The angel of the owl house

One of the scouts immediately called out to Viney; "Watch out kid! That beast is right behind you!"

Viney put her hands up defensively; "Wait! The Selkidomus isn't a threat any more! She's tame! She won't hurt me, see?" she said, patting the Mother Selkidomus on the belly.

The Scouts began approaching with spears and spell circles prepared, making the Selkidomus growl at the blatant aggression.

"It doesn't look tame to me!" one of the scouts snarked.

"She's just scared! She won't hurt anyone if no one hurts her!" Viney said, "Please, just put down your weapons!"

"And leave ourselves defenceless? Not a chance, kid. Now get away from that beast!" another scout ordered, "The Emperor has a bounty on this thing and we intend to collect!"

They got a little closer and the Selkidomus growled louder as Viney began to panic; "Stop! You don't need to kill her! She's not a threat!"

"Kid, threat or not, her skin is worth a fat bounty! Now step aside! I won't tell you again!" The lead Scout ordered.

Valtora, who'd subtly followed the scouts into the cavern, suddenly flew down from the entrance on her staff and stood between her daughter and the scouts; "Hold on! This Selkidomus is being dealt with by the Beast-Keeping Coven! I have permission from Head Witch Eberwolf to deal with it at my discretion! Now back down! This beast is not to be harmed!"

The scouts looked at one another, and a few began muttering. They were debating if the bounty for the Selkidomus was worth the trouble of dealing with an angry Coven Head when all this was over… or at least they were until one of the scouts asked; "Do you have proof of those orders? Or are you just trying to keep the bounty for yourself?"

Valtora grimaced; she had no such written orders, and she could hardly ask Eber! The Head Witch was outside, and her presence wasn't supposed to be known!

"No, but I-"

The woman's words were cut off by a sudden spell from one of the scouts, which bound her up in tight rope and made her fall face first onto the ground with a gasp of surprise. The sudden spell followed by the sight of her mother falling made Viney scream before she registered what had been done. Her scream, the spell, and Valtora falling also set off the Selkidomus, who roared in anger and used its tail to push Viney out of the way, then began to inflate its body to launch spikes at the scouts. Unfortunately for the beast, it was facing a full twenty four scouts, who threw up a combined shield that was more than enough to stop the spikes that came raining down on them. As soon as the spikes were blocked, the scouts lowered their shields and began casting spells to create glowing magical restraints to bind the Selkidomus' head, fins, and tail. They even bound its mouth shut, and forced its head down to the ground, leaving it helpless. Selkidomus may be powerful, but on dry land and faced with two dozen people working together? The poor thing didn't stand a chance!

"Stop, don't kill her!" Viney cried, again running between the scouts and their prey.

However the Lead Scout's earlier threat hadn't been idle, and he didn't even say a word as he cast the same spell on her as had been cast on her mother, bounding Viney's arms to her sides and binding her ankles together, making her flop over.

"I warned you, brat. Be glad I don't arrest you for interfering with our business!" he scolded, before approaching the Selkidomus with his spear, ready to slay the beast. Viney and Valtora both yelled and begged for the scouts to stop as the rest prepared to help kill and skin the captive Selkidomus, but then a sound echoed through the cavern that made their hearts stop; the cry of the Baby Selkidomus.

The Lead Scout raised his hand to make his men stop, then turned to the direction of the sound. Distressed by the sounds of conflict and his mother's muffled growls, the Baby Selkidomus pulled itself out of the nest and tried to reach his parent.

"A baby?" one of the scouts questioned.

"What do we do with it?" another asked.

The Lead Scout thought for a moment, then said; "The original bounty was for A Selkidomus, not a specific one. If we bring the Emperor this one's pelt too, we might get double the reward! Or at the very least a bonus!"

The other scouts cheered, and as they continued to approach the Mother Selkidomus, the Lead Scout turned his spear on the frightened baby.

Viney and Valtora both went pale and their eyes widened. Valtora was seriously tempted to scream for Eber, which might very well blow their cover. There was already a chance that her defiance had blown hers… could she risk doing the same to Eber for the sake of the Selkidomus?

However Viney wasn't considering anything beyond saving the Selkidomus and her baby, and in that, she had two advantages her mother didn't have.

Bracing herself, Viney focused on healing magic and drew a spell circle, inwardly thanking the Titan that her fingers were free even as her arms had been bound. The spell sent pulses of blue healing magic through her arms until they hit her shoulders, which immediately popped out of their sockets. Viney winced, but used the extra flexibility to pull her arms free of the restraints. She popped them back into place by casting another healing spell with one hand, while using the other hand to coat her fingers in blue magic that emulated a scalpel, allowing her to slice apart the rope on her legs and wrists.

In the space of about two seconds, Viney had freed herself and was now on her feet, but she wasn't done yet! While her first advantage over her Mom was healing magic, her second advantage was her Demon DNA, which Viney put to use by casting a Beast-Keeping spell that coated her body in orange light.

This light drew the attention of the Lead Scout, who turned to face the source. An instant later, that scout found themselves unconscious on the ground, his spear snapped in half, his mask dented, and Viney's foot pressed on the back of his head. The other scouts gasped in surprise and stepped back, seeing their leader defeated so quickly and so brutally.

"W-What are you!?" one of the scouts screamed, looking at Viney.

Viney growled at them, as she allowed them to take in the sight of her current form. Her Cait Sith features had spread from her legs to encompass her entire body; snow leopard fur was clearly visible on the sides and back of her exposed midriff, and her arms had become completely covered too, turning her hands into clawed, leopard paws. The change had even spread to her head, turning her hair the same colour as her fur, covering her witch ears and cheeks in fur, and making her eyes turn slitted and her canine teeth grow longer. Her face was still largely witch-like, but her expression was one of feral rage, which was made more obvious by the way all her fur was standing on end and her already impressive muscles were tensing and flexing, making Viney truly look like some kind of Were-Leopard.

