Chapter 51: Tentacle Monster

Leon paused when she mentioned his mum. She turned around and saw him. She figured something was wrong, and she immediately tried to apologize.

SPLASH

KABOOM!

None of them were expecting it as a massive tentacle burst out of the pool and interrupted them. It was as large as two humans side by side and extremely long. The inside of the tentacle glowed with a light blue light, which explained how the pool got its glow.

"Stand back!" Sophia yelled and rolled her scythe. She got ready to attack the tentacle, but it moved faster than she expected, slamming into her and sending her flying into the wall hard.

"Shit," Leon cursed and turned his focus to the tentacle because it was now coming for him from the right. He pulled his wand and stood his ground. A ball of ice formed fast, and he shot it.

The ice travelled through the air and slammed into the tentacle. It exploded after that and encased a large chunk of the tentacle in an ice pillar, stopping it.

"Can’t believe that worked."

He did not get the time to celebrate for long. Another one burst out of the pool and came right down. Leon rolled out of the way, getting to his feet and preparing to attack, but in the time that the other tentacle had attacked, the frozen one had broken free and was swinging at him.

Leon pulled up a wall of earth. The tentacle smashed through it and slammed hard into Jim, sending him towards the wall. He barely managed to stop himself. His entire chest felt like it had been hit by a car. Even breathing became difficult for a few seconds.

But the monster was in no way ready to allow Leon to go. It attacked again, trying to use the moment when his guard was weak to take him down. Sophia shot from where she was, leaping into the air and delivering a clean slash. A black arc cut through the air and slashed into the tentacles, cutting the two in one attack.

She landed on the ground and skidded to a stop.

"Let’s move," she said.

They dashed toward the path out of there, but before they could, eight tendrils total burst out of the water, including the injured ones that were now healing up fast. They charged at them fast, two blocking the way out while one wrapped around Leon and pulled him into the water.

Leon struggled a bit, but then calmed himself. Struggling was not going to do anything to help him now. He used wind magic to create a bubble around his head.

He looked down, and only now did he realize how deep the pool was. And at the very bottom, he saw a glowing amber demonic eye staring right at him. It was the monster that was attacking them.

"There you are."

Leon cast a water blade spell and used the water around to slash into the tentacle. Its dark red blood spilled out, and it finally let go of Leon. With enough space, Leon acted, pointing his wand down.

"How about you eat some of this?" He unleashed a massive stream of lightning that travelled fast. It slammed into the eye with explosive force, blood gushed out, and it unleashed a thundering screech.

Leon kicked his feet and swam out as fast as he could, trying to get out of the water before anything else happened. He grabbed the banks and pulled himself out.

He saw Sophia slashing a tentacle before it retracted into the water fast.

"What did you do in there?" Sophia asked.

"I attacked its eye. We should move. It’s not dead, and it’s extremely pissed off."

He had barely finished speaking before tentacles burst out of the water again. This time, it did not attack. Rather, it started pulling itself out of the water.

"It’s coming out," Sophia said.

"Yeah, we don’t want that," Leon replied and raised both his hands, his wand pointing at the roof.

’I had to learn this ice spell on my own. It’s a three-star spell, and I’m not sure I can even execute it properly. Still, we need to keep this monster in there.’

A magical circle appeared on the cave ceiling. It grew to a meter’s radius. A large chunk of sharpened ice formed.

"Well, that’s a powerful spell," Sophia said.

"It’s not done yet," he replied, and the ice changed shape into a large ice sword.

"Now let’s see how you handle this." He pulled both his hands down, and the ice sword tore through the air and entered the water fast. It stabbed right through the eye of the monster again.

It screamed even louder than before. The walls of the cave started shaking and trembling. Rocks started falling.

Sophia looked around and then at the way out. She rushed over there to stop the rocks from blocking it, but she was too slow as massive boulders blocked the door.

"Shit," she cursed and slammed her fist into the wall.

"Sorry," Leon replied.

"Not your fault. It was either that or allow that monster to crush us," she said and placed her hand on the rocks, thinking about how to handle the rocks now so they could leave.

Leon knew that the monster was not dead, but he was sure that the damage done was at least enough to stop it from coming at them again. He turned to help Sophia, but it was a bad idea. A tentacle crawled out of the water silently and lunged for Sophia’s leg.

She looked down in shock. It carried her up and swung her high into the air. She gripped her scythe and spun it around, slashing into the tentacle. She fell from high in the air, heading for the water, where Leon could see the razor-toothed mouth of the monster.

He moved fast and cast a wind spell that stopped her fall and carried her out of the water, only for another tentacle to shoot out and try to grab her again.