“Didn’t we act rashly? We could have waited and prepared more for this.” Alice said with a worried face.

“That won’t do, the longer we wait, the more time the Aboleth has to prepare as well. We can’t observe him yet he can observe us, the more we wait, the less our odds of winning are.” Cain rationalized.

“Cain, care to come here for a moment?” Chad called him from above the flag. How did he get up there so quickly?

Cain flew toward him to see what he had to say. “Is there a problem?”

“I don’t know and that’s why I called you here, look there.” Chad pointed toward the horizon.

Cain focused as hard as he could but couldn’t tell anything, all he saw was the blue sky, a few white clouds, and the endless sea.

“Those clouds at the distance, aren’t they moving a bit too fast?” Chad said with a worried voice.

“I can’t tell anything, do you think it’s a storm? Have you ever sailed a ship?” Cain asked, if they were in trouble or if there was a storm coming, it was better to prepare.

“No, I never sailed or rode a ship in my life before,” Chad replied with a calm voice. “I drifted on a log for a month though, had to eat raw fish the whole time.”

Cain had to pause for a second, he never heard of that. “You have to tell me that story later, I never knew of that.”

“Of course, I will. For now, tell the navigators to keep an eye on it.”

Cain nodded as he flew toward the captain, this was something that needed immediate attention.

The captain asked his men and they confirmed Chad’s suspicion, that might be a storm, but it was just a departing one. They made sure Cain knew that such a storm was bad news here, violent, and hastily go away. They usually have enough strength to lift ships.

..

Deep underwater, Zaleria, and Nemmoxon are already having visuals of the Krakens, there are tens if not hundreds of them. Nemmoxon stared at them with a revolted look while Zaleria only saw materials for her tattoos.

They were immediately spotted and the battle started. The Krakens spared no efforts to stop them.

“You stay back, I will deal with them,” Nemmoxon screeched charging down.

Zaleria was about to ignore her but she then heard her next line. “We need your full power to intimidate the Aboleth out of his hiding spot, preserve it.”

Now that they were underwater, Nemmoxon’s natural hunting ground, she was far stronger than on the surface. She could move at an extraordinary speed thanks to her webbed feet and claws, fin-like wings, and dynamic body shape. She could breathe underwater so she can go all out.

Nemmoxon dived deeper charging at the Krakens, those creatures were essentially giant squids so they could only attack with their long tentacles. They lacked magic strong enough to harm dragons. The only danger was the Aboleth-Kraken that killed her parents.

Nemmoxon wriggled between them and opened her jaws, this was the best place to use her lightning breath. Since she was underwater, the breath didn’t go in a cone but instead spread in all directions from her body. The powerful electric pulse was enough to paralyze the Kraken like an electric eel paralyzing a fish.

Nemmoxon Then went ahead tearing them apart with her claws and fangs. The moment she felt them moving she unleashed another breath keeping them paralyzed at all times.

Zaleria watched the battle unfold, it was unfair for the Krakens to face a bronze dragon. As if they were built to hunt them, they stood no chance.

‘I bet I could do better if I could breathe here’ Zaleria thought looking at the seawater being dyed red.

Back on the ship. Cain and the girls started to feel the battle going deep underwater. Cain could see faint flashes of light that belonged to Nemmoxon’s lightning breath.

It may be too deep, it may be a Dragon that just became an adult. But, it was still a dragon rampaging against an army of Krakens.

Turning around, he called the girls, his father, and Ariel to a meeting. They need to discuss how to take down the Aboleth. It wasn’t going to be as easy as killing it with a big spell. Those things are masters of mind control, area of effect spells, and could even breathe air.

As he was explaining, Chad kept listening while staring at the other ships. They were outstanding, what humans achieved. It was really spectacular, even those artillery looked beautiful and well crafted..’ Cannons? Why are they moving?’ Chad noticed that another ship was aiming its artillery at them.

“The Aboleth is surrounded by a mucus and it can..” Thud! As Cain was explaining, he saw his father leap from the ship with enough force to shake it.

BANG! BANG! BANG! It was quickly followed by the sound of cannons getting fired, Cain immediately protected the ship with a prismatic dome.

Chad could see the shells move toward them. “Take it back!” Chad caught one of the shells, his body spun in place and released it back toward its source.

Some of the sailors on Cain’s ship started shaking, they just saw a man deflect a cannonball with his bare hands. They heard that he wiped the floor of the guild with its S-rank adventurers. That wasn’t a rumor.

Just before he could fall into the water, Ariel grabbed him. “You know I hate flying without my wings. Use your own fly spell.” She growled at him. The majestic angel took pride in her snow-white wings and flying without them felt like walking barefoot to her.

“I need to conserve MP, Throw me toward their ship,” Chad told her immediately.

Ariel sighed, she can’t throw him as he was too heavy for her. She instead flew and dropped him above the opposing ship.

Chad landed with a heavy thud, “Who ordered you to shoot us, lets him come here or I will sink the whole ship.” He growled punching the main pole down. Disabling the entire ship in one move.

Smack! Ariel landed on Chad’s head, kicking his head to the ground. “What are you going to sink? They must be controlled by the Aboleth.” Ariel said with an exhausted face.

“That was just an intimidation idiot, can’t you feel my charisma?” Chad growled pushing her foot back.

“Sorry, I’m getting used to being around you after all those past days.” She smiled.

..

When Mary and Hati reached the castle, Mei greeted them and they realized that everyone went without them. “Are they serious? Always leaving us behind!” Hati growled.

“What did you say? You two weren’t here in the first place, you were at the guild!” Mei yelled back at herhistorical

“Calm down, Cain must not have the strength to pull us out of the sea if something were to happen,” Mary told the raging Hati.

“We don’t need him to protect us, we can protect ourselves.”

“You might be but I’m not, but if you insist, I got a map from the guild that can lead us to a spot where small boats are docked. We can borrow one.” Mary smiled.

“Good job! Give it here and let’s hurry!” The two of them rushed out.

“Ignoring me like this..I wanted them to help us with this but I guess I’m on my own.” Mei flew to the wall and looked around, multiple people were sneaking into the castle, and her soldier had reported they are mostly human soldiers and guards.

“So a lot escaped our attention..This is going to be rough.”

After about an hour, in the royal chamber. King Baltos was tried down with all his wives. There was still a chance they might be infected so that was a temporary measure to keep them safe.

CRIIIK! The door slowly opened and it was the army’s archer’s commander. “So you were here, those little things gave us a lot of trouble and forced us to act quickly. But taking you should solve everything.” She said, blood dripping from her blade, Baltos could see pixies’ dust on her.

As the commander approached the king with a tadpole in her hand, the Headmaid leaped from her place and head-butted her.

“How could you move? Your hands and legs are tried down.” The commander growled.

Both her hands and feet were tied, but that didn’t mean she can’t bend her knees and jump.

The Headmaid lost her balance and fell to the ground, she can’t break the ropes on her own.

The commander approached her laughing, “You scared me for a second, the royalty cleaner, and look how pathetic you are!” She started stomping her head until she shattered her glasses.

The king and his other wives were raging, unable to move they could do nothing.

“Let’s start with you then, here is a tadpole for you.” As she moved the tadpole closer the maid’s bleeding eye. The window shattered and a vulture rushed in gulping the tadpole.