All of the fighting on the boats ceased when the tentacles appeared, a temporary ceasefire necessitated by the shock of the situation.
“Shipbreaker Kraken!” Someone screamed out and the fighting turned into the various mercenaries and pirates running to their own ships and doing various tasks or launching attacks and techniques at the tentacles. All of the attacks I saw bounced off of the skin of the tentacles and only served to enrage them.
“What’s a Shipbreaker Kraken??” I asked a nearby swabbie who was busy running around securing ropes on their cleats.
“It’s a massive tentacled monstrosity with the mouth of a bird that attacks ships from below, crushing them before eating everything inside. It’s at least a tier four demon beast!” He shouted as he quickly fastened the ropes nearby before moving on to the next ones down the ship.
The tentacles were crushing the wood of the ship as they tensed and tried to rip the ship in half. I charged the nearest tentacle to me slicing out with the sword of fire and water. The sword cut deep into the tentacle but was unable to penetrate far enough to do more than just cursory damage to the beast.
Jia, similarly to me, launched herself at the other tentacle currently hooked onto our boat and sliced clean into it with her sword. A massive icicle larger than her body exploded out from the wound dropping the surrounding temperature of the ship. A guttural roar came out from below the ships as the remaining tentacles retreated below the water, but not before tearing a chunk out of The Drowned Sorrow.
A few of the pirates and mercenaries fell overboard as the ships nearly capsized from the tentacles’ retreat. I held on to the side of the ship but when I noticed some of the pirates fall off I quickly dove down into the water after them.
I pierced the inky black exterior of the ocean and looked around. I nearly lost the breath I had been holding when I saw the sheer size of the monster before me.
A mass of writhing tentacles was all I could see from my location. The monstrous creature was easily the size of the city lord’s manor in Cheng Lian city if not larger. Forget a tier four demon beast, this monster must be at least a tier five monstrosity. I grabbed hold of the nearest pirate to me and hoisted them into my arms.
I was swimming toward the next pirate when another figure dove into the roil. Jia, sword held aside, swam toward the mass of tentacles just as two other figures dove into the water from the other side of the ships. Both captains of the ships engaged the beast, Jia assisting them as they swam through the maelstrom created by the movements of the massive tentacles.
I used my qi to help me swim and picked up as many of the pirates as I could find before making my way back onto the ship. Luckily the kraken had been holding both ships in place so they hadn’t sailed away while I was swimming. I deposited the men onto the deck of The Dread Moon’s Revenge and dove back into the water.
I joined in the fight against the kraken, barely dodging a tentacle flung in my direction. I swam to the middle of the roiling mass of tentacles and looked down into the maw of the beast. A massive break protruded from the beast’s body, greedily swallowing bodies of mercenaries and pirates alike. I could do nothing for them so I swallowed down the lump in my throat and did my best to distract the beast.
I cut each tentacle that came in reach and noticed that while I was in the water my sword of fire and water cut deeper than on the ship. I put the thought to the back of my mind and focused on dodging the attacks from the massive beast. I was quickly getting fatigued from being forced to supplement my breathing with my qi to survive in the frigid waters of the western ocean.
A slice of icy blue qi came from the left and slashed through another of the beast’s myriad tentacles. An attack by Jia, surely. To my right blasts of wind and water qi signaled the location of the two captains. The beast roared then, a horrific, sonorous, note that rattled my brain and darkness quickly overcame me and I lost consciousness.
When I came to, I was being sucked into the maw of the beast as it rose to meet me. As it opened its mouth, row after circular row of razor sharp teeth lined its gullet, spinning rapidly. I threw the sword of earth and wind into its mouth, trying to do any damage I could before propelling myself out of the beast’s path with my qi. I was running low on qi at this point and couldn’t afford to keep fighting, or maneuvering for that matter. Luckily the sword I had launched into its body was still causing havoc inside the beast causing it to thrash in the water.
Before long the sword dissipated marking that I was nearly out of qi.
