Hello, Drinor here. I'm happy to publish a new Chapter of A Nundu for A Pet.
If you want to Read 12 More Chapters Right Now. Search 'Drinor Patreon' in Google and Click the First LINK
Chapter 37, Chapter 38, Chapter 39, Chapter 40, Chapter 41, Chapter 42, Chapter 43, Chapter 44, Chapter 45, Chapter 46, Chapter 47, and Chapter 48 are already available for Patrons.
"The resonance is almost perfect," Crystal-Harmony murmured, her voice carrying the musical undertones of Royal Sea Horse speech. Her fingers traced delicate ice patterns in the water, matching the wardstone's rhythm. "Just a little more..."
Harry drew breath through his modified bubble-head charm, preparing to add his voice magic to her working. The words formed in his mind, a melody that would bridge surface and sea magic—
The attack came without warning.
Dark shapes erupted from the shadows between the coral pillars, their movements too swift and precise to be natural currents. Harry caught glimpses of scales darker than the deepest trenches. The Dark Royal Sea Horses moved like predators.
"The hybrid princess and her surface pet," the leader's voice cut through the water like a shark's fin, sharp and merciless. "How convenient to find you both here, alone."
Harry reached for his wand, but underwater combat was nothing like dueling in air. His movements felt sluggish, his magic distorted by the pressure and alien environment. A blast of red light from his wand dissipated harmlessly in the water, spreading out like diluted ink.
Crystal-Harmony reacted faster, her ice magic crystallizing the water between them and their attackers. But the Dark RSH moved with terrible coordination, their tridents glowing with sickly green light as they shattered her barrier.
"Your precious wards are failing," another Dark RSH taunted, his voice carrying the deep resonance of the abyssal plains. "Just like the surface magic failed to protect those three Aqualis shipments we intercepted."
Harry's mind raced even as he dodged a thrust from a barbed trident. Why would they reveal their involvement in the Aqualis thefts? It made no tactical sense, unless—
A blast of corrupted magic caught him in the side, sending him spinning through the water. Crystal-Harmony's cry of alarm pierced the chamber, followed by the crack and shimmer of more ice barriers forming and breaking. Harry struggled to right himself, his robes tangling around his legs, the bubble-head charm flickering dangerously.
"Your father's compromise with the surface world has weakened us," the leader declared, pressing their advantage as Harry and Crystal-Harmony were forced back against the wardstone. "The Obsidian Depths remembers the old ways, the true strength of the deep!"
The water around them grew colder, darker, as more Dark RSH emerged from the shadows.
Crystal-Harmony twisted through the water, her scales flashing as she unleashed a barrage of ice shards. Each crystal formed with sharp edges, sharp enough to cut through the scales of an RSH. The frozen projectiles cut through the water like surface-world arrows, forcing three Dark RSH to scatter.
"Ice Magic, quite rare, but you are still a novice," one of them taunted, his trident swirling with corrupted energy. "Let us show you true mastery of the depths!"
She responded by freezing the water around herself in expanding rings, creating a defensive sphere studded with deadly spikes. When two Dark RSH tried to flank her, she shattered the sphere outward, sending hundreds of ice needles in every direction.
But the Dark RSH were ready. The leader among them spun his trident in a complex pattern, and suddenly the water around Crystal-Harmony began to vibrate at different frequencies. Her ice crystals, caught between competing pressure waves, cracked and splintered before they could reach their targets.
"Pressure manipulation," she realized, already forming new ice patterns. "Ancient RSH combat magic."
"Very good," another Dark RSH purred, joining his leader's attack. "But there's more."
They moved in perfect synchronization, their corrupted tridents creating a vortex of rapidly changing water pressure. Crystal-Harmony tried to freeze the currents, but each time her ice began to form, the pressure would shift, shattering her constructs before they could fully crystallize.
The third Dark RSH completed their triangle formation. Now they weren't just manipulating pressure – they were changing the water's temperature in rapid, localized bursts. Hot and cold currents collided around Crystal-Harmony, making it impossible for her to maintain stable ice formations.
"Your hybrid magic is impressive," the leader acknowledged as they pressed their advantage, "but you never learned the deeper arts of water manipulation. The Obsidian Depths preserved knowledge your father's kingdom has forgotten."
