“See, I told you I’m a genius shipwright! The boat floats!”

With the amount of wood they had used Tormacc doubted it was ever in danger of sinking even if it was porous. Still, it was nice to know that it seemed seaworthy, or at least no water was coming in. It would be one less thing for him to deal with while piloting the thing, something which he suspected would have a rather steep learning curve.

“Hop in then and let’s get going,” Tormacc said to Lysander, the excited young man still gushing over his craftsmanship.

“So how are you going to steer this thing?” Lysander asked once they were both onboard.

“Just watch.”

Tormacc wasn’t really sure himself, but he couldn’t say that, so instead he turned on his water form and felt for the connection to the sea below. It was faint, so he ended up sitting in the stern with his hand stuck over the back, a thick strand of water connecting him to the sea. That worked much better, and once he was connected to the water he set about trying to push the boat along.

A few minutes later and Lysander’s enthusiasm had been slowly quenched, the slow speeds of the skiff equivalent to little more than a walking pace. Sure, Tormacc was making the boat move, but that was only in the literal sense of the word. While they were technically “moving”, at the pace they were at it would take them a day to even leave sight of Snake Monkey Island. Using the oars would be faster than their current pace.

Tormacc knew what he was currently doing wasn’t working so he decided to try something else. The problem was his inexperience with water control was coming through. He wasn’t like Athra who had a natural ability to control an element. Just because he had learned skills that enabled him to control water didn’t actually mean he was any good at using them, or at least using them inventively. He knew he could be doing something differently, but right now all he could think of was to push along the boat with water, and apparently that wasn’t how he should be doing it.

He knew he could be going faster, so he turned to his Fate Wheel for inspiration. If his natural water control wasn’t working it was time to supplement it with his skills. First, he activated Aura of Water, boosting his water abilities. It helped, and Lysander perked up as he noticed the skiff jerk forwards a little, the speed now noticeable to those who were actively paying attention. That didn’t make enough of a difference though, so Tormacc decided to try out an active skill.

He started out with the tier five skill Elemental Wave. From his experience taking the skiff out past the waves near the island he knew that waves would have the power to push the boat. Activating Elemental Wave behind him, he tried to aim it to pick up and carry the boat forwards.

The skill started off slowly, but soon there was a noticeable swell behind them, and the boat picked up speed, matching the pace of the wave. The wave took it’s time growing, but as it started to increase in size and speed Tormacc had to turn his full attention to controlling the skiff, the wave threatening to overpower their small vessel.

The wave continued to grow, and soon it reached its peak, a huge crest of water plowing along through the ocean, a small skiff perched precariously on top. Lysander was whooping with joy, standing at the front of the boat while the spray drenched him, the speed exhilarating, especially compared to their previous crawl. They were high up above the ocean, and the view was truly amazing, the wave pushing them forward as they lorded over the surrounding sea.

Tormacc wasn’t having nearly as much fun. When he used the skill, he hadn’t expected it to be this powerful. But between all of his elemental buffing skills the original ability had transformed, it’s might many times greater than it would normally be without any additional bonuses.

That wasn’t the only reason Tormacc had underestimated it though. Another reason for his mis-reading of the skill was it’s slow buildup time. He had only ever seen skills that were instantaneous, and while those skills could be powerful, any skill that had a buildup time would generally have a more powerful effect than a similar skill that acted instantly.

The reason for this was fairly obvious. In battle, his Elemental Wave skill would be rather useless. It had quite a long charge up time, meaning he could still be attacked while he was using the skill. In addition, the slow speed of the skill meant it could easily be dodged. The skill only moved in one direction, and as long as someone wasn’t rooted in place they could easily move out of the way.

There was one final reason Tormacc had underestimated the effects of the skill though, and that had to do with the environment. Generally, his intuitive understanding of his water skills was in their weakest form, meaning if he used them as-is, without any environmental bonuses. To draw a parallel, it would be like if Athra tried to use the Elemental Wave skill in midair. She could use it, but the effect would be massively different compared to how the skill would function on the ground with access to adequate stone to power the skill.

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Tormacc was in a similar situation, and because he used the skill out in the middle of the ocean he had plenty of water to draw from to power it. If he used it on land, he would have to supply all the water himself, essentially magicking it out of thin-air, but because he used it on the ocean all the water could be drawn from his surroundings, meaning more power could be put into other parts of the skill.

