Storm front

”Erebus? Like the primordial personification of darkness?” The questioned sounded quizzical, skeptical even coming from the mans mouth. Light brown brow quirked in a questioning fashion as if he had been told the sky were red. Jordan frowned in return, an eccentric and even over the top gesture to show his own dissatisfaction with being disbelieved.

”I don’t know! He just called himself Erebus, fought an angel and blew things up! Didn’t exactly have the time to ask if he was from the Greek pantheon!” Jordan pleaded his case, expression still a mixture of displeasure and exasperation. If anything this should have been easier for him. He was one of those magic types, so they tended to deal with the supernatural and maybe even a few gods, right?

Well, the only way to describe this beings power was godly. After all, he nearly destroyed an entire city. ”You watch too much Supernatural,” He stated with an almost stoic response, looking down to a small crystal inscribed with various runes.  ”The fact I’m even helping you is basically a favor at this point,”

”We both know it’s because you love me,” Quickly he shifted into a smug tone of voice, resting an arm around the blonde mages shoulder, wide grin on his face.

”Doesn’t get you as far as you’d think,” The ship they chartered lurched as a massive waved slammed against it. A storm had been brewing on the coast of Las Angeles, one of those storms the two of them were sure would lead to rain for days on end. That and the magical expert was certain that this was a little more than a mundane storm. The cause of it was unknown, though Jordan offered to come along with him.

”Now you’re just being mean,” The half dragon shrugged, pacing around the rain battered deck, golems running around to make sure they didn’t capsize. ”Think this might have something to do with Erebus?” He then questioned, moving in close enough to where he didn’t have to shout to be heard over the howling winds.  One of the many downsides of a storm really.

”Maybe. I managed to sneak into London long enough to get a trace of his energy. This storm has some of that energy swirling around in it. I wanted to see if this Erebus had anything to do with it or...if it was a strange coincidence,” That made a little sense, so he nodded along while trying to figure out the greater implication. He blew up a city, was this some kind of move to wipe another away with water?

”So that’s what we’re investigating?” Jordan questioned.

”Something like that. I also want the Caster’s to owe me, that family will absolutely hate it,” There was the ghost of a smirk on the mans face, ship still rocking along with the storms waves. A scant few enchantments kept the larger ones from doing worse, which made Jordan comfortable enough being here. The ocean was a place he just didn’t like. Something about solid earth beneath his feet was much preferred.

”They’re the magic big wigs in LA right?”

”Maybe. Smaller families have been rising as of late, they might push them from that lofty pedestal. What communication they’ve had with my family has been breaking down too,”  He explained, though not a lot of it made sense. He cocked his head to the side, a quizzical expression as if trying to figure out what he had been told.

He didn’t have time to ask for more clarification as the vessel itself lurched hard. A shadow rising from the roiling depths of the ocean, wrapping around the ship and grasping tight. Cracking the magic worked wood. It was supposed to be tougher than this.

”Shit!” Jordan cursed, leaping into action as fast as he could. Jogging across the deck, quickly wrapping his arms around the massive tentacles that had wrapped around the ship. The golems were acting too, releasing jets of fire, pressurized water and lightning from runes within their heads.  Most of the attacks did nothing more than cause water clinging to it to sizzle from the sheer heat of attacks.

Jordan however let his fingers dig into the pliable flesh, giving it a great tug as if hoping that would dislodge it from the wood. Suction was what now kept it held down, feeling like an impossible weight he couldn’t fight. The wet deck was something that fought against him all the way.

”Don’t pull like that! You’re just going to rip the damn ship apart!” A voice barely reached above the shrieking winds, yet it was enough to draw his attention.  Oh shit, he was right.

With that in mind he drew upon the power within, forming a few arm length constructs shaped like swords and slammed them into the tentacle as he leapt back. Watching the black colored ichor release in spurts, and the deep, booming that surpassed even the winds. Still, that was enough to cause the tentacle to unlatch from the ship. With a wrench, it slammed into him and sent the half dragon hurtling through the air.

The world around began a jumble of images followed by crashing hard into the waves. Salt sting in his eyes and the taste on his tongue. He hatred the ocean. Alongside that he could see it within the waters, a dark shape that moved towards in. Larger than the ship easily, with lashing tendrils that slipped through the stormy water. He could barely see what it was. Eyes stinging too much and the waters too dark in the night storm.  What he did see was the massive jaws about to close around him and so he reacted.

Forming a sphere of scaled green energy around him, just quick enough for the teeth to bite into it. Halting the powerful bite before it could swallow him after what he assumed was painful chewing.  His mind had become a panic now.

Hoe was he going to get out of this one?

Focusing on the construct, he tried to pour more energy into it to increase the size. It expanded a little, though the jaws managed to push back, keep further expansion from happening. Slowly cracks spread around the construct. Dammit, pretty sure I can’t hold this up for long. Did I even hold my breath? That was when he realized he didn’t get that much of a breath, lungs burning from the strain of holding the little oxygen it had.

Was the ship still in one piece? He didn’t know if he even had the luxury to wonder that. Pressing feet against the side of the barrier, he created a small opening out towards the ocean, and thrust himself out through it as what had been protecting him fell to pieces.

Not like a torpedo, he let his wings spread outwards and propel him out of the water. Flying through the air, gasping for what air he could. The ship looked to be mostly together, though more tentacles were around it. Flashes of magic lighting up the stormy night sky.

This was not looking good.

He had a simple job. He was to take his father across the pond here. Not sure why he needed Jordan's help for that, but then he actually figured out what it means when someone goes across the pond. His father was just slightly upset that he picked him up and threw him across the park's pond, before informing Jordan that it means he wanted to cross the water to England. Lesson learned.

