It took exactly thirty minutes from the moment our vessel pushed off from the misty shores of the Third Floor's entrance dock for everything to go to shit. And Fern, naturally, didn't waste a second to let me know.

  So…looks like I won the bet. Something went wrong, of course it did, his disembodied voice echoed in my mind, laced with what I could only imagine was a smug spectral smirk.

  Yeah, yeah. You win. I let out an exhausted sigh. Your bad vibes are to blame for this, I bet. Now quit your gloating, I’m going up.

  I drew a breath deep into my chest, focused on my heartbeat, and called out to the Chimera. Power crashed through me like a warm waterfall. Burnt gold fur sprouted across my forearms, and wings tore free from my back, slipping smoothly out of the holes stitched into my custom Expedition uniform. I winced as my least favorite part, the growth, happened.

  My legs cracked and stretched longer, my body grew dense, and I grew fangs. All of this came with the joyful experience of bones breaking and reforming, muscles ripping, and gums bleeding. It was, unfortunately, a necessary pain to muscle through for a moment. The deck planks groaned beneath my new weight as I thundered up the stairs to the newly besieged deck of our transport ship. We had been boarded by a small army of crab-like humanoids that screeched like wailing cats. It was an alarm clock I was not expecting.

  As soon as I stepped up on deck, the rain and wind buffeted my face.

  "Where the hell have you been, Forgeman Erik! Deck's crawling with these damn crustaceans, get out there and prove your namesake, Twinsoul, help your squad!” Bartholomew's voice boomed from the helm, cutting through the chaos.

  I pivoted and looked up at him. My Third Form kept me steady despite the thrashing waves. The stout Blazeman Bartholomew stood like an unmoveable object at the ship’s wheel. His "Stalwart Scallop" Third Form infusion was on full display. A disturbing string of unblinking blue eyes traversed his face and down his neck, while his arms and shoulders were encased in chitinous armor. A giant clam-like shell spread across his back like a shield protecting all of his blind spots. In his Third Form, Bartholomew stood nine feet tall and six feet wide; he was stalwart indeed.

  "Never thought a clam could look so intimidating, Blazeman, Sir!” I bellowed back, a grin splitting my lion-like face. "Looking right at home here in the sea!”

  He returned my jest with a roll of his many eyes. "I've told you a hundred times, you overgrown pussycat, the Stalwart Scallop's shell can deflect the sharpest blade!” He paused and looked at the screeching behind me. “Or claw. I will not be moved from this helm. You, however, are doing nothing right now. Go! Extermination duty. Clear this ship! Help your squad, for Pillar's sake!"

  I spun back as icy rain and hail stung my cheeks. The deck was pure chaos; my friends and the other recruits-turned-Forgemen clashed in a violent brawl against a small army of sea goblins and titancrabs. A piercing eagle’s screech cut through the storm from above. My enhanced vision cut through the gloom and found the former Chapter Master flying in his Third Form, like a menacing harpy made of fire.

  "Looksss like Waelid's having fun," Fern's voice, now an audible hiss, emanated from the snake-headed tail coiling over my shoulder.

  Waelid carved fiery arcs against the lightning-scarred sky, fully embracing his Phoenix infusion. He held a shell-covered sea-goblin in his talons before flinging it into the churning black waters. The creature—despite being of the 'sea'—struggled against the twisting current of the sea, and when I saw why I understood. There was a massive whirlpool swirling several hundred yards away.

  "Watch your back, Moss-head!" Mel's gruff voice barked.

  I turned just as her metal-clawed gauntlet cleaved a titancrab down the middle. With a brutal shoulder check, she sent both halves skidding overboard. She stretched and admired her custom weapon, courtesy of Silas’s engineering capabilities. He had made the metal gauntlet able to expand and contract depending on Mel’s form, but her strength in her Third Form was what really gave her weapon the needed power to crush through enemies.

  Unlike my obvious Chimera form, Mel's transformation was less overtly animalistic but no less deadly. The Badgerpango blood—from a ruthless scaled creature on Ekate island—had given her reddish metallic scales tough as any armor, all around her body. A striking white streak of hair split down the middle of her fiery locks, and in her Third Form, her hair fell to just below her tailbone. At ten feet tall, she matched my height, and both of us towered over our comrades who hadn’t achieved Third Form quite yet.

