Chapter 20: The Raging Sea

                        A little more over than a week passed by, Zero and Luna are still on the ship in the expanse sea, they are about to track Kuzan and the other man down, Zero walks towards the deck of the ship and looks at the horizon, the beautiful sea and the strong wind blowing as the ship sails. A few hours pass by and Luna who is inside the ship cabin walks out, she begins to sightsee around the ship’s many compartments; everything is looking good, she then walks up the stairs up to the deck, from a distance she sees Zero, he seems to be lost in thought.

            “Should I go talk to him…? No, he’s just gonna be mean as always… Oh well, it’s not like I’m not used to it already.”

                        Luna walks towards him, Zero notices her walking towards him, but he keeps looking at the far away sun in the horizon.

            “Hey Kaizer, what are you doing up here all alone?” Luna asks.

            “Just thinking.” Zero responds still looking out to the distance.

            “May I ask what?” Luna asks crossing her arms.

            “…” Zero remains looking into the distance.

            “Whatever.” Luna says annoyed.

            “So tell me, what do you know exactly?” Zero asks.

            “About the ship?” Luna asks.

            “Everything.” Zero answers.

            “I won’t tell you everything; you’ll just ditch me and leave, so I’ll keep some info to myself.” Luna says looking away.

            “Humph… I give you my word I won’t ditch you.” Zero says seriously.

            “I don’t trust you.” Luna says still looking away.

            “Heh, fair enough.” Zero says.

            “What I can tell you is that I know the exact location of their secret base.” Luna says, the breeze blowing her hair.

            “And how is that?” Zero asks.

            “We’ve been investigating; we’ve linked the oracle Zaphyr of Edenheim with these two mysterious people.” Luna replies.

                        Far ahead of the ship where Zero and Luna are, Kuzan and the cloaked man are talking;

            “He’s after us.” The cloaked man says.

            “Who is?” Kuzan asks.

            “The Kaizer.” The cloaked man answers.

            “What? It can’t be? He’s supposed to be in Lemuria!” Kuzan says restlessly.

            “It seems he has a bigger nose than I thought.” The cloaked man says.

            “What are we going to do?” Kuzan asks.

            “I have no choice, but to send him a little gift, an appreciation of my gratitude.” The cloaked man says while the orb on his gauntlet shines.

            “And that is?” Kuzan asks.

            “Oh, you’ll see soon enough.” The cloaked man says calmly as he walks on the middle of the deck, all of a sudden some weird star like symbols along with many others appear on the floor, they seem to be made out of some red kind of energy, the cloaked man begins to recite a ritual or spell;

            “Below the lighting of the deep; far beneath in the abysmal sea, his ancient, dreamless sleep. The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlight’s flee, about his shadowy sides; above him swell, huge sponges of millennial growth and height; far away into the sickly of light. With giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie, battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep, until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, in roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.”

                        Abruptly a huge pentagram appears on the ocean’s surface, a huge roar can be heard and something hurriedly descends into the ocean, making a huge whirlpool. Meanwhile Zero and Luna are still talking.

            “Zaphyr? Oh, the oracle you were investigating some time ago.” Zero says.

            “Yeah, so who exactly are these people you’re after? These two suspicious men?” Luna asks.

            “One of them is named Kuzan Fardeth, some ex-military from Gen-Exis, it’s all I know about him.” Zero answers.

            “And the other?” Luna asks.

                        Zero’s expression turns sour, just the thought of that man clearly makes him very angry and anxious; he closes his fist and looks at Luna saying. “He’s-” Zero is cut off by the ships sudden movement to the sides like if something had pushed it, the skies are becoming clouded, the clouds are turning gray, it seems it is going to rain fiercely, the waves in the ocean are raging, all the crew members panic. They don’t know what is happening, why the ship had moved like it did so suddenly, the ship is moving to the sides more and more, the waves of the ocean are hitting fiercely against the ship, something is not right.

