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Fairy Tail: Oberon (Chapter 099)
CHAPTER START---
Sitting on the railing of Captain Karit's ship, Oberon has four pebbles locked in his personal orbit. Accelerating with each passing second to form a dangerous ring, but never escaping his personal gravity field.
Looking out at the ocean, he maintains his focus, not flowing too much Cosmic into this task as he splits the orbit into four. They divide into four rings that overlap in front of him, but due to their differing speeds, the pebbles never touch.
Instead, he holds his hands out, around the point where the orbits overlap, and focuses on it. He increases their speed until they're each a blur, tearing through the air to cause a high-pitched screech as they move, unnerving everyone on the deck.
Behind him, Captain Karit and her crew are enjoying their breakfast on deck, playing cards and preparing for the likely coming conflict, all while occasionally sparing Oberon a nervous glance.
With much focus, he alters the orbits even further, and a single bead of sweat forms on his forehead as he adjusts their speeds. Then, pouring more Magic Energy into them, all four pebbles collide between his hands.
At such absurd speeds, their collision shatters them, normally sending bits and pieces everywhere. But Oberon instantly collapses the orbits in on themselves, raising the pressure and containing the kinetic energy to super-heat the rocks.
They glow molten red and fuse, now sharing a combined orbit, and the boat tilts toward them as the influence reaches farther outward.
Oberon's forehead is drenched in sweat as he struggles to contain Cosmic, studying the new planetoid in front of him and its new independent orbit. Then, with a thought, he shatters the orbit and drops the molten stone into the ocean.
He exhales, taking note of how exhausting Cosmic is, but is overjoyed at the progress he's made. But before anyone can ask what happened, he perks up, turning to them.
"He found them, they're near the cove…"
---Elsewhere…
Under the clear sky and shining sun, a man relaxes in the crow's nest of a modest ship. Atop the middle mast, he reads last week's issue of Sorcerer Weekly, just barely noticing something strange in the distance.
He sets aside the magazine and takes out his spyglass, raising it to look at the empty ocean ahead. He focuses for a moment, then sees something that shouldn't be there. A massive sail fin moving in the water, miles away.
The fin is moving perpendicular to the ship, then a moment later, it makes a sudden and sharp turn directly toward them. It accelerates, tearing through the water in a straight line, adjusting ever so slightly to maintain a collision course with their moving ship.
"Captain!" the man screams, looking down from the crow's nest onto the main deck. There, he sees a few crewmates, along with a blue-haired older man on the deck. "North horizon!"
The blue-haired man looks up, seeing the lookout pointing, then his gaze follows to the north. He walks to the railing and uses his spyglass, seeing the sail fin tearing through the water toward them.
"The migration?" A man asks, walking beside the captain. "Magic Council said these routes were safe for another few weeks. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were wrong, as always…"
"No," the Captain says. "This thing isn't a whale, and it's moving with intent. Turn us about, the storehouse cove is closer than mainland Fiore. All hands ready."
The man nods and turns to the deck. "All hands ready! Turn us back to the storehouse, full speed!"
The deck erupts into organized chaos as everyone gets into their positions. The Captain flexes his right hand, activating Requip: The Spearman, summoning a shining blue spear into his grasp.
He stands at the railing, watching the incoming threat, then, as the ship turns around, he walks to the other side, not allowing it to leave his sight.
"It's close enough. Let's scare it off, hopefully it doesn't think we're worth the trouble!"
"Aye, Captain!" some of the crew yell as they carry netted bags of baseball-sized Lacrima Bombs to the railing.
When the sail fin gets within 200m -660ft-, they toss dozens of Lacrima Bombs directly in its path. Half of them float, made for other ships, the other half slowly sink, made for situations like this.
The sail fin continues speeding toward them, but the moment some of the Lacrima Bombs sink, it makes a sharp turn, running perpendicular to the ship.
"Fuck," was The Captain's only word, a perfect summary of everyone's thoughts. "It's a Magical Beast, and it thinks. Get us to the cove, protect the cargo, and be prepared for anything!"
The Lacrima Bombs explode, causing water to erupt behind them while the ship sails away, and they all hold their breath for any sight of the monster. The Captain activates his Windwalker Boots, using them to fly up to the crow's nest and stand on the railing there.
He looks at the water around the ship, and his heart sinks at the silhouette he sees. Then it rises closer to the surface, allowing the sail fin to rise higher than the main deck, giving everyone a proper look at the monster.
A 50m -150ft- long swordfish, not counting the dangerously sharp nose. Armored with thick interlocking blue and grey scales that shimmer under the sun. It then slows, falling slightly behind the ship's pace, using that opportunity to lift its head out of the water.
Its massive eyeball is as wide as two men are tall, and the intensity of its gaze causes many on the ship to doubt their illicit profession. The eyeball shifts from the crew, to the sail, scrutinizes the symbol on it, then to The Captain, who stares back at it.
The massive eyeball glares at him, a look of recognition, and he instantly understands. "This thing is hunting us personally!"