All that said, the skill was still only tier five, and once he adjusted to it Tormacc eventually stabilized his control over both the skill and the skiff, the boat speeding along on the top of a meters-high wave. As the skill was dying down, Tormacc realized he could actually use his water control abilities to keep it going. The skill created a wave, and as he used his water senses to understand what he had created he realized that a wave was partially self-propagating, meaning that as long as he kept putting more power into it he could essentially keep it going indefinitely.

The form of a wave was much more efficient than his previous was of powering the skiff, so after letting the wave he created die down a little to something more manageable he continued to maintain its power, his water control abilities fueling the wave and keeping the skiff speeding along.

“This is amazing!” Lysander shouted from his position at the front of the skiff. “Why didn’t you do this before?”

“We needed to be far enough out past the break,” Tormacc said, bullshitting an excuse. He wasn’t going to say he was learning on the fly and ruin his good first impression. Much better to appear as a consummate expert than a little kid playing with guns he could barely aim.

They continued to speed along before Lysander spoke up, his voice taking on a much more serious tone.

“You know how I mentioned the Razorcutters, right? It seems they’re still here.”

Tormacc followed Lysander’s gaze, using Water Senses to feel out exactly what was up ahead. Lysander hadn’t been kidding when he mentioned there was a shoal of Razorcutters. Up ahead was a veritable wall of them, huge swarms milling about, forming a line that extended as far as he could sense in both directions, appearing to encircle Snake Monkey Island.

“I was afraid of this,” Lysander said. “It’s why I didn’t try and get off the island myself. Even if it would take a long time, I could eventually row myself to safety, but I have no way of making it past the Razorcutters. They would tear any boat I could make into pieces in not time. You have a plan for dealing with them, right?”

“Relax,” Tormacc said. “Or actually, maybe don’t relax. We’re about to speed up, so hold tight.”

Previously Tormacc had only used the tier five skill Elemental Wave, but now he was going to up the ante. With the experience he just gained controlling the skiff he was confident he could speed up. But while he was confident, he knew his limits. His most powerful wave-creating skill was the tier nine skill Greater Tsunami. He hadn’t actually used the skill before, but judging by how powerful Elemental Wave already was he didn’t want to try out the skill with him as the test subject. Instead, he went with the tier seven Greater Tidal Wave.

After using the skill, the water surged behind their boat, a huge swell rising up, taking them from a few meters above normal sea level to over five meters high, the skiff shooting up, carried by the tidal wave. In addition, Tormacc also used the tier six skill Water Armor on the skiff, creating a barrier on the bottom that should help protect their boat against the Razorcutters. He didn’t think it would last long against a sustained assault by the fish, but combined with the disturbance from the Greater Tidal Wave he was confident the Razorcutters would be in no shape to break through the Water Armor.

Under his guidance, the tidal wave soon grew, plowing forward along the ocean, the wave spreading far out to either side of the skiff. While Elemental Wave was more localized, Greater Tidal Wave covered a huge area, and Tormacc was blown away by its power. It truly was a force of nature, and he was glad he hadn’t tried to use a tier eight or nine skill break through the Razorcutters. It was already all he could do to control the skiff, and before he realized it the skill had broken away from his control, taking on a life of its own.

The wave continued to grow in power and scope, truly living up to its name. Tormacc wasn’t actually sure how useful the skill would be in battle, as despite its power it had a long buildup time and could be dodged fairly easily, but for his current purposes it worked extremely well. He was a bit miffed about losing control of the skill, but it was his first time using it, and trying to control both the skill and the skiff had been too much for him. Just controlling the skiff was doable though, so he focused his efforts to maintain their current position perched on the edge of the giant wave.

Less than a minute later they reached the shoal of Razorcutters, the wave rolling over the line of fish. If the fish were equivalent to a blockade, the wave would be like an unstoppable battering ram, and through the water Tormacc could feel how the Razorcutters were tossed about, unable to resist the power of the tidal wave.

If they had tried to sail through normally he doubted the boat could have survived the trip, even with his Water Armor. But with the disturbance caused by the tidal wave the Razorcutters were in disarray, only a few at a time rubbing up against the bottom of the skiff, his Water Armor sufficient to repel them.

Lysander was letting out shouts of joy from the front of the boat, seemingly not at all concerned that they were perched on the edge of a giant wave, a large shoal of Razorcutters littering the water below them. Then again, if he had survived the Razorcutters once Tormacc suspected he could do it again. He still wasn’t sure how Lysander made it through them, but he wasn’t in a hurry to ask his new friend. For now, Tormacc enjoyed the spray washing over him as a large grin crept its way onto his face, Lysander’s enthusiasm infectious as they soared along the top of the wave.