The door shattered with a quick blast of energy, splinters showering the next room, which was… very different from the first hall.

To start with, it was a lake.

The entrance opened onto a stretch of dirt that continued around an oval-shaped lake, the room being a giant oval. Cylinder? Prism? I have no idea. The dirt was covered in grass that was short, dark, and blue, while the lake’s water was bright aqua, almost fluorescent. The room was lit by various glowing spikes attached to the walls, said walls also having various stone platforms interconnected. The platforms were accessible via some stairs near the entrance, and there was another door on the highest platform, all the way on the opposite side of the lake. The door had a strange spherical receptacle in the center.

While the sloping platforms were strange, the strangest part had to be the ceiling, which was covered in frost that extended to the large stalactites that might have been actual icicles.

Wait, strike that. The strangest bit was the tentacle horror slowly rising from the lake.

It had rough teal scales, with the soft bits being a more blue color, and had dozens of long tentacles with sharp, pointed tips. As it rose, its head was revealed, a large bulbous mass with hundreds of different eyes, and one giant eye in the center. It roared, revealing a maw filled with rows of sharp teeth, and turned its baleful eye to glare at us.

“Well, this should be fun. Clary, set up some illusions to distract that lovely beastie. Malk, do whatever damage you can, working with the illusions. Wabbit, get to work on loosening those stalactites, I want them ready to come crashing down on that… kraken? Sea monster? Beastie? Thing? Whatever. The enemy!”

They nodded and got to work while I raced up the stairs, ready to play my part. I watched with interest as Clary summoned two illusions of Malk, and sent a stream of darkness at the kraken, grabbing its attention. It lashed out with a tentacle, barreling into one of the illusions, while all three versions of Malk stabbed it.

Hold on a second…

I took a closer look, and saw a faint flicker of a fourth figure – Malk had been made invisible by Clary, which meant all three copies were illusions. Clever girl. It’s good to see her using the invisibility spell I gifted her. The real Malk took his stab, and the creature gave a snarl of anger, swiping with two more tentacles, which Malk managed to dodge, even if his copies didn’t.

Malk cut at another of the tentacles, denting the scales, and the creature roared again as it slammed two tentacles at the dirt, nearly knocking Clary to her knees. Malk raced over to defend her, stabbing upward at a descending tentacle, which bled sickly green ooze.

I turned my attention to Wabbit, who was darting up platforms and across the walls to reach the icicles, his claws once more readied. When he got to the top he started hacking at the base of each stalactite to wear down the ice. For my part, I was almost to the top of the platforms, climbing steadily. I wanted to take some data.

I took a look at the door once I reached it, inspecting the receptacle. I compared it to the eye of the kraken. It wasn’t an exact match, but I couldn’t really think of any other key. It seemed to be made of stone, so I doubted it would be as easy to break as the wooden door I’d blown apart. I shrugged, and went back to observing events.

The kraken continued its rage against Malk and Clary, stabbing and slamming and swiping, coming perilously closer to actually hurting them each time, despite the illusions. Clary was straining to keep the illusions running, and as the kraken struck one again it flickered out of existence. Then, the kraken noticed her and sent two tentacles straight for her. Malk shoved her out of the way, breaking invisibility to cut at them. The rest of the illusions vanished as Clary rested against a wall to catch her breath.

As Malk stabbed another tentacle, I called out, “Now!”

The rabbit sliced away the last bit of an icicle’s base, and the stalactite fell down toward the kraken. Unfortunately, it immediately switched targets and swiped its tentacles up at an angle to deflect the icy spike into the wall, where it shattered. Wabbit hopped to the next stalactite but the kraken flung its tentacles at the rabbit to stop him.

In response I let loose a salvo of my own. I sent out tendrils of darkness, yanking the glowing spikes out of the walls and flinging them at the kraken’s tentacles. I watched gleefully as the spikes impaled various tentacles against the far wall, tangling the kraken up and letting Wabbit unleash an icicle. The kraken moved with more swiftness than I’d given it credit, and managed to escape the worst of the damage, though it lost a tentacle.

The kraken turned to face me, ignoring for a moment my two friends down at the shore, and sent three tentacles surging towards me. I cartwheeled to the right of the first tentacle, jumped above the second one, and stabbed the third one with my sword. I shoved that tendril to the side, then placed my hand on the tentacle below me and flooded it with energy, shattering the scales.

The creature tried to swipe at me again with the unharmed tentacle, but I jumped to a nearby platform and laughed at it, stopping to lean casually against the wall.

The kraken roared again, but its roar was cut off by pain as Malk stabbed it from a platform. It swiveled to face him and brought all its free tentacles to bear. I quickly grabbed another glowing spike and used it to impale another tentacle against the wall. The kraken turned back and forth, unsure who to attack first, and I took the opportunity to send another spike at it, bringing its full attention to bear on me.