  "Look who's talking, Mel! Clear out!" Sora called from above.

  Perched on the helm's railing near Bartholomew, she had her bow drawn, and two arrows nocked with small baggies tied to their tips and fuses sputtering despite the wet weather.

  I turned around and launched myself skyward with a powerful beat of my wings, the sensation still sending butterflies through my legs. Below, Mel dove flat onto the deck, as Sora's arrows blazed over the dark waters. I tracked their arc until they plunged into the roiling black center of the whirlpool that just swallowed the sea-goblin. The arrows vanished into the water and the light from the fuses dimmed.

  "Uh…think ya missed, Sora," Tevin called from the crow's nest, binoculars in hand.

  Seconds later, a ring of needle-like teeth broke through the water’s surface, emerged around the center of the whirlpool, and snapped shut with terrifying speed. The current stopped, and the waves began to calm. Whoever’s teeth that stopped the whirlpool sank back into the dark water.

  We all held our breath across the ship and froze. It was so quiet, you could hear the soft bending and creaking of wood adjusting as the ship settled. The attacking crabs and sea-goblins had all scuttled overboard as if called to retreat, abandoning their assault. The hail and rain ceased too, as if ordered by the snapping jaws, leaving only eerie darkness and unnerving stillness on the water.

  "Damn…" Sora breathed, lowering her bow slightly. "Silas, those fuses—?"

  My gaze snapped to the lower deck and found my friend holding up his metal arm. Silas’s arm was practically a rainbow of pulsing crystals socketed into its frame. In the year since the Assault on the Academy, he had added numerous gadgets to his arsenal. He grinned. "Just wait for it... Any… second… now…"

  On cue, a deep THOOMP shook below us, sending ripples across the Third Floor waters.

  The hull shook, and those who weren’t in Third Form either fell to their knees or were thrown off-balance.

  Where the maw had vanished, a colossal bubble erupted, followed by the cascading smaller ones.

  Ten bucks it's a Kraken, I said to Fern, tensing my body ready for anything.

  "Whatsss a Kraken?" he hissed behind my ear.

  Before I could answer, tentacles thick as trees shot up from below, breaking the surface in a chorus of crashes. They came out all at once, dozens of them, shooting in all directions, towards the ship, and towards the sky, towards me and towards Waelid. The violent tentacles swiped at air and water alike.

  "Watch it!" Waelid shouted from above. "There are too many! Protect the bo—"

  A tentacle whipped him from the sky, sending his harpy body torpedoing into the water.

  Shit. My awareness expanded and my eyes shot around in all directions, sensing for danger. I felt a burst of air as a massive tentacle swung close. I pumped my wings up, dodging the first strike. A second one came from my blind spot.

  I got this one! Fern's said.

  I glanced over my shoulder to watch the black sword gripped in his snake mouth. The tentacle rushed toward us. I braced, trusting Fern completely.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  THUNK.

  Black blood sprayed over me as Fern's blade sliced clean through the tentacle. The severed bit tumbled into the churning waters below.

  I refocused on our ship, and clenched my jaw when I saw that three tentacles had the ship wrapped in a death grip. The creaking of wood about to splinter sent fear to my gut.

  Get ready!

  I tucked my wings and dove. Below, Mel had ripped through one of the tentacles, while Silas, Sora, Tevin and others worked together cutting through a second one. I twisted mid-dive, approaching from the bow. Fern tracked the last remaining tentacle, and I sensed his focus sharpen as he coiled and tensed up his snakebody with the blade.

  I flew close to the ship and twisted my body, aiming my back towards the tentacle.

  THUNK.

  The blade slid through its tissue like hot butter, and the ship lurched free.

  "Nice one, guys!” Silas shouted from the deck, waving his hand.

  “Divert its attention, Forgeman Erik!” Bartholomew commanded. Chunks of severed tentacles littered the deck around him, yet true to his word, he hadn't moved an inch from the helm.

  "On it, Blazeman!" I saluted mid-climb and banked toward the source of all the tentacles, the massive shadow that hid just below the surface.

  A dozen more tentacles breached through the surface and stretched high in the sky towards me. I wove through them, pushing toward the center of the shadow. As I got closer, I saw hundreds of needle-sharp teeth become visible again, where they had snapped at the whirlpool earlier.

