Laurel was in the midst of morning cultivation training when she felt something tug at her senses. Something big. And way too close. The sect had added a dozen new members over the last few weeks, a mix of university students without other prospects and friends Leander and Rebecca had convinced to join. As Laurel was still stubbornly insisting on outdoor cultivation practice, no matter the weather, she launched herself into the sky. Her spiritual perception was always partially spread out over the whole of the City Core’s territory, thanks to her connection with it, even as muddied as everything was by all the lead. Now she narrowed that focus in the direction she had felt the disturbance from and pushed as far beyond the boundaries as she could.
“Get inside and stay there!” she shouted down to her students, before using the wind to fly towards the harbor. She pulled two crystals out of her tattoo midair and activated the first. “Beast attack imminent, harbor,” she said. She quickly activated the second crystal and repeated the message, but tacked on a “keep everyone in the sect house.” The first crystal was linked to a collection of others held by the king and his council, the second was her direct line to Adam and Annette.
Controlled chaos reigned inside the fort as Laurel dropped directly into the main yard. General Mansfeln approached, not bothering with smalltalk or niceties. “Ridge is already on the way to the airfield to get the fliers mobilized. Any word on what we’re facing?”
“It's coming in from the open ocean, and it's big. I won’t know anything for certain until we spot it, but my best guess is some species of leviathan.” He turned to bark some orders about artillery updating angles to provide cover for the city.
“I’m going to get over there and keep it from making landfall, but if you have any way to communicate with your battleships, tell them to keep some distance. That thing is bigger than them and if they capsize, I’ll need to prioritize protecting the city.” The man’s face turned to stone but he agreed and strode off.
Another leap, and she returned to the air, speeding out over the harbor. She was just in time to see a fin breaking the surface of the waves more than half a dozen kilometers offshore. It was a clear day, but anything big enough to be spotted that far out was bad news for the city. A pit formed in her stomach as she flew closer. The beast’s cultivation was at the master level, and they weren’t prepared.
Battling too close to the harbor would be just as deadly as allowing it to make landfall, so she flexed her will and channeled the air currents to bring her towards the beast. As she soared closer to the dense mass of mana, she couldn’t help but let a vicious smile spread across her face. She hadn’t had a real fight since waking up in that cave.
The whir of engines announced the army’s pilot corps was joining her in the battle. If the creature was armored their guns might not do much, but if nothing else, they could be a distraction as Laurel prepared larger techniques.
When she was a few hundred meters in front of the beast she gathered ambient mana, condensed it into a spike and flung it directly at the creature’s head. She then dodged to the side just in time to avoid the beast’s maw as it breached the surface. The head alone was the size of a respectable fishing vessel, and Laurel could have stood comfortably in its eye socket. A thick neck covered in dark scales snaked down to a body that could have rivaled the sect house for bulk, connected to short but powerful arms and legs, webbed and topped with vicious claws. The monster reared back and let loose a roar that was as much spiritual pressure as physical noise.
She formed another spike of mana to get the creature to focus on her and hopefully lure it further from shore. As she dodged deceptively-quick jaws, she saw the pale coral armoring the back and chest. “Coral Leviathan” she said into the crystal she had looped onto a necklace. “Extreme defense. Tough. Mean.” There was no more time to send information as the fight began in earnest.
Laurel sent concentrated blasts of air and lightning at the creature, carving off chunks of coral that splashed into the ocean. The waves from the thrashing beast would have been enough to swamp every ship in port without the breakwaters. They had to keep the beast out here in its element. A squad of pilots made a strafing run. Their machine-gun fire had no effect, but one enterprising pilot had thought to toss a grenade as well. It did little enough damage, but was irritating enough to get the leviathan’s attention. With no warning, a jet of superheated water was launched from its mouth towards the pilot. The man leapt from the plane before it was melted into slag and dropped into the ocean.
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Laurel caught him with an air current before he hit the death sentence that the sea had become. She tossed him into the second seat of another passing plane, grimacing at the burns on the man’s leg, deep enough to expose bone.
