Chương 35: A Monster, Still

While Gloria dealt with the Draco, Iris and Echidna had moved from the cabin to one of the upper decks, where an audience of passengers and crew had gathered along the railings to watch the disturbance.

Most of them had credited the first tremendous impact to their guardian slime, since Gloria remained invisible and several of its tentacles had entered the water at roughly the same time, though their excitement gradually faded once the battle moved far enough from the vessel that the Draco resembled little more than a dark speck skipping across the ocean. Iris saw considerably more through the shifting rings of her eyes, although even her vision struggled to follow Gloria whenever she moved at full speed.

"No way!" she exclaimed as the Draco abruptly changed direction and shot into the sky.

"Lady Gloria punched it away, passed beneath it and kicked it upward before I could even follow her movement!"

"It appears the Mighty is enjoying herself," Echidna replied, sounding thoroughly pleased by the report.

"Her pleasure will place her in an agreeable mood, which is fortunate news for every worm aboard this vessel, whether they possess enough awareness to appreciate their good fortune or not."

"Oh, it is still rising!" Iris leaned over the railing and narrowed her eyes against the distance as the Draco continued climbing.

"Lady Gloria is moving beneath it now, and I think she is preparing to—" A wet splatter struck the deck beside them and ended her explanation. Both women turned toward the source, finding a tall young man bent nearly double with one hand braced against the railing, having missed the open ocean by little more than a step.

He could not have been much older than eighteen, with short brown hair, watery brown eyes and a scar running across one cheek before cutting through the eyebrow above it, though Iris found those details considerably less worthy of attention than the mess spreading across the boards near her boots. The young man noticed them staring and attempted to straighten, his face turning pale with embarrassment as he wiped his mouth against the back of one sleeve.

"E-Excuse me! I become seasick rather eas—" He doubled over and vomited again before completing the apology.

"Disgusting," Iris said, withdrawing several steps and looking at him as though he had personally killed someone.

"Close your leaking mouth, worm," Echidna ordered as she returned her attention to the distant battle. The boy swallowed several times, somehow forced his nausea under control and followed their attention toward the barely visible creature above the ocean.

"Wait, that slime did not strike the dragon?"

"Draco," Echidna corrected without looking at him.

"The Draco," he amended quickly.

"I thought my master was the one throwing it around, but you keep mentioning someone called the Mighty. Is she some kind of master to both of you as well?" Echidna finally granted him her attention, pride immediately replacing her irritation.

"The title of master alone is woefully insufficient for one such as Gloria, though you would be correct in assuming that Echidna follows the Mighty."

"She is my teacher," Iris added, still maintaining a careful distance from both the boy and everything his stomach had deposited upon the deck.

"That is incredible!" His embarrassment disappeared beneath sudden enthusiasm, although his complexion remained alarmingly pale.

"My master jumped from the ship the moment he saw the dragon—""Draco."

"—the Draco," he continued, refusing to lose his momentum a second time, "so when it started flying across the ocean, I assumed that he was responsible." That answer drew Echidna's attention away from the distant battle, and she raised an eyebrow as she examined the boy more carefully.

"Wait... are you and your master the two insects Echidna sensed aboard this vessel—" The question ended when the boy lurched toward the railing and vomited again, producing another miserable splash across the boards and forcing Iris to recoil so quickly that she nearly collided with a passing sailor. Echidna remained exactly where she stood.

"You possess an exceptionally strong stomach, Lady Echidna," Iris remarked, covering her nose as she placed another step between herself and the spreading mess.

"The distinctions Echidna draws between this worm, the contents of his stomach and most other insects are too insignificant to warrant discussion, whereas you find the sight offensive only because your standards begin considerably lower than Echidna's." Iris's expression sank as she considered which portion of that answer had been directed at her, although a tremendous splash in the distance spared her from deciding how offended she ought to feel.

She returned to the railing and focused upon the ocean, where the Draco had completed its long fall and struck the surface hard enough to raise a column of water around its body.

"Wait, the Draco has fallen back into the sea!" Iris announced, her earlier disgust forgotten as the rings within her eyes tightened around the distant scene.

