Dawn crested over the horizon while Guard Captain Lisa was on an early patrol with Sorochin. The buildings were still in shadows while the sky gently lightened from yellow to blue. Most of the human activity at dawn would be by the docks as imports were rolled in and the fishers were either leaving or coming in.
Lisa took her time getting to the docks. From the barracks to the docks was about 20 minutes on horse at a casual pace. She had already handed out who was going to what part of the city the night before. Unfortunately, someone became sick so she had to cover the morning shift. She had planed to do her chores this morning. They were beginning to pile up since she spent most of her time at work.
Once Lisa was in view of the docks, she noticed some crates that gently floated a little higher than they were supposed to. Boats laid haphazardly against various structures far more inland than they should have. The docks were flooded? The two of them rushed to investigate. The bay had flooded so much, they were splashing in the water before they even reached the gates.
Lisa dismounted her horse first. She practically fell off it and almost slipped as she simultaneously rushed to put on her gloves. She got one on before a wave of water from the docks blasted her. Sorochin was caught off guard and wasn’t able to block it in time. The salt water burned her nose and Sorochin coughed some water out. Lisa’s other glove slipped out her hands and into the bay, lost forever. Hopefully she wouldn't need it, but using fire without her fireproof gloves would be dangerous.
There was definitely someone else here, and they must have an impressive control of their element. Lisa quickly stood up. “As Guard Captain Lisa, in the name of Queen Illa, I order you to stand down and surrender!” She shouted to the empty, flooded streets. What kind of water elementalist was able to flood the entire city’s docks? Sorochin took a wide stance in anticipation of an attack. They waited a moment. Only the gentle laps of the waves against the buildings were heard. Not even any workers from the docks came out. They must have escaped already, hopefully. Then came another strong wave.
Sorochin had prepared this time, and easily intercepted it. His arms made a wide sweeping motion in front of him, and a tall wall of water swept by the two of them. The incoming wave crashed against it and stopped in its tracks. Sprays of water splashed their faces. Once the wave pulled back, Sorochin made a circular motion from that same left hand, and the wall he created turned into an orb of rushing water, separate from the main body of water.
Lisa prepared herself by creating fire with her single gloved hand. It became apparent that whoever was responsible wasn't going to go down without a fight. Hopefully with the water she would be able to cool that hand if she needed to.
The two advanced past the gate to the docks. The further in they went, the more water they had to slosh through and the slower they moved. By the time they were where the docks were supposed to start, they were already up to their knees in water. It made movement difficult, and any fighting they had to do would have made Lisa a sitting duck. Sorochin was also hindered, but not as much due to him being in his element.
The docks themselves weren’t even visible. It was clear where the edges of the docks were supposed to start and end, but it was simply gone. Instead it was a mess of boats crashed against each other. Some toppled to their sides or completely turned over. Surrounding the boats, Lisa could see dead fish. And it sure smelled like dead fish as well. Usually the docks stunk but at the moment, it was infinitely worse. There were no human bodies, thankfully.. She did not want to deal with fishing out a dead body so early in the morning. What could have even caused this? She no longer thought this was a man-made event.
Lisa was about to bend down to inspect how much dead fish had washed up when she heard a rush of water and the area around her became shadowed. She looked up. A huge Water Elemental had risen up from the waters. It completely towered over the buildings in the immediate vicinity. Sorochin gasped and fell back, the orb of water he was concentrating on splashed back into the water. Lisa’s own face dropped as she watched a Water Elemental--no, the Master Water Elemental rise and rise and rise. A pure mass of water stared the both of them down with its single ruby orbed eye. The sun behind it made the water shine and sparkle, almost blinding her.
Lisa wasn’t backing down though, even if she had no way to call for backup. She could send Sorochin back to the guards, as she figured his water element would be useless against a Master Water Elemental of this size. Thankfully he proved her point almost immediately. He shot a scoop of water towards the creature while he was still down. The water didn’t do anything against it, and instead seemed to join up with the figure.
“Go get backup, now! Send earth and fire elementalists!” Lisa shouted, motioning for him to move away. Sorochin nodded and got up. Within a minute she heard a horse galloping away. She dared not turn her back towards the enemy. This Master Water Elemental was staring straight at her. As if it was waiting for her to do something. Should she try to attack it? She doubted that she could defeat it by herself, or even hold it back from entering the capital. She carefully stood up, not wanting to antagonize it.
The Master Water Elemental raised what could only be seen as some sort of arm, and a large wave came from the base of the creature. It was not aimed at her, but for boats, which caused them to go further in and knock down once again. Her foot slipped, and she fell into the bay.
Under the water, she saw a few more boats that had sunk or broke off, but also even more dead fish and sea animals. But these were the bones of long dead fish. No doubt from the fishermen throwing back bad and deformed catches after killing them. If the Master Elemental showed up here, perhaps something was wrong?
