"Why does he get to ride it and I still have to walk?"

"Because if you fall, we can still breathe for a few minutes. If he falls, we get crushed under thousands of tons of water."

Alfie huffed in annoyance at Seth's reply, rolling his eyes but not arguing anymore against that point. Even if he hated walking, being crushed and imploding like a poorly built submarine was not something he was exactly thrilled about, so he let this one slide.

Plus, he was mostly arguing and complaining as a way to deal with his nerves, unsurprisingly caused by those feelings of being crushed.

He was not the only one. Seth had considered himself to be claustrophobic in any sense of the word before, but now that he was stuck in a bubble with no escape and death looming over his shoulder, he was starting to understand where the claustrophobes were coming from.

They were still trudging along the bottom of the Loch, their path having turned much steeper as they descended deeper and deeper into the depths of the water. A stone, plucked from the ground beneath them, was resting in Seth's palm. A pure white symbol was carved into the stone, the runic symbol of light, as it acted as the sole source of illumination this far into the depths of the Loch.

Their formation remained the same, with the only difference being that Erik was currently sitting on Seth's spear like it was a witches broom as it floated in the air behind him. Since their path had become so steep and even more dangerous with the slick, soaking wet rocks.. It seemed like the better idea to simply not risk him slipping at all.

Their visitors didn't help the sense of looming danger either. The light that Seth's freshly carved stone was emitting seemed to act as a beacon this far down beneath the water.

Kelpies, one after the other, dove into the water and brushed up against the side of their bubble in an attempt to inspect the mysterious light source. On a few occasions, they even rammed the sphere like charging bulls, which made it shudder and rain down droplets of water onto their heads.

Every tackle shook the bubble, forcing Erik to expend more energy to keep it together and reinforce it so that it didn't collapse onto them.

Seth sliced his karambit knife through the seaweed tendril of an especially daring Kelpie, which had reached into the bubble in an attempt to grab one of them, a gurgling neigh of pain echoed throughout the water as the beast retreated. Seth's curved blade didn't just carve apart its seaweed, but also its soul, which was not a pleasant experience.

Kicking the discarded seaweed to the side, Seth glanced over his shoulder to Alfie with a sly smirk.

"How hard can it be to make breathable air anyways? Just fart out some Oxygen, job done."

"Not job done. I'll have you know that it's much more complicated than that. Pure Oxygen isn't good for you long term, breathable air is mostly Nitrogen, not Oxygen. So... there."

Sticking up a particular finger, Alfie gave Seth a playfully rude gesture before the two of them laughed softly, trying anything to relieve their sense of helplessness. Slicing apart another reaching tendril, Seth consulted his mental map as well as the pulling feeling he was getting.

It was thrumming in his head now, like a worm that was banging against his skull and trying to get out.

"Not long to go, We're almost there boys. Just gotta stay out of trouble for a few more minutes."

The words had barely escaped his lips when a rush of water blasted past their little bubble, stirring the barrier and almost causing it to collapse as something was forcing the water from its path. A few seconds later, oily green blood began to mix with the swirling barrier of water as it drifted within the Loch around them.

The Kelpies that had been swarming them rapidly swam away, galloping through the water as they swam for shallower waters and eagerly ran to the surface. Somewhere the group of three currently couldn't reach.

A small shadow above the bubble caught their attention, an object slowly drifting down until it touched the barrier and breached through it. As soon as the object had pushed it's way through the barrier of water, it lost the drifting lack of gravity that came from swimming and simply fell to the ground between the boys with a sicking wet slap.

Resting on the slick stones, constantly leaking out green blood, was the severed head of one of the Kelpies. The flesh where its neck had once met its body was torn and twisted with deep ruts, as if it had been ripped apart by large teeth instead of cut by a clean blade.

"Fuck fuck fuck... Why did it have to be this one... I was really hoping this one would stay fake."

Seth muttered to himself as he clutched his knife tighter, his knuckles turning as white as his ghost ant armour as he focused on the murky water around them. A few seconds later, another shadow passed by their bubble, a shadow ten times the size of any Kelpie and staying at such a distance that its true form was impossible to decipher.

