"Tell you what," the klevonian positioned herself in Za'Fia's way and grinned maliciously. "How about a 'friendly' fray. Show our observers how the Chimera's beauty stands against the Marine's. I insist. I even give you my blood oath that I won't fully transform beyond this."
Za'Fia knew she was at an even bigger disadvantage being underwater, but this chick, for whatever reason, needed the validation of others, which meant she wasn't just going to let Za'Fia leave.
Want us to help? Alissia sent her.
Nah, she gave her blood oath not to transform. The least I can do is face her alone like she wants, Za'Fia responded.
Facing a water-type that was more powerful than her, Za'Fia was immediately outclassed. Not to mention that, in her partially transformed state, the klevonian could breathe underwater, so she didn't have to remain in her restricted state either.
Za'Fia was essentially being toyed with as she was tossed around by the klevonian, who laughed while swimming from one spot to the next. She even tail-whipped Za'Fia a few times just for sport. Due to this humiliation and the fact that her flames were useless underwater, Za'Fia found herself at a boiling point where she willingly transformed.
This wasn't Earth. There were plenty of people around who could stop her if she lost control. That was Za'Fia's thought process.
Za'Fia floated angrily before the klevonian, boasting a red-orange aura of heated energy around herself. The temperature of her aura was high enough to boil the water around her, causing the klevonian to keep her distance, which gave Za'Fia an idea. The problem was that her movements were much slower in the water compared to the mermaid's.
The frustration of her predicament spiked Za'Fia's rage, nearly forcing her to lose it. This caught her by surprise. Something like that would never make her reach that point. She had better control than that. At least she did before her fight against Verin. Did her last transformation weaken her resistance to the rage inside her? Was it because she went so long suppressing it? If so, she didn't care for what that implied...
Trying to keep herself under control, Za'Fia figured out how to get close to the klevonian. Even transformed, Za'Fia was still much slower and weaker than the klevonian, but there was something that gave her an advantage over the klevonian. She folded her draconic wings into her back, floated in place for a second, then propelled herself through the water with flight.
When Za'Fia connected a punch that sent the klevonian reeling backward into coral, she grunted in disbelief.
"There's no way you can move faster than a marine underwater!" she exclaimed before realizing what had happened. "You...flew? No. How could you be able to learn such a technique that even the oldest klevonians struggle with?"
Za'Fia smirked before showing off that she also knew spirit enhancement, which the klevonian seemed to lack, too. Her reinforced punches packed more of a punch now. Za'Fia was able to keep moving and repeatedly home in for an attack to wear the klevonian down with blows and boiling water, but the klevonian shrieked in frustration, letting out an omnidirectional burst of water Za'Fia felt crash into her like a nearly invisible force.
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When Za'Fia's back crashed against a rocky wall, she felt her bottled-up anger erupt as her power rocketed higher. With her final ounce of will, she focused all of her inner spirit energy to channel up her throat before finally being taken over by pure, primal rage.
The rageful beast inside her used what was at its disposal and released the energy in a massive breath of superheated water. The attack was wide and destructive, but was too slow to hit home, so it jerked and turned wildly until Za'Fia felt it connect. The klevonian couldn't use spirit enhancement for protection, so the scalding water burned her. But after it'd ended, Za'Fia was out of energy and had returned to normal as she gripped a rock to keep from sinking. She winced from the repercussions of using the technique. Pretty soon, she'd need some air before she reached total exhaustion and drowned.
Nevertheless, this made it easy for the klevonian to quickly swim around to get behind Za'Fia and throw her in anger.
"You'll pay for that, you damned dragon," she hissed, but before she could go in for another attack, Alissia rushed in to catch Za'Fia and pulled her into one of the nearby bubbled landmarks so she could breathe.
"You okay?" Alissia asked with concern.
My throat is on fire, but I'm alive. I can heal it later or get Michael to, Za'Fia responded as she sat up. Being out of energy, she couldn't reconstruct her flame arm at the moment, so her balance was a little off, causing Alissia to help out.
"I'll take it from here," Alissia said, standing to face the angry klevonian that looked down at them from within the sea. Suddenly, the waters around the pocket of air began acting irregularly as the klevonian was swept along by an overwhelming current. The sea life in the area fled as a monstrous creature too large even to see completely, wrapped the klevonian in what seemed like a tail.
Za'Fia couldn't fully tell, but the creature resembled the creature humans referred to as the Loch Ness Monster. But bigger. Whatever it was, it wasn't the Sacred Guardian of the district.
****
Descending from the creature's appendage were three figures – likely the Crest Head and her personal guards to investigate the commotion. In the center of the three was who could only have been the Crest Head. She looked enraged, her hair flowing in the water like a stormy sea.
She was on the thicker side, but not quite as much as Sunce had been. She had blue skin, not unlike Rabae's, wore a dark dress and light jewelry of sea gems. Her name was Flow, but of course, we'd already known of her as The Ocean Queen. She was a 3-star threat with an EQN of 513,850,000, and possessed three cintracies. One of which was the eutierric Surge, another was a temp cintracy called Swarm, and the final was a temp cintracy called Itis. Her eyes glowed blue with power as she looked down at the klevonian.
To her right was a guy. He had the same reddish-brown skin most klevonians had, long black and dark blue hair that shimmered even in water. He had a trimmed beard, big arms with a crest symbol of a hippocampus that I was pretty sure was unique to him, and he wore a bloodied white apron over his clothes. He went by the name, Pota "The Meat Specialist", suggesting that he was more known for his skills as a butcher thanas a fighter. Though I still wouldn't take him lightly. Pota was a 2.5-starthreat with a base EQN of 43,997,620. Aside from the Surge cintracy, he also possessed a temp cintracy called Density Shift, which allowed him to phase through matter or become a solid, immovable force.