To come up for air, Lisa had to break through a layer of upturned boats and dead aquatic animals. She nearly gagged as the smell hit her nose in full force. Lisa managed to breathe through her mouth while she climbed back on to the wooden docks, at risk of swallowing the water, but even then she could still taste it. She held back her rising bile as she reoriented herself to an upwards position.
Once up, Lisa aimed for its ruby eye and hurled a few fire balls at the Master Water Elemental. She had to use both hands in quick succession for this. The fireballs collided with the ruby, and steam rose from the impact site. But that’s all it did. The creature didn’t stumble or collapse like she had hoped. it had certainly earned its name. The Master Water Elemental raised its hand again. Lisa grunted, and took on a wider stance to anchor herself so as to not be pulled under again.
A boat sped towards her with the new wave. She had no time to react and had to brunt the force of it against her shoulder. Lisa successfully halted the boat from throwing her off the docks again, but she already knew that was going to hurt once the fight was over.
An idea came to her to she use the boat to take cover while she created a larger fire ball in her gloved hand, and have her non-gloved hand to impart more fire and stabilize it. It took a few moments to charge but eventually it grew brighter, and hotter, to the point where it was beginning to change to a lighter color. That’s when she stood up and threw it at the Master Water Elemental.
The fire ball hit the eye with a loud boom. Vapor and steam rose from the impact, and the head seemed to shrink. This only made it angry, and it started wildly flailing around. The creature created wave after wave of water. Boats that had lined up against the cement of the docks all shook and careened. Some of them, from the force of the water, tumbled over each other to some nearby buildings. They crashed into the walls, breaking windows and created indents and chips all down the wall.
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Lisa threw a few more quick fire balls, but as the same as the first time, it barely did anything. She gritted her teeth, already out of breath. That one stronger fireball took a lot out of her and she didn't know how many of those she got in her. There was no defeating this thing by herself. Not fast anyways, and she needed it to be fast or else it could cause a lot of damage to the structures. She wasn’t even sure if the docks would hold under all of this activity. It was meant for heavy foot traffic and huge hauls of sea food, not elemental attacks.
Lisa tried to run back behind the gates to safety. If she could close the gates, she could continue to lob fireballs at it until help arrived, but she was yanked back into the bay by a wave. Lisa coughed and sputtered out the water that managed to get into her mouth and stood up. She watched as the creature scooped up some water with its water arms and tossed a ball of water underhanded style. It was directed right at her. The way the water ball was directed, it would crash through all those boats in front of her. The sheer force of it would cause them to break and no doubt impale her with its planks.
Lisa scrambled to get out of the way, and her first thought was to dive under a boat farthest from the water balls. It impacted the boat she had been at, where it exploded into tiny pieces of wood. Once the water calmed a bit, she gained a foothold on something underneath her, and began to create a large and hot fireball. This time around was difficult, as the Master Water Elemental seemed to learn and was rocking the boat with as many waves as it could muster. She couldn't let it burn and give away her position.
With excellent balance, Lisa managed to stay afoot and keep her flame alight. Once it was time she came out from behind the boat. She threw another extra hot fireball at the creature. More steam came from the head, and it twisted and turned, creating waves and splashes all around itself. Lisa took the chance to climb up on a boat, fully drenched and exhausted from keeping afloat. It threw another underhanded ball of water at Lisa. She hopped a few boats over and when she looked back, the one she was on had gone under. Quickly the space was filled with other boats.
Lisa looked back at the Master Water Elemental, and another water ball was already headed towards her way. She was not quick enough to dodge this one, and braced herself. The water came crashing down on her in a second and knocked her on her back. She was waterboarded once again as the sea water went up her nose and mouth.
The seat of the boat hit the arch of her back and she grunted in pain. Bubbles escaped her mouth. Her lungs tightened and struggled to survive under the mounting pressure of the water still forcing its way down with the momentum. The boat buckled and the amount of water that came in caused it to flood and start sinking. Lisa gasped for a breath as soon as she broke the surface, and rubbed the center of her back. Another area that was going to hurt in the morning.
Her muscles screamed and ached to stop moving, but she still managed to drag herself into the nearest boat. She tripped and tumbled onto the deck in the process, gasping for breath. The boat swayed in extremes and knocked her head around until her eyes rolled. She could feel heavy waves hitting the boat and it scraped one side of the docks. She needed to take cover so she could throw another heavy fire ball at it.
