Ekera shambled about to another lever. Vee was head-on battling as many of the violent fish possible. Whenever a piranha would slip past and try to attack Ekera, She would emit the smallest ounce of electric that would travel through the water and daze her enemies. The next lever she reached had a red light. Ekera gave a forceful tug. But it felt completely locked, no amount of force would make it bend. Ekera was at a lost. She did not want to release more fish but she wasn't sure which levers can be pulled. Ekera looked at her surroundings again. Vee was doing well in the holding off most of the fish and Ekera could swat any of the rest. Some levers had unique lights to them except yellow, in which there seemed to be five of them. The crystal at the bottom was still a light blue color. It took a moment for Ekera to think of something. She swam to the lever that was also light blue and attempted to pull. She felt it give way, but it was to heavy for her to completely switch. Her frailness had finally caught up to her. Being underwater also gave her less leverage to work with. Ekeras tried to think back on if she missed anything. How the area looks, if jack could help, what she can do. A memory clicked in her mind. She remembered Vee saying "you can control water". Ekera imagined the water around her as if it were an extra hand, a force that will work with her in pulling with her. She saw no obvious change, but when she tugged again, the lever eagerly jerked back. There was a *Click* sound. The light turned off, but besides that nothing seemed to have happened, not even a vent opened. That was when she noticed the color of the crystal changed to orange. Seeing a pattern, Ekera wiggled to the next level of the same color, still wiping out any remaining fish that would attack her. Once again she envisioned the water helps, and once again the lever pulled with ease. *Click*. The crystal changed to pink. *Click* again. Then green *Click*. Ekera was starting to get the hang of swimming. While her form was definitely wrong at least she could consistently move from place to place. The piranhas were dwindling and the remaining few were too scared of both of them to attack again. This gave Vee the chance to resurface and catch her breath. "Your almost done sweetie" her head cheered "just a few more levers and it will be over". The color of the crystal had finally changed to red. As Ekera got near the corresponding lever she envisioned to large waves to crash on to the lever and yank as hard as possible. Ekera barely touched it yet the lever switched over with the most ease than ever before. A final *Click* and light turned off. Ekera peered at the red X and watching as it dissolved away. On the side of the walls, the staircase reformed. "Congratulations," A voice unlike Vee's said. "You have completed your trial. May you develop your abilities to great heights"
Ekera did not feel any pain or surge of new strength. The only thing she felt was underwhelmed. It was clear she was allowed to leave, but something was bothering her. The crystal was back to its clear color, although slightly duller than before, and there was still a large yellow Circle. Ekera stared at the shape before coming up with a bad idea. She swam over to one of the unpulled yellow one levers and gave a small push. A vent opened up and out poured another group of fish. These fish were slightly larger and along with their sets of teeth. Vee darted back into the water to fight them but some quickly managed to slip past her. Ekera ready her small sparks to fend them off, yet they were a bit more tenacious and stayed near her area. This seemingly bad idea did not stop Ekera from continuing. She managed to make her way to another lever and tugged. With another off another vent opened to reveal even larger fisher. These fish seemed to be more aggressive as they not only went after Vee and Ekera but started attacking other fish as well. Vee was having an extremely difficult time. One predator managed to bite off a head of hers, luckily the nature of a Hydra made it not a problem as her head grew back, but it was evident that the attacks were giving her trouble. Ekera pulled two more yellow levers, with two more vents the fish was almost as big as her. She just had one more lever to pull. While most of the aquatic beast were infighting a few of the tough ones were dangerously close to Ekera. She held her hands out to produce more sparks but a predator bit her arm before it was shocked away. The creature had drawn blood. And from the movements of the others, they seemed to have noticed. Many of them cease there miny skirmishes and followed the scent of large blood. Ekera swam away fast as she could from the horde. A few of them nipped at her leg, causing more bleeding. She looked at the staircase and considered getting out of the water and running out. She had completed her trial and the fish would just eat themselves, but she was too curious about the yellow circle. Vee was having a horrible time. Her discharges were only scaring off the small one and beast kept aiming for her heads. while she could regrow them whenever a large predator shredded a base, she would lose more heads than gained, at best she could only have four heads before there were ripped off. Ekera was painfully close to the last lever but also painfully sore. Before she could reach it, A large one intercepted and almost snapped off a finger. Ekera was worried about doing that again. She envisioned the water pulling for her, a hand that could not be bitten and tug the lever with full force. The fish kept breaking her concentration, but somehow the lever moved down. Ekera looked down. a hatch within the yellow circle began open, Along with one last vent that released two great white sharks. The other fish darted away far from them as possible. Vee tried to fight one-off, but within a single cleave, she lost all of her heads. Both of them seemed to be making a beeline towards Ekera. Ekera's swimming became more than desperate, she managed to slip past both the sharks with a bit of electricity and grabbed Vee's body, Heading for the hatch. While she was hoping to at least blind the two monsters, her cuts and bruises made her an unmistakable target. As she was nearing the hatch so two were the sharks. There jaws ready to crush the girl and her helpless snake. Ekera kept moving, wanting anything to help her out of the situation. She thought of protection, She wanted to feel safe like someone would shield her no matter what. Ekera hurled through the opened hatch at full force. The sharks almost got to her legs if it were not for some kind of barrier blocking them. A few times they tried dipping there heads through the hatch. The barrier was persistent. Luckily they gave up before anything worse happened and proceeded to torment the smaller fish. The hatch closed soon after.
Ekera found herself in a small chamber that looked similar to an office cubicle. The water within the chamber rapidly drained, replaced with musty air. Vee was alive and wiggling, with two heads she gasped for breath as much as she could. "Where are we! Are you okay Ekera!?" A deep womanly voice spoke with a winded breath. Ekera simply nodded and placed down Vee to relax. There was not much in the chamber except for a desk, a chair, a valve, a medkit, and a waterproof bag, All of which were eerily white. Ekera opened up the medkit and sloppily tried to mend her and Vee's wound. She used a lot more bandages than she needed to, but at least she stopped the bleeding. Next, she peered at the valve. It was rusty and red with the label 'drain' atop it. Ekera tried to pull, yet without the help of water, she could barely make it squeak, it was with the helped of Vee that they managed to turn it all the way. Ekera could hear whirlpools of water and creatures being sucked away. Lastly was the bag. There was no lock on it so Ekera simply pulled it open. in its contents were two things. One was a jar filled with a pink substance. The label on its top spelled 'oobleck'. The second item was a folded paper sealed in a plastic bag. Ekera opened to the bag and unfolded the paper to read. Vee peered over with curiosity.
"What does it say," a male voice asked. "I...uh..can't read. But" Ekera was silent for a moment. She read the words again and again. Her expression was empty.
"Who the hell are you? Why am I here?" Ekera's voice was shaken. Vee grew silent. Ekera stared at the snake, waiting for an answer. Realizing she wouldn't get one, Ekera deeply sighed. she folded the paper and oobleck back in the bag and carried it with her. Her and Vee climbed out of the hatch with the new bag. The cavern had dried up a considerable amount with not much except for tiny puddles and dried fish. The crystal was still there, its dull color barely glimmering. Ekera grabbed a rock once more and bashed it. This time the crystal fractured, She bashed again and heard a loud shattering. Ekera kept going until there was nothing but dust. she held onto one shard of the crystal due to its sharpness and placed it in her back. With nothing left for them, Vee and Ekera ventured back up the stairs with there trophies. Ekera glanced at where Jack was before, seeing a stack of boulders where he used to be. She did not say anything, nor did she try to help. Instead, Ekera and Vee turned back to the temple's entrance.