After spending several minutes making a plan, he felt confident that he had a decent chance. The floating crystal in the center of the city gave plenty of light that he was confident that their wouldn't be any additional nasty surprises and he felt the domed buildings and sporadic giant kelp would give him some spots to break line of sight. With as much of a plan in place as he could think of, he gave Elizabeth another nod to let her know he was ready.
Gathering his internal energy, he activated [Bishop] and sent his summoned otter swimming ahead of him as the three of them fully left the kelp forest and entered the city proper. One of the Dragon Pikes spotted them and alerted the others using assumingly the same mental communication that Elizabeth was using though Gi couldn't hear them at this distance. As one the rest of the Pikes turned and shot towards them while the underwater dragon spun in place its body lithe and curling like a snake. It flared the dozens of fins along its side to call itself to a stop and watched.
Elizabeth kicked forward and outpaced Gi and his summon then shot to the side to give him some space. Her body pulsed and a sphere around her chilled, tinting the water a sharp white. At the same time, two shards of ice extended from her hands forming blades. Two quick slashes of those blades sent mini icebergs streaming towards the school of Pikes charging towards her. Elizabeth didn't slow to wait for them to hit instead she froze the water beneath her feet solid and used the instant it froze as a launching pad to hurl herself into the midst of the Pikes.
The icebergs she'd made formed a natural barrier that split the group, funneling a third of them directly within reach of her blades. Each slash bisected at least one of the Pikes as she pushed herself all the way through in a storm of viscera and scales. A wild laugh echoed through Gi's mind as Elizabeth tore into them like a mad monster, her usual stony facade completely broken.
The Pike leader wasn't content to wait for its followers to all be destroyed. Its mouth opened wide, revealing several rows of jagged teeth, and it bellowed a cry that drowned out Elizabeth's mad laughter. With its roar, a sheet of impenetrable darkness descended on the mass of Dragon Pikes. From the way that the Pikes darted in and out of it, it appeared as though they had no trouble seeing through it.
A stone slapped against the dragon's soft belly. The dragon flinched backwards with a growl of pain before snapping the offending otter in its jaws. Confusion stopped the monster as the expected shower of blood against its lips turned to a pathetic wisp of energy.
Before it could figure out what went wrong, Gi swam down from behind a giant kelp above its head. A heavy charge of [Divine Bolt] fought against his palm and he released it just as he slapped it against the leader's eye. A torrent of beams of light released from his palm and embedded themselves like needles in the giant creature's eye.
The dragon convulsed, its front paw scratching at its eye to remove the shards of light that had embedded themselves in it. As small as they were, the energy inside them had them drift apart into motes of energy before the dragon had even completed its movement.
Blood formed a cloud that leaked out of its now closed eye. Whether he'd done enough damage to permanently injure it or not, the dragon wouldn't be using that eye in this combat. Gi ducked behind one of the smaller decorative kelp that flanked one of the buildings trying to catch his breath as the dragon spun about with its good eye.
The biggest problem that he was having was the he couldn't use two skills at the same time. He could use [Celerity] or [Concealing Light] to close but not both. [Bishop] took a decent amount of internal energy, but its biggest drawback was the time it took to be usable again. He still had another solid minute. In between all that, he had to cycle [Merfolk's Blessing] for air. It was a tough balance.
Thankfully, he hadn't planned on the first blow to be the one that took it out.
Since he couldn't see him, the dragon turned towards the fight that was wrapped in darkness. Elizabeth would probably murder this beast easily and Gi couldn't let her take the kill. He darted back out into the open and shot a burst of [Divine Light] at the dragon. Amazingly, one of the bolts actually scraped along its arm doing some small amount of damage. Even better, it got its attention.
Gi kicked hard, swimming for a gap in between two buildings as fast he could, but the dragon had other plans. It inhaled, sucking in as much water as it could before releasing it in a torrent. Gi couldn't dodge the sudden current of water and it slammed his back into one of the domed buildings. The blow caused him to attempt to suck in a breath but all that achieved was him to choke on water. He switched to [Merfolk's Blessing] which thankfully turned the lung full of water into something beneficial.
As he fixed that problem, the impact of the torrent of water sent him sliding along the curve of the building he'd smacked into. The dragon had charged at the same time, using its new current to shoot towards him. Gi's paw found a divot in the domed structure and he kicked off at an angle. He activated [Celerity] at the same time, but the dragon was too fast.
