By the time he saw the shore of Ricaf, X had pretty much agreed with Aqua. Ships were bad. Not that swimming would have been much better, but still. The sea was just horrible.
Giant sea serpents that could almost swallow the ship whole, storms that raged on for weeks, bolts of forked lightning that blasted the turbulent grey waters, and waves that were thrice as tall as their vehicle. The crew was made up of cowards worse than Goofy, the other passengers were snobby rich people who expected to be saved every time there was a light guat, and the sails were torn after the first storm.
And most importantly, there were no other knights on the ship. There was a reason why most transportation facilities for knights were free of cost. This was because if anything went wrong, they were expected to fix it. The same was true for X and his friends.
They drove off the sea serpent. Or rather, Brik did, tearing apart two of its scales, and causing it to retreat. Aqua protected them from the worst of the storms, and X did absolutely nothing, except for the occasional chores, and lighting up the lamps.
His flames sputtered and turned off every time it rained, and the waves caused him to be seasick. He felt like there was something different about himself.
He told Brik, but he was too busy searching for the random sea monster that was chasing them. Finally, he spoke to Aqua, who was steering the ship by controlling the waters. After hearing him complain about how he felt, how his body used to shiver when he got wet, how his teeth chattered, about how he felt when it rained, Aqua just laughed, before telling him that he was just feeling cold. But he hadn't felt cold in the middle of the snowy Apline mountain ranges, so why would he feel cold in the middle of the Middle Sea, which was known for its temperate conditions?
The ship slowly rocked past the calm waters. During the past two weeks at sea, it was rare to see the sea while it was not storming and trying to sink the ship. However, X had lost all respect and awe he once felt before setting sail.
He had seen some visions in these turbulent times, most of them of other seas. One was blood red and was probably literally just blood. There was a sea in which statues floated on the dull grey waters, in which statues of creatures including Dragons and Griffins were standing with frozen expressions. There was a sea of flames, a sea of darkness, and a giant crater on the ground, an empty sea, devoid of even air. However, none of them scared him like this sea, even though he did not know why, and he was glad that they were now approaching dry land. It was mostly just his intuition, but there was also the fact that he would not be useless here. Of course, there was that other vision, the one about fire that X refused to recall. Who knew what dangers they could face on land.
The ship slowed down, partially due to the torn sails being raised, and partially due to Aqua. X walked up to her and saw that she was covered in sweat like usual. During their time at sea, she had probably doubled the amount of water in the sea just from perspiration. She stared at him for a while, her blue hair fluttering in the air.
'I told you that we should have just swam across the sea, instead of taking this stupid ship. It would have been better, you know.'
'If we listened to you and swam, both I and X would have sunk to the bottom of the sea after a day through. I'm not sure that's what you would want, but if so, then you should have told us, you know. We would have jumped in to follow you to the depths, Ms. Altanteam noble.'
Brik appeared behind them. For a person so large and muscular, he was deceptively stealthy, like he had removed the bones on his legs. Brik and Aqua started bickering as usual, starting with ships and swimming across the sea, and soon the topic changed to who was more important for X.
The ship rammed into land since Aqua was not paying attention to sailing it. The owner of the ship rushed in to scold her for not stopping it, but by then the three of them could not stand to be in that wretched piece of metal, so they jumped out. They walked towards the sandy desert from the sandy beach, while the ship owner screamed at them to fix his ship.
The desert was a nice place, different from the stupid sea. Then again, they had thought the sea was good, but it turned out to be terrible, so would this be any different? X pondered on this question as he walked towards the sand. The beach floor was also made of sand, but as they walked forward the sand got drier.
X felt an odd sensation, the opposite of what he felt in the ship. He started sweating and had a sudden urge to find shade. As he walked, this sensation got stronger, making him lose all sense of direction. His tongue was parched, and X felt like he could swallow the whole sea. His steps slowly started zigzagging, his vision getting dimmer. He felt drowsy and almost fell.
Brik caught him and slapped him a couple of times. X fainted.
So much for being the captain of their crew. All X had done on this mission was chores on the ship and fainting in the desert. Hot sunlight was shining down on Brik as he dragged X deeper in, followed by Aqua. They did not speak for a while, simply ignoring the existence of each other. Then, Brik finally spoke up
'Why do you keep staring at X all the time?'
