He must speak or give up on them, this endless pain told him, screaming in his ears.
He must give them strength, words, and hope, or let them die, his prospects of reaching Pentos dying along with them.
And he must do this now.
Now! Kai thought, the pit of his stomach becoming an abyss. I must command them now!
Frozen wind surrounded him, the hateful sea drenched his long white hair, and his grip on his head and the helm tightened. Wood splintered under his feet, its musty pieces rolling away.
Kai opened his mouth, and just when the hiss was about to escape his mouth, he bit the tip of his tongue. Pain coursed through his body from head to toe, and he used this pain as an initiator. Initiator of a chain reaction of even more pain. The muscles of his throat pulled, grating over each other, and then they ripped, an audible tearing sound coming out of his mouth. All over his body, veins popped up, some kind of ethereal power concentrating on his throat.
Twin-Saber Style — Forbidden Technique…
Never had Kai planned to use this technique in such a way, for he didn't know what the result would be.
But this time, Kai was amassing all the strength in his body into his vocal cords, lungs, and stomach. All flesh, without the backing of bones. The monstrosity of the risk he was taking shook his soul.
There was no avoiding it, though.
The wrath erupted, and a boom rang out. Its origin? Kai's mouth.
… Serpent God's Wrath!
"Andrik!" Kai bellowed, a crack running down from his ear to his lungs, showering out blood. "Full of shit too, weren't you? Haha!" Another crack ran down within him, his left lung's muscles snapping like taut bowstrings. Selene ran there and sent a chilling burst, easing his pain. Still, Kai coughed out blood, painting the helm in front of him thick red.
He took out an HP capsule and popped it into his mouth.
But he might as well have not taken it for the moment the cracks healed, they resurfaced.
An Elite Ability wasn't something to be taken lightly, and fighting against it was like steering the ship upwind into this storm. Incomprehensible, daunting, and full of bewildering madness. But not impossible.
"Get up fools!" Kai roared, his throat swelling like a balloon. "Get up! Your captain commands you!"
Not one of them could see him through the water, wind, and hail, Kai knew. Yet, his voice found them all. They couldn't see the changes Kai was going through, but they could hear him, and the authority and might behind it.
The sheer Will of a sailor and an adventurer.
A Captain's Will to defy the odds.
Andrik was the first to respond to the captain's order.
The giant among men pushed himself up, took a deep breath, spat, and looked at Kai's blurry figure rippling behind the helm. "Get up, you rascals! Heard the captain's orders, haven't you? Look alive!" he shouted, his thick, log-like legs shaking, and his hands pounding his enormous chest. "What is dead may never die!"
More followed the mate, standing up one by one, finding strength even they had never thought they had as Kai sucked them dry of their deepest fears.
"Hahaha!" Kai laughed in madness, thin web-like cracks appearing all over his body. "So you still have some salt left, huh? Take the crew below the deck. Go now. Let me sing in this storm alone."
"Aye aye, captain!" Andrik grunted in reply after a shocked silence.
The crew hurried off as Kai looked at the wall of water, making a canopy over the ship. His eyes, nose, and ears were bleeding, his knees were shaking, and his hands were dangling by his side, powerless. His throat felt like someone had punctured it with hundreds of swords. And his head… not even the Cruciatus Curse had pained him so.
After the last sailor had gone below the deck, Meg appeared by his side and grabbed the helm, her face looking like ice and stone. Her eyes were glued to the ship's bow, refusing to turn around and see the wave beyond the stern as if it didn't exist.
For a moment, their backs brushed against each other before Kai walked off towards the taffrail, his figure already transforming to that of the Golduck. Dense hot redness stole his body's cold, but he was already burning with a painful fever. Steam rose and eloped away with the powerful gusts of hail and icy water.
Passion for battle and slaughter danced in his eyes, turning the hazel slits into two pale golden dots.
"I… am a Stormborn." Kai sang, cackling, and vomiting blood. "I am the Devastating Despair, the Blue-skinned Demon, and the Unforgivable Cursed One. No one. No one can judge me. Not even Timelines, Old Ones, or Gods." His skin became red because of the heat first, and then blue, as a tail thrashed behind him, slamming on the ship like a whip. A bright red oval gem appeared on his forehead.
This was a futile attempt, he knew.
