"STEP ON IT!" They all yelled at Tundra, "WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!" He slammed on the throttle. The giant sea monster keeping up easily.
"Crap, crap, crap!" Kala started to control the water around the sea monster to try and slow it down, but the sea beast's roars knocked Kala down, she slipped and almost fell out of the boat, but luckily for her; Hirune being pessimistic was already expecting something like that to happen and had the Devourer Jaws ready. She stretched the jaws, and they caught Kala by her tail.
Kala yelped in pain but didn't complain as Hirune pulls her back onto the boat. "That hurt, but I appreciate it," she mumbled while rubbing her tail.
Hirune rolled her eyes and glared at the sea monster, then she saw that the way up ahead had a bunch of sea stacks up ahead and got an idea.
"Tundra find the tallest one of those sea stacks and circle around it! I've got an idea!" Hirune yelled while focusing on keeping the jaws in her hand. She wasn't sure if her idea would work since she didn't know how far the Devourer Jaws could stretch, but it was certainly worth a try.
She felt Tundra turning, the sea monster catching up. Then she stretched the jaws towards the spiky tallest and widest sea stack she saw, and made it bite down. "Keep on circling until I tell you to stop!" Tundra kept on circling around the rock for 3/4 of it, "stop!" she yelled as she yanked back, every fiber of her body heating up as she pulled back on the heavy stack.
The sea monster roared as the rock crashed into its back, then it blasted a large shoot of water at them, it seemed like a pathetic wave for a split second, then it grew into a huge tsunami that was about to engulf them.
They were all visibly shaken as Ellen stood up with a sigh. She held her hand up at it, and a tiny pitch-black piece of void with a singularity point appeared in the wave. Rippling it, then twisting it into itself, droplets of sea green water being separated from the blood flying all over the place. It was an ethereal sight to behold. Then Ellen quickly made the black hole disappear, causing the water to turn into a heavy rain for a moment before suddenly splooshing back into the ocean. A bunch of water splashing on them as they completely ignored Hirune's cries in pain from the water getting all over her left hand.
Tundra turned back towards the Triplets of Red Peaks. They were all still in awe of what they just saw. Besides Ellen and Hirune, Ellen because it was her power, she'd obviously seen something like that before. And Hirune, half due to her hand burning alive, and half from wondering why Ellen hasn't done this in front of them before. Sure, black holes are dangerous, but if she could make one so small that it didn't do anything to perturb them then why didn't she just use a black hole on the sea monster earlier?
Which thinking of the sea monster, why did it stop chasing them? Was it stuck? Hirune only thought the stack would slow it down slightly, not that it would trap it. She stared at Ellen, her brow obviously in a cold sweat as she could tell Hirune was getting onto her in some form of way. Hirune stared back into the ocean, trying to see if the sea monster is after them again.
Then all of the sudden the shadow jester appeared again, "AAAHH!" Hirune jumped a foot into the air, holding her hands open in front of herself. They all looked at her, she quickly pretended to be holding her left hand in pain as if sea water got on it. They all rolled their eyes and looked away. She stared at the shadow jester for a moment, looking grumpy. Why was it here all of the sudden?
Then the shadow jester pointed down.
'Down? What could that have to do with any-' Hirune's train of thought got caught off as realization kicked in and she quickly yelled, "The sea monster is below us!" She stood up, they all looked at her panicked, besides Ellen. She seemed calm, too calm. Hirune shook her head ignoring her, she already knew Ellen wouldn't do anything else. "Kala send us into the air with your waterpower things, I don't know the name! Tundra, give Ellen the wheel and freeze parts of the sea behind us randomly!"
Kala quickly lifted the boat high into the air while groaning in exhaustion. Tundra stood up quickly and looked down to see where he should freeze. Ellen slowly went and sat in the driver's seat and started to slam the pedal in. Hirune looked at Ellen, she walked closer and sat near her. She didn't say anything to her or give her a look filled with sass or suspicion. Instead, she just stared at her, then looked away knowingly. Hirune could tell by now that Ellen was something special, she just had to figure out what it was that made her special.
Then the boat hit the ocean hard, water splashing all over the place. Hirune stood up and looked at the spots Tundra was freezing around them. She looked at the shadow jester and saw it pointing left. She tried to bring the Devourer Jaws out again but all that came out were the nails. She looked at her left hand, why weren't the jaws coming out?
