Coinchenn turns to look at Curruid’s tail.

   ‘Well, this could be bad.’ he mumbles to himself.

   ‘Good for you, now please transform the rest of your body parts.’ I tell Curruid.

   ‘Do not order me around!’

   Coinchenn tries to tail swat Curruid, but the latter blocks the blow with a tail of his own. I use the chance of Coinchenn focusing on attacking Curruid by aiming the tip of my spear at his head and do a thrust. However, he saw it coming and swat my spear away with his arm without looking back.

   Curruid lets out a loud roar and punches Coinchenn. The moment the fist flies out, his skin-covered fist transformed into one covered with black scales. Coinchenn tries to block the punch with both his arms but were blown away. He was about to crash into me were it not for the fact that I leapt out of the way in time.

   Coinchenn manages to stop himself from crash landing on the ground by doing his favourite somersault. Without wasting any time, he leaps forward and aims a punch at me. Instead of blocking it, I bend down and aims my knee at his face. His face got introduced to my knee nicely. He lets out a grunt and swings his tail downwards. I dodge to the side and aim a thrust at his face once more. At the same time, Curruid is also trying to punch Coinchenn’s face.

   Face with attacks from both side, Coinchenn chooses to jump forward and lands behind us. Before he could do anything, Curruid does a spin while extending his tail. As a result, the tail managed to slap Coinchenn in the face and blow him away once again. This time, he couldn’t do a somersault to prevent himself from crashing to the ground. The impact of the crash was so huge a dust cloud came out. When it disperses, we see him lying on the ground, the corner of his mouth bleeding.

   He slowly gets up and smiles.

   ‘Nice job! You managed to transform your human body parts much faster than I did!’ he compliments Curruid.

   This is weird. Really weird. Not to mention unnerving. If this keeps on, Curruid will be able to do partial transformation just like Coinchenn. When that happens, Coinchenn might be overpowered by us. Is he just putting up a front or he still has something up his sleeves?

   I look at Curruid. His left arm has almost transformed as well. After that, only his legs remain, unless he wants to transform his face too. Between you and me, he totally should.

   ‘I am not going to transform my face!’ he yells all of a sudden.

   ‘Whoa. Where did that came from?’

   ‘You were thinking that I should do something about my face!’

   I avert my eyes.

   ‘No I didn’t.’

   ‘Do not try to lie! I have noticed that you were staring at my face ever since I managed to transform my body parts!’

   ‘To be fair, you face does need some fixing up.’ Coinchenn joins in the conversation.

   ‘No one asked you!’

   ‘Well it’s true. Anyway, we’re wasting time. Lets’ get this over with.’

   Suddenly, two transparent, oval-shaped wings sprouted fro his back. Wings. Even though he’s supposed to be a sea monster.

   I hear Curruid gasps. I turn my neck to look at him and find that his face has gone pale.

   ‘That is not possible.’ he mumbles in a volume that I could barely hear.

   While I was distracted, Coinchenn has already taken off to the sky. He’s not lightning-fast, but he’s flying all right. He’s keep on going up and up and up. I don’t know where he’s planning to go, but I don’t intend to lose him. I will my whale shark to come down so that Curruid and I can ride on top of it. Once we’ve settled down, I will it to glide towards Coinchenn.

   ‘I recognize those wings anywhere. How could he have them? That is not possible.’ Curruid continues to mumble to himself.

   ‘Are you saying that he didn’t have it before?’ I ask him without leaving my eyes off Curruid.

   ‘He most certainly did not. In fact, there is only one among us whom had wings on his back. Chykrowr.’

   ‘...Who?’

   ‘As I said, he was one of us. To be more precise, he was another species of gargantuan sea creatures with distinctive features. Well, he was the smallest among us, but still. Coinchenn defeated him.’

   ‘You sure Coinchenn didn’t just imitate the wings he had?’

