Now, I had successfully lured its attention away from the ship and instead brought it to me. In exchange, I had helped it notice the little worms walking on its body.
’Great plan. Just great!’
The eyes glinted through the murkiness of the water, and I didn’t need to be told what was going to happen next.
Just as it fixated on me and glinted with that red light, something howled and tore across the water with impossible speed and power.
It was from behind me... and it was Kassie’s sword.
’This girl...’
Her greatsword tore forward with terrifying force and lunged straight at the creature’s head.
She grabbed me closer to her with one hand — her movement in the water was not slowed one bit, but it formed bubbles that streaked behind us. Then she smacked her legs against her demonic destrier, and Cindy picked up speed, hooves finding impossible purchase as she began running on the body of the eel itself.
As we ran, the eel was moving its body with furious speed, swirling in order to either bring us closer to its maw or intertwine us in the loop of its endless coils.
But Cindy was devastatingly fast. She tumbled forward, leaving scorched marks sizzling across the beast’s scales. It looked like we were racing against ground that was determined to pull us backward, the eel’s body rolling beneath us even as we sprinted across it — but at last we neared the surface of the water.
Just as we neared, we were also running out of flesh to run on, and at the end of the body was another needle-point tail.
My instincts in that moment sharpened, and my eyes narrowed.
’No way... it wouldn’t—’
Before I even completed the thought, the needle-point began to rip apart, revealing rows of grinding teeth. Before we got there though, Cindy suddenly leaped like a wild bull, exploding out of the water in a spray of white foam. Kassie grabbed me close to her.
As the destrier exploded out of the water, Kassie was already moving — she sprang off the horse with me like she had springs on her legs, using Cindy herself as a launching point, and in the process pushing her back into the churning sea.
But before she plunged back into it, I watched her vanish into sparks. Kassie rolled in the air.
I glanced around, my head working.
I didn’t know if Kassie had a landing plan. I for one knew she couldn’t fly, so there needed to be a way.
I lashed out the white chains and anchored them to the mast of the airship. Kassie immediately locked into the moment and pulled it as a swing, flying across the ship. She redirected momentum again, flipped in the air like a circus acrobat, and lunged even higher before landing at the very top of the mast, with me held to her side like a baby.
I shook my head in terror and awe.
’No rush... one day, one day...’
Kassie was so good. I wanted to be like her so much it had me tearing up. She was so damn good.
She studied the surface of the water, standing on the mast of the ship like its guardian goddess.
Everyone below stared up in commotion. Nisha folded her arms and watched with sharp interest. Tristan looked worried. Derry and Po were equally dazed.
The crew members’ eyes were glued to the top of the mast, their expressions ranging from disbelief to wonder. They were pointing fingers and touching each other’s shoulders as if celebrating the descent of a god.
"Focus. Summon your sword."
Her cold voice tore my attention from the ship and helped me frown at her.
"What? I can’t even hold it straight yet."
"Have you ever tried holding it without the weight bracelets?"
I paused as I wanted to reply.
"Actually, that’s true... I haven’t."
"Summon your sword." She said, unceremoniously, allowed a beat of silence to pass and added, "and stop clinging so tightly."
I belatedly released the tension of my grip around both my hands and legs that were shamefully curled around her.
"Ahem! When did you leave me? I had no idea, to be honest."
I gently found my footing on the wood of the mast. To my surprise, finding my balance was easy — I had felt light enough to manage not falling.
Sparks began to fly around my hand as soon as I extended it forward and willed the Frostfang sword into existence.
The sword appeared in my hand and I held my position, expecting its weight to tilt me down. Instead, it settled into me — heavy, as heavy as thirty kilograms — but it wasn’t something I couldn’t swing like in The Nave.
I stared in delight, raised the sword up and studied it with starlight in my eyes.
Kassie watched me for a moment and looked away, hiding the curl at the corner of her lips.
The water beneath us was churning.
I lowered the sword and stared at the water too.
"It’s really sad though... that my first enjoyable battle experience is going to be on uneven ground. Wait, scratch that — there’s no ground at all!" I complained, thought for a moment... and complained again. "And what is this spirit beast’s tier, like Apex? This is certainly nothing like we’ve battled before."
Kassie scoffed. The eel was already revealing its body, curling out of the water and curling back in, coiling all around the ship.
"I’m ready when you are..." Kassie said, looking at me with a smile I certainly did not like.
I looked at her incredulously and blinked.
"What, you’re not serious, right?"
The red light in her eyes got darker.
"You did say to me that you wanted to be able to lead us into battle, not stand behind. Well, it takes clumsy steps like this." She turned away from me, studied the water, and turned back. "Summoner, we do not have all the time in the world."
’I didn’t exactly say lead...’
***
Below the ship, Tristan, Derry, and Nisha were looking up. They looked like they had just seen the wildest thing of their lives, and words couldn’t even begin to describe their shock.
But then, it wasn’t like they expected any less from a supposed Calamity Tier Spirit.
Derry studied the mast with a cautionary frown.
"Lord Tristan, your summon would be able to take care of this, right? Why don’t you—"
Tristan touched Derry’s mountain of a shoulder and smiled coolly.
"It’s alright, Derry. Trust Cade. I trust him." He looked up with something between a desperate and proud smile on his face.
’Show them, Cade. Show them what Lira, Clara, and I saw. What the whole mercenary guild saw.’