Gesai beat me back into the hole.

  Fray moved towards me as Ren got pulled under and started being dragged the other direction.

  “OZ! HELP FRAY GET TRENT UP THERE!” I took off after Ren. As much as I wanted to go after Ether, Gesai had gone that way and she would do a better job of rescuing her than I could.

  I saw Ren’s hand go up above the sludge and grabbed it. The thing that had her was strong and I realized as it started pulling back, stronger than me.

  “I’ve got you!” I focused on where the thing should be and held out my left hand. “WAVE!”

  I had tried to focus on pushing the water back, so that I could see what we were fighting, but I hadn’t put enough force into it, so all it did was raise the water level a few inches before it flowed down the tunnel and leveled out.

  I tried to think of what other skills I had that I could use.

  “Bind!”

  Two vines shot out of the sides of the tunnel and wrapped around her arm just below where I was holding her. Whatever had her was able to move us just a few inches before the vines ran out of slack and provided the extra resistance I needed to win against whatever had her.

  “I’ve got her!” Fray appeared by my side and ducked under the vines so that she could grab Ren under her arms and pull her better. “Get that thing off of her!”

  As I ducked under the vine, I touched my CB and pulled out my SnakeBlade sword. “What about Ether?!” I knelt down trying to feel where the thing had her. As soon as I grabbed the squished tentacle, I had a better idea.

  “PARALYZE!”

  I felt a tingle on the end of my fingers as the thing let go of Ren.

  Fray pulled her out of the sludge. “Oz went to help Gesai!”

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  I wanted to turn around and look to see if Ether was okay, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the sludge. I dismissed the vine so that Fray could pull Ren even further away from whatever had attacked her.

  I suddenly noticed that the water level was going down. The flow was coming from behind me, which probably meant that Gesai had done something to block it off. But that also meant that I could see what had attacked Ren. And it was something I'd seen before, but hadn't thought that I'd see for a while.

  The tentacle was called a River Arm. When we’d been kidnapped, one had wrapped around one of the other Nobles with us and since we were all chained together, it had almost pulled us all into the water.

  Ren recognized it too and clawed her way up Fray to try to get away from it as the tentacle began to move.

  I pointed at it.

  “PARALYZE!”

  The River Arm had a huge mouth at the end of the stump. I really did not want to let this thing take a bite out of me, but it looked like Paralyze barely had any effect at all.

  “Get Ren out of here!” I started to back up. Bind wouldn't work, that thing was too slimy. But I had another trick I hadn't tried thanks to our dungeon runs getting nixed. I threw out my left hand towards the monster.

  “WAVE!”

  I waited for the wall of water to crash over the tentacle. As it did, I threw out my other hand and cast a second spell.

  “FREEZE!”

  The water froze solid around the monster, stopping its attack. I didn't know how long that would hold it, but it was handled for now. I turned around and saw Oz lifting Astrid up to Fray, who was topside. Gesai had Ether under her left arm, while her right was beating the monsters back. The ivory woman was coughing and covered in way too much nasty stuff, but she was alive.

  I pointed at the wall of sewage that Gesai was holding back.

  “FREEZE!”

  The wall froze a few feet deep.

  “That won't hold for long!” The one I'd froze already had cracks in it and there was more than one the other direction. “Lets GO!”

  Gesai jumped through the hole and by the time I jumped up there, both Oz and Fray each grabbed one of my arms and hauled me into the building. The River Arm I'd frozen first tried to grab at anyone through the hole, but Gesai slammed the concrete disc on it, then slid it in the hole.

  Ether kept coughing as she crawled across the dirty floor, her clothes getting stained with mud as the dust mixed with the sludge on her. She collapsed against my side as she laid her head in my lap.

  We were safe. For now at least.

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