[Third Person POV]
Luke and Thalia skimmed across the ocean surface with impossible speed, their movements so sharp and violent that the very air warped around them. Every step they took left ripples that deepened into troughs, the sea buckling beneath their momentum. To an outside observer, they were nothing but blurs—phantoms carving destruction into the endless waters.
When they clashed, the world answered with thunder. Shockwaves rippled outward, flashing arcs of lightning and sparks of gold erupting each time Luke's blade met the charged tip of Thalia's spear. The ocean itself seemed to recoil, the surface dipping and swelling, as if even the sea could not withstand the violence of their duel.
Thalia darted backward, body flowing like a current, and in the same motion thrust her lightning-forged weapon forward. Her technique, [Piercing Thrust], gathered power so immense that the spear hummed, the surrounding air trembling as though it anticipated the strike.
Luke's [Martial Foresight] burned to life, scattering his mind with ghost-images of futures where her weapon pierced his chest. At the last possible instant, he twisted his body at an angle so unnatural it seemed to break anatomy itself. The strike sliced above his chest, grazing his cape and punching a clean hole through the fabric. He slipped beneath her guard, the spear missing by inches.
The sound of shattering glass erupted as Thalia's thrust detonated the sound barrier, her spear's force cutting through air and water alike. The ocean split wide open in a vast, yawning trench, walls of seawater towering on either side before slamming back together in a roaring collapse.
Luke was already on the move. His speed blurred him into a streak of gold and shadow as he appeared above Thalia, leg swinging down in a brutal kick charged with deadly momentum.
Thalia whipped her shield upward just in time. The collision rang like a war drum, the sheer force launching her backward across the water. She fought against inertia, slamming her feet down in the air and shattering the very pressure around her into a rippling shockwave as she regained balance.
Luke crouched low, eyes shimmering with an unnatural, piercing blue. His gift [Weakness Exploitation] illuminated vulnerabilities in Thalia's form. He lunged, Backbiter thrusting against her wind-forged shield.
The moment the sword struck, her shield dissolved—dissipating as if the air had lost the will to protect her. Thalia's eyes widened in shock, and a sharp sting ripped across her arm as Luke's blade found flesh.
Her instincts roared louder than pain. She drew in a breath so sharp it burned her lungs, then unleashed it in a primal cry—"RAAAAAAAAHHH!!" Her voice, amplified by [Sound Amplification], became a physical weapon. The scream tore outward in a concussive blast that cracked the atmosphere itself. Luke was hurled away, his body skidding helplessly across the trembling ocean before vanishing beneath the waves.
Submerged, his world became muted chaos. Water rushed around him, muffling sound yet amplifying the ringing in his ears. Blood streamed into the current, spiraling outward in crimson ribbons. Dazed but not broken, Luke grit his teeth, tightened his grip on Backbiter, and carved a rift in space itself, opening a portal even as his lungs ached for air.
Above, Thalia pressed her palm to her wounded arm. [Wind Healing] drew the air's vitality into her body, staunching blood and accelerating recovery. Simultaneously, her [Wind Sense] warned her of the disturbance behind her as Luke's portal tore reality open. She turned just as the sea convulsed forward with the momentum of his return.
Backbiter lashed out in a devastating arc. Thalia's lightning spear cracked, severed clean in two. Luke pressed forward, his second strike already poised for the kill—
—but Thalia's reflexes matched his ferocity. She batted his wrist aside with a sharp slap, her other hand surging forward, fist pressed firmly to his chest. Wind spiraled there, condensing into a violent storm.
"Boom," she said with a cocky grin, and unleashed [Tornado Fist].
A luminous green gale exploded from her knuckles, a cyclone birthed from her very bones. The twisting column of wind tore into Luke, swallowing him whole and blasting him backward in a storm of howling devastation. The gales shredded at his armor, peeled strips of flesh, and consumed him in slicing winds until his form disintegrated into nothing but black mist.
Thalia blinked, disbelief tightening her chest. "What?!"
Because above her, another tear opened. The Luke she destroyed had not been him at all, but a shadowy double—an avatar woven from his power [Shadow of Betrayal]. He had sent it ahead, sacrificing the doppelganger while his true self lurked unseen.
A vast shadow fell across her. The ocean above them ruptured as a blanket of water collapsed downward, a torrent like a falling sky. The crushing surge pinned her from above while below the sea churned violently, as though some colossal drain had been pulled open, threatening to drag everything into its abyss.
Luke burst free from the collapsing rift, Backbiter clutched tight in his grip. The tear sealed behind him with a hiss, dropping down towards Thalia, eyes burning with focus. He swung his blade in a wide arc, ready to carve into his blade into her—
But the strike cut nothing but empty water. She was gone.
Luke's head snapped up at the sudden crack of thunder splitting the sky. Lightning roared above him, cascading in jagged forks that lit up the storm-churned heavens. His sharp gaze found her immediately: Thalia Grace, standing high above, thanks to her ability [Storm Step].
Luke and Lucian weren't the only who had the ability to teleport short distances quickly. So did she.
For an instant, Luke's blade trembled in his grip. Reflected in his eyes was her silhouette: arm pulled back, her entire body coiled with divine fury. In her hands blazed a jagged thunderbolt that was nearly the size of her, raw and crackling with the infinite wrath of Zeus himself.
The sight alone was enough to explain her title as the Daughter of Zeus.
"You escaped me once!!" Thalia's voice cracked, her roar amplified by the heavens themselves. "IT WON'T HAPPEN TWICE!!"
With every ounce of her strength, she hurled the thunderbolt downward.
The world split open in white fire. The bolt tore through the sky like judgment itself, a blinding spear of light too fast for human senses to comprehend. Luke's [Martial Foresight] screamed at him in desperate flashes—visions of death, of being reduced to ash—yet even with foresight, his body was far too slow.
The thunderbolt found its mark.
It slammed into Luke's back with a sound like the sky collapsing.
"AAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" His scream was a guttural, ragged wail as the divine current surged into him. Lightning erupted outward from his body in uncontrolled arcs, streaking in every direction. His limbs convulsed violently, jerking as if his skeleton itself were trying to tear free from his flesh.
The sea became a conductor of his agony. Lightning streaked across the water's surface in violent forks, whole sections of ocean boiling under the divine heat. Jagged arcs snaked outward like a living web of light, uncontrolled, untamed. The air itself buzzed with ozone and fury.
Luke spasmed, choking on his own scream, his armor sizzling and splitting apart as if it were nothing more than brittle paper.
The lightning leapt farther, racing toward the cruise ship caught in the battle's vicinity. For a terrifying moment, the arcs surged hungrily toward it, threatening to engulf hundreds of lives in divine destruction.
But the ship did not fall.
The arcs slammed harmlessly against a shimmering barrier of dark-red light, the magical shield shimmering like glass beneath the onslaught. The massive cruise liner—an impossible weight of steel and life—was hovering above the ocean, lifted free of danger by sheer will.
At its center stood Lucian.
His eyes burned like twin suns, glowing with impossible might, his cape billowing behind him, every vein in his body shimmering faintly with coursing magic. His arms were spread wide, trembling under the raw weight of the spell, yet his posture was unyielding. With his power alone, he levitated the entire ship, holding it aloft as though defying the ocean itself.
The barrier flickered, straining against the wild fury of Thalia's lightning. Sparks cascaded around him like burning stars. But Lucian did not waver.
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