Vocalis Libertas

"A priest is the warrior's mind."

—Beamon Priesthood Codex

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A flicker of resolve crossed Ning Yu's features, her lips moving in silent incantation.

"Stop!" Xu's cry came too late.

Azure light erupted, ensnaring shark knights, tiger-headed predators, and Princess Aviere herself within golden titans' grasp. Twelve metallic colossi now encircled the seascape, each step across waves producing metallic clangs that sent concentric ripples cascading.

The princess's azure eyes reflected approaching doom. These leviathans—patinated bronze bodies etched with mercury sigils—moved with glacial inevitability. Their faces bore alien features: hooked noses, deep-set eagle eyes, and expressions caught between smile and scowl.

To sea-dwellers raised on tales of surface-world weakness, the revelation proved soul-crushing. Even battle-hardened shark knights froze, comprehending their insignificance before ancient Eastern might.

"Wind whistles cold through Yi River's flow..." Ning Yu's voice quavered in an ancient dirge as tiger sharks fled instinctually. "The hero departs, never to return..."

Liu's answering roar shattered despair:

"Pride laughs at ten thousand waves!

Blood burns hotter than crimson dawn!

Iron sinews, steel-spined throng!

Hearts vast as skies, vision stretching long!"

Golden light erupted from his form, cascading over panda warriors. Their bodies convulsed—muscles ballooning, fur bristling like porcupine quills. Eyes once gentle burned crimson.

Gu De moved first.

The panda's trident became silver lightning, punching through a shark knight's skull before the victim could blink. Twenty more projectiles followed, skewering scaled warriors and their mounts alike. Blood blossomed across azure waters like macabre roses.

"Dry the sea-dogs' bones!" Gu De's war cry echoed as his trident found Aviere's hippocampus. The skeletal steed's skull exploded in sparks, flaming debris embedding in the princess's abdomen.

Liu hit water before the scream left her lips. He surfaced clutching princess and smoldering seahorse, the latter's obsidian bones crackling like firewood.

Chaos reigned aboard Penglai. Xu trembled before transformed crewmen—once jovial pandas now wrath incarnate. "Fools! You've doomed us all!"

"Shared fate binds us," Liu grinned wolfishly, dumping his prize on deck. The princess's pearlescent tail twitched feebly, gills fluttering like dying butterflies. "Hostage makes fine peace offering."

Hailun's healing chants wove through carnage. Where her touch passed, panda warriors' bulging veins subsided—yet their eyes retained hellish glints.

Ning Yu knelt beside the wounded princess, iridescent shells folding protectively. "This cruelty serves no—"

"Survival justifies means," Liu cut her off, fingers probing the trident shaft. "Fetch saltwater and spider-silk bandages. Unless..." He turned to Xu, smile sharp as gutting knife. "...you'd rather feed her to sharks?"

The scholar's jade rings clinked as he trembled. Ancient wisdom warred with primal fear—until practicality won. "Below decks. Medical stores portside."

As crew scrambled, Liu noted the princess's fading pulse. Her coral lips moved soundlessly, forming curses or pleas he couldn't decipher.

"Live, fish-girl," he muttered, pressing seaweed poultice to the wound. "Dead princess buys naught but watery graves for all."