Valtora gasped softly in surprise; this was the result of the Beast-Keeping Spell: Wild Heart. It was a spell that only Demons or those with strong Demon DNA could use, as it allowed them to temporarily take on the full, primal power that their species is capable of. It basically transformed the user into the Apex of their species, in exchange for making their primal instincts much stronger, which lowered their intelligence and limited their other spell-casting. A normal witch would be unable to cast it, but with Viney's Cait Sith DNA inherited from her Mama, she had become quite the formidable force!

One scout, brave or stupid, pointed his spear at Viney and screamed; "What did you do to him!?"

"Let me show you!" Viney growled, before lunging at the scout with the speed of a leopard. Her claws slashed against the shaft of his spear, splitting it in half, while her tail whipped forward and grabbed his ankle, pulling it out from under him. Finally, Viney's other paw slammed into the Scout's face and smashed him into the ground with enough force to dent his mask and knock him out. It took her less than a second to demolish the fool, and she placed her foot on his head just like she'd done with their leader.

"Who else wants a demonstration!?" she snarled.

"You brat!" another scout yelled, charging her with his spear. Four other scouts joined in, with one other charging with their spear while the other three cast bolts of magic at Viney, either to damage her or bind her with magic restraints. None of it mattered however; with her feline agility, Viney twisted between the two spear thrusts, then grabbed one in each hand and pulled them forward, dragging the scouts forward as well. Still holding them, she then leapt up and delivered a double kick straight to the first scout's face, while her tail grabbed the neck of the second scout and pulled him between her and the other scouts' spells, resulting in him being both tied up and blasted in the back.

The two spear-wielding scouts fell to the floor unconscious, and Viney used their bodies like a springboard to leap at the three spell-slinging scouts. Her claws smashed into the two on the sides, while she bit down on the shoulder of the one in the middle, resulting in all three hitting the ground screaming. The two she'd slashed found their heads being smacked against the hard floor of the cave, breaking their masks and knocking them out, while the one Viney had bitten screamed in pain as Viney stood up and swiftly stomped on his face, knocking him out too.

That left seven scouts bloody and unconscious on the floor, while the remaining seventeen began to shake with fear and back away, still pointing their weapons and spears at the wild girl, but too scared to risk bringing her brutal wrath down on them. Seeing this, Viney decided to end things with a combination of all three of her magic types; Beast-Keeping, Healing, and Bardic. She took a deep breath and released a leopard-like roar of fury, which sent waves of paralysing fear through the hearts and minds of the Scouts, using Beast-Keeping magic to create the roar, Bardic Magic to imbue the roar itself with magic, and Healing Magic to specifically target their hearts and minds, turning the roar into a kind of healing spell that caused the heart to beat faster and the brain to flood the body with the chemicals produced during fear responses. The result was something that triggered all of the scouts' fight or flight responses, and seeing as they were already afraid of the wild girl's brutality, their only option was flight.

With a cacophony of screams, the more cowardly ones immediately ran from the cave, throwing down their spears and fleeing for their lives, while the braver ones stopped only to gather up their unconscious companions and flee with them on their shoulders. Viney continued to growl lowly until they were completely gone from the cavern, then she took a deep breath to calm herself down and drew an orange spell circle, causing her to return to her normal, witch-like form.

"T-That was more intense than I imagined it would be…" she panted, shocked by her own fury and violence now that she wasn't being ruled by primal instincts.

"That was terrifying, but amazing!" Valtora praised, "Well done, baby! I had no idea you could use that spell!"

Valtora had seen Eber use it once, and it had been rather scary then too, but seeing her daughter use it and take on more of her wife's features filled Valtora with pride.

"Thanks Mom. Hold on, let me untie you." Viney said with a pleased smile, glad her Mom was proud of her. She used a scalpel spell to cut the ropes binding her Mom, then did the same to the restraints on the Mother Selkidomus. The Mother then carefully examined her baby (who was frightened but unharmed), before lowering her head down to nuzzle Viney in thanks. Viney giggled as she ended up being licked by the Mother Selkidomus while the Baby chirped happily and nuzzled against her sides.

Valtora smiled at the sight of her daughter between the two sea creatures, and reached down to ruffle the girl's hair. The Selkidomus were safe now and the scouts had been sent packing; now they just had to hope things were going as well up on the surface!

[Meanwhile]

Luz had just finished whispering her plan to King as the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel spoke to each other in sign language, debating what strategies they would use against the young angel while being completely oblivious to the fact she could understand them. They'd not yet attacked again, as they were convincing themselves that since she hadn't stood up again yet, she must be contemplating surrender.

At that moment, those on the beach began to hear a terrified screaming and turned to the mouth of the cavern, where they saw the scouts from earlier come running out in terror, carrying several of their own who were unconscious and bloodied. The Golden Guard barked orders at them, demanding they stop and report what happened, but they were too afraid and ignored him completely. They fled to a pair of powered dinghies that they'd used to come ashore in the first place, and hopped in before fleeing in them. Luz thought they'd sail back to their frigate, but apparently they were so full of manic fear that they sailed right past it, speeding off to the south as fast as the dinghies' limited engines could take them.

"D-Did we just get deserted?" the Golden Guard spluttered.

"The Emperor will be furious… to think two dozen scouts would be driven of by one Selkidomus. Those men will be on latrine duty for decades." the Silver Sentinel signed, so exasperated that she was actually using her own hands instead of illusory ones for a change.