"Wh-what is that? Do you know what that is?"

A deep, ear-splitting roar echoed throughout the waters, like a mixture of a Tyrannosaurus Rex roaring for intimidation and a whale calling for its kin. The thought that it could be more than just a roar, and could work like a whale's echolocation, made it even more horrifying.

"Don't you know where we are? Think about it dude, a Loch just outside of Inverness? We're in Loch Ness..."

Alfie paled at Seth's words, understanding the implication of them immediately. Loch Ness, one of the most infamous and popular locations in their entire country. Infamous for one reason and one reason alone. The legends of a monstrous beast that roamed the waters.

Countless tourists came, hoping to catch a glance at this legendary beast. Whether it was real or not in those days didn't matter anymore. It was real now.

The Loch Ness Monster was flesh and blood, and it was angry about those intruding upon its territory.

The shadow descended upon them once more as teeth larger than their arms burst through the swirling shield of water, spraying them with the contents of their only line of defence.

The teeth slid up and out of the protective shell, before bursting through again. Over and over this happened, as the beast constantly tried to lift the bubble from the ground. The only thing stopping it from happening was Erik, who had massive beads of sweat drizzling down his face as he focused like his life depended on it. Because very simply, it did.

Every time Nessie tried to lift them, he would loosen the barrier and simply let it slip through. If it was a physical shield, rather than one formed of repellent water, there was no doubt they would already be getting tossed around like a dog with a ball, or deep in the Legendary monsters belly.

But the beast was smart. When it realised it's dragging attempts weren't working, it focused on what was. Biting.

Water sprayed onto the pale, cowering faces of the trio within the bubble as teeth burst through their defensive shell once more, however this time they stayed. Instead of trying to pull them away, the legend of Loch Ness had bit much further down. It's teeth were scraping against the stone beneath their feet, their bubble practically half way down its gullet as if it was trying to swallow them whole.

A prospect that didn't seem all that far fetched.

Erik grit his teeth, his hands held outwards as his muscles bulged and strained as if he was pushing against an invisible wall. The walls of their safety bubble slowly began to contract, the beasts teeth drawing closer as it forced its mouth closed.

Erik had to work to keep the bubble solid and fight against the pressure of its mighty jaws. If he let it go loose now like he had before, the jaws would simply snap shut and that would be the end of them.

Veins bulged in his neck as he forced out words through gritted teeth, putting his everything into keeping these jaws apart.

"Any time... You'd like... to help!"

A curved blade carved into the flailing tongue that was lapping against the edge of the barrier, sending a surprising wave of pain through the giant creature of the deep. The teeth immediately retracted and Erik quickly plugged the holes, as Nessie reeled back and let out a trembling cry of pain.

Without a word shared between them, the trio immediately broke out into a sprint, which is to say that Seth and Alfie ran whilst Erik floated quickly alongside them. As he ran, Seth tossed his blade through the wall of water, directing it with his threads to continue to harass the beast, to give them more time.

However, it wasn't long until Seth came to a skidding halt, forcing Erik's magic carpet ride to stop alongside him.

Alfie only stopped running when he nearly dove through the wall of water. Whirling around, he looked at Seth with a panicked expression.

"What the hell are you stopping for? That thing is still out there!"

"It's here. It's supposed to be here, right here! Where is it?"

His face flooded with a mixture of panic and confusion, Seth whirled in the spot and scanned the ground searching for something, anything. His senses were on fire, alarm bells ringing in his head, telling him that his goal was directly beneath his feet. But there was nothing here, no sign of anyone to rescue.

Was he supposed to dig? As if they had time for that.

He was about to let out a cry of frustration when a particular sight caused him to halt. It took him a few seconds for him to process what he was seeing before everything finally clicked into place.

His Karambit had become lodged in Nessie's scales, his mind unable to free it to continue harassing the beast any longer. But it was also through that connection that he could feel the Karambit growing ever closer, carving through the water with deadly speed although definitely not through his control.