Just as I was about to retreat back to the relative safety of the ship a gigantic palm of icy blue qi appeared out of nowhere and thrust down at the beast. It tried to block the blow with its tentacles but each tentacle that touched it was frozen and shattered. The last blocking tentacle was shattered and the beast howled as it was hit full on with the hand.
The Kraken froze, its entire body taking on an icy blue hue as it floated there in the water. It wasn’t dead, however, I could still feel the qi fluctuations emanating from its body. A small figure in the distance darted toward the beast, slicing out with its sword into the frozen exterior of the monster.
A cracking sound resounded through the water as an explosion of ice and water launched me backward. I watched as the figure disappeared within the beast. What was Jia doing?! I waited a few seconds in bated breath, trusting in my friend to make it out alive.
I was having trouble breathing, signaling the end to my qi reinforced dive when an explosion of flesh and water blew out of the back of the monster. The frozen body of the Shipbreaker Kraken quickly dissipated the ice qi coating its exterior, and when the body was thawed in seconds, it limply floated in the water, dead.
I needed to get back on the ship and on my way out, I noticed two figures still fighting in the water below the ships. It was the two captains, now engaged again in their battle again. I climbed back onto the ship, gasping for air from my exertions in the water.
Shimmer padded over and licked my face. I cultivated as quickly as I could greedily drinking in the surrounding water and wind qi.
Soon after my return, Jia climbed back onto the ship, looking tired, but not nearly as out of breath as I was. In her hand she was holding an orb a little larger than the palm of her hand, a deep dark blue iridescent color shining within.
Just then, the two captains shot out of the water between the ships, each returning to their own ship. The Kraken had finally let go of the vessels and they returned to their courses, slowly diverging from one another. The Drowned Sorrow was in a sorry state after all of the damage from the writhing of the kraken and the Dread Moon’s Revenge was doing no better.
“You’ve won this round Zhao!” Azure Monkey yelled from his position on his ship.
“I can no longer afford to fight you with the state my ship is in. We’ll leave the boy for now, but he shant make it to Lu Bian city alive. The Zodiac mercenaries never fail a contract!” He yelled before commanding his ship be taken back the direction they had come from.
With the immediate threat now out of the way, the captain took control back over the ship, righted our course and began barking out orders to the various crew members. Within minutes the ship was back to sailing in our original heading and being repaired by the abilities of the crew. I laid on the deck, still being soaked by the rain being whipped around from the storm and Jia sat down next to me.
“So that… was your new… technique.” I said between labored breaths. Jia nodded.
“I think it was much more powerful due to the abundance of wind and water qi in the area. It shouldn’t have been able to freeze a tier five demon beast so easily.” She said.
“How’d you manage… to kill that thing… anyways?” I asked her.
“It was already significantly hurt from the attacks of the two captains and I. Seeing your sword fly into its mouth gave me an idea. I froze it with my new technique and cut my way into its body, finding the demon core and ripping it out, killing it immediately. Normally it has its qi suffusing its flesh the closer to the core you go making it impossible to just rip it out, but it was fatigued from the fight with the captains.” She explained.
I nodded and got up from the deck, making my way down into the lower deck. The bustling pirates made way for me as I traveled to our room. I stopped by steward Xiang and Kai’s room to make sure they were okay and when I reached Jia and I’s room I fell onto the bed and went to sleep immediately, Shimmer snuggling into me.
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I must have slept through the night because when I woke up, the sounds of the storm outside were replaced by the faint call of gulls and the lapping of the waves on the hull of the ship.
I woke up and stretched in bed, waking Shimmer up much to her distaste. I made my way up to the galley to get breakfast where I met steward Xiang and Kai having breakfast. Jia was nowhere to be seen, probably already up and on the deck of the ship, cultivating.
