To Fight The Sea

Inian hired a runner to go and get Burt. He told the runner to tell Burt to meet in by that dock in Weton where they went last time to travel to the Predo Dynasty.

Inian stayed in the Aysel Palace for an extra day to give the runner a head start, then made arrangements to travel to the East coast in Weton.

He took a private ship from the company flite. It was an excellent trip. He was given high-quality service while being on a mid-tier ship that had numerous guards and cannons on board.

Soon, he arrived at that small port town in Weton and stayed near the docks.

It only took a couple of days after he arrived for Burt to meet him there. Burt brought with him his version two exosuit, painted entirely in gold color.

"Ahoy Inian! I hope you didn't wait too long."

"Not at all, I only arrived here myself a couple of days ago. I see you decided to paint it gold."

Burt smiled, "it's my pride now. I've never much had fighting capabilities, but with this exosuit, I stand a chance! I modified it a bit after you left. It is now almost as strong as a version 3 exosuit!"

Inian's eyebrows raised in appreciation, "nice! Anyway, do you know why I asked you to come here?"

Burt nodded, "I can only assume that it has something to do with one of the descendants. Is that true?"

Inian nodded his head, "There's something I didn't tell you the last time we were here about a year ago, and that's that I met one of the descendants during that storm."

Burt stopped in his tracks, "you're telling me that you ran into a descendant, and you kept quiet about it?!"

Inian didn't meet Burt's eyes, "yeah...sorry about that. There was nothing I could've done at the time, and it wouldn't have been a good ride knowing that a descendant was under our ship the whole time. But now, things are different. I'm strong enough to fight the descendant this time."

Burt sighed, "Are you sure that's not just arrogance? If they thought you could kill them, wouldn't they have come after you sooner?"

"I've thought about that, and maybe they just don't know about the progress I've made."

Burt shrugged, "maybe they just don't care either. We won't know until it's too late."

They went down to the docks where the old dock manager was.

The dock manager looked up, "you two look familiar, have you been here before?"

Inian nodded, "we were here about a year ago. Now, we are here to acquire a ship once more for a short voyage."

"Mmmmm, I remember you, boys! Exactly how short of a voyage are we thinking?"

"Maybe a week, two tops."

The dock manager nodded, "alright then. It's ten diamond coins for a month. But only five for a couple of weeks. Bring her back in good condition."

Inian handed him the money, and he and Burt hopped aboard one of the ships moored on the dock. Burt dragged his new exosuit aboard and stored it below deck.

This time, they also hired a crew to man the ship for them. So four burly men hopped aboard as well and handled the maintenance and piloting for the boat.

Soon, they were off into the distance, only a little ways from the deep water.

Inian was standing in the front of the boat and began shaking as they got closer and closer to deeper waters.

"Are you okay, Inian?" Burt asked.

Inian shook his head "I haven't been this nervous in a long time. I still remember the encounter last time, but things are different now."

"Well, know that I've got your back in case anything goes wrong. I've modified the exosuit so that I can go underwater a bit. I just can't go too deep."

Inian nodded, thanking him. He looked up to see storm clouds rolling in from a distance.

"Burt, this is what happened last time."

"Storm clouds are always over the ocean Inian. It's no reason to get all freaked out."

"This feels different, though, just like last time."

"I'll go put my suit on then."

Burt left to go below deck when suddenly, a massive tentacle shot out of the water.

This one tentacle was nearly as big as the ship, and it swept the edge of the boat, knocking off Inian.

Inian hit the water with a spray of bubbles and foam. He transformed his eyes to better see under the water.

What was staring up at him was a massive monster, huge in proportions with the upper body of a dragon and the lower half writhing with hundreds of tentacles.

"Ah, welcome back, young king."