I rolled to the left, dodging another water bullet while keeping the Sovereign in my sight. I rushed around the left side of the beast before hopping in the air to avoid a new attack.
'A water cannon?'
With its beak wide open, the Sea Sovereign fired a focused beam of water. It followed me no matter where I went. Sliding under an incoming projectile, I struggled to get to my feet.
'Is this the best I can do?'
The flames on my baselards surged, turning from red hot to a scorching white. The ice underneath me was melting and creating steam, it was to the point I couldn't see my hands.
The steam was white in color, most likely due to the unique properties in the ice. It was magical in a way. If I could use anything, right now, I'd kill for the ability to disappear.
'Damn, what do I… do?'
Staring at the steam concealing my hands and blades ignited an idea within my mind. If I could find big pieces of frozen debris, I could create a pseudo smokescreen to cover my tracks. This would allow me to make one good blow.
A killing blow would be preferred.
'Maybe killing was a bit much.' I chuckled at the thought.
Dodging an attack from one of the tentacles, I observed my surroundings. I would need to make it break the ice surrounding it to create the chunks I needed. I began to lead it in circles, dodging at the last second. I watched in satisfaction as it began to create plenty of broken pieces.
I had a near miss while moving positions again but I escaped by the skin of my teeth. Taking off, I took a glance behind me to see a tentacle coming for me again.
"Persistent little…!" I grunted out while dodging again. "I'm almost there."
Each dodge was a waste of energy but it would help me in the long run. I began counting the large pieces of ice chunks that were scattered around and the new ones being made due to my dodging.
'Once more and I'm set.' I couldn't help the smirk that made its way on my face. 'This was only possible due to Klina. Any other scenario would result in my death,'
If I made it through this, I might actually ask Klina to induct me into the Church of the Twins. I noticed another tentacle coming for me again, this time I didn't dodge. Swiping upward with my flaming baselard made the Sovereign scream in pain due to the loss of its limb.
"This is my one shot." I muttered.
I began to force memories that would make me rageful. I wanted to reach a point where I would melt anything within at least ten paces. I recalled my weakness when facing Kalio, my flames in the distance devouring my home, and anything that could fuel these flames.
'I can feel myself getting tired already!'
Converting emotions into Ikas requires actual energy from the body. I could tell it was working though. My white flames began to change color from white to purple and purple to green before stopping at black.
Once it reached the color black, everything around me began to steam. I didn't want just one area to be steamed though, I needed the steam to surround the Sovereign. As I began to circle the apex predator, steam followed behind me until I was back at where I first began.
Steam obscured my vision but I didn't stop running. I could hear the roars of the Sovereign which allowed me to keep track of its location. That roar reminded me of the noises that scared me as a child.
I wasn't certain where it came from, but for a second, I recalled the promise I made to Lorna. I recalled her white hair billowing in the wind as the sun caressed her pale skin. Her lips were upturned while she held on tightly to the white hat that matched her sundress. I remember being able to only gaze into her black orbs and thinking I would miss them.
'Promise to meet me there!'
I couldn't remember where but I know I agreed to it. A stray bullet of water caught whizzing past my face. My mind was brought back to the fight I was currently in. I don't have the strength nor intelligence to get lost in thought mid battle.
"This is gonna rely on luck…"
Breaking my focused sprint towards the area that would lead me face to face with my enemy, I leapt into the air. I was outside of the smokescreen and in the air now. I got lucky because the huge bastard had its back to me. Landing on its head, I didn't hesitate to lop off one of its ear tentacles before jumping in its field of vision.
"Looks like this is as far as I can go." I said. "I think I did pretty good."
I threw one of my flaming blades into its right eye before being swatted by a tentacle towards Hektore and the others. I could feel at least seven broken bones and possibly internal bleeding. I don't know if that's what the warm feeling was.
"I won't lie." Hektore said. "I was hoping you'd see how outclassed you were and give up the adventurer route."
With his back turned to me, I couldn't see what expression he was making. An aura of pure light surrounded his body before his greatsword began to grow in size. However, his attack was interrupted by the sound of something.
'Cracking glass?'
Before our very eyes, the Sovereign began to glow a bright blue. That blue light condensed into a human sized orb and then took the shape of a human. A female human. From her back protruded ten tentacles, all of them fully healed while her hair was charcoal black. She wore no clothes and the most distinguishing and disgusting part was the lack of clothes. It allowed her slimy body to be seen in all of its grotesque glory.
Her hair was the color of seaweed, yet it seemed like it was glowing. It was like her hair had that thing in the ocean that glowed. What was it called again? I didn't get the chance to ask because her hair began to glow brighter.
It seemed our leader knew what this was as he began to panic and turned to his older sister.
"Fuck! Klina, get your Bildschrim ready!" Hektore roared.
I could feel Fionna wrap her arms around me as the others got behind Klina and Hektore. An orange light surrounded us in the shape of a dome. An orb of water appeared above the now humanoid Sovereign's head. It grew until it was the size of a small house and then…
"What the fuck?!" I screamed in surprise.
The orb shot towards us at a speed I couldn't keep track of. It was stopped by the shield invocation Klina used but I could tell that it had barely blocked it. The cracks in the dome showed that another attack like that would break through.
Hektore rushed outside of the dome before becoming completely enveloped by a white light. His greatsword enlarged to be twice the size of the ship that was ten falks away from us. With a roar, he strained a bit before swinging it horizontally.
For a moment I was unsure of the attack. I wondered why he had done that if the enemy was still standing. Then she fell apart. Into actual pieces, she fell apart. I felt my jaw fall down as I watched on in awe.
"Well?" He asked while turning back to me while smirking. "How's that for a job well done?"
He walked past me, patting my shoulder as he did, and pointed towards the ship.
"Let's head on back and get the reward."
I watched as Klina lopped him on the head before she pointed towards the water filled hole where the remains of the Sea Sovereign had fallen. Her face was a mask of annoyance while her left hand grasped her scepter tightly.
"You still have to gather the remains, dumbass." Klina replied.
"Fuck!"
My awe disappeared while watching Hektore rush towards the gaping hole in the ice platform. I had almost forgotten that the man wielding such great power was, in fact, a dumbass.
I'll be sure to mark that down in a journal so I don't feed his ego more. I turned in Klina's direction to see that she didn't even look tired. Such a high amount of Ikas used and she barely even broke a sweat.
If the pattern we were going by were to be real, then that meant this entire party was filled with monsters. Powerful monsters in human form.
'Can I ever become that strong?'
I was too tired to even question whether I had the potential to be as great as that. I decided to just let Fionna carry me, regardless of the teasing that would ensue.