Luz and King blinked, not sure what to make of what had just happened, though they suspected Viney and Valtora were responsible. They grinned; this would make their plan so much easier, and gave Luz an opening to split the Guard's and Sentinel's attention!

"King! The Selkidomus must have driven off the scouts! Go inside and make sure she's okay, and make sure she isn't hurt by any traitors!" Luz said loudly, still pretending to think Valtora and Viney betrayed her. "I'll go to these guys' ship! They can't escape if they have no ship!"

"Got it, Luz!" King said, just as loudly, before he began running for the cave entrance. Luz took to the sky and began flying to the Emperor's frigate, and just as she'd hoped, the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel were forced to split up to pursue them.

"Dang it! Partner, don't let the bird get to our informants! I'll protect the ship!" the Golden Guard yelled, flashing after Luz. The Silver Sentinel nodded and sank into the shadows, popping out of the shadows in the cave entrance to intercept King.

"I'm not a stupid bird!" King yelled, firing a sonic roar at the Sentinel. The rings of light that accompanied his roar prevented the Sentinel from jumping into any shadows to escape, so she instead twirled her staff to create a barrier to absorb the roar. King then took a deep breath and slapped on the invisibility glyph so he could sneak around to the girl's back and hit her with another combo. However, even before he could try anything, the Sentinel conjured a throwing knife and threw it directly at King, clipping some of the fur on his cheek but otherwise not harming him. This made King gasp and lose his invisibility.

"Weh!? How'd you know where I was!?" he demanded.

The Sentinel pointed a finger at King's feet, and he looked down to see that he'd been leaving footprints in the sand.

"Oh…" he muttered, before screaming "Weh!?" again as the Sentinel swung her staff at him like he was a golf ball and she was trying to score a hole in one! King managed to dive out of the way, then used the fourth of his five completed glyph combos. This one used light, ice, and fire glyphs to create a powerful burst of wind, which King used to send himself skyward. It felt awkward and unnatural to use other elemental glyphs to mimic the power of a different element, but without knowing a wind glyph, it was all King could do for now.

Now in the air, King held his breath and then used three combos in quick succession. The first turned him invisible, while the second used wind to blow him to a different spot, so the Silver Sentinel wouldn't be able to tell where he was. The third was his Safety Hover combo, which stopped him falling and left him hovering just behind the Silver Sentinel. He then released his breath with his Titan Roar, blasting the girl in the back and making her yelp in pain as she was sent flying towards the sea. King then used a plant glyph to grab the Sentinel before she hit the water (Luz would be disappointed in him if he let the girl be boiled to death) and tied her up, before dumping her on the beach just out of reach of the tides.

"Gotcha! I'm the greatest!" he cheered.

The Silver Sentinel squirmed for a moment, before shaking her masked head at the little demon. She then slipped into the shadows beneath her, leaving her restraints behind.

"Again with the shadows!" King whined, "Stop running away!"

The Sentinel responded by leaping out of King's shadows and grabbing one of his horns, which she used to hoist him into the air, keeping his face pointed away from her so he couldn't just roar at her again. She then conjured a large cage (a bird cage, to King's annoyance) around him and dropped him onto the beach.

"Hey! I said I wasn't a bird! I don't even have feathers or wings! I'm like the only one in my family who doesn't have feathers or wings now!"

To his surprise, the Sentinel giggled girlishly, though the sound was somewhat distorted by her mask. She then conjured an illusory hand in front of him (she was still refusing to stand where he could blast her with a roar) and had it wag a finger at him like one would do to a naughty child.

King saw this and completely lost his temper, stomping his feet inside the bird cage, and letting out the most high-pitched and adorable squeak of rage. It took the Sentinel entirely off guard, and she continued to giggle in delight, completely distracted. King used that distraction to pull out his final glyph combo, one that he was sure would stop the Sentinel's laughter!

It only used the plant and fie glyphs, which combined to form a Beast-Keeping spell that conjured a pair of massive, black-furred and beastly arms. It was similar to Belos' flesh creating spell, but King had modelled his on how he imagined he'd look once he was older, so the monstrous arms were Titan-like as they emerged from the sand and gripped the bars of his cage, before pulling them apart, destroying the cage and freeing him.

The Silver Sentinel stopped her laughter and dived into a shadow to avoid being struck by the beastly arm's claws.

"Ha! How'd you like my Monster Glyph Combo!" King laughed.

The Silver Sentinel reappeared from the shadow of one of these arms and immediately used her staff to conjure two more throwing knives. She stabbed one through the palm of one monster arm, while throwing the other into the palm of the second arm, before snapping her fingers. Just as she'd done with Luz's tree roots earlier, the monster arms began to rapidly decay and disappear as the knives disintegrated. Clearly not playing around any more, the Sentinel manipulated the sand beneath King to try and bind his legs, then shot a burst of purple flames at him. King countered with an ice glyph to make a wall that blocked the flame, then roared at his own feet to both free himself from the sand and launch him into the air a bit. He then landed on top of his ice wall and used another Monster Glyph Combo to conjure a giant monstrous head. The head resembled a wolf with a version of King's skull on it, and it snapped at the Sentinel with mindless strength. She was forced to jump back into the shadows to avoid the massive head, and actually made her staff emerge from a shadow within it's mouth, where she promptly shot out a ball of intense purple flames to incinerate it from the inside.

King stomped his foot in irritation, but saw that only the flesh, fur, and muscle of his monster spell had burned away, leaving behind the skull itself. He jumped off his ice wall and hurried to it as quickly as he could, while the Silver Sentinel jumped out of the shadow cast by his ice wall. She then leapt onto his wall and began shooting small red blasts at King, forcing him to zigzag until he could jump into the monster skull and use it as a shield. The Silver Sentinel jumped from the wall onto the skull and cast a spell that made it sink down into the sand, effectively turning it into a cage to keep King trapped. However this was just fine with King, who roared with all his might at the roof of the skull's mouth, hitting it with such force that it was blasted upward, knocking the Sentinel off balance.

