Chapter Twenty-Six: Aura Gets Wet
The young death toucher scoured the cloudy water surrounding the tiny rowboat he was riding in. On the floor of the hard wooden boat laid the unconscious body of someone the boy knew, but wasn’t sure exactly how he knew him. If he were wearing his Captain armor, perhaps the boy would have recognized him. An arbitrary detail at this point, as Aura waited on edge to see exactly what the greater demon he was facing had in store for him.
Just my luck, the boy thought to himself. I get stuck with the water enemy. I guess this is payback for using that ‘murky depths’ strategy I was so confident in.
From his seat in the boat, all Aura could see was dark cloudy water and the tall rocks jutting out of the ocean next to him, obscuring his view of the shoreline. Light from the artificial sun was blocked out by those rocks, which cast a giant shadow over the boy in the boat. The jagged black fin he’d been watching circle him submerged, the only signs of where the demon might be were the small torrents of bubbles that occasionally floated to the surface.
“Stupid devil,” came a voice from below. “Now you’re done for!”
Though he was not entire sure how the demon could communicate through the water so clearly, Aura never backed down from a little pre-battle dialogue. The boy rose to his feet, working to keep his balance as the waves tossed the boat.
“Let me guess,” he said. “You’re some kind of fish demon. So you think you’ve got the advantage by dragging me out into the middle of the water. Bravo.”
“Crack jokes while you still can, death toucher,” Orkazek replied, the bubbles of air where the voice seemed to be emanating from only feet away from the boat. Aura kept his eyes on those bubbles until the jagged black fin pierced the surface of the water. “There’s no way a stupid devil like you could ever understand the genius of my plan! There’s a reason my Master trusted me with the mission of eliminating the death toucher, and that’s because in the water I’m unbeatable!”
“Well, be it as it may, the shore is right over there,” Aura said, trying to look past the tall rocks. “So I think I’ll just be going now.”
SPLOOSH!
A geyser of mist shot out of water not five feet away from the boat. Aura twisted in alarm, summoning a reactionary fireball. The geyser disappeared, leaving behind a faint fog in the air. Aura thought he saw the jagged black fin break the surface there, but SPLOOSH! Another geyser shot up several feet away, depositing more misty water vapor into the surrounding area.
SPLOOSH! SPLOOSH! SPLOOSH!
Geysers shot out of the water all around the boat. Aura wasn’t certain which way to look anymore. The boy suspected an attack to come from any direction, but he had other things to worry about as well. Getting the unconscious man to safety was a top priority, as was getting back to dry land. The demon’s little hide and seek game wasn’t exactly helping him to plan accordingly.
In a few minutes the boat was completely surrounded by an eerie bright fog. Aura couldn’t see the tall rocks anymore, which were only feet away from the bow of the boat.
He’s trying to hide and confuse me so I can’t fly back to shore, Aura thought. As long as I remember that the tall rocks were on my right, I’ll be fine.
The boy looked to the right, but it looked no different from the left. Foggy. White. Almost blindingly bright. The boy had to look down at the water surface just to rest his eyes from the brightness. The water surface was no easier to see through. But it wasn’t what was underneath the water that caught the death toucher’s eye. Something was happening on top of the water instead.
A small current in the water slowly pushed the boat around in circles, so subtely Aura hadn’t even noticed. The death toucher had no idea how long that had been going on for, but he was quite certain of at least one thing.
I’m screwed now!
“How’s it going up there stupid devil?” said the voice of Orkazek, emanating out of the water all around Aura. “Figured out what I’m up to yet? Or is my plan too complicated for your simple little devil mind?”
Aura removed his gauntlet and clipped it to a belt loop on his pants. “Listen up Fish! The day I’m outsmarted by some smelly, weird, fish demon is never going to come! You think you know who you’re dealing with? You think you have the home field advantage? You think you’re actually smarter than me? Then attack me already! Let’s see if you’ve figured out a way to beat this.”
