Something felt different.
HP 120/120 | MP 75/90
Raven held onto the ship's railing as another wave crashed against the side, spraying saltwater across the deck. His knuckles turned white as he tried to stay standing while the Obsidian Tide rocked violently beneath him. The ship following them had kept its distance for hours, but now the energy coming from it had changed—gotten stronger—and felt purposeful and predatory.
"They're making their move," Adrian yelled over the howling wind, his feet sliding slightly on the wet deck even though he was trying to anchor himself with gravity. His powers showed as unstable shimmers in the air that disappeared whenever a big wave hit the ship. "This isn't a natural storm!"
Raven already knew that. With his enhanced blood sense, he could detect five distinct signatures weaving through the clouds and waves—five minds controlling the elements around them with practiced coordination. The storm was their creation, and it wasn't meant to sink them. It was too deliberate, too controlling.
"They're herding us," Raven realized, narrowing his eyes as he mapped the energy patterns. "Pushing us northeast—back toward where Calonia can detect us."
Captain Kells stood at the helm, her weathered hands gripping the wheel tightly. Her clouded eye glowed with an unnatural light as she scanned the churning sea. "Nelle! Secure the back rigging! Hark! Get the backup engines ready!"
The crew rushed across the deck, experienced enough with rough seas to move efficiently despite the violent rocking of the ship.
But Raven could sense their fear—heartbeats faster than physical effort would cause, a tension that had nothing to do with the storm and everything to do with what they knew was coming.
Kells caught his eye across the deck. "These aren't ordinary followers," she called. "They're using Hydor arts more advanced than typical imperial mages. Whoever's hunting you has serious backing."
Adrian made his way to Raven's side, moving in short bursts as he used gravity around his body to keep balance. "Can you tell who they are?"
Raven closed his eyes, extending his blood sense outward. The amplifying effect of the ocean was still strange to him—his awareness reaching further than should be possible, mapping life signatures across the churning waters with uncomfortable clarity. Twenty-three crew members aboard the Obsidian Tide, their heartbeats a familiar rhythm. Beyond them, nothing but open ocean for miles, until—
"Five of them," he confirmed, opening his eyes. "But their signatures are... muted. Deliberately hidden." He frowned, concentrating harder. "And there's something else beneath their ship. A presence, ancient and powerful. It's not alive, not exactly, but it has... awareness."
"An artifact," Adrian said grimly. "They must have something that can track Bloodcraft."
A massive wave lifted the ship, tilting it at a dangerous angle before dropping it with stomach-churning speed. Raven stumbled, and when his hand touched a puddle of seawater on the deck, his blood responded with a painful surge.
It was like every drop in his veins suddenly wanted to escape through his skin and join the ocean.
"Get below!" Kells shouted as another wave crashed over the right side. "This is going to get worse before it gets better!"
But Raven knew getting below wouldn't help. Whatever was coming for them wasn't something they could hide from or outrun. He stared out at the darkening horizon where water and sky seemed to blend into a single threatening entity, and felt something inside him respond to the challenge—something that wasn't entirely himself.
They've come for us, whispered a voice in the back of his mind. Let me help. Let me out.
The sea erupted.
A hundred yards off the left side, water rose in a shape too deliberate to be natural—a massive, see-through hand reaching toward the ship with clear purpose. Before anyone could react, another formed off the right front, and then a third behind them, the construct's "fingers" longer than the Obsidian Tide's main mast.
"Hydor constructs!" Kells shouted, spinning the wheel hard to the left. "They're trying to box us in!"
Raven raised his hand instinctively, calling forth his blood to form the blade he'd mastered during training. Instead, the blood exploded from his palm in an uncontrolled spray, instantly drawn toward the ocean like metal to a magnet. He gasped, nearly losing his balance with the unexpected drain.
"What the hell?" He pulled back, forcing the blood to return to his body with much more effort than it should have taken. Nearby, Adrian's eyes widened.
"Your powers—the water is affecting them more than we thought."
