Book 6: Chapter 25:

Fenrir almost caught up to his girlfriends when a pained roar came from the distance. The roar was loud enough to grab undivided attention of everybody in the area. Despite how monstrous it was, it was clearly a roar of pain as it was choked with occasional fluctuations in tone.

Looking in the direction of the roar revealed who it was that produced it.

Ilo.

The serpent friend to only Fenrir and his companions reached out of the water with bloodied gashes cutting through her scales. From a distance, she almost looked more red than her usual teal, and her wounds extended from her maw down to the rest of her body beneath the gentle waters.

“My – my hero! Something is wrong!” Nell shouted to Fenrir.

That much was obvious. For the serpent to be so gravely wounded – for the serpent who was one of their most powerful allies to be in that condition, something was severely wrong.

“Anybody with healing magic needs to come with me!” Fenrir shouted. “Nell, try to guide her into the river!”

Nell nodded as a few nearby players joined up with Fenrir to rush over to the river.

The situation only grew worse as they reached the river.

Having barely managed to swim to a spot where she could easily be reached, Ilo’s blood freely ran into the water as they got to see just how injured she was.

Few of Ilo’s scales were uninjured. Most were torn through, crushed, broken off, shattered – the protective scales that could deflect most blades were almost all destroyed. Those that remained were few enough to offer no real protection.

“Heal her!” Fenrir ordered those who followed him.

Several players got as close to the edge of the water as they could before holding out their arms to heal Ilo. Her pained eyes slowly came to a close as their magic worked over her wounds.

Aside from her scales, she was covered in lacerations and several chunks of flesh were torn straight off of her as if she was picked at by sharks.

Whatever did this to her, it was obvious that their intention was to either kill or devour her.

“Oi, ain’t she supposed to be pretty strong? What happened to our girl?” Tabitha asked, standing next to Fenrir.

“I don’t know,” Fenrir answered. “I might be able to learn what happened once she’s healed, but until then… we can only guess.”

“There is not much to guess, is there, my hero?” Nell asked. “What else could have done this to her if not our enemies from below?”

“Yeah. Whatever did this to her – it happened below the waters, and there’s only one group we know of who could have done this to her.”

“Ya think they’re attackin’?” Tabitha asked.

“If they are… we might need to get out of here. We’re not ready for them and she’s already this hurt.”

“It’s too late for that if they’re on their way. Only way outta here is down the river, and that’s where they’ll be.”

“Yeah. The Shoebill and Ilo wouldn’t be able to get away unless we go upstream and hope that they’re not chased.”

“If they did this to our girl… what about all those other ships that are supposed to come and help us?”

“I know. Anything that could do this to her could easily destroy a ship from below. I was hoping that maybe most of them can’t swim and are stuck walking along the bottom of the ocean, but I doubt that Ilo would have engaged them on their own terms like that.”

“Hey! Is everything alright?” Pfar asked after having joined them at the river next to Ilos.

“The opposite,” Fenrir sighed. Looking around, more or less everybody was gathered around by the river with a few exceptions standing by the beach to look out over the ocean.

And then there was Mister Smiles.

Mister Smiles was right behind Fenrir only a little off to the side, and he seemed to be looking directly at Ilos.

As tempted as Fenrir was to confront the strange player, tending to Ilo was more important. There was also the issue of what to do if they came under attack right now.

“She will be alright, my hero,” Nell said, giving Fenrir’s back a gentle rub. “I know how you feel, but I have faith in her recovery.”

“Yeah. She’ll be fine,” Fenrir replied, “and we’ll kill whatever did this to her.”

“Seems like we might be needin’ that giant mecha sooner rather than later,” Tabithba said. “If we’re not about to all get wiped out, we’re goin’ to have to really start rushin’ around here.”

“We’ve spent too much time screwing around. While we were having fun with that tournament, Ilo was probably out there getting attacked by whoever did this to her. Maybe we could have helped her if we were closer – maybe we would have noticed that something was wrong.”

“Please, my hero, do not apply such unfair pressure to yourself,” Nell said. “It is not fair to you that—”

“It’s not fair to Ilo that we get to screw around while she fights for her life. And now that those other NPCs have shown up – we’re finally starting to create what I wanted to come over here for, and now this has happened. It proves that what we’re doing is right – that we need to do this, but… we need to take it a lot more seriously than we have been.”