Lisa pushed herself up off the floor of the boat, wobbling a bit at the boat’s swaying and jumped off. She tumbled and scooted her back to a boat for cover as close as she could without worrying if it might hit her head. In a desperate hope the water wouldn’t cause her fire to burn her ungloved hand, she clapped the two hands together, as if she were praying. She took a deep breath to calm her heart, and slowly the hands came apart. In between the two hands was, at first, a small flame. It got hotter, and hotter, and the further her hands came away, the larger the fire grew until it collapsed into a ball
Still it grew brighter and larger until it was white and her hand about 2 feet apart. It was bigger than her head a this point. The largest fireball she had ever made. Lisa kept it at that distance, and focused her energy on making it hotter. She had personally never made her fire hotter than white, and if she did this right, it was supposed to turn a light blue. Her ungloved hand was beginning to hurt, the water long since evaporated from the heat, but she ignored it.
The boats had stopped rocking by now, and the water was finally beginning to calm. The Master Water Elemental must be looking for Lisa. She knew she had to work fast. Soon the flame had begun to turn blue. Lisa stood up, slowly, and turned towards the Master Water Elemental. As she did, she shifted her hands so they came together close to her, and were in a position ready to shove the fire ball towards it. At this point, the fire was a solid bright blue. Lisa inhaled deeply, took a step, and shoved the fireball.
It went straight to the middle of the head. The Master Water Elemental stumbled back and the ruby orb sunk into the body of water it was using. It turned and wiggled and writhed, dull and seemingly blinded. If it had a voice box, she assumed it would have been screaming. At this point she heard the jangle of the horse as the guards dismounted. Still closely watching the creature, she put her braided hair in a new bun, since the previous one was undone and clung to her face.
The guards ran in and stared in awe at the thrashing Master Water Elemental. “Aim for the head! And fires! The hotter the better. Puny little flames won't do anything,” Lisa said. She began creating another fireball for when the creature showed its head again. All around her, the guards prepared as well. They organized themselves by elements and lined up.
The creature slunk into the water at last. “Is it gone?” one of the guards asked. Murmurs of questions regarding it spread throughout the guards. They had just gotten here so they weren't aware of how clever it was.
“Wait,” Lisa simply replied. It was a few moments of silence before it came back up, faster, and closer to them this time. It brought both of its hands up, fists clenched, and slammed them into the water. A wave as large as a one story house came crashing upon them. The fires went out, and nearly everyone came tumbling down while half got swept into the bay. Lisa managed to hold on to a small wooden pillar still holding up the docks and climbed back up. She gasped and coughed out the water that rushed in her nose.
The creature brought its hands up to do the same maneuver before the guards had time to recover. Lisa threw a quick fire ball at its head, but the fists came down again before she could release a strong enough fire. She gripped the pillar as hard as she could as water rushed back into the bay. It took whatever strength she had left yet her grip still loosened. She was almost pulled in as well but the water calmed down.
It receded, taking a few screams with it. She pulled herself back on the docks once again, slower this time as her body seemed to finally give way, and looked out to the bay. Half of her guards that had been swept out were in the process of being sucked in a vortex in front of the Master Water Elemental. She looked behind her and there were only a few of the guards still standing on the docks, just beginning to stand up again.
Lisa went to help a few up and that’s when she noticed the ruby orb was out of the water. “On my command! Earthen canons!” She shouted, her voice hoarse between shouting and drinking saltwater. Her guards gathered their elements. The earth guards gathered up rocks in the shape of a compact and dense ball, and fires heated up the rocks to the point of wisps of fire escaping through the cracks.
Lisa created her own light blue fireball between the two hands as before. This time she noticed her left hand was beginning to blister and swell. Her injury from the last heated fireball coupled with this one was going to leave a nasty scar. She winced at the pain but continued on. “Ready! Aim!” The Master Water Elemental raised its fists for a third time. “Fire!”
At once, all of the earthen balls hurled towards the Master Water Element’s head, and followed closely behind each one was a fireball. The earthen balls sunk into the head of the creature, and when followed by the fire, a loud boom sounded as the two collided. It staggered the Master Water Elemental and it completely sunk back into the water. The guards waited in hushed anticipation. Some of them readied their elements again or made a heavy stance to anchor themselves, now used to the flooding techniques it used.
Slowly, a mound of water rose from the bay, and stood like that for a moment. It wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t attacking either. Then the ruby orb sunk into the bay and it began to move away. Slowly at first, and then picking up speed as it collected more water. Lisa looked down and the water that flooded the base of the docks was receding back into the bay. The Master Water Elemental continued back out of the bay, and didn’t show any signs of stopping or turning back to them.
The guards dropped their elements and began cheering. Lisa sighed a breath of relief and looked back at her ungloved hand. It was heavily blistered and peeling, with some parts even bubbling. Her entire hand was severely burned. The price of fire. She’ll have to see a healer later, and get some new fireproof gloves. “I’m going to alert Queen Illa and Lord Marshal Eris. You guys fish up the rest of the guards and head back, I’ll write a report later.”
“Understood, Guard Captain,” she heard from the group. Lisa got on her horse and headed towards the castle as quickly as she could. Lord Marshal Eris would need to hear about this immediately.