Now that she was in the air and not in contact with any shadows, King had her right where he wanted her! He pulled out a fire glyph and decided to use the other trick he'd learned in the last week; a combination of glyphs and his own natural magic! He placed the glyph note on his tongue, then released another of the biggest sonic roars he could directly at the airborne Sentinel. This also triggered the fire glyph, and the resulting flames were combined with the roar to create a monstrous fireball shaped like a Titan's skull. Since the monster skull left from King's last combo also looked like a Titan skull, the whole attack looked like the fiery soul of a Titan roaring out through its mouth, and blasting into the Silver Sentinel with incredible force.

She screamed in pain (the sound made King's heart lurch with displeasure) as her clothes caught fire, and she slammed into the ice wall as she landed. The wall broke but the flames still burned, forcing her to dive into the shadows to put the fire out. She emerged from King's shadow a moment later, her cloak now a lot shorter, but her counter attack, a simple blast of red magic from her staff, was weak and King easily dodged it by leaping out of the way. The Silver Sentinel's staff had lost its glow, and the girl herself was barely able to keep standing, which King found odd. Sure he'd done a fair bit of damage, but his opponent seemed far more exhausted than she should be… Maybe he'd done more than he thought.

As this battle on the beach was happening, the other side of the battle was raging a short distance out to sea.

After splitting up and leaving King on the beach, Luz had flown towards the Emperor's Frigate as fast as she could. She'd heard the Golden Guard curse behind her, then come zipping after her with his red flash spell. This spell was faster than Luz could fly, so he caught up to her before she could reach the ship, but since she'd expected to be followed, she was prepared.

"Stop right there, Luz Noceda!" the Golden Guard ordered, appearing in front of her while sat on his staff.

"Aw, I thought you were gonna call me Criminal Scum! You totally ruined the line, Golden Goof!" Luz teased.

The Golden Guard tilted his masked head in confusion, "What!?"

Luz snickered and cast an illusion spell on herself to make her invisible, then promptly flew beneath the Golden Guard and grabbed the tail end of his staff, pulling on it to make him lose his balance with a yelp. While he corrected himself, Luz (still invisible) flew towards the Frigate so she'd have solid ground beneath her in the event their battle made one of them fall. The Golden Guard couldn't tell where she'd gone, but she still flashed over to the Frigate in an instant and began barking orders to the Sailors.

"Captain Salty! Get your men to the lifeboat! The angel is nearby and plans to sink the ship to stop us escaping! My partner and I can't carry you all on our staves, so if you don't want to drown in the Boiling Sea, get the lead out!" the Guard ordered.

Captain Salty, the Demon with the crab claw hand that Luz had seen earlier that day on the docks, went wide eyed and ordered his sailors to the lifeboat, which was another of the powered dinghies. There were five members of his crew besides himself and Luz noted that they were all demons that had fish-like or aquatic features; fitting for a crew that lived and worked on the sea. Luz wondered if their aquatic features would let them survive the Demon Realm's Boiling Sea… well, she was in no rush to find out!

Deciding to mess with the Golden Guard's head a little (she was still mad at him for hitting her with that red lightning), Luz began to fly around the ship, ominously singing while invisible.

She sang "What do we do with the Golden Doofus? What do we do with the Golden Doofus? What do we do with the Golden Doofus, early in the evening?" to a slow and ominous version of "Drunken Sailor", akin to a version she'd heard in the Dishonoured Video game.

The Golden Guard looked around, in a panic, as did his crew; since Luz kept moving as she sang, they couldn't pinpoint her location through sound.

"Captain, get out of here now! She could sink the ship at any moment!" the Golden Guard ordered.

Luz finally revealed herself by flying up behind him and tapping him on the back. The Golden Guard gasped and spun around to blast her, but she stayed on his back side and promptly tied him up with vines. The Guard yelped and landed face first on the hard deck, though his mask stopped his face from taking too much damage.

"Ow…" he muttered.

"Gotcha, Golden Goof!" Luz grinned, "That was for the torture spell!" she then turned to the Captain and his crew, who had all boarded the last remaining dinghy and was struggling to make the winch lower it into the water.

"Hey there Captain Salty! Sorry for the trouble! Don't worry, you have my promise as an Arch-Angel that I won't try to sink your ship!" Luz said, giving a polite smile and bow.

"Y-Ye won't?" Salty asked.

"You won't!?" the Golden Guard exclaimed; "But you said you were going to sink the ship! Did you lie!? How!?"

"I didn't lie. I just said that I was going to come to the ship, which I did, and that you couldn't escape without it; which you can't! Or at least I thought you couldn't. I might have been wrong on that front." Luz admitted, not expecting the boy's staff to work the same as a Palisman. Though in hindsight, she probably should have. "I never actually said I'd sink it. Besides, I'm an angel remember? I don't even want to kill you or your partner, let alone some innocent sailors!"

Captain Salty slowly raised his crab claw; "Me crew and I be thanking ye, Lass. I thought we be goners!"

Meanwhile, the Golden Guard seethed; "You played me!?"

"Like the cheap kazoo you are!" Luz smirked cheekily.

The Golden Guard took a deep breath, before suddenly disappearing in a red flash, freeing himself from her vines. He reappeared behind Luz and shot another blast of red lightning at her, but Luz blocked it with a cloud of leaves, which she promptly turned into a Razor Leaf spell. The Golden Guard flashed away from the leaves, then blasted them with orange flames to destroy them. Luz then shot a blast of water at the Golden Guard's face, making him splutter as it got inside his mask, but he countered by conjuring a chain whip in the same way he'd conjured the spears earlier. He whipped it at Luz, managing to catch her ankle in the chain. He then dragged her to the deck of the ship with a cry of "I'll show you who the cheap kazoo is!"

