The Seas understood now what was happening and they loved it. Instead of dampening their spirit, they seemed to rise up with more passion than ever before.
This was going to be one hell of a fucking show to witness.
The training grounds of the palace had never seen a gathering like this. Dragons, wyverns, and dragonborn filled every possible space, perching atop the towering spires, coiling around the columns, their eyes locked onto the two figures standing at the center.
The air was thick with anticipation, with suspense, with the promise of an era-defining ass beating. And it was the ass beating of the sworn enemy of the Linemall's Seas, the last of his kind: the Kraken. He had been played. He knew it now.
With Lukas' claws still wrapped tightly around his swirling tentacles that hung from his humanoid face, Lukas wrenched him into the air and slammed him into the ground with such force that the stone beneath them cracked. The Kraken barely had time to grunt in pain before Lukas swung him again, then again, using him like a ragdoll, his body bouncing off the shattered earth with sickening force. The crowd roared as their Lordling brutalized his enemy, the sound of flesh colliding with unrelenting stone reverberating across the palace grounds.
The Kraken held out a hand, screaming out in desperation.
"STOP! PLEASE! YOU BASTARD! HAVE YOU NO DECENCY OF A FAIR FIG-"
But before the dust could even settle, Lukas was already on him again.
He was fucking ruthless. This was payback.
Before the Kraken could react, a colossal fist sent him hurtling backward, the ground beneath them shattering from the impact.
The Kraken let out a guttural snarl. He may have been clearly outmatched in combat but he certainly would not go down so easily. He had abandoned any hope of fleeing from the scene. He really had no other choice but to face the young Drakos boy or he would die here.
His form bulged, stretched, and in the blink of an eye, his humanoid body was no more. His transformation was grotesque, just as gruesome as Lukas' own transformation But he wasted no time, instantaneously warping into a mass of writhing tentacles, his once-human features vanishing as his true titanic form emerged.
Lukas was going to make sure the Kraken made it known who taught him the Draconic Flow. But first, he needed to whoop his fathead.
The Kraken lashed out with his tentacles, aiming to coil around his foe and squeeze the life from him, but Lukas was liquid in motion. A dragon's claw raked forward, then mid-swing, his form shifted.
It was a seamless transition from beast to man.
He slipped between the grasping limbs, now shrunk down to human form and completely avoiding the monster's attacks. He struck the Kraken's torso with a brutal knee before expanding into his full draconic form once more, sending his opponent skidding across the ground.
The fight was a hurricane of motion, transformations happening so quickly that even the trained eyes of the gathered dragonborn struggled to follow. A punch thrown by Lukas suddenly gained the mass of a draconic limb, closing the distance between them in an instant; violently flinging the Kraken's head back.
A grip that should have been inescapable became meaningless as Lukas shrank and darted free. He was untouchable, an absolute menace, and the Kraken was drowning in the relentless tide of his assault.
No one, not even the Dragonborn, had ever seen the Draconic Flow being used like this. This was why he had not cared about magic for the first month of his training. He wanted to ensure that he mastered this Flow passed down from the founders of the Draconic Race and milk it for all it was worth.
But the fearsome monster would not be defeated so easily.
The Kraken bellowed, and the very air seemed to curdle with his presence. His form twisted, expanded, skin ripping with grotesque elasticity as new limbs exploded out from his body. Tentacles erupted from his shoulders, his back, even his abdomen; turning himself into an amalgamation of pulsing flesh.
The ground beneath them darkened as inky blackness spilled forth, not just a smokescreen, but something sentient, something his will commanded. The ink stretched, thickened, took shape: monstrous arms, blades honed from the void itself. Round two baby.
Lukas snarled as the world around him collapsed into chaos. He had not expected the Kraken to have something like this up his sleeve. He'd thought that the extent of his magic had always been limited to just his control over the mind. No wonder his kind had always been able to pose such a threat to the Dragons of the Sea.
The Kraken's magic was not just an extension of his body. It was a force of nature, an onslaught of regenerating, ever-shifting monstrosities that seemed endless.
For the first time in this fight, Lukas was forced onto the defensive, his claws slashing through inked constructs only for them to reform instantly. He weaved through a web of grasping tentacles, tearing through them only to find more had come to take their place.
The Kraken was no longer fighting to endure. He was fighting to win. The crowd could see that Lukas Drakos had underestimated him, they were nervous now. Was it possible that Lukas Drakos would lose this fight?
"IT IS PRIDE! YOU DRAGONS AND YOUR PRIDE, IT'S A TALE AS OLD AS TIME! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW LUKAS DRAKOS!"
