The shattered floor crunched beneath Apollo's boots as he crossed the broken chamber to where Thorin lay propped against a column fragment, his left arm cradled against his chest.

Blood matted the dwarf's beard, turning its russet strands a dark crimson. The gold in Apollo's veins had cooled to a dull throb, conserving strength after the release of divine power.

"Hold still," Mira instructed, pressing a torn strip of cloth against the gash on Thorin's forehead. Her hands trembled with exhaustion, her own injuries evident in the way she favored her right side.

Thorin's eyes never left Apollo as he approached. "Nice of you to finally show us what you can really do," the dwarf growled, wincing as Mira tightened the makeshift bandage. "Might've been useful before half of us nearly drowned."

Apollo ignored the barb, kneeling beside Cale instead. The young man sat hunched on a jagged slab of marble, water still streaming from his sodden clothes. Blood trickled from his nose, and his breathing came in ragged gasps that spoke of water in places it shouldn't be.

"How bad?" Apollo asked, keeping his voice low.

Cale attempted a smile that became a grimace. "I've had better days." He coughed, spitting a mouthful of pink-tinged water onto the broken floor. "But I can still fight. The water... it recognizes me. I just need to focus harder next time."

'Next time,' Apollo thought grimly. 'He knows as well as I do that the kraken will return.'

"That was no ordinary arrow," Lyra said, materializing beside him with that unnerving silence she sometimes employed. Her green eyes bored into him, unblinking and accusatory. "No mortal shoots arrows made of light that can pierce a kraken's hide."

Apollo busied himself checking Cale's ribs for fractures, buying precious seconds to formulate his response. "The bow enhances what's already there," he said finally, the practiced half-truth coming easily to his lips. "I've told you before, it's an ancient weapon with properties I don't fully understand."

"Convenient," Lyra replied, her tone making it clear she believed none of it. "And these properties just happen to manifest as godlike power when we need it most?"

The bow thrummed softly against Apollo's back, as if amused by her persistence. He straightened, meeting her gaze with a carefully neutral expression. "Would you prefer I'd let the kraken kill us all?"

"I'd prefer the truth," she countered, stepping closer. "Before whatever secrets you're keeping get us all killed."

Before Apollo could respond, Nik called out from across the chamber. "Something's happening to the water!"

The churning waves that had threatened to drown them moments before suddenly stilled, not gradually but in an instant, as if the entire surface had been flash-frozen into perfect stillness. The water flattened into an unnatural mirror, reflecting their battered faces and the ruined architecture above with crystal clarity.

Apollo felt a chill that had nothing to do with his soaked clothing. The gold in his veins pulsed with warning as he studied their reflections in the impossible mirror. 'It's watching us,' he realized. 'Using the water as its eyes.'

"I don't like this," Thorin muttered, struggling to his feet despite Mira's protests. His axe remained clutched in his good hand, its edge notched from impact with the kraken's hide. "We should leave while we can. That thing will be back, and I doubt it'll be in a forgiving mood."

"We can't leave," Cale insisted, rising unsteadily. Water dripped from his clothing, each droplet creating perfect circles in the mirrored surface below. "This is a trial. If we run, we fail."

"And if we stay, we die," Thorin countered. "That beast nearly killed us all. Another round will finish what it started."

Apollo watched the debate unfold, his attention divided between his companions and the too-still water beneath their feet. Something was changing in the chamber around them.

The carvings on the walls, scenes of oceanic battles and triumphant sea gods, had begun to glow with faint blue luminescence, the same color that had shone in the kraken's massive eye.

"Look at the walls," Renna said, voicing Apollo's observation. The hunter stood with her back to a column, bow at the ready despite her depleted quiver. "They're reacting to something."

Not something, Apollo realized, someone. The glow intensified wherever Mira moved, following her like a loyal hound as she tended to Nik's injured leg. The water beneath her feet rippled slightly, breaking the perfect mirror only to reform it seconds later.

"It's responding to you, Mira," Apollo said, watching as the patterns flared brighter at his words. "The temple recognizes your power."

Mira looked up, confusion evident in her drawn face. "My power? But I'm not doing anything. Not anymore. I couldn't if I tried, I'm empty."

"Not empty," Cale said, his voice stronger now as he studied the phenomenon. "Connected. The temple's power flows through you, not from you. That's why your water attacks hurt the kraken when mine barely slowed it."

Thorin spat blood onto the mirrored surface, creating momentary ripples of distortion. "Fascinating academic discussion. Meanwhile, that monster is regrouping for another assault, and we're standing here debating mystical connections."

"Thorin's right," Nik said, wincing as he tested his injured leg. "We need to decide, retreat or press forward. I vote retreat, for what it's worth. Live to fight another day and all that."

