The sight of the Alpha Mare Kelpie caught everyone by surprise. While it was a monster, the way it looked with the water trailing behind it, its waterlogged hair fluttering in the air, and even its tail swaying up and down, made them all think it was a majestic creature. However, no matter how enamored they were by it, it was still a monster. A leader at that too.

  As soon as the Alpha Mare Kelpie splashed down into the water, its tail slammed down and caused a decently sized wave to make its way towards them. Inside the wave were smaller forms riding the wave. Their bodies swam to the top of the wave allowing their heads to break the surface of the wave and let out sharp threatening neighs.

  Before Liam could react, his ears picked up the tail end of two people finishing a chant. Chunks of icicles flew straight towards the wave that was almost within reach of them and froze the wave and part of the base around the wave. Liam took this moment to assess the creatures within as they thrashed their necks around to try and free themselves.

  [Kelpie Splashling. 5,000/5,000 HP. 3,500/3,500 MP.]

  Mercer swiftly shot arrow after arrow while Roman formed a Lightning Hand and used its reach to punch one of the creatures. Liam joined them by sending out his Arcane Hand that was mana blended with his Toxo Needle and used it to stab and inject poisons into as many as he could before the Alpha Mare Kelpie rushed through the bottom of the frozen water, shattering it, and freeing the Kelpie Splashlings.

  Artem quickly chanted a barrier that protected them from the loose pieces of ice chunks and water that flew towards them. Liam was glad that he had the foresight to prepare one in time since the chunks of ice that flew at them were not small and the varying size of water blobs that joined them were not natural, but attacks as well. They realized this when the blobs of water slammed against Artem’s Barrier spell. The density of each blob had a much harder sound than they normally would if they were just regular splashes of water.

  Mercer and Ariyana looked at each other and nodded before yelling out for the team to split. Ariyana, Artem, and Gimmel ran to the left while Liam, Blair, Mercer, and Roman ran to the right. the length from one side of the watery center to the other was enough of a distance for Artem to be able to cast his heals in case they need them.

  As they ran Roman sent his Lightning Hand into the water to see if he would be able to cause any damage, however, the moment his Lightning Hand entered the water it suddenly disappeared. Liam could hear Roman curse as he quickly formed a new one and got ready for the next attack.

  The Alpha Mare Kelpie revealed its head out from the water in the center of the water patch and looked around. Before anyone could do anything, it let out a loud call while its body shook. Ripples in the water exuded from where it swam followed by bubbles starting to form in the water near the edges. Not too long after that Sharp Tooth Crocs surfaced and started making their way over to both sides.

  Blair used Arcane Battle Shout to aggro the Sharp Tooth Crocs on their side while Roman created an Orb of Earth while channeling Earth Mana. He then pulled the Orb of Earth towards his right hand while focusing all the Earth Mana he channeled towards his left hand. He punched both fists into the dirt and sand causing them to be covered and then hardened with two spikes on his knuckles.

  Mercer pulled out his flute and started buffing everyone while he had a Bard Sphere record the song. After he stopped playing the first song the Bard Sphere continued it, allowing the buffs caused by the melody to continue as he started playing a second tune. Both tunes when played, while having a different feel to the notes playing around, almost sounded like they could go together. However, they still clashed when it came to tempo and pitch. The others didn’t mind though since they gave both an Agility and Speed boost thanks to one and a Resilience boost from the other.

  Liam threw out Shade’s Corruption, Epidermis Luminescence, Blanket of Darkness, and Grasp of the Shadows before making his way to the other side to help them out. As he sprinted, he witnessed Artem casting a barrier to slow the Sharp Tooth Crocs down while Gimmel suicide bombed the creatures with illusionary puppets and casting Puppet Reanimation. Ariyana casted a few plant spells to help deal some damage. After launching her Leaf Projection spell, she chanted her Tantalizing Aroma spell to paralyze one of the crocodiles before chanting her Pod Shooters spell. She then switched to Entangling Roots to catch another before it went into the water to swim around the barrier Artem was trying to keep up.

  As Liam watched Ariyana use her Entangling Roots spell, he had an idea he was wanting to try out. He remember the discovery he had made the other night when he casted his Grasp of the Shadows onto the shadow blob he had thrown onto the wall while practicing his Shadow Manipulation. He wanted to test how different it was compared to the normal Grasp of the Shadows.

