Never sail in the eye. Only a fool thinks finding a calm in the storm’s a good thing. -Sailor in the South Sea

* * *

Lin practically slammed the lighthouse door behind him when he returned to the building. Based on that alone, I knew exactly what he was going to say.

“We can add the Fishing Guild Hall and three more streets to the list of destroyed buildings,” he said. “And those buildings that are still there are flooded. The road to the lighthouse will probably be washed out by the end of the day.”

It was only thanks to the high bluff upon which the Saikan Lighthouse was built that we’d been able to use it as a base of operations while the Tide Serpent raged at sea. The three attempts we’d made to try and wrangle the serpent had all ended in varying degrees of failure, each one resulting in a day of recovery before we could try again.

“If we don’t win soon, there might not be anything left to save,” Kansi muttered darkly.

I wondered if this was the first time she’d been faced with such a threat. Though she was certainly over a hundred years old, I didn’t know how gentle Jinshi had been with her training. If it had been the Jinshi of old, he probably would have sent her at the first big bad monster to cross their paths while he stood back and judged her skills. We’d done similarly to the disciples of other masters in the Heaven’s Blade Sect all those years ago. Though they were never in any real danger, it was a good training exercise to teach them how to fight for their very lives.

“We’ll make it. We just need to find the right strategy,” I insisted. If they gave up now, the fight would be over before we ever met the Serpent again.

“Easy for you to say,” Lian muttered. “Not all of us are gods of the ancient world.” I flashed a nervous glance at Kansi. We hadn’t really had a chance to discuss my relationship with the Sword Saint, but luckily, she didn’t seem intent on killing me while the Tide Serpent still lived.

She saw my glance and shrugged. “I might not know the details, but that sword is older than most modern Ascendents. You would have to be someone special to have drawn it.”

As much as I wanted to correct her use of the word “most,” now was still not the time for that conversation. Knowing that she was going into battle alongside the Darkened Moon may just inject her with a bloodthirst that would prove bad for my health, and the last thing I needed was to be stabbed in the back the moment the Tide Serpent was truly defeated.

“Tea anyone?” Xi Qian asked, setting a tray down on the table before us. All three of the other cultivators silently picked up a cup and nursed it along with their worries. I quietly thanked Xi for his efforts before moving to peer out the small lighthouse windows at the storm that raged outside.

The Tide Serpent was a powerful enemy. It was several advancements higher than me, and its size would easily classify it as a catastrophe the likes of which a whole sect would normally have to deal with. However, the Moon-Soaked Shore had no sects, the closest one being the Teeming Waters Sect, just across the western border. Even if they had noticed the moment the Serpent woke, it would take them months to reach us. By then, Saikan would be little more than a memory, along with Pemai, Heimian, and all the rest of the settlements in the eastern Shore. The only other forces nearby were the Lunar Hunt, who started this whole mess, the Hanai Hornets, who were currently unwilling to help thanks to Pharyx’s suspicions, and the pirates who roamed the ocean to the south and east. Since none had come to our aid since the storm began, we had to assume they were trying to wait it out further abroad.

We were on our own to face this monster, but that wasn’t about to deter me. I had my bow, a quiver full of arrows, my sword, and a heart filled with spirit and qi. Even if I had to face the beast alone, I would find a way to bring it down.

“Was there anything different in the Flash Backs?” Lian asked. I shook my head, rubbing the bandage around my right arm where my latest tally marks were healing.

I’d used my abilities several times during the fights, to try and gather more information on our enemy, to try a new strategy, or to keep my allies from serious harm. Yet, every time the battle was never in a good enough position to justify the cost of a prolonged set of Flash Backs.

“Listen, we have the weak scales on its throat,” I began, “and, we know to avoid its spines and water columns. We just need the right chance, and we can bring it down.”

“Luck hasn’t been on our side so far,” answered Lian.

“Lian, shame on you.” I grinned wickedly. “Do you think I rely one bit on luck?”

* * *

The brilliant blue glow was even stronger now than it was the first time we flew over the roiling whirlpool. Despite the confidence I showed to the others, a kernel of worry began to grow in my heart. If we didn’t defeat the Serpent here and now, it wouldn’t matter if there was nothing left to save. We would either be dead or it would become so strong it would take many more powerful artists than us to defeat it.

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However, the others didn’t need to know of my concerns. I darted around them, patting Lin on the shoulder, and giving Kansi and Lian encouragement as we approached the scene of our next battle.

“Alright. We need to lure it out again. Once it’s out of the water, we can-” but before I could finish the thought, three columns of water shot forth from the waves beneath us. “Scatter!” was all I could shout before the other artists were too far away to hear me. They knew what to do. I had faith.

Lin and I broke towards the left, diving close to the waves in an attempt to ascertain the location of the beast. In the last two fights, skimming the waves had always proved the fastest way to lure it out from beneath the surface.

Water exploded from the side of the whirlpool, and Lin and I dove in opposite directions. The enormous jaws snapped down around us before the Tide Serpent leapt through the waves and into the bottom of the whirlpool. A moment later, it rose, rearing its spiney head to glare at us.