Harry's first spells dissipated uselessly against the Dark RSH's scales. His Stunning Spell, normally powerful enough to knock out a full-grown wizard, merely rippled across their armor-like surface. Even his Blasting Curse seemed to wash over them like gentle waves.
"Surface magic?" One of them laughed, the sound distorting through the water. "Your kind's spells are worthless in the depths."
Harry gripped his wand tighter, feeling his Gilded Fang talisman warm against his chest as a Dark RSH launched a concentrated blast of corrupted water magic at him. The talisman hummed, absorbing the attack completely. The warrior's eyes widened in surprise.
"What manner of craft is this?" another snarled. "No surface trinket should be able to—"
"Release!" Harry commanded. The talisman erupted with stored energy, transforming the absorbed magic into pure light that pierced the darkened water. The Dark RSH recoiled, their eyes adapted to the depths proving painfully sensitive to the sudden illumination.
In that moment of their vulnerability, Harry struck. The advanced slicing spell left his wand with perfect precision, finding the gap between scales at one warrior's neck. Dark blood clouded the water as the body sank.
Three more Dark RSH rushed him, but the talisman hummed again, warning him of incoming attacks. Harry twisted through the water, his modified bubble-head charm allowing him full range of motion. Two more precisely aimed cutting curses found their marks – one through a warrior's gill slits, another penetrating the softer scales beneath a raised arm.
But his victory was short-lived. Ten more Dark RSH materialized from the corrupted waters, their tridents glowing. Harry felt Crystal-Harmony move beside him, her back pressing against his as ice crystals began forming in complex defensive patterns around them.
"There are too many," she whispered, her ice barrier barely holding against their first combined assault.
"I noticed," Harry replied grimly, raising his wand as his talisman continued to pulse with absorbed magic. "Any ideas?"
Crystal-Harmony's response was to create a dome of refracted ice around them, buying precious seconds to think of a plan.
Then, the chamber's entrance exploded inward in a surge of controlled current.
Battle-Storm burst through the opening, his scarred form flanked by Royal Guards. The veteran warrior's mastery of water-shaping manifested in a swirling vortex that scattered the Dark RSH's formation. "To the princess!" his command carried the full authority of decades of combat experience.
The guards moved, their own tridents gleaming with the pure light of Abyssantica's magic. But even as they engaged the Dark RSH, Harry could see they were outmatched.
"Your arrival changes nothing, Battle-Storm," the Dark RSH leader's voice held a note of cruel amusement. "You'll live just long enough to witness the fall of your precious city's outdated ways."
Battle-Storm's arrival transformed the chamber into a maelstrom of competing currents. Harry had read about water-combat magic in preparation for his visit to Abyssantica, but reading about it and witnessing it were entirely different experiences. The veteran warrior moved like the ocean itself, each gesture commanding volumes of water with devastating precision.
"Form the spiral defense!" Battle-Storm's voice carried through the chaos as his guards responded with practiced coordination. Their tridents traced glowing patterns through the water, creating a complex network of intersecting currents that pushed back against the Dark RSH's attacks.
But the dark warriors adapted quickly. Their magic seemed to thicken the water around them, turning Battle-Storm's defensive currents sluggish and dark. One of them, bearing ceremonial marks that Harry didn't recognize, raised his trident in a complex pattern. The water around three guards suddenly crystallized into dark ice, trapping them in place.
Harry felt movement in his robes – Itisa, still in her cat form, shifting restlessly. He could sense her growing agitation, knew she was reaching the limits of her patience for maintaining her disguise. Harry used another cutting spell to kill another one of them, but there were too many of them.
A corrupted current slammed into Battle-Storm, sending the warrior spinning through the water. Three Dark RSH pressed their advantage, their tridents weaving patterns that began to drag him into the darkness between the coral pillars. The remaining guards fought desperately to reach him, but the dark warriors' enhanced magic kept them at bay.
"Your precious surface allies can't help you here," the leader taunted, advancing on Crystal-Harmony. "And you, hybrid princess, your ice magic is nothing compared to what we've achieved. Let us show you true power!"
The attack came from multiple directions at once – corrupted currents, dark ice, and something else, something that made the water itself seem to recoil. Crystal-Harmony threw up an ice barrier, but Harry could see the dark magic eating through it almost instantly. Her eyes met his, wide with the realization that they were about to be overwhelmed.
