Ouroboros

by A Horseshoe Crab

Odysseus Enoteca, the vice-captain of the Blue Rose Knights, has his life upended when an evil organization from his past makes a resurgence. They are lead by a mysterious woman that he thought long dead. He must gather allies and rise through the Magic Knight ranks to challenge her. However, not all is as it seems. There might be more at stake than either of them realize.

1. Chapter 1

Maiden Voyage 1.1

⸻0⸻

A snake drifted aimlessly in the black nothingness. Twisting and spiraling, it traveled alone beyond the vast cosmos. It has always been alone. Shuddering, the snake split in two. Everything else happened after that.

⸻1⸻

Whether Odysseus Enoteca wanted it to or not, the ocean current dragged the boat through the choppy gray water. The lone sail rippled in the ferocious wind, nearly capsizing the wooden vessel as it billowed out. It was a rickety old ship, the kind better suited for rivers and lakes than the open ocean. The wooden hull creaked alarmingly from the constant barrage of waves.

"How did we end up here?" asked his companion, Mimosa Vermillion. The fifteen-year-old girl gripped the side of the sailboat with a panicked expression. Her blonde hair stuck to the side of her face, plastered by the wind and ocean spray. Her fuzzy red cape rippled, catching the breeze and almost pulling her off balance. "To get back to the Clover Kingdom, all we needed to do was sail up the main river! Why are we out at sea in the middle of a typhoon!"

"Yeah, that is odd," Odysseus agreed with a yawn, resting his head against the back of the boat. All the ship's rocking was making him sleepy. He had the hood of his blue mantle pulled up, the tan fur lining it was matted from the rain, but it kept his head dry well enough. "Personally, I blame Undine."

Odysseus reached into his black cloak and pulled out a half-soaked carton of cigarettes. He fished for the least soggy one and struck a match. After several attempts, he managed to get the damn thing lit. He released a sigh of smoke and watched lightning strike the cresting waves on the horizon. "Eh, we'll probably survive."

"You could at least pretend to be a little concerned!" Mimosa said.

"Fret not, Mimosa!" shouted his other companion, Kirsch Vermillion, "Gaze upon me. Let my beauty put your mind at ease." He waved his arms and created a flurry of cherry blossom petals that Odysseus and Mimosa had to swat out of their faces. He flipped a braided lock of his blond hair over his shoulder and twirled in place, admiring the way his feathered pink robe blended in with the blossoms.

"Do you know where we are?" Mimosa asked Odysseus, blatantly ignoring the antics of her eccentric older brother. Odysseus took out a wrinkled map from his cloak and had just unfurled it when the greedy wind snatched the parchment out his arm span. Mimosa gasped and Kirch ceased his dancing as they watched the map flutter into the ocean and sink.

"Hmm, This could be bad," Odysseus said, scratching his cheek below the black eyepatch that covered his left eye. The sky was a thick blanket of dark clouds that bulged and morphed as a storm brewed around them. The waves had swelled to such a size that the vessel was like a barnacle on the back of a whale. Oh well, it's not like he knew where they were on the map anyway. So what? Were they going to get more lost?

In his eighteen years of life, Odysseus had never attempted to sail in a storm of this magnitude. He had already let go of the ship's rigging, much to Mimosa's displeasure, and allowed mother nature to take the helm while he lounged in the back morbidly contemplating the survivability of this latest calamity.

Really it was Mimosa's fault for letting Odysseus navigate—he was born with a deadened sense of direction—she knew this and still left it all up to him regardless. Everyone in the Clover Kingdom knew that Odysseus was the kind of person who'd get turned around in his own place of residence, granted he lived in a stately mansion with an estate the size of a small town, but that's besides the point. People considered him something of a wanderer, but honestly, just having him reach his actual destination was borderline miraculous.

"You idiot!" Kirsch growled, "You stupid one-eyed peasant! Your hair may be a beautiful shade of pink, but underneath it… My goodness, your brain is quite ugly."

