Drop them, I say over the Bond, tension winds my guts into an almost painful knot. From my protected vantage point, I see the stone fall and splash into the water in front of me. Hopefully dropping stones will be enough to gain the creature’s attention.

  As the seconds pass by, Iandee drops another stone, and then another. He staggers them so they don’t fall all at once, but also doesn’t drop them at regular intervals so that it appears deliberate – we can’t forget that we’re probably dealing with something as intelligent as the other Tier threes we’ve come into contact with.

  The knot of tension in my stomach draws tighter for every second there is no sign of the creature. I really don’t want one of my Bound to have to step into the water themselves. It shouldn’t be necessary, not considering that all it took before was a single splash from a raptorcat cub’s paw. But yet the creature hasn’t appeared yet. Is it not paying attention?

  After five minutes have gone past with no sign of the creature, I’m on the verge of asking Sirocco to go and hop around in the shallows – since she’s able to fly, she should be able to flee its tentacles before it even realises how she’s escaping.

  Then Dusty clutches at my arm, her claws digging into my hide armour.

  It’s coming, is all she says, her eyes intent on the water. Trusting her water sense despite not being able to see any sign of it myself, with either physical eyes or magical sight, I warn the rest of my Bound.

  Battle stations, everyone.

  They are already prepared, so all my warning does is puts them all back on high alert – some of them had lost the edge as the minutes began dragging on.

  And then it’s here. The first questing tentacle breaking the surface of the water. A shiver goes down my spine as I see it, my instincts screaming at me even more now than they did last time. My memories threaten to drag me back into that traumatic experience – the downside of improved memory storage and recollection, I suppose.

  I force my thoughts fully into the present. Time to find out what we’re dealing with.

  Go, Dusty, I tell the samuran next to me. At the same time, I send Inspect at the creature, not bothering to even try to be subtle about it. The creature obviously feels my probe as it expands its domain. A great sense of pressure that makes it feel difficult to breathe descends on us. The feeling is as if there is a massive rock pushing down on my chest, and at the same time the air has become thicker, more like water.

  To my alarm, the domain feels even stronger than Kalanthia’s, who’s had the strongest domain of any Tier three that I’ve yet felt. I feel that most of my Bound near the entrance to the cave have taken a few inadvertent steps back to lessen the sense of pressure. The ones who are best off among them are Raven, of course, Windy, and Poison.

  I hear choking beside me and see that Dusty is feeling it even more strongly than I am, the sensation interrupting her efforts.

  Applying my Willpower to the pressure against me, I push it off enough that I don’t feel like I’m about to choke at any moment. That’s not sustainable, though – I won’t be able to do anything if all my attention is on just breathing; nor will anyone else.

  Gritting my teeth I open my eyes to observe the situation. Flowing through the domain like a current through water, I feel a sense of anger, outrage. This emotion is reflected in the creature’s tentacles – no longer is there only the one. At least ten of them are flailing around, searching for the one who sent the probe.

  They need a target.

  Sirocco, fly in and use your Fire Wing. Get its attention. Be careful, I order her, my final words more of a plea. She might be Tier two now, but she’s still one of my most fragile Bound simply because of her body structure.

  She doesn’t seem afraid, more determined to play her part, undaunted by the effects of the domain that have hit the rest of us so badly. In her largest size, she swoops in through the hole in the ceiling and scythes her wings towards one of the tentacles.

  A bright flash of flame illuminates their edges just before she pulls them back and releases the attack. A copy of her wings in flame flashes forwards and strikes the creature’s tentacle. It has very little obvious effect on the massive water beast, but it certainly gains its attention. I gasp in a full breath and hear my Bound around me doing the same as the pressure lets up on us.

  Sirocco is another question. Now the focus of the beast, I see her flying falter for a moment, her wings a beat too late to catch her. A moment later she rallies – just in time.

  It shoots another of its tentacles towards Sirocco, but they are far slower than my Companion and she jinks out of the way, just about avoiding it. The beast is not to be deterred, however, and sends a third and a fourth tentacle towards her. My heart is in my mouth as I watch the events, but my bird-like Bound is more agile than I give her credit for.

  Sirocco dodges every tentacle that comes her way, starting to fly and weave through the flexible black limbs. More appear from the surface of the water in pursuit of the bird. She reacts by reducing her size a little so she’s more able to avoid them and then continues taunting them, sending out another Fire Wing when it looks like the beast might be tiring of the game.

  Meanwhile, I sigh in relief as the pressure on me lifts as the beast focusses its attention fully on the flying beast. I see her flying falter and become laboured, but even so, she’s well ahead of the flailing limbs.

