Day 48:

Never before had he done battle with a god. On the surface it sounded a ridiculous idea; after more careful consideration it was no less absurd, but rather more dire: destroy the Hydraean or die trying. The wrath of the sea would never allow them to leave this place with the breath still in their lungs. Even if he had been granted some sliver of escape, he could not leave Altissia without Lunafreya, and Lunafreya would not leave Accordo to the angry serpent and rising seas.

So they fought a god. Hundreds of miles away, Reina must have been doing much the same with the stakes higher still. If she failed, not only Accordo would fall. If she failed, all of Eos would fall.

Fighting a sea serpent while confined to the earth was every inch as irritating as it sounded. He had long since lost awareness of what was wet and what was dry; everything was soaked through without distinction. The cold of the sea made his fingers ache and slip on the wet hilt of his blade. He adjusted. Adapt and overcome. Or die.

His blade bit into scaled sides and serpentine eyes. Leviathan's face was like a dragon of storybooks and her scales were small plates of armor that steel slid off of without purchase. He learned quickly to target the joints between scales and time his strikes carefully.

He managed to climb atop the Hydraean with his blade stuck between the scales of her face. Not long after, she threw him off and into the ocean. He very nearly lost his sword in his swim ashore. Somehow he kicked his way back to the shrine while still wearing his boots; he had to abandon his cloak to the sea to even get that far. But once he had his hands on solid stone again, Lunafreya appeared.

"Ravus. Thank the Gods. I feared the worst." She offered him her hand, which he ignored as he dragged himself up onto the stone platform.

"Prey, do not thank the Gods, dear sister." Ravus climbed to his feet and picked up his sword once more. "The Gods are what tried to kill me in the first place."

It would take more than that, however. If the Hydraean wanted him dead she would have to do it herself, not leave his fate to the waters.

Gentiana—no, Shiva—swept high above, turning circles around Leviathan's head. Blades of ice splintered off the Hydraean's scales as she snapped at one of half a dozen small duplicates of the Glacian.

"Tell her to lure its head back down." Ravus squared his feet and shifted his hold on his sword.

"After what just happened, you want to try that again?"

"Yes."

Whether words actually passed—in some way—between Luna and Shiva, he could not tell. But she did drop lower, baiting the Hydraean to snap at the air ever closer to the shrine. When she was near enough, Ravus took another running leap. This time, he plunged his blade into her eye socket.

The Hydraean reared back, screaming so loud that Ravus had to fight not to cover his ears. He held onto the hilt of his sword and hauled himself up even as she tried to shake him off. He couldn't stand on top of her head—even if she hadn't been shaking back and forth like an angry dog trying to get free of its leash, there was nowhere to stand but wet, slippery scales. Instead he threw one leg over the top of her head, just above her horns, and dug his boots into the sides of her jaw. That was as secure as he would get. He twisted his blade, holding tight as she gave another scream and made another attempt to fling him off, then he pulled it free and stabbed two-handed into her other eye.

This time the resulting screech—half of pain and half of rage—was too much. He released his blade—still embedded in her eye—and covered his ears reflexively. With the next jerk of her head he took flight again.

And so continued the cycle.

Lunafreya gave him a reproachful look when next he climbed back onto—relatively—dry ground.

"You've lost your sword," she said.

"I suppose I'll have to get it."

That was rather more easily said than done. It was difficult to bait a blind Astral in any particular direction. She flailed, throwing waves crashing over them and threatening to drag them out to sea. She snapped at anything that made a sound and many things that didn't. She lunged at the city and bit the top off of stone towers, only to drop the crumbling bricks on their heads—or very nearly.

It took Ravus several tries to reach his sword at all—the first attempts landed him directly into the ocean, where he dodged slithering coils, which thrashed in the waves and threatened to drag him to the depths. When he did make it as far as his sword, it was a short-lived victory. He retrieved the blade, but did no more before she forced him to leap into the ocean or be slammed into the side of a building.

He was growing weary of swimming.

Back on the shrine, he dragged his wet boots off and shed any extraneous items of clothing that hadn't already been lost to the waves. It was too much to hope he wouldn't end up in the ocean again before they brought the beast down. The least he could do was make the process easier on himself. It was difficult to decide if the shedding of wet clothes made the wind more or less cold against his skin. One thing he could say for certain: the sea was beginning to feel warmer than the air and with the black clouds growing in the sky, it was only a matter of time before he couldn't feel his hands, let alone hold his sword. And that was to say nothing of the strength that drained from his arms every time he dragged himself back ashore.

"We must destroy her quickly." Ravus shook out his arms, hoping to send circulation back into his fingers. "This goes on too long."

"I am trying, Ravus," Lunafreya said. And, indeed, he could feel her sifting through strands of magic—though the ones connected to Leviathan were more like ropes—as she searched for the right pieces to cut. Her task was made all the more difficult as Leviathan's serpentine body smashed into the stone inches away from her, forcing her to interrupt her concentration as she dodged flying debris.

"Even if you sever her ties to Eos, we will still have to destroy her," Ravus said.

"I leave that in your capable hands," she said.

And yet she would complain loudly whenever he jumped in after Leviathan.

A length of Leviathan's body came crashing down on the shrine. Ravus lifted his sword and forced it away, leaving a red ribbon of raw flesh as it slid across his blade. Shiva could occupy Leviathan's head—though her ice never seemed to take well to the Hydraean's body—and Ravus could protect Lunafreya while she severed Leviathan's ties to Eos. That left no one to drive a blade through the beast's skull. Still, he would need to catch his breath if he wanted to try again. For now he stood guard.

If only he had the imperial army still at his disposal. Most of it was blackened, twisted scraps of metal by now. Altissia's people had fled to the other side of the city. The First Secretary had sent no troops to aid them. And what would she do if they fell? She would die, along with the people she fought so hard to protect. All of that could have been avoided with some forethought, but it was as if she blamed Leviathan's awakening on them. Fool of a woman. She had no sight for the bigger picture.

Leviathan's tail came down again. This time it splintered the stone they stood on and sent a portion of it crumbling into the sea. One more reason to move more quickly. Ravus glanced back at Luna, who stood, eyes open, palms pressed together, with a distant look in her eyes and her lips moving wordlessly as if she spoke to herself. He couldn't wait for her to finish. She would have to shield herself.

A gunshot cracked the air. The sound echoed through the city until he had no notion of where it had come from, but he spun around anyway. Standing beneath the arch that led back toward the city was the man they had visited on arrival. What was his name? Weskham? Lunafreya had said he was an old friend of King Regis'. The revelation had led to the immediate evaluation that he was useless, which Ravus now forced himself to reevaluate. King Regis wasn't the man he had hated for all those years. That man was a figment of Ravus' imagination. A scapegoat. But old habits died hard.

Now Weskham stood with one hand outstretched, aiming a long-barreled handgun at the Hydraean.

"Thought you two could use a few hands. I convinced Camelia to split the army; they're on their way. Anywhere in particular you want them?"

Ravus stared. Then he ducked as Leviathan's tail swung overhead and slammed into the stone column ten feet from their platform.

"Perhaps containment would be a wise idea. I'll have them break out the harpoons and cables," Weskham said.

Without further explanation, he was on his radio giving orders as if he was a veteran commander and not an old man with a bar. But whatever he was, they had their reinforcements.