Leviathan Hunter

***

"Alright! My shifts are over! "Take over!" one of the crew members shouted to a another one.

Solan sat watching far in the horizon. It had been 2 days since they had left shore and Solan was seemingly captivated by the ocean. 

"...You sure like to watch over the sea huh kid?" one of the bigger guys on deck said laughing. The boy didn't answer and just continued watching the ocean.

"...So beautiful… and so mysterious…". were the words going through his mind. 

Sarah stood at the bridge, looking at Solan from afar until Admiral Katama arrived. 

"...What 'cha doing?" approaching from her left side.

"...Nothing of your business…". she sighed, not wanting to engage in Katama's usual teasing.

"...C'mon, why are you so bored? no men will fall for you if you continue like this". he sulked a bit. His expression softened before taking a deep breath.

"What about the kid… what are we gonna do with him?"

"...Solan, I'll have to take him with me…".

"Really? Is the Lighting spear finally going to have a disciple". He asked, curious yet knowing.

"...A disciple…" she muttered.

"Hm? what did you say?" Katama asked, getting closer.

--Bang!--

The sudden sound of a gunshot echoed through the unit of the ships. 

Sarah's eyes widened a bit before she rushed down to the deck.

"H-Huh!? where are you going Sarah-!" Before he could finish his sentence Sarah had already left the bridge.

"Ooo~! "Amazing kiddo!" One of the groups of marine workers said. 

Solan stood in the middle of the deck. holding an infantry rifle in hand. He was given it by the crew members wanting him to have some fun instead of looking at the ocean the entire day. 

"You know how to shoot at least!" They laughed amongst themselves.

Sarah arrived shortly after, a pissed off and annoyed expression on her face telling them easily how she felt.

"What is going on here!" She shouted.

The men stood up straighten their back saluting her immediately.

"We're letting young Solan try our weapons ma'am!"

"Why would you give a dangerous weapon to a child!" she shouted.

As she turned to Solan he didn't seem to listen. In fact he was scoping into the rifle aiming at a school of seagulls flying above them. 

"Hehe! look at him… he's all focused" one of the guys whispered. 

Looking through the sight, Solan took his time aiming closer. Aiming slightly in front of where the seagulls were flying and with one deep breath he pulled the trigger shooting down one of the seagulls. 

The men and Sarah gasped in surprise.

"W-Woah! Look at that!"

"He's a natural!" one of the guys shouted laughing. 

Sarah was a bit flabbergasted as she looked back and forth. 

"..S-Solan? Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

Solan stood firmly judging by his stance; he knew how to hold a rifle.

"....I don't know…".

"Huh? "You don't know?" 

"...I don't know…":

The men were almost laughing until Sarah turned back to them shouting.

"What are you guys even doing! get back to work!"

"Y-yes Admiral!" they yelled in unison before spreading around the deck. 

Sarah stared at Solan for a while until she told him. "Solan… Do that again…". 

"...Alright…".

He scoped in again and did what he did before he shot seagulls one after one.

"The first time wasn't luck… Solan really knows how to shoot?". 

She faced him before getting eye level with him.

"You know, are you sure nobody taught you this?"

"....I don't know".

"You don't know? I'm starting to feel like there's something you're not telling me".

Solan stared at her blank "...I have never touched a weapon like this… But..".

"But??" she asked.

":..But It feels familiar….". 

Sarah was confused, it felt familiar? She had a lot of questions but she didn't have time to bombard a recently traumatized child. 

"I see… From now on, continue shooting with the rifles… if you can manage to bring me many seagulls I'll prepare a reward when we get back to Soldat's base". Several days passed by and by that time Sarah had started to learn what Solan was capable of. No matter what weapon they gave him he could wield it for the first time and it seemed like he had wielded it for decades of experience. Sarah was a sword master seeing how fast he was learning made her curious about just who this child was.

***

"Alright, we'll arrive at Soldat's harbor tomorrow morning… Even if we're close every man must still work…". Sarah said, speaking with Katama and a few commanders under them. 

After dismissing them she then leaned to the railing thinking about something.

(A few days ago, at the outpost]

"We sent the tests to the research lab back in Soldat… and from what we learnt, this elder beast… doesn't possess any powers..". Said a research on the outpost back then.

Sarah thought to herself ":...All elder beasts have been found with powers, if it didn't have… doesn't it mean… that the same boy who ate and drank its blood from inside… must have something to do with it".