“Kansi! Now!” I shouted, knowing full well that she probably couldn’t hear me. Like a meteor from the heavens, Kansi shot towards the monster from the sky. She crouched on her sword, her eyes fixed on the weakened scale at the creature’s throat. Lin and I flew around the Serpent’s head, trying to distract it. It snapped at us, but we kept just out of range.

At the last second of Kansi’s dive, she leapt from her sword, drawing it into her hand and lunging into the Serpent’s weak spot. Sparks flew in the rain, as Lin and I withdrew. The Tide Serpent lashed its head, and a strangled roar echoed from its throat.

It must still be feeling the damage from Shen Reixin’s final blow, I noted. It wasn’t as loud as it could have been, which was a blessing for my ears. The raging storm and the clang of steel was already more than deafening.

Kansi withdrew from the blow, but she didn’t seem nearly as pleased as I thought she would be. As we all reconvened in the air above, she was frowning.

“It’s healed much of the wound,” she reported. “My strike didn’t deal any mortal damage.”

I narrowed my eyes at the monster as it dove beneath the waves. Healing was to be expected, but that didn’t make it any less annoying, even if it was just a mindless monster. And yet…its cries were strangled…

An idea began to form in my head just as Flash Forward sent a warning through my mind.

“Scatter!” I shouted, leaning forward to direct Eclipse to a location that was anywhere but where the Serpent would strike next. A column of water shot through the air in a wicked tornado of force that would have sent any one of us flying to our doom. I drew an arrow from my quiver and dove towards the center of the whirlpool.

“Yoru! What are you doing?!” cried Lin, but there wasn’t time to explain between the Tide Serpent’s attacks. I needed to see better, and to do that, I needed a better look.

The Tide Serpent struck before I even reached the bottom, exploding from the depths in a curtain of water. I drew back my bowstring, balancing carefully on Eclipse as the water parted to reveal the horrible maw that had consumed so many artists before me. There, at the back of its throat, was a blackened scar leftover from when it had eaten Shen Reixin seven years ago. I infused my arrow with void and unleashed it, darting to the side to narrowly avoid the monster’s teeth.

The arrow sailed into the monster’s fleshy insides, and it let out another strangled roar and thrashed its head to the side. I urged Eclipse faster as spines closed in from behind.

“Yoru!” Lin shouted through the rain.

The Tide Serpent was angry, now. It lunged at my head, trying to catch me right out of the air. I curled tight to Eclipse. Jaws snapped closed so close over my head that I could have touched the Serpent’s scales if they hadn’t been coated in poison.

I tried to climb out from the bottom of the whirlpool, but was forced down again as Flash Forward warned me of three columns of water which streaked from one side of the whirlpool to the other.

Above, I could see Lin, Kansi, and Lian trying to descend, but they were being similarly blocked at every turn. The entire sky had turned into a cage of water, and I was trapped at the bottom of it.

The Serpent’s hot, humid breath was on the back of my neck. I spun around, but the monster’s maw was closed. Instead, it just stared at me, malice clear in its eyes.

I realized too late that I’d fallen right into the monster’s trap. It identified me as the greatest threat, as the one who’d managed to take advantage of an old injury, and now it wanted me gone.

The light of its eyes washed over me, and I fought to resist their pull at my attention. Every ounce of the creature’s focus was on me. Its qi was everywhere, pulling me down, making my ears pop as pressure pressed down on all sides. The more I fought to pull my eyes away and ascend to the safety beyond the pool, the more it tried to drag me under.

Rain soaked my clothes and made my grip slick as I groped for an arrow. If I could just…shoot…something…

“Yoru! Snap out of it!” Lin’s voice cut through the Tide Serpent’s all-consuming gaze, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Pressure still pressed on me from every direction, and I felt blood filling my nose to join the rain on my face.

The voices of the void are worse than this, I reminded myself. If I could keep the voices out through sheer force of will, I could overcome the will of this beast. I just needed to focus.

My fingers gripped the feather of an arrow, and I yanked it out before the pressure could increase any further. In an instant it was on my string, and I breathed qi onto the shaft.

Voidlight surged onto the arrow, and I flinched. In my focus to overcome the Serpent’s mental pressure, my qi had mixed. Flash Forward and Flash Back were no longer an option, but it was already too late to change that.

Instead, I drove more qi into the arrow, letting Baleful Light grow brightly at the arrowhead before releasing it. The arrow shot like a brilliant comet before slamming into the Tide Serpent’s left eye. There, it continued to shine, casting its light of misfortune on the monster, even as it thrashed.

“Yoru! Watch out!”

A churning pool of water in the whirlpool wall birthed a column of water that streaked towards me. I urged Eclipse forward, but even as I did, I knew I wasn’t going to make it. The distance was too far…

But instead of water crashing into me, an arm wrapped around my shoulders. I looked up to see Lin gripping me tightly as his greater momentum pulled me out of harm’s way.

Eclipse was less fortunate, and the water slammed into the blade, sending it careening into the water below. Lin shot forward, trying to spin around on Razor Wind, but the same momentum that pulled me to safety, was also our downfall.

Fear filled me, and I clung to my friend as we both slammed into the whirlpool wall and were consumed by the waves.