  They went to the beach and his father proceeded to put on a diving suit. Jordan was more than a little confused as to why he was dressing up in the spandex styled gear.

 "So uh...why?" He quickly inquired as he looked over the strange metaflex suit.

  "Why? It's so I don't get too wet on my way to England." He explained, the sound of the seagulls sounding off in the background. The hot sand seemed to cause an immense discomfort on the man's feat as he moved as quickly as he could. Jordan wasn't sure why he needed a diving suit when being transported by mouth.

  "Okay, I don't salivate that much. I stopped slobbering the bed at 12." Jordan fired back, though his father simply stopped moving altogether, then slowly looked up at him. He wasn't sure why, but something about how he acted made Jordan shrink back a little.

 "Jordan. What makes you think I'm going to ride....inside a Dragon's mouth?" He asked. Jordan went to explain, a small and sheepish smile on his face. He held one finger up and tried to think of a circumstance in which his father would intentionally put himself in a Dragon's mouth. He quickly had a flash back to the battle on the Ethereal Islands, Abyssal has taken to the water and his father wanted to go down to be able to fight. Jordan offered to transport him, but as soon as his father jumped in his mouth he....swallowed.

 "I-I mean. It's not often that someone does that. So I...uhm...Okay I'll wrap a barbel around you." He said as he nervously started to rub his arms, looking out at the Ocean.

 "An excellent strategy." his father said with a soft smile, and a little chuckle too. Jordan couldn't help but turn away slightly, embarrassed by his previous failures.

  With his father dressed in his metaflex suit, a mask over his face and a back canister of oxygen on the back, he was ready for a dive. Jordan walked towards the water, looking around as he seemed to observe the dozens and dozens of people running in the sand and drifting in the water. Seeing no good area for transformation he simply started to walk into the water, quickly shifting to a wading and then diving himself down. His father walked behind him, flippers slapping against the wet sands before putting the apparatus in his mask and diving down.

   They began to swim a little ways out, Jordan would stop on occasion to check back at his father. The man jumped and shifted ever so frequently as small fish seemed to move past him at quick speeds. Jordan let out a toothy grin, which met an extended middle finger. He'd forgotten how different his father was compared to the others of their kind. He hated fish. Absolutely hated them.

  Once they were deep enough off shore, Jordan picked up the speed, swimming at an impossible speed for a human, becoming alike a torpedo as he exercised his legs, abdomen and arms. After quickly disappearing from his father's sight, his father would soon be greeted with two bright eyes from the abyss below. A large toothy maw with a smile curled upon it. A reptilian head with a flaring neck moved forth, the long whisker-like appendages known as barbels started from his face, glowing a cool and calming blue color before moving like a light-show, all the way to the tips it went from blue to a heavenly yellow, spanning down to a warm and inviting orange, then to a deep mystic pink before finishing at the tip reverting back to the warm orange color. The large black abyssal wings opened. The leathery flesh looked like an endless, flowing ink as it moved so gracefully in the water. The Wings were shaped like bat wings with similar anatomy, though smoother on the exterior, save for the wing index ginger which protruded as a barb. The remainder of the fingers flowed down, the same light pattern as the barbels shooting from the inner body outward, in the same color scheme.

  The beautiful light display contrasted the terrifying visage he saw. Despite looking upon his own son, Jordan could feel his father's fear. Jordan lowered his head and closed his eyes before nudging his head forward slightly. He could barely feel the movement of his father's tiny hand as he gripped the barbel. Quickly twitching the barbel, Jordan wrapped his father up and flapped the wings, the inky abyss moving forward before the dragon and the man vanished into the abyss.


   His father was silent the whole way there. He wondered if he had frightened his father, or if it was simply one of those automatic functions that happens in humans. Dragons felt the same, sometimes. It wasn't fear but maybe respect. Respect that something was absolutely dangerous and capable of killing you. Respect that if you had to fight something, you'd have to give it your absolute best otherwise you were done for. He was conflicted on that thought. He'd love the chance to have his father's respect like that. Then again, he never wanted his father to feel threatened. He'd seen what happened to people whom threatened his father... or his brothers.

   It was a long ride. At some point even Jordan had to stop and surface, allowing his father the chance to change out the tank. He looked over the oxygen tank a moment then switched to the secondary tank of a smaller size. Jordan didn't know the first thing about math, but he knew that a 5' by 25" cylinder of oxygen running at a continual rate would last 11 hours. Jordan began to look around, the sudden movements causing his father to shout and punch down on Jordan's head. Jordan froze in place, not moving a single muscle as he slowly began to drop, inch by inch he was submerging, unwilling to move in case it would disturb whatever delicate operation his father was working on. As he slowly began to submerge himself he felt his father strike again, giving him the go-ahead to move. Jordan popped his head up and began looking for the sun. He noted that if it rises in the east and sets in the west then England would no doubt be due west some more, right? Wait was it east or west. East. Maybe. It sounded more like Eat.

   The swim continued for another 6 hours before Jordan lifted his head up slowly emerging from the water. If this had been Tokyo he would have a smile on his face and would continue going until someone saw him. That was always fun. He'd never once gotten someone to yell that he was Godzilla though. It was actually pretty tragic. This time, though as he approached the London docks, he kept himself submerged by the blanket of night and the dark waters. His head lifted ever so slightly as he tried to suppress his bioluminescence. He smiled as his father crawled off of his snout and onto the docks. Jordan vanished into the water once more before emerging once more, much smaller and blonde. He quickly began to climb up the wood post and then onto the dock.

  "17 hours. Not bad timing from LA to London." He said, panting slightly as he started to wipe the water off of his body. He started to look around, not seeing anything he actually had anticipated. "Looks sort of...not docky?"