   Before I could hear his reply, I see something shiny flying towards us. Or more precisely, towards me. I will my whale shark to lower it’s altitude, and the object flies past us. I managed to catch a glimpse of it before I couldn’t see it anymore. It was an icicle.

   ‘It’s an icicle this time?’ I ask. ‘Someone’s multi-talented.’

   Curruid looks even more dumbfounded than I am.

   ‘That is not possible.’ Curruid says again.

   ‘Let me guess, you saw this ability being used by another of your friend?’

   He nods dumbly. He was so shocked he didn’t even correct the friend part.

   ‘This ability belonged to Gyglox.’ he tells me.

   ‘Does all your friends have mouthful names, or is it just those two?’

   ‘That does not matter! What matters the most is that-’

   ‘More icicles incoming!’ I shout before he could finish his sentence.

   This time it’s six of them. Three were headed towards me, the other three to Curruid. We managed to dodge them with ease.

   I look at Coinchenn. He’s flying while facing us, and his head is tilted downwards. As we watch, a sharp icicle forms on top of his head and got launched towards us. This one just wheezes between us, so we didn’t have to do a thing.

   ‘That was exactly how Gyglox fires his icicles too.’ I hear Curruid says.

   ‘Again, are you sure he’s not imitating that, who was it again?’

   ‘Gyglox! And it is not possible! We were not born with the ability to utilize mana, nor do we have any stored inside us!’

   The next few conversations were going on while the two of us are dodging and blocking all those icicles Coinchenn fires at us.

   ‘I get the wings, but how would you explain the icicles then?’ I ask.

   ‘Whales have a blowhole on top of their head, yes? Gyglox has something similar. Instead of using it to breathe, he used it to form icicles which he could use as projectiles.’

   ‘How does that even work?’

   ‘I am not certain either. Neither did he himself. Is it of any importance right now?’

   ‘I guess not.’

   The icicles are coming more frequently now, but the two of us could still dodge or block them without any issues due to our heightened senses. He never shoots out a huge batch at once. It’s probably because he could only fire a limited number at a time. Or he’s setting up a trap. Better be careful just in case it’s the latter.

   ‘Assuming that Coinchenn knows all the ability your friends did, what other abilities were there?’ I ask Curruid.

   ‘Well, there was Zuscyr, who can release a smokescreen made of ink-’

   As if on cue, I see Coinchenn opening his mouth. Tons of black smoke comes out of it.

   ‘You mean something like that?’

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Was that friend of yours part squid?’

   ‘He was indeed. His upper body is a cross between a parrot and a wombat, while his lower body consists of twelve long tentacles full of suction cups.’

   ‘Like I said before, the one who created you guys must be drunk.’

   The smoke is really thick and dark, so it would be bad if he managed to cover the entire area with it. I decide to stop him by hurling some spears made of both seawater and murky water at him. He evades them all by doing a complicated maneuver which involves a few loops and turns. He must have really been used to flying around with his wings to be able to pull that off.

   I summon tons of skeleton fishes to attack him next. I’ve formed a contract with Kuromi, so I could summon a large number of skeleton fishes without endangering my life. I summoned fifty of them. Let’s see him getting out of this one. Well, the smoke has pretty much covered the entire area, so I can’t even see him. Even so, you know what I mean.

   I hear loud snapping sounds of teeth bashing teeth from my fishes. They’re so loud I think anyone who fell asleep within one kilometer radius will wake up from the noise. Then, I keep on hearing the sounds of bones being smashed and crunched. I could be wrong, but I may or may not hear something like a clap. The sounds of my fishes snapping their teeth together is getting fainter and fainter until it’s gone altogether. All in the span of five minutes.

   ‘You managed to see anything?’ I ask Curruid.

   ‘I cannot even see what is in front of me three feet away, much less hundreds of feet. However, I do managed to hear something.’

   ‘Like the sound of bones getting crushed? I heard those too.’

   ‘You need to have those ears of yours examined. There was one other sound. Did you not hear some clapping right before your skeletons were crushed?’

