The boat was deadly silent. The party were all crouched low except Gio, who stood at the front with his hands outstretched.


    Gio’s eyes scanned from left to right, trying to detect movement in the inky water below.


    There!


    Gio’s hand lashed out, conjuring a familiar barrier of mirror magic. The reflective surface rippled, returning the nearly invisible projectile into the water.


    “We’re at a disadvantage. We need to space out.” Jean said, summoning a spear and shield forged from light. Angelic wings sprouted from behind him, and he took flight. Instantly, a volley of projectiles shot out of the water toward him.


    “No!” Chandrika yelled. She shot a bolt of blue fire into the water, causing one of the hidden attackers to flinch backward. The attacker became slightly visible for a moment before swimming back down into the abyss.


    Jean shrank behind his shield, withstanding the flurry and quickly landing back onto the boat.


    “Are you hit?!” Gio asked, reflecting several more shots back into the water ahead of them.


    Jean placed himself at the back of the boat, swatting away a shot aimed at Hatra’s head with his shield just in time.


    “No… but that was stupid of me. What do we do?” He said, sweating.


    Sapphire picked up a bolt that had landed in the boat.


    “Poisoned darts.” She said, holding the dart out to Hatra.


    Hatra took the bolt from her.


    “Nasty. Bacterial and Necrotoxin activity… don’t get hit,” she remarked.


    “I brought some general-purpose antivenom… but realistically, the side effects are almost as nasty as the poison,” Sapphire admitted.


    “We need to change the situation. They’re surrounding us.” Chandrika nervously said.


    “Hmm… I’ve got an idea, but it might backfire. Gio, will you be able to keep up the defense if I make the water a bit harder to see through?” Sapphire asked.


    “Uhh… I’d really rather you didn’t. I’m relying on- oh no you don’t!”


    He deflected another shot.


    “As I was saying, I’m relying on the ripples in-”


    And another.


    “-the ripples in-”


    Another.


    “You know what? Whatever you’re gonna do, just go for it! My mana pool isn’t infinite!” Gio shouted, enraged.


    Sapphire summoned a strange, industrial-looking vial from her satchel. She undid a few clasps, withdrawing what appeared to be a single, almond-sized seed on the end of a rod, being held in place by a few scary-looking barbed restraints. She withdrew the seed from its holder, cupped it in both hands and applied magic hastily. She dropped the seed over the side of the boat, maintaining a visible magical bond with it that manifested as a translucent green and pink tether of mana.


    “Now would be a bad time to fall into the water,” Sapphire said.


    “I don’t think anyone was planning-”


    A bloom of lily pads began unfolding around the boat. As the plant grew, the petals shimmered with green mana, and a slick algae coating began filling in the gaps between the pads. Writhing translucent white roots licked out into the water, pulsating and expanding with every pulse of mana.


    A snarling Telchine emerged from the water, brandishing a long metal tube and aiming at the boat. While the Telchines of the village all had glossy black eyes flecked with metallic bits reminiscent of the night sky, this thrall sported glowing white sclera and a vicious snarl.


    Before it could do anything, however, Sapphire flicked her wrist, and a comb of pale white roots climbed the trashing thrall, ensnaring it.


    Jean didn’t miss the opportunity, nailing it in the chest with a spear of conjured light.


    Three more thralls bobbed up from the water, coordinating their attacks and launching darts at the party. Gio grunted, summoning a veritable wall of mirrors between his outstretched hands. The surface of the mirror rippled as it absorbed more than ten darts in rapid succession.


    He tapped the barrier with a finger coated in arcane mana, causing a spider web of cracks to race outward. A shotgun blast of copied darts peppered the Telchines, several of which found purchase between their scales and fur.


    Two thralls retreated under the water, but the third raced forward as if meaning to claw Gio while issuing a hoarse battle cry.


    Jean neatly speared it, allowing his conjured spear to dissipate at the life left its eyes.


    Chandrika fired a few bolts of blue fire straight over the edge, illuminating two more ambushers preparing to strike.


    “Allow me. System, activate [Sludge Pump],” Hatra said.


    A corroded, bent piece of machinery appeared in her hands. The sludge pump had a conical nozzle, a bent neck, and three glass-windowed chambers filled with murky dull grey liquid. She held it like a rifle, aiming it below. Gio turned around to get a good look at it.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    What is that thing? It looks like it’s straight out of one of the industrial rings.


    An acrid jet of chemicals erupted from Hatra’s weapon, causing the boat to move forward from the sudden ejection of such a great deal of fluid. A Telchine surfaced, clawing at its own eyes and screeching. The other ambusher did not surface ever again.


    “Uh…” Hatra stuttered, shocked at the efficacy of her own attack.


    Gio fired a [Reflective Shard], piercing the suffering creature between the eyes.


    “Cool war crime gun,” Sapphire said, teasing Hatra.


    “I’d have used it earlier if I knew it would be that effective. It’s almost a shame that I only filled up a couple hundred gallons of the stuff. Kind of gnarly to see the effect. I almost feel bad for them.” She said.


    “Well, I mean we should feel bad for them. Categorically.” Gio replied.


