Eric Cat
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15 - Familiar Power
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 17:07:16 +0000 UTCThe beach where Ariel and Eric met was silent.
At the bottom of the sea, close to the shore, King Triton floated with a glowing trident in his hand.
He maintained a stern expression, his eyes fixed on the surface.
Around him, Ariel and her sisters were hidden among the coral whispering to each other, almost breathless with anticipation.
"Silence," Triton ordered in a firm voice.
Raising his trident, he touched the water with the tip, causing a golden glow to spread out and form a magical window that reflected the surface.
The magic revealed a clear scene: Eric, at the gate of the city of Miralune, facing goblins and kobolds under the darkness of night.
"I want to see what this human really is..." Triton commented in a deep voice, his tone clearly still suspicious.
In the image, Eric was moving with great grace, the sword in his hands gleaming as he sliced through the air and sent out bursts of water with each cut.
As he faced an advancing goblin with exposed claws and holding broken blades, Eric did a quick spin and his sword traced an arc with condensed water accompanying the blow, which threw the monster backwards with a clean cut to the chest.
Two kobolds followed, brandishing clubs, but Eric dodged without difficulty and struck again as water swirled around him like a whirlpool, knocking both kobolds down with a single movement.
Ariel clapped her hands, forgetting to be quiet.
"See, Dad? He's amazing!" she tried to whisper, her eyes shining with admiration.
Adella laughed quietly. "Wow, he cuts up those bugs like they're nothing!"
Alana nodded in surprise. "And that water... how does he do that without sea magic?"
Triton remained silent with narrowed eyes.
He watched Eric block a blow from a larger kobold, the club slamming into his shoulder without doing any damage.
This made the monster recoil in confusion, while Eric stood firm, as if his skin had hardened.
"Tough..." muttered Triton, almost begrudgingly.
Then Eric raised his hand, and a goblin floated into the air, struggling before being thrown against a tree with a thud.
The sisters gasped, and even Sebastian raised his head as he stammered out a comment. "That... that's not human!"
Attina, the eldest sister, crossed her arms thoughtfully. "He fights as if the sea obeys him," she said. "But humans don't have that gift... do they?" She looked at her father, who was gripping his trident tighter and frowning.
Eric continued the battle, now surrounded by four kobolds.
He let out a ridiculously loud scream and the monsters stumbled away clutching their ears in bewilderment.
Taking advantage of this, Eric swung his sword and the water formed a slashing wave that tore through two of them, knocking them down on the spot.
The others tried to flee, but Eric moved his hand, and a nearby stone flew up, smashing the fugitives against the ground.
Seeing this, Arista laughed in surprise. "Look at that! They won't even last against him!"
But then, Eric stopped for a moment, his free left hand glowing with a greenish light.
He formed a pulsating sphere of water, small but full of energy that glowed green, and threw it at a larger goblin.
The explosion lit up the night, throwing a small amount of earth and stones everywhere.
The attack didn't seem that powerful in Triton's view, with his power, he could cause several times more destruction than that, but as it came from a human, it was really surprising.
The sisters screamed in amazement and Ariel covered her mouth in delight. "He made that ball again... but it's a bit different now!" she said excitedly, almost forgetting to keep her voice down.
Noticing something strange, Triton leaned forward, his face changing slightly.
The trident in his hand vibrated as if responding to something. "That power..." he muttered with wide eyes. "It's familiar... like the currents of the sea."
Confused by what he was seeing and feeling, Triton turned to Ariel and asked. "You said it controls water, but this... this is more." He paused, frowning.
Andrina laughed nervously, "What, Dad? He's just a human, isn't he?"
But Triton didn't answer, which reminded Triton of his father, of the ancient forces that ran in the family, a power that shouldn't be in the hands of a mortal. "Impossible..." he said quietly, shaking his head. "A human with that essence..."
After two hours of intense combat, Eric finally finished the fight and wiped his sword on the corpse of a kobold at his feet while the surrounding soldiers celebrated by pounding their fists on their armor.
Eric looked at them and asked something, and the men denied it, still stunned by what they had seen.
On the beach, Aquata whispered: "He looks like a real king."
Arista heard her sister's comment and nodded, before commenting in a dreamy tone. "I think I might understand why Ariel fell in love with this human..."
Triton lowered the trident, and the image dissolved in the water.
What he saw made him fall silent, his face was still serious, but with a new trait... something between respect and caution.
"This Eric..." He began speaking while looking at his daughters. "He's not what I imagined. He fights for his people, uses powers he doesn't explain." He pointed at Ariel. "You said he has a duty, I saw that today. But this power... I need to understand where it comes from."
