The Watcher in the Water's regenerative abilities caught Kael somewhat off guard.

He remembered that during the Fellowship's journey, the Watcher had never displayed such abilities.

But it wasn't hard to understand. After all, the Fellowship's conflict with the Watcher was very brief. When the Watcher extended its tentacles to attack, the Fellowship immediately fled behind the Doors of Durin.

So from beginning to end, no one had truly seen the Watcher's full appearance and capabilities.

Seeing the Watcher rapidly regrowing tentacles and continuing its attack, Kael wasn't panicked at all.

So what if it had strong self-healing abilities? He had just learned a dark magic spell targeting healing powers.

Perfect time to test its effectiveness.

He raised his hand, and his wand shot out an invisible curse.

"Sectumsempra!"

This spell was different from other magic. It produced no strange phenomena or lights when cast, but was invisible, silent, and without any fluctuations.

The next second, one of the Watcher's tentacles was torn apart by an invisible blade, instantly splitting in two.

And this time, the Watcher's tentacle severed by the curse couldn't heal or regrow.

Because at the curse-struck wound, magical power prevented healing, causing continuous bleeding of blue-black blood.

Seeing this, Kael's spirits immediately lifted, and he began attacking those tentacles with Sectumsempra.

Soon, over ten thick tentacles were severed.

The continuously bleeding tentacles turned the entire lake surface blue-black with a strong fishy stench.

"Well done, Kael!" Gandalf severed a tentacle, and, seeing Kael's results, his eyes lit up with loud praise.

The other dwarves also waved their weapons, cheering for Kael.

Dragon Smaug, circling in the sky, also dove down, breathing scorching dragonfire toward the lake.

The pained Watcher, seeing half its tentacles severed and healing abilities nullified, showed fear in its massive eyes.

Seeing the dragon's flames approaching, it quickly coiled up all tentacles and sank directly into the lake, disappearing completely.

Everyone was stunned.

Had the Watcher retreated?

After waiting quite a while, there was no movement from the lake.

"Is it scared? Won't it attack us anymore?" Balin stretched his head toward the lake, asking warily and puzzledly.

Gandalf shook his head seriously, staring unblinkingly at the lake surface.

"The Watcher in the Water is an older, more evil creature than Orcs. Even I know little about it, but I don't think it would retreat so easily."

"Then what do we do now?" Balin asked.

With a water monster in the lake ready to attack at any moment, approaching the Doors of Durin wouldn't be easy.

But they couldn't just rush into the water to fight the monster.

Gandalf was also somewhat troubled.

At this moment, Kael's expression tensed as he stared fixedly at the lake's waterline, warning gravely, "Gandalf, have you noticed the lake's water level is rising?"

Hearing this, Gandalf immediately followed Kael's gaze and discovered lake water silently spreading outward rapidly.

His expression changed dramatically. He immediately turned and ran, shouting loudly, "Run! A flood is coming!"

He ran toward the nearest large tree, his body agile and nimble unlike an old man's, quickly climbing up.

"Get up the trees! Climb as high as you can!"

Hearing this, the dwarves didn't hesitate to quickly climb surrounding trees.

Kael immediately took out a flying broomstick from his space bag, mounted it, and flew into the air.

The next second, the massive lake's water level rapidly rose, and then, like an overturned giant basin, the lake water directly raised towering waves, striking toward the high ground on the shore.

The flood came like an avalanche. Some dwarves who climbed slowly or were positioned low were directly swept away.

Some trees couldn't withstand the giant waves' impact and fell into the flood along with the dwarves on them.

Kael, riding his broomstick in the air, looked at the situation below with furrowed brows.

He shouted toward the sky, "Smaug, Thorondor, come down and help!"

Hearing Kael's words, Thorondor dove down, his eagle talons quickly grabbing two dwarves struggling in the water, then throwing them onto trees that hadn't fallen.

Smaug followed, his massive dragon claws easily hooking several dwarves.

Kael also flew down to help, using Levitation Charms to control dwarves swept into the flood one by one, letting them land on nearby trees.

Gandalf, who had climbed high in a tree, used his staff as a stick to pull up two dwarves who had nearly been swept away. Only then did he remember he had a flying broomstick, showing an annoyed expression as he quickly took out his broomstick from his space bag and joined the dwarf rescue effort.

But the Watcher creating this flood obviously wasn't willing to let everyone succeed so smoothly.

Hidden underwater, its thick, powerful tentacles directly snapped trees, making dwarves fall into the flood like dumplings.

Perhaps knowing Kael, Smaug, and others weren't easy targets, the cunning water monster didn't show itself, hiding its form using the flood's momentum, then attacking trees with dwarves from underwater.