Kirsch grabbed Odysseus by his cloak and hoisted the man to his feet. He shook him incessantly, causing the cigarette to tumble from Odysseus's mouth.

"What an ugly expression you're making, Kirsh," Odysseus smirked, taking a handful of Kirsch's Magic Knight robe. "It's most unbecoming."

"How dare you speak to me in such a manner. I ought to—"

"Ought to what? Gonna shower me with flower petals?"

"You'd like that wouldn't you, Blue Rose?"

"I'd rather be a rose than a posturing pink peacock." Odysseus and Kirsch pressed their foreheads together like deer locking horns and bared their teeth. Mimosa could feel the static between them.

A shadow loomed overhead and Mimosa turned, looking out in front of the boat. She paled and gulped nervously. She blindly prodded Odysseus's shoulder, her eyes never leaving the ocean. "Guys…Guys!...GUYS!"

"WHAT?!" They responded in stereo, leveling their glares at Mimosa. The young girl didn't say anything and instead pointed out at sea. In the path their small vessel was a monstrous wave the size of a castle—as if the ocean itself was folding over. The lip of the wave began to curl, threatening to swallow them.

"Oh? Is that all? You kids just sit tight!" Odysseus said, paying no mind to Kirsch's indignant complaint of "I'm older than you!" He raced to the bow of the ship and leaped off, shattering the deck; causing the boat to pitch forward violently. Mimosa and Kirsch gripped the railing tightly to avoid being flung into the dark, churning water.

He neared the wave with a clenched fist that glowed red with magic. Odysseus punched the tsunami, releasing the concentrated burst of mana at the precise moment of impact. The wave exploded as his magic bored a hole right through several tons of water. Fragments of the wave rained down on Mimosa and Kirsch, pelting them with cold droplets. The displaced water slammed into the boat, almost capsizing it anyway.

Odysseus did a backflip in the air and landed on the ship with his arms outstretched, basking in his victory. He closed his eyes, enjoying the last remnants of the wave splattering against him. "Royals, behold! Verily, this is the power of a vice-captain. Feel free to bow before me. It's okay, I won't mind."

"I-Incredible," Mimosa stammered, keeping one hand on the bannister while the ship swayed erratically, "You didn't even use your grimoire." His unbridled strength and reckless demeanor reminded her of her cousin. Mimosa had heard that Odysseus trained under Mereoleona for a time; her influence on him was self-evident.

"Uh, yeah?" Odysseus said, shrugging, "I mean I'd expect any vice-captain to be able to do this much." He glanced sidelong at Kirsch, who was puking his guts out. The older Vermillion sibling hadn't gotten sea-sick in years, but even beauty has its limits—and Odysseus's boat bouncing antics pushed him past his.

"So petty," Mimosa muttered.

Kirsh wiped his mouth and yelled, "What kind of idiot punches a wave? And you did way more damage to our ship than the storm anyways!"

At the bow of the ship, the decking had been obliterated. There was a crater that led straight to the bottom of the vessel. Planks and wood chips were scattered everywhere. Cracks from the impact site zigzagged down the sides of the boat, threatening to split the whole thing in two.

"Eh? Really?" Odysseus said, taking another out cigarette from his cloak. He'll have to buy more soon. Most of the carton had gotten utterly soaked. He was basically left with a warped box of waterlogged paper and wet leaves. His box of matches hadn't fared any better as he struggled to get one lit. It was moments like these that he wished he was a flame mage like Leona. "I'm pretty sure it was like that when we left."

"Why would you tell such an obvious lie?" Kirsch said, and turned to his younger sister, "See, Mimosa? Commoners are rotten to their core. It's an unfortunate inevitability of their ugly lifestyle."

