No sooner had those words left Edge’s lips than a surging spray shot out from the surface of the lake.

  He threw himself to one side at the last possible moment, evading the gatekeeper’s greeting with inches to spare. He ran away from his crew, preventing them from being caught in the crossfire while he processed the dynamics of his situation.

  The beast adjusted its aim and ramped up the pressure, using its high-rank version of Repel Water to form a continuous stream that was strong enough to strip the flesh from his bones.

  The combined Speed bonus from Fear the Seasons and Warlord’s Mantle was insane, letting Edge run so fast the world became a streaking blur of color and motion. Chips of stone and shattered ice went flying as he performed one desperate dodge after the next.

  The gatekeeper tracked his movements with remarkable precision. But thanks to his turbocharged attributes, he was able to throw himself out of the way while the women entered the cavern, taking cover behind a cluster of boulders nestled beside the entrance.

  The pressurized stream tore rocks from the wall and would slice through his armor with ease. A glancing blow will cut me, but a direct hit will drill straight through. Given the lethal intensity of the blind beast’s skill, Edge didn’t want to test his luck using Harden unless he was left with no other choice. He ducked below one attack, Leapt over another, then Shadow Stepped through a third that he couldn’t dodge in time.

  That last move wound up being a mistake.

  He had assumed he would be immune to the catfish’s skill in shadow form, but that proved not to be the case. He was too distracted to check in with his energetic senses and hadn’t considered the possibility that the beast had chosen an upgrade for Repel Water that would let it battle incorporeal opponents.

  Even though the water drill was primarily a physical attack, there was mana infused within the powerful flow, letting it strike his shadow body and lacerate his armor. Edge screamed as he was flung across the cavern like a rag doll, canceling Shadow Step and activating Harden as he flew.

  Foebinder had been caught off-guard too, but the moment it realized he was in danger, the chain moved the shield to protect his head and vital organs, leaving his legs exposed. The gatekeeper’s drill came around for another pass while he was still in midair, sending him spinning while praying that his diamond scales were tough enough to withstand the incredible pressure.

  The chain of oblivion had shielded his torso in time, but the attack carved through his armor and shattered the scales on both legs. Fortunately, Harden had significantly reduced the damage with an assist from Warlord’s Mantle, cutting both limbs down to the bone instead of shearing them free from his body.

  The women let loose with a barrage of ranged attacks, but the gatekeeper created a second field with Repel Water. The beast formed a wall that sapped most of the strength from their shots, taking a few light cuts from the missiles that made it through.

  Edge flared Regeneration as he slammed into the wall. The skill was already hard at work healing the damage, but it was going to be a few more seconds before he could support his own weight, let alone Leap or run. Foebinder blocked the next pass of the catfish’s drill, but it couldn’t stop the flow from picking him up and carrying him away.

  The surging water washed him off the walkway, across the ice, and into the lake. The colossal creature turned toward him and deactivated its spray, spreading its whiskered jaws wide as it started swimming his way. It was clear from the beast’s posture that it expected him to be helpless after plunging beneath the surface while severely wounded—easy to swallow or drown.

  Fortunately, after his stint in the Savage Garden, Edge was almost as mobile in the water as he was on land.

  He visualized the shape he wanted the skill to take and activated Repel Water. He formed the repulsive field beneath his boots and pushed hard, emerging from the pool like a rocket taking flight—just in time to dodge the gatekeeper’s teeth snapping shut with an impact he felt in his bones.

  He adjusted the output and began skating along the surface of the lake as the catfish turned to track him. It had shut off its drill while closing on his position but was already igniting its core to fire again. He was afraid it would turn on the women instead, so he transferred his iceblade into his left hand and flung his chakram with his right—straight at the beast’s blind eyes.

  He confirmed it was using a skill to see when it swerved to one side and sent its liquid drill heading his way. The beast’s attack was fast, but it always came from the same direction, which made it easy to predict. He zipped across the surface of the lake, changing elevation and direction to stay just out of reach of the lethal skill.

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  Edge had bought enough time to heal his legs by surprising his opponent, but it would only be a few seconds before it adapted and caught him with another pass. Foebinder was doing its best to protect him with its shield, although the chain couldn’t deflect more than a glancing blow of the intense spray, even after its rank-two upgrade.

  I need to figure out a way to dish out some serious damage before I take another direct hit. The only way that’s going to happen is if I can get into melee range, but I won’t be able to dodge if I get that close. Maybe I can use my version of Repel Water to deflect its spray long enough to close the distance.

  As his crew took advantage of the opening to assume a better position, he circled round while dipping his subzero sword into the water, leaving a thick trail of ice in his wake. He ducked below the next pass of the watery drill, then swerved hard and came flying straight at the gatekeeper.