  "This is London Port. The water is the river Thames." His father chuckled as he removed his diving suit, emerging almost completely dry in his wine colored vest and white shirt, black pants and socks.

  "Hey uh...sorry if I scared you."

  "Scared me?" He said, acting almost amused as he puffed his chest out and started wrestling with his cufflinks.

 "Yeah. You know, did the whole Dragon thing then you stared at me...and then like...didn't talk to me for the whole trip." Jordan said, feeling as if he had done something wrong. The way his father looked at him was almost disgust, then seemed to retract into sympathy before nodding and his head falling, seeming to look down as the oxygen tank he left there.

  "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just not used to seeing what a large young man my dragon son has become. I'm proud of you and...you're truly terrifying." He said. Jordan couldn't help but smile and lunge forward as he wrapped his arms around the smaller man he called a father. "Yes yes, just please don't play with any power tools." He said with a chuckle as he started to push away from the hug in futility. When Jordan finally did release him, his father looked almost frozen with a smile on his face, his jaw pressed together, he was so happy Jordan thought his teeth might shatter.

  "Alright well uhm. I'll be back in two days. Tell Patroklys I said hi!" Jordan said before picking up the small airtight bag of clothes and disappearing into the water. His father stood there for a moment, his perfectly fine suit now drenched. His eyes turned and saw a small woman sitting on a bench with a child. To be in her shoes for a moment. Two men emerge from the water. One with a suit on, one like he was just born into the world.

  "Don't even ask mum." He said with an almost indistinguishable accent, picking up his bag and turning to walk towards the ravaged city.

  Jordan was on his way back. Another tireless journey. Well actually a very tired journey. He stopped to nap for a few hours on the ocean floor, but even then he was occasionally bothered by parasitic life and hagfish believing he was dead. Quickly making his way back home, he was less than an hour out before he felt the shift in barometric pressure. He quickly rocketed to the top, breaching from the water like an 80 foot whale only to see skies of grey and lightning. Eyes widening, he felt the shock hit him as he went stiff and belly flopped. That hurt...a lot.

   The guttural noised Jordan made couldn't be comprehended by humans, instead he only dove down, and traversed slowly looking for anything as large as him, or slightly smaller, his eyes peering in the darkness like a hunter in search of prey. That lightning was magical, one of his cousins must want to play! A primal thrill filled him as he set off to find the source, a smile on his face as he hid in the darkness. He finally found it, what looked to be one of the large creatures of the depth, the Levithankin known as Kraken. Jordan was elated as he spread his wings, the rigid looking fingers of the wings shaking and revealing themselves to be more akin to long webbed tentacles. He watched as something emerged from the object the Kraken had grasped, it appeared to be a winged person, dragon wings! Jordan mused to himself. He'd watch for another moment from the safety of the darkness, unseen and undetected. He wanted to see just what was going on, maybe they wanted to play just the few of them.

Hurricane force winds slammed into Jordan, threatening to hurl him around and through the air above the tumultuous ocean. Whatever was causing this powerful storm front was below their ship, and also somehow releasing the same energy that Erebus had.  Were they connected somehow? He couldn’t tell, though all he knew was that now the thing was threatening the ship and he couldn’t have that happening.  ”Wish Deimos were here. He’d have some kind of magic to fix this,” Not that The Mage he had here was lacking in any way either, but he was also not a powerful half space dragon. Apparently being that came with massive magical power, something that few human mages could hope to match.

mental link here, don’t freak out. We might be dealing with a kraken, which in that case means my magic might be less useful than I’d like,  The voice spoke within his mind, only spooking Jordan for a moment before he righted himself. Of course Aaron could do telepathy. He was pretty good with those spells that involved messing with the mind, illusions, telekinesis and the like. Small spells like these seemed to have an easier time slipping through whatever thing protected him from magic.

It have some kind of protection against magic too,

Exactly that, Jordan cursed under his breath hearing that, browns furrowed as he tried to scout out and see what was attacking within the stormy waters. They were too dark and uncertain for him to catch anything. Hopefully there weren’t more like it swimming around, because that would have just made everything all the harder. Even still they were expecting troubles just like this.

I know where it is. I’ll see if I can hurt it enough to make it let go, With that he spiraled in the air, energy coalescing around his arms and forming larger arms that glowed neon green in the night sky. They were easily five times thicker than his own arms, forming around them with a scaled pattern along the solid matter.  Massive fists that held far more force than even his own physical hands.

He needed them afterall.

Being far as he was away from the earth, that meant he needed to augment himself with whatever advantages he could muster. So he drew in a deep breath, feeling his lungs fill up to the brim and then slammed into the water. The surface gave way easily,  and he shot through the depths.  Eyes darting around while fighting the sting of salt, looking for the thing that had mistaken him for food. What he saw were massive slitted eyes, glowing a brilliant bloody orange within those waters.

Now his constructs illuminated the waters more. Casting a green light outwards, enough to see the dark azure scales, looking sickly in the green light. As well as a massive fanged maw under those eyes, opening wide as it sucked in ocean water. Was the thing trying to eat him? If it spoke draconic, any of the sounds it made meant nothing. That was more something that Deimos was skilled in.

Not gonna eat me that easily, Less refined energy erupted from a nodule on the elbow of his arm constructs. Serving as a rocket that propelled him through the water faster than he was sure he could swim.  Fast enough to slam his other side, construct and all against the side of the krakens head. A shock wave emanated from the point of impact, briefly forcing water away from the point before it surged back.