Luz yelped and flapped her wings hard, stopping herself from hitting the deck, then shot a blast of light at the Guard's chain whip, severing some of the links and freeing herself. She then landed and grew a pair of Venus Fly Traps from the deck of the ship, which both began to shoot jets of water at the Guard. The Golden Guard conjured a cutlass and used magic to manipulate it and throw it at the plants, slicing them apart whilst he dodged their water streams. He then threw the sword at Luz herself, who deflected it by creating a crystal sword of her own. The Guard then conjured a spear and threw it at her like a javelin, and Luz again swatted it away with her crystal sword.

"For someone who doesn't want to kill me, you're throwing a lot of sharp objects at me!" Luz yelled.

"Oh I'm sorry…" he replied sarcastically, "… let me be blunt!"

He then flashed into the air and conjured a massive war hammer. It was far too big and heavy for him to swing, hence why he'd shot into the air before creating it, so gravity could swing it for him. Luz's eyes almost popped out of her head and she threw up her thickest crystal barrier to take the blow. The barrier cracked but thankfully remained in one piece, and since he couldn't lift it to swing again, the Golden Guard just vanished the hammer.

"Blunt enough for you, Lady Noceda?" he said, using the title sarcastically this time.

"I don't think turning me into a pancake is any more survivable then getting stabbed, Golden Goof!" Luz yelled at him, dismissing her barrier and pointing her crystal sword at him.

He tilted his head; "What's a pancake?"

Luz sighed with exasperation; "You know what a kazoo is, but not a pancake?"

The Golden Guard shook his head, then looked to the dingy full of sailors; "You men feel like lending me a hand? Help me bring this angel in, and you'll each have of a trillion snails to your name! The bounty on her is quite high!"

Luz scowled; so the Golden Guard was trying to send minions after her now? Perhaps his strategy was to wear her out? It would explain why he was firing such big and dangerous attacks, as her barrier used a fair bit of magic, as did any healing she had to do.

Thankfully the sailors had no wish to tangle with her; "Has the sea air rusted your brain, lad?"

Salty yelled, "We'll not fight an angel! Almost half the Isles say she serves the Titan, almost the entire other half say she's a rebel leader, and the bunch that's left say she's a Sky Siren that'll lead us to our deaths!"

The Golden Guard sighed, "Well it was worth a shot! I guess I'll have to make my point alone!"

He punctuated this by conjuring a cutlass and running at Luz. He swung at her, wielding the cutlass with surprising skill, and Luz clumsily parried the first strike with her crystal sword, then struck back. The Guard parried and riposted, forcing Luz to dodge backward as he pressed his attack, turning their Witch's Duel into a swashbuckling sword fight! Unfortunately it was a fight Luz was going to lose if it came to straight skill with a sword, so she decided to lean into her role as the pirate in this duel by cheating a bit.

Her crystal sword, as well as her barriers, were all hard-light constructs made by combining light with the change and protection aspects of the ice element. To this combination, Luz added the fire glyph and its aspect of destruction, causing the crystal blade to glow red and disintegrate the Golden Guard's sword the next time their blades clashed. The Golden Guard gasped and Luz next swung for his staff, though this time the blow missed as the Golden Guard flashed up into the air.

"You're good with a sword, Golden Goof; but I'm a cut above!" Luz grinned.

Despite himself, the Golden Guard chuckled; "You know, you really should give up this rebelling thing and join me in the Emperor's Coven; I'd love to have a companion to make puns with. My partner's attempts in sign language just aren't the same."

Luz gave him a genuine smile; "While I'm always happy to meet a fellow Punster, I'm not joining the dark side. Don't let the glowing red sword fool you; I'm with the good guys."

"No, you're not." The Golden Guard shook his head sadly, "But you will be soon."

He pointed his staff at her and prepared a powerful red beam of magic, one that would hopefully put Luz out of commission if it hit. Luz frowned and got ready to defend herself, while Captain Salty gasped at where the Angel girl was stood, and what would be struck if she dodged.

She was right in front of the ship's wheel, and just one deck below was the gunpowder and projectiles for the ship's cannons.

"Wait! If ye hit the munitions below deck, you'll-!" Salty's words were cut off by the sound of the Golden Guard releasing his spell. A long stream of burning red magic shot towards Luz, and wanting to preserve her magic, she dodged to the side instead of blocking it.

In that moment, the Golden Guard's beam of red magic struck the deck right in front of the ship's wheel, burning a hole through the iron and wood, and blasting all the way through the ship. This put a small hole in the hull, which began to let in water, but that alone was a minor problem; the hole was only an inch wide after all. The real problem was that it had passed straight through the barrels of gunpowder and explosive potions kept below deck to be used with the ship's cannons.

A dreadful silence filled the air as everyone held their breath… then Luz, who was closest to the hole, smelled burning and heard the sound of flames beginning to crackle. She peeked down into the hole and saw a flame had started on the lid of a barrel, and was slowly eating through the wood to the gunpowder within. She had only a second to think, and not confident she could shoot water accurately enough through the small hole to put the fire out, Luz decided to instead throw up crystal barriers around herself, the Golden Guard, and the dingy filled with the ship's crew. She'd just barely gotten the barriers up when the gunpowder ignited.

