The Lightning Mage

4 | The Sea Quest, Part I

ϟ☁ϟ☁ϟ

A bright light ripped through the evening sky. It landed on the splashing waves of the sea and dispersed like dandelion seeds. Next to where the lightning struck, completely unfazed, was the fifty-foot kraken.

Lyn cursed under her breath. The giant squid was moving around too much—how can such a massive thing be so agile?—while the boat was jerking too violently for her to get a proper aim. How was she going to hit this thing and kill it?

This commission was so much harder than she had anticipated.

The boat jolted forward, and Lyn fell flat on her face once again.

"Get it to stop moving!" Irene yelled while attempting to steer them away from the kraken. It was a fruitless effort, however, since the sea monster must have already attached itself to the hull.

"I'm trying!" Lyn yelled back. "But I can't aim!"

She tried to stabilize herself again, only to stare right at a colossal tentacle that was flying towards her.

A thin grey sword slashed through the leg. Cydney had whizzed herself in front of Lyn, bumping the detached squid leg with the entirety of her petite body, pushing it into the seawater. The limb made such an enormous splash that the two of them were completely doused.

"Lyn." Cydney stared at Lyn solemnly. "Strike me instead."

"What?" Lyn blinked.

Another leg crashed towards the other side of the boat, and Cydney ran to slice it off as well. For the past ten minutes, Cydney had been hacking away at these tentacles as they attacked the boat, but they seemed to keep growing back up and appearing.

"Strike my sword!" Cydney repeated. "I'll direct your lightning to it!"

"What? No way! That's too dangerous!"

Cydney either must not have heard her or chose to ignore her. As soon as she saw the chance, she leaped off the boat and onto the kraken.

"No! Cinna, get off it!" Lyn pleaded.

The sea monster thrashed around, with Cydney barely hanging on. Gripping the edges of the kraken's head, Cydney managed to toss her sword up.

"Lyn! Now!"

Lyn wanted to cry. Aiming her powers towards Cydney was the last thing she would ever want to do, but Cydney was already on top of the kraken. Raising her trembling hands to the sky, she focused as hard as she could. Her fingers tingled when she found the connection—and there it was, the charges in the clouds. She slammed her hands downwards.

A blazing streak of lightning zapped towards the sword. With a sharp object so high up in the sky, it was indeed much easier for Lyn to hit.

Cydney lunged upwards. She groaned as she brought the sword right into the monster's head. The giant squid screeched, before freezing from the shock; the sea calmed down, the boat stopped moving, and Lyn was finally able to find her balance again.

"Get away, Cinna!" Lyn ordered. "Raph, boost, now!"

Raph and Millie had been pouring seawater out of the boat throughout the quest. Hearing Lyn's command, the dark-skinned man stopped what he was doing and closed his eyes.

Energy surged through Lyn's body as if she had ingested five cups of coffee at once. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed Cydney collapsing back into the boat. The sea monster was now motionless and Cydney-less—it was time to strike.

Lyn slammed her hands down again. Fourteen different streams of lightning from all over the sky struck the kraken with a loud crackle. The resulting impact was so powerful that Lyn had to look away as the giant squid lit up into a white, blazing ball of light.