Blue bolts of soul energy jumped off the boy’s right hand as he searched the surrounding water for his foe. He was confident that his opponent’s plan was to leap out of the water at him. He felt confident that if he could only get in one good death touch, the fight could be over before it really even had to begin. That was his plan, anyway. But as the boat began to tremble a new thought dawned on Aura.
Of course! He’s attacking from below!
The boy put his gauntlet back on and knelt down to lift the unconscious Captain into his arms. The boat rocked and swayed as the water grew choppier. Aura’s legs buckled as he struggled to lift the heavy man in the turbulent boat. By the time he managed to stand and gain his balance again, Aura realized the boat was leaving the water.
The wooden rowboat rose out of the ocean, suspended by a giant column-like stream of flowing water. The death toucher rode the upstream, oblivious to what was actually happening. All he knew was that he had to get out of there right now. The boat soared up and out of the fog and Aura could see the tall rocks directly in front of him now.
Without a moment to spare the boy focused a little soul power to his feet, brought out his wings, and launched himself into the air. He beat his wings hard to lift the heavy man, but it would be a difficult flight if he kept it up. Lucky for him, the nearest of the tall rocks provided a perfect landing spot. There he was able to regain his footing and spin around to view the boat.
He saw the giant stream of rushing water, somehow defying gravity and flowing up, with enough force to lift the boat over ten feet off the surface of the water. The boat was spinning wildly like a carnival ride at the top of the stream, the wooden oars ejected from their holders. Then in a second, the rowboat snapped in half right down the middle and sunk into the water stream. The giant aqua column shrunk like someone turned off a faucet, the water receding back into the sea.
The boy sighed a huge breath of relief to have missed that event. He set his sights on the shoreline before him, only a few hundred feet away, where a lot of people were gathered. They seemed to be staring out in his direction, looking right at him. Investigating the area around him, Aura found a few capsized boats littering the water around the bases of the rocks below. The poor souls had probably come to check on his game of Battle Boats and been capsized by the demon.
Aura hopped to the next rock, using his wings for a little boost. Supporting the weight of two wasn’t exactly fun, so Aura wanted to wait till he absolutely had to before flying. The rocks were surprisingly wide and spacious on top and provided a nice platform to move across. The tall rocks were a popular destination in East Hell for people looking to do some training, play games on top of, and even sometimes picnic on.
He jumped from rock to rock until he came to the final platform before the open ocean, and further away, the shoreline. The people gathered there pointed at Aura and waved their arms frantically. Some bozo on the beach pushed another rowboat into the water and risked jumping in.
“Get ready to catch!” Aura shouted to no one in particular. He just wanted to be sure the people were watching if he needed to suddenly drop the unconscious man.
Aura focused some soul power on his wings for a little extra reinforcement. With the unconscious Captain still sleeping in his arms, the death toucher hopped off the final tall rock and beat wing. Though using soul power on his wings did make it easier to lift the extra weight of the Captain, the amount of power he had to use and the time spent holding it there was a bigger drain on him.
Aura made it ten feet away from the rocks when SPLOOSH! The familiar sou
nd of a geyser erupted, just below the boy. Aura sped up and flew over the rising column of water just in time. But then just like before, SPLOOSH! SPLOOSH! SPLOOSH! More upstreams shot out of the water at the boy. Aura twisted to dodge the surging blasts of water, nearly dropping the unconscious Captain as he went.
SPLOOOOOSH…
A giant water stream rumbled from below, blasting out of the ocean with more force than any of the others before it. It erupted several feet ahead of Aura, giving the boy plenty of time to redirect his flight path. Aura simply chose to go around it, smirking to himself and thinking it a dud. He passed without a second thought and heard the sound of rushing water. He turned his head in time to see the stream of water pursuing him.
Impossible! the boy thought as a second stream of flowing water burst out the side of the first water column. Aura had enough time to throw the unconscious Captain as far as he could in the direction of the shoreline before the surging stream caught him. The death toucher was completely engulfed in water, the air knocked out of him as he struggled to break free.