“Good morning Xiang, Kai.” I told the pair. They returned my salutation and I grabbed my food and joined them in eating. It was standard fare for riding on a ship but it was filling and would keep you going until dinner. I was so hungry from the night before that you could practically hear the rumbling of my stomach from across the ship. I scarfed down my food and left the pair still eating in the galley as I looked for Jia.
I walked onto the deck and was forced to close my eyes as a brisk breeze buffeted my face and the bright light of the sun assaulted my eyes. The salty air of the sea flooded my nostrils and refreshed me.
“Ahoy, Captain Zhao!” I said to the gruff man currently manning the ship’s steering wheel.
“Aye lass, good mornin’!” He shouted down to me in his boisterous piratey way.
I spotted Jia sitting on one of the railings surrounding the ship’s sides, spinning a large snowflake in her hand.
“Good morning Jia!” I told her. She smiled at me.
“Good morning Astra, how did you sleep?” She asked.
I stretched until my arms and legs shook from reaching their limits.
“I slept great! How did you sleep? What happened after I went to bed last night?” I asked.
She got a pensive look on her face as she considered my question.
“The mercenaries escaped and the pirates fixed up the ship, we had a small funeral for the pirates who died during the fights. The storm lasted through the night, I think. I went to bed after ensuring the mercenaries wouldn’t be coming back. I woke up a bit before you did this morning.” She said as she manipulated the snowflake.
“Whatcha doing with that snowflake?” I asked her.
“I’m practicing my qi control. The only reason I’m as proficient with my hail of ice and abjuration icicles is because I’ve been diligent about practicing my qi control.” She said.
“How do you practice your qi control exactly?” I asked, cocking my head.
“You practice using your qi first on a small scale, because that’s the easiest, but then you practice on a larger and larger scale until you can control your qi just as easily as on the smaller scale.” She said. That didn’t make much sense to me.
“What would I do to practice my qi control?” I asked her. She got a pensive look on her face again as she thought.
“Can you make your swords larger and smaller?” She asked.
I thought about that question for a moment, could I? I had never tried to alter their sizes.
I focused inwardly and coalesced my qi into the familiar forms of the three swords, but as I brought the qi together I tried to gather more and more qi and will the swords to be larger. The draw on my qi was enormous compared to my normal method but I felt a popping sensation and opened my eyes.
Surrounding me were three enormous greatswords, one coated in red and blue qi, one with green and brown qi, and the last with yellow and gray qi. I tried to move the swords like I had with my normal sized swords, but was unable to move them easily. My control over the greatswords felt weak and trying to coerce them with my will to move was difficult.
It became too difficult to maintain the swords’ forms and try to move them so I dissipated all but one of the swords. I gripped it with both of my hands and felt the power of the sword augment my physical abilities. I felt stronger than holding my normal swords, but I also felt slower and more sluggish. I told Jia my thoughts and she suggested creating small daggers with my ability instead of larger swords.
I dissipated the final greatsword and followed her advice. I created three small daggers using my qi. It was much easier than creating the greatswords and they appeared almost immediately after I plied my qi toward the technique. Three small daggers, mirroring the swords I had created in the past hovered above my open hand. I sent a mental command to the dagger of fire and water and it flew off faster than I had expected, nearly killing one of the swabbies cleaning the deck.
I diverted the dagger from its path and grabbed a hold of two of the daggers in a grip I had read about in a book, one held normally and one in a reverse grip. As opposed to the greatswords that made me feel stronger and slower, the daggers had the opposite effect. I dashed around the deck of the ship feeling as light as a feather as I performed acts of acrobatics I would have found difficult without tapping into my body cultivation.
“Wow, I feel so much faster!” I told Jia as I jumped and ran around the deck.
“Stop yer jumpin’ and runnin’ girl! Yer makin me dizzy!” The captain shouted from his position above the deck. Now properly chastised, I made my way back over to Jia.
“So It’s much harder for me to control the swords when they’re turned into daggers or greatswords. I guess I need to work on my control too! Let’s work on it together!” I told her, happy I would get to spend some quality time practicing with my friend.
