It’s a trap, I thought, as we entered one of the many caverns in the ocean floor. The nearby monsters were only making a token effort to stop us.

  The ocean floor itself was uneven, with jutting ridges and deep caverns. Without Mana Sensing, it would have been incredibly time consuming to find the Zone Lord. The water around us was infused with mana, but I could still see several hundred feet away, deep underground in one specific cavern, there was a dense, glowing bundle of water attuned mana in the shape of a snake, or eel.

  I gestured again, and Dawnbreaker swam ahead of me, with me following next, and Abelino “flying” the Aviaton behind us.

  As we descended deeper into the cavern, I was glad to note that there was enough space for the Aviaton to follow behind us.

  Thanks to Dawnbreaker’s glowing, silver armor, and the Aviaton’s headlight-equivalent, there were numerous shadows surrounding us, offering the monsters around us potential options to surprise us.

  But none of them did.

  What do you think we’re up against? I asked Samantha, as the ridge we were descending into turned into an underwater cave with only one path out.

   Samantha said, speaking about the glow from the snake we were approaching.

  Samantha even sounded vaguely nervous.

  In retrospect, maybe this wasn’t the best plan. Every Zone Lord I had fought so far had almost killed me—with the exception of the Sandman, which I could essentially hard-counter.

  But going up against a Zone Lord, literally in its element, with very little intel, seemed like a death wish.

  At least I wasn’t alone.

  Dawnbreaker swam ahead confidently, pausing every once in a while because Abelino was navigating the Aviaton very slowly through the passages that were growing increasingly more narrow.

  The mana is too dense, I realized, suddenly. Did we just find another Aether Vent?

  

  Would we build a city here?

  

  Are the mer—

  My mental question was cut off when I realized I was no longer moving.

  Or, to be more precise, my legs and arms were still propelling me forward in the water, but there was enough of a current that I wasn’t actually going anywhere.

  Dawnbreaker had apparently noticed this too, and she sped up her stroke.

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  I followed suit, and sure enough, the current picked up as well.

  At the same time, I could tell that the snake was moving away from us, clearly unimpeded by this current.

   Samantha said.

  I lunged ahead of Dawnbreaker. My unisuit, under Samantha’s guidance, formed propellers that tore through the water, and with all my floating points in Agility, I advanced quickly.

  But then I hit a wall. At first, it felt viscous, like swimming through syrup, but as I pushed through, I found myself held in place, immobile.

  Previously, I had been breathing the water like air.

  But now, I couldn’t get the water to budge. It was like I was submerged in fully hardened cement.

  Even with my superhuman strength, I was barely able to break the water’s hold on me. My movements had no momentum, like I was chipping away at a stone one strike at a time.

  Dawnbreaker was also caught, frozen in the water for an instant. She struck, punching the water, and the water gave way easily but then locked into place when her arm was fully extended.

   Samantha said.

  As Samantha spoke, I felt my own aura extend around me, a few inches away from my body, suffusing the water with my own intent.

  I would habitually protest at her usurping control, but it was suddenly clear why Samantha changed her mind.

  The cave we were in was collapsing. Not just that, but the ridges above the cave floor were falling as well, and soon we would be buried on the bottom of the ocean floor. The trap was sprung, so to speak.

  But the Zone Lord had no way of knowing that we had fought a similar battle, but a thousand times worse, already. Against the Gravity Leech, the ground had collapsed in on us multiple times, while we were flying through the air.

  I knew exactly what to do.

  Using all my strength, I pressed through the mana-infused, resistant water, and wrapped my arms around Dawnbreaker’s waist.

  Dawnbreaker turned and gave me a bemused look. Even as she looked at me, she acted. A powerful golden beam shot forward, with enough of her aura to contest the Zone Lord’s control of the water that it passed through.

  At the same time, her unisuit shot silver streams out, reinforcing the tunnel around us and ahead of us, providing anchors and lines that propelled her forward at an incredible speed, towards the fleeing snake.

  Meanwhile, I could feel Samantha spreading my aura around Dawnbreaker and myself, preventing the water from locking us into place. This also had the benefit of allowing us to breathe the water around us. (There was a separate fear, the moment Samantha had said the word hydrokinesis. Obviously, if the snake could control the water in our bodies, we could be killed in an instant. Presumably, the aura already in our bodies prevented that).

  I switched my hold to one arm, and shot a Mana Shard towards the snake.

  Normally, the effect of a Mana Shard would be limited compared to a Mana Crystal. But every attunement had their strengths, and there was no strongest attunement. Only the most opportune one.

  Samantha and I were both tired of chasing after fleeing Zone Lords. It had become a predictable pattern, and so Samantha suggested this counter.

  A time-attuned Mana Shard. Time was one of the rarer attunements, but with my connections, it wasn’t too hard to find.

  This had a similar effect to the Time Dilation Wards I had encountered. The flow of time-attuned mana traveled easily through the water until it hit the Zone Lord, and then the Zone Lord started experiencing time at a different rate than the rest of us.

  The effect would only last a second or so, since it was a Mana Shard, not a Mana Crystal. But it was enough.

  Dawnbreaker continued swimming forward, propelled by a dozen contracting ropes of her unisuit, pulling me along with her at an incredible speed.

  We were just ten yards away from the snake now, and I could make out its speckled, green and brown exterior. It was large—remarkably similar to a waterpark’s covered, tube-like slide, with a length of about 30 feet.

  Dawnbreaker swung her sword, and a golden gleam extended from her sword, striking towards the snake.

  But from the density of the mana in the water, I could tell this wouldn’t cut it. Dawnbreaker’s strike essentially fizzled out, absorbed by a defensive wall of water in front of us.

  But the strike had just been a distraction. A sneaky silver rope from Dawnbreaker’s unisuit lanced towards the snake, spearing the creature like a harpoon.

  Just as I had made my preparations, it seemed Dawnbreaker had made her own as well.

  With part of her suit attached to the snake, Dawnbreaker “reeled in” her suit, pulling her forward even faster and limiting the distance between her and the Zone Lord.

   Samantha said.

  Just as I followed Samantha’s suggestion, Dawnbreaker reached arm’s length of the snake and bisected the monster.

  Well, bisected was an understatement. Dawnbreaker’s sword slit the snake’s torso, but the snake was bunched up, and the martial energy that continued from the sword sliced through the snake’s coils multiple times.

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