Dragon Sorcerer 1- Chapter 39 (Patreon)

Chapter 39- Water Wings

My mind raced as I contemplated the transformations which were possible. I could just as easily become some version of the kraken we had just fought or a merman or whatever other option I felt was best. Yet there was a yearning within me. I needed to be myself.

My true body was perfectly situated to this situation. As a blue dragon, I could breathe underwater, swim with an instinctive ability despite never having done so in my life, and I would be able to fight just about as well as any aquatic creature. It would also be the most natural for I could take.

The water below was roiling, the surface alive with monstrous creatures, swirling currents, and churning chaos. I had inhaled deeply, steeling myself for the plunge, before launching into the void.

Now the wind whistled past my ears as I plummeted down, the sea rushing up to meet me. My eyes were fixed on the roiling water, the creatures below growing larger and more menacing with each passing moment. As I approached the surface, my arms and legs tensed, ready for impact. It was even more complicated as the three seconds of my dive passed and my body begin its transformation.

And then I hit the water.

It was a shock like I had never experienced before, a sudden and intense deceleration that seemed to compress my entire body. I'd been hit hard in sparring, but nothing could quite equate to the experience of having your entire body impacted at the same instant. The water's resistance created a force that jolted my bones, muscles, and internal organs, and the impact created a deafening roar that echoed through my ears.

The initial sensation was disorienting, as if I were suspended in an alien environment. The pressure of the water was all around me, squeezing my body and compressing my chest. The churning currents made it difficult to keep my bearings, and for a moment, I felt as if I were lost in the chaos.

But then my transformation took form and my body extended, swelling it its normal dimensions. All of the clothing and items I wore were automatically shunted into my Soul Space, proving once again that it had been a wise skill to choose.

I was already fifty feet below the water, which was so dark and frothy from the swarming creatures that I didn't fear anyone on the ship being able to see me. Cami knew that I had changed. I couldn't have put a claw on exactly how I knew that, but it was still a certainty I felt.

My eyes opened, and I was greeted by a scene out of nightmares. The kraken was dead even if all of its body didn't seem to realize it yet. Hundred foot long tentacles thrashing about the water. The shredded bodies of dead sailors filled the water with their blood, terror still apparent on their now lifeless faces.

No less dangerous than the kraken were the many other denizens of the deep who were called to the feast by the scent of blood. Sharks in all shapes and sizes swam around us and while I could admit that the bit of a particularly massive great white could have injured me, none of them were my match.

It wasn't me that I was worried about. I had gone down to save Modessa, not for her sake, but for that of my bonded companion. She was important to Cami and so I was doing my best. A nagging voice of draconic pride whispered in the back of my mind that I was simply acting like a dog fetching a stick for my mistress, but I knew that wasn't the case. It was just the nature of the dragon to resist attachment.

I allowed the joy of being back in my body to fill me. Even taking in the chaos of the situation, made me feel more alive. This was what it was to be a dragon, to struggle, prevail and live on. And for a moment, I felt invincible.

I needed to find Modessa though, before she drowned. She was capable but had been unconscious when she hit the water. Then I saw her. Of course had a dozen sharks had caught sent of her as well. Two hammerheads were fighting over her even as I found her.

My tail moved like a fin and I shot forward through the water like a fish. No, that wasn't fair. Fish could only dream of being as agile as I was.

The shark closest to Modessa shifted position, and its jaws opened wide. Jaws agape, its razor-sharp teeth glinted in the faint light filtering down from the surface and I knew that if I didn't act, she would soon be a meal for some scavenger of the deep seas.

Instinct kicked in and my body responded faster than thought, propelling me forward in a flurry of scales and claws. The speed at which I moved was still surprising to me, but then again I am a dragon, so perhaps, I shouldn't be surprised at my superiority even beneath the water.

I crashed into the shark, using my bulk to knock it away from Modessa and send it careening off into deeper waters, dazed from the blow but still alive. The other sharks seemed to sense my presence now, and that was when Dragon Fear took effect.

These so-called cold-blooded killers of the deep fled like prey, proving they were just overgrown fish. For a moment, I forgot about Modessa and started to wonder what sharks tasted like. Some of my ancestors seemed to remember liking them raw with rice. It took an effort of will to focus myself back on doing this favor for Cami.

I swam in closer to Modessa and almost swam through some cloudy water where the sharks had been. I internally groaned at the thought I might just have swum through their waste product as Dragon Fear had made them evacuate pre-maturely. That alone was enough to make me swear at the silhouettes in the dim light cast by the fleeing sharks. If ever saw them again, they'd end up inside my stomach for certain.

