(Mintaka)

The rain pours down like a million tiny hammers. A constant, drumming roar that drowns out everything but the thunder. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

My hair is soaked, plastered to my neck and shoulders, and the cold water is just below my knees.

A cold, dark current tugs at me like it wants to pull me under.

Thunder rattles the sky again, so close the vibration hums in our bones. Amaia’s words seem true, we are in a closed space. This is the only explanation.

Then we are attacked by a monstrous frog beetle hybrid. Amaia cuts down its tongue but another one joins hearing its rowdy call.

Those bulging eyes they possess and hard beetle shells. They make loud croaking sounds as the other one hops towards the first whose face drips dark gooey blood from where Amaia has cut him.

"Blimey! Let’s get the bastard," Amaia shouts and we join in.

I warn. "Watch out for any poison." Swinging my sword I launch myself forward.

Detecting movement to my left. Kacir reacts before I can even draw breath. His senses are sharper than any blade. His thick silver chain, the one with the twin sharp blades at each end, sings as it cuts through the air.

He swings it, sending it flying. One of those blades catches the creature square in its gleaming eye, and a thick yellow fluid spurts out. The thing hisses, a horrible grinding sound which grates on our ears.

Rahria jumps on the other one, her claws trying to dig into its shell.

"Rahria!" I bellow, but my voice is nothing against the thunder. "Be careful."

I plant my feet in the muck, hefting my battle axe. The broad head, double-bladed, is meant for cleaving. One of them charges at me and Amaia, who stands right beside me.

The powerful hind legs of the creature launch it through the water in a low leap. Its mouth opens and I see its cut tongue but there is something else too.

It spits.

No time to think. No time to be afraid. That comes later.

I dodge, pushing Amaia away from harm’s way too. The force sends us into the water with a splash.

Thud! We are drenched to the roots of our hair. Some of the water enters our mouths and nostrils.

I spit it out.

"You okay?" I hurriedly ask Amaia, jumping to my feet.

"Yes," I grab her hand and pull her up. She steadies herself, gripping her weapon and facing the impending danger.

It lunges at us and I bring my axe up in a two-handed arc, putting my whole body into it. The heavy head catches it under the jaw. The impact shudders up my arms, into my shoulders, rattling my teeth.

I feel the crunch of its shell but it doesn’t fully break. It’s hard like stone. Its momentum carries it forward and I twist, using that, shoving with my hips. It lifts its hind leg kicking at my side. I barely dodge and it escapes forward towards Amaia.

To my right, Amaia is a storm wrapped in leather and steel. Her two-edged sword moves like water, pale metal weaving patterns in the rain. But it’s not just a sword. As she parries its attacks, blue-white light like an electric charge arcs from the blade. Before she can hit him, it leaps into the water.

The creature is smart, knowing she won’t be able to electrocute him without hurting herself and me.

"We need to fight it without electric power. I know what I need to do," I shout over to Amaia and she nods, trusting me completely.

Placing my hands on the surface of water, I let my powers out, making the water freeze at the exact place where he had dived. It doesn’t take long for it to surface.

The frozen water around it turns to sharp icicles, impaling the hard chitinous skin just enough to hold it in its place.

It shrieks when frozen rods pierce the skin.

"Amaia, now." My words are hardly out of my mouth when Amaia swings her double-bladed sword from the centre, letting one blade cut the exact spot under the head where I had previously left the mark.

His limbs seize. Amaia’s second blade slices with such precision that the ugly head finally separates from its shell.

It drops into the water with a small plop.

The smell of rotten meat cuts through the wet marsh stench. The lower body gurgles out dark blood.

Amaia heaves a sigh of relief, her face still calm beneath the rain. Hair slightly dishevelled. Her dark eyes find me and I encouragingly smile at her.

"You have no idea how gorgeous you look slicing these creatures."

She flashes me her warm smile. Getting rid of this monster, we turn our attention to our companions.

Kacir is ferociously swinging his silver chain as if it were alive. He wraps it around its neck and pulls, snapping the shell, the blades finding soft flesh.

Rahria is clinging to it with her strong claws, trying to tear apart any soft part she can find.

"Let’s kill it together." We wade forward. Amaia doesn’t need to be told twice, her sword is ready.

She doesn’t even grunt. Just spins, attacking and slashing. Black blood sprays out and the rain washes it away instantly, polluting the water below.

"Is the other one dead?" Kacir asks with a grunt, trying to hold the bastard with his chained weapon.

"It is," I growl and charge. Every step is a battle against the water, against the sucking mud beneath.

The creature rears back at me, and I bring the axe down in a sweeping horizontal cut. The blade severs one of its kicking legs at the joint. It almost topples, only Kacir’s chains are holding him. I repeat the process until I chop off his hind legs.

The loud shrieking continues. The spray of blood covers my face. It is warm and gooey and thankfully not burning. I swing my axe again, at its back where the thick skin doesn’t even dent.

Amaia and Kacir keep their attacks from the front.

"Let go Kacir," I shout out. "Rahria, get down," I instruct and wait for the perfect time.

They obey and I drop one knee in the water, raising my axe like a spear. The sudden jerk when Kacir lets it go has him toppling over. The upper part of my axe catches it in the back.

Its own momentum and the force drive it onto the blade. It hits me like a battering ram, pushing me backwards.

My breath leaves me in a whoosh. I land under the water. The world suddenly is muffled and distant, the weight of the dying thing pinning me down. I can feel its legs twitching against my arms, its blood mixing with the cold water in my mouth.

Panic. Cold and sharp. For a second I can’t breathe. I can’t move.

Then the weight is gone.

Someone pulls me up, gasping, rain filling my mouth. I cough up dirty water. It’s Amaia with her reassuring arms.

Kacir and Rahria are there too, hauling the dead creature off me.

"Min, you okay?" Amaia thumps my back, letting me take a breath and cough out all the water that has gone inside. Her worries worm into my heart through the bond.

I give her a quick nod before getting up.

"That was some fine move." Kacir raises his hand and does a high five with me.

"Yeah!" I yank my axe free from the corpse. My muscles scream. Everything screams. The water around me is churned to mud, thick with blood and God knows what else. Thunder cracks again, so loud it shakes this very world.

A bolt of lightning forks down, hitting a lone tree on the bank. The tree explodes, splinters flying, and for one blinding second, the whole scene is frozen in white light.

The light slowly fades. The world goes back to grey.

We need to get out of this forsaken place or it’s going to explode soon.

Amaia, shudders beside me.

Kacir’s chain whirls as he arranges them on his shoulders. "We should move before more of them attack us."

We nod and I lift my axe to my shoulder as our feet trudge through this difficult terrain. There’s no time to think. No time to be afraid. We have to keep moving.

And then like a light on the horizon, we hear the flapping of wings in the distance. Raising our heads we observe and it’s Alnitak returning in his Incubus form. Amaia sighs with relief beside me and I let out a short breath seeing my brother return.

His dark eyes take in the massacre and his mouth widens in amusement. "Seems like you guys had all the fun without me." He hovers just above us with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, did you find it?" I ask, hoping he has.

"Of course, I did. I am awesome. Let’s gooo." He gleefully points in the other direction.

"Yahh!" Amaia says with relief. "Let’s get out of here."