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  Forcing the information I received into a visible form, I quickly look through the creature’s details. Or rather, the ‘fellapodil’.

  That’s some seriously high health, I say to myself grimly, quickly passing on the information to the rest of the party. It’s good to note that my previous guesses have indeed been borne out – and that we have several among us who are able to strike at its weaknesses.

  I’m grateful that the Inspect has revealed so much information – I remember how little it managed to show me in our fight with Raven before it combined. It’s also very clear that I can’t even hope to try to Dominate this beast, not that that was my aim – the minimum level is almost double my current Willpower.

  Sirocco is still managing to keep the fellapodil’s attention – and avoid its attacks. The tentacles’ movements almost seem…lazy. Like it’s not taking this entirely seriously. That gives me time to gather all the information I can, at least.

  Got anything, Dusty? I ask the samuran next to me even as I send my own awareness through the rock before me. It only seems to be using its tentacles to touch the walls, I tell her as I struggle to identify more of the creature than that – its anchoring tentacles are near the surface of the water so it doesn’t give me any idea of what the creature is like below that – or how large it is.

  Here, Dusty tells me, a sense of strain even in her mental voice.

  An impression washes over me. Prior to having Fire- or Earth-Shaping, I would have really struggled to interpret it. Now, however, though it’s still hard, it’s not impossible. Water is more fluid than Earth and more solid than Fire, but by combining my understanding of both, I am able to decipher it a little.

  In the flow and movement of the water, I feel an immense, bulbous shape. The tentacles are only the tip of the creature itself – below the surface lies something that almost fills the large tunnel. It is propelled almost like a jellyfish, its lower sections rippling in the water and creating their own currents. The only reason it’s not bobbing up and down is because of the tentacles which brace against the tunnel walls. It descends into the tunnel as far as one of its tentacles could extend above it, which probably makes it the biggest Tier three I’ve yet encountered.

  But it’s not so big that its lowest regions are out of my Earth-Shaping range, something I had been concerned about.

  Keep it from noticing anything happening and I’ll do my part, I tell Dusty, my voice tense.

  I am tiring, warns Sirocco just before I dive back into the earth.

  Pull out, then, I tell her immediately – in the forest of tentacles which has become her battleground, the slightest delay from tiredness could spell her end. Poison, Iandee, River, start throwing some of the ammunition. Try to test what will get through its skin or otherwise affect it. Windy, help them.

  I wait to hear their acknowledgement before I focus in on my own task again.

  Feeding mana into the earth, I drag it through the connections in the earth until it gets where I need it to be. Deep, deep in the earth I draw the mana, down to where Dusty’s water sense indicated that the fellapodil’s body ended. There, I begin to create my trap.

  While I would love it to be as fast as springing an actual trap, the reality is that I was unable to set up anything, not knowing enough about the creature, its size and its shape. So that’s what I do now.

  Moving as slowly as I dare in order to conserve mana, I encourage the earth to grow from one side of the tunnel to the other. At first, I try to grow the granite that forms the tunnel, but it takes so much mana that I fear I won’t be able to complete the task before my pool is empty.

  Then, taking inspiration from my environment, I try something else. I don’t have unlimited time – only as long as my Bound can hold the creature’s interest. But if this will make it possible to do what we need, it will be a good investment of the time I do have.

  Granite is a strong rock, stronger than most. But it’s not the only type. And another type of rock is guarding where I am right now in the form of stalactites and stalagmites. Limestone.

  Given how easy it was to shape the area where Dusty and I are hiding, it should be far more doable to use limestone than granite. Even better, I realise as I begin trying, I can save some effort by drawing calcium carbonate out of the water itself – for the granite I needed to actually create more stone myself which just intensified the mana draw.

  Not long after, I’m relieved when the first pillar comes into place faster than even half of the granite pillar had. The limestone finger stretches all the way across the tunnel, dividing it in half.

  But that’s only the beginning. A single pillar isn’t going to be enough to stop the beast escaping, especially not weak calcium carbonate. Doubling down on my effort, I grow more and more pillars, each one stretching across another part of the tunnel, creating a trapdoor made of bone-like fingers. It’s a pity it doesn’t count as actual bone, though, despite the amount of calcium in bones – my Flesh-Shaping could have made the job easier.

  I down my first mana regeneration potion not long after creating the third pillar; I down my second after creating the fifteenth. The increased regeneration gets me through the final one and gives me just enough time to grow more rock to seal up all the holes between the pillars.

  I lean back and sigh, feeling worn out already. But it’s done. The beast is trapped in the cavern with us.

  Though with that health and mana pool, are we trapped with it?

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