"We can discuss morality later, Kirsch," Mimosa said, "I think we have a bigger problem." On her knees, she inspected the damage that Odysseus had done to the ship. There was water rushing in and flooding below deck. "The hull has been compromised. It won't be too long before the ship sinks."

"Looks like it's time to abandon ship," Odysseus said, looking over Mimosa's shoulder. "We should gather our belongings and fly to shore."

"You want us to fly on brooms?" Kirsch asked, "In the middle of a hurricane? We don't know where the shore even is! It's suicide! Beauty such as mine can't afford to be lost in such an undignified manner. It would be tantamount to the loss of a Clover Kingdom national treasure."

Odysseus and Mimosa exchanged a look.

"You can always stay here and drown," Odysseus informed him. "Can you think of a more beautiful death than a man going down with his ship?"

"It might be impossible for you, commoner—but make no mistake, you are in the company of royalty!" Kirsch said with a flourish flip of his hair, sparkles twinkling. "I'm going to use my magic to save this ship! What and learn, peasant, the difference between us!"

"Cherry Blossom Magic: Magic Cherry Blossom Blizzard." Kirsch's pink grimoire opened and spewed hundreds of pink flower petals from its pages. Using his hands to direct the spell, he sent the petals into the rushing water that was pouring in the bottom of the boat. Odysseus laughed uproariously and Mimosa facepalmed as the cherry blossom petals did nothing but float on top of the water.

"Wow, you illustrated the difference between us beautifully!" Odysseus said, hugging his midsection.

"I'll… go get our things," Mimosa said and scurried to the other end of the ship, ducking into the captains' quarters. It was a regal name for what amounted to a glorified storage room. Since the boat was mainly used for excursions into the Heart Kingdom—a voyage which normally only took a single day—there wasn't even a bed in the room. It was essentially wasted space; perfect for stowing away their belongings.

"Shut up, commoner!" Kirsch shouted, dispelling his cherry blossom spell. He holstered his grimoire back in the pouch strapped to his waist. "I don't see you doing anything."

"Sorry, but my magic doesn't really do water. I could give it a try, but it would pretty much be a waste of time and magic," Odysseus said with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, trying once more to light a match on a wet strike strip. "I'm aware of my limitations—and the limitations of these matches apparently. Yo, Prince Peacock, you got a light?"

In a blinding flash and a thunderous boom, a bolt of lighting struck the top of the mast and ignited the sail. Odysseus and Kirsch shielded their eyes from the harsh light and heat. The sail was burning surprisingly well for being so wet, filling the air with thick black smoke. Failing to strike a match, Odysseus dipped his cigarette into the flames, but the entire thing turned to ash in his palm. He let out a disappointed, "Aw…"

"Seriously?! Could this get any worse!" Kirsch said. Not only was the boat sinking, it was also on fire. He cupped his hands and splashed the burning sail with pitiful amounts of water. The bright orange blaze was like a beacon in the dark storm until the fire ate through the rigging and sent the sail spiraling into the ocean. The rain quickly dosed the last remaining embers.

"Well… At least the fire is out now. Man, the mast burned like crazy. What kind of wood was this ship even made of?" Odysseus poked the smoldering remains of the mast with his foot. The blackened beam creaked and then toppled over, crashing into the water. "Ah…Whoops."

"Forget the fire, you stupid peasant! We don't even have a sail anymore! Last I checked this was a sailboat—how are we supposed to sail a sailboat with no damn sail? It's in the goddamn name!" Kirsch grabbed his head in frustration. "Must you break everything you touch?"

Odysseus bopped his palm with a fist. "I got it! You can get in the water and push. As long as you kick your legs really hard—"

"Like hell! I'd never be caught dead doing something so vulgar and primal. You need to get serious and quit messing around. Unless that was a serious suggestion, in which case you'd be an even bigger idiot than I could have ever imagined; for a commoner, that's saying something."

