The bow of the newly christened 'Dauntless' rocked as it traversed the choppy sea of Argwyll.

The last few hours had passed without incident. Ethan had almost expected some kind of Kraken or other undersea monstrosity to impede their progress on the water, but things had been calm.

A little too calm for his liking.

Each member of the team had taken to a different part of the ship. Lamphrey was down below, nestled in the crew decks, where there was nothing but darkness and cobwebs as befit her whole persona. Tara, who'd complained about nausea on the deck, was currently with Fauna in the storage hold, where she couldn't see a single drop of blue. Must have been a Minxit thing. Ethan supposed that it made sense a cat-person couldn't handle the sea.

Klax, meanwhile, had taken up residence in the Captain's Quarter's after Ethan had told him he'd rather stay awake during their journey. And thus, here he was, right on the stern of this venerable battleship, still fixated on the gloomy castle that was coming closer and closer in the distance.

He remembered how Fauna had looked at him back when he'd come so close to taking Malak out. He remembered how she'd looked at him as they boarded the ship, too. He couldn't forget it. It was a face that looked so betrayed. So hurt.

That was why he was up here now. He couldn't face her. Hell, he couldn't face any of them.

You're conflicted, Sys told him as the wind picked up all around his oaken form. But do I need to remind you that you're just doing what any leader would?

Ethan grimaced.

"For once, you're actually on my side", he said.

They are, too. They just want to try and understand you, that's all. You're like nothing they've ever seen before. And you're only going to get stranger.

"Thanks, Sys. Real uplifting stuff."

You're better at pretty speeches than I am, Sys admitted. But don't just take it from me. Take it from the horse's mouth. Or, more accurately, the dog's.

Ethan turned to see Klax approach from the steps leading down to the main deck. Despite the fact that they were heading into almost certain mortal danger, the Lycae seemed almost tranquil.

"Did I wake you?" Ethan asked him. "Sorry. But at least you know I'm not just talking to myself, anymore."

Klax flashed him a smile. "I thought I heard musing. You could say I have a sixth sense for it."

Ethan shot him a smile right back. "You'd be interested in hearing your Archon's ramblings? Pull up a railing and feel free to indulge."

Klax accepted the offer with a jovial bark, coming to rest his arms on the railing beside Ethan. The ship continued on its course, magically propelled by the spectral winds of their mages, and was now in the middle of clearing a dense patch of fog. The waters became obscured as both men talked, and the shadowy form of the castle became even more shaded.

"Fauna worries about you," Klax said. "It may seem like this worry is confined to your talks with the snake-woman, but she worries you are changing."

"Maybe I am."

Klax nodded. "All things change. Some of us are…more accustomed to such things. Not even I can say that I do not dwell upon the past some days."

Ethan nodded. That much was true. He'd seen it himself, back in the City of Illusions.

"You have doubts, as all great leaders do," Klax continued. "You doubt the path you walk, and how you pave it. But you have helped us – your people – dispel our own doubts. It is only right then, that I tell you what you did back in Sentinel was the right thing to do. More bloodshed would have accomplished nothing. Blind hate does not beat blind hate. It only perpetuates it."

"You're talking about Malak?" Ethan asked. "Yeah…the way he spoke to you, it was almost like he understood you. Like you were old friends or something."

Klax's shoulders sagged. "Before the attack on the city, he spoke with me. Perhaps he saw a kindred spirit in me because of our age, and shared our pain…of losing someone close to us because of our own hubris – our own mistakes."

Ethan saw that the dog man was just as fixed on the shadowed towers in the distance as he was.

"Ethan, I know she might be dead," he said suddenly. "I know Jun'Ei may not have survived at the hands of that butcher. I also know he may be keeping her alive just to give us hope, only to dash it away. This…person. This Doctor Haylock – that is the kind of human he is. But I will know either way. I will face my destiny and find the truth of myself, just as you will."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Ethan was surprised to hear him speak so frankly. All this time, he'd assumed Klax's only reason for hanging on to their quest was simply to bring Jun'Ei back into the fold – to rekindle the lost love between him and his mate. Now, here he was, basically telling him that he wasn't stupid enough to believe they'd make it out with her in once piece – if she even made it out at all.

"We'll find her, Klax," Ethan declared. "I promised you that."

The dogman gave his Archon a toothy grin. "That we will. One way or another."

Silence stretched between them then, broken only by the faint heaving of the ship's hull as it cleared the deeper waters they'd just straddled into.

"Klax," Ethan piped up. "You led Sanctum for at least a century. You must have had doubts of your own during that time. When they came – what did you do?"

The Lycae seemed genuinely surprised by the question. And he answered it without barely a second thought:

"I remembered who, and what, I was fighting for," he said. "I remembered that my life is only one in the face of thousands who count upon me to do the right thing. Even then, I made mistakes. But I never stopped. And I knew that, when I fell, the ideals I lived by would be taken up by another. Just like the cycle of Archon and Lightborn."

Ethan knit his brows, focusing on a specific part of that statement.

"When you…"

RUMBLE.

