The black fang sunk into a drake’s neck like a hot knife through butter. It didn’t just cut the tough scales and flesh, it almost vaporized them. Still, Henry winced.

  Maintaining a flow of mana to the greedy tooth was taking a lot out of him, especially when it applied its magic. Whenever it made contact with a target, the mana would go off, rending and cutting through anything that made contact with the black coating. Immediately after it would start refilling, pulling prodigious amounts of mana out of Henry.

  It was expensive. And he most certainly couldn’t use it too often. But this might have just become one of the best offensive abilities Henry had in his repertoire.

  “[I want one.]”

  Henry pulled the dark tooth out of the dead drake’s neck and, with a pained groan, threw the carcass into his storage.

  “[You complained non-stop when I was pulling them out of the thing’s jaw. Now you want one?]”

  Henry began swimming toward the staring dolphins, and he almost thought he could feel shock out of the younger one.

  At least, that was what her quiet staring felt like.

  Maurice put a claw on Henry’s arm, surprising the kraken before he spoke again into his mind. “[I was impatient. I was too distracted to realize the importance of what you were doing back then. I want to be better. Please. Give me a tooth. I want it. Please. I rarely ask for much. I would be infinitely grateful–]”

  Henry listened to the oddly earnest and solemn request of the crab. Looking down at eye stalks staring up at him, Henry couldn’t resist. “[No.]”

  The eye stalk reeled back in shock. The claws trembled before a wave of hilarious outrage came rushing back. “[Henry, please! I helped you get them! I was just joking back then, please! I’ll pay you back. Please! I–]”

  Henry cackled as he interrupted the crab.“[I’m joking! Calm down, I’ll give you one. Or two, even. You can probably make some sort of toothed claw out of them. And don’t forget I still have the vertebrae! Why do you think I got those? With this,]” Henry said, lifting the tooth, “[We might be able to carve a shell out of them and you’ll be able to recover some of the monster’s abilities. So just, you know, relax.]”

  The crab finally calmed down. “[Ah… haha. Right. Yes. They’re just so good. Do you think the other bones will do the same?]”

  Henry eyed the tooth for a moment, humming. “[Nah… I don’t know why the tooth’s behaving like it does, and clearly the dolphins are seeing something we can’t, but this still feel like a power a tooth would have. It wouldn’t make any sense for a vertebra to be able to cut through flesh like this. Mana or not.]”

  Henry and Maurice eyed the duo ahead of them as they swam down to the entrance of the cave tunnels. Stormsong turned slightly to look back at them before dipping into the tunnel first.

  “[I think it has to do with the concept business Sundots mentioned, which would explain why those two seemed to be able to sense whatever it is that made this tooth special. Means we need to hurry up and get to C-Rank.]”

  Maurice clacked his pincers as he curiously examined the path they were following. “[We’ll need to go outside more, then.]”

  Henry could only agree, and preferably, they’d be on their own.

  ***

  Henry was antsy to get back out. He didn’t expect to be easily let out, but if that happened, then they’d just slink away and be on their way. But after swimming about the settlement for a bit, he quickly realized that all the exits were watched and when he approached one of them, he was politely—but sternly—told that so long as he wasn’t with a hunting party, it’d be too dangerous for him to be allowed out.

  Henry… didn’t like the sound of that. So he tried to insist, but before he could get anywhere with the guard, and as a little crowd had begun to form even though he’d done nothing to attract the locals’ attention, the B-rank showed up.

  “[I apologize, young Henry. Moon’s one of our best warriors and he was supposed to bring you up to speed with our methods, but something… came up. He will not be able to act as a guide until tomorrow at the earliest. In the meantime, you can relax. Have a meal with us. Your ability is mighty useful, being able to carry so much in a single hunting trip. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt,]” said Sundots as he swam with him, a few powerful looking dolphins trailing after them until they came to a stop near the feeding grounds.

  Henry kept his demeanour casual, but the writing was on the wall; he wasn’t free to leave. It was unsaid, and Henry wanted to keep it as such as no sooner that he tried to put a label on it or insisted on leaving, it might just make the dolphins doubly more careful around him.

  But if they think I’m just going to sit around and be their meat mule, they got another thing coming, he thought. Thankfully, Maurice kept quiet, probably sensing his mood, but Henry let nothing show through his words. Instead, he resolved to act as if nothing was wrong. And he would continue to act as if nothing was wrong until he got they got their chance.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Nearby, a younger calf struggled to cut a strip of the tough drake meat, so Sundots nudged the calf and tore a small piece off the flank before he dropped it in front of the young dolphin, who quickly picked it up.

  Sundots looked up from the feeding calf and his pectoral fins wiggled. It oddly looked like a shrug. “[You are free to do what you wish, of course. You have no obligation toward the pod. If you want to leave us already, just say the words. But you might struggle to find us again… and you might encroach on dangerous territories. Trust me, I’m not the only B-Rank in these parts. Moon said that you are strong and that you are well equipped…]” said the dolphin as his eye swivelled to Henry’s toothed arm. “[But that might not be enough when dealing with certain beings out there. I hope you’re aware of such.]”