“I understand, my hero, but I do not wish for the anger I feel from you to be directed at those who do not deserve it.”

“I’m not directing it at anybody who doesn’t deserve it.”

“That includes yourself.”

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Fenrir responded with silence. He knew that his girlfriends were going to say that he shouldn’t be so upset with himself no matter what he said, but how could he not be? He deserved to be upset at himself and he knew that. There was nobody more at fault for this than him in his mind.

He came here to protect those who were most at danger. Now, while he played around for no good reason, one of those in need of protection was injured so gravely while he was nowhere around to help.

“As much as I might like when ya knock your own ego down so I don’t have to, you’re bein’ too hard on yourself,” Tabitha said. “Even if ya knew what was happenin’, what could ya have done? Swim down there and try to help her all on your own?”

“Yeah,” Fenrir answered. “It’s the least I could have done.”

“You’re too stubborn for your own good.”

“That’s not being stubborn. That’s wanting to protect our friend.”

Tabitha sighed as she rubbed her forehead.

Then the sounds of battle reached them.

Looking back toward the ocean, the players who ran over to the beach were busy engaging monsters fresh out of the water – the same monsters that were fought in the underground caves before. Most of them had humanoid bodies that were grossly disfigured by all manner of fishlike appendages. Though these enemies were smaller and simpler overall than the ones fought in the caves, they were greater in number.

“Rao, Serra, Corwin!” Fenrir shouted. “Ilo is too injured, so I need you to tie some rope around her to help her get upstream with The Shoebill. Nell, go grab those NPCs and get them onboard. We can at least try to evacuate those who are at a real risk right now.”

“My hero, are you – are you sure that you would not rather me accompany you?” Nell asked.

“You can protect everybody if they get attacked. The rest of us will deal with them at the beach.”

“Don’t worry about your dog,” Tabitha said, taking her hammer and extending it to its full size before resting it over her shoulder. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t go humpin’ any legs while you’re not around.”

Cassiel and Eva then made it onto the deck of The Shoebill. They immediately noticed what was going on and looked to Fenrir only for him to shake his head. “Cass, you need to rest. Eva, stay with Nell to protect The Shoebill and Ilo.”

“What about me?” Azalabulia asked.

“Got any explosions left in you?”

That was all Azalabulia needed to be asked in order to enter her addicted-to-explosions mode. “Who do you think I am? Of course I, Azalabulia, wielder of—”

“Alright, you can help us. Pfar, can you direct everybody to come help us at the beach?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Pfar answered.

“Make sure that you alarm the sleeping avatars, too. The virtual assistants can take over the avatars to help us out.”

“Got it.”

“And you,” Fenrir said, turning his attention to Mister Smiles. “If you’re ever here then I’m assuming you’re on our side. You refuse to die, so you can be Aza’s bodyguard. Be her shield and don’t let a single thing past you. Understand?”

Mister Smiles tilted his head for a couple of seconds before nodding.

“Alright. We all have our jobs. Let’s go!”

Led by Fenrir, everybody got to work fulfilling their duties. A smaller group helped to secure Ilo to The Shoebill with rope so that they could drag her upstream while a much larger group charged toward the beach to help those who were about to be overrun.

The first one to show off at the beach was Oleander as several thorns as large as his body pierced straight through the enemies’ bodies.

Fenrir looked back just in time to see Nell helping the NPCs onto The Shoebill. With Ilo and the NPCs taken care of, there was no need to worry about anything.

Or so he would have liked.

Two more NPCs were there to join them in the battle.

Rock and Shogun.

As much as Fenrir wanted to order them to get onto The Shoebill, he knew that neither was going to listen to him. “Stay in the back with Aza!” If he couldn’t get them to stay out of harm’s way, he could at least have them stay where it would be safer.

Rock and Shogun both barked before heading over to join Azalabulia and Mister Smiles.

Fenrir wasn’t exactly comfortable leaving Mister Smiles with Azalabulia… but Mister Smiles refused to die. If there was anybody who would make a perfect meatshield to protect Azalabulia, it was Mister Smiles. She could chant a hundred different spells before Mister Smiles died.

Plus, Fenrir had every intention of checking on them throughout the fight to make sure that everything was alright.

“He-hey, Fenny, don’t you think this is a lot?” Oleander asked.