Suddenly the bell started ringing on repeat and loudly.

"A Leviathan has been spotted east from us!". Sarah locked in.

"How far is it!" 

"...It's… It's attacking a passenger ship!" 

"W-What? A passenger ship?!" she uttered in shock.

Sarah got out her binoculars looking at the faraway scenery. The huge passenger ship had a certain sail on it.

"...I-Its an Imperial ship!" she shouted.

"A-An Imperial ship?" Katama asked in shock.

Katama then shouted clearly "All men on deck! An Imperial passenger ship is being attacked!!".

Sarah huffed in annoyance "Where are the other ships? usually there should be marines protecting the passengers ships…". 

"That doesn't matter, right now… several nobles are in danger.. and we must hurry". Katama said.

"Your right" she agreed shortly after. 

The crew men adjusted the sails and just a few moments later the three fortified galleons were on their way. 

***

At the Imperial ship.

"All passengers have evacuated beneath deck sir!" A soldier said standing in the middle of the deck. 

It was a huge leviathan, having the head of a serpent yet the body of a squid. 

The soldiers tried to fight back but their swords and bullets barely penetrated its skin. 

"M-mom!" A young girl was running, holding a teddy bear in her arms.

"W-What the! There's still a child here!" one of the soldiers shouted in panic. 

As the crying girl ran she tripped over, hurting her knee. 

"Get her immediately!" Just shortly after his order one of the tentacles raised and was about to crash into the girl.

"S-Shit! "We're too late!" Just as the tentacles were about to make an impact sevral deep slashes with purple lighting emitting from the wounds.

"What kinda joke is this…". Sarah had made her appearance holding a Katana in her hand, saving the young girl. Her blade radiating with lighting. 

"T-That hair… That symbol… Admiral Kesak!!" One of the commanders shouted in shock.

"...You guys were lucky that we were in the area…". Sarah helped the little girl up, smiling softly. 

"Don't worry dear, everything is fine… go to your mother now okay?" she said before the soldiers escorted her beneath the deck. 

She turned to the present soldiers and said "Don't worry, fortunately for you guys… we are moving in a unit". 

Suddenly a red flare was shot up in the air in the distance from one of the Admiral's fleet.

The Leviathan turned its attention towards the light, leaving towards the three warships. 

"Tell the passengers that it's still not safe to come up… We'll give orders when it's safe…". Her tone was composed and confident. 

Sarah made a super jump with the help of her lighting abilities.

"Woah, That really was the Lighting spear wasn't it?" One of the soldiers said in awe.

"..., A powerful and fearsome woman with long dark hair, eyes purple as the faraway galaxies from the east continent… The one who was given a personal title by Soldat's lord after slaying several Leviathans in one night" 

"....Sarah Kesak, The blade of one hundred". 

***

Sarah arrived back at her fleet, the huge leviathan already there trying to destroy the ships.

"Whats the situation here?" She asked calmly.

"What does it seem like!?!?" Katama shouted. 

"Yes… Even my blade couldn't penetrate all the way in… It must be an exo-skeleton". 

Sarah went on deck "...It's currently focusing on two of my ships, unfortunantly Katama wont need to pay for damages…".

She shouted out to her men clearly "...Get in formation! try to distract each tentacles with 10 men at each… This beast got good armor on it". 

"Try pin the tentacles down with all your might and tangle its arms into the nets we have prepared! we will have to try to kill it". 

They did as ordered but realization hit fast when it used its arm to slide away from them smoothly. 

Back down at deck, Solan sat in his small cabin reading a book, feeling the fleet shaking every 5 seconds. Closing the book he went out to see the current situation. The fleets seemed to have a hard time holding the beast down.

"...A mutant leviathan…". 

Mutant leviathans were rare beasts that were crossbred by different leviathan races.

There wasn't any research yet on the phenomenon because in the end they are all Leviathans that must be killed. 

Solan looked around the deck before seeing a spear just randomly on the ground. Grabbing it he decided to rush off somewhere on deck despite the chaos present. 

Sarah, who still held command, started sweating a bit "...K-Katama!? Can you do something!?"

He looked at her with disbelief. "What?! Are you dumb? I can only manipulate the earth! look around us! there's no land in sight!".

Sarah thought to herself What an useless guy

Far in the distance she noticed that the passengers of the fleet they had just saved were flocking up on deck to watch. 