"What happened?" Mimosa asked, exiting the captain's quarters. "I heard a really loud explosion." She carried a beat-up burlap satchel and two broomsticks under her arm. A pair of vines speckled in small yellow flowers were wrapped around her waist, hauling her and Kirsch's large suitcases behind her. The vines were stronger than they looked, being as skinny as they were.

"You missed it, Mim," Odysseus said, "The ship was struck by lightning and our sail, like, exploded."

He took the satchel from her arms and swung the bag over his shoulder. He thanked Mimosa and grabbed a bottle of booze from the bag. With all this excitement he could really use a drink. Mimosa looked at the bottle in shock—she couldn't believe he would drink at a time like this. Odysseus would disagree. Honestly, was there a better time to drink than when facing imminent destruction?

Before he could open it up and take a swig, something bumped the bottom of the boat. The bottle slipped from his hands and rolled towards the side of the ship. Odysseus dove for it. Sliding on the wet deck, he snagged the bottle out of the air and saved it from a watery grave.

Looking down at the ocean, Odysseus spotted something moving just beneath the surface. He couldn't make out its shape, but judging by the huge silhouette, the mysterious object was definitely larger than their ship. As swift as a viper, he was hit by something bursting out of the water. It broke the ship in half and knocked him into the air. "Oof!"

Mimosa and Kirsch were also flung into the air as the ship was smashed to pieces. She tossed one of the broomsticks to her older brother. The man caught it, spun around and straddled the broom in one extravagant motion. Mimosa mounted her own broom, straining to stay aloft with all the extra luggage weighing her down. She was hoping to have Odysseus haul it since he had more magic than her and Kirsch combined. Unfortunately, he looked to be a bit preoccupied at the moment.

"Hah, Hah, Hah! Oh my Goddess, I nearly died! Oh, wow. That was close! Whew." Odysseus found himself a hair's breadth away from a pink forked tongue that flicked incessantly in his direction. His feet were pressed against the lower jaw of the creature between the long needle-like teeth. Using one hand, he pushed up on the beaked upper jaw. His other hand was still wrapped around the bottle of booze. From what he could gather, he was in the mouth of some kind of monstrous sea serpent. "Vored by a monster, can you even imagine? How hilarious that would have been. Like, chisel that on my tombstone!"

"Oh, For the love of—Would it kill you to take this seriously!?" Mimosa snapped, her broomstick getting bodied by the violent storm winds circling her.

"You never know, it just might." He stuck the bottle into his mouth, biting down on the cork keeping him and the delicious booze separated. He yanked it out and spit it down the sea serpent's gullet. Tipping the bottle up, Odysseus proceeded to drain it with depraved gulps.

"Now really isn't the time to be drinking!"

Odysseus struggled to maintain his grip on the snake's maw with only one hand, pumping his body full of reinforcement magic. The serpent snarled, basting the straining mage with bits of saliva and corpse-flavored breath.

Finishing his drink, Odysseus smashed the bottle onto one of the fangs and sent shards of glass into the monster's mouth and throat. The snake reared up, gagging. Odysseus, with his hand now free, punched the monster. The blow knocked the head to the side, allowing Odysseus to slip out of the scaly maw and fall towards the ocean.

Tumbling through the air, he finally got a good look at his attacker. The creature resembled a snake with pitch black scales and glowing yellow eyes. Its mouth ended in a sharp beak similar to a vulture, and had a plume of feathers like a blood red crown.

"Damn, that's an ugly bird!" Odysseus said.

"Any way you look at it, it's obviously a snake!" Kirsch shot back.

Odysseus flipped the buckles off his grimoire that he kept strapped to his leg, but before he could pull out the book, he was forced to twist out of the way of a second head that shot out of the water and attacked from his blind spot. The creature was so close to snatching him that the razor sharp beak snagged his cloak and tore the fabric near the bottom. He landed on the creature's neck and slid down the wet scales, crashing into the ocean on the world's deadliest waterslide.