In a rapid chain reaction, the gunpowder exploded, igniting and detonating the other barrels, as well as the potions, sending flames and explosive forced blasting out in all directions. There was a thunderous boom and a mighty gout of flame, as the Emperor's Frigate detonated like a single massive bomb. Luz, the Golden Guard, and the crew were kept safe by the barriers, but said barriers were sent flying from the explosion, crash-landing on the beach, where King and an exhausted Silver Sentinel watched in horror. They were all a bit shaken up, and the engine on the last dinghy was busted in the rough landing, but they were otherwise unharmed, and Luz promptly dropped the barriers.

"Titan help us! The ship is gone!" Captain Salty cried.

"Ours is about to go down with it!" King screamed, pointing to the Loving Leopard. The smaller vessel had been anchored close enough to the frigate that debris from the explosion had struck it, lighting fires on the deck and blasting a few holes in the hull.

As quickly as she could, Luz flew at the Leopard and began casting ice and water spells. She froze shut the holes in the ship's hull and swiftly put out the flames on the deck. This left the Loving Leopard afloat, but looking in rough condition. Considering one of the holes Luz had frozen over had been in the furnace, she feared the ship wouldn't be able to sail.

Putting that thought out of her mind for the moment, Luz flew back to King's side. "Things didn't go so well on the ship. How about here?" she asked.

"I had it under control. I've nearly worn her out, see?" King said proudly, nodding to the Sentinel.

Luz could see the other girl's exhaustion, and nodded. She wasn't the only one to notice either.

The Golden Guard looked to his partner, who'd slumped over onto her hands and knees and was panting hard. She was shaking slightly, making him worry; "Sis!" he cried, rushing over to her as both Luz and King's eyes widened in surprise.

"Sis, you've drained yourself too much!" he said, dropping to his knees beside the Sentinel and gently holding her up by the shoulders. He looked at her staff and saw the red crystal had turned dull and grey. "You're staff is out of magic too! Use mine to refuel yourself." he said, handing over his own staff (which was almost out of magic too). The Sentinel touched it and her body glowed with a red aura for a moment, before her shaking stopped. With the Guard's help, she was back on her feet but it was clear she was still exhausted, and the Guard was in the same boat, his staff now almost out completely.

Luz eyed them both with a frown; she would have been in a similar condition if she didn't have healing magic, but even with that, she was beginning to feel the strain. Still, Luz could see from the two's body language that they weren't going to stop fighting. She wasn't worried though; King was still going strong since his magic was mostly glyphs, and even without his help, she was confident she could finish the two off… but she hesitated. They were both kids like her, and while they were severely mislead, she didn't want to just beat them up and leave them in the Simmering Shoals.

She'd basically won the fight, so it was better to show mercy.

"Listen you two; your ship is gone, your scouts ran away with two of your dinghies, your last one lost its engine, and your crew doesn't look like they want to fight. I gave you Selkidomus scales, and I'm going to take both the Mama and its baby somewhere they can't bother ships. You're not going to be able to capture me, so just give it up! Your last staff is almost out of magic, right? How do you plan to get home without your ship if you can't use them to fly?" Luz asked.

"W-We'd find a way!" the Golden Guard growled.

Luz sighed and shot a tiny light blast at him, hitting him in the forehead. It wasn't enough to do more than scuff his mask, but the force did send him staggering back a step.

"You were able to deflect those before, but now you can barely stand! Fly home and tell the Emperor you solved the Selkidomus problem, even though I got in your way. That should get you off the hook, alright? Please don't make me hurt either of you any more." Luz implored.

The Golden Guard looked ready to refuse, but he turned to his sister and saw her condition; she needed treatment and soon, and his staff would barely get him back to the Boiling Isles with its current magic. If he fought more, there'd be no chance.

"F-Fine. But this isn't over, Luz! I will bring you back to the side of righteousness if its the last thing I do!" the Golden Guard declared.

He then shakily lifted the Silver Sentinel onto his staff and then got on himself, before flashed away in a burst of red magic. Luz watched as the two disappeared beyond the horizon, then released a sigh of relief and collapsed onto her butt on the sandy beach.

"Hooray, victory for Luz!" she cheered exhaustedly.

"Are you okay, sis?" King asked, scurrying over.

"Yeah, not too bad. Thanks for your help today King; those two weren't as powerful as Belos, but I don't know if I'd have won if it was a two on one fight! You really are the King of Little Brothers!" Luz said, happily scooping him up and tickling his belly, much to his joy; "And the King of Glyph Combos too! I almost can't believe you discovered those all on your own!"

King preened; "Yes! Praise me more!"

Luz giggled and continued to pet him as the others came over. Valtora emerged from the Selkidomus' den with Viney and the Mother Selkidomus, which was cradling her baby in the seaweed-like web on its back. Luz noted the torn state of Viney's clothes and wondered how that had happened, especially since she didn't appear to be injured at all, but she was soon distracted by Eberwolf leaping down from the cliff face and stopping her camouflage. Salty and his crew gasped in shock at her sudden appearance, but Eber ignored them.

"Little Light and King fight well! You defeat Golden Guard AND Silver Sentinel! Eber thinks Pack and Rebels be happy!" Eber said, going over to sit beside Luz.

Luz smiled hopefully; "Really? I thought you might be disappointed that I did it with help, or that Viney and Valtora had to drive off the scouts while I was distracted."

Eber shook her head; "Trial was to prove strength. Little Light won fight. Strength proven. Eber want Little Light to show she cares and protects. Little Light cared and protected Selkidomus. Small help is fine. Eber says you pass trial; Pack will listen and agree."

"And I'll add my support too. You've got my respect for trying to avoid the fight peacefully with those scales too; a real Beast-Keeper knows that violence should be the last resort, and you did well. You did wonderfully too, King; going toe to toe with the Silver Sentinel like that was no small feat!" Valtora said, patting both kids' heads.

