CHAPTER 27: THE TIDE'S JUDGMENT
"POSEIDON'S FANG—WRATH OF THE OCEANS!"
Po's declaration wasn't just a name; it was a command to the world. The very air trembled in submission. The water from the colossal pool at the waterfall's base didn't just rise—it erupted, coalescing into a towering, fifty-meter-high tsunami of raw, churning hydrokinetic force. It didn't flow toward Kai; it consumed the space between them, obliterating boulders and ancient trees in its path with a sound like continents grinding together.
Kai's mind blanked for a critical second. W-What is this?! What do I even do?! His training, his hard-won control, vanished under the primal awe of nature's fury made weapon. But his spirit, the instinct that had saved him before, reacted. "Spirit Veil!" he cried out, more in desperation than command.
A shimmering, semi-transparent wall of white energy flashed into existence before him. The tsunami met it with a deafening ROAR. The Spirit Veil held, vibrating violently, absorbing and dissipating a massive portion of the water's spiritual payload. But Po's power was absolute in its domain. The remaining, though weakened, force of the wave finally overwhelmed the barrier, shattering it into motes of light. What reached Kai was no longer a city-destroying tide, but a powerful, drenching surge. It knocked him off his feet, tumbling him backward, but left him unharmed.
Gasping, soaked, and furious at his own hesitation, Kai pushed off the ground. "Spirit Leap!" He became a blur, not away from the danger, but straight through the dissipating spray, closing the distance to Po in an eyeblink. "Spirit Fist!"
Interesting. Quite fast, Po mused, a flicker of genuine appraisal crossing his face. Very well. Let's be a little more serious. He slammed the butt of his spear into the stone. "Seven Ocean Aegis!"
From the spear's head, water burst forth not as an attack, but as a defense, crystallizing instantly into seven concentric, shimmering shields of hardened, spiraling water. They were layered, each rotating in opposition to the next, designed to grind attacks to nothing.
Kai's glowing fist met the first shield. It cracked like ice. The second shattered. The third held, and the immense, dissipative force of the remaining four sent him hurtling back, skidding across the wet stone.
Po spoke, his voice echoing with the calm of deep waters. "You are stronger than I anticipated, Kai. But forgive me for saying... you are not yet in my league."
Kai pushed himself up, a sharp, defiant grin cutting through his grimace. "The fight's just starting, Po." He took a deep breath, centering himself. Flow. Don't force. Command. "Come on then!"
"Spirit Shock!" Kai clapped his hands together, releasing a concussive blast of raw spiritual noise and light aimed to disorient. In the same motion, he used "Spirit Leap" again, using the shockwave as a screen, propelling himself at Po with even greater speed.
Po's eyes narrowed. Ah. A combined assault. This one has some cunning. I must intercept it directly. He thrust his spear forward, its tip glowing a soft, forgiving blue. "Mercy of the Oceans."
Just as before, when Kai's leading, shock-empowered fist met the spearhead, its energy was siphoned away, neutralized into harmless ripples in the spear's aura. Po expected the attack to end there.
He was wrong.
This was exactly what Kai had gambled on. As his right fist was neutralized, he pivoted with the momentum, his left fist already coiled and blazing with white energy. "Spirit Fist!"
Po's eyes widened. A feint?! From this kid?!
"Where did this—?!" he began, but it was too late.
The empowered left hook sank deep into Po's liver. A sickening, visceral thud echoed. The air left Po's lungs in a pained grunt as the impact lifted him off his feet. He flew back ten meters, crashing through the very meditation rock he had sat upon moments before, shattering it into rubble before coming to a stop in a cloud of dust and debris.
Silence, save for the waterfall.
Then, a cough. Then another. Po rose from the wreckage, one hand clutching his side. "Oof... ahem..." A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away, staring at the crimson streak on his hand with something like reverence, then at Kai. The condescension was gone, replaced by the fierce joy of a true challenge.
"I take it back," Po rumbled, a new, dangerous smile on his face. "You can fight at my level. Which means... you are ready to witness what lies beyond it." He raised the Poseidon's Fang horizontally. "Prepare yourself. If this touches you, you die."
The spear's tip began to weep. Not water, but a thick, viscous stream of pure black energy. It dripped onto the stone, which hissed and corroded instantly. A sense of profound negation, of anti-life, of the ocean's deepest, lightless trenches, emanated from it. "Poseidon's Fang—Ocean's Abyssal Curse."
