I let myself slowly sink and looked around as I went, trying to spot the spirit that would challenge me.
Something flickered through the water. I caught a glimmer of scales and a flexing of muscles as it shot past, briefly catching the light before disappearing into the gloom. Then it swam past again, and the water whirled around me. The spirit’s torso could have belonged to a world-class bodybuilder, and every muscle bulged with incredible power as it swayed in the water. A fish-like tail propelled it through the water with a lithe ease.
I held myself as still as I could, treading water while I waited for the spirit to reappear. I steadied my mind using the meditative techniques I’d been taught at the guild. Without Vigor, I needed to conserve my energy and focus on the task at hand.
The spirit swam past again, slower this time, and turned its head to assess me. Its face was a composite of water and ice that constantly shifted from one state to another. One second, its facial features were frozen crystals, like the broken shards of a mirror. The next, they were a swirling pool, like the ripples of a disturbed liquid. It was impossible to pinpoint a nose, eyes, or mouth, and I got a little dizzy trying to make them out.
With a flick of its fish-like tail, the spirit twisted through the water and flashed through a gap between me and the nearby wall of the cave. I turned to follow, but the spirit moved faster than me. I hadn’t been gifted with a tail, so my swimming abilities were limited.
I could feel the water shifting around me, and I prepared myself to strike. I whirled around, only to find the spirit had already passed. It struck me in the back and knocked me forward. The spirit’s tail whipped around, and I was face-to-face with the lord of this realm.
I lashed out with my fists, but it twisted away from my blows. Every strike was a complete miss against the bobbing and weaving merman. I pressed my feet against the wall behind me and pushed off it. I tumbled over and kicked the spirit in the torso. It recoiled from the blow and bounced off the wall before shooting away again with a quick flick of its tail.
My attack had been little more than a lucky strike. Against a creature who’d likely evolved to live and thrive underwater, I was doomed to fail. Except it had seemed that way with every other elemental spirit, too, and I’d found a way to conquer them. The Resplendent Tears Guild was probably filled with water Augmentors, and every one of them would have defeated this same spirit, or one like it.
I could do it. I just had to use my damned brain.
I turned in the water and watched for another attack. This time, the spirit came at me from above, its arms stretched out as it hurtled toward me. I saw it coming just in time to avoid being punched in the head, but the blow still struck my shoulder, and pain shot down my arm. The spirit kept moving, and I tried to snatch it, but it was fast and slippery and writhed through my hands before vanishing once more into the dark depths.
Frustration boiled in my stomach, and I struggled to maintain my equilibrium. This was a test of my strength and of my ability to grapple with the element, not a pure fight for survival. I had to think about it in those terms.
When I had faced the fire spirit, I had found a way to push on through the fire. I hadn’t resisted the elemental environment but forged through it. If I hadn’t, I would never have been able to fight the fire spirit or to scatter the ashes of the ash spirit. I needed something similar for water, a way of embracing the element so that I could master it.
I’d already breathed in the ocean’s liquid, but maybe I could do even more to become one with it. I had been treating the duel as if it was the whole test, but there was more to these spirit realms. Besting the elemental spirit was merely one aspect; conquering the environment was just as important.
And achieving victory over my surroundings didn’t always require force. I closed my eyes and felt the motions of the current, the water pressing against my skin and filling my lungs. My body was made almost entirely of water, I knew that much, and I could now sense every vaporous drop. The water was me, and I was the water.
As the realization took hold, the elemental spirit rushed at me again from my left. I twisted, my movements now as easy as if I had been on land. Although the water still made my movements slower, much of the hard-earned speed and agility I displayed on the surface came back to me. I dodged the spirit’s grasping hands, looped through the water, and hit it with both fists. The spirit jerked away and settled a few meters in front of me. It held out it arms defensively while glowering at me through hair that flowed like seaweed in the tide.
With a flick of its tail, the spirit started circling again. Its muscular body produced swift, confident strokes as it swam around me. I lunged at it, but it darted aside, flickering away from between my hands. I put more effort in this time and dived for it with my arms outstretched. My fingers grasped at its slick body, but the spirit was too quick, and I was left grasping at empty water. The third time, I gripped its tail and winced as sharp spines jabbed my skin. I was forced to release the tail, and my opponent swarm clear.
I had embraced the water, but this was still the spirit’s natural habitat. As long as it had all this space, there was no