More and more enemies emerged from the water, walking toward the beach.

“Yeah, so it’s a good thing that we’ve got you and Aza,” Fenrir answered.

“I’ll be more effective if I stay back here,” Oleander said, looking down at the grass he was standing on. “Make sure that I have some clear line of sights and I’ll do my best! But… I’ve got to admit that having Bone right now would make this way easier.”

“Bone made every fight easier.”

Speaking of making fights easier, Fenrir’s arms transformed before he gripped Rod and transformed him into his newest form.

The first enemy that Fenrir reached did not even need to be restricted by Rod’s chains. Instead, Fenrir was able to cut straight through the monster’s head with nothing to stop his claws from tearing through it.

The next moment, Fenrir shot forward his chains to coil around one of the monsters about to attack a distracted player.

By the time that the player noticed the monster, Fenrir’s claws had already torn through it.

“Make sure to watch your back. We can’t afford to lose anybody right now,” Fenrir warned.

Rather than pay attention to Fenrir’s words, there was a much more impressive sight behind him to focus on.

“Come on, ya oversized fish! This all ya got?!” Tabitha shouted, swinging her massive hammer into three of the monsters at once. Each monster got crushed into each other until they formed a single fish-monster pancake that went flying into another couple of nearby monsters.

The moment two more monsters ran up to Tabitha from behind, all it took was a single glance and she spun around in a circle to send them flying with her hammer.

Fenrir noticed who the player he saved was watching and fixed what he previously said. “See Tabs? Be more like Tabs.”

The player gulped and nodded his head.

As for the rest of the group, they were not doing too well. Several players were already overwhelmed and killed by swarms of the monsters. Fortunately, having gore disabled prevented the battlefield from looking anywhere near as gory as it should have.

More importantly, they—the players—were being pushed back. There simply was not enough of them to hold back the tide of monsters that wished to destroy them. There were at least three monsters for every player, and most of the players were not able to handle fighting more than one or two of them at a time.

And there were even more monsters on the way.

“It’s times like this when I wish this was more like an actual game,” Fenrir said, using his chains to restrict one nearby enemy while punching through the chest of another. “At least they’re squishy… but I wish they weren’t so literally squishy.”

Pfar, wielding an axe and a shield nearby, bashed away one monster before swinging his axe down into its head. “What would being like an actual game do?” he asked.

“We’d be able to have a few tanks aggro all the monsters while the healers spam them with heals and buffs, and then the rest of us could focus on using AoE skills to wipe them all out at once. Instead, these monsters aren’t dumb enough to all focus on the same few people while there are easier targets around.”

“Couldn’t we still try to herd them together?”

“Not if we’re the ones being pushed back. Wait, if we… alright. I have an idea. I need you to round up everybody on that side to try and form a wall perpendicular to the beach. I’ll do the same over here. We’re going to funnel them straight to Aza.”

“We’re going to funnel them to a single girl?”

Just as Pfar asked that, they heard the end of one of her chants which sent a flaming dragon over their heads to crash into the monsters approaching in the water. It wiped them all out in an instant, but more were still coming.

“Got it,” Pfar said.

“Join back up with me in front of her once you form a wall. We’ll need to help the others protect her until she’s ready. Then we can—”

Fenrir stopped as soon as he saw the condition that Azalabulia was in.

Between her earlier spell and the damage she suffered then, and now using even more of her magic, she looked exhausted.

The one person he could always rely on to wipe out huge groups of enemies at once was burned out. Even so, she looked like she was trying her best to prepare for another spell.

There was also the fact that so many of the monsters were already spread amongst their allies that the explosion would either take out their own or not deal with the more immediate issue of the monsters already on land.

“Shit. Never mind, that’s not going to work,” Fenrir said, looking the battlefield over again to figure out a new plan.

The monsters that Azalabulia killed were already replaced by even more of them.

“The defenses aren’t ready and we can’t even be sure that this is a fullblown attack, plus there aren’t enough people here to use our defenses effectively,” he said, mostly speaking to himself.

“Should we run?” Pfar asked.