"As expected," Echidna said, reclaiming her place beside the railing.

"The only question remaining is whether the Mighty intends to dispatch the creature or permit it to flee after receiving a lesson it shall remember for the remainder of its miserable life."

"I apologize for disappointing you, Lady Echidna, but there may be another question." Iris leaned forward until half her upper body extended beyond the railing, narrowing her eyes as she followed a second figure rising from the water.

"There is a man near Lady Gloria, and unless the distance is deceiving me, he appears to be nearly naked and carrying an enormous sword." The boy forced himself upright and squinted toward the ocean, apparently seeing little more than the bursts of water left behind by both combatants.

"Oh, yes, that would be my master."

"Your master?" Iris repeated.

"He just witnessed what Lady Gloria did to the Draco, so why would he approach her with a weapon?"

"That is exactly why he will approach her," the boy explained, wiping his mouth before displaying a cheerful smile.

"Master considers himself a loser because victory bores him, so he spends his life searching for monsters, champions and every other freak powerful enough to put him on his back. The moment he becomes certain that someone can defeat him, challenging that person becomes the only thought his head can hold." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Iris looked from the boy to the distant swordsman and found herself understanding far more about their relationship than she had ever wished to know.

"At least I now understand how you managed to acquire a teacher, since he appears no more capable of exercising good judgment than his student."

"Hey!" Echidna heard the exchange without joining it, for a thread of malice had begun pressing against her awareness from somewhere behind them. The sensation possessed none of the aimless irritation carried by frightened passengers or the excitement of those still watching the ocean; it remained narrow and fixed entirely upon her, accompanied by enough restrained bloodlust to reveal that its owner wanted to be noticed.

She turned and found a woman standing apart from the crowd near the entrance to the bathing terrace, where the upper deck's pools and changing cabins had been built behind a wall of curved glass. Straight black hair framed a pale face, while eyes of the same color watched Echidna without blinking, and a seamless bodysuit followed every line of her tall frame without displaying any crest or insignia that might explain her presence.

One hand rested behind her thigh, partially concealed from the passengers moving around her, and Echidna detected a narrow weapon held flat against the woman's leg. The stranger's stare sharpened when their eyes met, then flickered with surprise as Echidna began walking toward her. She had apparently expected recognition to produce caution or fear, neither of which appeared as Echidna passed close enough for their shoulders to nearly touch.

"Follow Echidna, mongrel." The woman opened her mouth to object, only for Echidna to glance back at her and release a fraction of the authority coiled within her gaze. Every muscle across the stranger's body locked at once, cutting off her voice along with her breath, and when Echidna added a quiet command of "Now," the woman's legs carried her forward without waiting for permission from the mind above them.

Echidna led her behind the row of changing cabins, where a narrow maintenance walkway ran between the enclosed bathing terrace and the outer wall of the deck. Pipes carrying warm water filled one side of the passage, canvas screens concealed it from the passengers beyond, and the steady churn of the Katamaran beneath them swallowed most sounds before they could travel far.

Iris remained well within the reach of Echidna's awareness, allowing her to monitor the child and every person surrounding her without keeping the impending conversation public. Once they reached the far end of the walkway, Echidna released enough of her hold for the woman to breathe and speak, prompting her to stagger against one of the pipes as several violent coughs escaped her.

"What the hell was that, you freak?" she demanded, recovering quickly enough to place anger ahead of caution. Echidna merely stared at her. The woman's confidence faltered under that attention, and her fingers loosened around the weapon behind her leg.

"N-Nothing. Forget I said anything, because you clearly have me confused with someone else, and I was simply—" Echidna snapped her fingers and drew a compact circle between them, filling its narrow rings with symbols so quickly that the woman failed to recognize even one before the completed formation closed around her throat. [Speak No Evil] The woman's next breath caught as the magic settled into her voice, binding every word she attempted to speak to the truth she had intended to hide.

She fought against it hard enough for the muscles in her neck to tighten, but Echidna waited until resistance exhausted itself and then repeated the question.