  "That, my friend, I’m calling a Kraken," I told Fern. I didn’t know the actual name of the monster, but Kraken felt right.

  "Looksss like a pit of teeth." He hissed.

  "Well, it's supposed to be a giant squid. Back on Earth, there are myths about them. Though who'd have thought we'd find such a large creature on the Third Floor?"

  "We didn't think the Third Floor would be an entire floor of water. Whoever desssigned the inssside of the Pillar wanted it to be a challenge climbing it.”

  “Well, let’s just figure out how to take it out. Any ideas?” I asked. I flew slowly in circles like a hawk, high above the middle of the monster, making sure to stay just out of reach from its tentacles.

  "We're pretty ssstrong, right? Let’sss go underwater, cut it at the sssourccce.”

  “I’m not that confident in my swimming. You saw what happened to Waelid."

  "Where isss the Chapter Massster?”

  New screams erupted from the ship. I flew higher and looked back. The ship was caught in another lethal squeeze, with five tentacles wrapped around the hull, and the Forgemen scrambling to cut them down. But the wood was splintering, and in moments, the ship would be torn in half, sending my friends, and the last boat of the Pillar Expedition Force would sink to the bottom of the Third Floor if we didn't act now.

  “Damn, no time to worry, we gotta go. Hold your breath!"

  I beat my wings three times for momentum, then tucked them tight and dove toward the dark grey surface. Before joining the expedition, I trained frequently in my Third Form with Waelid and Mel, practicing various techniques. One of which severely increased the speed and force I could impart if I did just one simple thing.

  I spun.

  I twisted like a corkscrew, becoming a living drill. Fern extended his body over my shoulder and held the sword by my face, extending out like a dealy horn. We became a flying death drill, whizzing faster and faster before we pierced the water.

  The impact was softer than expected. The spinning and speed, coupled with the sword, cut through the surface tension, and we torpedoed through thick flesh.

  I burst through a fleshy, shell-like wall on the side of the creature, not the main body, and turned around in the dark water. The grey sky above the water dimmed, leaving us in a liquid void.

  Ok, bad idea! Get us out! Get us out! Fern's panic flooded through our connection, and I felt his snake body flailing behind me, stretching up as if to swim away from me and towards the surface.

  Hold on! Take a deep breath—or well, whatever you do in there. Stay calm. Did we kill it? We went through something. What do you see?

  Salt burned my eyes as I searched the darkness. So much for Silas's confident declaration that this was a 'lake.'

  I don't see anything. How long can you hold your breath? Fern asked.

  Not sure. All that meditation training Firebrand Philip drilled into us helped with breath retention, but I've never tested it underwater. I was more focused on going deep mentally than focusing on the breath.

  Then—light. Football field's length away in the black void, a orange light glowed brightly. I could see my arms, see my hands, and see the light grow brighter.

  Waelid.

  The harpy-man was wrapped in a tentacle, but the appendage was already charring black from the heat Waelid emitted. Our former Chapter Master was channeling all his energy to his body. He was preparing for a move he invented. He gave it a cliché spell name, but it did do some severe destruction.

  He called it, Eruption.

  The light expanded, illuminating all the water around us, and the black shadowy shape of the beast we dove through became clear.

  So… yeah. This is not like any Kraken I’ve seen. I said.

  It’s…a giant turtle? Fern said, equally confused to what we were looking at.

  A giant turtle, with appendages covering it like some sort of demonic creation.

  The beast was enormous. Waelid was a small spark, like the floating glowing ash falling from a campfire, against its massive eye. The creature looked like a sea turtle, if sea turtles grew to a thousand yards long and sprouted hundreds of pockmarked holes across their shells, each one birthing writhing tentacles that stretched toward the surface. Red eyes shot through the water and locked onto Waelid’s growing glow. Its eyes looked lazy, though almost half-closed, still focused on the newly glowing threat.

  His light intensified. The water warmed, and even from where I was, I felt heat. Then, the water heated and bubbled around Waelid. Then, the bubbles roared, and the water boiled around him.

  I looked up, Waelid's light revealed our ship's hull above. I spread my wings and flapped them hard underwater. The resistance against them was crushing, but my Chimera’s strength bulldozed through the force of water, and each pump of my wings drove me through the water and upward.

  THUD.

