Page 48 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“Kraken!” Aria calls out. “There are… I can’t even count them all!”
I see them a few seconds later. They writhe and twist near the surface of the water, tentacles breaching the waves to snatch at passing birds or lash out at rivals. They aren’t as large as the one that attacked me down in the Green Tower Pool, but still, the sight of them makes me freeze in place, unable to do anything other than stare at them.
The closer we get, the more I can see. I touch the waves over the side of the boat and I feel them, feel the vast swarm of young kraken beneath the surface. They are swimming, swirling, fighting to establish their place. I feel the moment when they sense the boats coming toward them. Some of them dive down into the deep, but others…
“They’re coming for us!” I yell, as forms burst through the water toward our boats in a wave of malevolence.
Instinctively, I throw up a barrier of swirling currents in front of the kraken, but I can feel them fighting back against it, undoing the workings of my magic with a furious, deadly intent.
I feel more magic joining my own as all of those assigned to draw the kraken to the surface begin to play their part. Other elementalists lend their strength to the effort, weaving a web of water that compresses the swarm of kraken, forcing those within it to the surface.
That is when those assigned to kill them strike. I see Orion thrusting down with a trident, see Jacques the hunter fling his harpoon into one of the creatures. Bellows rise from them and dark ichor stains the water. I see students and elementalists attacking the kraken with their powers, fire and ice, lightning, and more subtle workings all taking their toll.
For a moment, I dare to think that this hunt might be simple, that we might be able to eliminate the threat the kraken pose before they even truly realize what is happening.
Then they start to fight back.
Barbed tentacles crash into the boats, wrenching at them, threatening to tear the boats apart. One swipes at me and I barely duck in time. Darius blasts the creature with his lightning and it falls back into the water, but instantly, there is another to take its place. Orion stabs one with his trident, but another lunges in behind him. Aria is there then, moving faster than I ever could, knocking it away.
These young kraken are not as vast as the one I fought before, but each is still larger than any human, with a sharp beak and barbed tentacles. There are larger ones in the water too, because I see a tentacle thicker than my waist reach up, wrapping around Jacques before any of us can stop it. It squeezes and he screams.
Then the kraken drags him over the side of the boat and he is gone.
I see losses elsewhere too. Even as I watch, a student on another boat is gripped between two tentacles and torn almost in half. A hunter falls dead, the beak of a kraken piercing his chest
Still, we keep killing them. I jab down with the spear I’ve taken, thrusting deep into one kraken, then pull water in from both sides to crush another, the way it might be crushed in the darkness of the deepest ocean. I look around to see the others on my boat stabbing down all around us. Each thrust produces a burst of blood from one of the kraken, and many of the creatures fall away, but there always seem to be more.
Worse, under the water, I can feel them starting to pick apart the net we’ve woven with magic. A few more seconds, and they will be free to wreak havoc as they wish.
I hear screams away to my left and see that the kraken have succeeded in tearing one boat apart. Students tumble into the water, disappearing from sight. I know that they have all trained to breathe and fight underwater, but I still feel sudden terror for them.
It is nothing compared to the terror I feel when Elemental Mistress Halan calls out from the prow of our boat.
“They are diving deeper. We have no choice. Some of us must face them in the water. Those of you who volunteered for this, prepare yourselves.”
I look over the side, seeing the mass of the kraken there. They are more spread out as our binding spell is starting to fail, but it still feels like suicide to dive into the water with such creatures.
Darius must be able to see my fear because he puts a hand on my arm.
“You don’t have to do this, Sera. You’re just as valuable up here. You can contain them while we fight them.”
He steps up to the side of the boat. So does Orion, the two of them working together for once as they try to force the krakenback enough to give them a clear space in which to dive. They must think that they see their chance, because they both leap into the water simultaneously, disappearing from sight as they plunge into the ocean.
I stare over the side of the boat, and for a moment, I’m paralyzed by the fear of what is there below. My memories of the Green Tower Pool insist that I can’t jump in there, that it would be death to even attempt it. I’m terrified for Darius and Orion too, along with all the others who are jumping in from other boats trying to hunt the kraken in the water. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to join them.
But I know I must.
I know that I can’t just stand here in the relative safety of the deck while the others are fighting for their lives in the water. Whatever has happened to me before, whatever my fears, I am still the one whose talent is greatest beneath the waves. If I don’t help and Darius or Orion is hurt, will I be able to forgive myself?
I know that I won’t, so I tighten my hold on my spear, using the water itself to shove the kraken back from the side of the boat. I dive into the ocean, cutting through it like a knife, magic already reaching out to take control of the water around me. I dive deep, aiming to get past the surface layer of kraken, looking up at the battle from below.
There are kraken everywhere. There are more of them than I could have begun to imagine. Most are young, but I can see larger shapes there too, feel the power of the creatures as they shape the water the way an elementalist might. I see Orion and Darius already battling with them, but no matter how many they strike down, there are always more.
I swim hard toward them, knowing that if I don’t help, we might all die.
Chapter TWENTY SEVEN
I plunge into the ranks of the kraken, striking with my spear, but myrealweapon is the water itself. I blast kraken back with it, form it into solid lances of ice to pierce them, increase the pressure of it until it crushes them. I am one with the water, and it is everything I need to destroy them.