  As he reached halfway to the others he activated his Shadow Manipulation and gathered as many of the shadows around him as he could. He gathered the shadowy blob on his right hand, he could feel the edge of the blob sticking to his fingers. As he stretched his fingers out to expand the shadowy blob, his Danger Sense lightly flared up around his right side.

  By instinct, Liam placed his right hand, with the shadow blob extended over his entire palm and stuck to his fingertip, out in a manner as if he was trying to protect himself from something. As he turned his head to see what was going on, his eyes widened at the sight of a jet stream of water hitting his extended hand. However, instead of feeling any pain, the water disappeared upon impact. Confused, Liam waited till the stream of water stopped. When Liam finally realized what had happened he pulled his hand back and looked at the shadowy blob that had slightly grown and looked like it was full of liquid.

  He didn’t move from the spot and just stared at his hand. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but he felt like this shadowy blob had somehow absorbed…no not absorbed, but rather sucked in the water attack till it couldn’t take in any more. He didn’t know how it did that nor that it could do that. But now he had another question since it had done that…what was he supposed to do with this now?

  If he had to think about what he could do, he wasn’t sure. Albeit, remembering what had happened when he shot his Grasp of the Shadows spell into it and how it reacted when the chair was close enough to it had given him an idea. Not wanted to waste any more time in case he was on a timer, Liam sprinted to the others. After he finally reached them, Artem’s barrier had finally dispersed, freeing up the Sharp Tooth Crocs that weren’t being stunned or rooted.

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  Before the creature could get any closer to them, Liam flung his shadowy blob full of water at the nearest creature’s feet. The moment the monster stepped over it, a geyser of inky black water suddenly erupted from underneath it. the force of the water was strong enough to pierce through the creature and erupt into a spray over its body which spread towards the other Sharp Tooth Crocs. The inky black liquid, now mixed with blood, covered the other creature’s faces, bodies, and even entered their snapping maws.

  After being coated with the black inky liquid, the Sharp Tooth Crocs suddenly started acting weird. Their heads swayed left to right as their jaws snapped sharply at nothing but air. A couple tried clawing at their eyes, but failed due to having short legs that couldn’t reach far enough. Then one Sharp Tooth Croc, while snapping at the air, locked its jaws down on another Sharp Tooth Croc and started jerking its head around as the creature being attacked whipped its tail around and clawed at the monster attacking it.

  “Wha…what the hell is going on?” Ariyana watched in horror.

  “Where did that black liquid come from?” Artem questioned as he stared at the area the inky black geyser had emerged from. “I think that water is causing some sort of effect making the monsters confused. I see a Blind Debuff and a…Whispers from the Beyond Debuff?”

  Artem looked at Liam who was just as shocked to see and hear that as much as the others. “What did you do? How did you…,” Artem slowly asked.

  Liam heard the way Artem asked the question. It sounded like he was trying to figure something out while the look in his spoke of something trying to piece together. He wasn’t sure if he was having some sort of epiphany or if he was just genuinely trying to understand it. However, they didn’t have the time for him to explain as they heard shouts coming from the other side. Liam looked over to see the Alpha Mare Kelpie was starting to shoot water bullets at the others as they killed off the last of the Sharp Tooth Croc.

  With some urgency Liam said, “We’ll talk about it later.” He then chanted his Shade’s Corruption and Epidermis Luminescence spells out before the boss monster dove back into the water. Liam cursed at the monster while Artem sent a few heals over at the others.

  After he finished casting the last Heal spell, Ariyana shouted out, “Incoming!”

  Liam turned his head to see a flock of Aquatic Plovers dive bomb towards them. Liam noticed their trajectory and understood who their target was. Their target was Gimmel. Gimmel braced himself as he created a few puppet illusions to counter their attack. However before he could send them out and before the flock could strike down, a powerful set of white and greenish jaws opened wide as a scaly creature jumping in front of the flock of birds and chomped down on a few of the birds.

  “Great job Barty!” Ariyana cheered as Liam took in the crocolisk’s new look.

