The Royal Knight Academy

Chapter 24: The Sharktopus

"It's a Sharktopus!" I yelled.

Owen quickly turned to me as he shouted, "How do you even know what that is?"

We both began backing away as I drew out my sword.

"My mom told me about them! But this is not the time for telling stories right now when we're about to be eaten by this sea creature!"

I ever so slowly started to sneak up closer to it. As I was about to strike, the Sharktopus dove as fast as he could at the two of us. I lunged out of the way, but Owen wasn't quick enough. As he stood there frozen in the creature's presence, it quickly wrapped one of its many long tentacles around him, making sure he couldn't get out of his grip. Once he had him in his grasp, he swiftly pulled Owen towards him. Owen tried to wriggle his way free, but the Sharktopus' grip was just too strong.

"No!" I thought in my head as Owen struggled to get out. I was now on my own trying to get the ingredient we were after.

As Owen tried to fight off the creature, I thought that I could get the Water of Purity while the Sharktopus was distracted. But when I swam up, just inches away from the hanging pedestal, it saw me and one of its eight tentacles swiftly came from above and pushed me back down towards the ground. I tried again, hoping the second attempt would work, but another one of its long arms pushed me back. I kept trying again and again, trying something different each time, but it had too many tentacles. I had to think of a different way to get the water.

"How can I get the Water of Purity without getting hit by one of those tentacles?" I wondered. "Come on Lindsay! Think! Think!" Then it dawned on me what I should do. "I remember now! My mom told me she heard that if it can't see, it will lessen the grip of whatever is in its tentacles. When Owen's free, I can get the Water of Purity." But when I thought of my plan, I realized something. Owen had to be the one to take away the Sharktopus' sight. He was the closest one to the sea beast. I had to tell Owen about my plan, but would he even listen, or instead reject any idea I had? Whatever he chose would determine the fate of the mission.

Just when I turned to him, I saw that he had freed one arm, had his weapon out, and was about to hit the creature in the tentacle that was wrapped around his body. I suddenly remembered something else important, "My mom once told me in her stories about them that if you hit this creature in the tentacles, it would become enraged and be even more dangerous!"

"Don't hit it there!" I warned him. "Something terrible will happen!"

"Yeah, right!" he shouted back, the weapon held high over his head. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

At that moment, he struck straight down, hitting the sea beast right in the tentacle. The Sharktopus' eyes widened as his weapon pierced its tender skin.

The monster let out a horrible scream in pain as it started to spin around in circles with Owen still in its grasp. Its long red tentacles were spinning so fast that they were making the water around them churn like a giant tornado, sending me flying backwards into a rock. I knew that we needed to stop the Sharktopus before it was too late, but the water current created by the monster was so strong that I couldn't get near him or the Water of Purity.

I called over to Owen, hoping he would listen to what I had to say this time, "Owen! You need to listen to me! You have to blind the creature! It's the only way I can carry out my plan!"

"Why should I do what you say?!" he angrily asked as he was spinning with the beast. "I can come up with a much better plan-"

"No! We don't have time for this! You have to listen to me! You just have to trust me on this one! Not everything you do is better than everyone else and you have to understand that! We all need to listen to what others have to say and be able to accept help from them! If you don't do this, then the mission is over and probably so are our lives!"

Owen looked at me as I looked back at him with great anticipation of what he was going to do. He took a second to think about what he was going to do with a tense expression on his face, looking conflicted at what his next move would be. Suddenly, he looked at the Sharktopus who was still thrashing around ferociously, and forcefully poked its two gleaming eyes with his outstretched fingers.

lt let out another horrible scream and immediately stopped spinning, loosening its painful grip on Owen. Owen immediately swam out of the creature's clutch. At that exact moment, I decided that I would have to take the chance to go for the Water of Purity before the creature could see again. Swimming up to where the water was hanging, something unimaginable happened.

The bubble that was allowing me to breathe underwater popped. What was just air moments ago surrounding my head, was now water. I wasn't able to breathe anymore. Time was running out. I swiftly continued to swim up to the pedestal before it was too late. Just when I was about to grab the water, I spotted that Owen was in trouble.

His air bubble had popped too. He put his hands around his neck as he started to panic, not being able to take a breath. To make things worse, he was cornered against a wall, the beast blocking him from getting out of its path. It was furious that it had been harmed, and its mission was to attack Owen. Not being able to see, it just kept opening and closing its jaws rapidly, trying to catch Owen in its mouthful of sharp teeth as it slowly inched closer to him. The magical water was in my reach, but I just couldn't grab it. Right then, Owen's life was more important than the precious ingredient. Even though we didn't like each other, I couldn't just let him die.

Without even taking time to think, I knew exactly what to do. I turned my attention to the Sharktopus who was distracted with Owen. I moved closer and swam underneath it. Once I was there, I started grabbing its tentacles one by one, tying them together in knots, twisting and looping them through each other until all eight of them were one giant tangled mess. It never noticed what I was doing and now had no tentacles free to allow it to swim. When I was finished, I swam out from under it, watching the events that would unfold next.

The Sharktopus was just mere inches away from Owen's face. It opened up its mouth of razor sharp teeth as wide as it could, thinking that Owen was within reach, and chomped down. Opening its eyes that had finally regained sight, it saw Owen in front of him, not in its mouth. The sea creature tried over and over again, biting down on nothing but water as he tried to swim closer. As the Sharktopus figured out that it couldn't move and its tentacles were bound in a huge knot, it let out a surrendering roar that shook the water. When I knew Owen was safe from the creature's vicious attack, I remembered what I was after. I had to get the Water of Purity right away or it would be too late.

With each stroke I swam upwards, my vision seemed to become more blurry from the lack of oxygen. I pushed myself as much as I could, trying to reach the very top. The bottle holding the water was just out of my reach, with my senses slowly fading and any strength I had was gone. I was drowning. I was so determined to finish the mission that was given to me, that I couldn't give up. With one final burst of energy, I made a final push to get what I came for, just barely grasping the bottle in my hand. My fingertips grazing it, I started falling down towards the bottom of the cave with the small bubbles from my final exhale rising to the cave ceiling. Then everything went black.