Raising the tides under his boat to keep it at a flat level, instead of having it bobbing up and down. Alec did so with the help of the ocean drum, which helped him in keeping his gaze at the flight of birds.

Guessing the trajectory of the one most ahead of its flock, he reached out to it with the help of his rope. Immediately having it tied to it as a noose, and pulling it back by it's beak. Using more ropes to bind it tightly when it got slammed on the boat, he got a close at this monstrous bird.

It's beak was long and flat with serrated protrusion, that looked like it was meant to first bite then rip. The wingspan of this creature was wide, while the plumage was pretty ragged. Injury marks that were similar to it's own talons, likely caused by others of it's own flock.

Unlike normal birds the bones of this massive bird were much more solid. Likely due to it's diet consisting of various fish monsters, causing a mutation to occur in them over time. As seen from their monstrous form, unbridled aggression, even towards each other, from the fight a few were having in the air.

Twisting the neck of the bird in the boat, Alec then shifted his feet to dodge a dive attack coming from one of the birds. That was followed by a couple more, which Alec was handle until more from the swarm joined.

To deal with them better he raised the height of the bow, by making the open jaw like portion of the boat's front even wider. He then fitted a merchanism that allow it to spin, then pulling the mast and attaching it there. Using the invisible force granted to him by his invocation, Alec then spun it in rapid speeds.

Many of the monstrous birds could not stop their trajectory, and get struck down by the force of the spinning mast. Though it did not generate any winds enough to pull the boat forward, Alec still moved the sail boat with the help of the tides.

Though he had to continuously switch the beads of the drum, which he thankfully had plenty of. Even if he were to get short of it, there were plenty of materials to be recycled for that purpose. Meanwhile the swarm of birds were being dealt by Alec in this manner, some that dodged the spinning mast pole were captured by his ropes. Which he then threw right into the sea.

As he carved through the flock in front, the one at back had started to come closer. To deal with this he then pulled out a white flag, that although slowed the pace of the ones in the back, enraged the monstrous birds in front even more.

With the next few hours being like this, the swarm not only kept ncreasing but also came from different directions. Causing Alec to finally drop the flag, and deal with the birds more defensively. In the midst he saw an island with high peaks from a distance, which he passed by as soon as possible.

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There the swarm of the monstrous birds was the highest, but on a positive note it only got less from there. Only the few stubborn ones following him, which he chose to capture and make his unwilling passanger. Using the Invocation of give and take, same as he had used on the jagged toothed fish monster.

Keeping the pace of the sail boat like this, Alec then avoided a number of monsters through the arrangement of the two sets of string-phones. Soon the ringing of danger did not sound, despite whichever direction he pointed at. Relieved at that, Alec then got ready to have a few hours of sleep.

Before doing that he looked at the number of bird like creatures, a couple of which had gotten asleep. Reaching close to those ones Alec then bind them with rope, and was about to throw them off board before noticing something scary. That the monstrous bird was not breathing, same went with all the ones that were asleep.

Getting justifiably spooked at that, Alec then checked to see if the other birds who were yet to fal asleep also died like this. In a few hours his conjecture was proved right, bringing him to reasons that he could think of.

First was that these monstrous birds died of resting too much, that seemed pretty far fetched even to him. The other one would bring serious trouble to him, as it meant that there was an influence which killed whoever slept. Trying to occupy himself as to not fall asleep, Alec even ate spicy food and occupied his mind with small tasks.

Each hour passing by like this made it more difficult for him to stay awake, likely caused by the entity which caused the death of the vicious birds earlier. Reaching his limit of being able to stay awake, Alec then changed the shape of the boat into the conical one. After which he went to his bed, only before sitting on he took out the dreamcatcher that Myr had given to him.

Tying the loose threads on the dreamcatcher he thought about the spire and the third floor. Where he did most of his physical training like sparring, swimming, and various exercises. In the midst of doing that he also lie down on the bed, buckling himself tight with the safety belt he drifted asleep.

****

The motions involved in sparring were completely familiar to Alec. Key to get good any fighting is to know how much area one occupies, and has a range of free movement in. Hitting someone is to forcibly occupy the space that someone is already in.

It may sound simple in concept, but to train your body and mind accordingly takes a lot of effort. This was the reason why he chose physical hand-to-hand combat than any weapon which he never had any training in prior. Mastering rope at the moment seemed enough for him.

Today his spar was going incredibly fierce, his improvement over the months in the spire was clearly visible. Each move his opponent made was fiercely countered by him, and his attacks were retaliated against as well.

Meanwhile his fight, right behind Alec was a sea horse monster, that resembled the mythological creature hippocampus. Using the landscape of this dream to conjure this fierce fight, where Alec's entire focus was taken up by his opponent. This was a common tactic this dream monster used, since most if not all battles of this intensity are life to death in the sea of storms.

Taking the opportunity of when Alec was knocked down, it then sprang forward intending to land the finishing blow to him. Only before it could do that, the sparring dummy kicked the sea-horse monster away. Looking in that direction Alec recalled where he actually was, untying the rope from his waist he then tied it to the dream invader.

The sea-horse creature began to struggle, but was tied down by the sparring dummy. This help was the reason why Alec chose this venue for his dream. It did not take a long time for the sea monster to stop it's struggling. With Alec having done what it sought to do to him.

In a few moments Alec was out of the dream and training ground, back to his bed holding the dreamcatcher in his hand. Releasing himself from the safety belts Alec then went to the deck of the ship. Where he changed the sail boat's shape, from this defensive to the regular one.

Sailing a bit further Alec then started to feel a little cold, so he chose to wore a blanket for more warmth. Looking above he saw something from a distance, this made Alec's mouth open in astonishment. Since there was black snow falling from , some of it landing on his boat there.