Aqua's cheek lost its slight blue tint, which was replaced by a rosy pink blush. She stared down, trying to formulate the answer. After a long moment of silent walking, she replied
'He seemed special. He was the only one who listened to me when I spoke, the only one who cared about me. And besides, why do you care? '
'Because I am his only friend.'
'Well, I think you can add me to that list now. I am his friend too. Not so sure about you though, with all your gloomy sad kid vibe, which changes every time you get angry. Honestly, I am not sure if even he considers you as his friend. If I remember correctly, it has been only two years since you tried to kill him.'
Just because she sympathized with him did not mean she could like him. If that was the case, Aqua would have many friends, but unfortunately, she didn't. Her words pissed Brik off, who dropped X and rushed towards her, balling up his hand into a fist. Aqua stepped back, not wanting to fight. She could not handle a fight, especially not against someone as strong as Brik. Even if she managed to hold her own for a minute or two, infighting would cause them to weaken, and that could lead to them getting ambushed by the predators of this desert like the Giant Scorpions or Centipedes.
However, Brik did not think so logically. Since she liked pissing him off, now he would get pissed off. Anger coursed through his hot-blooded body, and with a loud snarl he asked
'It's only been two years since you've known him, and two weeks since you've talked to him. Do you want to fight? Because if you do, I am all for it.'
As if to support his statement, claws made out of white bone protruded out of his knuckles, and his muscular body got even more muscular. He blew his long black hair away from his face and took long steps towards her.
Ever since the exam, he has been extremely friendly to X, and although they did not mention anything about Uncle Ken, he could feel their friendship mending and blooming. When he was with him, he felt like he could ignore the pain caused by Uncle Ken's death while remembering his sacrifice.
It was all fine until this person entered into this two weeks ago, complaining to X about how she was feeling lonely, acting like a five-year-old child and crying. Then this spoiled brat kept staring at him like he was food and now considered herself a friend of equal status like she was similar in importance to X as Brik himself was.
Aqua did not want a fight, but his tone was angering her. But she knew her limits. Although they had never sparred before, Aqua knew that if they fought she would lose, and that was in a normal arena, not in a desert where she was at a major disadvantage.
All Atlanteans were born with some amount of water stored within them, water taken from the massive Great Ocean, and Aqua had already depleted some amount of it just to not die from dehydration in this dry desert, and needed more for future fights. The deadly Rahasan desert was not a place for an Atlantean to fight against an enemy they could not defeat in the first place.
So, she raised her hands to accept defeat, but Brik did not care. He rushed forward, his claws tearing even the hot desert wind apart, rushing towards her neck.
Aqua quickly sprang out of the way, floating up in the air as fast as she could. She had to stop them from fighting since they did not know of the creatures hiding within the desert, or when the demons they had to scout for, would appear to fight them. She spoke to Brik, trying to stop him to no avail. Brik's claw turned flexible, becoming a whip that could rip through buildings like paper. The claws scraped with the desert floor, covering themselves in hot sand and causing dust to rise of the ground. Brik muttered something, and all Aqua heard was "Taste sand now." Then he swung his arms, and the claws went with it, rushing towards Aqua, as he screamed the edgy, almost funny name he had kept for his ability to unleash bone whips
'Death Vine.'
Aqua flew away, barely escaping the whips. She then opened her palms, and water droplets squeezed out of them, forming a trident in her hands. The ability that only Atlanteans possessed, "Riptide". A terrible waste of water, even though it was only a little bit of water.
She grasped the trident and waited for Brik to attack her rashly. She had to stop him until X woke up. For a moment, she glanced at X. At that moment, her face morphed with fear and despair. And at that moment, Brik's fist appeared in front of her, and she was barely able to defend it, crashing into the desert floor, her water trident in her hands. Extreme heat blistered her skin, and something disgusting entered her mouth. She really had tasted sand.
Brik rushed towards her, screaming. Aqua screamed frantically
'Look around.'
Brik turned, sensing the urgency in her voice, and they stared as a giant scorpion, the size of a house raised its stinger to pierce X's abdomen.