Arc had been transported into salt water.

  He kicked his legs and fought his way toward the surface. Once his head broke free, he cast a Light spell above him, sending a glowing orb into the air.

  “Mina!”

  No answer. She had most likely been teleported somewhere else entirely.

  Arc scanned his surroundings. He was in an enormous domed chamber, easily five hundred meters in radius. But roughly eighty percent of the room was flooded with seawater, leaving him no way out of the water for the time being.

  “Where the hell have I been sent?”

  Arc grimaced.

  Dungeon entrances didn’t normally have traps. Yet he and Mina had been separated—teleported to different locations. This was almost certainly a deliberate strategy to split them apart.

  Arc wiped his soaked face and looked around. In that instant, something seized his ankle.

  “Wha—!”

  Before Arc could draw the short sword at his hip, the attacker dragged him beneath the surface.

  Bubbles streamed from his mouth. The surface was already far above. He had been yanked deep underwater in seconds. Arc tried to shake free of whatever gripped his leg, but the hold was impossibly strong.

  The light orb that followed him illuminated the darkness—and revealed roughly ten Dark Tentacles. The same octopus-like magical beasts that had attacked Mina at the hospital.

  *I need to breathe—now!*

  Arc’s eyes went wide as he drew his magic blade, Darkness Cleave, and severed the tentacle clamped around his ankle.

  BWOOO!

  The Dark Tentacle writhed in agony, its long limbs thrashing. From behind the flailing creature, glowing eyes raced through the darkness. Tentacles shot toward Arc from every direction.

  *Not good—!*

  Arc used gravity magic to control his buoyancy and dodged the grasping limbs.

  He extended the blade slightly longer than usual and swept it in wide arcs, hacking at the tentacles closing in on him. Severed limbs spiraled through the water as the Dark Tentacles circled him like a whirlpool.

  *What is this current?!*

  Ten Dark Tentacles orbited around Arc, generating a vortex that dragged him steadily toward the bottom of the pool. Magical beast or not, Arc couldn’t hold his breath forever. Panic crept in as he scanned for a way out.

  *Gravity Wall!*

  A rectangular plate of compressed gravity materialized above the Dark Tentacles. Arc slammed it downward, crushing the creatures against the seafloor.

  BWOOO!

  The monsters’ limbs convulsed in torment. Death cries reverberated through the water. The overwhelming pressure of the Gravity Wall bore down on the octopus beasts, crushing them flat.

  BWOOO!

  CRACK, CRACK, CRACK…

  In desperation, the creatures stretched their limbs in every direction, clutching at anything they could reach. Walls and support pillars crumbled under their grip and sank into the water.

  *My lungs—I’m at my limit!*

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  The exertion had burned through his air. Arc reversed the underwater gravity and redirected the vortex upward. Riding the current, he managed to break the surface.

  “HAAAH—haah! Nngh—”

  His lungs felt like they were on fire. Every cell in his body screamed for oxygen.

  Then more tentacles snaked up to ensnare him. Once again, a limb locked around his ankle. Arc slashed himself free underwater, but new tentacles kept coming.

  *I crushed them against the bottom and they’re still moving?!*

  Arc stared in disbelief. But his movements in the water had a tendency to go up and down—and the enemy had figured this out. Tentacles coiled around his entire body in multiple layers, binding him completely.

  Arc was immobilized.

  He thrashed and struggled, but it only burned through what little oxygen he had left. Desperation was taking hold.

  Then something large and blue approached from ahead—a shark-like form.

  Sensing danger, Arc strained against his bonds, but the tentacles wouldn’t budge. He glared at the creature. It was some kind of shark-human hybrid—streamlined and sleek, carrying what appeared to be a trident. The shark-man stopped just short of Arc, folded his arms, and regarded him.

  “Well, well—welcome, Arc. My name is Zaragan. I know quite a bit about you. I hear you’re quite skilled with gravity magic, but your weakness is over-reliance on it. Lightening gravity, increasing it—to put it simply, your evasion patterns are predictable. You tend to move vertically. So I taught my octopuses to watch for that. And look what happened—you’re wrapped up like a mouse in an anaconda’s coils.”

