Gideon grabbed Cass again, pulling him back. Lucian did the same to Edgar. Even Taniora looked concerned as they stared at the water.
They all held their breath, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, the fear and tension faded as the half-eaten body of one of the fish/mermaid monsters surfaced. Cass wasn’t sure what the true answer was since it was only the bottom half of the monster, the top half having been eaten.
Taniora looked horrified, while everyone else grew serious. That was the answer that something was in the lake, and that it was eating.
Cass had no idea how it got the monster, and it was clear that was bothering Taniora. Cass figured that the powers that be had been feeding it. Hopefully. It was obvious from her reaction that Taniora wasn’t.
"A-A tail?" She whispered and Cass nodded.
"Yup." He replied lightly, not really bothered by it. He was more bothered by the fact that something had floated up at all. That was how the first mini Boss had signified that it was coming. "Everyone brace yourselves." Cass warned and they all nodded.
Lucian shoved Edgar further behind him, and Gideon did the same to Cass. The boys were taking their protective roles very seriously.
It felt like years passed, and eventually another fucking obnoxiously coloured monster appeared, with those damn milky-looking stemed eyes, the colourful shield arms. Lucian’s gaze hardened, Edgar paled, and Gideon braced himself. Taniora let out a horrified gasp.
Cass frowned unhappily.
"Oh, you fucking asshole." Cass muttered, before he raised his hands without hesitation. The group watched as a giant ball of water began to form in the air beside the Boss.
Cass was doing it, while he also created a few of the floating lights that had angered the other beast before. The group watched as the weird fucking monster twitched it’s eyes. Cass wondered what it was going to target. The ball of water, or the lights?
It went for the lights.
That was its first mistake.
Cass slammed the water against the creature, watching as it coated its body. It thought nothing of it, since it was a giant creature who lived in the water. Even as Cass turned up the temp of the water to the highest setting that he could.
"You fucking giant gross thing. I am not going to let you fuck with us again." Cass muttered. Lucian jerked his gaze to Cass, watching as sweat began to pour down Cass’ face as he focused.
Cass was having a harder time with warming up the water. His new skills when it came to magic were more on the earth and water side of things, away from fire, it seemed. Lucian, quick on the uptake, raised his own hand.
"I’ll give you a hand." He murmured and Cass could tell that the water began to warm up quicker. Steam began to pour from it. Cass smirked, as Edgar began to cast a few of his own lights. Gideon remained on guard, waiting for the best to realise what they were doing.
However, it didn’t. It didn’t notice at all and Cass wondered briefly, why it wasn’t panicking, until the smell of cooking...something began to fill the air.
Cass hadn’t smelt a lot of seafood in his day, so he had no idea what the smell was. It was a bit...sweet? If he was honest? A little pungent, but not unpleasant? Cass was pretty confused as he continued to work, making sure that there was enough water for them to continue to move up and down its exposed body.
The giant monster didn’t stand a chance.
About 20 minutes later, after Cass had first raised his hands, the creature gradually lost all colour and turned a pale pink colour and collapsed. It slammed against the wall and ceiling of the cavern, Cass pushing it away from them so that it didn’t hit them.
Horrifically, a much longer body showed itself and Cass almost worried they were going to have a second fight but no, it was just one giant fuck off lobster-esque thing.
It made a loud racket as it fell, the sound of water sloshing and rock crumbling filling the air. The ground also rumbled and shook, the lake rippling and lapping over and onto the ground.
Once that was over, the group grew quiet. Cass was panting slightly, not from over extension of his powers but because he had done so much at once. Cass did his best not to make loud noises as he breathed, not wanting to worry anyone.
"It smells delicious." Edgar muttered quietly, breaking the tension of the moment. Cass gave a light laugh.
"It doesn’t smell bad, yeah." Cass agreed. "I haven’t eaten a lot of seafood, so I wouldn’t know." Cass told him and Edgar gave him a curious look.
"Huh. Seafood is one of the foods that doesn’t get blessed by the temple on a regular basis. I would have thought you had a lot of it." Edgar commented. Cass shrugged.
"I don’t know. We’ve never really lived near a body of water we could get consistent food from, and I had other things to worry about outside of trying seafood." Cass told him.
"Why don’t you try it now?" Lucian suggested. Everyone looked at him, slightly horrified. He grew defensive. "What? It’s clearly a fish monster of some kind, kind of looks like a crustacean of sorts. That’s how we’re about to boil it the way that Cass suggested. Why not crack it open and give it a taste? It’s not like it’ll kill us." Cass shivered.
