“The tidal wave will hit the shore soon, please, evacuate from Changeton immediately!” Sirens warned of a flood all around, blaring into the group’s ears in insistence.

“Damnit, what sort of shit’s going down?” Kaleb angrily asked, looking into the horizon while his voice was almost drowned out by the noise.

“Hey, I don’t know,” Onei said redundantly. “But if you want to evacuate with everyone else, you’re free to do so.”

“Not happening. I need to pick...something up from my house. This just happens to coincide with the route back,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, Luuko questioned Drade’s sanity. We’re going towards the wave?! What’s the point of that?”

Well, the school overlooks the shore, so we ought to start there when looking for you. He said like his logic was obvious.

Who cares?! I’d rather live the rest of my life inside your soul than dead from a tsunami!

Oh, you’re worried about that?

Yes, the giant tidal wave supposedly coming for us!

Don’t worry about that. Sis probably has that under control.

Uffield? How?

You’ll see.

They finally made it to the road that overlooked the shore and came to a stop to look at the enormous lake.

Far in the distance, a wave so long that its end couldn’t even be seen rolled toward the city, the sound of its torrent barely audible from where it was. The wave had to be hundreds of feet tall.

“Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Kaleb froze as he finally saw what was rapidly approaching the coast. “Nooooo no no no...nope. Nah. Nuuuh-uh. I’m fucking dead. We’re all fucking dead. I should’ve just left her to...fuck, what am I saying...”

Onei just froze while Luuko took control to call Uffield, fumbling with Drade’s phone. Once she called her, she waited, and waited, and waited, but nobody picked up.

Why-

“Watch out, you knumbskulls!”

Drade, seeing two flickers of mana slicing toward him, instinctively twisted his body as Kaleb’s chain tried to force him to duck under a planty arm, safely avoiding both.

“The fuck’s your problem, lady? I’ve about had it with how relentless you are!”

Drauko straightened to see Kai’Vra fall from the roof of nearby ice cream shop, holding down a new skirt of leaves and retracting her arm.

She clicked her tongue as Kaleb swung his chain at her, only for her to deflect it with an arm like the nearly supersonic attack wasn’t a big deal. “Well, I figure I should dispose of you all before...” She looked up at the wave crashing towards the shore. “Well, before that swamps me. Besides, it isn’t my fault they interrupted my breakfast.”

Kaleb looked back to Drauko with a mockingly betrayed expression. “Is this true? Did you interrupt her breakfast!?”

“I gu-” Drade began, before being interrupted by Luuko.

“Never! Its all slander! We wouldn’t interrupt anyone’s breakfast!”

“Whew, though I’d need to kill you,” Kaleb said, before looking back at the wave, souring his mood once more as he realized his doom was neigh. “Well, there you have it, lady.”

Kai’Vra tilted an eyebrow at the interaction, and actually cracked a small smile before shrugging, regaining her usual cruel one. “Okay, if you want a diplomatic approach to our disagreement, I have one request.”

Drauko and Kaleb looked at the nymph with surprised expressions. “And what is that request?” Drade asked, curious.

“Would you die?”

Before anything happened, Drade yelled to Kaleb, “Jump back!”

Just as Kaleb propelled himself backward with the help of his chain, a spear of grass cartilage burst from beneath where he had stood, barely missing.

Kai’Vra lifted her foot, revealing it had dug into the concrete like a root, and snapped it off with her leg’s strength alone, before it reformed into an ordinary leg. “Fascinating!” she yelled enthusiastically, before walking towards the group with a steadfast pace. “To think I would find another two of those beings! To think I would learn from them!”

She swiped an arm horizontally, and it grew into a massive claw mid-swing. Kaleb blocked the attack with his chain, but all that did was send him flying from the sheer power of it, forcing him to balance himself with his chain to avoid cracking his spine on the concrete. Meanwhile, Drauko simply ducked beneath the concrete ledge to avoid it, only for Kai’Vra’s other arm to spear towards them, which they easily dodged before it was fired.

“Tell me, just what is happening here?” Kai’Vra asked, her limbs returning to their resting positions. “I sense this is not the world I originate from, yet it is at the same ti-”

Suddenly, Kaleb went on the offensive. He hit the ground with his chain, sending him ten feet in the air, then jabbed forward. Kai’Vra, interrupted, stepped to the side like she’d predicted the attack, squinting as it shot towards her. The chain hit the ground behind the nymph, breaking a hole into the concrete. “How about you fucking focus on who you’re fighting!” Kaleb yelled, before commanding his chain to swipe at the plant monster from its current position.

Kai’Vra seemed distracted as she squinted at Kaleb, only to jump away in panic as the chain gathered tension, then flung out of the concrete at supersonic speed, then swung around Kaleb to catch him just before he landed.

“Wow, this is much harder than it looks, I’m almost impressed!” Kai’Vra said, squinting.

We need to go, now! Drade and Luuko agreed before running toward the school.

Kai’Vra saw Drauko as they ran down the street, dragging a reluctantly unfrozen Onei by the wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked smugly before jumping after them, readying one of her arms as she shot toward them.

