I took a long moment to focus on my strategy while Aranya moved around overhead and Mug gripped his hammer. The lake was too deep for me to use my legs, even in spider form, so that meant I needed to float. I had a feeling that as soon as I stepped foot into the lake, the fight would begin, so I needed to do everything in one motion.

  I felt the mana burning inside of me as I made my move: a running jump into the lake, followed by retracting my spider legs and using Polymorph to create a sort of flat skirt around my center, the radius stretching as far as I could. At the same time, I made a basic pair of long steel fins on my base, using my mana to activate them. My hunch was correct; as soon as I was in the water, his empty hand rose and switched to the finger gun position, firing a thin stream of flame at me.

  At least, it was meant to be at me. As soon as the fire began to form, a web from somewhere above wrapped around his wrist and pulled hard, sending his shot harmlessly off to the side. His body pulsed with blue light and the web burned off, but it had given me enough time. Mug and I were speeding towards its little island, going faster as I added two more pairs of fins for faster travel. It wasn't what I would call graceful, but it worked to propel us forward frankly faster than I had thought possible.

  Even though its ‘face’ was a crude caricature of one painted in blue veins, I could see its annoyance. It wanted to roast me and Mug as the closer threats, but it also wanted to make sure that Aranya couldn’t interfere again. It settled on firing bolts of flame overhead, though Aranya managed to dodge them all. It held its sword out toward us, waiting for us to step foot on its island.

  The moment my metal base touched sand, I ditched the fins to go back into spider mode, sprinting right at him. He stopped firing at Aranya to charge us with his sword, swinging at the fleshy Mug with a malevolent intelligence. I extended my legs at the last moment, placing myself in the way instead of Mug. I felt the sword dent my body and checked my status.

  -2 HP

  CURRENT HP: 83/85

  Wow! It had hurt, but the damage was low. I guess as a trashcan I was resistant to slashing attacks. Chitinous Plating probably helped with that, as well. Mug took advantage of the blow glancing off to strike downwards with his hammer, hitting it directly on the shoulder. The thing spun from the force of the blow but managed to turn that momentum into another slash. I intercepted it as well, and Mug struck again, though this time it managed to jump back, pointing its finger gun at me and sending forward a jet of flame.

  Mug dove inside me, and I quickly turned my base toward it so that the opening was hidden. I checked my status again.

  -2 HP, -2 HP, -2 HP, -2 HP...

  The stream of fire was dealing damage, but my Heat Dispersion seemed to be taking most of the edge off. Another bolt of web came down, this time as a sticky, heavy ball that knocked his hand down. I dashed forward, slamming my body into it. Mug was in sync, giving it two swift blows: one to the arm and a backswing to the chest. I noticed for the first time one of the seals I had seen before in Pauvert's trash on its chest—the flaming eye over the sword. So, this was the Adaptive Guardian. Ha, it wasn’t so bad!

  Why did I allow myself to think things like that? Why?

  As soon as the thought finished forming in my mind, the guardian jumped back, landing on the surface of the water. Its feet had flattened out and pulsed blue, and after a second of unstable certainty, it stood up straight, aiming at us with its flaming fingers. Underneath its heels it now had flat discs the size of dinner plate covered in the blue veins, allowing it to stand as if it were on solid ground. It began to run backwards and to the side as it fired, this time hitting us with concentrated bolts of flame instead of the continuous torrent. Its feet allowed it to now skate gracefully across the surface of the water as easily as it had run on land. It had transitioned into kiting us instead of opting to brawl.

  Well, there went our mobility advantage. Aranya couldn’t harm it on her own, but Mug and I were far less maneuverable on the water. Well, it couldn’t be helped—I jumped in after him and gave chase with my fins. He charged straight for us, running on the water at breakneck speed. He threw the sword at Mug point-first, causing Mug to have to retreat, and then used the distraction to deliver a hook to my body, sending me spinning.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  -29 HP

  CURRENT HP: 41/85. WARNING, CURRENT HEALTH UNDER 50%.

  Ok, he had adapted. He traded his slashing for blunt force and moved to better terrain. That was bad, but we couldn’t give up yet. I used my fins to steer around and Mug struck, this time buckling its knee with a reverberating thud. As it kneeled on the water surface, another web shot out and grabbed its uninjured leg, sending it face-down into the water.

