Nic dove into the river. Cool water cascaded off his skin, strings of bubbles churned up by the drop surrounding him. Fish were frightened away in all directions as he kicked, orienting himself to stare up at the sun through the rippling golden surface of the water.

He was miles above the ground. The river was suspended in midair like a diamond string, reflecting the light. All the heat of the desert was gone, replaced by rushing cool currents that swept over his pinkish skin and soothed his wounds.

There was nothing in the world like water for an axolotl. It felt like the exhaustion and wounds of the past were all just dust the river swept away.

Turning, Nic spotted a fat, silver-belled fish chasing a school of small orange minnows. Drawing all his power into his limbs he kicked off like a harpoon and shot through the water- the carp barely had time to turn before his open palm slapped against its skull and stunned it. Grabbing hold, he didn’t bother with gutting or cleaning his catch.

Three gulps and he’d swallowed it whole, feeling a burst of Essence fill his being. It was like he thought. These fish were treasures for the first people to make it to the floating islands- every one had rich medicinal strength in its flesh.

They were beautiful. Scales sparkled like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, topazes. Every shade and shine of gemstone, flickering through the water. Little floating lumps of stone in the stream were covered by trailing strands of algae where little fish hid, awaiting the day they could join the race and hunt for their prey.

The biggest fish Nic had seen from above were massive, with long jaws like pairs of scissors that snapped shut and cut lesser specimens in half. Crocodiles, massive hunting eagles, and other beasts all rested on the islands and dove in to feast.

And now Nic had joined the hunt. Kicking off a floating rock, his hand shot out for a silver flash that darted through the current. He felt something bladed rip against his palm, and instinctively drew back, letting the prey escape from his grip.

It was an ornamental fish with sword-sharp ridges of cobalt blue extending from its silver scales, and a fat, bulldog head like a goldfish. For a moment it was stunned by the impact with his fingers, but before Nic could move to grab at it again it shot off- leaving him with blood and fish-slime on his fist.

He laughed and shifted position, perching atop the tiny stone that floated in the river’s center and digging his fingers into the coating of mud that surrounded it. A grim smile hung on his face.

It wasn’t long before he saw another flash of silver coming his way. With the way the river bent and turned in the air, he could see for nearly a mile down its azure-green back. As the razor quick fish shot forward, Nic kicked off, and flung a fistful of mud into the waters.

Shaping it with Mire-Caller, he made the muddy silt expand outwards into a shockingly durable net. As the fish slammed into it, those bladed ridges cut away parts of the netting, but it couldn’t pull the whole net free of Nic’s relentlessly strong grip. It slowed and struggled and came to a halt, barely able to keep flopping about as Nic reeled his prize in.

He ate the fish carefully this time, cutting away the blades to get at the pink meat and soft bones beneath. Blood trailed through the waters as he chewed like a monster, gnashing away at the delicious flesh.

It was good to be king.

By now, Baby Boots was likely to be the only other competitor up here- and the idiot would never look twice at the fish in the river. What was he going to do? Cut himself a fishing rod?

So the water belonged to Nic.

He repeated the net trick again and again, reeling in whole schools of orange-gold fish as they rushed past, and snagging a particularly beautiful turtle with patterns of starlight in the shape of constellations glowing atop its shell. The former he ate, and the latter he ate carefully to keep the shell intact, stowing it away.

It was then he caught sight of the goliath.

It was coming down the river slowly, but there was no mistaking the strength in every motion. It was built like a dragon in miniature, with a long trailing neck and tail that made it seem almost serpentine.

Jagged spears of dark bone ran down its back, and its head was a beak of nearly black bony material surrounded by veils and curtains of drifting, translucent-white membranes, all spotted with luminous circles, like the frills of a deep-sea jellyfish.

Drifting Cloud Leviathan. E-Class // Demi-Sapient. Ruler of a river far above the earth, this beautiful and tyrannical beast devours treasured fish by the hundreds to sustain its growth. It is a unique specimen with only internal-acting Shards, giving it immense strength but little versatility, and a medicinal property to its marrow that has seen much of its species hunted to near-extinction.

Near extinction, huh? Nic wasn’t one to cry over one less species of overgrown lizard, not if the bones were as rich in medicinal strength as the Recall suggested.

Nic drew his new glaive, Scarseeker, from his bag. It was far too large for his axolotl-form to wield easily, but he was planning something different.