She turned to Ellen, "Why aren't the jaws working?" Ellen glanced at her, trying to mostly keep her eyes forward to not lose their route, "I don't know much about those things. All I know is that they belong to you and that witch, so it's for you to figure out."
Hirune looked at her hand again, then back at the sea as the sea monster got closer. She yelled loudly, as she raised her hand into the air and violently slammed it into the boats railing as if it was a broken TV remote. She took heavy breaths, biting her lip as she brushed her wet hair out of her face. Kala and Tundra looked at her concerned. Tundra took a step towards her, Kala took a step away, and Ellen just kept on looking forward.
Hirune tried to force the jaws out again, but only a small pair of jaws came out of her nail. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. Then stretched the jaws towards a chunk of ice Tundra was making and flung it at the sea monster. It hit the sea monster in the eye, and it whimpered in pain. Turning away slightly, but Hirune wasn't done. She couldn't even feel her hand anymore from how hard she slammed it into the side of the boat and how much water was on it. All she could feel was pent up rage as she flung another chunk of ice at the sea creature.
By now, what they thought was originally the monster was less of a monster than she was. Instead, it was like a hunter and a bear, the hunter becoming the hunted as soon as they ran out of ammunition. The sea creature taking the role of the hunter, and Hirune taking the role of the bear.
The sea monster roared and turned the other way, giving up on them. The shadow jester then hopped off the boat in front of her, curtseyed and bowed in midair, then diminished into a dark liquid into the ocean.
Then the consequences of forcing her powers out caught up to her, and she lost consciousness.
She woke up in the same dark space she woke up in before she met Ellen, Tundra, Kala and Clint. Instantly recognizing the rooms ethereal lighting. She then looked to her left and saw Namulenza leaning on the thrones arm rest, one arm around the top of the throne holding onto it.
"So, would you like to explain why you forced out more power than you could contain?" Namulenza said as her arm dropped from the throne and around Hirune leaning onto her with a thread inducing glare on her face.
Hirune's breath was a bit shaky not recognizing this side of Namulenza. Last time she saw her she seemed like a sweet and bubbly person, but now, she seemed cold and uncanny. Trying to keep her voice from trembling Hirune responded, "Well, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. I mean, I handled it just fine."
Namulenza pumped her hands up and down in annoyance, letting out an annoyed moan. "Yes! Yes, it's a big deal, there's a reason why I limit the amount of power you can borrow! That's the whole point of my limit. If you feel like it's so necessary to use that much power, go look for more shards of my artifact!" She shrieked, finally freezing her hands, her metacarpals and phalanges visible through her skin.
Hirune stared at her with curiosity, "Shards of your artifact?"
Namulenza stopped and looked at her, "You didn't know? Artifacts that have a conscious in them are all scattered in pieces. You can usually tell by the color or shape of each shard whose artifact it is. Besides you, no one has ever dared to consume mine. In fact, people avoid my artifact so much that not many shard locations are known."
Hirune nodded, "So, if I get more of those artifacts, theoretically I should be able to use your powers more?"
Namulenza's personality suddenly became bubbly and sweet again as if a switch was flipped in her head, "That's right! Considering how you didn't know about shards, you probably don't know about routes either." Namulenza snapped and shadows wrapped around her, changing her outfit into a white button up shirt with the sleeve's neatly rolled up, a black business coat over it with a neat business skirt and heels the same color as the coat.
Hirune stared at her for a moment, "Good morning Ms. Namulenza."
Namulenza chuckled, "Today's lesson is power routes! There are 8 routes where you can choose to lead your powers towards. You can gradually increase your progress towards multiple routes, but if you progress enough in certain directions, other routes get blocked. That's how your powers can be specialized for your preferences! It also means if you use them right you can lead yourself into a special rank that you may know of. Ranks being used to determine how close you are to a certain degree of power. Does that make sense?"
Hirune nodded. That made a lot more sense than any of the explanations Ellen said. Namulenza nodded back, "Well that's todays lesson. Have a good rest of your day, class is dismissed." She said as Hirune regained consciousness.
She looked around and saw they parked the boat at the Triplets of Red Peaks. She looked up and saw that the peaks, as described by the name, are red, but the left peak has a first quarter half-moon shaped hole in it, the right peak having a last quarter half-moon shaped hole in it, then peak in the middle having a sun shaped hole in it.
She couldn't help but wonder if those holes meant something, nevertheless how they got there.