife in the water, then went to open the jaw that trapped his hand. He lost all feeling in his hand a while ago, so he was curious as to what condition it was in. He did his best to open the jaw, but after the trollfish died, it went completely stiff.

  Instead, Lukey let the corpse fall into the water, using the water to loosen up the threads and reduce the friction. He eventually managed to slide his hand out through the loose netting and stare at the extent of the damage.

  “Oh no, that’s not going to heal anytime soon…” Lukey whispered.

  His hand was utterly mangled. There was a deep imprint from the teeth that went across his wrist. Several cuts were left there from the teeth that managed to poke through the net glove and cut him. His hand was a grisly mix of bruises and blood, and he was sure he wouldn’t be using it anytime soon.

  Lukey sighed and washed his hand in the water beneath him, then tore a strip of fabric around the cuff of his shorts to wrap his hand in. He looked down at his leg and noticed the gash the Trollfish had made there; he had completely forgotten about it during the rush of adrenaline, but he was bleeding out. He tore off another strip of cloth and tied it around his leg.

  Lukey wanted so badly to be done with this. He just gave up on picking up his equipment and went for the lever in the cage where the Trollfish was released. He threw it back and watched as the drawbridge descended to welcome him to the ledge.