This left Kael and Gandalf exhausted from rescuing.

"Kael, the Watcher can control water flow. We need to find a way to force it out of the water, or we can't do anything to it."

Gandalf said somewhat helplessly.

Kael thought for a moment and took out the case containing the basilisk.

"Basilisk Herpo can move in water. Let's try to see if it can threaten the Watcher?"

He patted the case. "Your turn!"

Then he opened the case and threw it directly into the lake.

The case fell onto the lake surface, and a tentacle emerged from the water, trying to drag it underwater.

The next second, a massive snake head burst from the case, viciously biting the tentacle and injecting venom.

The tentacle recoiled in pain, immediately releasing the case and retreating underwater.

Seeing this from above, Kael's eyes immediately brightened with anticipation.

The basilisk's venom was extremely toxic. Even a single drop could poison an elephant, and except for phoenix tears, there was no antidote.

Now that the Watcher had been bitten by the basilisk, could it be poisoned to death?

But the result disappointed him.

The Watcher was obviously very intelligent and cunning. Discovering something wrong the moment venom was injected, it unhesitatingly bit off its own tentacle, preventing the venom from spreading to its body.

Only a large severed tentacle over ten meters long floated up from the lake.

"Herpo, kill that thing in the water!" Kael hissed to the basilisk that had just emerged from the case.

The basilisk nodded with closed eyes, then immediately dove underwater, tracking toward the Watcher's direction.

Soon, the lake water churned as if an intense battle was happening underwater.

Suddenly, the lake water, already stained blue-black by the Watcher's blood, turned pitch black as if ink had been poured in, with no visibility at all.

Kael had a bad feeling.

The basilisk's most powerful weapon was its eyes, already limited underwater. Now with the lake water so dark and low visibility, could it still affect the Watcher?

Sure enough, Herpo soon surfaced.

"Herpo, how's the situation?" Kael hurriedly asked.

The basilisk shook its head.

"That big fellow is very perceptive. Before it could see my eyes, it sensed danger and directly sprayed ink at me. The ink prevented me from opening my eyes, so I couldn't kill it.

It also tried to coil around me to tear me apart, but after I bit its tentacle and injected venom, it controlled the water flow to prevent me from getting close."

So the Watcher feared Herpo's eyes and venom, while Herpo couldn't attack closely because the Watcher could control water flow.

Neither could defeat the other, resulting in a stalemate.

Getting such a result, Kael couldn't help frowning deeply.

This Watcher was truly difficult to deal with in the water.

But forcing it out of the water obviously wasn't easy either.

After all, this Watcher was very cunning and careful. Seeing things go badly, it immediately hid in the lake and played guerrilla warfare with them.

Suddenly he looked toward the lake's downstream direction, his eyes brightening.

Originally there was no lake before the Doors of Durin, only a stream called Sirannon flowing past the gates.

But over time, downstream blockage caused water to collect, forming the current barrier lake that submerged the entire western gate area.

If they could drain the barrier lake, the Watcher would lose its vital water and pose no threat.

Kael immediately told Gandalf this idea.

"Indeed, you young people have flexible thinking, unlike this old man whose thinking has grown rigid!"

Gandalf nodded approvingly.

"But we can't directly destroy the barrier lake dam. This lake water has accumulated for thousands of years. If destroyed, it would cause floods that submerge the entire downstream area, bringing disaster to downstream residents!"

Kael hadn't considered this and nodded seriously. "Then let's first break open a gap and slowly drain the water without causing floods!"

He had Herpo continue entangling the Watcher in the lake to distract it.

Kael flew to the Barrier Lake dam.

This was built from many stones, dead wood, and soil, forming a massive dam connecting the mountain heads on both sides of the valley.

Such obvious artificial traces showed this barrier lake was clearly created by the Watcher to expand its living space.

To avoid flooding from destroying the dam, Kael had Smaug use his tail to carve a water channel in the mountainside, directing the lake water out.

Lake water poured down through the drainage channel, causing the stream to surge rapidly and cover the riverbed without creating a flood disaster.

As time passed, the lake's water level gradually dropped.

The Watcher in the lake discovered the situation and became very agitated, trying to destroy the channel to stop the water loss.

But it was directly driven back by dragon Smaug's dragonfire guarding the flood discharge outlet.

Plus, with a basilisk continuously harassing in the lake, the Watcher was overwhelmed.

As the lake's water level grew lower and lower, finally after Kael cast a Confringo curse to blast open the barrier lake dam, the remaining lake water all poured down.

The Watcher's full form was completely exposed.