A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik flinched forward in an attempt to do as Elora said, but it was pointless. A loud crunch echoed, the boat shook, and a large, slimy, purple shape broke through the invisible ship's deck.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Several pieces of wood suddenly became visible in mid-air as they became separated from the whole, before the form wrapped itself around a shocked Seraphina.

"What the—!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. But that was all she could say, before being yanked into the depths below.

"Shit!" Erik exclaimed in shock, before instantly preparing to go after her. Unfortunately, another warning from Elora came first. "Another one!"

Erik understood this one was aiming for him, and Elora was simply not wasting time on the obvious.

He cursed again, sank to one knee, and formed icy white magic circles on both hands, before slapping them against the boat's surface.

Instantly, icy lightning crackled, and a thundersnow shield formed below him, less than half a moment before the next purple shape broke through the ship's deck, and crashed against it.

Boom

The force of the impact destroyed half the ship, before sending a roaring Erik tumbling into the sky. Thankfully, the shield held, and the purple shape was forced to retreat, but Erik was still tossed at least ten meters (~33 feet) into the air.

Below him, the massive damage sustained by the ship caused the invisibility sigil to fade away, making the other half of the ship reappear.

"Fuck!" Erik cursed as he looked down below to see what was attacking them.

Wriggling and writhing in the sea below his destroyed ship was a massive squid-like creature, at least 60 meters (~200 feet) in length, with an arrow-like head, ten tentacles, and a dangerous looing beak. Deadly hooks appeared on the end of its tentacles, and suction cups undulated along the length of them.

"Eira!" he quickly exclaimed through his link with the minotaur construct.

Fortunately, Eira knew what he wanted, and instantly appeared next to him. "Yes!" she exclaimed out loud, and quickly flew down to the remaining part of the ship that was rapidly sinking.

Meanwhile, Erik transformed into werewolf form, and activated the runeguard armour, which quickly wrapped him in it's protective embrace. This time, even the helmet made its appearance, yet he chose to leave his feet uncovered.

At that point, no more than a second had passed since Seraphina was pulled under, and Erik started falling back down to the water, where he was greeted with two more tentacles flying his way at the speed of a bullet.

"Elora?!" he exclaimed at the fairy, while twisting his body in strange ways to avoid the tentacles in mid-air, making full use of the serpent blood flowing through his veins.

"It's only at the second rank!" she immediately responded. "But you're not fighting on land here!"

"I know, I know!" he responded with grit and determination, as his body plunged into the water below. He wasn't thinking much yet, simply acting on instinct to deal with the threat. He wanted to save Seraphina, yes, but he also needed to get out of there with his dimension and everyone in it.

Find adventures at empire

Either way, that beast needed to go.

Fortunately, they'd truly taken into consideration every scenario when designing the runeguard. Some might even say they over-designed it. Although, in this case, that was to his benefit.

For example, his helmet was hermetically sealed, and even included a sigil turning aetherium into breathable air. But that wasn't all, because as soon as he hit the water, metal links formed between the fingers on his gauntlets, turning them into webbing. At the same time, he also used ice maker to create webbing between his uncovered toes.

Once inside the water, he was immediately hit with a terrifying screech, straight from the creature's beak. "Fuck!" Erik cursed again. "I can't believe aetherium created an actual kraken!"

Fortunately, he had two sources of light to illuminate his surroundings: the sun, and a brightly shining sigil on his helmet. Unfortunately, it mostly showed the terrifying depth full of unknowable dangers all around him.

Suddenly, he felt very small and vulnerable. Being surrounded by the eery darkness and pressure of a cold, murky ocean unnerved him a little, despite his relative power.

But he quickly shook his head and cleared his thoughts. There was no time to think any more on this, because the kraken went on the attack.

Five of the creatures' tentacles were now aiming directly for him, while four more where tearing apart the remains of his ship, and one was held back, holding the struggling Seraphina.

Unfortunately, the vampire was at a severe disadvantage right now. Not only was she weakened by a lack of blood, but her affinity, gravity, was relatively pointless here.

But the worst part was that she didn't have access to oxygen, like he did. As a second rank Runebound, she should be able to hold out for at least twenty minutes of heavy struggling, but she'd become continuously weaker along the way and, eventually, it would be over.

Fortunately, she'd been able to free her arms and weapon, but her sword was more akin to a large slab of metal that was simply too unwieldy in the water. Even with her Runebound strength, she proved unable to pierce the kraken's flesh.

Thus, Erik knew his main objective.

There was no hesitation, as he used the webbing between his digits to launch himself at the tentacle holding Seraphina. The kraken attempted to intercept. The five tentacles dedicated to Erik's capture were sweeping and bullet punching through the water like it was air in an effort to take him down.

But Erik wouldn't make it that easy for the creature. Unlike Seraphina, his strength was not diminished, he had the protection of his armour, and two of his four affinities were of great help. After all, using lightning or thundersnow was dangerous, but ice and space were extremely useful.

He raced through the water as fast as he could, eyes fixated on Seraphina's struggling, and swaying form.

Suddenly, a tentacle punched at him as if out of nowhere, but Erik shifted slightly with spatial displacement, and the tentacle flew past.

A second tentacle swept at him under loud screeching of the kraken, but Erik conjured an icy blue magic circle to spawn a wall of ice. The tentacle smashed against it, sending ice shrapnel everywhere, but still halting it, while Erik was already passed.

Two more tentacles attacked him, one sweeping from below, and the other from above, essentially boxing him in. Erik ignored them though, keeping his eyes on Seraphina.

Only when both tentacles were less than a meter (~3.3 feet) away from him did he conjure a dark blue magic circle. Instantly, a bubble pulsed around him, pushing away both water and tentacle with irresistible force.

For about a single instance, Erik was floating in a vacuum, but then he flew through to the other side, and the vacuum imploded behind him as water filled it up again.

Meanwhile, above him, the last remains on his ship were taken down by the kraken's remaining tentacles. At the same time, the core of his armour flashed, and Eira's voice echoed in his head, "She's safe, Master! Quickly close the portal!"