   ‘Oh, and here I thought I was imagining things. Do you have any idea what that was?’

   ‘As a matter of fact, I do. Blynrug can injure his enemies by clapping his flippers together and cause sonic boom. I assume Coinchenn did the same.’

   ‘Another of your friend, I see.’

   As we’re talking, more icicles are flying at us. It’s coming at a regular interval, and its getting annoying. I mean, they’re not even hitting us. It’s pretty much pointless to fire them at us. Unless he’s stalling for time.

   ‘Is there any of your friends who used some huge attack that takes a long time to charge up?’ I ask Curruid.

   ‘There was Zokyrwr. His strongest attack involved belching out a tornado so strong it could rip the Atlantic Ocean in half. Supposedly.’

   ‘Supposedly? What’s that supposed to mean?’

   ‘He was known for being a huge braggart. Furthermore, he was killed by Coinchenn before he could ever prove the validity of his boast.’

   ‘Well, I don’t care whether it’s fake. The fact that Coinchenn is taking this much precaution to prevent himself from being caught makes me worry. A lot.’

   ‘Agreed. Better safe than sorry. Whatever his plan is, we need to put a stop to it. Now, can’t this bony pet of yours go any faster? I can still sense that he is at quite a distance away from us even though we had been chasing him for quite a while.’

   ‘I think that would be impossible. It’s not like it’s flying with wings. It’s already a miracle that it can glide around on mid-air like this.’

   He growls in frustration.

   ‘If only we were swimming inside the ocean…’

   ‘Wait a second. That gives me an idea.’

   ‘What is it?’

   I lean closer to Curruid’s ear and whisper my plan to him just in case Coinchenn was listening in to our conversations. After I’m done, Curruid nods his head.

   ‘That is a good plan. With my assistance, the time to cast it will be cut down by half.’

   ‘Hold on, you can help me with it? Whatever happened to you not being able to cast spells?’

   ‘How else did you think you were able to raise waves all those times? I was helping out while my soul was stuck inside my bone.’

   I have multiple questions regarding that, but I don’t have the luxury to ask them since we’re short on time.

   ‘Great. Let’s do it then.’ I say instead.

   I place my spear vertically in front of me. Curruid stands next to me and place his right hand on the spear’s shaft.

   ‘Remember, we have to cast it in one go. If we did any half-baked work, we might not be able to trap him in it.’ he reminds me.

   ‘Got it.’

   That said, it’s easier said than done. This isn’t the only spell I have to cast. After the first one is done, I have to cast a second one to prevent Coinchenn from escaping. I just hope I can make it in time before Coinchenn escapes from the first one.

   ‘Do not worry. The instant the first spell is complete, I will immediately engage in combat with him so that he does not get away.’ Coinchenn assures as if he could read my mind.

   ‘Alright. I believe in you, partner.’

   And so, we get to work. Around two minutes later, we felt that it’s ready, so we activate it. All at once, we’re being submerged inside a huge sphere of seawater.

   Curruid dives forward like a jet ski to look for Coinchenn. Based on his reaction, Coinchenn was submerged inside the sphere as well. The smoke has mixed with the water and makes the surrounding as dark as ever, but it doesn’t matter anymore. With Curruid’s ability to sense Coinchenn, he’s not going anywhere. Now then, on to the part two of my plan.

   This time, I’m doing this alone, so it might take a lot longer. But I choose to take my time and get it right while believing in Curruid that he’ll be able to stall Coinchenn until I complete my spell.

   Suddenly, I feel a movement behind me. I dodge to one side instinctively. A battleaxe slash at the spot I was standing just seconds ago. I turn to look at the one responsible for the attack. A fishman with the head and neck of an eel is holding the battleaxe that almost wounded me. The fishman is quite tall and well-built, and he’s wearing a familiar looking armor covered with algae.

   Another one appears on my right. This one has the head of a bass and holds a moldy spiked mace.

   ‘How are things on your end?’ I hear Curruid’s voice inside my head.

