The Alfar leader of our troops made a gesture with his arm to circle up. I ignored it, as did Trill and Ryu, and we watched as he dispatched a few of his men to go ahead with our prisoners. He then turned to where we floated a few feet away. He gestured again that we were leaving, but I shook my head.
He gestured again. I shook my head again, making my own gesture for him to get going with our prisoners. Obviously frustrated, he made the same gesture of retreat.
We might have kept at that game forever – him trying to order me around, me refusing, mostly out of spite at being commanded by an Alfar but also because everything felt too easy. I wanted to stick around and make sure the sub was safe.
We never had a chance to continue with our little duel, however. For one minute the Alfar was gesticulating angrily at me, and the next he was swallowed up.
And I mean swallowed. A huge beast had risen from the depths underneath the Alfar and had gulped him up in one negligent opening of its massive jaws. It happened so fast that I only caught a glimpse of huge white eyes and a massive underbite armed with razor-sharp teeth.
‘What. The. Fuck,’ I mouthed to no one in particular. Trill took my hand first, then Ryu took my other hand. We raised shields around ourselves and the sub.
We watched, unable to help, as the titan swooshed right, and then left, its way lit by a light dangling like a nightmarish streetlamp off its forehead. I realized then what it was, having seen that Disney movie about a fish a few years back.
It was an anglerfish, grown to the size of a suburban condo.
Its apparently random swimming was anything but: Trill and I watched in horror as it swiftly gulped up our Alfar allies and their prisoners easily. The halflings proved more difficult prey, their control over their element giving them speed and reflexes the others didn’t have.
It all happened so fast that we’d only managed to squeeze off a few mage balls at the thing, testing its shields. Meanwhile, I was battering on the mental doors that separated me from the creature. It responded swiftly to my calls.
[What is that?]
You’re supposed to tell me!
[Open your senses…]
I responded promptly to its terse command, opening all my senses up to the creature.
[It’s not an elemental,] it mused. That had been my first thought as well, that it had been like the creature itself – one of the offspring of the elements that created our planet. But it presumably would have been a water element, then, and therefore directly related to the creature. Why would it work for Morrigan?
[It’s not even magical,] the creature said eventually. We kept hitting it with mage balls, and I nodded to myself. The mage balls were all striking, indicating the creature had no shields. But it was so big that each strike was like the shots of a BB gun against an elephant. It also didn’t react at all to the damage, like it was impervious to pain.
It’s gotta be something, dude. Anglerfish don’t grow to the size of houses on their own! I watched as the beast caught up with one of the selkie halflings, chomping it down in one horrendous bite.
[You’re going to have to get closer. I think I know what it is, but I can’t feel from here…]
‘I’ve gotta go in,’ I mouthed to Ryu and Trill, whose eyes followed my lips as she read what I was saying. ‘You stay here. Guard the sub.’
Trill shook her head no, as did Ryu a second later. ‘I’m coming with you,’ mouthed the kelpie. Ryu nodded, pointing between me and Trill.
I pointed with both hands down at the sub. ‘You have to keep it safe.’
Trill rolled her eyes then pointed at the massive fuck-off anglerfish, then used one of her own fingers to mime slitting her own throat. I sighed. We were stronger together, it was true, and Ryu had volunteered to stay behind if we got chomped. Not that he’d be able to do much besides get eaten himself.
I nodded, motioning toward the fish. Trill and I swam over to it, bulking up our shields as we went. I also pulled the labrys, and to my surprise, it lit up as if Morrigan herself were right next to us. Could the Red also turn into an anglerfish?
But that didn’t seem like the right answer, as the anglerfish was acting just like a fish. It darted around, trying to scoop up our halfling team, but didn’t do anything particularly intelligent or magical.
I think it’s really just a giant fish, I told the creature.
[I think you’re right,] it said.
But it’s connected to Morrigan. The labrys pulsed frantically as if agreeing with my thoughts.
