Abyssal Tide Serpent

The Abyssal Tide Serpent coiled before me, its massive form shifting like a living storm given flesh. Scales shimmered with an unnatural sheen, reflecting the deep blues and violent greens of the charged ocean behind it. Its serpentine body undulated, rising high above the battlefield, water dripping in sheets from its elongated fangs. The air stank of salt and ozone, the aftershock of its earlier lightning-infused attack still thrumming in my bones.

Rachel stood at my side, her golden aura crackling in defiance, her staff glowing with imbued light.

"We're not winning this," she muttered.

I exhaled, steadying my grip on my sword. "Not the point. We just need to hold."

The Abyssal Tide Serpent let out a guttural, rumbling hiss, the sound vibrating through the sand beneath our feet. Then it struck.

It moved faster than anything that size should be able to. A blur of shifting scales, a rush of water drawn in its wake. I barely had time to react.

Lucent Harmony.

The moment I activated it, the world expanded. My senses stretched, catching the finer threads of mana that swirled around us. The air, thick with the serpent's elemental energy, no longer felt suffocating—it was something I could control. The battlefield became clearer, each movement slowed in my perception, like I was glimpsing fractions of a second ahead of time.

The serpent lunged, and I stepped forward, blade rising in an arc.

God Flash.

Silver light trailed the blade as I twisted my form, shifting my balance with the finesse of a blade dancer. The moment my sword met the serpent's advancing fangs, the world erupted in sparks. The force sent me skidding back, feet digging into the wet sand. My arms screamed from the impact, but I had stopped the attack.

Rachel seized the opening.

She swept her staff forward, golden light condensing into a blinding Radiant Lance. The divine spear shot forward, aimed directly at the serpent's eye.

The beast screeched, its massive coils writhing as the golden light singed its form. But it wasn't enough.

With a vicious twist of its body, it summoned a tidal force that slammed into us like a crashing wave. The impact knocked me off my feet, sending me tumbling across the battlefield. The moment I hit the ground, I rolled back into a crouch, spitting out sand.

Rachel had already recovered, her golden wings of mana flickering as she hovered just above the battlefield. She wasn't flying—she couldn't, not yet—but she was manipulating the ambient mana to lighten her steps, allowing her a kind of aerial mobility.

I took a deep breath. I could feel it—Lucent Harmony was still active, still amplifying my awareness, still expanding my magic.

"Arthur!" Rachel shouted. "Hit it now!"

I didn't hesitate.

I reached out, and for the first time, I wielded five-circle magic.

Lucent Storm.

Lightning coalesced around my body, bright silver threads arcing through my blade. But it wasn't just lightning. It was time magic, woven into the attack, speeding up the charge, amplifying the conduction through the air.

With a single step, I disappeared.

Reappeared above the serpent's exposed back.

And struck.

Silver lightning cascaded down my blade as I carved into the beast's hide. The impact sent a concussive blast rippling outward, sending up geysers of sand and water. The serpent howled, its massive body twisting in agony, but it didn't go down.

Rachel followed up instantly, launching another barrage of light-infused arrows that detonated along the serpent's length. The explosions rocked the battlefield, forcing the beast back, its coils slamming into the ocean and sending towering waves surging outward.

I barely had time to breathe before the counterattack came.

Rachel and I moved as one.

I reached for my mana, channeling Lucent Harmony to its peak. Rachel activated her Saintess Gift, her golden aura flaring brighter than ever.

We attacked together.

I surged forward, blade flashing through elemental turbulence, carving through stray bolts of lightning, dodging collapsing gravitational wells. Rachel fired spell after spell, her arrows of light bending through the wind, seeking the serpent's vulnerable points.

We hit it, over and over, pushing it back. But no matter how hard we struck, no matter how fast we moved, it did not fall.

And then, it roared.

The sky collapsed.

A maelstrom of magic erupted from the Abyssal Tide Serpent, the sheer force knocking me off my feet. I slammed into the sand, my vision going white for a moment.

When I struggled to my feet, Rachel was beside me, breathing hard, her form wavering slightly from the sheer exhaustion of using her Gift at full power.

The serpent still stood. Wounded, but very much alive.

We weren't enough.

And that was when I felt it.

A new presence.

Multiple, actually.

Powerful. Beyond even Rachel.

The reinforcements had arrived.

Figures descended from the sky, the air shimmering with their immense mana. One of them, a tall man wreathed in lightning, raised a single hand—and the heavens themselves answered.

A six-circle spell.