  While the dolphin said they could leave, it didn’t sit right with Henry. Maybe because he couldn’t get anything out of his telepathic senses, but if he were to leave, he’d rather not do it when he was going to be watched and potentially followed.

  “[We could wait. I like it here, and it’s always a treat to hunt with such experienced hosts,]” Henry sent, pulling in nearly all of his Octominds to prevent any of his emotions to seep through.

  Henry eyed the relaxed dolphin, but even though the B-rank seemed casual, his presence still felt heavy on Henry’s spirit. He knew he wasn’t ready to tangle with B-Ranks just yet. Not when he was so far behind. Hell, he couldn’t even see or use the conceptual forces of his Aspects, much less counter them, and that dumb crab out there had literally punched him through the bedrock. How much damage someone as smart and practiced as Sundots could do?

  Bide your time, Henry. Be patient. Things aren’t spicy here. They’re tense, but it’s not bad. Just… be patient and wait.

  Still, he was slowly getting a clearer picture of what these new forces were. The odd pressure he was feeling from Sundots. The authority he’d felt from the Trickster kraken. The crab who somehow pushed him through bedrock as if he were some cartoon character. Henry had never had a mountain fall on his head, but that was pretty close to what he imagined it’d feel like. Somehow his body still felt a bit sore, even though he knew it had been perfectly healed.

  Deciding it was time to change the subject, Henry brought up the fang. If he was here, he might as well ask a question or two. “[Do you recognize this thing? Do you know what it’s from.]”

  The truck sized B-rank slowly approached and swam to the side, eyes on the fang. “[I believe I know. Could you channel mana into it for me?]”

  Henry did as asked. He channeled mana down to the tooth, which greedily accepted it, quickly gaining its ominous dark sheen and when the calf behind them tried to approach, a piece of drake still stuck to its teeth, a current of green water appeared around it, shoving it back and away. “[You can stop now,]” Sundots said.

  Henry felt a shiver course through him. All pleasantness seemed to have evaporated out of the older dolphin. When the mana dissolved out of the tooth, the tension began to drain out of the area as the looming presence of the B-Rank dolphin pulled back.

  It reminded Henry of the first time he’d met the whales. When they’d been hostile and called him a deceiver.

  Henry shakily exhaled. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath.

  “[Ah… apologies. That was not a pleasant magic to sense. I might be wrong… but I believe that is a leviathan’s tooth. A dangerous one. Dangerous enough that its fangs still retain their destructive strength long after the beast lost them.]”

  The old dolphin swam back toward the carcass and took a bite. He slowly chewed, then looked back toward Henry. “[Where did you get it? Was it still alive?]”

  Henry looked down at the fang and began working away the bone that held it. A moment later he sent it back into his Maw. “[It was dead. We found a skeleton and pulled it out.]”

  Sundots bobbed then gently nudged one of the calfs with another piece of eel. “[Ah. Good. Good. If such a thing was near, we would have had to move.]”

  After that, Henry left the B-rank and swam back to his temporary room. Once he was in, he put Maurice down.

  The crab looked up at him. Henry looked back, mind whirling with potential ways they could sneak their way out. Camouflaging was on the table, so was digging or Blink. There must be a decent way to leave without raising the alarm, then book it until they were as far as they possibly could.

  “[What?]” asked the crab after a few seconds of quiet contemplation.

  Henry poked the crab with an arm, and the crab clacked his pincer at the limb. “[I’m just thinking. About how we might want to leave.]” Looking out, Henry watched the dolphins swim back and forth. Further away, a bunch of young calves were watching. When they noticed his gaze, they scattered. “[I don’t like it here. Them not letting us out earlier is a red flag to me. Crimson. They seem nice, but I also don’t feel like working as a glorified backpack to be drip-fed tidbits of information whenever they feel like it. And I don’t know what else they’re planning.]”

  Maurice hummed and stared out for a moment. “[If that big dolphin gets mad at us…]”

  The crab didn’t need to finish his sentence. The B-rank had been an unexpected surprise. If the dolphins had mentioned a B-rank when they extended the invite, Henry would have opted to a risk a fight back then and there. Thankfully Sundots seemed nice enough, and so far, it didn’t look like any of these dolphins wanted to make a meal out of them. Just use them. Still, there was no denying the danger of being in proximity to such a powerful being and compared to the selfless and generally placid Bahamut whales, Sundots seemed a bit more… demanding.

  This could all be paranoia on Henry’s part, of course. He might have been blowing things out of proportion, but better safe than sorry.

  “[We keep an eye out for an opportunity to leave],” Henry said as he eyed one of the three exits out of this cavern.. “[The sooner we–we…. Is that Stormsong?]”

  Maurice snapped his claw in annoyance. “[Yes. This is the fifth time she’s passed in front of our door. Is she here to glare at us again? Do we need to beat her up?]”

  Henry swam closer to the exit of their little room just as the dolphin finally stopped pacing and faced them.

  What was this about?

  First order of business:

  Scorching Ascension is live on RoyalRoad!

  follow/favourite/rate on RoyalRoad. It will help me increase its visibility and it will help with the algorithm.

  Second order of business (Patreon related):

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