That's when Itisa made her decision.
The water around Harry suddenly warmed as his small "cat" burst from his robes. But instead of the familiar feline form, the chamber filled with a presence that made even the Dark RSH pause. Itisa grew, her form shifting and expanding until she was the size of a lion, her dark fur rippling with patterns that seemed to drink in the wardstone's light. The Nundu's massive paws found purchase in the water as if she were on solid ground, her eyes blazing with ancient magic that had nothing to do with the sea.
"Impossible," the Dark RSH leader breathed, genuine fear entering his voice for the first time. "What manner of surface creature—"
Itisa moved through the water as if gravity still held sway in the depths, her massive paws finding purchase on invisible surfaces. The Nundu's dark fur rippled with patterns of magic that made the corrupted currents recoil from her presence.
Three Dark RSH warriors converged on her, their tridents weaving patterns of dark magic through the water. Itisa's response was devastatingly swift. She leaped – actually leaped underwater as if she were still on land – and her claws raked through the first warrior's defensive current like it was mist. Her strike caught him across the chest, and where her claws touched, his corrupted magic simply ceased to exist.
The second warrior tried to trap her in a pressure vortex, but Itisa's form seemed to blur. One moment she was caught in his trap, the next she had simply stepped through it, her magic treating water and air as one and the same. Her jaws closed around his trident arm with crushing force. As he screamed, Itisa used him as a living weapon, swinging him into his companion with enough force to shatter both their bones.
Harry tried to help her, but suddenly six of them appeared, and he could not get to her right away as he and the Princess started fighting them.
"The surface beast can bleed!" The cry came from a Dark RSH wielding a ceremonial trident. He pulled a vial of pure Aqualis from his armor, and the blue substance seemed to sing as it merged with his weapon. The trident's prongs began to glow with a light that was neither corrupt nor pure, but something more primordial.
His strike came faster than any before, the Aqualis-enhanced magic cutting through Itisa's natural defenses. A slash appeared in her dark fur, and drops of black blood began to drift through the water like ink, each drop somehow feeling ancient and powerful.
Itisa's first wound.
Itisa's growl of pain transformed into something else – a sound that shouldn't have been possible underwater, a frequency that targeted the delicate internal structures of RSH hearing organs. The warrior who had wounded her suddenly convulsed, blood streaming from his ears into the water around him.
But Itisa wasn't finished. Before he could recover, she crossed the distance between them in a single bound. Her teeth, each longer than a human hand, closed around his head. There was a moment of terrible pressure, and then a cloud of red bloomed in the water as she tore his head completely from his shoulders.
The nearby coral shuddered, responding to the presence of such ancient and powerful magic. He knew Itisa was holding back her deadliest weapon – the Black Breath would kill everyone in the chamber, friend and foe alike. But even without it, her presence changed everything.
Battle-Storm, freed from the dark warriors' attack by their moment of distraction, rallied his guards. "Reform the defense! Use the princess's ice as anchor points!"
The momentary victory brought by Itisa's revelation proved short-lived. More Dark RSH poured through the gaps in the coral walls, their corrupted magic spreading like ink through clear water. The chamber, already bearing scars from the initial battle, became a killing ground.
"Left flank, maintain formation!" Battle-Storm's command cut through the chaos, but Harry could see the guards struggling to obey. The Dark RSH moved with unnatural coordination, their corrupted Aqualis magic overwhelming traditional defenses.
A young guard named Swift-Tide attempted to create a defensive current, his trident glowing with pure light. Three Dark RSH responded in unison, their corrupted magic crushing his barrier like surface ice. The darkness enveloped him before anyone could reach him. When it cleared, Swift-Tide floated lifelessly, his scales already going dull.
"Swift-Tide!" Crystal-Harmony's cry of anguish echoed through the chamber. She launched a barrage of ice spears, but the Dark RSH simply turned them to black mist.
Harry's talisman pulsed again, absorbing another wave of corrupted magic. This time, instead of simply releasing the stored energy as light, he channeled it through his wand, combining it with a Reductor Curse. The resulting blast caught a Dark RSH in the chest, shattering his scales and sending fragments spinning through the water.