"I just do not like the idea of eating a monster, Lucian. That feels..." Cass shivered, shaking his head. Lucian appeared to be pouting slightly.
"I eat monsters." He muttered. "I just wanted to share what I do with you." He was definitely pouting. Edgar raised a hand.
"I can’t. I’m going to have to draw a line at that. I can only really eat human food, I’ll have to draw the line at dragon food since I don’t know what that will do to my constitution." That was a fair thing for Edgar to draw a line at.
Cass didn’t have the same excuse.
"I’ll try some." Gideon said. "I’ve tried a few different things from the waters before. It kind of smells like a freshwater crustacean I’ve had before." Lucian beamed, his gaze sliding back to Cass, taunting him.
"Fucking fine. I’ll try some of the damn monster, you pushy dragon." Cass muttered. "If I get sick, you’re the one who is going to have to feed me the tonic." Cass warned. Lucian nodded. He headed over to the slumped over beast and Cass finally noticed that the table and chairs had been violently shoved to the side so that a chest could be placed on the raised stone platform.
Taniora was fine, the table and chairs having just been shoved to the edge of the stone platform, not off. She did look rather shocked, however.
"You...you cooked it to death." She muttered, unaware that Cass had turned his attention to her. She muttered something under her breath. It honestly sounded like wind, and Cass instinctively knew it had to be the language of fairies.
He didn’t know if there were several dialects however, or even how to speak it so he had no idea what she was saying. It didn’t sound bad, though.
He noticed that she wasn’t as stable as she had been before. She appeared to be a bit...see-through and that was very, very concerning.
"Taniora, are you alright?" Cass asked and she turned towards him, her eyes big, but her expression quickly warmed as she realised it was Cass who spoke.
"Of course, bond pair of the red dragon. I am fine, just shocked. It killed so many of us last time and took all of my magic power. I guess I’m just...feeling useless for not considering doing that before." She gave a slightly wobbly smile, a bitter one, and Cass felt his chest tighten. He didn’t touch the whole ’bond pair’ thing she said. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if he got into their complicated relationship right now.
Cass heard something crack as Lucian got to work on the carcass of the dead Boss monster. Probably. Cass would drain the lake to make sure, and no one would protest that this time.
"Don’t feel bad." Cass told her. "I have an unfair advantage over you. However, I think we need to do something to stop...that." Cass said, pointing to one of her hands that was rapidly turning see-through. Cass fumbled with his bag, the blue bag, and began to open it. "This may sound a bit weird, but do you think you could get into the bag? Or, I can make a new bag and you can get in that, but that would take time we don’t have." Edgar gasped as Cass pointed it out and Gideon paled.
Cass was glad that Lucian was over on the other side of the lake. He could probably hear them, or not over the cracking noise he was making as he broke the Boss up to get to his "tasty" insides.
Taniora looked conflicted. Cass knew he wasn’t really giving her much of a choice, and they hadn’t asked her opinion before. He’d essentially suggested that she could be left behind before without giving her time to respond. Now he was rushing her to make a choice.
He felt bad, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep well at night if she remained behind, being the plaything of these damn demons he knew nothing about. Lucian also wouldn’t sleep well, nor would Gideon or Edgar. They knew who she was, in some capacity. They knew of the lake, knew of some of the significance even if they didn’t know the whole story.
Taniora mulled over her choices before she finally nodded.
"Alright. I’ll do it. You don’t have to make a new bag for me, this one shall work. May I ask what’s inside of it already?" She asked and Cass nodded.
"Medical supplies, tools, the smaller, but urgent supplies. The other bag holds the tents and bigger items. Do you want that one instead? You could curl up in the blankets and sleep." Cass suggested. She waved her hands, smiling at Cass’ sincere offer.
"I’d prefer your bag, I think." She told him. Cass placed the bag on the ground after opening it, essentially making it a puddle that she would step into.
Cass had never done something like this before, and so he had no idea what was going to happen. He didn’t think she’d get sucked in, since nothing he’d put in there before had. The trio watched her slowly sink into the depths of the bag, like she was sinking into the water. Cass waited a second after she’d gone into the bag before he rushed over, picking up the bag.
"Taniora? Are you okay in there?" Cass asked, worry coating his voice.
"Maybe I shall take you up on the blanket offer. There is nowhere to sit in here." She called and Cass felt a smile cross his lips. That was something he could easily do.