  My palms hit wood. My legs burned like I'd been swimming through lava, and I might as well have. Looking back behind me, I saw that Waelid had begun to glow bright yellow, like the sun.

  Come on Fern! Help me angle the boat—if it doesn’t catch the shockwave right, it could sink!

  Got it! He had sheathed the sword and slammed his snake head onto the hull, helping me push.

  The tentacles gripping our ship recoiled from the rising heat of Waelid. I didn't dare look back anymore, didn't want temporary blindness. However, I couldn’t help but imagine those massive tentacles crisping into the world's largest calamari.

  A high-pitched whistle built up behind us, assailing my ears, begging me to plug them closed, but I had to keep pressing against the ship.

  Here it comes.

  I hate this part! It’s even worse in the water!

  The whistle crescendoed until my ears rang like church bells. Counted until I felt it was time, and then I flipped and kicked off the hull, pushing the boat away from me, and moved my wings one more time, bursting from the water just as Eruption went off.

  B-BOOM

  The shockwave hit first. It sent the ship away riding on a newly made wave. Then, two seconds later, a sphere of fire the size of a hot-air balloon erupted from the depths. A wall of water rose. Thirty, forty, fifty feet high. The wave groaned as it raced out in every direction. One part of the wall caught the ship like a toy, launching it forward faster. Bartholomew's barked orders became muffled static, as water crashed all around. I looked down and saw the tentacles retreating and watched as the big shadow slung away deeper into the water.

  The ringing in my skull, from Eruption, muffled all the noise around me. Even Fern's internal voice came through garbled:

  S...ou...hink...th…t?

  Huh?

  I SAID, do you think that’s it? Damn, I can’t believe those bastards who stayed behind called the Third Floor 'peaceful.'I knew they were lying.

  I didn't answer Fern, instead, I just laughed as I landed on the tilting deck.

  Everyone was already working to clean up from the damage while Bartholomew continued to steer us towards our destination.

  "Did we lose anyone?" I asked appraoching my friends.

  "No, thankfully," Silas said.

  "So, gearhead! What was the point of those bombs if all they did was piss it off?!" Sora vaulted the helm railing to land beside us. Her hair was tied into two short buns on either side of her head. She had decided after the Assault on the Academy that she needed to cut the pigtails off and make her hair shorter, easier to maneuver in.

  "They're supposed to sedate, not damage. I must have underestimated the size of it. Maybe I didn't pack enough poison."

  I let my Third Form fall off me and returned to my base human form. "No, I think you did. When Waelid lit up the ocean, its eyes were already going glassy. Waelid just... well, you know."

  "Ah, yeah. Figured that was him when I heard the whistle." Silas nodded.

  "Heard what about me?" Waelid landed hard beside us and immediately collapsed out of his phoenix form. Galina ran up to him and caught him before his face hit the deck. Her unique, glass skin, chimed softly as she hoisted him onto her back.

  "Don't—cough, cough—shit, water still in my lungs—cough—don't talk shit when I'm the one who saved us all."

  "Saved us?" Silas adjusted his mechanical arm. "You nearly killed us. The poison would've worked."

  "And let that thing rip the ship in half? No, I saw an emergency unfolding—cough—and I found a solution. We haven't even caught up with the main Expedition Force yet. How pathetic would it be if the newest Cinders died before reaching the first checkpoint?”

  “Quit standing around, Forgemen!” Bartholomew's hundreds of eyes from his Third Form glared at us from the helm. "Enough bickering! Waelid, you could've killed us. Silas, your poison was too slow. Done. Though I'll admit—the Mistress of the Third Floor doesn’t normally attack directly like that."

  "Maybe she's tired of boats crossing her territory these last few days?" Tevin suggested. "You didn't kill her, did you, Waelid?"

  "Nah. Even Eruption barely dented her. She just scrambled away, afraid of my power. She’s probably napping now, thanks to metal boy's poison, though.” He shot Silas an approving look.

  Silas gave Waelid a metal thumbs-up.

  "Now that's settled," Bartholomew continued, "look ahead. We've reached our destination."

  Ahead, a tiny island emerged on the horizon. It was no bigger than a gas station parking lot of sand and grass, with a simple dock jutting from its shore. And in the island's center, a ladder stretched impossibly upward, thousands of feet through the gloom until it disappeared into the Third Floor's ceiling.

  The ladder to the Fourth Floor.