We spent the next week and a half on the ship training our qi control and sparring with each other. She moderated her qi to bring herself down to the same level as me as we sparred and we were a mostly even match. I trained making qi swords of all sizes, but the only ones I was able to make were the daggers, the greatswords, and the normal swords.
We were harried over the time of the remaining trip by various flying and aquatic demon beasts but Jia and I handled them while practicing. All in all the training we did helped me improve my control over the swords immensely. I could now swing the greatswords, if only a few times. Additionally, my power and technique while using the daggers increased by leaps and bounds. Jia and I were engaged in another spar when we heard the call from the lookout.
“Land ho! I can spot the western continent from here captain!” The lookout shouted.
“Right! We’re on the last leg of our journey, lads, let’s not get complacent!” the captain responded.
Jia and I ended our spar and ran up to the bow of the ship, peering out over the endless ocean in front of us. I thought that if I squinted my eyes I could see something in the distance, but a few minutes later I was finally able to see what the lookout saw.
A large piece of land was approaching us from the westernly direction. We had finally made it to the western continent. When we were only a few minutes out from the coastal waters of the approaching city I could start to make out the individual facets of the city. It was similar to Dangsu city in that what I could see was primarily the dockyard district.
The main difference between Dangsu city and the approaching city, Wongye, was the size of the buildings. Whereas Dongsu mirrored Cheng Lian with primarily one and two story buildings with the tiered structures of a few larger buildings, Wongye was populated by many more buildings that reminded me of the technology I grew up reading about from the Beltigo corporation brochures.
I had thought that Dou Can was a traditional cultivation world, but the rectangular, flat faced buildings made out of steel and glass seemed out of place within the world around them. The city itself had many of these types of buildings mixed in with the structures I was more familiar with from cities on the eastern continent.
As we approached closer, the familiar sights of electronic billboards and advertisements shone on the sides of the alien structures, enticing the populace to their products. An ad came on, and while I couldn’t hear the ad I could see it clearly.
It showed someone in cultivator clothes walking into one of the flat faced, sleek, metallic buildings. Inside they were treated to a litany of tests and at the end were handed a tablet that listed out their cultivation information. It reminded me of the tests to get into the Blooming Violet sect. At the end of the ad, words appeared on the screen.
“Unlock your hidden potential at Beltigo HQ” it read.
“What do you think they mean by ‘hidden potential’?” I asked Jia.
She thought for a few moments before answering.
“Perhaps they’re talking about something we’ve never heard of? I can’t think of anything about myself that would be hidden.” She said. I thought about it too.
“Maybe I have some hidden superpower like those heroes in the stories I’ve read! And the Beltigo corporation can help me unlock it!” I said. Jia looked at me askance.
“Astra, are you sure you can trust this Beltigo corporation? What if these tests they perform are dangerous?” She asked.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” I asked her.
“What if the tests are a way to steal or seal your cultivation and make you powerless?” She asked. I thought about that for a moment.
“I don’t think the ad said anything about stealing or sealing cultivation, so I think we’ll be okay!” I told her. She shook her head with a resigned look on her face.
By this time we were approaching the port and the familiar smells of the ocean were slowly being replaced by the smells of a dockyard. Flocks of gulls of various varieties flew or perched on the decks of harboring ships. A bell chimed in the distance, though I couldn’t tell what it was indicating.
Some of the ships were traditional ships docked in the harbor were like the Dread Moon’s Revenge, but others looked to be more sleek and made of metal. Ships that reminded me more of the transport ship that brought me to Dou Can than a traditional seafaring vessel.
I guess it made sense. If the Beltigo corporation had a hand in helping this city grow to be what it was today, it made sense that they would have some familiar sights waiting for me in the city.
We moored The Dread Moon’s Revenge to the docks, paid the fee for them to moor the ship there for a month and bid farewell to the captain after paying him generously for all of the help and safe travels to the western continent. As a group we stepped down the gangplank and went out to explore Wongye city.