Chapter 19 “strategy”

Landon flew down toward Verona to compliment her feat. But before anyone could celebrate, the sea turned dark blue. The water became unstable as large waves shifted in random directions. The winds had also picked up violently.

“Ugh, this isn’t over,” Landon said with a slight look of worry on his face. “It’s becoming hard to even stay afloat up here.”

“I didn’t know you were that stron-” Odrian flew up to Verona while everything was still shaking. Before he could finish his statement, the celestial serpent reemerged from the sea. The serpent was at eye level with Landon, Odrian, and Verona.

“I see,” The serpent spoke in an unusually calm tone. Verona felt its gaze on her. “You, girl. You become more powerful and faster after every strike you land. But what happens if you can’t land a hit? How long does it take before your speed and strength begin to diminish?”

The three remained silent.

“20 Seconds?” The celestial serpent answered its own question. It looked at her facial expressions intensely.

“No, 10… Ah, yes, 10,” Verona’s façade meandered under the pressure of the great serpent. She couldn’t recall a time where she had truly felt fear, not since childhood.

“And you boy,” The serpent spoke to Landon. “You can double your strength and speed per who you’re fighting. Just by targeting someone, you can double your Stregnth, and speed? No wonder why you had struck her but missed slightly to hit me. Unfortunately for you, I'm too strong, even with how you were able to use your forux.”

The celestial serpent had easily described both of their base forux to a T. It then stared Odrian down, unable to find what his forux was. It was unusual; it wasn’t able to figure his out. The others weren’t much of a threat to the serpent. It commented:

“Looks like you’re the wild card in this?”

It immediately leaned and opened its mouth. It began sucking in water in mass amounts at an incredible speed. Landon was not about to wait to find out what it was about to do. He quickly flew in for an attack but got slapped away by the protruding tail behind the serpent. Landon slammed into the body of water below.

“Shit, Landon!” Victor quickly went to recover him from the water.

Regaining consciousness not too long ago, Sarah could no longer stand by. However, she knew all she could do was make illusions, but such a trick would come in handy in a situation like this. She couldn’t fight like her brothers, but she was able to provide some meaningful support.

“I have a plan, Odrian!” Sarah called out. “I’ll need a portal! You’ll know when and where!”

Odrian nodded as he saw her fade away.

Each carapace of the serpent’s body started to let out steam creating a transparent mist. It then opened back up its mouth and shoot out a concentrated Blast of water with enough pressure to destroy whatever came in contact with. It chased down Arachnia first as she was deemed an unknown threat. As the Serpant Followed her the deadly Blast of water closed in on her, she continued dodging, barely able to get away with each step.

Verona flew in toward the serpent in an attempt to unleash another barrage of attacks. But the serpent immediately switched its focus to her. It widened the stream of water, slamming it into Verona’s body. This knocked her unconscious almost instantaneously. Odrian hurried to her and caught her before she fell into the water. Now with Veron in his arms, he wasn’t able to act quickly to fight. The only people left were Sarah and Arachnia.

Odrian knew he could still summon portals and black holes, but couldn’t think of proper use for them. He also knew his energy was running low.

“If only I was stronger,” Odrian thought to himself. He believed this battle was one-sided, although it was six against one. The celestial serpent knew that Odrian could no longer fight, so it focused all its effort on chasing down Arachnia.

“Damn, if only there was some land,” Arachnia thought to herself. “I should have learned how to channel energy into attacks earlier!”

Creating and using energy for abilities was something anyone could do, but none of them had trained in yet. They simply acted at a moment's notice, relying heavily on their forux and koganes. None of them knew how to use all of them. They haven’t even learned any magic as they were all at the starting phase of combat.

With little effort in its pursuit, the celestial serpent caught up to Arachnia and delivered a smack with its massive tail. Arachnia flew straight into Sabrina unconscious, who was knocked back slightly by the impact. Sabrina held onto her as she watched the battle unfold.

“Hold on to my food for me, will you” The great serpent joked. It had not forgotten about Sabrina, not for a moment.

With its mouth wide open, the celestial serpent flew straight for Odrian. It was ready to wrap up the drawn-out battle. It came for him at mach speed while he stood entirely still. Having almost given up, Odrian found himself inside a clear box. He moved up and down, but the dragon’s eyes didn’t move indicating it didn’t know what was going on. A portal suddenly appeared, but not one, Odrian had summoned.

Odrian grinned faintly, assuming what his little sister’s plans were.

“You think I'd fly full speed into a portal?” The dragon dodged around the large portal and went to eat him from the side. “You must think I'm foolish!”

But it flew straight into a portal Odrian had set up on each side of the transparent box. After its full body was inside of the portal, its head began to poke out as it was about to leave while the portal was open. Odrian quickly placed a white hole in front of it, keeping the serpent in an unbreakable loop.

Then Odrian closed off the portal.

The plan Sarah had come up with was a big gamble. Had the serpent flown straight, Odrian would have died with Verona in his arms. But he knew that Sarah had put him inside of this illusionary clear box almost like a double-sided glass where he could see outside. Yet whoever was looking from the outside could not see anything inside. From the serpent’s view, Odrian never moved.

It was thanks to Sarah they won this battle.