"The surface brat has teeth," one of them snarled, raising his trident.
Harry didn't wait for their next attack. He cast in rapid succession – a Severing Charm that opened one warrior's throat in a cloud of dark blood, followed by a precisely aimed Piercing Hex that found the gap between another's protective scales.
Two more Dark RSH tried to flank him, but Harry had been practicing underwater movement with Crystal-Harmony. He twisted through their attack pattern, his wand moving in the complex pattern of a curse he'd found in the restricted section. Purple light erupted from his wand tip, ignoring their scales completely and causing one warrior to convulse before going still.
"He's using dark magic!" another warrior called out, sounding more excited than concerned.
"Wrong," Harry replied coldly, channeling more stored energy from his talisman. "Just very old magic."
His next spell manifested as a spiral of cutting force that ripped through the water, catching a Dark RSH who had thought himself safely out of range. The warrior's scales provided no protection against magic specifically designed to penetrate magical armor.
A particularly large Dark RSH charged forward, his corrupted trident crackling with power. Harry met the attack with a spell chain – first a Blasting Curse to make the warrior raise his guard, then a concentrated Piercing Hex at his exposed gills, followed by an ancient spell that literally boiled the water inside the warrior's body.
"Surface magic may be weak down here," Harry said, his voice carrying through the water as his talisman continued to hum with absorbed power, "but it's not about power. It's about precision."
To demonstrate, he cast another restricted spell, this one creating phantasmal spears of magical force that ignored physical barriers completely. Two more Dark RSH fell, their supposedly impenetrable scales useless against magic that attacked their life force directly.
But for every warrior Harry killed, more seemed to emerge from the corrupted waters. His advanced spells were effective, but each one drained more of his energy. Even with the talisman absorbing and redirecting their attacks, he couldn't keep this pace forever.
The veteran warrior moved through the water like a force of nature, his centuries of experience evident in every motion. When three Dark RSH tried to trap him in their corrupted currents, he responded with a technique Harry had never seen before.
"You dare use our sacred magic for murder?" Battle-Storm's voice carried the weight of ages as his trident traced a complex pattern. The water around him began to vibrate at different frequencies, creating layers of intersecting currents. "You forget who taught the first RSH warriors to harness the ocean's power!"
The vibrations intensified until Harry could feel them in his bones. Suddenly, the layered currents collapsed inward. Two of the Dark RSH were caught at the point of convergence, their bodies literally torn apart by the opposing forces. Their corrupted magic couldn't save them from the fundamental principles of water pressure that Battle-Storm had mastered over centuries.
"As long as I draw breath," Battle-Storm declared, his scarred face fierce with determination, "I will protect the Royal Family as I have for two hundred years. Your corrupted magic cannot match the true strength of Abyssantica!"
But even as he spoke, more guards fell to the overwhelming dark force. A warrior named Coral-Shield died trying to protect younger recruits. Deep-Singer, known for his mastery of sonic currents, was silenced forever by a barbed trident through his throat. The water grew thick with blood and the remnants of corrupted magic.
"Your loyalty is admirable," the Dark RSH leader mocked, "but outdated. The old ways die today!"
A massive surge of darkness swept through the chamber. Harry felt Crystal-Harmony grab his arm, pulling him behind Itisa's protective form as she killed two more Dark RSH. Battle-Storm stood his ground, his trident creating a sphere of pure water around him that the darkness couldn't penetrate. But many of the remaining guards weren't so fortunate. The darkness cleared to reveal five more bodies added to the growing count.
"We can't stay here," Crystal-Harmony whispered, her voice tight with grief. "They're forcing us away from the wardstone."
She was right. Despite Battle-Storm's incredible display of power, despite Itisa's fearsome presence, they were being systematically pushed back. The Dark RSH had turned the ancient chamber into a tomb for loyal warriors, and they showed no signs of stopping. There were nearly fifty Dark RSHs. Itisa was able to fight back, but even she needed to protect herself from the Aqualis attacks, and she still needed to protect Harry and the Princess. She knew she could use the Red Breath to change the tides, but Harry was too close to use that, and if she used the Black Breath, she would destroy everything around her.
"Fall back to the secondary chamber!" Battle-Storm ordered, his voice never wavering despite the loss of so many under his command. "Princess, take Harry and your... companion. We'll cover your retreat!"