  The last time he saw the creature it was not that big and had an albino scaly body. Now it was bigger and longer. It was now standing at hip height to Liam with a pure white with green swirls. Its scaly body now had some patches that looked to have a bark-ish like texture. He could also see some flower-like buds growing in those areas which really confused Liam. However, he didn’t have time to ask questions as three of the birds had their way towards him. In response, Liam sent his Toxo Needle and Meat Cleaver to attack two of the birds as he manipulated his shadowy blob back to his hand and tried to shove it at the bird who had its beak pointed right at his direction.

  To Liam’s surprise and slight disappointment, instead of the living creature being sucked right into it like the chair and the stream of water had. The bird only bounced backwards like an object hitting rubber. Even though it was rebuffed, the Aquatic Plover kept trying to attack Liam. Seeing that he was able to avoid being stabbed or rather pecked by the bird thanks to his shadowy blob, Liam kept bouncing the attack back as he chanted his Grasp of the Shadows spell.

  After he finished the chant he pushed it through his hand and into the shadowy blob. After he pushed it through, two thick inky tendrils shot out and wrapped around the Aquatic Plover, stopping it from getting away. The bird monster struggled as it flapped as hard as it could. However, no matter how hard it flapped it could break free. Instead the two tendrils just squeezed harder in response.

  The Aquatic Plover let out frantic chirps. The rate of it letting out those chirps grew the more the tendrils squeezed until they sounded painful. Then shortly after that, Liam heard a snap and then a crunch before the creature fell silent. A chill ran down Liam’s spine at that as the tendrils pulled the creature within the shadowy blob.

  This time, instead Liam feeling something being within the shadowy blob, he felt nothing. It wasn’t like when it sucked in the water. When that happened he could feel a slight change in weight and a sloshing feeling. This time it just felt…empty. Like the dead creature that was sucked within had completely disappeared. He wasn’t sure what that meant or how he felt about that, but like earlier he didn’t have time to think about that since a new threat was now upon them.

  The Alpha Mare Kelpie started jumping around in the water. After a few jumps, each time he plunged back in the water, several Kelpie Splashlings jumped up into the air shooting small bullets of water. This caused everyone to run around trying to dodge the attacks. Artem pulled out his shield and then chanted out a Barrier spell big enough for Gimmel, Ariyana, and Liam to get behind.

  Blair, Roman, and Mercer weren’t so lucky as they tried to dodge the incoming high speed water balls. Blair, not as fast as the other two decided to give up and place her axe out in front of her, using the axe head as a shield to protect her head. While her head, chest and shoulder were protected, the rest of her body took several hits. Roman and Mercer, while they had some speed and agility, they weren’t fast enough to dodge all the attacks.

  After the barrage of water bullets finished and the water calmed for the moment, Artem went to throw out a heal but then cursed. “Shit, I don’t have enough mana to heal them.”

  “What?!” Ariyana questioned.

  “I’m not used to just focusing on healing,” Artem started to panic. “I think I over spent my mana using my barriers and healing magic.”

  “Do you have any Minor Mana Potions and Weak Healing Mists left?” Liam asked.

  “Yeah, I still have a few,” Artem stated as he looked at him.

  “Give me three of the Weak Healing Mists,” Liam stated as he reached a hand out. “I’ll get these on them while you replenish all your mana back.”

  Artem nodded as he gave Liam three Weak Healing Potions. After Liam left Artem down the first Minor Mana Potion. Still holding the shadowy blob, Liam kept his eyes on the watery center in case the Alpha Mare Kelpie decided to shoot another jet stream at him. After getting to his other teammates without any issues, Liam shattered the Weak Healing Mists over the three.

  While the Weak Healing Mist started healing their wounds and restoring their health, the rate it was doing so was extremely slow. He looked back at the other side of the mini lake and was about to shout for Artem to go ahead and heal them, but as he stared at the half Orc he noticed the man’s gaze was a bit weird.

  Using his heightened sight, Liam zoomed in to get a better look at what was going on and then cursed as he recognized that Artem was in a deep trance. What it was that had him so transfixed, Liam wasn’t sure. All he knew was the timing was bad as the Alpha Mare Kelpie resurfaced, looking straight at Artem, and looked like it was readying an attack.

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