We were close now, and the fish was intent on eating one of our kelpie halflings. The kelpie was doing a good job defending itself, but was clearly tiring. Trill and I exchanged glances, then we went in.
We used our shields first, like a battering ram, swimming them into the anglerfish to get its attention. Its freaky white eyes swiveled toward us as its body followed. Its long, needle-like teeth looked like carefully sharpened elephant tusks, and they were so large. I tried to stop the knot of panic in my belly from unraveling as its luminous headlamp thingie swung around to cast an eerie glow over the two of us.
This was some primordial shit we were dealing with, and I knew how my human ancestors must have felt when cornered by an irate mastodon.
It lunged at us, and it took all of us and the labrys to keep our shields both big enough and strong enough to stop the thing from swallowing us whole. I really didn’t fancy playing Jonah and the whale, after all.
We managed to shove it back, but it came at us again like a dog lunging at a bone. To our horror, it grabbed on to our shields with its teeth – something I’d never seen before.
How the hell can it do that! I screamed at the creature as the thing began gnawing its way through our shields.
I heard the creature mumble something about mini-champions, even as I felt it take control over the part of my magic that worked like a probe or a radar. It reached out toward the fish, and I could feel what it was feeling.
While the word ‘mini’ was inappropriate, I suddenly got what the creature was saying. However our ally had imbued me with its strength to make me its champion, the Red had done the same with the anglerfish. The Red had never bothered to make its own champion before, because it didn’t need one. It was free to wreak its own havoc while the creature was underneath Rockabill, underneath a large chunk of the Eastern Seaboard. It was trapped, and had been for a very long time. It had voluntarily given its power to another to help stop the Red and the White because otherwise it would have to release itself, taking a big chunk of the continent with it. The Red could fight her own battles, so why waste power on a champion when she could use that power herself?
But she couldn’t face me in my own element – water. So she’d gambled with catching me unawares using her own champion. It was a brilliant strategy, really. After all, while water was my element, it wasn’t any of the rest of my team’s.
And I’d already figured out long ago that my real strength came from the people who surrounded me. The Red must have figured that out, too, and gambled that without all of them, maybe I’d be vulnerable, even in my own element.
But I wasn’t alone, not even then. Trill was with me, and Ryu was ready to back us up. He’d moved forward to throw more power into our shields as I let the creature use mine to probe the fish.
At first, all we felt was fish – dull brain waves intent on its next meal, a sort of mindless hunger that was a bit like I imagined a zombie’s would be.
What are we looking for? I asked the creature. If it was using my senses, the least I could do was help.
[There has to be a tie connecting it to Morrigan,] it said. [I was able to give you the labrys; that’s your tie. As long as you have the labrys, you have my power. But she couldn’t do that with a fish.]
No hands, I thought, having figured out the problem with a fishy champion a few seconds after the creature spoke.
[Exactly. So look for the tie…]
We scanned all over that stupid fish, our magic stroking around it like a masseuse with a big tipper. Meanwhile, it was busy literally eating at our shields. Just like the labrys could cut through magical barriers, the fish’s massive teeth had the same effect. Luckily, it was a fish, and therefore wasn’t smart enough to use its teeth to slash in a more effective way. Instead, it was trying to chew its way through with teeth not really meant for chewing.
Wait, there! I thought, suddenly feeling something. We’d been so busy with the body of the fish, but the power surge I was sensing came from the light on the end of its angler.
The creature pounced, confirming my suspicions with a feel of relief. The tether, for that’s what it felt like, extended from the light, up toward the surface of the ocean, where undoubtedly the Red hovered.
[You have to cut it!] the creature told me, just as I was afraid it would. The fish’s body had, after all, evolved to eat anything that was attracted to that very angler. That massive underbite was made to swoop forward, snatching up anything that came at it from the front.
Fuck, I thought, turning to Trill. Ryu had since abandoned his post above the sub and joined us, never being one to abstain from action. But he’d have to follow Trill’s lead, as he wasn’t as good at reading lips.