Kai felt it before he saw it—a cold that had nothing to do with temperature, seeping into his spirit
A sharp, icy panic crept into his throat. What is this power?! I can feel it… it obliterates everything just by being near! Po vanished and reappeared before Kai in a bottomless blast of mist, the cursed spear thrust into his heart. Kai's mind screamed. He had no technique for this. No defense. In that fleeting moment between life and annihilation, he did the only thing he could. He stopped fighting. He stopped trying to control. He stopped and asked. He closed his eyes. And he opened them. His eyes shone with the light of a captive star, pure, searing white. "Alright, King of the Ocean," Kai's voice doubled, filled with an ancient, echoing tone. "Let me show you the end that awaits you. THE SUPREME TECHNIQUE: SOUL MERGE!" Behind Kai, the light bent and solidified. Not one, but four massive, smooth, condensed projectiles of soul energy appeared. These weren't arrows, they were spears of pure will—Spirit Spears. The air shrieked in protest against their presence. Po's eyes widened. His confident smile vanished, replaced by stark shock. "What is this?!" The instinct that had sustained him for decades screamed: If one of these hits me, I'm finished! I must stop them! NOW! The first Spirit Spear shot forward with a roar that tore through reality. "GUARDIAN OF THE ABYSS!" roared Po, his black, cursed spear striking the white one. The clash was catastrophic. Light and darkness battled in a vortex of opposing energies, sweeping the ground and sending a shockwave that forced Kael and Rhen to shield their faces, their minds reeling. This... this is legendary! As the dust cloud from the first clash rose, the second and third spears didn't wait. One aimed at Po's head, the other at his heart, they shot forward. Forgetting weariness and pain, Po advanced towards the brink of despair. "Mercy of the Oceans!" Exhausted, Po unleashed two powers in quick succession: Mercy of the Oceans + Ultimate Technique, Poseidon's Ultimate Form. Po instantly transformed, his height increasing to 10 meters. He parried the second spear, its neutralizing area stretching, cracking, but enduring. For the third, he exerted a final, immense effort. "RISE, KRAKEN!" The humidity in the air, the water jet from the waterfall, the very humidity itself transformed behind him into a colossal, ghostly water and spirit kraken. With a silent roar of defiance, he threw himself in front of the third Spirit Spear. The spear struck his ghostly forehead. For a moment, the kraken paused... then its form trembled, its spiritual essence decaying from within with the pure essence of the spear, transforming into a useless torrent of rain. Breathless, sweat and blood mingling on his forehead, Po saw the fourth and final Spirit Spear still standing behind Kai, aimed at him. Only one path remained. The path of kings and beasts. "AREA EXPANSION," Po gasped, the words like a sacred invocation. "OCEAN REALM" The world shattered. In an instant, the verdant valley vanished. Kai, Po, and two soldiers found themselves standing—or swimming—under a stormy sky, in an endless, sunless ocean. This was the embodiment of Po's soul: a personal reality of overwhelming pressure and infinite depth. Floating in the spiritual waters, Kai understood instantly. This was his world. His rules. There was no more time. With one final, exhausting wave of will, he gestured. "Go. Spirit Spear. GO!" The final spear shot forward, a white line of oblivion in the dark sea. Po stood on the surface as if made of stone, transformed. His form trembled, amplified by his Field. He drew strength from his very essence. "RISE! LOST CITY—ATLANTIS!" Below them, an impossibly vast vortex opened, and from the bottomless depths rose the shimmering, ghostly towers of a sunken city. Po reached out his hands toward it, and silvery streams of ancient, concentrated power flowed from the ruins to him. He aimed the Poseidon Tooth, gleaming with stolen, primal energy. "THE FINAL DANCE OF THE TRIPLE SPEAR!" He moved. This was not a block, but a devastating, complex series of parries and strikes; a symphony of battle performed at the speed of thought. Each movement deflected a fragment of the world-destroying power of the Spirit Spear, dispersing it into the Field. The ocean around them rebelled; tsunamis rose in every direction, and the sky cracked with a sickly green lightning bolt, neither white nor black. Two opposing forces—the spear of the pure spirit and the dance of the empowered demigod—met in a silent, expanding sphere of white light. Then, nothing. The Ocean's Field shattered like glass. They were back in the valley. The waterfall was once again shrouded in a thin mist. The ground around them was a ravaged, crater-filled testament to their battle. Po stood, stumbling, using his spear as a support. He had drawn power from Atlantis, but the price was too high; he was an empty shell. Kai collapsed to one knee, his bright white eyes returning to normal, every ounce of his spirit energy completely drained. He was better off than Po, but not by much. The silence stretched on, sadly...
water fall Then, Po spoke, his voice rough but clear. "Enough... for today." He lifted his head, a look of hard-earned respect in his ocean-deep eyes. "Kai. I acknowledge your strength. And... I accept your alliance."