He was sure he heard something crack. Flash of lighting illuminating where he was as well as the world above.  That force was enough to jar his shoulder, bringing with it a flash of pain that quickly subsided. However, he didn’t expect krakens to be capable of retaliating in ways more than just physical. Not until he saw the flash of something emanating from its body and colliding him.

For a second his senses left him. A brilliant, tingling pain exploding through his body. His mouth suddenly tasted more of copper, and he was sure he saw some blood explode from his body. Did the scales light up before then? All he knew was that he was in pain now,  and more followed in the form of a blunt smack. One of the many lashing tendrils slammed into him, throwing the green half dragon further into the depths of the ocean.

Despite his stunned state. Jordan drew on what energy he could, forcing the cracking constructs around his arm to stay together. Even feeding more energy into them, growing larger and shedding even more light. That was enough to see the kraken turning full attention towards him.  Body more like dragon and squid had somehow mixed together, those tentacles with barbed suction cups  swirling around him as if to shred him apart. That was when he noted the shattered scales around its face. Even the faintest trails of blood leaking from it.

Sorry but you started this fight, More energy formed around his legs, massive clunky boots with a scaled pattern. Rocket boots he would have called them. The soles were patterned with a place where energy could be ejected from. They were what propelled him up and through the water. A green point of light, ducking and weaving through the many tentacles that sought to grasp it.

With each miss, more of its blood began to paint the water. As his gauntlets which took on a bladed form had cut away at those weapons meant to harm him. Sure, it got a good smack in but that did nothing to dissuade the stubborn half dragon from his course as he eventually circled under it and turned his course into a full speed shoulder tackle into the things underbelly.  Temporarily stunning the creature. It was there, perfect for a killing blow but he didn’t quite go for that yet. If what he was taught had any truth in it, krakens didn’t attack ships so close to shore. Most didn’t even do such brazen attacks any more, which meant something was going on.

So he took advantage of the small window where the creature was stunned, forming massive green chains which he wrapped around the things neck. Maybe not cutting off its breathing but enough to hold it in place. Know any spells to breathe under water...and maybe speak with dragons?

You’ve been fighting that thing for minutes and just now ask me that? Is there even a brain in that head Jordan?

Well yeah. Can you do it or not?

Considering I have to accommodate for your natural resistance, I might need a minute or two.

I can do that. He pressed his feet against the back scales of the beast and pulled, hoping he could hold the thing ins check. Could he hold it still for a minute? Probably but he wasn’t too sure as well. What other magics did the kraken have?

It was like watching a firefly beat the mud out of a human. It was entertaining to watch, this creature was interesting for sure. It had dragon wings and a green light. His light wasn't green but sure enough they both had light! Jordan began to realize the poor Kraken was in for a little bit of trouble at this point. They didn't have the reaction speed that Jordan had, making small things with a ton of power dangerous. Of course Kraken also mostly lacked physical presence. Jordan smiled widely as he allowed his burning eyes to come forth from the darkness.

Like an ancient evil awoken from slumber, the Dragon slowly approached through the water. The Kraken itself was almost entirely unawares as a larger being now loomed, coming forth as wings of the inky black void surged forth as ten tentacles lacing itself around the Kraken's own, pulling at them with tremendous force, The Kraken itself no longer having a method of escape.

"Kin of my kin! Cousin, why do you play with such small prey? How does such small prey harm you so?" Jordan spoke in a primal tongue, his actions against the Kraken were more preventative and precautionary as he looked over the ship, then manic and dastardly smile of Tiamat now before the ship. He would see if the Kraken would release the ship, before allowing it to escape or do whatever it pleased. Providing it left the mortals alone. It soon became apparent that it would not comply. It's ancient words spoke of horrors, spoke in distress. It was crying out like a man caught in a nightmare.

"You are lacking your mind! Perhaps I might free you. Please do not keep biting at my tentacles!" Jordan said as the Kraken now pulled one of it's own tentacles near it's beak, then proceeded to snip at Jordan's as black blood began to fill the water. Eventually the pain became too much to tolerate.

"You do be stopping cousin!" He pleaded with the creature as he began to enhance his strength and forcibly tip on of its tentacles off of the boat, rending it backwards in an uncomfortable position for the Kraken as his own large claws came up and almost steadied the ship. His words were useless, and the pain caused him to lose focus of dimming his bioluminescence. The blues began shooting down like dancing lights to the same coordination of color, but then suddenly they were all constantly on as he felt his Quintessence surging in response to the pain.

"I SAID STOP!" Jordan screamed before his ,outh opened and a concntrated beam of light seared through the water, causing bubbling and steam to rise to the surface of the water. One tentacle was burned off and severed the heat cauterizing the wound before it could regenerate. Jordan didn't even flinch as his glowing mouth gave the backlighting for horrible bangs which then dug into the squishy flesh of the Kraken's head. He began swimming away at a rather fast pace for such a large creature, dragging the Kraken with it, forgetting what would happen to the boat. His teeth found purchase onto the Kraken, but the slime made it difficult to keep hold of. Hopefully it released the ship.

The kraken thrashed against the bonds. Thick green chains made far too solid for it to simply break and each attempt only made that more difficult. Despite that his physical strength had no such increases, and with each seconds spent in the ocean he could feel the held breath beginning to strain more within his lungs. He knew he couldn’t hold this fight underwater forever and dragging the kraken into the air was an impossibility. The damn thing was at home in its element, which meant it just had more strength here and now. What was he thinking trying to fight it here? If his body didn’t reject magic so furiously, perhaps Aaron could have done something to buff him but that was not on the tables.