The water rippled beneath them, a subtle motion that spread outward from the central pool where the kraken had disappeared. Apollo felt the bow's response, a slow warming against his spine, the weapon stirring from its brief rest like a predator scenting blood.

"We don't have time to retreat," he said, the gold in his veins quickening as the bow's warmth intensified. "It's coming back."

"Then we fight," Renna said simply, notching one of her few remaining arrows.

"With what?" Thorin demanded, gesturing at their depleted state with his good arm. "Half of us can barely stand. Cale's coughing up blood. Mira's drained. Your quiver's nearly empty. And we've all seen how well normal weapons work against that thing."

Apollo felt the bow's heat increase, no longer merely warm but actively hot against his back. It hummed with hunger, demanding to be drawn, to taste the kraken's blood again. The gold in his veins responded in kind, flowing toward his hands with eager anticipation.

"I still have the bow," he said quietly.

"And how many of those light arrows can you shoot before you collapse?" Lyra asked, her penetrating gaze missing nothing. "Don't think I didn't notice how it drained you. Your hands were shaking after just one shot."

She was right, though Apollo would never admit it aloud. The divine arrows drew directly from the gold in his veins, his diminished godhood made manifest. Each release weakened him in this mortal form, taxing reserves that would have been limitless on Olympus.

Before he could respond, the mirrored surface of the water erupted.

The kraken's emergence was nothing like before. No gradual rise, no tentacles testing the water's surface, just explosive violence as the beast burst upward with the force of a geyser. Water crashed against the chamber's ceiling before raining down on them in a deluge that momentarily blinded Apollo.

When his vision cleared, he found himself staring at a nightmare made flesh.

The kraken had transformed. What had been slick, dark skin was now armored in plates of living coral, jagged edges gleaming like blades in the chamber's eerie light. Its tentacles had thickened, ridged with barnacle-like growths that rattled with each movement. Smaller eyes had opened along its massive limbs, each burning with the same blue fire as the central orb.

But it was that central eye that froze Apollo's blood. Larger than before, it blazed not with the blue of deep ocean but with a golden fire that matched exactly the color in Apollo's veins. And it focused not on Cale, not on Mira, but directly on Apollo himself.

'It knows me,' he realized with sudden certainty. 'It recognizes divine blood.'

The kraken's attack was immediate and precise. Water surged upward in walls that separated the companions, isolating them from each other with brutal efficiency. Apollo found himself cut off on a small island of broken stone, Lyra and Renna trapped on another fragment nearby while Cale and Mira were forced back toward the chamber's edge.

The bow burned against Apollo's palm as he drew it, the wood all but vibrating with eagerness. The gold in his veins flowed toward his fingertips, ready to form another arrow of divine light, but he hesitated, remembering how the first shot had drained him. 'I need to conserve strength,' he thought. 'Use the power only when nothing else will serve.'

He loosed a normal arrow instead, aiming for one of the smaller eyes that dotted the nearest tentacle. The shaft struck true but bounced off harmlessly, unable to penetrate the coral armor that now protected the beast.

Across the chamber, Cale had risen to his full height, arms extended as he attempted to command the surging waters. His face contorted with effort, blood streaming fresh from his nose as he fought against the kraken's control.

"It's fighting me," he gasped, the words barely audible over the roar of moving water. "The sea won't listen, it's turning against me!"

The water around Cale twisted violently, no longer the gentle servant that had guided them to the temple but a vicious opponent that sought to drown him where he stood. It rose in spikes that jabbed at his face and arms, forcing him to retreat step by precarious step toward the edge of his small island.

Then Mira was there, her hands moving in those strange patterns Apollo had seen before. The water between her and Cale stilled momentarily, caught between opposing wills—the kraken's ancient malevolence and Mira's newfound connection to the temple itself.

"Together," she called to Cale, her voice stronger than seemed possible given her exhausted state. "The water wants harmony, not conflict. Feel it through me!"

Something passed between them, not physical contact but something Apollo could see in the way the water responded, calming into a controlled flow rather than chaotic violence. For a brief moment, their powers aligned, creating a channel of clear water that pushed back against a tentacle that had been poised to strike.

The kraken recoiled, its central eye narrowing as it assessed this unexpected resistance. The moment of harmony between Cale and Mira had forced it to reconsider its approach, but only for a heartbeat.

The next attack came with redoubled fury. A tentacle thicker than a tree trunk smashed down onto the stone where Thorin stood, the impact so powerful that the entire chamber shook. The dwarf disappeared beneath tons of writhing flesh and shattered marble.

"Thorin!" Nik screamed, limping toward where their companion had vanished.

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