A thunderous boom cut through the fog-draped morning, snapping both Ethan and Klax's heads upward as a streak of steel-gray smoke arced out from Griffon's Watch. It glowed with an ominous, purplish sheen that trailed behind it like the tail of a comet. Tara and Fauna immediately burst onto the deck, ears and tails twitching in tandem alarm. Even Lamphrey came running up from below, staff clutched tightly in her scaled hands.

"What is that?" Tara yelled, squinting at the oncoming shape. "Honestly, can we not have a nice little journey for once?"

Fauna's eyes widened. "A cannonball? That's too big—!"

"It's…something else," Ethan growled, his mind already racing.

Up on the prow, a swirl of cold wind lashed across the wooden deck. The swirl quickly coalesced into a gale, ignited by Ethan's instincts. "Wing Buffet!" he roared.

Within a heartbeat, tendrils of spiraling wind burst outward from his Drytchling body, forming a forceful current that smashed into the oncoming projectile. A deafening crack rattled the skies as the wind shear knocked the missile off-course. Its dull glow stuttered, flickered—and then it veered sideways, careening into the churning sea just off the port side of the Dauntless.

For a split second, silence reigned; everyone on deck held their breath. Then, the missile struck the waves. An ear-splitting explosion detonated across the water, sending a towering plume of mist and brine high into the air. The force of it buffeted the Dauntless, making the entire ship groan ominously. Tara stumbled against the railing, and Klax braced Fauna to keep her from toppling over.

"Everyone hold—!" Ethan began, but his words died in his throat.

Instead of dissipating, the explosion unleashed waves of raw frost that rippled out over the waves like an unstoppable tide. The swathe of ocean water around the Dauntless began to solidify with horrific speed, transforming the sea into an eerie, translucent sheet of ice. The ship's hull screeched in protest, the abrupt freeze jamming it fast in place.

"The water's—freezing!" Fauna gasped, her breath catching as she clutched the railing. Her ears fell back in alarm.

Within moments, the Dauntless was effectively trapped, the ice stretching in all directions as far as they could see. Frost crept up its sides, crackling and hissing like a living thing. The fog of freezing vapor hung in the air, making every breath sting.

"Unbelievable," Klax snarled. "Some sort of…ice shell. Did the Doctor do this?"

Lamphrey set her staff tip against the slick surface at the ship's edge. "We're immobilized. Perhaps the Red Mage's handiwork, or an artifact of the castle. Regardless—it's a trap."

"Did you see the glow on it?" Tara muttered, creeping to the front, daggers at the ready. "Something's…in there, isn't there?"

The question died unasked when a shrill, metallic screech echoed across the frozen sea, turning every head on deck. Where the missile had struck, the icy surface now sat marred by a crater of jagged, uneven frost. Out of that ragged circle of splintered ice, an ominous figure was stirring—cracking through as though hatching from an egg.

In the eerie, snow-choked gloom, they saw a humanoid form pull itself upright. The thing stood at least two heads taller than Ethan's Drytchling Prime shape, encased head-to-toe in jagged, bluish-white plating. Ice spikes jutted from its shoulders like savage pauldrons, extra shards branching out of its elbows, forearms, and knees. Each movement gave off a brittle scraping sound that hurt the ears.

It lifted its head, and through the haze of blowing snow, Ethan glimpsed a face—if it was a face—locked behind a glacial visor, black pits where eyes should have been. Whatever it was, it let out a bestial roar—no, not even a roar. It was more like the strangled, clicking groan of glacier ice fracturing after centuries of pressure. The sound wormed into every corner of the hybrids' minds and set their nerves aflame with a sense of primal threat.

As if that weren't enough, the creature slowly raised a hand encased in pale-blue gauntlets that ended in claw-like talons. The air temperature plummeted further, hoarfrost forming on the Dauntless's rails. With a grinding shriek, the new enemy conjured a colossal greatsword wrought entirely of pure ice from the swirling chill around its palm. Despite how impossible it seemed—a blade that thick would weigh hundreds of pounds—it hefted the crystalline weapon with effortless ease.

"Is that a…knight?" Fauna's voice was barely a breath. "But made of ice?"

"Who cares what it is," Tara hissed, both daggers raised. "It's coming for us."

"Ready up!" Ethan barked, forging a half-dozen Thorn Hail shards along his wooden arm, each forming vicious barbs. The rush of adrenaline quickened his heartbeat. "Whatever that thing is, it's not friendly."

Klax stepped forward beside him, claws flexed, while Lamphrey clutched her staff in both hands, eyes narrowing on the glacial monstrosity. On Ethan's other side, Fauna readied an incantation, magical energy crackling in the air around her drooping ears.

Then the ice knight braced itself—and leaped skyward with shocking speed. The whistling of wind and cracking ice erupted in a deafening din as it vaulted high above the deck, greatsword lifted overhead in a downstroke of lethal intent.

Ethan's eyes locked on the crystalline figure descending upon them from the swirling mists. The last thing he saw was the gleam of the ice-blade, poised to smash into the Dauntless with unstoppable force.

And then came a single sentence, spoken through unseen lips:

"Hybrid…SCUM!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.