This fight against the kraken demanded all his attention, which meant he didn’t notice something rising from the tenebrous shadows of the ocean.  A serpentine dragon that was larger even than the thing he fought against. He was more concerned with the fact he could feel the same pain funneling in through his feet, causing his muscles to lock painfully. Body vibrating with pain and energy, which made him realizing the kraken was pulsing lightning through his body. Was this something they could do? Well, not like he read up on them before coming here so he couldn’t say for certain.

ow ow ow, this is going terrible. Reminds me to never do this again, The response was the mental version of an ‘I told you so’ which he could not argue with.  Instead trying to keep the chains taut enough to prevent the beast from moving while the spells were weaved and amplified enough to do their thing.

That was of course when a sound boomed through the waters. Hitting his ears with enough force to sending his brain further into headache city. Was something else moving through the water? He could feel the giant sea creature begin to lash around more, drawing upon store of strength not before known. Loosening his grip on the chains enough to throw Jordan from its back and into the dark waters. That was when he saw the other thing.

Best described as a massive glowing blue dragon, being lashed at by the kraken. Looks like we have another maybe problem, he sent through the mental link, hoping that the images within his head also were sent through. The creature was biting at the many tendrils of the dragon, releasing black blood which clouded the waters like ink. With him no longer a target, the ship was once again something to latch onto.

Mentally cursing he propelled himself out of the waters and onto the cracking deck of the ship. Extending what influence he could outwards to keep the ship from falling apart immediately. Many of the humanoid golems were already weaving and releasing spells to weave together the splintering wood. Stopgaps to give them precious few seconds. ”What now?!”

”Dragon!! Big one too!!” he could see even within the chaos an incredulous expression on the mans face. He didn’t really have the chance to respond, with the ship suddenly being pulled forward. Faster than it was intended or enchanted to move which meant they were being dragged through the water. From concealed vessel to speed cruise in seconds.

Looks like something was dragging them along for the ride. Flashes of light earlier in the water also cluing him in on the fact that something chaotic was going on. Was the dragon also attacking the kraken? I’ll try something he thought before shifting the energy around his hands into massive blades, each two handed by human standards by his impressive strength allowed him to wield them with only minor difficulty.

I don’t like the sound of this,

He didn’t give a respond, instead moving across the deck with powerful swings as if trying to sever some of the tentacles holding onto the ship. Thick blood splashed across the decks, deluges that washed around an invisible barrier forming around the mage. He just weathered them, hoping the pain was enough to force something to let go. He could tell which ones were the krakens, if only because the slimy squish before slicing through. One by one they were forced to let go,  though he didn’t really think about what would happen if they were let go.

While he acted, a couple spells were cast. Mostly the ones he requested, managing to wheedle through whatever kept magic from normally touching him. You never make things easy but I got those spells you wanted done, With no reaction beyond a smile he kicked the remnants of a second severed tentacle into the water and leapt into to follow.  As soon as he hit the water, Jordan felt a shift within him. Mostly around his check, mouth and neck as the taste of salt water when he breathed was nonexistent.

He could also breathe under water. Magic was amazing. The ever shifting green energy became a hooked chain, lashing forward and latching onto the krakens neck scales, pulling him forward with great momentum. His whole weight slamming into the creature but not really affecting it. ”Hey Dragon! Not sure if you can hear me, but if you do could you stop draggin this kraken thing?!? It’s gonna tear my ship apart!” He hoped he wasn’t too small to be heard.

The Tentacles that released the ship now began wrapping around Jordan's as it's beak finally snapped down fully, removing one of Jordan's wing-finger tendrils. The Large Dragon recoiled as black muddy blood filled the water. His mouth released from the Kraken, as he began to blink. He had heard a small voice speaking. Looking over and slightly up, the Dragon, frothing from the mouth narrowed its eyes. It would absolutely look threatening, or like judgement, but it was actually just him straining to see where the voice was coming from. After a moment his head was whacked by a powerful tendril, causing Jordan to retreat slightly, his bloody and broken tendril now withdrawn, and he released the Kraken entirely.

The Kraken let out a bellowing pulse sending a torrent of kinetic energy at the large dragon, and with nothing to anchor himself, Jordan went back several dozens of meters, taken back by the magical burst. He'd never genuinely fought in the water before, not since Abyssal and that fight wasn't fair. He was only 20 foot tall then and Abyssal was massive. His eyes turned to the Kraken as he seemed to spin and twirl in the water with an uncanny grace for such a large creature. Jordan stuck his claw into the ground of the ocean itself and anchored in as his next claw came down, eyes turning red.

His body thus far had been black, with a few areas of bioluminescence on his wing-fingers and his barbels. These luminescent pieces all began to wave in a hypnotic pattern for a moment, the barbels creating what almost sounded like a siren's song as it moved through the ocean. The Dragon took a deep breath in, the taste of blood driving him. It released a loud, powerful and bellowing screech that was deafening even in the water. In the process of that screech, the black scales turned a bright blue, there was a crown of red that wrapped near his snake-like hood and with blinding speed it surged forward.

It was impossibly fast for such a large creature as it seemed to fire off and bite once into the creature, then twice more in quick succession, seeming to now be in this for the thrill of the kill, rather than dissuading its cousin from attack. After a litany of bites, Jordan finally got hold of the creature's abdomen and while latched on, Jordan's tongue began to vibrate as it then shifted to the lower part of his mouth, and he released a point-blank beam of the highly concentrated energy. Blood and bubbles mixed as they made their way to the surface.

Releasing the Kraken, Jordan swam away quickly, before assessing the situation. Many of the tendrils were cut, they would regenerate before long. Once the ship was free, however it would go for the most brutal and fun kill it could think of at that moment in time. The Kraken let out a powerful screech as its own eyes began to match Jordan's, a large and powerful ripple effect, nearly invisible to the naked eye was projected towards him. The Large Dragon cocked its head sideways before there were sudden bursts of hot, white light that erupted, a wave of explosive heat energy akin to that of a mantis shrimp.

