Chapter 16 by mask

What should you do??

Attack! (so you can flee)

If there is something you have learned from defeating the Nekt, it is that you'd only managed to defeat it by attacking it with reckless abandon.

Foolish as it might be to assume that fluke may manifest itself a second time for you. Your body has already decided for you.

Ignoring the squirmies you feel lick at your tail flukes you give it a might push, lunging out of the water straight at the Horned Lich.

The **** is enough to nock over the emaciated corps, and you are quick to realise that the superior weight class which your muscled upper body and fishtailed lower body is the only advantage you have over this monstrous creature.

You thrash and wrestle with it. Twisting your tail around and and trying to roll and lunge both of you towards the edge of the raft. Every time you see it open its mouth or the eerie fires of it's eye sockets flicker, you twist yourself to somehow bodyslam the creature against the raft. You doubt that you are able to wind it, but perhaps the impact is enough to momentarily disrupt its concentrations to cast a spell.

Finally you notice the glow in its shrunken sockets change, its displeasure is a physical thing that almost manages to make you cringe.

Its shrunken hand releases its ironlike grip and rises towards your head, with its other free hand.

The opportunity strikes you like a thunderbolt. Your flight instinct kicks in and you find yourself arching back through the air, over the raft and the water below.

The water greets you, once again as do the squires. Instinctively you grab your noes and blow air through all of your orafices, blasting through the school of pests and into the dark depths of the lake.

Light and dark mingled into a twilight. It is here you come to a stop. Not fully believing that you'd managed to escape both the Lich and the squirmies.

Relief floods you like a welcome tide as you turn your gaze upwards to the shadow cast by the raft.