"There's two of them!?" Mimosa asked, her voice fraught with fright. The broom beneath her quivered in the air as her magic reserves were steadily drained by the heavy suitcases dangling from her waist by vines.

Underwater was dark and quiet. Odysseus peered through the salty water and spotted four pairs of eyes staring back. Each pair belonged to a sea serpent. Following the twisting necks back to their source it suddenly became clear that they weren't being attacked by several monsters, but instead one monster with six heads. The body of the beast was seemingly formless in the black depths, a strange rock or mass of coral that was roughly the size of a house. It remained afloat, undulating like a jellyfish with the help of a dozen meaty tentacles.

Odysseus breached the surface and gulped a lungful of air. This was starting to get a little out of hand.

One of the heads grabbed him by his hood and yanked him out of the water. The neck of his Blue Rose robe was pulled taut against his throat and strangled him. The remaining four heads rose up and the hulking body of the monster surfaced like a miniature island. In an act of quick thinking, Odysseus undid the latch on his robe and dropped down as the six heads converged on the garment, shredding it.

Welp, Captain Char was going to kill him if this monster didn't.

He came down hard, falling onto the creature with the usual amount of grace and finesse. He felt around the sea monster as he struggled to catch his breath. Huh, it really did feel like a piece of coral. He caught a flicker of movement out the corner of his eye.

"Mimosa! Ditch the luggage!" Odysseus shouted as one of the snakes turned towards the young girl. Staring into the amber eyes of the snake, Mimosa froze up. It was the first time she had ever faced such danger in her life. Her mind went blank.

"Cherry Blossom Magic: Dance of the Beautiful Cherry Blossom Blades!" Kirsch summoned a pink folding fan and swung it in Mimosa's direction, creating a cloud of pink flower petals. The petals easily sliced the vines keeping their luggage tethered to his sister, and allowed the suitcases to tumble onto the body of the sea monster, nearly striking Odysseus ("Hey! Watch it!").

Mimosa had never been so glad to see her obnoxious brother in all her life. Freed from her burden, Mimosa rocketed skyward and dodged the snake's first strike. The serpent circled around to attack again.

Kirsch waved the fan once more and sent a second storm of petals at the attacker, badgering the creature's head with millions of the razor sharp cherry blossoms. Most of the petal blades bounced off the monster's thick scaly hide, and those that didn't left shallow scratches—no more debilitating than paper cuts.

However, the creature's eyes weren't so lucky.

Kirsch's flower petals shredded them to ribbons, blinding that particular head. The monster roared and the other five heads turned their attention to Kirsch, perceiving the Coral Peacock vice-captain to be the biggest threat.

"Looks like it's finally time to get serious," Odysseus said, staggering to his feet on the monster's rocky body. He freed his grimoire from the pouch on his leg. The book was dark gray, like rain clouds before a thunderstorm. In the center of the book was a black five-leafed clover; and curled around it was the scaly visage of a snake biting its own tail. There were no other symbols or markings.

His grimoire hovered by his side, a loyal companion. The book glowed gray and flipped open of its own accord, turning the pages to the exact spell Odysseus had in mind. He held out his arm palmside up and a yellow circle of runes enveloped the limb. He had spent the last few months in the Heart Kingdom training to use Mana Method, and now he finally had a chance to use it in an actual battle.

He was stoked.

"Hark, Mim and Prince Peacock! And witness in awe! Tell the world how I dispatched this heinous foe!"

"True Blood Creation Magic: Piercing Pavane!" Blood poured out of his arm in dark red ribbons that congealed together above his hand, forming a scarlet raven. The bloodborne bird landed on his palm and he grasped it by the feet. Mimosa and Kirsch watched confused, unsure where he was going with this. With an arm stretched out for stability, Odysseus took a step forward and threw the bird.

"Why make a bird if you're just gonna throw it?" Kirsch loudly exclaimed.