Jordan let out a snarl, the pain wracked his draconic form as the large abyssal opal on his chest began to spark and crack from the inside. His one eye was scorched and seared as blood now drifted into the water from his head, chest and one severed tendril.

"I should stop playing with my food." Jordan's voice spoke, but his intentions were no longer his own.

He screamed out into the water and yet nothing happened. The dragon turned to him, frothing and squinting as if annoyed with him. Why couldn’t he just read dragon minds? Now that would have been very useful in this particular instance. How was this kraken moving so fast? He didn’t know, though he knew that it was attacking this massive dragon also. Tendrils lashing out at the larger dragon and into him, trying to force him off. It hurt, really hurt but it wasn’t enough to keep him, from latching onto the large oceanic creature.

So he was doing what he could. Slamming a fist into what seemed like a temple, each strike holding all the power he could muster under water and it mostly coming to nothing. They lacked a whole lot of momentum, though he could see the scales around the point of impact cracking within the faint blue bio-luminescence. It was matched with the splitting skin on his knuckles, blood quickly seeping and pouring from the injury site which now stung from the salty sea. Still, even that light was snuffed by the thick black blood flooding into the water.

As the water saturated the water, a crimson red glow joined the blue within it.  The thing beneath him rumbled, moving around with the massive bites and chunks ripped from flesh. More and more blood, something that suggested that this kraken was close to being dealt a killing blow.  That was when the beam of energy lashed out, bringing with it a surge of electricity that ripped from the kraken and slammed into him. It seemed like an unconscious act, though was enough to throw him back.

Muscles began to spasm, pain exploding through his body as he tried to reign in control over it. It happened quicker this time, so he quickly propelled himself out of the water and back into the stormy air. Sea below saturated with with blood and many bubbles rising to the surface along with the frothy waves. Quickly he landed on the deck with a heavy thud, rolling onto his back. His entire body was sore, something he didn’t understand. Was something messing with him? He couldn’t tell, though he could see the tentacles were no longer attached to the ship. Quickly he pushed himself to his feet, a surge of agony through his muscles that quickly faded.

”We win?” Jordan called out to Aaron who was barely clinging to the ship. The ship rocked hard, followed by a massive wave through the waters before things began rocking even harder.  He hopped to his feet, looking ot where a massive whirlpool was brewing.

”Okay, we need to be far away from that!” Aaron called out, feeling it draw the ship closer as the many golems were still trying to keep the ship together. Unleashing powerful spells of mending, anything to keep them together. With that Jordan let his mind run for a few seconds before  running to the opposite end of the ship, hooking green hooks into the durable wood and flew hard to pull it away from the massive whirlpool. What was the dragon doing?

He didn’t know but he was going to keep the whirlpool from swallowing up Aaron and that cool ship of his.

Corkscrew rotation as he took advantage of the fluidity of water. The dynamic motions that he would need to struggle for on the land, or in the air, he could do so much easier here. His wings wreathed the Kraken, his mouth puncturing as he spun like a spinning bullet. Arms locked around as he began to feel a little dizzy. He kept moving in a perfect circular motion, creating the whirlpool and thereby causing many bashing currents against one and other.

This created a horizontal and vertical compiling pressure of ripping and shredding currents, all while following the pattern of an euthanasia coaster, but following the Z axis of the graph. The additional death-roll like he was a massive alligator was just for extra measure. Jordan kept doing this rotation until the water started to make his own incredible durability start feeling pain. Jordan released his arms, the glowing dragon turning dark black in color as he unfolded the inky black wings, and ejecting himself. The poor Kraken was already braindead by the time the water reached it. Its body wracked, contorted and started flopping around, like glitchy physics in a video game as the sheer water itself slices and dismembered the powerful beast, sheer pressure and force alone becoming a macabre blender.

Jordan then turned and began to float towards the ship. The strong currents were tough for even him to resist, but he managed to do fine. He caught up with the ship and placed a hand behind it, pushing it forward, being incredibly careful that its massive hand did not cause damage. The Dragon was calm now, it's obsession was destroyed. The Dragon began to compress itself, letting out a low bellowing whine, similarly to a whale as it's size slowly began to change. It went from 80ft to 60 in the course of a minute, then 60 to 40 in another two, then finally settling at 5ft, climbing on top of the ship's deck and shaking like a dog as it began to look around the fantastical wooden structure.

The dragon quickly walked over to the center and began looking up and down the pole that stood there, then looking around for any signs of life, before realizing that he was not alone. The Dragon's intense look was gone now, it pushed itself onto its hind legs then have a clumsy wave at the rock-winged warrior that seemed to speak some manner of draconic.

"You be knowing the tongue of sea and sky?" The wounded dragon asked, looking at the elemental winged being. Jordan then shook like a dog once more, his wings going limp and pliable, then wrapping around him as he stood on two feet, looking like a manner of cloak more than actual wings. His little barbels began to twitch, no longer floating as freely in the air as he looked about the deck, walking in a clumsy and slow manner of waddle.

"What business did the kin of my kin have with this ship? They naught attack ships without cause. So close to the make of man as well." The language was more flowery than Jordan normally spoke, but it was unfortunately the only way he was taught to speak the tongue.

The massive whirlpool raged, quickly filling with dark blood and viscera that was scattered around the ocean. It looked like whatever fight was going on was done, though Jordan wasn’t so certain. Would the dragon come to fight them once it was done with the kraken? Aaron seemed reticent to see, moving around the shaking ship deck. Muttered words under his breath which were lost to the steadily decreasing winds. Even the whirlpool was losing speed, as if whatever was causing it had stopped or slowed down. That meant he would have to lessen up on the dragging pull he had on the ship.