“If we run then we lose everything we’ve built so far, and there’s a chance that they might go up the river and find Ilo. We can’t take her out of the water. I… have no idea. We’re against an overwhelming force here. Strategy doesn’t matter if they can just throw more and more bodies at us until we’re all exhausted or dead. The area is too large to form an effective kill box and the person who would nuke everything inside of the kill box is already exhausted. If we use our defenses now, they’ll all need rebuilt and then we’re screwed if another attack comes, plus we won’t be able to use them as designed since we don’t have enough people. This… this isn’t a battle we can win right now.”

“So, we’ve got to pray for a miracle?”

“If you don’t worship RNGesus yet, now’s a good time to start, yeah.”

“Shit. Sounds like we’re in—”

Pfar cut himself off when he noticed a nearby group of players struggling against some of the monsters. Rather than finish his sentence, he figured he’d help those players.

Plus it wasn’t like he needed to finish his sentence in the first place.

They both knew that they were in a bad situation.

The entire plan in the first place with the traps and defenses relied on more than a significant amount of luck. They had to hope that they could successfully lure in what was essentially an army to a specific spot along the coast. Then there was the fact that if the Eastern serpent decided to join the battle, they were screwed. The militaries of the game’s largest factions weren’t enough to take out a lone serpent let alone a serpent and its own army.

But, of course, the more that Fenrir realized this was all impossible, foolish, and reliant on copious amounts of luck—

“Alright. We’ve got this.”

—the more determined he was to win.

“Aza!” Fenrir shouted. “Do you have enough energy left in you for one really big spell?”

Azalabulia, already looking like she was struggling to keep her eyes open, nodded.

“Alright! Take it easy until I give you the signal. Try to recover some mana if you can!” Next, he looked at Mister Smiles. “I need you with me. We’re going to try and disrupt the enemy’s advance.”

Mister Smiles stared straight at Fenrir for a few seconds without saying anything before nodding his head.

“Tabs! Group up!”

Tabitha might not have known what Fenrir’s plan was, but she didn’t need to know to smile and have faith in him.

“Alright. The three of us – we’re going to rush out into the water and try to fight them there. If we can keep the new monsters busy long enough to give everybody over here a chance to mop these ones up, we might stand a chance.”

“This ain’t exactly a fightin’ group I ever imagined bein’ a part of,” Tabitha said, looking at Fenrir and Mister Smiles, “but it should be fun.”

“It’ll be even more fun if we win. Pfar! Form the walls when I give you the signal!”

Pfar gave Fenrir a thumbs-up and went back to slaying monsters.

“Olly! Can your vines reach the water from back there?”

“As long as I stay by the grass, yeah!” Oleander shouted back.

“Help us crowd control the monsters in the water!”

“Anything for you, Fenny!”

Fenrir smiled and looked at Tabitha and Mister Smiles. “Alright, come on. We need to buy everybody some time.”

The three of them rushed out into the water.

They only needed to go ankle-deep before they were ahead of all the other players with a large force of monsters approaching them from deeper waters. The closest monsters were immediately killed by the work of Fenrir’s claws and chains, Tabitha’s hammer, and Mister Smile’s powerful punches and kicks. As soon as they were faced by too many monsters at once, thorny vines reached over the battlefield to wrap around some of the approaching monsters, locking them in place while digging deadly thorns into their bodies.

With Oleander helping to lock down some of the enemies, picking off the others was easy.

Essentially, three lines of defense were formed.

First was Oleander’s. While he was the farthest away from the fighting, his vines locked down the monsters from a distance so that not all of them could reach the group.

The second line of defense was Fenrir’s. Him, Tabitha, and Mister Smiles picked off as many of the monsters that they could to stop them before they could reach the beach. Though, they were still outnumbered which meant that they were slowly building up damage as the monsters assaulted them.

The third and final line of defense was everybody else fighting on the beach. They had split into large and small pockets of resistance—temporary parties—to try and push the monsters back. While they were the ones being pushed back before, the crowd control from the first two lines of defense helped them deal with the monsters already on the beach as there was no longer a constant flow of enemy reinforcements reaching them.

Fenrir kept on looking back at the beach to see how they were doing. After just a couple of minutes, the players on the beach more or less had all of the enemies there dealt with and those with healing magic could run around to try and get everybody back into top shape.

And then Oleander’s magic vines failed, releasing the monsters that they were holding back.

“Alright, let’s get back,” Fenrir said, his breathing heavy and tired.

“Ya look like crap, dog,” Tabitha said.