As it whizzed through the air, the bird condensed into a long thin strip that closely resembled a knitting needle; albeit, one that was two meters in length. With its new shape, it was more aerodynamic and picked up speed. Shattering the sound barrier, it pierced the monster's skull in the blink of an eye. The needle entered the eye socket, continuing through the skull and out the other side. The force blew a hole the diameter of a melon in the sea monster's head.

While some mages lived by the mantra 'Bigger is Better' when it comes to attacking, Odysseus was not one of them. That's not to say that he doesn't let loose every now and then—the rogue wave can attest to that—he simply preferred speed and precision over explosions and all-encompassing spells…for the most part.

That's one thing he and his mentor differed on. To him, a fight was about dealing with your opponent as quickly as possible. Long drawn out battles were annoying. Well, that's what he liked to tell himself anyway.

"What!" Kirsch exclaimed. His attack had merely blinded it, and only caused superficial damage to the rest of the head and neck. Was the commoner's attack that much more potent, or was there something else to it? "Could it have been the shape, I wonder? I see…With all the power focused into a single razor-sharp point, combined with the velocity of the attack, the bird…er, javelin had no trouble penetrating the sea creature's scaly hide. I suppose the commoner's hideously toned physique may have been a factor as well."

The head that was struck slumped forward, throbbing brain tissue dribbling out the exit wound and into the ocean. The six (...well, five now) headed monster squealed in pain, unable to comprehend what had happened.

Odysseus smiled, "I smell blood in the water!"

Taking advantage of that confusion, Odysseus darted around on the creature's body, keeping his eye trained on the remaining heads writhing above him. The needle, after exiting the monster's head, reverted back into a raven and returned to him.

Spotting an ideal angle, Odysseus leaped off the monster and out over the ocean. He twisted in the air, and with a touch of reinforcement magic, let the raven fly once more. This time it skewered two heads that were lined up, passing right through the first before being lodged in the second.

In a matter of seconds, the monster had lost half of its heads.

"Wow…" Mimosa said with a hand covering her mouth. She had seen his raw power when he blasted that rogue wave earlier, but she never expected him to fight with such finesse. His control over both his body and magic was impressive. "It's like he doesn't even need our help."

Kirsch gripped his broom tighter, the wood threatening to splinter. They were both vice-captains, but loathe as he was to admit it, Odysseus was a different class from him. For perhaps the first time in his life, he—a beautiful royal, the noblest of all the nobles—felt the desire to train.

Falling toward the ocean, a tentacle launched out of the surf and wrapped around Odysseus's ankle. He could feel the pulsing suction cups through his pants as the slimy appendage squeezed his leg, all but crushing his bones. The tentacle repeatedly slammed him into the water, stunning the mage. "Oof, that didn't feel great…"

More and more tentacles came out of the murky depths and encased the mage in a squirming mass of calamari. Odysseus had a tentacle wrapped around each limb as well as his waist and neck. The monster was too strong, and he couldn't break free. "Ugh…Gross! This is so gross! How can they be both slimy and sticky? I really don't like where this is heading!"

"Kirsch, we have to help him!" Mimosa said.

The tentacles pulled on his limbs and Odysseus was sure that his arms and legs were going to be torn off. Black spots dotted his vision when a storm of cherry blossoms surrounded him and sliced the tentacles into chunks. His limp body dropped towards the water, but was saved as his cloak snagged on Kirsch's broom. "I won't be outshined by a commoner. As a noble, my pride won't allow it."

"So your petals can cut the tentacles? That's good to know. I learned a lot from my near-death experience," Odysseus said, dangling. The red marks from the monster's tentacles faded away and he grabbed the broom, dragging himself onto it. He sat side-saddle behind Kirsch, massaging his forearms; they were just about healed. "I'm kinda surprised you saved me. You're not so bad after all."

"While I find you ugly and impertinent," Kirsch said, "Mimosa and myself would be unable to deal with such a beast on our own."

