Round 186

The water was cold enough to steal your breath away, Merrin discovered as she waded through the lake's depths. Every instinct screamed at her to find higher ground or a heat source before hypothermia set in, but the need to press forward outweighed her body's protests. She was halfway across now, the far shore tantalizingly close when she heard it—the unmistakable sound of something large breaking the surface of the water behind her.

Merrin spun around, mace raised defensively, just as a massive tentacle erupted from the depths, water cascading off its slick surface. It was followed by another, and then another, as what could only be described as a colossal creature began to emerge from the lake's murky depths. Her heart raced as she realized the true scale of the beast—it must be easily twice the size of a whale, its body covered in writhing tentacles that seemed to move with a life of their own.

And worst of all, its skin pulsed with the same eerie bioluminescence as the smaller creatures that had attacked Varikka. For a moment, Merrin was frozen in place, her mind struggling to process the sheer scale of the threat before her. She knew she needed to act quickly, but what could she possibly do against such a monstrous creature? The weight of her heavy iron bar suddenly felt like nothing compared to the size of this beast.

Shit. This is bad. Real fucking bad. Need to move. Now.