Wabbit kicked another giant stalactite free, and the kraken veered to the side, slamming into the wall trying to avoid the icy crystal. It sent several of its surviving tentacles to bash at Wabbit, knocking free more icicles and sending the rabbit falling to a platform. I started wildly grabbing and throwing the glowing spikes, trying to get lucky and pin some tentacles, and the kraken grew furious in its defense. Just when I managed to hit another and felt confident in my victory, the kraken surged towards me and ripped its tentacles out of the walls. They bled freely, but now it was ready for battle once again, and lashed out at my position.

I ran up the platforms, past spikes and past the door, and jumped to reach another set of platforms, watching as the walls of the chamber withstood every attack, and the door was completely unaffected by the blow.

I enhanced my speed and ran over to where I’d last seen Malk. I found him with sword in hand, ready to strike but looking fairly battered. “Hey, sup?”

His brow furrowed and he gave a short sigh, and then said, “I’m glad you’re here. I don’t really have any idea what’s going on. I just keep seeing stalactites and tentacles and spikes, and Clary’s still hurting from when that thing tried to kill her. We need to end this quickly.”

“Killing the giant monster quickly is a good thing? I had no idea. Truly, Malk, your wisdom surpasses that of the oldest elementals. Look, the situation is actually fairly simple. I’m convinced we need to get the thing’s eye, or maybe something in its eye, and use that to open the door. Wabbit fell from the ceiling after the kraken whacked him, and the kraken managed to free all of its tentacles – side note, I really need more words that mean ‘tentacle’ because it gets old really quickly. Anyways, the general plan is to find a way to get an ice spike past the tentacles, because that seems the surest way of killing it. I’m thinking that you and Clary should harass it some more with the glowy spikes and with your sword, and I’ll see if I can get up to the stalactites and empower them or something.”

Malk nodded. “I can… try. Also, why are we able to have this conversation with a giant kraken in a rage right next to us?”

“Talking is a free action! Also, I’m pretty sure Wabbit is still in the fight.” I pointed to where the kraken was slamming at a wall with its tentacles, which came away with more cuts than they’d started with. Malk nodded again, and raced off to join Clary, ripping spikes out of the walls along the way.

You know, he’s actually pretty strong for a painter. The Academy of War did good work.

I noticed a stray tentacle nearby and casually impaled the wriggly thing with one of the wall spikes. These things might be cute if they weren’t trying to kill me. Actually, things can still be cute if they’re trying to kill me, so these are most definitely cute.

The kraken turned to me and tried to bash me with more tentacles, but I just did more acrobatics and danced through the attack. It returned its attentions to Wabbit as I smirked. Then it snarled again, giving up on the agile rabbit, and swiveled to face Clary, who was still leaning against a wall, immobile. My eyes widened and a split second later I took a running jump, gathering the shadows about me to fly-

And fell to the ground, deprived of flight.

I blinked a few times in shock, before realizing what must have happened; the chambers must have countermeasures in place to prevent actions that would make the trap too easy. In this case, flying would naturally be prohibited, as it would let someone access the stalactites more easily. In fact, we were probably meant to have used ranged attacks on the icicles in the first place.

I was taken out of this contemplation by the sight of a dozen tentacles crashing into Clary. In the distance I heard Malk yell in horror, while I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. His cry predictably cut off a second later when Clary reappeared a few feet to the left of the attack. “Atta girl!” I cheered. She must have set up an illusion in case the kraken attacked her again.

Of course, the kraken was still after her. I raced over to where she was slumped and gathered more darkness to block whatever next attack the kraken made. Malk threw me a spike and I immediately launched it at the kraken, ready to fight.

It gleefully and wrathfully obliged, having been denied even a single kill so far. Five tentacles raced towards me while the rest attacked Wabbit, and I didn’t bother to dodge them. Instead, I jumped at the tentacles, unleashing the gathered energy at the oncoming tendrils. They were torn apart, and I continued straight past them, landing on the kraken’s body.

I raced up its slimy surface as it began hitting itself with its own tentacles in an attempt to stop me. I reached its head and jumped off of it, boosting myself with energy and reaching the ceiling, grabbing on to a stalactite. The kraken roared as it looked up at me, gathering its tentacles into a shielding formation. I smirked. “Fat lot of good that’ll do you, beastie.”

I punched through the base of the frozen stalactite, and started pumping it full of dark energy, the icicle swiftly turning black. With a savage grin I threw my full weight onto the stalactite, and it snapped off. In seconds I was surging downward towards the kraken, which futilely tried to stop my descent. I crashed through tendril after tendril, and as the kraken screamed in rage and horror my stalactite went straight through its throat, killing it in moments.

I laughed, and laughed more, and after a fit of mad laughter I climbed up the throat, coming out by its eyes. I stuck my hand into the large eye and fished around, quickly finding a stone of some kind, which I tore out. I winked at Malk and Clary, gestured for Wabbit to follow, and hopped over to the door, fitting the stone into the slot and opening it. “Onward!”