The beast was coming forwards, chasing a string of terrified fish through the water. It would explode out of the river, jaws-fist, snapping at the air, then crash back down and pick up speed again as its scaly back trailed through the open air surrounded by frothing white foam.

Nic braced, shifting position again so he was letting the current push him back sideways against the stone, his feet set and the spear pointed forward in his hands.

Like a shadow ripping through the waters, the beast arrived. It had a jaw that split open three ways, unfolding like a flower of teeth and red muscle. Whether it saw him or not, Nic didn’t know- there were no eyes.

He just held fast, wrapping his fingers in sticky tar from Mire-Caller, and slammed the spear forward.

The beast’s own weight skewered it through the neck, where the scales were softest, and its momentum ripped Nic free of his solid ground. He clung on to the spear desperately as the world filled up with bubbling foam from the leviathan thrashing above- it moved like an angry serpent, whipping forward and back trying to dislodge him, the sheer force of its movement making the water clutch and cling to his skin like a thousand grasping hands.

Then it exploded out of the water, upwards towards the sky, and Nic was hauled with it. Blood was coating his fingers and dripping off his face from the massive wound, but the creature was nowhere near dead.

They slammed back into the water again with a force that kicked Nic in the guts. In retribution, he drew in a breath full of clean cool water and spat out a deadly grey mist. It rolled against the creature’s side and ate away at its scales, leaving them brittle, weak.

The creature roared, water shaking, and twisted. Nic barely saw it coming in time- a shoal of sharp rocks drifting in the water, coated by seaweed. The beast slammed its side against them and tried to scrape him free, raking huge bloody marks in its own side.

The stones smashed down against him, striking against his body. Nic was torn away from his grip on the spear and sent spiralling into the water, which was thick with-

Mud.

He stretched out his finger and the explosion of muddy water collapsed into a massive net. It snagged against the bony spines of the beast’s back, holding fast, and Nic grabbed hold again to ride on. The beast was trying to buck off the clinging net, swaying back and forth at violent speeds.

It didn’t stop Nic. He crawled across the net, heading slowly through the torrential water towards the place where the scales were weakest. The beast was picking up speed, surging through the river with all its force trying to shake him from its back.

He refused.

Inch by inch he climbed forward, and drew his hatchet into his hands. Attaching his feet firmly with Mire-Caller he rose up and swung down at the weakened scales, piercing through them with the blade and sinking poison into the leviathan’s flesh. Again and again, dropping down to grab hold with another hand and continue to chop away. Blood exploded into the water and was torn backwards by the current, creating a ribbon of red as the creature swam on.

And then it dove down.

Nic felt his stomach lurch as the beast burst out of the underside of the river, quickly diving back up before gravity could seize hold. The moment it left the floating, weightless water, the normal laws of physics asserted themselves- and as Nic was pulled out into the open air he was nearly thrown aside, a fall that would have sent him tumbling for miles down into the desert below. He clung on.

Kicking with its massive limbs, the leviathan shot upwards this time, breaching through the opposite side of the river like an arrow from a bow. This time Nic couldn’t hold. The sheer inertia lifted him from the beast’s back, and as they crashed down into the water the impact tore him free, sending him tumbling back in a wave of foam.

The leviathan turned.

Its roar shook the waters.

And it plunged towards him with open jaws. Nic saw only one way out- forward.

He kicked off and threw himself into the beast’s mouth, but as he did, he brought a wave of sticky mud with him. It splattered the inside of its jaws and the gulping abyss of its throat, giving him something to grab hold of within. Drawing the desert lion’s khopesh he swung with the hooked blade, snagging the soft inner lining of the beast’s mouth as its jaws slammed shut behind him and it began trying to swallow him whole. River water torrent past, a suction dragging at his feet, and the blade began to slip down, cutting a deep trench through the pink flesh.

Nic snarled, drew the sandrider blade, and slammed it into place behind him. He planted a foot against the blade’s flat and held on, stuck fast in place as the beast chokingly tried again to swallow him. And again. And again. The disgusting meat of its throat was pressing down on him from all directions, but Nic still had a last trick to play.

He broke open a canister of ink from his wyvern friend and used Mire-Lurker to absorb it down into the mud. Using his aura, he created three large runes from the ink-mud mixture, drawing explosive sigils on the inside of the beast’s throat.

As it made one last attempt to dislodge him, Nic uttered the command word.

Fire blew through its neck and burst into the water, searing up clouds of steam.

The beast’s final roar was choked and weak as it died.

“Yeah. Nobody eats me, buddy.” Nic spat out, kicking his way from its open mouth.