"Aye, me crew and I need to be thanking ye too. We lost me ship, but we have our lives thanks to ye both. This be the last time I captain a ship for Belos! A pox on his name, his house, and his undercarriage!" Salty yelled, before spitting on the ground, his crew doing the same.

Luz and Viney giggled at his colourful language, before the former said; "You're welcome captain. If you promise not to tell anyone about Head Witch Eberwolf, Valtora, and Viney helping the rebels, I'll call it even."

"Aye lass, that we can do. In fact, I'll do you one better! Get me lads and I back to the isles and we'll join your rebel crew! We're handy in a scrap and got no love for those marooning sons of bi-"

Eber growled, stopping Salty's curse before he could finish. The sailor bowed his head in apologies before continuing; "Point is, we'll join them CATTs o' yours, or whatever rebel crew you're sailing with!"

"That would be great! Captain, do you think we could carry these guys back to the Isles?" Luz asked.

Valtora nodded; "Of course; I'd have even helped those scouts if they hadn't run off with the dingies! That said…" she looked to the Loving Leopard and frowned. Luz had put out the fires that had started on her deck after the explosion of the Emperor's frigate, as well as frozen over the holes blown in the hull, but the Leopard was still damaged… sailing it in its current condition would be difficult.

"We might need to bust the oars out. The Leopard floats, but I don't have much hope for the engine…"

"We could jury-rig a sail? I can grow a big tree for the mast, and stitch leaves together for the sail cloth." Luz suggested, actually kind of getting into the idea of being a real old-fashioned style sailor.

"Let's see what the damage is first." Viney giggled, seeing the excitement growing in Luz and King's eyes.

With that decided, Luz and Valtora took turns flying Salty and his crew onto the Loving Leopard, with Viney, King, and Eber being the last to board. Once everyone was on board, Eber barked to the Selkidomus, who shuffled into the sea with them, still carrying its baby on its back.

"Mother Selkidomus will swim to safe waters to the north." Eber said after speaking with the creature for a moment.

"Good for her, but she's the only one who'll be going anywhere." Valtora sighed as she emerged from below deck, where she'd been investigating the damage to the hull and engines. "This boat isn't going anywhere on its own. I'll need to make repairs to the engine before it can sail again."

Viney frowned; "So we're stranded?"

"Not exactly. I've got some good news and bad news on that front." Valtora replied; "The good news is that I'm pretty sure I can repair the ship enough to get us safely to the Boiling Isles. The bad news is that the parts I need to repair are beneath the waves, so we'll need to dry dock her, and with the tide coming in, the entire Simmering Shoals will soon be underwater until morning."

"So we are stranded, but only for tonight?" Luz asked; "I guess I can call Eda and let her know… she could put food in my satchel for us to eat."

The Selkidomus growled something, and Eber looked up at her in surprise. "Mother Selkidomus says she tow us to safe place for docking and repairing."

Luz, Viney, and King smiled at that, but Salty and Valtora both looked confused. They were experienced sailors and knew these waters, and couldn't think of any such places. Still, with their options limited if they didn't want to spend the night out in the Simmering Shoals, they decided to agree.

Very carefully, Luz created some vines around the Loving Leopard, then attached the other ends of those vines to the Selkidomus, creating a plant harness for her to pull the ship with. When the Baby Selkidomus yipped and chirped at her, Luz made a similar, much smaller harness for him too, so he could help pull the ship (though it was obviously just going to be a game for the little fella). Once the ship was secured to the Selkidomus, Valtora nodded to Eber, who spoke to the beast and said they were ready. The Selkidomus and her baby then began to swim away from the Simmering Shoals, taking special care to tow the Loving Leopard behind them without smacking it against any underwater ridges or sunken ships.

They cleared the Shoals in a matter of minutes and were soon sailing eastward, much to the confusion of Valtora and Salty, who had no idea where they were going. The others were more relaxed though; Salty's crew sat in a circle with Luz, Viney, and King, listening to their stories; Viney were impressed by Luz and King's battle with the Emperor's Elites, while Luz and King were amazed by her Beastly Transformation Spell and the fact she'd used it so effectively with Healing Magic! Viney thought the others were more impressive since she only took out a couple dozen low-level scouts, but Luz was sure Viney had been the more incredible one, as she'd beaten her opponents without a scratch!

After about half an hour of exchanging stories (with the sailors adding their own tales of past exploits on the high seas), the sky was beginning to turn red as the sun set. Luz tried contacting Eda with her scroll to ask her to place some dinner in her satchel for her to summon and share with the rest of the crew so they wouldn't go hungry, but had the unfortunately discovery of learning that the scrolls had a range limit and couldn't call people that far away. The range was enough to connect two people anywhere on the Isles, but once they moved beyond the isles, that range quickly ran out. Instead, Viney took Luz below deck and they cooked up a decent meal with some rations left in storage; not as good as a proper home-cooked meal, but good enough. A while later, their meal ended up interrupted when Valtora looked towards the east and nearly choked.

The others looked up too and paled as they saw where the Selkidomus was taking them… into a gigantic storm cloud.

"W-What is that!?" Luz cried, running to the bow of the ship to get a better look. The sight in front of them was a monumental pillar of dark grey clouds connecting the sea and sky, forming an almost hurricane-like shape. It was monstrously big; large enough that it looked like it could swallow a big chunk of the Boiling Isles, and the ocean around it was churning wildly.

"The Selkidomus be taking us into the Maelstrom Strait!" Salty screamed, making his crew panic.

"The what!?" King yelped.

"The Maelstrom Strait! There used to be a pair of regular, non-Titan Landmasses here thousands of years ago, but they were suddenly buried beneath the waves when sea levels around here rose several metres. The result was the Strait between those masses become a turbulent mess of whirlpools and gale force winds! It's impassable by sea or sky, and the Selkidomus is taking us straight into it!" Valtora explained. "Eber, tell her to stop before we're dragged under the waves!"