Fenrir wiped his arm across his face. He had no idea that he was bleeding as much as he was until he looked down at his arm.

“You’re one to talk,” he teased in response. He wasn’t the only one covered in bloody wounds.

And then there was Mister Smiles. Mister Smiles looked totally normal aside from some blood and fish guts on his skin, but his movements and reaction speed were much slower than before.

Now wasn’t the time to question Mister Smiles’ seemingly OP-ness, though. Now was the time to retreat back onto the beach.

“Pfar!” Fenrir shouted to Pfar. “Form a wedge to funnel them to Aza!”

Pfar heard Fenrir’s order and immediately got to work organizing the rest of the players on the beach into two lines. Each line reached out to the edge of the water and made it almost back to Azalabulia. The players had to stay spread out to create these lines, but they weren’t expected to hold the line for long.

“We’re going to line them up for you, Aza!” Fenrir shouted. “Take them out and I’ll give you a great reward later!”

Azalabulia still looked tired until she heard the mention of a “great reward.” That was enough to give her energy… so that she could look confused and embarrassed. For when she thought of a great reward, her mind went to getting a lap pillow from him to holding hands and cuddling all the way to being pinned down and—

Azalabulia shook her head and held out her staff. “Leave it to me, Azalabulia! These imposters of darkness will learn the true face of this reality!”

“Oi, wolf, ya got some sort of support buff magic that we don’t know about?” Tabitha asked after seeing how much more energy Azalabulia had.

“I’d be a bad boyfriend if I couldn’t give my girlfriends energy,” Fenrir answered.

“I don’t think anybody expects dogs like you to be able to give girls energy just from sayin’ somethin’ like that. Makin’ them smile is one thing. Fillin’ them with energy, though…”

“I guess I’m just a really good boyfriend then.”

“Don’t get full of yourself.”

“I’d rather fill a girl version of myself than get full of myself.”

“You – wait, really? You’re a perverted dog through and through!”

“I’ve got to make Serra proud even if she’s not here right now.”

“Ya know, it annoys me that sometimes ya make me think you’re actually a good boyfriend to them.”

“Wh-why would that annoy you?”

“Don’t be stupid, it doesn’t actually annoy me. Don’t ya know what banter is?”

“Oh. My bad.”

Tabitha gave his back a couple of strong pats as they reached Azalabulia with Mister Smiles.

That was when Fenrir saw a sight he did not approve of.

Rock and Shogun… were sharing a fishing leg from one of the monsters. While Shogun chewed on the top of the leg to get to the bone more easily, Rock was in the middle of chewing on the leg’s foot.

“I’m not letting you lick me later,” Fenrir told Rock. “Maybe never again.”

Rock looked up at Fenrir, fish foot still in her mouth, and whined.

“At least drink some water or something before you lick me next time.”

Rock barked from around the foot and then bit down hard enough to crack through the bones in the foot, causing everybody there to cringe except for Mister Smiles.

Whatever Mister Smile’s expressions were beneath the mask, they were unknown to all but the mask wearer.

Meanwhile, the bulk of enemy reinforcements reached the beach. They were quick to run up between the lines formed by the players to funnel them, but many stopped to try and break through the lines rather than run between them.

That didn’t matter, though, so long as the lines were able to hold long enough.

“Now, Aza!” Fenrir ordered. “We’ll hold them off until you’re ready! Olly! If you’ve got any magic left in you, now’s the time to use it!”

Fenrir, Tabitha, Mister Smiles, Rock, and Shogun formed a small, temporary line in front of Azalabulia to hold off any monsters that might reach them as Azalabulia prepared her spell.

Not many monsters actually made it close to them, but they still had some to fight so that Azalabulia could chant her spell without interruption.

“Bahamut, it is time to show these imposters of darkness the true face of this reality! Let us rip apart all their truths – all of their masks and falsities! They wish to swarm over us as ocean waves would, so let us wash over their corpses with your dark flames! I, Azalabulia, the Dark Sorceress of Twisted Flames, the Breaker of Reality, the One Who will Set the World Ablaze, and the Wielder of the Cursed Flame of Bahamut, will annihilate our foes with a final sweep! Let us return them to the oceans that they came from, and then we shall boil the ocean itself until not a single drop is left! Bahamut, together, we shall show that it is not water that drowns out flames, but our fire that consumes the very ocean! Now, let us boil them away! Cursed Flame of Bahamut, The Burning of the World, Boiler of Oceans, sweep the enemy away in a wave of flames!”