  When it lowered its spray, he activated Repel Water and pushed—not trying to counter the superior skill head-on, but pressing along the side like one sword parrying another. It’s working. Just a little further to go.

  Two seconds before he arrived at the fish’s position, a wall of water rose in front of him. He veered to one side, but something hit him hard, sending him flying toward the ceiling. In his haste, he had forgotten the beast could create multiple fields and could Repel the water in his body just as easily as the liquid in the lake.

  He was too high to skate, which meant he didn’t have a way to avoid the deadly drill rising from below. Shit, this one is going to hurt.

  Just before the powerful flow caught him, the beast screamed in pain and dove below the surface. Lilly’s Vortex Shot had caught it by surprise, punching through its wall of water and hitting the catfish broadside. While its scales were Durable enough that the bolt hadn’t penetrated deep, the shadowkiller’s signature skill was strong enough to rip a section of them away, leaving a wound in the shape of a whirlpool.

  “I’ll provide covering fire,” she called out. “I’m not sure I can do much damage unless I can get close enough to use Scattershot, but I can divide its attention while you land some heavy hits.”

  “Thanks,” he yelled after landing on the strip of frozen shoreline. “Be careful not to let it knock you into the water.” Edge moved onto the stone walkway, taking advantage of the opportunity to create more ice with his blade. He was certain the beast wouldn’t be gone for long, and he needed to reduce its maneuverability and give the rest of his team more room to work with.

  By this point, his reservoir was about one-third empty, which made him glad he had put so many points into Generation, because the battle wasn’t even close to over. The catfish surfaced again a few seconds later, sending the women scrambling for cover as its water blast headed their way.

  Edge was worried about his friends but trusted them to do their part while he handled his own. Fortunately, they had come up with a plan while he was distracted. Whoever was being targeted ducked behind a boulder while the others repositioned. It kept them safe for the time being, but the rocks were gradually being ground away. If the hunters didn’t finish the fight within the next few minutes, the beast would destroy all the cover on this side of the cave.

  He flung his Elemental Blade–infused chakram while circling around, as the crew hit the fish from four sides at once.

  Sasha had unlimbered her longbow and begun firing Flame-Imbued arrows, which were painful, even though the beast could extinguish the fiery mana by ducking below the water. Mel didn’t have anything else to do, so she started chucking rocks, aiming for the fish’s snout and eyes to keep it off balance.

  None of their attacks were doing much damage other than Lillian’s Vortex Shots, which the beast began to dodge since it couldn’t block them with its water walls. Every time the big fish dove beneath one of Lilly’s attacks, Edge used Elemental Blade to widen the patch of ice along the lake’s shore, giving his crew more room to fight while taking it away from the catfish.

  That was when an idea came to him. When he had fled from the gorilla general and fallen into the river, Conceal had activated itself to protect him from the monsters living below the surface. He couldn’t use the skill while his body was moving, but while it was in motion was a different story. The next time the fish dove, he Leapt toward its position. He turned off his other skills, stored his shield, and activated Conceal, sliding along the ice toward the center of the lake.

  Just as he’d been hoping, when the fish remerged, it turned to fire at Lillian—unaware that Edge was approaching from behind. When he ran out of ice, he Repelled himself forward, conjuring a fresh iceblade along the way. He Double Slashed with his subzero sword as he closed the final few feet, carving deep and leaving a pair of frost-rimed gouges in his wake.

  His attack did more damage than he was expecting, which made him realize his Big Game Hunter trait had kicked in, magnifying the power of his blows against this colossal opponent. Good. This is a tough fight, and that bonus is really going to make a difference.

  The painful wound made the beast lose control over its momentum. It had been repositioning to get a better shot at Lilly and wound up crashing into a section of the stone walkway where there wasn’t any ice.

  When the catfish reared up after striking the stone shelf, Edge spotted a mass of writhing tendrils attached to its underbelly. His eyes widened with horror when he realized they were parasitic beasts—lampreys longer than his outstretched arms.

  The bloodsuckers had been feeding from the belly of the giant fish, but in that moment, they let go and came slithering toward the crew. Some were moving along the walkway, and more were swimming through the water.

  A detached part of his mind wondered if they were more accurately categorized as symbiotes instead of parasites. Even though they were drinking the bigger beast’s blood, they were also defending it against threats.

  The rest of Edge’s attention was devoted to figuring out the best way to kill them while watching for the next blast from the gatekeeper’s drill. This fight had been bad news from the start, but it was about to get a whole lot worse.

  It seemed that four versus one had just become four versus one hundred.