NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: A Bittersweet Defeat
The Kraken wailed, straining with everything he had to get loose of his chains. Each and every one of his tentacles had been restrained and the shackles seemed to be holding him down quite well. There was desperation in those eyes as Lukas' other arm began to grow in size as well; muscles rippling as it transformed into its more monstrous draconic form.
"SAVE ME!" Lukas winced at the sudden cry of help the Kraken was sending out through his mind and he wondered who in the world he could be talking to. Then out of the corner of his eye, Lukas could see the guards rising up with vigour; raising their long spears as they began to move towards the Kraken so as to answer his plea for help.
Lukas cursed under his breath as he continued to hold the Kraken down with both hands now. Those guards were still under his control and in the midst of dealing with the Kraken, Lukas had forgotten all about them.
"HELP ME!" The Kraken's mental vocalization boomed through the prison and with horror, Lukas watched as the seemingly silent courtyard erupted with a cacophony of screeches from its prisoners. Kuria's inhabitants banged against the cage with desperation as if it was their own lives that were being endangered. They shook the bars of their cages, some even banging their heads with full force against metal.
Lukas had to end this now.
Before one of the guards neared him, a giant hammer came swinging down upon the dragon's skull; sending him to the ground in a thunderous crash. It was Katrina! Looking back, it was a good thing that his niece had insisted on coming along with him and Lukas grinned as Katrina gave him a nod of reassurance.
The only thing Lukas needed to worry about now was killing the creature in his grasp.
Taking advantage of the split second in which Lukas had been distracted, the Kraken jerked back violently. Lukas grimaced as his sharp claws tore through flesh and the Kraken escaped from his grip but at the cost of a terrible wound. But that was still no where near enough to take him out of the fight.
Lukas rushed forward, planning to claw his way through the Kraken's head again but this time he'd make sure it would be the finishing blow. But the Kraken reacted just as fast and Lukas' claws simply tore through his tentacles instead of his head.
Suddenly an explosion of darkness hit Lukas full on in the face and in an intant, he was blinded.
It was ink!
Lukas stumbled back through the water, urging the seas to move him away from the murky substance. It was not only hard to see but it smelt strange, almost pungent; the ink's stench was enough for Lukas to want to move away from it as fast as he possibly could. Lukas' eyes searched fervently through the expanse of black for movement; the Kraken and his enormous size should not be hard to spot even through the black clouds of ink all around them.
Yet Lukas was unable to pick him out.
Where did he go?
Bursting through the black clouds, a hand lashed out and Lukas barely avoided out by leaning back; the water aiding his movements. And then he saw the figure emerge from the ink.
The Kraken stood impossibly tall, towering over even the mightiest of Dragonborn in their own humanoid forms, his body a grotesque fusion of man and abyssal horror. They stood eye to eye. His skin, slick and eerily smooth; its color a shifting, mottled black-blue that glistened like wet ink. His face was monstrous, his head elongated and cephalopodic, with countless tendrils spilling from where a mouth should be. These tentacles writhe and coil, exuding a silent menace, each moving as if alive with its own will.
"You…that's not possible." Lukas whispered in dreadful realization.
Lukas would have suspected it was some kind of other form of magic that allowed the kraken to take on this humanoid form, but he could recognize the familiar energy that now exuded from the Kraken.
The Kraken was using the Draconic Flow.
Someone had taught the Kraken the technique, allowing him to transform into a humanoid form. In doing so, the Kraken had set himself free of his chains, chains that had held him here for hundreds of years. The Kraken's use of the Draconic Flow was incomplete and unpolished, but the creature was skilled enough with the technique to grant himself the form that stood before Lukas now.
His hands, elongated and webbed, end in jagged, claw-like fingers, built for grasping, for drowning, for pulling victims into the dark. His body was sinewy yet impossibly strong, like the coiling pressure of a deep-sea monster. There was a grin the Kraken's face as the creature watched the Lordling grasp at straws, trying to understand how on Hiraeth the Kraken had gotten his hands on the well-kept secret of the draconic kind.
Despite the revelation, Lukas did not have the time to worry about that problem. Lukas had to put the Kraken down now, regardless of what form he took, because letting him escape was not an option.
Lukas closed the distance between them in a second, landing a swift blow to the gut and the Kraken responded by cracking an elbow across his face. Lukas' head swung back but he let the momentum carry him through the water, urging the seas to flow with it.
Being underwater and having the ability to control the movement of it had given him so much more variety to choose from. It was like gravity no longer existed. His body spun with blinding speed as he landed a spinning kick to the Kraken's side. The blow sent the Kraken flying, crashing into cages suspended into the air before sinking to the prison floor.
There was anger in the Kraken's eyes as he stared up towards Lukas from where he knelt, a hand clutching his side. The Kraken was still bleeding from the wound that Lukas had dealt him while he'd still been in chains; he was losing too much blood and the Kraken was getting weaker with each passing second.
But then the anger began to fade from the Kraken's eyes and the creature began to shake his head in pure amusement.
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"To think that I'd be humiliated by another Drakos. You dragons really are a pain." The Kraken spoke now and his voice was nothing like Lukas would have expected.
When he spoke, his voice was an unsettling, liquid resonance, carrying the crushing weight of the abyss itself. This entire time he had been using thoughts to communicate but now his words could be heard without the use of his Divinity. His voice was smooth and concise, almost friendly. Lukas heard no real hostility in it but he knew otherwise.
"Is this the true power of the Kraken? Draconic Flow or not, you really aren't much of an issue." Lukas scoffed, inching closer and this time absolutely ready to take the Kraken's life.