The golems were no on autopilot, he could tell by the manner they moved around with an almost mechanical gait. Releasing spells from their hands and sigils in their foreheads, forcing the wood to mend and coming back together. Once the seas were calm enough, he landed on the deck and looked to Aaron who was still muttering something as faint glowing sigils began forming over the ship.

”Need help?” He questioned, though all he did was a raise a hand as if asking for silence without saying it. A scaled claw gripped onto the side, pulling something up with it. A rapidly shrinking draconic form that let out a long below as it shrunk. Eventually taking on a length even shorter than him, a mass of tentacles hanging limp at its side.

Aaron was staring at it with a stoic silence and Jordan looked more obviously confused. That was when it spoke, a strange and flowery draconic that confused him for a second. ”Poorly,” Jordan responded, approaching with a little confidence in his ability to defend himself. Then he questioned why the kraken was attacking this ship, which he even had lest answers. ”Verily! Um...I have no idea. We were following some kind of energy source here and there was a kraken bringing a hurricane here. I couldn’t just let it happen, so here I was...fighting a kraken. Aaron helped too, with spells,”

It felt strange, to hear his words come out english and then translated into draconic resonance. ”Thanks for the help though. Was worried it might somehow wreck the ship. I don’t have to fight you too, right?”

"Thou need't worry. Battle is erstwhile and thy rest is earned." The five-foot dragon being said before it's face contorted. Its stomach began making terrible noises, one audible to even those on the outside. The Dragon buried its head down, then let out a retching noise. The sound itself sounded like a mixture of a hat producing a hairball and a seagull singing in the sky. Moving its cloth-like wings over its head it proceeded to project the inner confines of its stomach onto the deck of the ship.

  Clear but slightly orange bile was mixed with salty water, a living fish started flapping about desperately searching for a place to submerge itself. Finally, a loud slapping noise, like that of wet plastic slapping the wooden deck was heard. Jordan quickly pulled his head back, blinked and stepped back, revealing the bag of clothes he has compressed and then shoved in his gullet.

  "Thy honesty bequeaths no favors, but a man is naught but for his word. Thine honor art a beacon." Jordan said as he tried to recall the direct words. The Truth was to him he was told that this would be the translation of "Nah man it's okay, I appreciate you telling me the truth. It takes a big man to admit that." Without any hesitation he picked up the bag and began to look around. Shaking his whole body for a moment he started to bleed this black substance which shook off entirely. Hi scales became like water, his black scales and cloth-like wings turned to water and splashed against the deck, the black coloration leaving.

  "I uh...do English better actually. Uh, do you know English?" Jordan asked, he asked slightly louder than he probably had too, almost as if he assumed speaking louder would somehow break the language barrier. He turned around and looked towards the land. He knew that they were close to the city, close enough to swim in his human form is he needed to. Holding the bag in hand he looked back to the man with the green wings, realizing now that he was not seeing rock, but actual dragon scales. Green, that was an earthen dragon, his brothers of land.

Jordan wasn’t sure if it was just him. The words the dragon spoke sounded English through the spell and yet they sounded...odd. Strangely reminding him of homeschooling, when he hads to read through those old tomes written in english. What did shaking spears have to do with learning anyway? He was lost in thought, though Aaron noted the wretching noises that issued from the dragon. Looking a little concerned, even perturbed by the sounds he was producing.   ”hey uh...Jordan, the dragons doing something,” he spoke up, drawing the earthern half dragon from his thoughts to see the dragon beginning to vomit something up. He rapidly blinked, trying to comprehend what was going on. Was he poisoned from fighting the kraken? For all he knew they had poisonous blood, which could have caused some kind of negative reaction. Granted poison did nothing to him, but what about sea dragons?

After vomiting up what looked to be a suitcase, the dragon continued as if he didn’t do that. ”Neat,” Jordan noted, now looking more amused than anything else. Did dragons have larger stomachs? He really wanted to know, but asking sounded like one of those things you just didn’t ask someone. Well, not without getting strange looks. Like when he asked Sammy about various things that came with being a demon. Also he learned not to bring holy water anywhere near him. Too many tragic memories for all involved.

That was when the scales melted away like water, revealing a humanoid form. Now that was something he could work with. With that done he let the wings pull back through the large slits in his shirt and fade back into whatever energy they came from. So it looked like being able to take on a bipedal form was something dragons could do, which maybe meant Deimos wasn’t weird in that respect. He didn’t really ask the male about that either.

"No I can speak english fine! Awesome!" he spoke, sounding normal to himself.

"Right, so you can speak it....so please speak it?"

Jordan became a little perplexed with this. "I am speaking it!"

"No...that's....Still Old Draconic..."

"What? Oh no the magic!" He suddenly realized what was going in, eyes wide as he tried tor each for a nonexistent off switch.

"Magic? Where's the magic? I mean it's nice to meet you but I don't think magic is the right word..." That only made him turn slightly red in embarrassment, Aaron letting the palm of his hand slap into his own face.  Drawing the green dragons attention, now even more confused.

”universal translation spell. He...can’t actually speak draconic, never bothered to learn. Ironic I know but here we are.” He snapped his fingers, wisps of magic emanating from them and crackling around Jordan as the spell broke.  ”Try it now,” He offered, though the done with this shit tone was still present in his voice.

”Am I sounding normal now?” Aaron nodded at that, then looking just enough in the dragons direction to note something. ”Alright that’s way better. Lucky for me the water breathing spells doesn’t keep me from breathing air, now that would be a problem,” He noted, feeling his neck where he assumed gills had grown and feeling nothing.