The beast was cunning. It realized the tactic had been effective and started launching more of the water jets. Laurel was able to deflect them with blasts of wind or overwhelming amounts of mana. She also had the maneuverability to dodge. The rest of the fliers were not so capable. Two more planes were hit before she could deflect the water. One of the pilots was able to escape. She bailed out of the side a moment before her plane was destroyed and another plane caught her before she hit the water. The second pilot didn’t make it out.
“Sorry Laurel, we’re pulling back.” Ridge’s voice said as the planes gained altitude. The beast continued to shoot water jets at the annoyances, but the distance kept them out of too much danger. The distance also meant they were now useless in the fight. The guns did even less damage than before. A few more grenades were thrown at the beast. Only one hit the monster on the back. The coral shielding absorbed the resulting explosion.
One of the planes dove back into range of the leviathan. Laurel had enough time to realize Trip was the pilot before he tossed something and flew back up. He pulled his plane into a tight spiral avoiding another of the monster’s attacks. Then his explosion hit at the seam of the foreleg and torso. Instead of the same ineffectual blast, this ripped into the beast’s flesh. The explosion was powered and enforced by mana. Blood gushed from he wound into the water. Taking the opportunity, Laurel sent a blast of lightning towards the same spot. The scent of charred meat mixed with blood and sea air.
Heartened at Trip’s success, a few more pilots dipped lower to try and land an explosion. The spirit beast thrashed, clawing at the small planes. Laurel was once more forced to frantically defend. When she could spare a moment from keeping the mortals safe she threw another spike of mana to keep the beast off-kilter. But this left her unable to counterattack with a strong enough technique to make a decisive blow.
Enormous spikes of ice pierced through the thinner scales on one of the monster’s fins. A spiritual presence Laurel hadn’t expected to ever feel again was unveiled. The shock would have been enough to distract her from the fight if it wasn’t also achingly familiar, and entirely in line with the drama the man cultivated like mana.
The beast launched jet after jet of water, each of which was met with an ice shield to spend its energy on or a wave to divert it.
“You’re late!” Laurel shouted and let out a genuine laugh, despite the circumstances.
“You picked somewhere far away!” drifted back. “Let’s end this”.
Laurel’s smile turned savage. She might be a sectmaster now, focused on teaching and nurturing, but before any of that she had been the Stormblade, and entire armies would surrender before facing her. A line of air thirty meters long hardened down to a razor's edge. She layered in lightning, frozen within the air, and as much mana as she could control at once. The blade whipped forward, imbued with all of her willpower and understanding. The rage of a storm and the cutting intent of a blademaster.
*********
Ridge, now circling above the monster’s reach, couldn't understand what he just saw. A giant glowing blade had appeared and shot out towards the monster. Deafening thunder followed in its wake. His view was temporarily obscured by an explosion of coral, viscera, and steam fountaining into the air.
When he could see the battle again it was just in time to see the severed head of the beast splashing down and slowly sinking beneath the waves. The rest of the corpse was buoyant enough that it remained floating on the surface, leaking blood and other fluids into the sea, staining the dark waters a murky red. The comm stones were silent as two individuals calmly looked at the beast, one floating midair and the other standing on water.
Ridge startled out of his daze when the crystal Laurel had given him began to glow.
“I think we got it, General,” her voice came out of the personal crystal and echoed across the squadron’s comm stones. “Martin and I will dig out the core and see if we can get the thing to sink so we don’t have to smell it for the next few months. You all are probably okay to go back in. No other spirit beasts would have hung around that thing. Tell anyone that got hurt I’ll stop by and see if there’s anything we can do. Injuries from mana infused attacks are trickier than mortal ones.”
The last few months had been one earth-shaking revelation after another for the general. He had always been aware of magic, having met the love of his life while investigating accusations of witchcraft years ago. Being told the nature of magic was fundamentally changing had been a surprise, but one he thought he handled well. Then having an ancient sorceress set up a school-guild-something inside his city and make prophetic predictions about the world order coming under upheaval? Sure, he’d taken the whole thing in stride. Seeing that same woman calmly cut a monster bigger than most buildings in half with what boiled down to extreme willpower? Apparently that was his limit.
“Alright boys,” he said across the comm, keeping his tone as even as possible, “nothing more for us to do here, pack it in.” The squadron wheeled off back towards the air field, all of them trying to contemplate what the fuck just happened.