I closed in on Modessa's unconscious form and swam in a slow circle around her, using the sheer size of my body to hide her from other predators and my strength to protect her from the tumultuous water.

Pulling her tiny, fragile form into me brought out a strange amount of rage. This could just as easily have been Cami. In fact, Cami likely would have died from this. Modessa had the benefit of being level twenty and probably had more than one magical device to protect her.

It wasn't that I cared about her as much as what it made me think about. As gently as possible, I reached out my clawed front legs and pulled her closer to me. I tilted my head and held it close to her chest to listen.

Her heart was still beating, but it was weak and faint. She'd never survive the journey to the surface in this state. I called upon the magic I had learned from a human. It was the first time I had cast an actual spell in my dragon form, and deep within me there was a slight tremor of doubt that the magic wouldn't work for me.

Lesser Regeneration.

The surge of divine magic went through me. It felt so much weaker in this body than it did when I was playing human. Yet, even now, I could still sense the faint presence of Miseria in this magic. It was one which fit her role as the goddess of healing and belonged specifically to her domain.

The magic would enhance her healing and I held her close to me while chain casting the spell until it was stacked five times on her. It wouldn't bring oxygen to her lungs or more importantly her brain, but it should prevent the breakdown of cells. At least, that was my hope.

Something did annoy me about this, though. I found myself longing to know how the magic worked. Would it do what I wanted it to? I grumbled, making bubble underwater. Did this mean I was going to have to do what Lisella had talked about and actually have to study the theory of magic rather than simply performing it?

My eyes were open the entire time I was casting and even if my mind wandered, I paid close attention to what was going on around us. The churning of the water was slowing and I could begin to see more of the light from the surface, which was only weakly making its way down here.

The kraken was completely sunk beneath us, and the rest of the predators had left. A few scavengers were still trying to grab an easy meal, but they were all giving me a wide berth. Overhead, the shadow of the ship showed it had moved beyond where we were.

The only problem that presented was that once I reached the surface, I would have to transform again, or the rest of the adventurers would know what I was. Maybe Lisella was correct, and they only wanted an alliance with dragons. They still had used rather brutal tactics and treated us as unreasoning beasts.

I was done casting the magic, and it was time to move for the surface. That was when I caught a flash of green light beneath me. I shifted to move myself between whatever that was and Modessa.

Then I looked back down. The glow was coming from the open mouth of the dead kraken as it sunk deeper into the deep. The green continued to brighten until a creature had burst forth from the previously fearsome maw.

It looked like what I'd think of as a jellyfish but was over six feet long not counting the slender tendrils trailing behind its mostly oval-shaped body. Its translucent form shot through the water and then I heard it.

Not with my ears, although sound travels quite well beneath the water. No, its mind was pressing on mine. It shrieked a single word, but there was so much hatred pressed into that word that it made me feel sick.

"Dragon."

It repeated the word again and again till I realized I should probably take the battle, which was beginning to feel imminent, topside. The creature simply wasn't right, although I couldn't exactly explain why that was. I simply knew that it reminded me of the horror, although it definitely wasn't that powerful.

One of the tendrils pushed up in front of its body as I moved to fly to the surface. I felt the tingle of magic dancing along that tendril and before I could flee, black broken rays spun out from the tentacle, forming a tight spiral as it struck my scales.

Agony drove into me despite there not being the least bit of physical damage to my scales. It would have been impossible to tell where I'd been struck except for the horrid burning and itching I felt inside. It was almost like the thing was attacking my soul.

Then, with a great push of water behind it like a jet, it blasted forward and latched on to my rear hip just at the same spot it had managed to hit me with its spell. I felt my life being drained by the spell and a creeping weakness tried to soak into me.

I shook my head, disrupting the water, and sought to shake the thing off of me. How I wished I'd take the electrical aura before. No matter how I shook, it hung on to me like a parasite trying to ooze its way through the tiny crevices between my scales.

The pain intensified, and I was about to shake harder, even if it killed Modessa. I simply had to get this thing off of me. Then I opened my mouth to roar and did a dragon thing. I should have thought of this before, but being stuck in a human form must have been corrupting my mind.

I breathed in and then blasted out a full bolt of lightning from my open mouth right at the creature on my hip. I was immune to electricity and was counting on the fact that I wouldn't conduct any of the charge into the helpless Modessa.

The powerful electrical discharge had created  plasma as it ionized the surrounding water resulting in a bright flash of light accompanied by a loud shockwave. The violence of the force underwater caught me off guard and rocked my body backwards sending me spinning as I tried to desperately cling to Modessa. The burning pain within my thigh was gone but the flash had been so bright that I was temporarily blinded and struggling to see what had happened to creature.