Ariel smiled lightly, happy with the reaction her father was showing. "You'll like him, Dad," she said confidently.
Her sisters laughed at how Ariel was acting, whispering among themselves.
But Triton just stared at the dark sea with his trident still glowing. "Let's see..." he said in a low voice.
The strange feeling he felt with each of Eric's attacks brought back a nostalgia for something Triton hadn't felt for centuries, and it really aroused his curiosity about this human.
- Eric POV -
After hearing the soldiers' confirmation that there were no more monsters around, I was surprised.
Today's battle lasted less than yesterday's, which can only mean that the monster killing I did today has already started to show results in reducing the population of this plague.
'I think tomorrow I can start exploring outside the wall and try to find these monsters' nests. I began to plan.
Although the capital Miralune still needed my help, the great walls were still enough to protect the population.
On the other hand, smaller towns around the kingdom didn't have guaranteed protections like this, which meant that a single monster could cause many deaths before it could be contained.
The luck of these smaller towns is that the monsters apparently sense where there are more humans and congregate there, so that according to reports, only a few stray monsters get lost and show up in villages around the kingdom.
Honestly, I'd like to explore the forest tonight, but considering that I have no preparation for it, this is a danger that doesn't make sense to take.
So after waiting a few more minutes and seeing that no other monsters appeared around the capital, I commanded the soldiers to return to the city and rest.
"Men and women, our work today is done. As you may have noticed, the amount of monsters that came at us today is significantly less than the monsters we faced yesterday, which shows that our work was not in vain!" I said out loud in a firm tone.
Hearing me say this, the soldiers puffed out their chests in pride and looked at me with even more admiration.
"But our work can't stop here... I'm not just the prince of the capital of Miralune, but of the whole kingdom, just as you are soldiers from the kingdom, not just the capital, so I have a task for you." I said as I looked into the eyes of each of the soldiers.
Hearing that I had a task for them, they were surprised but each of the ten tried to show willing.
"Tomorrow we won't just stand in front of the city gate, but we'll go into the forest and look for the base and nest of these monsters, for that I need you to get as much information and intelligence about the monsters, the forest, places the monsters have been seen, and any relevant information that we can use tomorrow, understand?" I asked.
"Yes, Sir!" The voice of the ten roared so loudly that it startled the soldiers watching the battle from over the wall.
"Very well, soldiers, dismissed. Torren, you stay." I commanded.
Hearing this, the nine remaining soldiers went back inside the wall laughing and celebrating like children at the crushing victory we had today.
"What do you need from me, Prince?" Torren asked humbly.
Looking at the captain of this small squad of ten elite soldiers, I was pleased with what I saw.
Despite being 35 years old, an age that for this world was already starting to get old, Torren still had a physique for any young man to envy, a perfectly trimmed beard, neatly cut and trimmed hair, which showed the discipline this man had even in the little things, just what I needed.
"Torren, I have a special task for you." I said in a low voice. "Just as you've realized that I have some special skills for dealing with monsters, I'm planning to try to teach one of these techniques of mine to the group, but in order to teach, I first need to understand how you learn your techniques, so gather for me the combat manuals and techniques that you consider to be the most useful and give them to me tomorrow."
Hearing this, Torren's eyes lit up with excitement, and it wasn't hard to guess why.
After suffering from the monsters for several weeks without being able to do anything back, I had come up with such eye-catching magic attacks, which was already a huge boost to their morale, and now I was saying that I intended to teach them such cool attacks, it would be impossible for him not to be excited about it.
"Yes, Prince, I'll do my best to gather only the best technique manuals we have." Torren confirmed with unwavering determination.
But to make sure he had no illusions about what I was going to teach him, I explained. "Torren, don't set your expectations too high, the technique I'm going to teach you is the most basic technique, observe."
Looking at the kobold corpse at my feet, I used the First Form on it without using Percy's Chi or power, just letting the sword movement flow.
But it was still such a powerful attack that the dead monster's body was split in half, even without the special effects the water caused.
Torren looked on in shock.
"Prince, even without the water magic you use, an attack as powerful as that is unprecedented in Miralune... even in the neighboring kingdoms, I don't know any knight who can demonstrate such power and control..." He said shocked.
"Good, keep this news a secret, for now this is just a test, so I don't want anyone to get their hopes up about something that might not even work." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder in an encouraging way, just as my father did with me.
Despite being much older than me, Torren was happy and nodded his head firmly, showing the determination he felt.
Comments
Angel Perez
Great chap
Catt
Can you see if its fixed now? I think it was a patreon bug
Zero Speed
The words are being split between lines