   Oh cool. We can actually talk to each other telepathically. The only downside to this discovery is I felt that all those time I spent to dive inside my head just so I could talk to him was a complete waste of time.

   ‘I’m almost done. I got interrupted by Coinchenn’s henchmen, so it might take a bit longer. I take it that your side is the same.’ I tell him while getting some distance from the two fishmen.

   I hear him grunt. ‘I am surrounded by a lot of his minions, but it is nothing I cannot handle. I am making sure that Coinchenn is not getting any funny ideas, so you just concentrate on that second layer of barrier.’

   Yup. My plan is having all of us submerged inside this sphere of seawater, and have a second layer made of water from River Styx to prevent Coinchenn from escaping. Even if he risks it and fly through it, he’ll be damaged from touching the water.

   I block a swing from the battleaxe and kick away the bass fishman.

   ‘By the way, these are your fishmen, aren’t they?’ I ask Curruid.

   ‘Indeed they are. I had my suspicion when your comrades mentioned half-men-half-fish creatures, now I am absolutely certain.’

   ‘It’s confirmed, then. Coinchenn has the power to absorb the power of those he defeated.’

   ‘That would be the only answer, yes. Now that I think about it, I have known him for thousands of years, but I have never seen him use his ability. Not even once. Now we know the reason.’

   He lets out a painful grunt.

   ‘You okay, man?’ I ask in concern.

   ‘As I said, it is nothing I cannot handle.’

   I sense more and more movements around me. I take it that I’m already surrounded. No matter. I’m almost done anyway. The moment the second spell is done, I’m heading straight to Curruid so that we could take down Coinchenn together. And~~~, there.

   ‘I’m done. I’ll head over to help you as soon as I’m done with the fishmen.’ I tell him.

   He scoffs. ‘Just take your time. I might be done long before you are done with your side.’

   ‘Ever the confident one, aren’t you?’

   I would love to deal with the fishmen surrounding me as soon as possible, but there’s quite a lot of them. I counted at least twenty with my heightened sense. Oh well. I guess I got to improvise.

   ‘Try not to get blown away.’ I tell Curruid through telepathy.

   ‘What? What are you planning to do?’

   I tell him my plan.

   ‘Wait a minute! At least let me-’

   I was going to wait until a fishman behind me was trying to do something to me. My self defense mechanism kicked in. At the next second, a huge air bubble is formed around me. One second later, I made a giant whirlpool appear in the middle of the sphere and start spinning vigorously. All at once, the smoke around us clear and was concentrated to the whirlpool. So are all the fishmen inside the sphere with us. Both Coinchenn and Curruid are exempted from being swept away. The former has a bubble around him just like mine, while the latter has a look of someone who ran a marathon for the entire day.

   ‘I believe I asked you to wait!’ he says through telepathy while glaring at me.

   ‘Sorry, bud. I acted out of self defense before I could stop myself.’

   ‘Oh forget it. Just come here and help me finish him off!’

   ‘Coming.’

   I made the bubble around me burst and I charge forward like a torpedo, the tip of my spear aimed straight at Coinchenn. My spear pierced his bubble and made it burst. Unfortunately, he managed to grab my spear before it could wound him. I give him a kick at the stomach so that he lets go.

   I look at Curruid. While we were inside the bubble, both his legs were transformed.

   ‘You got any more body parts you need to transform?’ I ask via telepathy.

   ‘None. I am ready.’

   ‘Are you guys talking with your mind? Why can’t I join in the conversation anymore?’ Coinchenn asks us with a sad expression.

   ‘Sorry man. It’s fun to have you join in the banter and all, but you’re still the enemy.’

   ‘And it would be suicidal to share our plans with the enemy.’ Curruid agrees.

   Coinchenn shrugs. ‘No big deal.’

   Now, we’ve already know that he has multiple abilities he obtained from all the sea monsters he defeated. If he still has some abilities stashed away, I need him to show all of them as soon as possible. And so, another round of fight begins.