Julia reacted instantly to William’s frantic call – “Reinforce Section One! NOW!” Her hands blurred through the somatic components, incantation a silent prayer on her lips. The translucent blue shield of Reinforce snapped into existence over the designated bow planks scant moments before impact.

  THUD-scrape!

  A sickening jolt shuddered through the boat as it slammed against the submerged rock formation. Icy water crashed over the prow, drenching William, but the magically enhanced, physically patched wood held. Instead of splintering, the boat groaned, deflected, and scraped past the obstacle, momentum checked but integrity maintained.

  Structural integrity: Holding. Minor superficial damage. Shield Effectiveness: High, William logged automatically, relief momentarily washing away the cold spray. He risked a quick glance back. Julia’s face was pale, focused, mana already drawn back from the bow section. First real test passed. System works… for now.

  “Good timing! Both of you!” Roland roared over the growing noise, fighting the steering oar to keep them centred as the current grabbed them again. “Stay sharp! More ahead!”

  He wasn’t wrong. The river narrowed further, the roar intensifying into a physical pressure. The water became a churning, chaotic mess of white foam, jagged black rocks, and treacherous currents that seized the boat like an angry fist. William scanned ahead, eyes straining, relying on raw observation augmented by EMMA’s passive visual enhancement, highlighting potential collision points but without the heavy mana drain of constant predictive analysis. Active scans only for imminent critical threats, he reminded himself. Mana conservation paramount. MP: 128/136 (minimal drain for passive visual assist).

  “Standing wave! Dead ahead!” William yelled, pointing. “Keel reinforcement! Section five!”

  Julia’s shield flashed blue beneath them just as the boat rode up the face of a wave taller than Roland, hung suspended for a heart-stopping moment, then plunged sickeningly into the trough beyond. Water cascaded over them, soaking everyone anew. Caspian gasped, clinging to the gunwale.

  “Log! Low starboard!” Jett shouted simultaneously, spotting a dark shape churning just beneath the surface where William hadn’t yet focused.

  “Reinforce starboard bow! Section two!” William relayed, trusting Jett’s sharper eyes.

  Julia reacted, shield snapping into place. They hit the log with a heavy thump, spinning slightly but bouncing off. Near miss. Latency on secondary spotter call acceptable.

  The chaos was relentless. A narrow chute between rocks scraped both sides of the boat. A violent hole in the river that sucked water in tried to pull the stern under, forcing Roland and Jett into a furious paddling battle to maintain headway. William called out hazards, “Rock cluster portside!”, “Whirlpool forming ahead!”, “Current shift, hard to starboard!”, relying mostly on visual pattern recognition honed during the trial analysis, only daring to trigger a deeper EMMA scan when multiple threats converged, or something appeared too suddenly for visual assessment alone. MP: 122/136.

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  Julia’s responses were incredible, fast, precise, the blue shield flickering from section to section like a panicked firefly, intercepting impacts that should have torn their fragile vessel apart. But the strain was visible, the pallor of her skin, the slight tremor in her hands after each cast, the deep concentration etched onto her face.

  Then came a fumble. “Shallows ahead! Hidden rocks!” William yelled, spotting the subtle change in water texture EMMA highlighted. “Reinforce keel!”

  Julia’s shield flared beneath them. Simultaneously, Caspian, trying to anticipate and help, pushed his own rudimentary Reinforce spell towards the bow. A faint shimmer appeared uselessly upfront as the boat’s keel scraped hard over unseen gravel and rock with a horrible grinding sound.

  “Keel, Highness, KEEL!” Roland bellowed, fighting to keep them from grounding completely as the boat shuddered violently. They lurched free, back into deeper water, but the grinding noise had been sickeningly loud. Caspian flushed crimson, muttering apologies.

  Error: Backup system target designation mismatch, William noted grimly. Consequence: Minor hull abrasion (Keel), wasted mana (Caspian), increased structural stress. Need improved coordination.

  They narrowly avoided another jagged rock, Jett making a crucial paddle stroke that spun them sideways just in time. Water sloshed heavily over the side, soaking their already sodden supplies. Morale, William assessed, was beginning to fray under the relentless pressure and the recent errors.

  “FOCUS!” Roland’s voice boomed, cutting through the roar of the water and the rising anxiety within the boat. He used a brief lull between immediate threats to glare at each of them, forcing eye contact. “Eyes open! Calls sharp! Shields ready! We knew this path was forged in hell! We work as one, we trust the calls, we trust the shield, we trust the oars! We get through this section, then the next! Drive on! DRIVE ON!”

  His words, raw and commanding, resonated more than the river's thunder. William felt a jolt, pushing back his own rising panic and the frustration from the near-misses. He saw Caspian straighten his shoulders, setting his jaw with renewed determination, nodding curtly at Roland. Julia met the Knight Captain’s fierce gaze, then William’s, a silent promise of unwavering focus in her eyes, her hands steadied, ready for the next call. Jett gave a low grunt of affirmation, paddle poised.

  Command subroutine executed. Team morale factor: Reset to determined. Focus levels: Increased. William took a deep breath, refocusing his own scan ahead, pushing EMMA slightly harder now, accepting the mana cost. MP: 115/136. The pep talk helped, but the data stream ahead was terrifying.

  The river narrowed again dramatically, the roar becoming an all-consuming physical presence. The water dropped steeply, funnelling into what looked less like rapids and more like a liquid rockslide. Boulders the size of cottages choked the channel, creating monstrous hydraulics and waves that crashed back onto themselves in explosions of foam.

  “This is it!” William yelled, his voice cracking against the thunderous noise, pointing towards the chaotic nightmare ahead. “Forward assessment critical! Hazard density extreme! Looks like…” he struggled for an analogy, “…like the river's throwing a demolition derby in a collapsing quarry! This must be the Apex! Stay sharp! Everyone!”

  His warning, derived from cold data but delivered as urgent observation, landed like another splash of icy water. The brief moments of successful navigation, the near-misses they'd cheered internally, they were just the warm-up. The true fury of Hammer Falls awaited them just downstream. Their desperate gamble, their patched-up boat, their strained resources, all were about to be subjected to the ultimate stress test.

  Roland bellowed an acknowledgment, fighting the steering oars as the boat plunged headlong into the most violent stretch of Hammer Falls yet. The real test, of their repairs, their magic, their skill, their nerve, had arrived with the force of a thousand hammers.