”Not sure if this bothers Jordan here but you’re...well you’re naked.” The hurricane force winds and heavy rain had become something lighter, likely not even an issue for LA anymore. Aside from people that didn’t like being rained on. ”Might have some spares but not sure if they’d fit you. Well, if you’re the same size as this guy maybe,”

Jordan was confused at the magic and the spells but was suddenly greeted with a musing about water breathing and air breathing. It was a really good thing that it didn't work that way. Jordan smiled and nodded in agreement with the stranger. It was then that a familiar looking figure had spoken out about the effects of the translation magic.

"I KNOW! Air is so much thinner than water, but I feel more comfortable breathing water, like it feels like I get more of a deep breath from it, ya know?" He said hitting his chest with his own closed fist. He wasn't sure if it was because water was thicker and had less oxygen in it, or if it was because air didn't feel like it filled the lungs as well, but he was genuinely happy to be a water breather.

It's weird and flowery language bro. Not gonna lie you'll feel like you're living the days of Lore." He said, completely mistaking the expression of yore with a close work. He smiled and nodded for effect. That was when the strangely familiar looking man had said about him being naked.

Jordan looked down at himself and nodded.

"Nah I'm not bothered. Thanks though. I got clothes here, I'll change in a sec." He said before looking to the other dragon being and continuing his conversation with him. "So the green constructs. The badass swords like, was that a dragon thing, or was that just magic?"

The dragon went on to talk about breathing water and air, something that Jordan nodded along to as if that made perfect sense. Not bothered by the lack of modesty as the ,age was, though he just seemed to be averting his gaze from him. ”More of an air guy myself. Guess the ocean and breathing water just don’t feel right to an earth dragon like myself,” He vaguely knew what it felt like, though that sensation was not something he wanted to constantly deal with.  It made his chest feel heavy and uncomfortable just thinking about it.

”Oh yeah, sounded like those weird plays my parents made me read. Don’t know why though. Don’t even get me started on how little it made sense, aside from people with donkey heads,” He shrugged, not unused to olden speak but also not understand it enough. The fact people even talked like that was a mystery to him. Honestly it sounded like a lie smart people made up to sound superior to everyone else. It wasn’t until Aaron brought it up that Jordan looked down to see that the guy was indeed naked. If it bothered him, it didn’t show on his face.

”Guess so. I mean, all tests say it’s some kind of magic but I just suddenly was able to use it one day. Wasn’t the first weird magic I could do but it’s one of them,” He gestured, creating what looked to be a green rooster with the same scaled pattern. ”Since you were showing me yours, I’d thought I’d show you mine,” Holding the construct, which gave little motions he gave a pleased with himself chuckle. All Aaron did to that was groan, as if disappointed with the lame joke.  

”If it’s a dragon thing I haven’t heard of any dragons do it before,”

”Yeah, it’s pretty weird but gets me by. Those lasers you were shooting out, now those were pretty cool too,” He turned attention to the dragons strange breath weapon, seeming far more interested in that.

Jordan watched as he made a strange construction with the energy at hand. It looked similar to Archon energy, but less colorful, it was just a stale green color. Stale was preferable to Jordan, honestly it was less for the brain to get distracted by. He watched as the rooster began to look around, acting just as one would normally have functioned. Did he need to think about making it act like that, or did it just automatically do that.

"The moon would look really pretty with green fire over it." He said in an almost absent-minded tone, poking the green construct. The entire humor of what the other person had said was lost to him. He saw him laughing a little, but he didn't know how to respond to that. The breath weapon, however was an easy story.

"Quintessence? Yeah it's sort of rare I guess. It's nothing too special though." He said, hoping that this mage wasn't going to out the fact that it was a symbol of Primordial Dragons and Children of Balance... or somehow knew that Jordan was both of these things. He cleared his throat a little bit and then looked to the mage, hoping to distract him a second. "Aaron, how's Arianna?" He said as he slowly opened his bag the airtight seal breaking. Reaching in and pulling out some basketball shorts he quickly put them on and tied the string tight.

Jordan nodded along to the dragons seemingly thoughtless statement. The moon looked a little bland anyway, all pale white or yellow when it was feeling special. Not that he had ever thought about actually doing anything like changing the moons color. His talents when it came to magic weren’t as impressive as others, in the fact that he had almost no talents in magic.  Sure, he was innately magical but gathering the energy to craft spells was a little more complex than he could pull off.

The rooster construct seemed to budge at the prodding, though Jordan was mostly subconsciously creating those smaller movements. Wasting his time mastering more mobile constructs occasionally led to him just crafting animal shaped constructs that tended to crawl around, even biting people if he wasn’t careful. No one around the house was too fond of that aspect of things. The mention of quintessence mostly drew a confused expression from Jordan, who hadn’t heard anything about it. Sounded cool though. Maybe gave the dragon some cool powers, which were an intrigue enough for him.

Removing his grasp from the rooster he let it fade back into whatever energy stores he had within him. ”Good question. How is your mom lately?” He turned to Aaron who seemed temporarily thrown off.

”She’s fine. Mostly enjoying her years of...retirement as she calls it.” He seemed to answer, pausing and then glaring at the dragon. With a snap of the finger the golems began moving, mostly manning the ship to return to shore proper. Jordan assumed he was at the very least no longer bothered by the nudity. ”How do you know me or my mother? Who are you, really?” Okay, there was an edge in his voice that Jordan didn’t like.

”Good idea! You probably know everyone's names here now, so it’s only fair. What can I call ya? Afterall, we did fight a kraken basically together. Pretty sure that’s worth swapping names over. I’m Jordan!” He went from worried about a fight to friendly within seconds, flashing that usual friendly grin.