"Pride has and always will be the downfall of your kind, Drakos."
A shadow loomed over the two figures and without warning, a spiked tail crashed into Lukas' back; sending him to the ground. It wasn't more so the force itself but rather the sudden ambush that had Lukas so discombobulated.
Lukas raised his head to see a magnificent beast of a dragonborn standing before him. His scales, pristine as moonlight in undisturbed water, gleamed like polished pearls, their luster untouched by age or battle. They were layered like the finest armor, a natural masterpiece of both elegance and indomitability. He had golden eyes that now held an unnatural glow, a sickly radiance, twisted by the Kraken's possession of his mind.
His attacker was massive, even among his kin, his wings broad enough to cast entire villages in shadow, each beat of them sending massive tremors through the water. The great horns upon his head curved backward like a crown of ivory, adorned with runes that flickered with latent power. His presence alone was suffocating, a being born to rule the skies, yet now shackled to an unseen master's will.
Without warning, Samuel Sterling in his full draconic form roared, the sound of an ear-splitting crack of thunder beneath the stormy sea. The very sea trembled as waves bucked and crashed against the prison's foundations, the force of his magic warping the tides themselves. It was greater than any magic that Katrina had been able to show him for she was still a novice in the arts of magic. Samuel Sterling was a master.
Without warning, Samuel moved, his speed unnatural. In the deep, where even the mightiest of creatures were sluggish, he cut through the water like a blade through flesh. The ocean itself twisted around him, drawn into the force of his presence, bending to his will.
And then, the current shifted. What had once been a slow, crushing silence of the depths became a raging vortex.
Lukas barely had time to react before the entire prison chamber erupted in a violent spiral of wind and water. A storm was brewing underwater. Samuel's jaws parted, and he inhaled, drawing in the very water around them, his throat glowing with a spectral light. And then, with a single exhalation, he unleashed a typhoon.
The force of it was monstrous. The sheer pressure of the gale sent shockwaves tearing through the water, dragging debris and shattered stone into the chaos. The ocean itself roared as the prison walls groaned, the ancient structure bending beneath the violent currents now raging through it.
Lukas felt himself being yanked off balance, his body thrown into the vortex, spinning wildly as the unnatural storm consumed him. The water became a cage—walls of slicing wind whipping through it, cutting through solid stone like parchment.
And then Lukas heard the familiar voice of the Kraken, speaking through Samuel. "This is the true power of the Kraken, Lukas."
Samuel's wings snapped outward, and the vortex intensified, dragging Lukas into its maw. The very currents of the sea obeyed the dragon, bending, breaking, twisting. Lukas had not experienced a magic quite like this but it was nothing he could not fight against. Time and time again, the strength of his new body exceeded his expectations even when he was up against those of his own kind.
If he really wanted to, Lukas could fight through this vortex and take the dragonborn's life. No magic required. Just pure grit and physicality.
Kill Samuel Sterling now, and the Kraken would lose a valuable pawn. Lukas knew this was the way. He had never shown mercy to his opponents in the octagon as Julien Fronterra and there was no reason why he should spare them as Lukas Drakos.
This was just how it had to be if he wanted to win.
Then, Lukas stopped as his eyes looked towards the Kraken and then Samuel Sterling. He was still Jesse's father. Killing him would leave that child fatherless. Killing him would mean that Jesse would not have a father to go to, to rely on, to love.
Samuel's eyes, still glowing with that eerie golden hue, flickered for just a moment, a crack in the unyielding influence that bound him. They locked eyes and Samuel could see Lukas, ready to kill him on the spot.
Samuel shook his head in desperation, pleading with Lukas to spare him for he was doing this against his will.
Samuel wasn't beyond saving.
Jesse could still have his father.
"Damn it all!" Lukas roared because he knew what the right thing to do was. Even if it meant that the Kraken would escape his grasp.
Lukas had to watch through the whirling blades of wind as the Kraken rose through the water. The octopus-humanoid moved not with urgency, not with desperation, but with certainty. Even as the Kraken slithered toward the prison's only exit, he smiled at Lukas Drakos, smug and unbothered. He gave Lukas a small wave before clouds of ink exploded around them, obscuring Lukas' line of vision.
Just like that the Kraken was gone.
Lukas cursed under his breath, now more annoyed than worried at the display of magical strength Samuel was dishing out. All elemental attacks did not affect him because of his title as a Dragon Lord and he could suddenly feel himself gain control of the winds itself. Lukas forced them to cease, disrupting the flow of the winds before shooting forward, grabbing the dragon by the throat.
The noble dragon thrashed, his magic still raging in the waters around them, but Lukas did not let go.
Lukas exhaled sharply, his grip tightening around Samuel's throat before driving his fist into the noble's temple. The force rippled through the water, a deep thrum echoing in the depths as Samuel's golden eyes dimmed. His massive body convulsed once before going limp, the raging winds around them dying instantly, silenced by unconsciousness.
The ocean settled. But Lukas did not feel victorious.
"Merciful. Just like your father." The Kraken's voice slithered into his mind, rich with amusement.
Lukas did not know where he was but the Kraken had made sure to send that message to him through mental connection, just to rub it in.
And rub it in, the Kraken did. "Let us see if such mercy serves you, Lukas Drakos. We will see one another soon. Very soon."
Then, silence.
Lukas stared into the darkness where the Kraken had vanished, his jaw clenched. Yes, Lukas had saved Samuel Sterling but at the cost of allowing the Kraken to escape. He clenched his fists tight till the knuckles turned white as he realized...this was his loss.
The Kraken had won this round.