It wasn’t like swimming in normal water. The current pull was too strong to swim against. The current created a whirlpool effect that spun Aura as well, making it impossible for him to choose a direction to go. As hard as he kicked his legs and moved his arms, he went nowhere. The boy was running out of air when the stream finally opened up and shot him out the end.
The boy flopped like a fish onto a familiar hard stony surface. After coughing up a lung’s worth of water, he looked around and discovered the stream had spit him out on top of the tall rocks. This surprised Aura, since his enemy could have simply drowned him to death, but chose not to. Instead the demon chose to bring the fight to the tops of these rocks, and it was that information that gave the death toucher a bad feeling about whatever was going to happen here.
Before Aura was even on his feet again, he saw another giant water column rise out of the water beyond the rocks. The boy watched the upstream form, catching his breath as he wondered what the heck he should do now. But the sea wasn’t done churning yet. Aura climbed to his feet as more water streams climbed into the sky, enough columns of water to completely surround the tall rocks.
He’s trying to trap me here?
Aura ran, jumping from rock to rock until he found himself on the edge of the final rock. He’d picked this spot because it was between two of the rising water columns. Precisely in the middle, in fact. If the water streams decided to chase him again, he’d be ready for them this time. He knew he could just dodge up or down.
After jumping off the edge and trying to fly between the streams, Aura discovered his next obstacle was slightly trickier than he’d anticipated. From both the surrounding water columns erupted sideways streams, flowing horizontally and rushing straight for Aura. At his current pace, the two streams would collide with him dead in the middle. As he planned, Aura pulled down to lose altitude and avoid the attack.
But what Aura hadn’t realized, until now, was that even more streams had been fired from the columns he was trying to sneak between. They just weren’t all launched at the same time. Now Aura was in the exact same situation. Unable to go up, because the water streams were locked together above him. Unable to go down, or else risk crashing into the ocean. He sped up in desperation.
It was no help. The water streams were under demon control, and able to follow the boy wherever he went. No matter how he tried to trick them in those last seconds, the streams never faltered. The death toucher was caught between the two deadly water columns and lost in the current again. He felt the familiar sensation of drowning once more as he struggled helplessly against the current’s pull.
Before his last supply of air ran out, the death toucher was once again ejected from the water. He tumbled and rolled on top of a tall rock, almost rolling off the edge before he stopped himself. The boy wasted no time climbing to his feet in preparation for whatever the demon threw at him next. As he scanned the horizon hoping to see the shore, Aura discovered he was now trapped in a cage.
A cage made out of water.
All of the water columns that stuck out of the ocean surface surrounding the tall rocks were now connected. Like the metal bars of a cage, long thick tunnels of flowing water connected each vertical column. The aquatic cage, with its dome-like shape, stood suspended in midair defying the law of gravity. The boy wondered if the water would just keep dragging him back in if he tried to make another break for it. His gut told him yes, and he was sick of nearly drowning. So he plopped down on the rock and rested for a while, waiting to see what else the demon had in store for him.
“Given up yet you stupid devil?”
“I see you’re still too scared to get close to me,” Aura replied.
“Idiot! I’m closer than you think,” Orkazek said. It really sounded closer…
What does he mean by that? Aura thought as he tried to locate the source of the voice. It didn’t sound like it was coming from the sea below. The boy saw a dark figure swimming through the water stream next to him and tried to follow it, but lost track as it disappeared into a connecting channel. That’s when it hit him.
He can swim through all this water surrounding me!
Aura went on top guard, standing at alert with his gauntlet removed. Since he was completely surrounded on all sides by the watery cage he figured the best place to be was in the middle of the tall rocks, the furthest spot from the water streams. He kept his guard up while he moved to the center rock platform. He didn’t want to get too close to the water streams that were above him either, so he kept his wings tucked in and moved entirely by foot.