            “What the hell is happening?” Luna asks uneasily.

                        Zero sniffs and replies. “Huh? It smells like a-”

            “A what?” Luna asks desperately.

            “It can’t be!” Zero says widening his eyes.

            “What?” Luna asks apprehensively.

            “We have to get out of here somehow!” Zero says very alarmed.

            “What did you smell?” Luna asks even more desperately.

                        Out of the blue many tentacles wrap around the hull and are trying to capsize the ship; Luna widens her eyes in shock at this and can’t help but ask Zero. “What is that?”

            “That is a Kraken, a legendary sea demon that was so big it could sink a warship into the abyss of the ocean.” Zero replies quickly holding himself from the ship’s veranda.

            “But where did it come from?” Luna asks worried also holding herself steady with the veranda.

            “It must be him!” Zero says irritably.

            “Him?” Luna asks puzzled.

                        Immediately another tentacle emerges from the ocean and it about to hit Zero, Luna notices quickly and pushes Zero to the side therefore saving Zero from the attack, Zero looks at her and smirks, she then says. “Ha! Now you owe me again!”

            “Heh.” Zero chuckles and runs through the ship deck and jumps, he keeps jumping up the main topmast using the shrouds of the ship.

            “I need to have a clear view of my surroundings” Zero thinks as he jumps to the mainmast.

                        One of the tentacles gets a hold of the mainmast where Zero is, Luna’s bracelet shines and transforms into a big golden bow with detailed designs, she then points at the tentacle and charges a rather powerful energy arrow, she fires it and hits it making the tentacle let go of the mainmast. Unexpectedly the rain comes rushing down, raining fiercely, thunder can be heard and lightning can be seen from a distance, yet another tentacle comes out of the sea only this time grabbing the foremast and trying to rip it to shreds, Zero takes out his blade and points it at the sky, a huge lightning bolt strikes Zero’s blade, charging it up greatly with lighting elemental energy. Zero rapidly charges towards the tentacle and slices it in half with his sword.

            “Damn, I almost didn’t cut it, it’s too strong, and I don’t think it’ll be that easy to take out!” Zero says to himself.

            “Zero!” Luna yells being grabbed by one of the tentacles.

                        Zero hastily jumps towards Luna’s direction and slices the tentacle as well making it let go of Luna, but another tentacle almost grabs Zero, Zero, through strength alone keeps the tentacle from taking a hold of him with his bare hands.

            “Damn! He’s strong!” Zero says grinding his teeth.

            “Wow!” Luna stares in amazement of Zero’s strength, she then transforms her bow into a very big halberd and attacking the tentacle, she isn’t able to cut it in half, but makes it stop trying to squeeze Zero to death.

            “Pretty good.” Zero says winking at her.

            “Hah! I’m the best!” Luna says giggling.

                        The Kraken all of a sudden ascends from below the sea, it has the appearance of an octopus like creature that also resembles a squid covered with crustaceous, and it is much larger than the ship. Luna freaks out as she sees this horrible creature.

            “That is scary!” Luna says frightened.

            “We have to evacuate this ship!” Zero shouts.

            “Why? What about the crew?” Luna asks concerned.

            “If the Kraken were to descend right now we’re doomed, because it would make a massive whirlpool that would sink this ship along with everyone, and when I got up the main topmast I saw one of the massive whirlpools ahead, so we’re still in trouble.” Zero explains.

            “But what about the people here on the ship?” Luna asks again.

                        Zero remains silent staring at her.

            “Why you!” Luna says annoyed.

                        The Kraken opens its mouth revealing very sharp long deadly fangs that can devour the a person whole  along with everyone on board, looking with blood red eyes at the ship; it suddenly lets out a horrible roar that even pushes Luna and Zero back.

            “Eww! It stinks!” Luna says covering her nose.

            “No one said it was going to smell like flowers.” Zero says readying himself.

            “Still, even his roar was strong enough to push us back.” Luna remarks.