The few surviving guards moved to create a corridor through the chaos, their magic already faltering against the relentless dark assault. Harry could see the toll on their faces, the growing realization that they faced an enemy beyond their traditional training.
As they began their tactical withdrawal, Harry looked back at the chamber that had become a battlefield. The wardstone's light illuminated the fallen guards, their bodies a testament to the price of protecting Abyssantica's future. The Dark RSH advanced through the carnage like living shadows.
Battle-Storm brought up the rear, his presence a final barrier between the survivors and total annihilation. His earlier words echoed in Harry's mind: two hundred years of service, and now facing perhaps his greatest challenge.
The battle surged through Abyssantica's luminous corridors like a dark tide. Harry, Crystal-Harmony, and their diminished group emerged from the ward chamber into the Coral Gardens, where the usual peaceful glow of bioluminescent flora had dimmed in response to the corrupted magic saturating the water.
"They're trying to split us up," Battle-Storm called out, deflecting another assault with his trident. "Stay together!"
But the Dark RSH had other plans. Their forces seemed to materialize from every shadow, driving wedges between the defenders.
A familiar voice cut through the chaos: "Harry! Duck!"
He dropped instinctively as Newt Scamander's case burst open above him. A swarm of Glowfish, each the size of Harry's fist, erupted into the water. Their natural light, usually used to attract prey in the depths, flared with blinding intensity. The Dark RSH closest to Harry recoiled, their corrupted magic momentarily disrupted.
"Remarkable creatures, Glowfish," Newt commented almost casually as he swam to Harry's side. "Absolutely hate dark magic. Can't abide it at all." His case writhed with more movement. "Shall we show them what else we've brought?"
A pair of juvenile Kelpies, their manes flowing like liquid silver, shot from the case. In their natural underwater environment, they moved with incredible speed, their magic allowing them to create powerful currents that scattered the Dark RSH formation.
"The Kelpies insisted on coming along," Newt explained, directing them with gentle hand signals. "Rather protective of their new friend Crystal-Harmony. Something about her ice magic resonating with their nature."
As if summoned by his words, Crystal-Harmony burst through a nearby coral arch, pursued by three Dark RSH. Her ice magic had evolved since the ward chamber battle – instead of simple barriers, she now created complex crystalline structures that refracted and amplified the remaining light in the corridors.
"Harry!" she called out. "Remember what we practiced!"
He understood immediately. Taking a deep breath through his bubble-head charm, Harry began to sing. The words were ancient RSH, taught to him during their secret practice sessions. His voice magic, usually difficult to use underwater, found perfect resonance in the Chamber of Echoes.
Crystal-Harmony's ice formed around his notes, creating patterns that seemed to capture and amplify the magical frequencies. The Dark RSH found their corrupted currents suddenly crystallized, trapping them in structures that grew more complex with each verse Harry sang.
"Fascinating adaptation!" Newt's eyes sparkled with academic interest even as he directed his creatures to help guard their position. "The combination of surface voice magic with RSH ice manipulation – entirely unique magical synthesis!"
But they weren't safe yet. More Dark RSH approached from multiple directions, their barbed tridents glowing with sickly light. Itisa, still in her Nundu form, prowled the perimeter of their position, her presence creating a bubble of pure water that helped Harry maintain his voice magic.
"We need to reach the Heart of Currents," Crystal-Harmony said, her ice magic creating a momentary respite. "If they corrupt the central flow, they could poison the entire city's water supply."
Harry nodded, still singing. Each note now carried memories of their practice sessions, when they'd discovered how his voice magic could stabilize and enhance her hybrid abilities. The ice patterns spreading through the water were both beautiful and deadly, like frozen music made visible.
"Right then," Newt began, but a massive impact cut him off.
The coral wall beside them exploded inward as Battle-Storm was thrown through it, locked in combat with two Dark RSHs.
"The Heart of Currents is lost!" Battle-Storm shouted between attacks. "They've taken the lower levels. We need to reach the upper city!"
Crystal-Harmony's face showed her horror at this news, but her ice magic never faltered. If anything, her determination seemed to grow stronger. The crystal patterns flowing from her hands began to sing in harmony with Harry's voice, creating a defensive network that even the corrupted Aqualis magic couldn't easily penetrate.