As he jumped from rock to rock Aura would occasionally see a giant dark blur swim by in one of the water streams around him. It was always too fast to follow, even for Aura’s powerful devil eyes. When the boy made it to the center of the rocks, a sinister demonic laugh rang out from each stream of water surrounding the death toucher.
“Think I’ll have a hard time getting to you in the middle, huh?” Orkazek asked, once he’d settled down. “You think you’re clever, but it’s no problem for me! Watch and see just how brilliant my plan is!”
Aura caught a glimpse of the huge black blur in the water swimming up one of the streams and followed. The floating water column rose and bent inward until it ended in a giant cross-stream where all of the water columns met directly above Aura. The death toucher jumped to another rock just as a massive black demon with a jagged black fin shot out of the water current. The demon fell directly on top of where Aura had been standing only seconds ago, its powerful jaws and dagger-sharp teeth chomping down on only air instead.
When Aura retreated to what he felt was a safe enough distance he turned around to finally get a good look at his greater demon foe. He’d seen some ugly creatures in his day, and this time was no exception. Still, Aura felt slightly disappointed at what he was expecting to be a terrifying and powerful enemy. For a greater demon working for a Demon Prince, he was expecting something a little more… bad ass.
The demon known as Orkazek slowly rose on two legs, standing like a person. Its back was turned to Aura, and emerging from between two shoulder blades was the jagged black fin, now flopping lifelessly to the side. The demon spun around to face Aura and got much weirder. Though it was similar to devils in shape, it was difficult to tell where this demon’s torso ended and its head began. It was covered in shiny black skin that looked like soft rubber. The skin on its front was white from its belly up to its lower jaw. Two white spots appeared over the demon’s eyes, giving the impression of arched eyebrows. Everywhere else its skin was black, including on its giant whale face that stared at Aura with nearly indistinguishable black eyes.
Orkazek grinned, or at least Aura thought it was grinning. The demon could have just been showing off its teeth.
“Well, what do you think?” Orkazek asked, throwing his hands up. “I’m a marvelous creature, aren’t I? I’m a genetic cousin to an advanced form of species found on
the human world. The humans call me an orca, but they have another name for me: the killer whale! Killer whales are known to be extremely intelligent and deadly, just like me!”
Great, Aura thought. He’s a talker.
“Killer whale? You look more like a cuddle whale to me, with that dopey face of yours,” said Aura. “Let’s just get this fight over with so I can hurry back to my friends. I need to tell them I eliminated a target.”
Orkazek shrieked with demonic laughter. “You still think you’re getting out of here alive? Stupid! It’s impossible! This is where you die, death toucher! Prince Otozek has given me permission to eat you alive! Why do you think I didn’t simply drown you when I had the chance? It is only because I prefer my prey to be alive and fighting back when I consume them!”
Damn, Aura thought. That’s some confidence! I could really be in danger…
“My genius ability, ‘Stream Queen’, allows me to freely control the flow of any water nearby! The moment you got caught in my Aquarium Cage, your fate was sealed. You lost this fight by being too stupid, devil boy!”
“Wait just a minute,” Aura said, switching to a more serious tone. His face went blank, uncertain almost. “You call your ability Stream Queen? Does that mean you’re actually… a female?”
It was impossible to read the demon’s mood. Orkazek’s big dumb whale head didn’t exactly display a full pallet of expressions. Its eyes blinked and its mouth moved, but that was about it.
“Greater demons don’t always have predetermined genders like devils do,” the demon said. “However, speaking strictly for me, I guess I would consider myself female.”
Aura’s blank expression turned to stifled rage. His muscles tensed as he tried to keep his temper under control.
“If that’s the case I’ll make this quick. I have no sympathy for ugly chicks, and girl, you are ugly. Real women have curves. The only curve you’ve got is a big dumb whale hump-head! You’re an insult to sexiness!”
Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) Page 28