            “Let’s look at the bright side, it’s only one Kraken.” Zero says calmly.

            “That’s not really helping.” Luna says.

            “You’re going to help me if we plan in stopping this from moving. Cover me!” Zero shouts.

                        Luna transforms her huge Halberd back into a bow as Zero jumps on one of the tentacles and runs towards its huge mouth, many other tentacles try to hit him, he evades many as Luna fires many arrows of energy at the tentacles giving Zero even more opportunity in getting close.

            “Almost there, just a little longer!” Zero says as he runs.

                        Many, many more tentacles keep on attacking Zero; he then starts to jump from tentacle to tentacle evading all possible attacks as well as cutting the small tentacles in half. Luna then uses the shrouds in the same manner as Zero did before to get on the main topmast then releasing her Mana Force and concentrating a lot of mana in her bow making a very strong and big arrow of energy, almost uncontrollable, Luna even trembles trying to control this massive arrow of energy.

            “Zero! Hurry!” Luna yells from afar closing one eye still trying to control the power.

                        Zero jumps and reaches its mouth, as Zero lands on its mouth, the Kraken tries to close its mouth and eat him, but he is able to keep it open using his body while holing the upper part with both arms and the lower part with his legs. A feat that seems impossible, but not for a Kaizer. The Kraken keeps struggling to shut it close, but Zero, also struggles to keep it open.

            “Now Luna!” Zero yells.

                        Luna lets go of the powerful arrow of mana energy, the arrow at an amazing speed passes by Zero, entering the Kraken’s mouth and explodes from the inside, Zero speedily jumps back at the ship as the Kraken lets go of it and slowly sinks. Luna climbs down; it is still raining fiercely, Zero still looking at the ocean, where the Kraken had sunk.

            “It’s finally over.” Luna says with a sigh of relief.

            “No, it’s still alive, and we still got that whirlpool to worry about.” Zero says.

            “Still alive? After that shot?” Luna asks in disbelief.

            “He’ll be coming up again any minute now.” Zero responds.

                        The Kraken ascends once again, it once more let out a horrible roar, but only this time most of its tentacles are visible, it is clearly furious, and it seems to have the full intention of sinking the ship to the abyss.

            “What do we do now? How do we kill it? Is it even possible?” Luna asks anxiously.

            “It is possible, but I alone can’t do it, this is a high rank demon, these kinds of demons are either handled by just a single very powerful Kaizer or two.” Zero answers.

            “But you’re very powerful; don’t think I didn’t see how you struggled against it using just your muscles.” Luna comments.

            “I’m afraid that isn’t enough.” Zero says staring at the Kraken.

            “Then what?” Luna asks.

            “Go get all the crew and people and this ship, I want you to bring them up here.” Zero says.

            “But they’ll die up here!” Luna says worried.

            “No, at least they’ll be able to swim instead of sinking along with the ship.” Zero says.

            “True… Okay, I’m on it.” Luna says running down to the compartments.

                        Zero keeps the Kraken busy while Luna gathers all the crew members and people of the ship as Zero requested.

            “Everyone! We have to get out to the deck!” Luna says apprehensively.

            “Hell no! With that monster out there? It’s gonna eat us for sure!” A crew member says desperately.

            “Yeah, he’s right, we can’t go out there!” Another crew member says.

            “I suggest you come up, because it will sink the ship along with you!” Luna explains.

            “Perhaps the lady is right, at least we’ll have a better chance swimming out of here than sinking.” The captain of the ship says.

                        The captain nods at Luna, she brings them all up on the deck.

            “Alright, everyone’s here. Zero!” Luna says.

            “Finally, prepare to swim people, swim as fast as you can, I’ll be a decoy and keep him busy while you escape.” Zero says.

            “Aren’t you coming along!?” Luna asks.

            “I’ll catch up later.” Zero replies.

            “No! Why are you staying behind?” Luna asks concerned.

