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 it seemed to be holding him down quite well. There was desperation in those eyes as Lukas' other arm began to expand 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. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the guards rising up with vigour; raising their long spears as they turned towards the Kraken.
Fuck. They were still under his control!
"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. They 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.
He had to end this now.
Before one of the guards reached him, a hammer came swinging down upon his skull; sending him to the ground in a thunderous crash. Katrina nodded at him. The only thing he needed to worry about was killing the creature in his grasp.
Taking advantage of the split second in which Lukas had been distracted, the Kraken jerks back violently. Lukas grimaces as his sharp claws tear through flesh and the Kraken escapes from his grip at the cost of a terrible wound. But it's far from enough to take him out of the fight. Lukas rushes forward, planning to claw his way through the Kraken's head to end his life. The Kraken reacts just as fast and Lukas' claws simply tear through his tentacles instead of his head.
Suddenly an explosion of darkness hits him full on in the face and he is blinded. It's ink. Fuck! He stumbles back through the water and urges the water to move him away from the murky substance. It's not only hard to see but it smelt strange, almost pungent; enough for him to want to move away from it. His 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 ink. Yet Lukas is unable to pick him out. Where the fuck did he go!?
Bursting through the black clouds, a hand stretches out and Lukas leans back with the waters aiding his movement; barely avoiding a vicious strike to the head. And then he sees the figure emerge. The Kraken stands impossibly tall, towering over even the mightiest of Dragonborn, his body a grotesque fusion of man and abyssal horror. They stand 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. When he speaks, his voice is an unsettling, liquid resonance, carrying the crushing weight of the abyss itself.
"You…that's not possible." Lukas whispered in dreadful realization. He would have suspected it was some kind of other form of magic that allowed him to take on this humanoid form, but he could recognize the familiar energy that exuded from the Kraken. It was the Draconic Flow. Someone had taught him the Draconic Flow, allowing him to transform and be free of his chains. It was incomplete, but enough to grant him 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 is sinewy yet impossibly strong, like the coiling pressure of a deep-sea leviathan.
There was a grin on his face as he watched the Lordling grasp at straws, trying to understand how he got his hands on the well-kept secret of the draconic kind. He didn't have time to worry about that problem though. He may have been surprised but Lukas had to put the Kraken down now, letting him escape was not an option.
He 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 his eyes as he stared up towards Lukas from where he knelt, a hand clutching his side. But then the anger began to fade and he shook his head in pure amusement. He was still bleeding from the wound that Lukas had dealt him while he'd still been in chains; the Kraken was getting weaker with each passing second, he was losing too much blood.
"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. This entire time he had been using thoughts to communicate. His voice was smooth and concise, almost friendly. He heard no real hostility in it but Lukas 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 shock factor that had him so discombobulated.
He raised his head to see a magnificent beast of a Dragon standing before him. His scales, pristine as moonlight on 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. Golden eyes that now held an unnatural glow, a sickly radiance, twisted by the Kraken's possession of his mind.
He 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 roared, the sound of an ear-splitting crack of thunder over the stormy sea. The very air trembled as waves bucked and crashed against the prison's foundations, the force of his magic warping the tides themselves. It was greater than anything Katrina had been able to show him and he should've known she was still but a novice in the arts of magic. Samuel Sterling had a Dragonborn longer than either Lukas or his niece had been alive.
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. How fucking cool was that? Even Lukas had to admit that was pretty awesome.
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 he heard the familiar voice, speaking through Samuel.
"This is the true power of the Kraken."
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. He had not experienced a magic quite like this but it was nothing Lukas could not fight against. Time and time again, the strength of a Lord exceeded his expectations. If he really wanted to, he could fight through this vortex and take the dragon's life.
Kill him now, and the Kraken would lose a valuable pawn. He 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.
But 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. He shook his head in desperation, pleading with Lukas to spare him for he was doing this against his will. He wasn't beyond saving. Jesse could still have his father.
"FUCK!" Lukas roared because he knew what the right thing to do was. Even if it meant that the Kraken would escape his grasp.
He watched through the whirling blades of wind as the Kraken rose through the water. He moved not with urgency, not with desperation, but with certainty. Even as he 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 Drakos' line of vision. He was gone. He 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. He did not know where he was but the Kraken had made sure to send that message to him through mental connection, just to fucking rub it in. And rub it in, he did. "Let us see if such mercy serves you, Lukas Drakos. We will see one another soon. Very soon."
Then, he was gone.
Lukas stared into the darkness where the Kraken had vanished, his jaw clenched. Yes, he 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.