"Admitting you need a commoner's help? Gasp. Is this what they call character development?"

"Silence, cur! I will push you off this broom!"

"Methinks thou doth protest too much." Odysseus laughed and hugged Kirsch from behind, teasingly. The older Vermillion sibling jabbed his elbow into Odysseus in an effort to push him off. Odysseus tilted his head as if listening to a silent voice and tipped backwards off the broom, pulling Kirsch with him.

The noble gave a startled cry and flailed his arms for a second. One of the three remaining snake heads bit down on the broom, mashing it into splinters. Kirsch gasped as the creature's fangs grazed his leg and tore his pants.

"How unsightly," Kirsch commented, a burning pain starting to pump through his leg, "This creature is becoming quite the nuisance." He landed on the sea monster's coral-like back, stumbling a bit, and swung his pink cherry blossom fan at the two tentacles grabbing at him. A gale of razor sharp petals easily sliced through the slimy appendages.

One of the monster's heads slithered around to bite him, but was knocked away by a powerful punch from Odysseus. The two mages ended up back-to-back, facing the three heads and half a dozen tentacles that surrounded them.

"What do you think? I hit 'em high, and you hit 'em low?" Odysseus suggested.

"If by that you mean you will take on the heads while I dispatch these vile tentacles, then yes." Kirsch responded, pale faced and panting, "A simple yet elegant strategy, even if it were delivered via barbaric phrasing."

He swung his fan in a circle over their heads, a barrage of flower petals hiding them from the monster. The pain in his leg was getting worse, burning incessantly, and his chest was tightening. They would have to finish this quickly.

"True Blood Creation Magic: Bladed Balboa!" Odysseus burst out of the petals, leaping at the nearest head with incredible speed. Coiled around each arm was a red viper, the tails of which were fused with his body and directly connected to his circulatory system. With a flex of his Blood Magic, the snakes morphed into wicked sharp blades.

They weren't swords in a typical sense, they were more like a liquid muscle. Not only could they cut almost anything when enough force and magic was applied, but their length was flexible. They could be shorter than an inch or longer than his entire body—whatever the situation called for. Balboa was arguably his most deadly spell.

He plunged the snake-blades into the eyes of the creature, extending their length and puncturing the skull. Putting his feet on the beaked snout, Odysseus launched towards another head. He peppered it with a whirlwind of slashes down the whole neck until it looked like it had slithered into a blender.

Meanwhile, Kirsch pushed his arms out and expanded the swirling petals, cutting all of the sea monster's tentacles in one swoop.

Mimosa watched the two mages fight with a sense of guilt stirring in her heart. She couldn't do anything to help and was stuck observing from afar. She was supposed to be joining the Golden Dawn in a matter of days and become a full fledged Magic Knight. But all she had done was get in the way.

There had to be something she could do to help them. She didn't know any offensive spells, but she was great at Recovery Magic. Some had even called her a prodigy. Odysseus got wounded earlier didn't he? When those tentacles grabbed him? And her brother wasn't looking very good either. She could heal them after the battle! It wouldn't be long now. Only one of the monster's heads remained.

Without realizing it, Mimosa in her haste had drifted too close to the sea creature. The slitted, amber snake eyes locked onto her and lunged. She gasped and slipped off her broom, becoming easy prey for the monster.

"Mimosa!" Kirsch cried, but he wasn't close enough to her. Since that vile monstrosity had grazed his leg, his body wasn't responding the way it should. In this altered state his spell wouldn't make it in time. Mimosa's eyes widened as a fang longer than her arm neared her face. She closed her eyes in fear. The fang pierced her shoulder—she was dead.

Wait…If she was dead, why was there a hot burning pain blossoming in her tender flesh?

Mimosa's eyes flew open and she saw that she wasn't alone. Odysseus had one arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close to his side. He gripped the fang with his other hand, keeping the tip of it from stabbing deeper into her shoulder. Grimacing with exertion, he held the snake creature's jaws open. "Nobody eats my friends!"