“I SAID, focus on who in Chaos you’re fighting!” Kai’Vra’s leg was suddenly jerked back as it was caught by an annoying chain, and though her speed was enough to drag both Kaleb and her closer to Drauko, it just wasn’t enough to seal their fate.

In a last-ditch effort to eliminate them, her arm shot out, only to be dodged easily. Kai’Vra commanded her arm to encircle the pair, but Drauko simply ducked while forcing Onei down.

Kai’Vra had, of course, expected this, and used his lack of mobility to her advantage, commanding a branch to spear towards them, only for Drauko to fall to the ground just beside the lethal attack, a feminine voice shrieking in surprise as they barely escaped death.

Kai’Vra had finally gotten back into the groove of fighting and had the cognitive ability to literally plant her leg into the ground as she did all this so that when Kaleb’s chain tried to throw her away...

Kaleb had gained his magic at seven years old. He tried to keep it a secret from his parents, but he would always show it off to his friends, hoping for praise and attention from his peers.

He had practiced it for a long time and was enthusiastic about how ‘cool’ it was, finding the magic nothing more than good fun. Sure, he had hurt himself with his chain on accident every once in a while, but that was good-natured horseplay.

Then, it all burned down.

After almost everyone and everything he knew was burned and killed, he took the burdens on himself. He was too ‘cool’ to talk about what had happened, too ‘cool’ to ask for help, too ‘cool’ to rely on anyone but himself, and too ‘cool’ to let her rely on anyone else.

So he had practiced becoming stronger. Day after day, he swiped his chain in an abandoned building, preparing for the day he’d be confident to face the world outside.

And, well, today had been that fucking day.

Something gave him a feeling that if anyone was going to find some way to stop the tidal wave, it would be those weirdos he was protecting. That meant that he had to stop that annoying plant woman from killing them.

His ability let him control any chain, moving each link independently of physics. That meant he theoretically didn’t even need leverage to make his chain pull heavy objects, as long as he was ready to do it.

He imagined his magic creeping through the chain from link to link, a perfect double helix of power weaving in a circular line to so perfectly give the chain as much power as possible.

He made his chain squeeze on Kai’Vra’s leg and pull back on it with all its power. Kai’Vra yelped as every link in the chain pulled at once, then, finally, it snapped her leg off, then sent the nymph careening into the concrete wall of the ice cream shop, leaving a crater behind her.

As she fell to the ground, Kai’Vra gritted her canines. Though she hadn’t planned on killing the chain child unless it was convenient, she gave up her attack on Drauko, glaring straight at him. “This weak body is so aggravating!” she pouted in a girlish voice.

“Good,” Kaleb said, “I wouldn’t have you with any other emotion.” He swiped his chain at Kai’Vra, forcing her to duck under it.

The plant monster growled. Then, her whole body ripped open into green cartilage as she fell onto her all fours. Kaleb walked backward in confusion as the woman grew, the fibers of her body ripping and regrowing, repairing themselves as she did so. She continued to grow until she was nearly thirty feet tall.

The creature before Kaleb looked like a clawed beast, with an eyeless head that looked down at him, baring two rows of teeth larger than his arm. Sixteen massive yellow petals grew from its neck, and its fingers almost looked like claws.

A monstrous voice came from the creature as it spoke. “You’ll be the first to die,, since you insist.”

Damn it, Kaleb thought, staring up as the plant monster which slowly approached him, attempting and succeeding in intimidating the teenager. I should’ve just let them die!

Kai’Vra swung her arm down atop Kaleb, forcing him to hit the ground with his chain, leaping onto the beach. He stumbled backward and glanced at Drauko and Onei, who were making their escape, though Kai’Vra quickly blocked his sight of them.

“Focus on who you’re fighting, honey!” Kai’Vra said as she swiped horizontally at Kaleb, who leaped back with his chain, only to see Kai’Vra’s other hand was already swiping to catch him where he’d jumped.

Faced with death, he panicked and stabbed the hand before using it as leverage to fly up to the monster’s nonexistent eye level. She wasted no time leaping at him, her maw opening to catch him inside.

“Eat this, you freak!” he said unoriginally, before stabbing his chain into her mouth as it came towards him, then using the new leverage to send him flying behind her head. Well, I might as well try to hurt it! He swiped at the creature’s neck while it was exposed, cutting away a massive gash in it, then propelled himself off the creature as it swatted back at him like an annoying mosquito.

“You’re getting on my nerves!” it screeched as Kaleb landed on the concrete, softening his fall with his chain.

“Thanks for letting me know, I’ll make sure my employer gets to hear his customer’s complaint!” Kaleb said snarkily.

The creature just stared at him, baring its teeth.

“How do you even talk without a tongue? You’re not even opening your mouth!”

“Magic, I guess.” The creature grabbed the ledge of concrete with both hands, then ripped off two chunks of it, throwing them at Kaleb, who was forced to deflect one with his chain, while using the leverage to send himself away from the other’s line of fire and back onto the street.

