Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Flying through the air, Silent rested her head on Lucan's lap.  They had to fly for a little over an hour to reach their destination.  Lucan ran his hand threw her hair while he listened to her gentle breathing.  He wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep but he enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere.  She rested her eyes and relaxed until she felt a hand on her shoulder, gently rousing her from her rest.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up on the magic carpet.  Up ahead was a vast ocean that was spotted with different sized islands.  The sun was just beginning to rise on the horizon.  She sat closer to Lucan and rested her sleepy head on his shoulder as they flew closer.

"Which one is it?  Which island are we going to?"  She asked.

Lucan opened the interface to compare his current coordinates to the ones that the Goddess Marama had given him.

"Hmm, I don't the instance is on an island."  He said after stopping above the location of the instance and only seeing water below him.

"Oh?  That may make things difficult."  She said.

Lucan checked the coordinates again and landed on a small island that was maybe a mile wide.  It appeared to be covered in ruins of a fort or some sort of stone building.  But now only the foundation remained, and the crumbled walls that spread over the landmass were no higher than a foot or two.

After dismissing the magic carpet, Lucan pointed straight out into the cool blue water.  "About two hundred meters out and one hundred down.  That is where the dungeon should be."  As he spoke, Adrestia flew out over the sea while he bought a new form for Little Brown.

Standing in the shallows of the water, Lucan summoned his first familiar.  Shadows converged underwater and a little brown fish took form.  The familiar was almost a foot long but had no problem darting through the water.

Little Brown swam towards the coordinates while Adrestia circled from above.  It didn't take long to run into an issue.  The instance was located one hundred meters under sea level, but the sea floor arrived after only fifty meters.

Little brown searched the area but couldn't find a way down.  Lucan frowned, maybe the instance wasn't in the water, but underground.  Silent sent out her butterflies to search the island.  If there was a passage underground, then maybe an entrance to it could be found on the island.

Half a mile away from the instance coordinates, Adrestia found a trench that looked like it was much deeper than the areas around it.  But she couldn't tell much from the sky above.  Lucan sent Little Brown over.

The fish flapped its little fins and shook its tail as it descended into the dark and cold water.  Soon, Little Brown found a wide opening in the trench and it was in the direction of the instance's coordinates.  Lucan checked his interface and found that Little Brown had already descended past the depth of the instance.  But the opening in the side of the trench was angled upwards.  As the little fish swam deeper in, it was beginning to rise.

Lucan excitedly told Silent that it looked like he had found the correct path.  She recalled her butterflies who hadn't found anything during their searched and moved to the edge of the beach with Lucan.

Little Brown swam deeper into the cave and slowly rose to the correct depth.  Up ahead the fish could see the surface of the water and what looked like a light source inside the cave.  If Lucan had to bet, that was the entrance to the instance.  One only need to leave the water and they would see the dungeon's doors inside the cave.

As Lucan excitedly told Silent, he instructed Little Brown to try and surface and put his eyes on the dungeon entrance.

Little Brown sank into the water and then pushed his fins to the limit as he shot upwards.  The fish jumped from the water.  Turning its head, he saw a large set of double doors with a light crystal on either side, illuminating the area.

The fish fell back into the water.  As it reentered, the sight nearly caused Lucan to jump in fright.

A shark that was at least six meters long had it's mouth wide open, its razor sharp teeth snapped down and bit Little Brown in half.  The familiar was eaten by a shark.

Lucan had no idea where the predator had come from.  He wasn't sure if it had followed little brown into the cave or was there all along.  But his plans of using Little Brown to create a shadow tunnel were no longer possible until he could re-summon the little guy.

But Lucan didn't want to wait.

Lucan prepared to enter the water.  "Do you have a way to come with me, or are you going to wait here?"  He asked Silent.

"I have a water breathing potion but I don't know if that will be that helpful against a big shark."

"If you stay back you may be able to hit it with arrows.  Will you be able to shoot underwater."

"I am not sure.  I will wait and see.  I have another idea first."

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking… Does a shadow need to breath?"

"I guess we will find out."  Lucan said.

Silent merged into his shadow as Lucan activated the latest upgrade to Nolan's Ring.  He was able to change his form as long as it was still a two legged and two-armed creature.  After taking off his boots and cloak he began to walk into the water, his body began to transform.

With the image of the merfolk in his mind, his feet began to grow longer and transform into fins. His fingers grew longer and webbing spread between them.  He lowered himself completely under the water as gills surfaced on his neck.

It was quite awkward for the first few moments until he adjusted to breathing underwater.  His shadow didn't have any reaction, so Lucan guessed that she didn't need to breath.

Propelling himself forward, he swam quickly towards the trench.  He would only be able to maintain this form for thirty minutes and he had already wasted a few minutes getting used to the changes in his body.

Seeing the trench up ahead, Lucan dove down into the cold water while holding a wand in his right hand.

After a few minutes of searching, he found the cave on the side of the trench.  He pushed his way through the water for several minutes while the cave started to ascend.

This time, the shark wasn't in hiding.  Lucan had planned to make a rush towards the surface, but the six-meter-long predator was swimming circles in the middle of the passage.

Merfolk were fast swimmers, but Lucan didn't think they were faster than a shark.  Seeing that the beast was only level one hundred, the warlock felt confident in himself and wanted to take the chance to avenge his familiar.

As the shark completed its circle and turned to face Lucan.  A shadow bolt silent flitted through the water and slammed into its face.

Fighting underwater was a new experience for Lucan, everything was so quiet and felt even more dangerous.  Even as the shark opened its mouth wide and furiously swam towards the warlock, he couldn't hear a thing.

Lucan put his feet together and pushed towards the side, narrowly escaping the shark.  The wand in his hand had transformed into Night's Whisper and had plunged into the side of the shark.

The sharks momentum wasn't easily stopped, resulting in a several meter long gash down the side of the creature.  It may not have been able to stop quickly but its turning wasn't slow.

Before Lucan could even turn around, he could feel a disturbance in the water behind him.  He turned to his left and tried to push away, but the shark's rows and rows of teeth clamped down.

Luckily, Lucan's new arm wasn't like the rest of him.  A level one hundred shark wasn't able to pierce his skin, But the blunt power of the shark's jaw's snapping shut still did a bit of damage.

Lucan couldn't tell up from down as the shark ripped its head back and forth.  The warlock felt like his arm was going to be ripped from his shoulder.

Using ethereal step, he freed himself from the beast but was still tumbling in the water.  When he steadied himself, the shark was already charging again.

Lucan didn't back down and swam straight towards the creature, much to its surprise.

A muffled bang was hardly noticeable in the silent waters, but the bright light at the end of his wand stunned the shark.  It shook its head, its instincts naturally told it to avoid the blinding light of the flash bang spell.

Seeing the side of the beast's head, Lucan didn't miss his chance.  The nails and his left hand extended into claws, which he plunged into the shark's gills and held on tight.  With his right hand, His wand which was now a dagger again, stabbed at he sharks face again and again.

The creature tried to peel Lucan off by swimming into the cavern wall, but the warlock held on tight while being battered and didn't let up in his assault.  The shark pulled away to gain speed and try again but before it could reach the wall, it suddenly started to slow down.  And then it turned gray and disappeared.