Even straining [Celerity] for all the speed he could muster, the dragon still slashed him with its claw, leaving a gash along his leg. It curved, spinning its head around to bite and Gi charged up his [Divine Bolt]. Just as it turned in to bite, Gi released another buckshot of light at its face, but he couldn't let it close enough to do any real damage. It did arrest its momentum though.
Flicking on [Concealing Light], Gi tried to get some distance between them so he could hide and recover. It worked, but only for a second as Gi's leg wound was leaving a trail of blood behind him that even if some of it was concealed left a pretty obvious sign of his passage.
Gi switched to [Celerity] and was able to get just enough space to arc around one of the buildings and angled past one of the kelp trees. The dragon shot around the building and hit the kelp. At its speed, it immediately wrapped around the dragon, pinning its wings and arms to its side.
Gi couldn't let that moment drop. He charged up [Divine Bolt] again, but this time, he swam around its thrashing head to its still closed eye. Instead of opening his entire palm to release, he planted his finger directly against its eye socket.
Without the space for the light to diffuse, a beam the size of a log exploded out of his finger in a torrent of blood. Its wounded eye was crushed as pale flesh squirted out of its eye socket and the beam pushed into its snout pinning it closed.
The dragon keened and bucked wildly. Its claws tore the kelp to shreds as it flung its body about. Despite the damage Gi had done and the solid light still sticking out of its eye, the dragon was very much still alive. Its remaining bloodshot eye turned and locked onto him.
Gi fled. His internal energy was starting to get sparse, but he scooped out as many of the dregs as he could and pushed [Celerity] until his spirit felt the strain of it. His eyes darted about looking for some way out of his predicament. If he could manage to trap the dragon in the kelp again like he'd planned, he could take him out. In fact if he didn't have his leg wound, that would still be the best plan.
He just wasn't fast enough to risk it without [Concealing Light] and between his bloody leg and internal energy, that wouldn't work. He just needed one more charged shot of [Divine Bolt] and he was confident that would finish it off. But how to get that time?
The dragon roared through clenched teeth, ripping open its own snout so it could launch another torrent of water at him. Panicking, Gi's gaze fell onto the only thing that might give him a chance.
Please, Danna, lend me your strength. If Danna heard his prayer, she didn't respond with any images this time. Gi didn't have any time to consider that though as he raced directly towards the darkness. The dragon's water hit him just on the edge and he plunged into the artificial darkness.
Teeth grabbed his ruined arm, but tucked in as it was to his robe, it didn't cause any more damage than pain. The attack arrested some of his momentum as he crashed into the lakebed, but learning from last time, he switched over to [Merfolk's Blessing] as the air pushed out of his lungs and he gulped back in a lungful of water.
After that bare instant, he switched over to [Divine Bolt] and started charging it, but there was one key flaw in his plan. He couldn't fucking see.
Panicking, he pointed his finger out into the darkness, wondering how the hell he was supposed to aim. The sounds of combat were all around him in the darkness. Elizabeth's icy blades cutting through Pikes and the Pikes growling in anger or pain. Mental shrieks and cries felt overwhelming as he tried to figure out where to shoot.
The force of the water kept him pinned to the lake bed and he realized that was his answer. It would be using the new current to charge him. Hoping it didn't change its plan, Gi waited a second longer for [Divine Bolt] to reach its max potential and then he released.
A thick bar of light burst into being at the tip of his finger. The energy of the darkness didn't disperse, but his light also couldn't be distinguished by some passively held skill of another. The darkness constrained the light preventing it from diffusing in the water and giving it a direct path to the charging dragon.
His beam slammed into something before the darkness completely vanished, revealing his bolt of light pierced through the roof of the dragon's open mouth and into its skull.
The force of the blow sent the dragon's jaw backflipping away from him and its body smashed into him from the strength of the current. Gi swore something cracked in his back as it slammed into the bricked stone floor of the city. Still, the dragon was dead.
Dragon Pike Progenitor defeated!
1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs: 9.
Leader of an Encampment defeated!
Through slaughter, you've cleaved another's path from the looms of fate. Its broken followers now hunt you for their shattered potential, but that potential is now your own.
Gi had just a moment to wonder what that meant when more prompts were cut off as the Dragon Pike Progenitor's body turned into a swirling ocean of silver water and enveloped him. The quicksilver liquid absorbed through his mouth, eyes, and every pore on his skin. The deluge filled his muscles and bones before spilling over to his blood and then into his lungs. He couldn't move and he couldn't breathe.
Danna, help me...