"Not all is lost," Newt said firmly, reaching into his case once more. "I don't normally ask this of them, but desperate times..." He whistled a complex pattern through the water.
The case's opening widened impossibly, and something massive began to emerge. Harry's eyes widened as he recognized the distinctive tentacles of a Giant Squid – but not just any Giant Squid. This one's skin flickered with patterns of light and dark, marking it as a rare Pacific Luminous Squid.
"She's quite friendly," Newt assured them as the massive creature unfurled in the water. "Just don't make any sudden moves or, well, try to eat her. She's rather sensitive about that."
The Squid's arrival changed the chamber's dynamics immediately. Her tentacles, each longer than three RSH warriors, swept through the water. The Dark RSH found their corrupted currents disrupted by her natural ability to control water pressure and generate bio-luminescence.
"The upper city," Crystal-Harmony said decisively. "We can use the grand archways. Harry, can you maintain the resonance while we move?"
Harry nodded, modulating his song to a deeper frequency that would carry through the water more efficiently. The ice patterns flowing from Crystal-Harmony's magic adapted instantly, becoming more streamlined and mobile.
"Excellent!" Newt beamed, already directing his menagerie of magical creatures into protective formation.
Their ascent through Abyssantica's upper levels brought them to the Grand Colonnade, where massive pillars of living coral stretched into the darkness above. Here they found Swift-Current directing the remaining city guards in a desperate holding action against waves of Dark RSH attacks.
"Princess!" Swift-Current's usual disdain for Crystal-Harmony faltered at the sight of their approach. The combination of Harry's resonating voice magic and her ice patterns had created a protective bubble that actually pushed back the corruption seeping through the water.
A Dark RSH warrior launched a particularly vicious assault, his corrupted trident carving paths of darkness through the water. Swift-Current raised his own weapon to counter, but the dark magic ate through his defensive current like acid through coral.
Crystal-Harmony reacted instantly. Her ice magic spiraled outward, catching the corrupted energy and crystallizing it. The dark magic, trapped in perfect geometric patterns of ice, shattered into harmless fragments.
"Impossible," Swift-Current breathed, watching as Harry's voice magic merged with Crystal-Harmony's ice, creating layers of protection that the Dark RSH couldn't easily penetrate. "You're using surface magic to enhance our traditional defenses?"
A massive surge of pure, powerful magic swept through the Colonnade, forcing even the Dark RSH to brace themselves against the coral pillars. King Anden arrived with his royal guard, his trident blazing with the full power of Abyssantica's sovereign magic.
"Father!" Crystal-Harmony called out, her relief evident.
But the Dark RSH didn't retreat. Instead, their leader emerged from the shadows.
"The great King Anden," he sneered, his voice carrying the cold pressure of the deepest trenches. "Come to witness the fall of your outdated kingdom?"
"You dare attack my city," King Anden's voice resonated with authority, "corrupt our sacred magic, and threaten my daughter? Identify yourself, traitor!"
The Dark RSH leader laughed, a sound like grinding coral. "We are no traitors. We are the true children of the deep, preserved in the Obsidian Depths while you played politics with surface dwellers. Our ancestors knew the real power of Aqualis – not the diluted form you hoard in your vaults!"
"The Obsidian Depths?" Even Battle-Storm seemed shocked. "That's nothing but an ancient legend, a cautionary tale of those who went too deep, too far from the light."
"Oh, it's quite real," another Dark RSH warrior called out. "And we have mastered magics your kind forgot centuries ago. The Aqualis you protect so jealously? It's nothing compared to what we've created in the darkness below!"
Harry maintained his song, but his mind raced. Why would they need Abyssantica's Aqualis if they had their own superior version? The Dark RSH's actions didn't match their claims, and from the subtle shift in Crystal-Harmony's posture beside him, she'd noticed the discrepancy too.
King Anden raised his trident, and the very current of the ocean seemed to hold its breath. "Whatever your origins, whatever corrupted magic you wield, you will not take this city while I draw breath!"
The central plaza was a battlefield of swirling currents and flashing magic. The great wardstone loomed at the plaza's heart, its light faltering as if struggling against an unseen force. Around it, the clash of spells and tridents reverberated through the water, the chaos of battle mirrored in the fear on the faces of Abyssantica's citizens watching from the safety of distant coral formations.