            “If I don’t they’ll surely be eaten by the Kraken.” Zero answers.

            “No, I’m not leaving you behind, we have a deal!” Luna shouts angrily.

            “… heh, a miracle from time to time wouldn’t be so bad.” Zero remarks with a grin.

            “…Yeah, but there won’t be one will it?” Luna asks.

            “No, you’re wrong, you make your own!” Zero says charging towards the Kraken.

                        As he runs towards it, a missile appears out of the blue and hits the Kraken, Zero and Luna as well as everyone looks up to the sky, it seems that an airship actually threw the missile.

            “That’s!” Luna says staring at the airship in disbelief.

            “You know them?” Zero asks.

            “It’s our airship! The Vanishing” Luna replies while her smile widens.

            “The rebels?” Zero asks.

            “Yeah!” Luna replies.

                        Unexpectedly a voice speaks from a loud speaker coming from the airship. “Princess Luna!”

            “You son of a-!” Luna yells angrily.

            “It’s not over yet!” Zero says.

                        The Kraken readies its tentacles and tries attacking the ship once again, but the airship throws more missiles until it is finally down, the ship is about to end up inside the whirlpool up ahead, so the airship boards all the people from the ship. The ship sinks into the ocean, but as soon as they are about to leave, the nearly dead Kraken with its last breath hit’s the airship very hardly, the airship is still airborne, they keep flying in the direction of the ship where Kuzan and the cloaked man are.

            “Phew, we made it.” Luna says sighing.

            “I guess miracles do happen from time to time.” Zero says with a smirk.

            “No, these people made it happen.” Luna says smiling.

            “Hahaha, it seems like it.” Zero says chuckling.

                        Neil appears and tells Luna some bad news. “Princess Luna, this airship is about to crash very near the coast!”

            “What! Why?” Luna asks nervously.

            “It seems that Kraken’s hit was too much for this airship.” Neil explains.

            “Do something about it!” Luna shouts.

            “We’re on it!” Neil says leaving.

            “One bad news after the other.” Luna says as she sighs.

            “Humph…” Zero looks away.

                        The airship keeps flying and slowly descends; the airship seems to change the route. Zero and Luna hurries to the airships controls, Luna quickly asks. “Hey, why are you changing the route?”

            “It seems we won’t make it to the destined location because it’s still ways off.” Neil responds.

            “Then where are we headed?” Luna asks.

            “To the nearest dock, Finurey dock.” Neil answers.

            “Damn it!” Luna says furiously.

                        From a distance, the Finurey dock can be seen, the airship flies in that location, it is barely able to dock properly, and it has some difficulty do to the Kraken’s impact.

            “It looks like we’re pretty damn far from those guys.” Zero says slightly annoyed.

            “Uggh… crap…” Luna breaths in heavily and lies against the wall.

            “Not that far, they just used the Gen-Exis base dock on the northern part of Finurey.” Neil remarks.

            “Guess we’ll have to take the long way by the Finurian dock, crossing through the city and heading north.” Zero says snapping his knuckles.

            “It’ll take like a week to get to that secret base on foot!” Luna says.

            “Alright then, let’s move out, we don’t want to waste time.” Zero says.

            “Right!” Luna says standing up and leaving with Zero.

                        When Zero and Luna walk out of the airship Neil comes running and calls for Luna. “Prin…cess…huh, Luna, where are you going now?”

            “We’re going to that secret base we investigated some time ago remember? We just said that a minute ago.” Luna says staring at Neil sarcastically.

            “Oh yeah, sorry, I’ll try to fix the airship and go back to headquarters.” Neil says.

            “Sure, we’ll meet again.” Luna says walking away with Zero.

Reviews

[Felipe]

hehe cool chapter, fight agaisnt the legendary kraken was awesome, awesome job on the chant too, it was cool luna demonstrating her power, i like it, zero demontrating his abilities better in this chapter than the others,maybe cuz it was an actual challenge, keep it up man