HIKA - EXTERMINATE

Eastern White
Aboard the Carniac Vessel..

Chapter 3

The Carniac Vessel sped up as the waves started to smooth out and go in one direction. The clouds rumbled overhead, each thunderous roar louder than the last.

"Get ready to let down the anchor!", said one of the Nazuaki (Helpers of the Captain aboard the Carniac Vessel.)

"Alright!!", replied the other two Nazuaki in unison. The Captain looked towards the Captain in-command, a 19-year-old backup Captain. "How much time left until we arrive at the Island of Reckoning, Seza?"

Seza looked back at the old Captain, looking worried and sort of scared. "T-15 minutes left until we arrive at the Island of Death, where the Village Hika resides, sir!"

The waves suddenly speed up even more, and the Carniac Vessel lurches forward a bit.

Meanwhile, on the deck of the Carniac Vessel were the terrified teenagers who were forced to give the examination that would either leave them Ranked, or leave them dead. There were 25 in total, which may not seem that much, but the death rate on the Island of Reckoning had been increasing every year, and not by minuscule amounts either. Over 75% of candidates who had given the mandatory Ranking Exam had died over the course of a few decades, and it was becoming increasingly clear that the exam was only getting harder and harder while the candidates remained more or less the same in skill. Which was a problem, considering that you could lose your life in a matter of seconds while doing the quests.

"10 minutes left to arrival!!", yelled Seza, checking the time on his Tonka on his wrist.

"Alright!", yelled the other Nazuaki. The Carniac Vessel sailed along the tides of the Island of Reckoning, the ship getting faster every second. The old Captain stared at the open sea, and the looming village where he resided.

But he felt..odd. He had gone on this very trip and experienced this very same scenario almost a hundred times by now, and yet..the air felt different. His gut told him unpleasant yet welcome things, and his Red HIKA flashed before his eyes.

The Nazuaki noticed, and hurriedly told him that the kids could see it and faint.

"Sir, your Hika-"
"I know."

His Hika vanished into thin air, leaving smoke steaming in the air. Not that it was noticeable, though, considering that the whole sky that stretched as far as the human eye could see was covered in thunderous clouds.

"His thunder domain.", the old Captain muttered grimly. He looked up at the village less than 500 feet away now, the fate of all the kids on board hanging on luck and survival.

"Please, you..", said the old Captain, tears welling up in his eyes as he stared at the Island of Death. "Please be merciful on them, Hika!!"

Thunder erupted above them insanely loudly just then, as if..

As if fate were considering it.
But, as they would soon find out..fate doesn't listen to anyone.

"Sir!!", yelled one of the Nazuika to Seza. "How long??"

Seza looked at his Tonka with a shaky head that only seemed to get even shakier as he replied, getting more and more pale with every second that passed.

"T-1"

Thunder cracked the air, once, then twice, then hundreds of times consecutively as Hika's thunder domain expanded, secluding the Carniac Vessel from the outside world. Then, suddenly, two thunderbolts collide, sending a merged huge thunderbolt straight down at the sea. Not more than 50 feet away from the Carniac Vessel, the huge thunderbolt strikes the ocean, creating a massive eruption of ocean water high into the sky.

"Look out, it's gonna hit the Vessel!!", yelled a boy, ducking for cover under a table. The rest stare for a second, frozen in shock, before following his lead.

More and more thunderbolts collide with each other in the air and fall into the sea right in front of the Carniac Vessel, sending huge splashes of water at the ship.

The vessel tilted sideways, sending people flying to the right. "What's happening?!", a girl wailed gripping to somebody's shirt. "Why is the ship banking right?!"

"One minute!?", somebody else yelled, seeing the Island loom closer than ever.

"Hold on!", yells the old Captain, getting up and taking over control of the Carniac Vessel. The tides suddenly turned deadly, and the waves started to erupt upwards, seemingly for no reason at all.

The bastards really doing it, the old Captain thinks, struggling to manuvere the ship. The eruptions get increasingly worse, each one hitting the water harder and harder and harder. The force causes the tides to start spinning and change directions, so forcefully that even the massive Carniac is having trouble counteracting it.

Activating your thunder domain after 30 years, eh, Hika?

The old Captain grunts and his breathing gets heavy as the ship resists the Captain with more than enough force to wind him down, especially at his age.

Seza jerks his head violently to the old Captain, his face terrified. "Captain..if we don't do anything, the ship is going down!!"

Hiacho, throughout all of this, just stares at the chaos folding in real time in front of him. His eyes betray no worry or care for the dreadful situation that he is in - in fact, he seems calm. Almost too calm, especially when you factor in the fact that they could die before every reaching the Island. And Lisa notices.

You've only ever used it three times in all my years as a Transport Captain..and both of those times..

..almost everyone died.

Thunder roars above the Carniac Vessel, and yet another flash of lightning hits the sea at the speed of light. Water flies upwards towards the deathly sky, raining water on the ship.

"Is this it??! Are we actually gonna die??", said a girl, terrified for her life. "Is this actually the end?!"

"No, stop!!", another girl shrieked, her eyes shut tight and her lips quivering. "Stop saying things like that!!"

The old Captain's eyes darken. His body begins to make weird, electrical noises. His hair begins to turn into cotton fluff, and his demeanour shifts drastically. Then..he smiles.

"You think you will win this time, Hika?!". He starts belly laughing and his head jerks up facing the sky, his eyes still darkened. A bolt of lightning is beginning to form right over the Carniac Vessel, and it is huge. The old Captain points a finger towards the sky, his expression unreadable. "You think I will fail to protect again, Hika?!".

He belly laughs again, although this time it sounds more sinister than an actual laugh.

"I have perfected my craft over these fee decades, Hika..", he says, his tone low and deep.

"30 seconds until landfall!", whispers Seza incredulously, failing to decide whether to stare at the huge impending Island right in front of them or the old Captain. "Why is he using it now? We can avoid it easily!"

The Nazuaki stare in horror as the old Captain's body begins to emit red sparks which only grow stronger and stronger and more and more frequent. "He shouldn't use it at such an age!!", says one of the Nazuaki in pure disbelief. "He can die if he does this!!"

"Does what?", says Hiacho, walking over to Seza and the others. The old Captain's body begins convulsing at an alarming rate but he somehow manages to control it, instead channeling it somewhere else. Where, though, Hiacho didn't have a clue.

The huge bolt of lightning starts shining so bright it blinds almost everyone. "NO!!", shrieks the girl next to Lisa, her face contorted with fear beyond anything she had ever felt before. "We're all going to die!!"

"You think you will best me today like you have done before, Hika.., says the old Captain, his voice terrifyingly dangerous. "You, Hika..are delusional."

And then the old Captain opened his eyes.

The huge bolt of lightning strikes down at the speed of light, barrelling towards the Carniac Vessel. People don't even have time to process the attack. Hell, they don't even have time to react in fear. The bolt of lightning hits the Carniac Vessel. It was all over.

Until..it was not. Because, in the eyes of the Clockwork Hika User, the Hika User who could slow down time itself but only at the last second, had stopped the lightning bolt completely. It had slowed down so much had hadn't even touched the old Captain yet. And then..the old Captain used it.

"HIKA..", he said, all of the red sparks flying off of his body suddenly dissapearing and forming onto the top of his finger that is facing the huge bolt of lightning.

"Exterminate."

Next chapter releases on the 11th of December!