Eber jumped from the ship onto the Selkidomus head and barked at her urgently, but the Selkidomus just growled back. Eber then yelled to the crew; "Mother Selkidomus says she knows safe path through Maelstrom."

Valtora bit her lip; it was supposed to be impassible… but few beasts had strength in the water like a Selkidomus, not to mention agility. If anything could get through, it would be one of them.

"Luz! Put a barrier around the ship! If we go under, that should at least keep us from drowning!" the Captain ordered.

"Aye Aye!" Luz yelled back, conjuring a giant crystal barrier. It was so big that Luz actually felt a substantial drain, but not so much as to be debilitating. The vine towing cables remained connected via holes in the barrier, which Luz would rapidly close if they ended up under the water. However before the barrier was fully closed, Luz flew out and landed on the Selkidomus back, then tossed Eber back into the barrier where she'd be safe.

"If the worst should happen, I'll try and use water magic to keep us out of the whirlpools! Wish me luck!" Luz yelled.

The others did just that, and Luz turned to face the Maelstrom Strait. Within minutes, they were on the edge of the giant storm cloud, and the roar of the sea was becoming deafening. It wasn't raining, but so much water was being pulled up by the spiralling cloud or spat out by the sea that it might as well have been, and Luz had to put a second barrier around herself to protect her from the intense heat. Even with the barrier, it felt like she was being steamed!

However, despite her worry and that of the crew on the Leopard, the Selkidomus was true to her word and navigated them through the whirlpools with great skill, using her strong tail to nudge and pull the ship as it got close to the whirlpools. Once or twice, the ship would get caught on the edge of one such whirlpool and almost be pulled in, but the Selkidomus strength would pull it back to safety while Luz would assist by manipulating the barrier around the ship and pulling it towards her.

It took only five minutes to get through the whirlpools, and pass through the cloud pillar, but it felt like hours with how much Luz had to juggle helping the Selkidomus, keeping her barriers up, and clinging to the Selkidomus' back so she wouldn't be blown away by the gale force winds. Passing into the cloud pillar itself, Luz felt the temperature go up as all visibility disappeared, and she was extremely glad for her barrier, as all of them would have been roasted without it.

But then, all of a sudden, the roar of the water and wind completely stopped and an almost eerie silence filled the air. Luz and those onboard the ship gasped as the sea became calm, and they were once again bathed in the light of the setting sun. Gingerly, Luz lowered her own barrier and her jaw nearly hit the floor as she looked at the sight ahead of her. The gigantic pillar of spiralling cloud turned out to be totally hollow on the inside (after passing through about twenty feet of cloud at least), and in the centre of the cyclone was a massive stretch of sea that was completely calm and quiet. And in the middle of this stretch of sea was land; the giant right arm of a Titan!

"Incredible!" Luz cried, dropping the barrier on the ship too; "Are you guys seeing this!?"

"A Titan Archipelago!" Viney gasped in surprise.

"Or at least a part of one! The arm looks a little thinner than the arm of the Boiling Isles Titan, but it looks just as long!" Rasiel exclaimed.

"This must be what caused the sea levels to rise! A Titan's arm fell here and water displacement raised the oceans enough to flood the landmasses here before!" Valtora said, excitedly looking at the new island.

The upper arm section of the Titan's Arm was largely underwater, while its wrist was slowly inclined upwards to create a very large sloping hill, with the hand itself tilted back and hanging in mid-air, its fingers pointed to the sky like mountains.

"There be no records o' land in these seas! None have pierced the strait before! We be the first to discover this land!" Salty declared, looking both proud and amazed. His crew cheered with delight beside him, and Eber let out a howl of her own to show her joy.

Luz patted the Selkidomus' head; "Great job, girl! You brought us to a new discovery!"

"I wonder if this Titan Arm is the source of the maelstroms and cyclone? It's being perfectly protected by it, and its right in the centre… Maybe a spell cast by the Titan before it passed? Or the lingering effects of its blood? The rest of the Titan is missing, so there must have been a lot of blood leaking into the water here when it first happened. I wonder if those whirlpools are actually the result of underwater wild portals…" Rasiel theorised.

King, who'd been silent so far, stared at the Titan Arm Island with a strange feeling in his chest. "Rasiel… how old do you think this place is?" he asked in a small voice.

Rasiel frowned and narrowed his eyes on the island; "Based on the rate of decay and what Valtora said earlier… I'd say it's between four and seven thousand years old. It's hard to tell more accurately than that. The fact the arm is alone and not with the rest of its body could also imply this Titan died violently, so there might be damage that worsened the rate of decay."

King gulped; "S-So it's possible this is one of the Titans killed by the Archivists and Titan Trappers?"

"It seems likely…" Rasiel said sadly, wishing he had his body so he could reach down and comfort King; "Though it's odd… Titan Trappers killed their prey by killing the Avatars containing the Titan's souls, and the Archivists supposedly couldn't use their magic on Titans. I wonder how this Titan lost their arm…?"

King didn't know, but he still felt a wave of melancholy over seeing one of his people like this. He knew this was a natural part of life for a Titan; when they passed, they became the land on which others lived, and he honestly felt pretty proud of that fact! But it hurt him inside to see one of his kind who'd died a violent death.

As if sensing her little brother's distress, as soon as Luz flew back onto the ship, she took one look at King and ran over to hold him. While the others were excited about their discovery, shouting their thanks to the Selkidomus, and preparing to make port to begin work on the repairs, Luz and King were silently offering their prayers to the fallen Titan.

Neither knew it yet, but this discovery would vastly change both of their futures.