    “In a grand sense, yes… but in a kill-or-be-killed kind of way, I think the war crime gun is fine.” Sapphire answered.


    Gio stared at the murky liquid clouding the water, watching as it caused Sapphire’s magically grown lily pads and lotuses to begin to turn brown and decay. The surface of the water became iridescent, like an oil spill. Gio watched as it began to spread downstream.


    “That may be so… but I don’t feel like we should let that reach the village where the peaceful Telchines live.” Gio announced.


    Everyone on the boat turned to regard the chemical spill. Hatra turned pale.


    “Hmmm… Let me try something.” Sapphire hummed.


    She reached out, holding her spellbook in one hand and dipping a hand into the water, to the alarm of the group. At her touch, a bit of the cloudy liquid bunched up, turning into a sandy residue, before dropping into the endless black abyss below. Upon seeing that her spell worked, she reached out into the water, bending down and over the side of the boat to immerse nearly her whole arm. After a flash of a nearly colorless grey magic permeated the water radiating out from Sapphire’s hand, the water turned clear.


    “[Precipitate]. A handy spell for when experiments don’t go as planned.” Sapphire announced.


    “I- I didn’t even think about the village…” Hatra stuttered.


    “It’s a useful backup option to have. Maybe we use that against large groups, so long as Sapphire has the opportunity to use that prepitata- prespitate- pre-si-pipi- …that spell.” Jean said.


    “I don’t think it’s a good idea. Even the precipitant would probably be high in heavy metals and other stuff that is not great to have lurking around drinking water.”


    “Hat.”


    “-Dead gods below! I mean really, I should have known better! You know that they make us take classes on this kind of thing?! I-”


    “Hattie.”


    “I just…I can’t believe I didn’t think of the consequences of t-” Hatra rambled.


    “HATRA!” Gio interrupted, finally breaking Hatra out of her spiral.


    “It’s okay. We all make mistakes. You weren’t trying to poison the village.” Gio said, calming his cousin down.


    Hatra’s usual state of affable composure was absent. Instead, she was fraught with stress and shame. Gio hugged her, and she accepted the hug, fighting back the first signs of mist in her eyes.


    “One time in advanced botany, I created a hybrid species of aggressively toxic spore-emitting fungus that should have killed everyone in class by accident. If not for Mistress Blossom’s disease detection skills, nobody would have even known that I killed us until we all dropped dead!” Sapphire cheerily added.


    Everyone looked at her. Hatra laughed hard.


    “Thanks, Sapphire. I needed that.”


    Their conversation was interrupted as a low growl resounded across the water, as a squad of ten heavily armored Telchines crested above the water a short distance away. Instead of blowguns, each held an oval-shaped shield of shiny orange hammered metal, and a matching sharpened spear. They swam in a tight formation with spears outstretched, approaching the boat at a steady pace.


    “Ideas?” Jean asked.


    “I’ve got one… It’s a sketchy one, though.” Gio said, smiling.


    “Lay it on me.”


    “I need you to throw a [Starlight Spear] at me.” Gio bluntly stated.


    Jean looked at him with a questioning facial expression. Gio smiled back at him with an uncharacteristically mischievous grin. Jean looked back to survey the approaching group.


    “You know what? Sure. If you’ve got something that can break up that formation, let’s do it.” Jean said.


    Jean sprung out of the boat and into the air, drawing attention from the Telchine group. They held their spears out and raised their shields.


    “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jean said nervously.


    Gio held his hand outstretched, as his spellbook emanated wispy streams of silvery mana.


    “Hit me!” Gio yelled.


    Jean conjured a brilliant lance of starlight, concentrating it down to a point and pitching it straight at Gio’s center mass.


    Gio pumped a large amount of mana into [Reflect], generating another shiny wall of reflections in between him and the projectile. Time seemed to slow as he began to picture the result he had in mind.


    His non-dominant hand rose to meet the mirrored wall, as he cast [Hairline Fracture]. The image of the spear began to shatter into rapidly splitting copies as Gio activated his signature synergy.


    “[Shattered Reflections].” Gio said, further invoking his power.


    Two spears.


    Five.


    Sixteen.


    Gio guided the rapidly multiplying fractures with his mind, picturing the trajectories changing, guiding the splitting copies away from Jean.


    In the instant that it took Gio to reflect the spell, both Jean and the Telchines braced for impact, as they watched Gio’s spell glow like a miniature sun.


    Jean received a volley of tiny, impotent sparks and twinkling stars that bounced off his clothes.


    The group of Telchines received a thunderous barrage of blazing spears, shredding shields and scattering the formation. A massive spray of water erupted from the channel. One of the assailants was flung up from the spray, impacting the rock wall and getting knocked out instantaneously.


    “NICE!” Sapphire yelled.


    Jean flew down and picked off the stragglers who had been displaced by the blast with swooping strikes, rendering the few Telchines still trying to maintain a formation open to ranged attacks. Between Chandrika’s flaming bolts of sticky blue fire and Gio’s pinpoint accurate slivers of sharpened mirror, the Telchines were too busy to pose much of a threat.


    Out of the corner of his eye, Gio watched as an oddly fluid spike of mirror flew out of his reflection cast upon the surface of the water.


    Huh.