“Move!” Fenrir shouted.

The five of them who were holding monsters away from Azalabulia dove to the sides so that they wouldn’t be in the direct path of her spell. All that was left in her way, aside from the monsters themselves, were some small vines by Oleander to lock enemies in place.

And then Azalabulia’s spell was unleashed upon the invaders.

Like a wave of the ocean, draconic, black flames spread out from in front of her that grew in size and intensity the farther they went away from her. Her flames consumed all before them within the wedge provided by the players, though the players still stepped back some more to avoid the incredible heat coming from the waves of fire.

The fire even reached out over shallow water to burn away the rest of the approaching monsters.

By the time that the flames dissipated, not a single monster was left standing. Any and all bodies exposed directly to the flames were left charred and smoking.

Yet before they could even begin to prematurely celebrate, more monsters rose from the deep.

And this time, they were larger and more powerful looking – they were even more intimidating than those encountered in the cave. Even worse, there were still dozens of the smaller and weaker variants accompanying them.

“Se-seriously?” Tabitha asked. “Are we really supposed to be able to win against somethin’ like this?”

Fenrir caught Azalabulia as she collapsed from exhaustion.

She was totally spent. Not one more spell could be cast from her. Furthermore, all the healers and other magic users who were responsible for surviving as long as they did were also low on mana or depleted of it.

More than a few players died. Those who were still alive were exhausted and incapable of fighting for much longer.

Meanwhile, the approaching monsters were greater in number than they were at the beginning and even stronger monsters accompanied them now.

“Damn it,” Fenrir sighed. “We need to get out of here.”

“To actually lose against a bunch of fish… ain’t that frustratin’,” Tabitha said and sighed along with him.

“Everybody!” Fenrir shouted. “Gather the dead and run toward the mountains! We’ll regroup with those upstream!”

While there was no bringing back the dead without resurrection magic, which required more mana than what any of the healers had, they could at least secure the corpses of the dead players so that they could get their gear back upon respawning.

Dying itself might not have been a big deal but losing everything on them was.

Then they heard what sounded like magic being charged up.

It was subtle, but Fenrir saw a pulsating, blue glow come from the corner of his eyes.

When he looked toward it… he saw Ilo with a severed rope hanging from around her body as she reached up out of the water. The scales along her back began to glow one by one, starting from her tail and ending at those sticking out from the top of her head, and her eyes were set on the intruding monsters with killing intent burning within them.

Ilo opened her mouth and let out that jet of extremely pressurized water – the same attack used to cut a hole through the gorilla monster’s chest, and swept it across the approaching enemies. Even the largest and bulkiest looking of the fish monsters had their bodies severed in half as the jet of water cut them through with ease.

Every single one of the approaching monsters was killed by Ilos’s attack. She swept her head from side to side to move the jet of water across the entire battlefield.

Not one monster was left standing.

Including Ilos.

Ilos’s scales returned to normal as she fell into the water of the river. Fenrir could tell that she was alive still, but she used every last ounce of energy that she had in order to save them.

Yet…

Fenrir looked out to the ocean, expecting more monsters to reveal themselves just as they did after Azalabulia’s attack.

None came.

The minutes that came afterward were tense and silent. Nobody knew what to expect. Was this the start of the battle they were preparing for? Was this only a small encounter to lead up to the final confrontation? Were more monsters on the way?

None of them knew what to expect.

It was only after ten minutes passed that everybody let down their guards to relax and collapse on the sands of the beach.

The small force of players with unfinished defenses were able to hold back the monsters. While there were losses amongst their side, they stood victorious.

They won.

“I need to start fishing more. This might not have happened if somebody caught all these fish before they could turn into monsters,” Fenrir sighed.

“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” Tabitha said, “but if it means not havin’ to smell… this, then I’ll build ya the best trawler you’ve ever seen.”

“Instead of that, just make enough fishing rods to arm an army. Maybe we can beat the Eastern serpent with a really big fishing rod.”

“If it means not havin’ to smell burnt fish guts… I’ll build ya whatever fishin’ rod ya want.”

Fenrir and Tabitha looked at each other, each lying on the sand, and bumped fists.