King Anden moved through the water with lethal elegance, his mastery of RSH magic evident in every gesture. As five Dark RSH surrounded him, his trident blazed with the pure power of Abyssantica's royal line.
The first Dark RSH attacked with a corrupted current, but Anden split it with a precise thrust of his trident. In the same fluid motion, he twisted the water pressure around his attacker, compressing it until the warrior's scales cracked and splintered. The Dark RSH barely had time to scream before the crushing force rendered him lifeless.
"You face a king of Abyssantica," Anden declared, his voice carrying the weight of centuries. "We do not yield to shadows."
Two more Dark RSH struck simultaneously, their corrupted tridents weaving complex patterns of dark magic. Anden responded by creating a spiraling vortex that caught one warrior's attack and redirected it into his partner. The corrupted magic ate through the second warrior's scales, proving just as deadly to its wielders as their intended targets.
The third Dark RSH proved more cunning, waiting for Anden to commit to a defensive pattern before striking at his exposed flank. But the king had been fighting in these waters since before this warrior was born. He turned the nearby coral itself into a weapon, manipulating the current to tear free several sharp branches that impaled his attacker.
"Your corrupted magic is nothing," Anden taunted, already moving to counter the fourth warrior's assault. "Our pure traditions have endured millennia!"
This time, Anden demonstrated why the royal line was feared even among their own kind. He created three simultaneous pressure points in the water, then collapsed them inward. The resulting implosion caught the fourth Dark RSH in its center, the warrior's body crumpling before he could even attempt a defense.
But the extended combat was taking its toll. Each manipulation of water magic required precise control, and even Anden's centuries of experience couldn't maintain such intensity forever. The remaining Dark RSH pressed his advantage, calling more corrupted magic from the depths.
Darkness began seeping into the water around them, making it harder for Anden to maintain his precise control. His counter-attacks, while still deadly, came slightly slower. His defensive patterns showed tiny gaps that wouldn't have existed minutes earlier.
"Tiring, old king?" the last Dark RSH mocked, his corrupted trident leaving trails of darkness through the water. "The depths take us all eventually."
More Dark RSH emerged from the shadows, their corrupted magic combining to create a cage of dark currents around the king.
Their corrupted magic was eating through the King's defenses, the water around him growing darker with each passing moment.
Harry saw the attack coming before anyone else – three Dark RSH breaking away from the main group, their tridents aimed at the King's unprotected back. There wasn't time for Crystal-Harmony to extend her ice shield, Itisa was killing nine of them and Battle-Storm was too far away.
Harry did something that no surface wizard had ever attempted. He combined the water-shaping movements he'd learned from Battle-Storm with his own wand work, channeling both magics simultaneously. The familiar warmth of his Nundu Core and Phoenix Feather wand merged with the cool flow of water magic in a way that made his whole arm tingle.
"Your Majesty, down!" Harry shouted, already moving his wand in a spiral pattern while his free hand traced the RSH symbol for 'pressure.'
The spell erupted from his wand not as the usual jet of light, but as a concentrated spiral of magically-charged water. It cut through the corrupted magic like it wasn't there, the combined force of surface and sea magic creating something entirely new. The first Dark RSH didn't even have time to raise his trident before the spell hit him, the magically-charged water boring straight through his scales and out the other side.
The second and third Dark RSH tried to counter with their own water magic, but Harry's hybrid spell was operating on principles they'd never encountered. It split into three smaller spirals, each maintaining the deadly combination of magics. Their scales, designed to resist either surface or sea magic, provided no defense against both combined.
The water briefly glowed with the pure blue light of Abyssantica's magic mixed with the bright red of Harry's spell. When it cleared, three Dark RSH floated lifelessly in the current, perfect spiral holes pierced through their bodies.
King Anden turned at the commotion, his eyes widening at the scene. "By the ancient currents," he breathed, "you've created new magic."
Harry staggered slightly, the effort of combining two completely different magical traditions taking its toll. But he managed a slight bow to the King, even as Crystal-Harmony rushed to support him.
"I think," Harry said between deep breaths, "I'll call it the Spiral Tide Curse."
.
.