  Zaragan grinned, then smacked his own forehead as if remembering something.

  “Oh, pardon me—you can’t talk underwater, can you? What a waste of time waiting for a reply.”

  Zaragan flicked his palm through the water. A clean cut appeared on Arc’s cheek—some kind of water magic. Blood seeped from the wound and drifted through the water.

  “Your companions are being pursued by my associate Balrog. He’s quite formidable himself, and he’s brought two hundred soldiers along for good measure. I imagine even your beloved Mina was surprised.”

  Arc’s chest tightened with worry. He tried to move, but his body was locked in place. His heartbeat accelerated, and his lungs squeezed tighter and tighter, begging for air.

  *Mina…!*

  Zaragan smirked at Arc’s anguish.

  “I’m afraid this is the end, Arc. I’m not going to let you surface again. Because I’m about to take your head.”

  Zaragan extended his palm forward.

  At that moment, the Dark Tentacles binding Arc began spewing jets of pitch-black ink from their mouths. They trembled in pain, wailing. The sound of flesh being crushed echoed from the pool’s floor. Zaragan’s concern turned to his own creatures.

  “What’s wrong with you?!”

  He watched the water darken rapidly and shouted in frustration.

  “Arc! What did you do?!”

  Zaragan ground his teeth and swept his right arm. A powerful current surged through the chamber, clearing the black ink away.

  What emerged from the clearing water was a colossal polar bear. Arc had transformed.

  Zaragan’s eyes went wide. None of his intelligence had mentioned this ability.

  “What the—what ARE you?!”

  Arc brought his massive arm crashing down. The shockwave split the sea within the dome in two. Then, through gravity manipulation, he pressed the water against the walls on either side. With a roar like a titanic waterfall, the raging currents were torn apart. It was a scene straight from the parting of the Red Sea.

  “What have you DONE?!”

  Vertical walls of water towered on either side of Arc and Zaragan.

  At last, Arc drew a deep, full breath. Then he roared.

  “You talkative shark bastard! I’m going to KILL you!”

  Arc fixed Zaragan with a murderous glare. Zaragan grinned back.

  “Come, then! I’ll tear you apart!”

  Arc glided forward like a bird of prey, closing on the floundering Zaragan.

  Zaragan thrust his trident forward, and it collided with Arc’s right claw.

  CLANG! The metallic impact echoed through the domed chamber.

  Zaragan’s movements on dry ground weren’t as swift as in the water, but they were far from slow. He lashed out with water blades from the walls on either side—impossible to predict where the next one would come from. Arc’s white fur was slashed open and soaked red with blood, but he charged on toward Zaragan without faltering.

  “Fool—this is what I was waiting for!”

  Zaragan shouted and drove a knife-hand strike at Arc.

  A massive vacuum blade erupted from his hand and severed Arc’s right arm clean off at the upper arm.

  “AAAAGH!”

  Blood gushed from the stump, but Arc didn’t stop. He roared through the searing pain.

  With his arm gone and his concentration broken, the walls of water on either side began to collapse like waterfalls. He had no strength left to hold them. With a thunderous roar, the water came crashing down on both of them.

  Zaragan grinned at the sight.

  “My battlefield returns!”

  But Arc was still charging. As he tackled Zaragan, the ocean slammed down onto his back. Zaragan’s scream was swallowed by the torrent.

  “GAAAH—! *glub glub*…”

  Arc drove forward with all his momentum, plunging his left claws into Zaragan’s side. Zaragan thrashed, trying to escape into the water, but Arc wouldn’t allow it. He hooked his claws and dragged Zaragan’s body close, then sank his jaws into the shark-man’s neck.

  Blood erupted from Zaragan’s throat.

  “Get off me! You bastard!”

  Zaragan screamed and drove his trident into Arc’s shoulder. Arc’s white body turned crimson—drenched in both his own blood and Zaragan’s. But he didn’t flinch. He glared at Zaragan with unbroken fury.

  “Die, Zaragan!”

  Still clamped onto Zaragan’s neck, Arc wrenched his left claws free—and plunged them into Zaragan’s chest. The heart was torn apart, and blood erupted in a final, violent spray.