I barely managed a gasp before the current consumed me. The chaos was total—bubbles roared past my ears, splintered wood scraped against my limbs, and the fiery light above flickered in and out of sight. The ship tilted further, groaning as it gave in to the river’s hunger, and I was pulled helplessly along.

  Direction became meaningless. The water spun me, tumbled me, stripped the air from my lungs. My chest burned, my arms thrashed, and still the river had its way with me. My hands found nothing but empty water, then splinters, then nothing again—until suddenly, they closed on something solid. Fleshly, mushy, but solid

  It moved beneath my grip, powerful and deliberate, and before I could comprehend what I’d grabbed onto, I was yanked forward. The current around me surged with startling force, and the next thing I knew, I was breaking the surface like a rag doll flung from the depths.

  Or, perhaps more accurately, like a limp seal flung from the jaws of some great and hungry beast.

  What I’d caught hold of was the arm of the rotting giant. It had finished tearing itself free from the sinking ship, breaching the surface with a roar so deep it made the river shudder. For a brief, frozen moment that felt like an eternity, I hung at the highest arc of my trajectory. Below me, the giant thrashed in the water, an undead abomination clawing for its non-life.

  The black vessel was gone, shattered into a thousand splinters and swallowed by the river’s wrath. The armored soldiers had vanished, consumed by water or worse. Beyond the chaos, the town—Hé Jiē—was still ablaze, fire licking at the night sky like a thousand desperate hands.

  Then, gravity reclaimed me, turning me over midair, dragging me back toward the river. Below, waves churned, massive and wild, crashing outward from the giant’s flailing limbs. Amid the chaos, a battered merchant vessel struggled against the tide, its hull groaning but, somehow, still afloat.

  From its prow, I saw her. Mei, bruised and bloodied, staring up at me with wide, horrified eyes.

  Before I even hit the water, she dove after me.

  At first, it seemed ridiculous, her small form leaping into the chaos. Then I hit the water hard, sideways, the impact punching what little air I had left from my lungs. The cold swallowed me whole, a crushing, roaring presence that dragged me down.

  I clawed my way to the surface, weak and sputtering, only to be yanked under again by another ruthless wave. My limbs felt leaden, useless against the river’s fury. I was dimly aware of hands grabbing me, pulling me upward, just as I thought the river would have me for good.

  Mei.

  Her hands found purchase, her grip fierce despite the chaos around us. She pulled me up, her face a pale blur against the dark water. I hadn’t realized how weak I’d become until I stopped struggling and let her do the work.

  For what felt like an endless minute, there was nothing but gasping breaths, harsh and desperate, and the sound of waves battering against us. The river fought to pull us under again, but Mei wouldn’t let go. Somehow, through sheer, stubborn will—and token efforts on my part—she dragged me toward the merchant vessel.

  By the time we reached it, both of us were on the edge of collapse. Mei managed to haul me aboard with a herculean effort, both of us flopping onto the deck like ragged, half-drowned animals.

  For a long moment, there was nothing but our gasping breaths and waterlogged coughs. The planks beneath me swayed, slick with river water, and for a fleeting moment, I thought I might pass out. Then, a single word, sharp and bitter, broke the silence—a curse, dripping with dread and hopelessness. Mei’s voice, shivering as much from cold as from fear.

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  I weakly peeled my head away from the deck, every muscle protesting as I turned my gaze toward her. But it wasn’t her I saw.

  It was the giant.

  A guttural roar tore across the river, its sound like a landslide dragging rocks and ruin in its wake. My own curse slipped out unbidden, low and shaky.

  The river here must’ve been fifteen feet deep even at it most shallow points, yet the undead giant had somehow found its footing. Its massive frame loomed above the waves, heaving and dripping, its body no longer flailing for survival. No, the thing had found a purpose now, its glazed-over eyes locking onto us like a starving dog spotting the last scrap of meat in the world.

  Its first unsteady step sent violent waves crashing outward, the river surging even higher against its chest as it waded deeper into the water to reach us. Even so, there was no hesitation in its movement, no confusion. Only mindless determination, a singular purpose that radiated from every stitch and sinew: break, destroy, devour.

  Mei was the first to move. She staggered to her feet, still hacking up river water as she fumbled with something on the deck. “I was hoping to save this for those armored monsters,” she coughed, straightening up in a shaky mess, “but heaven’s wrath, one nightmare just keeps replacing the next…”

  Then I saw it, clutched in her trembling hands.

  A heavy bow, its design strange and brutal, unlike anything I’d seen before. Its string was taut, nocked with an arrow that wasn’t just oversized but carried a payload that gleamed with an ominous, otherworldly light—plucked from the fever dreams of a mad alchemist.

  It took me a moment to recognize it, to place the foreign thing in its familiar forebodings.

  An incendiary arrow. One of the same hateful creations that had wrecked through the pavilion, setting the entire night ablaze and turning the town into a waking nightmare.

  I had no idea where she’d found it—aboard the black ship, salvaged in the midst of the sinking chaos?—but there it was, cradled in her trembling hands, the faint hum of power practically buzzing against the air.

  The deck rocked violently beneath us as another wave, born from the giant’s relentless approach, slammed into the merchant ship. The undead monstrosity moved with a terrifying purpose, each step faster than it had any right to be. The river churned around it in fury, and with every moment, it closed the distance.

  Mei’s arms were trembling, her grip faltering as she struggled to pull back the bow’s heavy string. Her stance wavered, her knees buckling under the weight of exhaustion, and still, the abomination surged forward. Another step, another wave. In a matter of seconds, it would reach us.

  The world seemed to sway around me, but even so, I got to my feet, barely finding my balance on the unsteady deck.

  Gritting my teeth, pain and fatigue screaming through every fiber of my body, I staggered forward, stepping behind her as my ravaged hands closed over hers. For an instant, she stiffened in surprise, but then she exhaled, a shuddering resignation.

  Together, we pulled the string back, our combined strength barely enough to draw it taut.

  The moment we did, the arrow’s fuse ignited, spitting sparks and smoke as it began its countdown to calamity.

  There was no time to think. No time to aim. I couldn’t say if it was her or me guiding the shot, or some shared instinct born of desperation. A roar split the night, deafening and primal, and the giant’s arm tore through the water, massive and inevitable. Rotting fingers stretched toward us, ready to obliterate the ship in a single blow.

  We loosed the string.

  The arrow shot forward, its sizzling trail carving through the night. A heartbeat later, the giant’s hand collided with the bow’s railing, splintering wood in an explosion of shrapnel. The deck buckled underneath us. Everything turned over.

  And then the real detonation came.

  A deafening blast shattered the air, the arrow striking true and erupting in a burst of violent, blinding flames. The abomination reeled, its inhuman wail shaking the world as fire engulfed its head and shoulders. The flames licked hungrily at the river, igniting the slick of oil that floated on its surface, turning the water into a writhing sea of fire.

  For a moment, the night was bright as day. The entire river had become a living thing, roaring with light and fury.

  Then the flames gave way to shadow, and the river rose to swallow us whole. Darkness crashed over me, heavy and cold, and I was pulled under into the crushing depths.