No matter how dominant Lukas was when it came to physicality, it is the one who's magic was more powerful that would decide the victor of this fight. Because this was Hiraeth. This was a World built on the foundations of magic.
The crowd murmured, watching their Dragon Lord slowly become engulfed, swallowed by the tide of abyssal magic. The Kraken laughed, deep and resonant, his tentacles stretching skyward as if to claim his inevitable victory.
And then, Lukas exhaled, letting out a sharp breath of air.
The ink stilled. The constructs quivered.
From where he stood, Lukas lifted his claw, his eyes glowing with an unnatural brilliance. Water stirred beneath the ink, tendrils of it rising like spectral veins through the Kraken's domain. The air shifted, charged with something ancient, something undeniable. The Kraken's laughter faltered.
"Fuck are you talking about, bitch? You talk too much."
The Kraken's ink constructs trembled. And then, with a mere flex of his will, Lukas took control.
This was the Divinity of the Seas.
The magic that had been passed down, developed, forged and cultivated by generations of the Drakos Family.
He could feel the familiarity of practicing this every single night since the Lady Kaitlyn had taught him it. She had taught him one spell. A singular spell for him to master. She had told him with this, it would be enough. He performed it every single night after each festival of his Royal Procession. He practiced it as he travelled to each city, practiced it while he ate, practiced whenever he possibly could.
This was the foundation of the Drakos Family's Divinity, the first spell that every Drakos learns to master: Generation and Control
With a mere thought, Lukas could summon water to his command, bending it to his will with an authority that no other Divinity User could override. It was more than the water just aiding his movements now, it obeyed his every command without resistance. He could either generate water or he could seize water from the environment itself, commanding moisture from the air, draining nearby bodies of water, or even melting ice into torrents.
The latter method was far more efficient, consuming only a fraction of his energy, but it required an extra moment; just enough time for the water to recognize a new master, to detach itself from the forces it had previously obeyed. And once Lukas had seized control? The water was his alone. No other Divinity User, regardless of their affinity with the element, could reclaim or twist it against him. His will was absolute. He had drawn the water, the moisture within the ink the Kraken produced and manipulated, rendering it useless.
The very moment he called upon this power, the battlefield no longer belonged to the Kraken. The ink that had once obeyed the Kraken began to rebel. What had once been his weapon became a traitorous tempest. The constructs faltered, then collapsed, dissolving into water that flowed toward Lukas like a current answering its master, the rightful master of these seas.
Lukas did not even need to lift a finger. Just like that the ocean itself had turned against the Kraken. Perhaps it had never been on his side in the first place. For its allegiance had always lied with the Drakos Family.
From where Lukas stood, the water around him began to glow a deep, otherworldly blue. It spread outwards, pulsing like a heartbeat, its rhythm syncing with the sea itself. The currents shifted, bending to his will, spiraling around him like a vortex of divine fury.
The Kraken, battered and broken, still refused to surrender. His massive form thrashed, tentacles flailing as he desperately tried to claw back control of the ocean that had once obeyed him. But it was useless. The water no longer listened to him.
It belonged to Lukas now.
Then, with a single movement, the ocean answered.
A force unlike anything before collapsed upon the Kraken.
It wasn't a simple wave. It wasn't a current. It was pressure, an unfathomable weight of water condensed into an unstoppable, crushing mass. The very fabric of the sea coiled around the Kraken like a vice, its glowing tendrils wrapping around his limbs, binding him, dragging him down. The glow intensified, casting eerie shadows through the depths, illuminating the final moment of the Kraken's influence.
The Kraken let out one last, choked roar before he was silenced.
The force of the sea slammed him into the abyss with a violence that sent tremors through the ocean floor, a final execution carried out by the very waters he had once ruled.
The ocean calmed. The glow faded, settling into the natural rhythm of the tides.
Then, the people of the Seas erupted into deafening cheers.
Even from beneath the waves, their roars of triumph rumbled through the water, a chorus of dragons, wyverns, and dragonborn alike; voices that had been stifled for too long now rising in exultation. Their rightful ruler stood victorious, unchallenged, and the power of the Seas had returned to dragon hands.
Lukas Drakos stood tall, the ocean at his feet, the tide bending to his will.
The Kraken was defeated.
Boy, did it feel good to do what he did best. Lukas had won. He caught a goblet of liquor that Jesse threw at him from the sidelines. With a grin, he raised his glass to the Seas.
"TO THE AGE OF DRAGONS!"