(Zaire POV)
I was abruptly awakened from my sleep. I heard screams and cries echoing through the dense metal walls of the cargo ship. My center of balance was off-kilter; the ship felt like it was being pushed into a horizontal position. Rushing out of my sleeping chambers, I quickly glided past the swarm of passengers and employees that were also on board. The mass hysteria was enough to make even the strongest of men panic. We were out at sea, and it felt like our ship was sinking.
When I finally made it to the captain's quarters, the windows were cracked, the gust of the ocean violently trying to push through. Red lights were flashing everywhere in the command center, signifying one thing—that the raised hairs on my body had already confirmed. I desperately sought out the captain, but just like the others, he was frozen in place. Not from the ability of a constellation or an astral behemoth. It was from fear. My calls and shouts fell on the deaf ears of the crew and their captain. The only noise I heard was the chattering of their teeth.
Then I saw what had petrified them like stone statues. Out the viewing deck, I saw three astral rifts that had manifested in the middle of the sea. Crawling out of them were creatures that could only come from nightmares and ancient folklore.
I saw something that resembled an ancient kraken-like leviathan, with celestial barnacles crusted over segments of its deep-blue, semi-ethereal flesh. The tentacles appeared endless in number and length, trailing out of the rift that separated the physical and astral realms. I now understood the plight of the men who commanded this ship. But I didn't let that stop me from doing what needed to be done. Releasing some of the cosmic energy I had been suppressing, I forced the sailors to break their gaze and place it on me instead.
"Listen, Captain. I need you to get it together—otherwise, a lot of people on this boat will die. Gather the best starbound you can, find a place in this boat that is secure, and quickly conquer those rifts on the left and the right. They appear to be Category Two," I commanded.
The captain quickly came to terms with the situation. But before he left to gather the crew members to perform the task, he turned to me, dread still present in his eyes. "Lord Zaire, what about the one in the middle—and the behemoth that's out in the sea? Our scanners say it's a Category Three, sir."
"Don't worry. I will protect the ship. No one will die here if I can do anything about it. Now go—hurry." Then the captain made an announcement over the ship's intercom, addressing the situation and providing instructions to all who were capable before he left his station to me.
"You know, I was supposed to be retired from this kind of activity. I just wanted a peaceful descent," I muttered to myself as I sent a beam of light through the cracked glass before me. The smell of salt water flooded my senses as I stepped out onto the deck and glared at my opponent—one that was, at the very least, thirty meters in length. "Back in my younger days, I would have relished these events. Now, I just pity the damn things."
As I let my body levitate from the deck, I started to see what was causing the disturbance to the ship. The large astral behemoth had created a whirlpool of catastrophic proportions. The waves spiraled with such ferocity that they mimicked blades in a blender, as smaller astral behemoths got ripped apart while trying to escape their rifts.
I knew I had to hold my ground here. If I let the ship get any closer, there would be no stopping it from being pulled into impending doom. But I needed to wait—I still hadn't sensed the astral forms of the captain and his crew enter the weaker rifts. So, to buy more time, I created a massive construct resembling a giant shovel. Fighting against the powerful current of the devastating whirlpool, I pushed the ship several kilometers back, preventing it from fully tipping over and sinking.
The maneuver had caused more strain than I would have liked, forcing me to take several deep exhales to recover. "I didn't realize I was this out of shape. But then again, who am I kidding—I never was in the greatest shape when I was young, either," I whispered to myself.
As I ensured the ship was stabilized and no longer drifting toward the whirlpool, I noticed the astral forms of the captain and his crew zip by. I watched as the group of starbound split into two separate teams, bypassing several small groups of astral behemoths. But just as the groups were about to enter the rifts, the large behemoth let out a bone-chilling roar that hit like a concussive blast against the raging tides.
The roar was unlike anything I had experienced in my long, eventful life. It wasn't just a display of dominance and power—it had underlying properties. The roar, sounding like a thousand raging whales screaming in space, was able to affect cosmic energy and the astral forms of starbound. Most of the crew's starbound made it into their respective rifts, but the few that didn't were plummeting out the sky. Only to be caught in the semi-ethereal tentacles of the astral behemoth before me. There was nothing I could do as I watched the spirits of those crew members get ripped apart and devoured—never to be seen again.