Harry clung to the wardstone, his bubble-head charm flickering dangerously. Exhaustion seeped into his bones, but he forced himself to focus. Beside him, Crystal-Harmony stood tall despite her trembling hands, frost forming in the water around her fingers. The Dark RSH circled like sharks, their tridents crackling with corrupted energy.
"You cannot win," the lead Dark RSH sneered, his black scales gleaming with malevolent bioluminescence. "The Obsidian Depths do not tolerate weakness."
Crystal-Harmony's voice was clear, defiant. "You call this strength? Destroying your own people? Sabotaging the wards that protect us all?"
"We're doing what needs to be done," the Dark RSH hissed. "Abyssantica's ties to the surface world make it weak. The Aqualis is ours by right, and you—" He gestured at her with his trident. "—are an abomination. A mistake."
Harry's fists clenched around his wand, his fury bubbling alongside his magic. "She's more of a leader than you'll ever be."
The Dark RSH's laughter was cold and cruel. "And you think you can protect her, surface-dweller? Look at you—barely standing, your magic faltering. You're nothing here."
Harry straightened, summoning every ounce of determination he had left. "I'm more than enough."
The wardstone pulsed faintly beneath his hand, a desperate rhythm that matched the pounding of his heart. Harry closed his eyes, reaching deep into his voice magic. He felt the water around him, its memory heavy with fear and pain, but beneath it, something older stirred—something vast and powerful.
"Crystal," he said hoarsely. "I need time. Can you hold them off?"
Crystal-Harmony nodded, her resolve hardening. "I'll keep them busy. Just... don't take too long."
Frost spread from her hands as she raised them, forming jagged ice barriers between them and the advancing Dark RSH. With a sharp gesture, she sent shards of ice hurtling toward their enemies, forcing them to scatter.
Harry pressed his palm against the wardstone, his voice low and steady as he began to hum. The sound resonated through the water, growing stronger with each breath. The wardstone responded, its light flickering brighter, casting long shadows across the plaza.
Itisa swam into view, blood all over her body and a head between her teeth that she spit out. But when one of the Dark RSH lunged for Harry, she lunged, her movements fluid and predatory.
Harry's voice grew louder, the melody haunting and ancient. The water around the wardstone began to churn, a massive whirlpool forming as his magic called to something deep beneath the ocean floor. Crystal-Harmony threw up a protective ice dome around him, her frost magic shielding him from stray trident blasts.
"Focus, Harry!" she shouted, her own magic straining against the relentless assault. "Whatever you're doing, it's working!"
The plaza trembled as the whirlpool intensified, the currents growing wild and uncontainable. Then, from the depths, a shadow began to rise. It was impossibly large, its form coiling through the water like a living storm. Bioluminescent patterns flickered along its serpentine body, casting eerie light across the battlefield.
An ancient sea serpent. Its eyes, vast and otherworldly, locked onto the Dark RSH.
The attackers froze, their tridents forgotten as the creature's presence filled the plaza. Itisa snarled, her power blending with Harry's voice magic to command the serpent's attention. The great beast let out a low, resonant rumble that shook the very foundations of Abyssantica.
The Dark RSH leader tried to rally his forces, his voice cracking with desperation. "Retreat! Fall back!"
The serpent lunged, its massive body sweeping through the water with terrifying speed. The Dark RSH scattered, their arrogance replaced by sheer panic as they fled toward the edges of the city, but the serpent quickly lunged at them, eating several of them with one bite, and the water itself formed spheres around a few others, the same spheres boomed like a bomb, and the bodies locked inside exploded in blood. The serpent let out a final roar before coiling protectively around the wardstone, its bioluminescent patterns pulsing in time with Harry's magic.
The plaza fell silent, save for the hum of the wardstone and the faint crackle of dissipating ice. Harry swayed, his voice faltering as exhaustion took hold. Crystal-Harmony was at his side in an instant, her hands steadying him.
"You did it," she said softly, her eyes shining with relief. "They're gone."
Harry managed a weak smile before his knees buckled. "Good," he murmured. "Because I'm... done."
His vision blurred as he collapsed, the last thing he saw being the serpent's glowing eyes watching over him like a guardian.
If you want to Read 12 More Chapters Right Now. Search 'Drinor Patreon' in Google and Click the First LINK