Inevitable

Chapter 2

"Darius, you will be going back into the water. Focus all of your energy into moving the boat forward as fast as possible, ignore the demon. The rest of us will be keeping it from interfering with you."

"Are we going to fight the demon under the water?" Sebastian asked as he spoke for the first time since arriving.

"No," I responded. "Liam and Amy are going to take the lead in attacking this creature t. I will lift the demon out of the water and you will protect me and the ship while I hold it in the air."

Sebastian gave me a confused look.

"This is a test. I want to see our newer members' capabilities before we land. It is always possible that we get into a situation that requires us to split our forces. If that does happen, I decided that you will be joining this group so you need to be familiar with them as well."

Sebastian is an original member of my team and a very reliable one at that. He's a proud man who is not afraid to question authority if he doesn't quite understand or agree with it, and questions me on most of the things that I do, even if we agree. Regardless of his questioning however, he is very capable of making objective decisions even when he doesn't like it.

"I understand," he said. "I will remain on the ship for defense."

I turned away from the group and looked down into the water that was now consumed by the shadow of the demon. Large quantities of purple particles began to leak from my fingers and flow into the water quickly encompassing the shadow. The particles began to flash a brilliant glow as I activated them, pulling the shadow away from the boat and slowly out of the water.

The demon was bigger than the shadow implied, easily being many times larger than the ship, but was otherwise exactly as Darius described. One of the three heads that was facing the ship was covered in eyes that were all darting around, either in confusion or wonder. More than a few of them locked onto the ship and tentacles quickly followed their gaze.

A translucent shield quickly formed attached to Sebastian's arm as he jumped in the air and swatted away a tentacle aimed at the ship. He used the momentum from the swing to spin and deliver a kick to a second tentacle, blowing it to pieces before landing back on the ship. The demon howled and retracted the other tentacles even as the destroyed part of its body was already stitching itself back together.

By now Darius was moving the ship even faster now that he could give it his full attention. We sped off towards land and further from the demon, which I was still holding suspended in the air. Just as I was beginning to relax, the demon dipped several tentacles into the water and began something similar to a paddling movement, slowly catching up to The Vinland.

I glanced behind me at Amy and Liam, who still had not engaged the beast. I was about to shout at them when Liam gave a worried and somewhat reluctant nod to Amy before he slowly rose from the deck. Green particles coming from Amy's hand formed a shoe-like shape around Liams feet and he seemed to float clumsily in the air. He gained his balance and darted towards the demon. The green particles gathered around Amy quickly as she also shot off following him.

As Liam shot toward the beast a colossal ax formed in his hand as he swung down on a tentacle attempting to halt his charge, splitting it down the middle. A second tentacle stopped its paddling like motion and launched at Liam, forcing him to block. The force of the impact knocked him back a few feet in the air. Before the demon had the chance to follow up, a few arrows lodged themselves into the side of the attacking tentacle before exploding.

More exploding arrows fell from the sky like chunks of hail as Amy's bowstring became a blur. She kept her supply of ammo endless as she plucked arrows from the sky around her formed by green particles. The demon was forced to sacrifice its speed for defense as tentacles rose from the sea to block the explosions, but it had already got us in its range.