The skies erupted. True lightning struck, a force far beyond what Rachel or I could conjure, piercing the Abyssal Tide Serpent straight through its core.

The beast screeched, its body writhing in agony.

And at that moment, I exhaled, my legs nearly giving out.

We had done it.

We had held long enough.

The battle was over. The Abyssal Tide Serpent lay motionless, its colossal form still sparking with residual energy from the devastating final blow. Reinforcements moved in to clean up the remnants, their presence a reminder that Rachel and I had barely managed to hold on long enough.

I exhaled slowly, letting the tension bleed from my muscles as I deactivated Lucent Harmony, feeling the artificial clarity of my mana perception fade back to normal. Rachel's golden aura flickered out as well, the celestial glow of her Gift dimming until she was just… Rachel again.

We had done it. Somehow.

And then I was tackled to the ground.

Not by an enemy. Not by an errant explosion.

By Rachel.

I hit the sand with a grunt, my vision briefly full of blue sky before it was eclipsed by very angry sapphire eyes.

"Hey, idiot." Rachel's voice was sharp, but it wavered—something raw beneath the irritation. "Do you have any idea how worried I was when you disappeared?"

'Wow, this is quite the scene,' a distinctly amused voice purred in my thoughts.

I stiffened.

'What.'

For a moment, my brain stalled, struggling to reconcile the very real threat of Rachel Creighton pinning me to the ground with the disembodied voice that just spoke directly into my mind.

'Relax,' the voice continued, far too entertained. 'You already know who I am.'

I exhaled sharply through my nose. 'Luna?'

'Obviously. You and I are bonded now, remember?'

Right. That.

Luna's presence was warm in the back of my mind, like a constant pulse of silver light I could sense but not fully grasp. I pushed her voice aside for now, filing away the existential crisis of sharing headspace with a celestial entity for later.

I needed to deal with Rachel first.

"It's not like I wanted to disappear, Rach," I said, trying to sound reasonable from my very compromised position on the ground.

Her glare didn't let up, and her grip on my collar remained firm, as if she was debating shaking me for good measure.

I opened my mouth, about to offer some kind of reassurance, but then I realized something.

The way she was straddling me was—

"...Could you get off?" I blurted, feeling the heat creep up my neck. "You're a bit—"

I cut myself off too late.

Rachel's expression froze.

Her gaze flickered down, then back up to me. Her cheeks flared red.

She very deliberately pushed off me, standing in a single, fluid motion that somehow made me feel like the one being dismissed.

She dusted off her uniform, slowly, before fixing me with a pointed stare.

"...Were you just calling me fat, Arthur Nightingale?"

I paled. "No—wait, I didn't mean—"

Her eyes narrowed further.

I scrambled for a lifeline. "Rachel, I just got thrown around by a six-star serpent, and I think I might have mana poisoning from using too many elements at once, so please—mercy?"

For a long, terrible moment, she considered it.

Then she sighed, shaking her head. "You're lucky you're injured," she muttered, crossing her arms. The blush was still faint on her face, but she seemed mercifully willing to move past it.

She studied me for a moment, her expression shifting from murderous to something closer to curiosity. "You got stronger," she noted. "Way stronger."

I nodded, relieved to be back in safer conversational territory.

"You awakened your Gift," she continued, her voice quieter now. It wasn't a question.

"I did." I could feel Lucent Harmony thrumming at my core, the power settled but still so unfamiliar. "And I…" I hesitated, then exhaled. "I reached High Silver-rank."

Rachel's eyes widened slightly. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

She let out a low whistle, tilting her head slightly as she studied me. "That explains it, then."

"Explains what?"

"The way you moved back there." Her voice held something like awe, but not in the way people looked at Lucifer. It wasn't admiration from a distance, but the genuine surprise of someone who had underestimated me and realized their mistake.

"You're not the same Arthur from a few days ago," she murmured.

I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

I wasn't the same. And I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Rachel smiled suddenly, the tension breaking. "Well, since you can apparently cheat growth rates, you're going to have to show me exactly what you can do now."

I exhaled a laugh, shaking my head. "Not right now. I need at least—" I winced as I tried to move. "—a minute."

She grinned, offering me a hand. "Take two."

I took it, pulling myself upright. Despite the soreness, despite the exhaustion, I felt lighter than I had in a long time.

Maybe it was the breakthrough.

Maybe it was the bond with Luna shifting something in my core.

Or maybe—just maybe—it was because, for the first time, I wasn't chasing after someone else's expectations.

I was finally standing on my own path.