Mornin sees the threat and swims towards the quippers. His form is clumsy, but determined. It's clear by watching him that he's practically never swam before, but the sheer effort and physical strength he puts into his amateurish motions is enough to keep pace with the rest of you.

Morning pulls out a short sword and a dagger. He makes one slash at the swarm with a longsword (23 to hit, 6 dmg), trying to hit as many as he can, then he thrusts a dagger, maybe hoping to make a kebab (12 to hit, 4 dmg).

Mornin's first sword swipe cuts down some of the quippers, but the following dagger strike fails to skewer any fish. Since there are so many fish, the sword does not do as much damage as it would against a singular target.

Nexus is the next to act - it is her turn!

Kalhala draws his little dagger, looks very small in his large hand, then swims up to the school of quips and attempts to skewer some of them...

19 attack, 10/2 damage

The swarm of quippers, spurred on by the blood in the water from the group's wounds, surround Mornin and threaten to bite a chunk out of him!

Attack: 15 Damage: 17

The voracious quippers rip and tear at Mornin mercilessly, grievously wounding him.

Kenar is the next to act - it is his turn!

As the swarm of carnivorous fish swims right toward them, Aldith's eyes go wide. She hurriedly summons her magic for an Eldritch Blast, muttering the incantation underwater, but maybe because of her surprise the spell goes wide and misses the school of fish. 

Kenar focuses, clutching his dodecahedron symbol, and calls forth a mote of possibility that forms into an ethereal sea lion. It swims through the water with ease, darting toward the school of carnivorous fish and taking a bite. At the same time, Kenar forms a radiant ball of holy fire in his hand and throws it at the fish. However, the quippers are too elusive - the sea lion and sacred flame both miss their mark!

Shayone winces as Kenar's attacks go wide. "These fish have the advantage of the terrain. Let's see if we can't get some advantage back." Her eyes flash red for a moment as sparkling strands begin to gather in her hands. She throws what appears to be a net of some sort out, but it dissolves into sparkling glitter as it settles over the quippers, as they seem to absorb the glow into themselves, an odd amber-violet. "There we go!" She draws her hands up, as if to fire an arrow, but she holds no bow. Instead, where she sights, a bolt of ice, not unlike Nexus' spell, barrels forth to harry the quippers further.

Pushing off from the cliff's edge, she drifts up and away from the clustered group. "They should be much easier to hit lit up like that!"

Swarmed by tiny fish and bleeding profusely from their numerous bites, Morning swings wildly (25 to hit w/ shortsword; 7 dmg, halved to 3), with both his blades, desperately trying to put a stop to the swarm of bites (NAT 20 on dagger; 3 dmg + 7 sneak attack, halved to 5 total). 

Aldith watches with horror as the fish surrounded Mornin', the water around him turning red. More determined now than ever to put a stop to these horrible fish, she recites the incantation for an Eldritch Blast once more. This time her aim is true, and the fish are blasted by a wave of magic.

"Yes! Take that!" Aldith is a little surprised by her own bloodthirst in the moment, but she is angry that they've hurt one of her companions so badly.

"Nice job Shay!" The fish look kinda pretty all lit up, even if they were trying to eat him and his friends.  Kalhala pressed on with his dagger, trying to take down more of the school.

Between Nexus' ray of frost, Aldith's blast, and Mornin and Kalhala's blade, the remaining fish are sufficiently thinned out to the point where any stragglers that remain peel off from the school and scatter across the cavern. It seems even fish know that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor!

"...ow..." Mornin wades through his own blood to rest his back on the wall. "I am hurt, but I am not giving up." He grunts, gets bad up on this feet, and heads deeper into the cave, "Let's go." 

Kenar quickly swim up to Morn with an embarrassed shrug of his shoulders “Sorry I was literally no help at all there but I’ve got you we should keep moving not sure how far that might of set us back” 

Cure Wounds 2nd lvl: 14

Aldith follows Mornin and Kenar. "You sure you're all right?" she asks with concern.

Mornin looks back at Aldith, noting her concern. "Better now, thanks," he says, lightly rapping a knuckle on Kenar's shoulder. "Let's keep going."

With Mornin now in much better health, you all swim through the short tunnel at the end of this cavern and enter a much wider space. Silvery light dances along the walls of this underwater cave. The water here is a little warmer, and a gentle current pulls you toward a crevice in the south wall that emits shimmering golden light. Prowling around the cave’s pillars is a massive shark. A gold amulet hangs from a thick chain tied around the shark’s body, and a silver spear protrudes from its side.

As you all enter the glowing cave, you spot the familiar sight of Ayo emerging from a tunnel on the opposite wall, her companions right behind her. It seems you've arrived at the same exact time, and the shark doesn't look happy to have intruders in its lair.

Aldith stops swimming in surprise as she stares at the huge shark. Her eyes widen with fear. It takes her a few minutes to even notice that Ayo and the others have emerged into the cave as well. She wonders what they will do. Should they swim back the way they came? That shark is huge! She looks to her companions to see how they are reacting. Also, why is the shark wearing an amulet? It looks valuable...maybe they should try to defeat the creature after all. 

The last thing that Nexus wants to do is get into fisticuffs with Ayo and Dermont---she's known them since childhood, and she didn't want some tournament to drive a wedge between them. 

In the same vein, she also didn't want to just roll belly up and give up the prize simply because she didn't want to fight the other party. She had no such issue fighting the shark that seemed to be holding onto their prize. A hand dipping down to unclasp her spellbook from the holster on her hip, holding it out in front of her while she shouted toward Ayo, "Ayo! I don't want to fight your group, nor do many of us---Let's call it on whoever beats the shark first, deal!?"

Nexus didn't wait for a response, as the sigils that she spun into the air were plucked and pulled---what seemed to be heating water suddenly crackling with electric energy, as bolts of lightning seared through the water to impact the shark. Maybe the metal on it will attract some of the electricity. Or maybe the shark will be weak to lightning in general? Either way, she felt it a better option than trying to use fire under water. 

"... Alright, fine, you got a deal, bookworm!" Ayo grunts. "Let's beat 'em to it, team!"

Maggie squeezes through the tunnel and gives the shark a wallop with her giant maul as Dermot slips into the chamber and raises a prayer to the heavens. "May the light of the Luxon shine on my allies during this trial!" 

The shark, clearly enraged by Maggie's attack, strikes back with a brutal bite that threatens to tear Maggie apart... but thanks to Shayone's blinding spell, it misses! "Maggie, hang on, I'm on the way!" Irvan cries as he sidles up next to the shark and stabs into its gills with two daggers.

As Nexus's lighting shoots from her tiny body towards the shark, Kalhala watches on in wonder, "Dang girl!  That is impressive!"  He watches as others also successfully attack the huge creature, all trying to be the one to take the medallion from the defeated beast and when he gets a shot, he dolphin kicks himself towards it.  And just as he is about to ram his horns into the side of the shark, it twists itself away from Kalhala and he gets nothing but water.