With one last heave, Odysseus tossed Mimosa towards her brother. She crashed into the mage, landing in a heap as the sea monster's jaws closed on Odysseus and ate him. She gasped. He had saved her life, and now he was gone. It was her fault Odysseus died.

No! She wouldn't let it end like this.

She pushed Kirsch off of her and staggered to her feet, glaring at the sole surviving head of the monster. Odysseus wasn't dead yet—she had to believe that. She grabbed her grimoire and pleaded. She needed an attack spell…something…anything! She felt a strange sense of power well up inside of her, a feeling like she was on the precipice of something incredible. Her grimoire flipped to a black page and writing appeared. I won't let you die!

Mimosa slammed her hands on the coral-like back of the creature. "Plant Magic: Magic Cannon Flower," A large flower bud, bigger than Mimosa and Kirsch combined, pushed up from between the rocky lumps of the sea monster. The stem of the plant was a culmination of a hundred green vines that intertwined into a thick braid, entangling the monster's body and siphoning its mana. At the top of the plant, the dark red flower bud slowly unfurled. From the heart of the flower, a condensed beam of stolen mana blasted out, striking the creature's neck. The fierce heat of the attack melted through the scaly hide and severed the final head completely.

"Mimosa…that was…beautiful," Kirsch said between raspy breaths. A cold sweat broke out on his white face and he slipped down to one knee. Mimosa steadied her brother, torn between helping him or looking for Odysseus. Kirsch went limp in her arms, making her choice an easy one. She'd have to trust Odysseus to find his own way out of the beast—hopefully he wouldn't get lost.

"Hold on, Kirsch! I'll heal you!" Mimosa put her hands over her brother and tried to call on her magic. Recovery Magic required a lot of focus, but a burning pain like a thousand needles was racking her body, making that nearly impossible. That creature…whatever it was…it must have been venomous.

The burnt neck hole of the severed head bulged as Odysseus forced his way out, gasping for air. "Holy shit. I'm alive. What does it take to kill me? It was really hot and smelly in there, like a sauna filled with rotten fish. Being eaten—wouldn't recommend it." He sniffed his shirt and gagged, "Great. The smell lingers."

"Thank…goodness," Mimosa said, giving Odysseus one last glance before slipping into unconsciousness. "We're…saved."

"Oh man," Odysseus noticed Mimosa collapse next to her brother and raced over to them. Placing a finger on both their necks, he breathed a sigh of relief feeling a faint pulse from the passed out mages. They're alive, but not for long. Their heart beats were fading.

He dipped a finger into Mimosa's wound and licked the blood off of it. He could taste a neurotoxin, and a powerful one at that. This might be tricky, Odysseus thought, calling on his grimoire, but nothing he couldn't handle. He was, after all, the Clover Kingdom's number one recovery mage.

"Time for me to work my magic."

End of Chapter

⸻Author's Note⸻

Welcome to Ouroboros! I love Black Clover. It does start pretty slow and a lot of the characters are pretty one-dimensional at first, but I can't help but find it oddly charming. This story will have a few OCs (probably a fair number to be honest) that are integral to the plot. Sorry if that's not your cup of tea, but it's how I roll. I don't want to just rehash canon either. There will be some canon events obviously, but I also have my own original story arcs planned. I want to try and inject my own lore into the story, to sorta make it my own, while staying true to the spirit of Black Clover.

Fun Fact: This is based on the first fanfic I had ever written called Odyssey of a Blue Rose. It was only 15k words long before I scrapped it, but a lot of the characters and events that I wanted to implement there I've decided to recycle for this story. I have 16 story arcs planned, so who knows how long it'll be in the end.

Ramgunshochingly Yours,

A Horseshoe Crab

Chapter Word Count: 5,845

Arc Word Count: 5,845

Story Word Count: 5,845