  Quick as a flash, Mug was out and swung down powerfully. He struck once, twice, thrice before it managed to swim away and stand up on the water again, radiating pure menace. It took aim with its fingers at Mug and me, but faked us out at the last second. It fired upward at the last moment in one swift motion, a giant ball of flame larger than anything thrown our way so far. His aim was good; I heard Aranya give a shriek of pain and saw her large form toppling out of the trees. It seems it had hit the branch she had been on with enough force to plunge her into the water. I didn’t know much about spiders, but something told me she wasn’t a great swimmer.

  It began to move backwards, lining up a shot in slow motion that would intercept Aranya. As time dilated, I searched my list of creatable items before finding something that I hoped would slow him down. Using Polymorph to create a pipe, I blasted its hand with a glob of quicklime mortar. While we had worked, Keggr had explained the chemistry of building materials (he called it "basic rock science" and seemed almost offended it had been alien to Mug and me). He had mentioned that high heat could cause mortar to flash-cure, but that it was an unstable process and prone to explosions when done by amateurs, which to Keggr meant any non-dwarf. Fortunately for this moment, I was a non-dwarf.

  The ball of mortar wrapped around his hand and hardened as it began to shoot. There was a moment of calm before the mortar literally dried then exploded. It let out a shriek like a train whistle as white smoke engulfed it.

  Aranya was hanging upside down over the lake; without the guardian firing at her, she had been able to shoot out a web to the trees above. I noticed her shoulder was singed, and one of her legs seemed to be on the verge of falling off. She didn’t seem angry, however. She was smiling, wide and deadly. Did she have more teeth than before? And pointers ones at that? She shot out more web and pulled herself to the trees, her injured leg pulled in close to not get in the way.

  “The bucket and goblin have fangs! Go on then, show me your teeth!” she yelled gleefully in a throaty voice very distinct from her flirtatious tone from earlier. Mug popped out of me and hunched his shoulders. Had he gotten bigger in the last five seconds? Well, time enough for that when we didn’t have a killer magic robot trying to gut us.

  The smoke cleared, and the guardian stood alone, clearly pissed. It was missing its hand now, and blue liquid dripped from the stump. It took a stance like a runner then sprinted at me even faster than before, dodging my hasty attempt at defense and jumping straight on top of my floating platform, grabbing Mug with its remaining hand by his throat. Mug gurgled as it reared its head back then delivered a bone-crushing headbutt. Mug groaned but remained conscious, punching it so hard in the chest its steel dented slightly. It ignored him and went for a second attempt, but web covered its head and threw it off. Mug was holding its arm and attempting to pry himself free, but its grip was like a vise.

  Every second we fought it became worse for us. It was trying to take out our DPS before dealing with Aranya and me. I had to finish this quickly. I used my Telekinesis to help Mug get free, throwing the guardian into the water. Before it could crawl out, I activated Recycling again; this time, I poured the dry version of the quicklime mortar directly underneath it. This was another thing Keggr had told us: that the dry powder form of quicklime, when exposed to water, could produce an exothermic reaction. Basically, it made heat—rapidly. The ensuing explosion sent Mug and me flying backwards.

  -30 HP.

  CURRENT HP: 11/85 WARNING: HEALTH IS BELOW 25%.

  Sounds about right, but it was worth it. The guardian was now missing both its legs. It hatefully began to breaststroke toward us in a lopsided fashion, its blue-veined face focused on us.

  ‘Mug, I can’t take much more of this! Can you finish it?’ I yelled. Mug grunted in a deep, guttural voice. He had lost his hammer, so I made him another one; this time with a shorter handle and a much larger head. Just before the guardian made contact with me, Aranya swung in on a web, cackling maniacally. She used her web as a net to grab its torso and haul it out of the water, her spider legs on its back as she forced it toward Mug with its head down. I could see the steam on its body as it heated up, and if I could smell, I was sure there was the scent of burning hair and flesh coming from her body. She didn’t seem to notice, and her wild eight eyes locked on Mug.

  “Come on, goblin! I thought I told you I wanted to see your teeth!” He didn’t hesitate; he stabilized himself on my base, then brought the hammer down in a mighty swing. It tried to jerk out of the way, but I used telekinesis to not only grab the guardian's head but to pull it toward the hammer hurtling its way.

  With a sound like a cannonball hitting an anvil, the hammer made contact, completely collapsing its head into its body. There was a moment of silence while we waited, Mug and Aranya breathing heavily.

  Its remaining arm twitched, its torso contracted—then it simply went limp. Aranya let go of her webs, and it sank into the electric blue water.

  The blue veins contracted as it sank, starting at the tips of its fingers and ending with the seal on its chest. One less problem for team Lugenhelm.

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