"W-What are those idiots doing! it's not safe yet!" 

The Leviathan turned its attention to the passenger seeing many humans on deck.

It slowly loosened its grip on the warships.

"S-Shit! it's after the passenger ships again-".

"W̷̖̉h̸͙͐e̸̮̓r̴̮͘e̶͔͊ ̷̣͛á̶̳r̵̬̽e̷̝͠ ̸̨̉ÿ̴̗́ọ̵̕u̵̧͋ ̶͖͝g̴̰͐ö̵ͅí̷͜n̶̦͝g̴̱̽!!"

Suddenly a distorted voice echoed between the ships. 

The Leviathan felt something eerie and as it turned to look there was nothing.. but killing intent coming from one of the warships. 

Katama looked shocked "W-What the… Look up at the mast!"

Everyone turned their gaze towards the main mast and that's where they saw Solan standing high up holding a spear in hand. 

"S-Solan!? W-What are you doing!? Sarah shouted worriedly. 

She noticed him smiling. A twisted expression on his face.

His eyes were eerie and dangerous, the leviathan felt the hostility coming from the human child and charged back towards the main fleet roaring loudly, almost bursting the eardrums of the crew members.

"S-Solan! It's dangerous! "Get down!" Sarah yelled out concerned.

As he approached the edge of the mast, adrenaline was surging through him, the echoes in his head getting louder by the second. Jumping off towards the leviathan beneath him he held the spear tightly, a sea green color power emitting from the end of his spear.

"N-No way… T-That's!" 

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Katama shouted. 

"This is the rush I've been longing for… Yes, this is it!" Solan said to himself.

"D̷̖̠̱͂̎ͅḮ̷̜́Ę̷̳̮͔̑͒̋ ̷͙̃̊̂N̸͕̫̭̆ͅO̶͕͐̉͒̏W̶̹̿ ̴̢̨͌̈̇̍Y̴̯͖͊Ò̷̘͍͆͐Ụ̶͎̀̆V̸̧̬̘͙̀̍͗̅Ë̶͚̲̘͓́̈́R̴͍̬̻͆M̵͍̏̐Ḭ̴̅͑̏͝N̴͎̉̕" As the spear head hit the leviathan's head a huge shockwave was caused by impact. The galleons floating a few meters away by the power.

A silence followed right after.

***

"It's dark….",

Looking around he realized where he was.

"...Im here again…".

Finding himself in the same abyssal void from the time he was eaten by the mudcat. 

5 dark silhouettes appeared before him. 

"...So you're the next curse bearer…" One of the silhouettes said. 

Solan said, "Who are you?" his voice was clear and suspicious. 

"Us?… we're nothing but fragments of the past..": the silhouettes replied back.

"What are you…. What was that power I felt…". 

"...That power you felt.. was the power of resurgence…". 

Solan was silent, listening in on him. One of the silhouettes clearer then the others slowly approached him.

"Don't mind the other 4 shadows, they are not present…". 

"W-What? what are you talking about?"

"...Resurgence… In other words, ressurecting the dead… Necromancy".

"N-Necromancy?" Solan asked confused. He'd never heard the word black magic let alone necromancy.

"...Necromancy is just one out of the 6 forms of your vessel.... Luckily it seems your body already had some kind of vessel within you...

... but it works like a base-core of your new vessel".

The silhouettes spoke with an eerie voice, it scared Solan a bit... but if he needed answers.. he would get them here and now.

"I-If I can resurrect the dead, does that mean I can bring back my father!" Solan's needed to know everything, his determination to pursue knowledge.

"....Do you want the truth or the lie?"

"..T-Truth! Of course-"

"..Your father has long decayed within the stomach of the leviathan...

Solan was shortly cut off, his body froze from the sudden truth.

"...Ah...".

"When resurrecting, you will only bring back a former shell of their original identity... The more people you bring back, the more your vessel will grow and eventually unlock the other curse bearer's old powers...".

"But take this in mind... if you let emotions such as anger or sorrow take over you... The Curse will take advantage... and eat you up turning you to what we have become...":

"W-What? what are you saying?" Solan asked confused.

"...Do us a favor... Look for the first curse-bearers grave... you'll find every answer there....". 

"G-Grave? W-Whose grave?!" 

Solan's voice was fading and so was the black silhouette. The abyss around them was turning into a pitch black space and before he knew it he found himself somewhere else.