Then, he dived to the side to dodge as Kai’Vra leaped at him, palms outstretched. He looked up and ran as she collapsed the side of the building that had been behind him a second ago, then propelled himself up as she slid her right hand towards him, then swiped higher with the other hand, forcing him to repeat the maneuver that had saved him from her identical attack, stabbing her hand to use as leverage to bound even higher.

But, uhh, she grabbed the chain.

Like a rat caught by its tail, Kaleb was held aloft. He tried to get his chain to move out of Kai’Vra’s hand, but it wouldn’t budge; the creature wouldn’t let the chain slip from her grasp.

“To think, this was all it took to make you powerless,” the creature said. “How truly pathetic your ability is.”

Kaleb looked wherever he could for a place to escape, a hope for survival.

Behind them, a building was in construction, with an inactive crane behind it.

Kaleb saw Kai’Vra’s other hand slowly reach to grab him, sure taking its fucking time to do so, and with his final, desperate attempt to survive, he flung himself away, swinging on the chain and flying towards the top of the building.

Kai’Vra watched as Kaleb flew towards the nearby building-in-construction, thrown towards its top, and reached a hand out to grab its ledge.

His hand just barely managed to grip it, to her surprise, barely avoiding a deadly fall.

Then, his momentum sent his head crashing into the wall, and he fell like a rock toward the asphalt below, bouncing off the ledge.

Kaleb couldn’t properly think as he began to fall, his head rattled, but as his imminent death approached, he turned his head to see the entity that had caused it, still holding his rat tail as it looked on at his death with amusement.

Perhaps, it was his fault for insisting on using his old dog’s chain, rather than something thicker, like a crane’s chain, for refusing to let the dead rest.

It was a necromancer who got him into this mess in the first place, after all.

And, well, that made for some actually good irony.

He chuckled as he prepared to splatter on the pavement.

“Not on my watch!”

Below Kaleb, a twister halted his momentum and made him hover just above the ground.

He looked up to where he had heard the voice and saw a man in a dapper top hat descending from above him, a stern expression on his face. He swiped a hand out in anger. “I am Dou Van Arc! I’m not sure what madness this is, but...” a blue blade of air circled around the man then shot towards a surprised Kai’Vra. “I won’t let you live after threatening this child!”

In nearly an instant, the monster avoided being decapitated by coalescing into her normal form, with a few deformities that settled themselves in the next couple of seconds. Apparently, she made her leaf clothes out of her own fibers, as the ones that had been destroyed during her transformation were back.

Kaleb slowly bounced off the tornado beneath him and landed on the ground unsteadily. “I’m not a damn child, weird man. Also, if your clothes are made out of yourself, does that count as being naked?”

Dou looked like he was about to say something to Kai’Vra, but Kaleb’s question made him look down at the teen with a weird expression.

“I never thought about it that way,” Kai’Vra said, “Since I just make these clothes out of my sense of decency.”

“To think you even had one,” Kaleb retorted.

“Regardless of our philosophical ideas about what constitutes as ‘clothes’, I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon, Kai’Vra,” he said with distaste.

“Nor was I expecting to see you- AH!” Kai’Vra stumbled to the side as a blade of air sliced through the concrete where she stood, making a gash in it ten feet deep and wide.

Dou looked surprised the creature had dodged but shook his head. “I don’t have time to argue with you, creature...” Dou looked beyond her and at the massive wave that was only a minute or two from hitting the shore.

She clicked her tongue. “Well, you were the one who interrupted my fun...” she pouted girlishly, before looking behind herself, along with Kaleb and Dou.

“Have you heard of a man named Therin?” Dou asked.

Kai’Vra looked back at the druid to see him clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, downright angry, but trying to restrain himself, then returned her gaze to the calamity headed their way.

The wave was taller than even some of the skyscrapers nearby, possibly ten times taller than herself when she was in her monstrous form. Deep within that wave, though, countless presences followed, alongside a ‘soul’ so massive that it rivaled her own when she was at her full power. However, her limited manasense forced her to squint to see anything other than a puddle of mana.

Wait, was her manasense nearsighted?

“No, I haven’t heard of anyone with that name for quite a long time.”

Kai’Vra was quite curious about what she saw approaching, but, something made her suspect something was up, so she looked where the other two humans had escaped, only to see they were still running along the shore, like absolute dimwits who had missed the ‘everyone is about to die’ memo.

She glanced back to the two humans, who were entranced by the wave’s approach. Kaleb was looking at the calamity with a resigned smile like he’d tried his best, while the druid was preparing a tornado of hypercondensed wind between his outstretched winds, ready to foolishly confront the wave on his own.

As good a time as any to escape.

Kai’Vra leaped away, following after the other two humans.

Though Kai’Vra had rushed her chase when she saw the wave approaching, she could hear from afar the boy with the black soul speaking, assuring the other human that his sister would stop the wave.

It was an outlandish assertion, but Kai’Vra had a feeling he wasn’t lying.

And if that was the case, she had all the time in the world to get a little...creative.