"What is your objective?"

"I was watching you," the woman answered through clenched teeth.

"I wanted you to notice my bloodlust and separate yourself from the others."

"A respectable beginning," Echidna admitted.

"Continue."

"I was one of Bar's wives," she said, and the hatred within her voice made the past tense sound like another insult forced upon her.

"My sister and I followed him onto this cursed ship because we intended to drag him home and prove that we were not the burdens he called us, but after seeing the woman responsible for filling his head with all that nonsense, we decided that winning him back would accomplish nothing until Gloria suffered for what she had done to us." The admission appeared to cost her more than the spell forcing it from her, since tears entered her eyes even as her jaw remained clenched.

"My sister confronted Gloria first, and she could not harm her. She could barely make that woman move before Gloria put her on the floor." Echidna remained silent for several moments before laughter escaped her, beginning as a low sound within her throat and growing until it filled the narrow walkway. She tilted her head back and laughed without restraint, one hand settling against her stomach as the abandoned wife stared at her in humiliated disbelief.

"Oh, do forgive Echidna," she said once enough composure returned for speech.

"Your resolve while confessing something so magnificently foolish deserves to be cherished for eternity, and Echidna intends to remember every word whenever this age becomes too tedious to endure."

"You think this is amusing?"

"Immensely, though one question remains." Echidna stepped closer, reducing the already narrow space between them.

"Your sister failed against the Mighty, yet you directed your bloodlust toward Echidna with enough care to ensure it would be noticed. Why?" The woman tried to remain silent, but Speak No Evil tightened around her throat until the answer tore itself free.

"My sister is stronger than I am, and Gloria defeated her without effort, so attacking that monster myself would have accomplished nothing. I saw you sharing Gloria's room and understood that you must matter to her, which made you the better target; once you were dead, I intended to find the red-haired woman who remained beside her and deal with her next." Echidna nodded slowly, considering the explanation with far more seriousness than the woman expected.

"Your reasoning contains a degree of sense. You possess a greater chance of defeating Echidna than you ever held against the Mighty, and striking those near an invincible enemy may indeed cause suffering that cannot be inflicted upon the enemy directly." Relief attempted to enter the woman's expression, perhaps mistaking understanding for mercy, until Echidna's smile widened enough to reveal the first points of her teeth.

"You should not mistake a greater chance for a meaningful one." The woman pressed herself against the pipes as Echidna continued forward, and the pressure within the walkway changed when the goddess allowed a little more of her true nature to rise beneath her borrowed shape.

"The Mighty has forbidden Echidna from slaughtering creatures merely because their voices offend her, and the restrictions she placed upon Echidna are severe enough that even your stupidity might otherwise have been permitted to survive," she explained.

"You lured Echidna away with killing intent, carried a weapon prepared for ambush and confessed your intention to harm both Echidna and the child under Gloria's protection, which places your actions comfortably within the freedom the Mighty granted me." Her mouth began to open. The movement continued beyond anything a human jaw should have allowed, revealing row after row of narrow teeth descending into a darkness far deeper than the space inside her head.

Echidna expected the woman's anger to collapse at the sight, yet Speak No Evil still held her face within the same rigid stillness imposed upon her voice, denying Echidna the terror she had earned. That would not do... Echidna paused, lifted one hand and snapped her fingers, causing the spell around the woman's throat to fracture and disappear.

The woman's eyes flew wide as the spell released her and terror seized every part of her at once, draining the strength from her fingers until her weapon struck the floor, while the sight of Echidna's widening mouth tore a strangled whimper from somewhere deep within her throat.

Her knees collapsed beneath her, yet she continued fighting to escape, dragging herself backward along the pipes with trembling hands, kicking uselessly against the floor and scraping her nails bloody as though she might somehow force her body through the solid wall behind her. Echidna watched that terror settle properly across her face and smiled.

"Much better." The woman forced out the first broken note of a scream as Echidna's body folded forward, her limbs lengthening against the floor, then the goddess sprang across the narrow space and that impossible mouth swallowed everything before her.