His eyes drifted along the shadows moving beneath the water. Dark. Long. Serpent-like shapes gliding through the surface, keeping pace with the ship like uninvited escorts.
"Okay. Let's do this." He said it with confidence.
But his legs disagreed. They were shaking. Locked in place like they'd suddenly developed a very strong opinion about diving into monster-infested water.
Which was fine. Totally normal. Because he'd never actually fought a real beast before. Unless fighting the Ebony Knight counted.
He froze.
And shook his head.
No.
He didn't like thinking of the knight as a monster. Or a beast. Or anything other than what it was—his companion. His friend. Calling it anything else didn't sit right on his chest.
'So that makes my record against actual monsters a grand total of zero.'
Everything up to this point had been humans. Training dummies. And one very weird, fight-obsessed bald man who hit harder than most monsters probably did anyway.