The monster hears that and bucks wildly, splashing water and rocking the ship away from it. As the ship tilts back toward it, the monster swings its sharp nose to the side, slicing through the three masts as if they were air.
The Captain grabs his lookout as everyone below avoids the falling wood, sail, and rope. Descending to leave the men on the deck before throwing his spear at the monster.
The spear shines bright blue, accelerating in an instant, but by the time he spun and threw it, the monster had already sunk beneath the waves.
"Damn it," he flexes his right hand as the spear blasts through the ocean surface, disappearing beneath it. And it appears back in his grasp, bound to him by his Magic. "Someone check the cargo! It may be attracted to something in there, I don't care how much they're paying us not to open it, that shit doesn't matter if we're dead at sea!"
"Yes, Captain!" two of the men yell before descending below the deck.
"Repairs?"
"Ten minutes," a man and woman answer in unison. Both using their Wood Manipulation and Iron Make Magics to work on the masts.
"You'll have it. The storehouse is about twenty minutes away. If I can't kill this beast or we can't get it to leave, we may be able to make it there." The Captain ascends into the air once more, looking down to see the monster rise and bump into the ship, nearly flipping it over. "Blasted thing is bigger than the ship, some moron must have given us its eggs to transport…"
The man takes a deep breath and rushes headfirst into the water, swapping his shining blue spear for a translucent aquamarine spear.
He uses his Magic to break the water's surface, diving in and coming to a stop in the open ocean. There he sees his opponent in full, and it turns away from the ship for a moment to look at him.
It stops circling the ship, allowing it to float farther away, facing the man instead. 'It's leaving the ship at its back to face me? Strange…' he points his spear at the monster, moving it slightly to signal a challenge.
And the fins excitedly dance as it rockets through the water toward him.
'Too fast!' the man thinks, realizing how gentle it was being with his ship. But he uses the Magic of his boots to rocket through the water as well. They charge each other, but as he flows his Magic Energy into the spear, activating its Piercing Magic, the creature does the same.
Its massive nose dwarfs the man, but at the last moment, the creature tilts its head to the side, narrowly avoiding what he instantly realizes would have been the final strike. The man spins in the water, piercing the side of the sharp nose, barely scratching its armor.
Only to bump into its armored skull, feeling his ribs and left shoulder shatter on impact. He instinctively screams, and saltwater burns his throat and lungs for it. Forgetting everything else, he launches out of the water into the sky, gripping the spear in his one good hand while climbing higher.
As the ship sails farther away, he sees the monster circling below, its head raised above the water to stare at the challenger.
He barely has time to vomit up the remaining water before it then descends into the depths, disappearing in seconds.
Then he sees it, a growing, narrow silhouette, quickly rising to the surface. He grits his teeth and swaps the aquamarine spear for a red and black glowing spear, using adrenaline and willpower to throw it with everything he has into the ocean, meeting the monster's charge head-on.
It disappears into the ocean, directly toward the silhouette, and seconds later, he activates the Magic in it. The water for almost 20m -60ft-, instantly evaporates, releasing salt and steam in a large explosion.
The nose and head of the monster are caught in the blast, cracking the armor on it as the man retreats away from the ship. As the ocean reclaims the void, the man drops back into the waves and gets a proper look at the monster.
He sees the armor on its head and nose now cracked, but as expected, even its eyeballs have cracks running across them. As if there were an invisible layer of glass over them, the telltale sign of truly mastered defensive Magic.
He grits his teeth as the Heat Magic Spear reappears back into his one good arm. But he quickly swaps it back for his aquamarine spear. Then, without a moment of hesitation, he launches himself through the water at the monster.
It excitedly shakes its body and matches his vigor. They joust once more, and again the monster tilts its head, deciding not to spear the man in two with its nose.
However, this time, he properly shatters the weakened nose, continuing in a fluid spring and piercing the eyeball with the spear, releasing its full Magic in the same moment. The spear shines brightly and rockets through one eye and out the other.
But to his surprise and horror, instead of blood and gore, there is merely a gold shimmer as the entire monster disappears, causing the water to rush in to fill the gap and crash into the man.
The unexpected pain causes him to scream, and seconds later, he uses Teleportation Magic to appear on the deck, vomiting up saltwater.
"Captain!" Some of the crew rush over to him, ready to give aid. But the moment he catches his breath, the screaming spear returns to his hand. He uses it to force himself to stand, looking at them with a pale expression.
"Prepare for a fight. That thing was some kind of summoned monster." He swallows some painkillers that a younger man hands him. "Whoever sent it may be close. Who are the repairs?"
"The rudder was also broken," a middle-aged woman says. "We'll need more time for that one."
"Alright, then le—"
A cheerful and curious voice interrupts the man as one of the other men is already dressing his torn-up arm and shoulder.
"Hi there!" They all freeze, then slowly turn toward Oberon, who is hovering above them. In his grasp is a silver Celestial Spirit Gate Key, and with just a drop of his absurd Magic Energy, it glows brightly.
And their hearts sink as Dorado appears in the water beside the ship, fully healed and excited to explore the oceans again…
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]