Raven steadied himself, studying the strange reaction. In the practice sessions below deck, his blood had been harder to control but more powerful. Out here, surrounded by the actual ocean, the effect was ten times stronger. His blood wasn't just responding to his commands—it was responding to the sea itself, as if the two somehow recognized each other.
Don't fight it, the voice in his head suggested. Work with it. Blood and water are ancient enemies, but they understand each other's language.
Raven wasn't sure if the thought was his own or something else—a piece of the original Raven Blackwood's consciousness coming through. Either way, the advice felt right. Instead of trying to form his usual precise constructs, he let his blood flow more naturally, following the rhythm of the waves around them.
This time, the crimson stream poured from his hands smoothly, expanding and growing thicker with much less effort. Rather than the thin whip he'd intended, a massive tendril of blood extended from his palm, thick as a man's arm and pulsing with power.
"By all the old gods," whispered Nelle, who had stopped working to stare. Her cat-like eyes reflected the crimson glow of Raven's blood. Unlike the other crew members who backed away in fear, her expression showed fascination—even reverence.
The nearest water construct surged forward, fingers of liquid stretching toward the ship's hull. Raven swung his arm, sending the blood tendril lashing out in response.
Where the two met, something unexpected happened—the blood didn't mix with the water as it naturally should. Instead, it cut through the magical construct like a hot blade through ice, severing two "fingers" that collapsed back into the churning sea.
The pain was immediate and shocking. Raven doubled over, his connection to the extended blood creating a feedback that felt like his own fingers had been plunged into freezing water.
The severed portion of his blood tendril didn't return to him—it remained suspended in the air for a heartbeat before dropping into the ocean, where it formed strange, glowing patterns on the water's surface before disappearing.
"Raven!" Adrian was at his side instantly, steadying him with a gravity-enhanced grip. "That was... I've never seen blood magic do that before."
Raven stared at the remaining water constructs, which had paused in their advance as if rethinking. "Neither have I." He flexed his hand, watching as small droplets of blood hovered above his palm. "Something about this place changes how Bloodcraft works. It's like the ocean makes it stronger, but also... pulls at it. Makes it want to join some bigger pattern."
Adrian's expression darkened. "That confirms what the Third Guard suspected about artifacts like 'Whispers of Shadow.' They don't just contain blood magic—they're part of some larger system, a network of power that still exists despite the empire's ban."
A shout from the crow's nest interrupted them. "Captain! They're changing formation!"
The three water hands had retreated, merging back into the churning sea. But the storm was getting worse, creating a wall of rain and wind that surrounded the ship in a shrinking circle. Through his blood sense, Raven could feel the five energy signatures moving, no longer staying on their vessel but spreading out across the water, approaching from different directions.
"They're coming themselves now," Raven said, straightening despite the lingering pain in his hand. "The constructs were just testing our defenses."
Captain Kells strode toward them, her clouded eye glowing brighter than before. "Can you fight them? Your blood magic—can it hold them off?"
Raven hesitated, calculating their chances. His normal techniques were unpredictable here, and the strange reaction between his blood and the water constructs was as dangerous to him as to their attackers. But he could feel something else building inside him—a power he'd only glimpsed during his training with the Third Guard, something the original Raven Blackwood had known how to use.
Blood Summoning, the voice in his head whispered. It's the only way.
"There's something I can try," Raven said slowly. "But I need space. And it will use up a lot of my mana."
"Do it," Kells ordered, gesturing for the crew to clear the main deck. "Whatever you're planning, do it fast. We can't outrun them, and we can't outfight them normally."
Adrian looked at Raven with sudden understanding. "You're going to summon the Death Knight."
Raven nodded, moving to the center of the cleared deck. "But out here, surrounded by water... I'm not sure exactly how it will appear."
Let me guide you, the voice offered. I've done this before.
For the first time since he'd begun hearing the original Raven's voice, he consciously accepted its help. He closed his eyes, feeling for the connection between his blood and the surrounding ocean—not fighting the strange resonance but embracing it, using it to amplify his magic.
"Blood Summoning," he whispered, and felt the power surge through him like never before.