The Beast of the Sea~Chapter 25

“El, I’m glad you’re safe but how did you get here?” Joe asked looking at her.

“Silence! I am under strict orders from my captain not to allow anyone to use these fountains. They are for the soul use of Captain Edward Teach only,” El said as she pointed her spear at us.

“Who is Edward Teach?” I asked. “I thought his name was Blackbeard.”

“Edward Teach is Blackbeard you idiot,” Angel said as she slapped her forehead in exasperation.

“Wait, his real name is Edward? I can see why he changed his name to Blackbeard,” I said jokingly. “All fear the great pirate Edward!”

“How dare you insult my captain!” El yelled and the water around her erupted into a huge wave that flew over my head.

“Duck and cover!” Joe said before flying up above the wave. Circe created some kind of energy sphere around her and Angel began to chant something, causing some of the water to circle around her and shield her. The wave came crashing down toward me and I realized I had to do something. I slammed my sword into the ground again and three walls of rock connected to form a pyramid shape around me. I felt the force of the impact when the wave came crashing down, but after I lowered my shield. I watched as Joe swooped down and locked spears with El. “El, why are you doing this?”

Watching the two fight was like watching to forces of nature clash with each other, like if a tornado landed in the ocean. Joe was trying to knock El down with his power over the wind while El was blasting water at him. Joe was mostly on the defensive as any hit of that water could cause him to get younger and younger. He was also at a distinct disadvantage as he was already younger than El was currently and because we were inside, lightning wouldn’t be able to reach here. At the same time, El looked like she was at her strongest which was saying a lot considering how strong she looked when we first met.

“This is just like what happened to Sayu,” Angel said, looking at her friend. Sayuri looked more terrified of the fight.

“Was I really like that,” Sayuri said back to Angel.

“Ya, you were all angry and bloodthirsty. It was weird considering most of the time you’re just angry,” Angel said.

“Hey!” Sayuri yelled back at her friend.

“You know, someone could help me here!” Joe yelled having just deflected another blast. Before we could help, one of Circe’s hand-maidens ran into the room and whispered in Circe’s ear.

“Well, it appears that Blackbeard’s ship is on the horizon, as well as five other sailing ships with him, most likely to drop off their treasure. They should be here in about ten minutes or so. My workers also seem to have met a large boy in the main lobby, but he isn’t a problem anymore. I’ll just have to hire an exterminator when this whole thing is over to kill all the pests,” Circe said as she placed a finger to her chin as if deep in thought.

“Can they hold them off?” I asked her.

“I hope so, I’ll have to join them for now to help out. You have fun here while I’m gone,” she said and vanished in a puff of pink smoke. I wondered if they would be able to hold them back, even with Circe helping them and I looked to Angel and Sayuri.

“Can you two go help as well? If Blackbeard manages to beat them, I don’t think we will be able to hold them off by ourselves. I’ll stay here and help Joe,” I told them and they nodded in agreement.

“Time for some payback,” Sayuri said and the two went running down the hall, weapons in hand. Meanwhile I turned back to see Joe trying his best to fight off his friend. I pulled my sword out and ran in to help in whatever way I could. Joe went in for another strike and their spears collided, but El whipped around and kicked him in the stomach sending him flying. I went in as well and El caused three orbs of water to rise, which quickly took on the shape of spears and became frozen solid.

“Crud,” I said as the three spears flew at me. I managed to slice one of them in half before narrowly avoiding the other two. Joe flew over toward me and we stood next to each other. “Any ideas?”

“Not that I can think of. I’ve never seen El act like this or fight like this before. It is like dealing with a child of Ares!” Joe said, which managed to get a gear or two in my head start turning.

If she was acting like a child of Ares, maybe all she needed was a chance to calm down. I had a plan and Joe may be the only one that could help as he was a better fighter than me.

“Joe, any chance that you could at least keep her still for a few moments. I don’t need a lot of time, just enough to try something,” I told him. He looked confused, but I could tell he was willing to try just about anything.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said and flew into the air. El seemed to be locked on him, maybe thinking he was a more serious threat which was fine by me. I put my sword away and began to channel power through my hands, my own power. In my mind, I started thinking about calming thoughts, like ocean waves and falling snow. Blue flames enveloped my hands and began to take shape. I remembered how I managed to calm Kimi down, but this was the first time I tried to do it consciously.

“Stay still you brat!” El said as she shot blasts of water at him over and over again. Joe sent blasts of wind back at her, but caused little damage as she seemed to power right through them.

“Try and stop this!” Joe said as he tossed his spear at her. He then sent a blast of wind which caused the spear to fly at an amazing speed. El barely had enough time to block it as a wall of ice grew in front of her. When Joe’s spear hit it, there was a huge explosion that shattered the wall to pieces and sent her flying into the lake. Being a child of Poseidon, she landed in the lake, but it didn’t cause her to get younger, as she wouldn’t get wet if she didn’t want to. When she got back to her feet, she looked around and couldn’t see Joe anywhere.

“Where did you go?!” El yelled as she looked around.

“Over here,” Joe said from behind her. She turned around and saw Joe place the end of his spear in the water and an electrical current shot through it. The electric blast went through her and she ended up crumbling on the water and passing out.

“Joe, bring her over here,” I called to him and he did, flying over the water and grabbing her shirt, pulling her to the shore. I wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but I placed my hands on the sides of her head and her body seemed to be covered in blue fire. It felt like something was fighting against me however and I tried to reach into her mind to see what it was.

Everything went black as I seemed to connect with her. I had very little practice with this, as I had told others that when messing with belief or emotion in people, it could end up being dangerous. I seemed to be floating inside a dark area for what seemed like forever, until I saw El in a sitting position with her knees held in tight to her chest. I willed myself to float in her direction, but I was stopped as a red fog began to swirl around her.

“Get out,” I heard. It sounded like El, but there was an underlining tone to it, as if El wasn’t the only one talking. “Get out of my head!”

There was a blast of energy that pushed me back. I could feel it, like a wave of rage and blood-lust. As it hit me, I heard the sounds of gun fire and battle all around me, like a battle or even worse, a war. What had Blackbeard done to her?

“El, this isn’t you!” I called to her and pushed forward. There was another blast of energy, but I managed to push through it this time. As I got closer, the fog began to take on the shape of a boar, but there was still a stream connecting the boar and El.

The boar charged at me and I managed to dodge. It circled around and came right at me, but my body erupted in blue flames and I blasted the boar full on, encasing it with blue flames. I could tell the boar was pure rage, so I filled my flames with calming memories and emotions. I had to believe that I could calm this beast, and eventually my flames completely destroyed the rage controlling El. The blackness became swallowed up by the sound of water and the landscape turned into a great coral reef like I had never seen before. In the real world, I took my hands off of El and the blue flames evaporated.

“Is everything fine?” Joe asked, obviously worried for his long time friend.

“I believe so,” I said with a smile. El began to stir and opened her eyes.

“Where am I?” she asked confused before looking around the room and then placed a hand on her head. “It feels like I’ve been run over by a truck.”

“Close,” Joe said as he extended a hand and helped her to her feet.