This was a death march, and even using all the remaining HP capsules to attack the wave with the blackest Disc of Destruction wouldn't be enough. It was a fact.
He couldn't abandon the ship, either.
They were too far into the sea for him to swim to the land using his Golduck form. Dementor-Kai could travel through the sky, but one look at the ominous, bulging clouds, and the purple lightning cage, thundering around the ship as far as the eyes could see, trampled that hope too. Otherwise, he would have just left the ship by now. Saving Meg hadn't even crossed his mind.
Now, he had none of those choices. He couldn't do anything against this mind-numbing curse that had marched here stealthily to pass judgment on him.
I will try, though. Kai smiled. If you want to cut my head off, then don't count on me stretching my own neck.
But something was different.
The gem on his forehead that should have stopped protruding by now didn't stop, and to Kai's utter surprise, it fell out of his head, leaving behind a gaping, gruesome hole.
Suddenly, the headache, the same headache that had made his life miserable for the last few days, vanished.
The notification appeared as if fate had just decided to sing along with Kai.
…
[
Focus Punch Condition matched…
…
Skill: Focus Punch
Grade: C-
Specification: Combine the Contestant's Will and SP to release a shockwave
Requirement:
1. Golduck's mind-gem: Matured
2. MP 70, SP>0
3. A strong, defying Will
Attributes:
1. Distance: 50 meters (one-directional)
Effect:
1. Base Damage: 100 HP
2. +5 Base Damage for every 10 SP consumed
3. Bonus Base Damage depending upon the Contestant's Will (limit: 0-100%)
Warning: Base Damage Limit — 400 HP
]
…
Kai grinned demonically.
He grabbed the oval ruby-like gem and it melted into his palm. An ancient-looking, bronze-colored Spartan helmet appeared around his head, and when he made a fist, it glowed blood red.
…
[
Skill Focus Punch is activated…
Time Limit: 30 seconds
]
…
"Are you ready to get punched?" Kai asked hoarsely, looking at the wave coming for him.
100 SP vanished off his arsenal instantly, bringing the Base Damage to 150 HP. Kai's bones snapped, imploding, and his eyes seemed to be pushed inside his skull.
…
Kai grinned.
A hideous, beguile, and bloodiest Will to slaughter everything and anything around him exploded out of him as if his aura had come alive. It contained his monstrous zeal to trample over everyone. It contained his unimaginable and imperishable intent to be lord of the Peak of Absolute Power. And it contained his contempt for all who would dare to stand in between him and his goals.
It brimmed with his undying emotions.
It was the Will of a man at the door of death with the ambition of becoming the Supreme Ruler.
This Will had a color too. No. This Will was the color. And mysteriously, it was the color Kai hated the most — an imperceptible yellow, full of mad ravings, murder, and gluttonous wrath.
Cra-cc-ck-kkk!
Yellow bolts of lightning snaked around him before covering the entire ship.
The ship shuddered, the hailstorm seemed to halt, and the wind changed directions.
Behind Kai, Meg's knees buckled, her eyes rolling back into her head, and she lost consciousness.
…
[
Skill Focus Punch is enhanced by 100%…
Total Base Damage: 300
]
…
Kai pulled back his hand, unaware of everything but his Will to obliterate this doom.
He gave a last look at the wave, his fist glowing redder and redder, and then he punched. The booms of countless peals of thunder and the bolts of lightning all paled as a red-colored shockwave left Kai and met the ridiculous wave head-on.
Time stopped with the clash.
…
Booooooooooooooooooommmmmmmm!
Like a soap bubble, the part of the wave in front of the ship broke apart, showering the ship with dead water drops. All sounds seemed to have disappeared, afraid of filling the hole left behind by the booming punch.
Actaea shot through the massive gap created by the Focus Punch, and at the end, it left the sea momentarily as the remaining wave crashed down all around it. The entire ship flew in a picturesque silence, hanging in between churning sky and rippling sea, purple and yellow lightning cracking in all directions, and dark clouds looming over it like a blanket of the blackest sheet.
In this silence, only one man cackled, his entire body covered in thin cracks seeping blood, his reptilian eyes blazing gold and red, but yellow the most.
Once again, the Blood Demon was singing a song of death, destruction, and despair.
And when he hissed, it wasn't because of the lack of another option.