"Why don't we just turn around and wait out the storm?"
Ren paused. "That's… actually a good idea."
"We can't outrun it." Zuzu said as the waves began to churn violently around them.
Thorn looked up from where he was tying down the last crate. "We can't what now?"
"The storm. It's already here."
As if her words summoned it, the sea heaved with a roar.
"We can use the stone towers to protect against the waves!" Zuzu yelled over the loud sound.
A wall of wind and water slammed into the Lady Rill like a titan's slap. Rain burst from the sky in sheets, thick as curtains. Thunder cracked through the night like the sky had been split in two.
The lanterns went out.
Ren shouted. "Secure yourselves!"
Lilith crouched low beside him, blade already in hand, eyes narrowing at the horizon as if she could sense something in the storm.
Zuzu gripped the rail at the front, her hands wrapped in the water rope as she tried to control the currents.
The wind fought her. The sea surged with a will of its own.
"This isn't normal!" She yelled over the screaming wind. "This storm! It's wrong! It's like the sea doesn't want us here! As if something is controlling…"
She trailed off as they all saw it.
From within the thunderheads above, massive shapes writhed. Bladed fins sliced the clouds. Glittering scales caught flashes of lightning. Golden eyes gleamed like angry suns.
One green and luminous. Another black and coiled in smoke. A third, sapphire scaled and more than ten times the size of their boat. More joined the dance.
The dragons spun around each other in midair, lashing with tails and spewing gouts of wind and rain.
Their roars drowned out the thunder. Every crash of claw against claw sent shockwaves into the sea below.
"They're using the storm!" Zuzu shouted, eyes wide with awe and fear. "It's not just a fight! They're making it!"
The Lady Rill was tossed like a piece of paper across the waves.
"What the…" Thorn muttered and their head snapped up to see the dragons coming lower as they fought.
Then, a dragon dropped close to them. Too close.
Lilith moved before anyone else could react.
She didn't jump. She simply stepped off the deck into open air, rising on a spiral of soul energy as if the sea itself obeyed her.
The wind parted around her. Her cloak billowed behind her and throwing knives appeared between her fingers.
She collided with the dragon midair. Steel flashed. A spray of blood followed.
Zuzu stared, stunned.
Lilith danced across the sky like a phantom. Soul fire surged around her in lashes and blades.
She met each dragon that veered near with ruthlessness, driving them back, slashing wings, gouging scales.
Before long, she was already an active participant of the battle of dragons.
"Zuzu!" Ren yelled as a giant wave appeared before them. "Focus!"
She blinked, shaking herself, and threw both hands to the water. The currents stuttered but obeyed.
The Lady Rill dove between two stone towers, using it to shield themselves from the wave.
The Reaching Fingers stood tall around them as Zuzu grunted. She manipulated the rest of the wave, guiding it away from her boat.
Lightning struck at the peaks of some of the towers and water surged between them like a funnel of death.
Another dragon screamed from above.
Ren exhaled. Slowly. His body tensed.
And then he stepped off the boat.
The water below bent beneath him like an invisible platform. A ripple exploded outward from his feet. His body glowed faintly with soft violet light.
"Push." He whispered.
The sea pushed back against the power of his resonance. And he flew.
He soared upward, spiraling, dodging dragons as they flew around him.
He dipped his hand into his pouch and it exited with a blade in his hand. Freedom, gleaming in the rain.
He twisted midair, slashing through a dragon's wing membrane. Blood rained.
He laughed loudly as lightning flashed, silhouetting him against the sky.
"Come on, you big flying eels! Let's dance!"
One dragon twisted toward him. He twisted back, Freedom glowing white and descending like a fallen god.
Below them, Zuzu fought the sea around her with all she held, holding the boat steady. Around her, the sea frothed with dragon blood.
Lilith fought in silence. No shouts. No words. Only motion. Her knives moved like streaks of starlight, glowing blue with Soul Dominion as they sheared through flesh.
Ren zipped through the chaos, using Push to leap between the dragons and the sea below, never staying still.
He flipped over a snapping jaw, then launched himself upward, blade first, carving a line down a dragon's throat.
They fought as the storm raged around them.
The dragons fell from the sky as fiance and fiancee wreaked havoc. One glowed blue and the other, violet.
And below, the Lady Rill rocked and rolled between the Reaching Fingers.
Zuzu's body trembled, her face soaked with rain and sweat as she strained against the storm.
Before long, the sky was nearly empty.
All that was left was one lone dragon. Scarlet-scaled. Eyes glowing like twin suns.
It roared, streaking through the sky, away from the predators that now ruled it. Then, its eyes narrowed as it sighted the boat between the stones.
Then, it dove downwards.
"One more!" Ren shouted, Pushing against the storm above and angling toward it.
Lilith moved to intercept.
The dragon screamed as it passed through the tall stones.
Ren grinned widely as he descended through the stones.
He Push launched him against the stones and into the beast's side like a cannon.
Freedom sliced deep and blood exploded outward.
The dragon screamed as it crashed into one of the towers, breaking it and sending stone flying everywhere.
Then Lilith struck from above. A spike of soul energy drove down like a harpoon. The dragon flailed, roaring as it died.
There was a loud crash as the dragon's body met the sea. A second later, it was gone, swallowed by the water.
Ren caught Lilith in mid air, using Push to slow their fall.
She created a glowing disc of soul energy beneath them, and they hovered there for a breathless second as the storm began to die around them.
Below, the sea grew calm.
Dawn broke as Ren and Lilith descended. The disc dissolved as they stepped back onto the Lady Rill.
The skies cleared. Light broke through the clouds.
Zuzu collapsed first, dropping to her knees, gasping.
Elias sagged against the rail.
Thorn flopped backward with a groan. "I vote... no more weather."
Ren sat down heavily beside Zuzu, rain dripping from his hair. He looked around at the exhausted crew, then up at the clear sky.
"Not bad for our first night." He murmured.