Chapter Twenty

The next thing Elysia knew, she was flying off the levy or what was left of it.

However, instead of crashing into a shallow pond, the water continued to push her as more and more water rushed over the levy.

Lightning burst through her body, giving her the needed strength to kick her feet off a tree and launch herself toward the new shore. Her eyes widened as she flew right at a rather large tree. A single-strand lightning bolt released from her hand as she flailed in the air.

The lightning bolt somehow struck true, boring a hole through the tree and propelling the flying lightning elemental back toward the rushing water.

In desperation, she released her lightning downward, propelling herself upward, then released another at a slight angle, pushing her back toward the shore. This time, she controlled her flight enough to land on the ground, not into a tree. Unfortunately, said landing was quite rough. Her body bounced, sending sharp pains through her before she came to a rest next to a tree.

Several seconds passed in a daze as she let out groans of pain lightning working overtime to repair the damage.

Suddenly, a comforting warmth radiated through her body. She cracked her eyes open to find her sister enveloping her with greenish blue water, which healed the many scrapes on her exposed skin at a visible rate.

Unfortunately, her armor absorbed most of the magic, growing hotter and hotter as it struggled to withstand the supercharged water magic. Before it blew, she stored away in her ring, leaving herself naked. Without the armor resisting the magic, the water seeped into her body, healing everything within moments, then withdrew.

The moment the water magic vanished, she shot to her feet, lightning dancing off her body, shining veins on full display as she glared at her sister.

Her twin withered under her glare, backing away a step toward the rushing water, legs shimmering with scales as if on the verge of turning into mermaid form. However, after a moment, Sereia steeled herself and locked eyes with her twin. “I’m so sorry, Elysia. I just wanted to teach you a lesson. I didn’t mean to launch you off the levy.”

Unable to stay mad at her twin, who looked on the verge of breaking down, tears bubbling at the edges of her eyes and legs have formed into a mermaid tail, her expression softened. Though just to spite her, Elysia turned away and withdrew her armor once more, which was still hot. Though without a constant influx of magic, most of it bled off within moments. It felt pleasant as she slid the warm armor on, like clothing fresh out of the dryer.

Finally, when she had everything secured, she returned her attention to her sister, who was about to step into the violently churning water. Before she jumped in, Elysia broke the silence. “It’s fine Sereia, just please don’t do something like that again. I wasn’t exactly innocent either. I shouldn’t have made you run across the town. It would’ve been better if I came alone then had you swim here using our bond as guidance.”

Sereia’s head bobbed as scales withdrew from her legs. She jumped forward and enveloped Elysia in a hug, which her twin returned but only for a few moments, as they had other things to focus on.

When the twins disengaged, they turned their attention to the rushing water struggling to equalize the ravine with the ocean. “That worked better than expected. The levy must’ve been in worse shape than it looked.”

Sereia nodded. Now that she ensured her sister was fine, her shoulders slumped in exhaustion from both the wave and rushing to heal Elysia. She swayed, prompting Elysia to wrap an arm around her as they watched the water rushed past them, filling the ravine.

As they watched, Elysia prodded her bond with Ione to find she was halfway toward them. Before she messaged Ione, she glanced at Sereia. “You think you are up to swimming back to Umbra? I could have Ione pick you up if you can’t.”

Any exhaustion vanished in a moment as Sereia nodded her head resolutely. No way would she show weakness in her specialty. Even though deep down she was beyond exhausted. She would have time to rest later. They needed to escape first.

Despite her doubts, Elysia sent a series of messages to Ione directing her to Umbra, then nodded at Sereia before taking off in a sprint.

This time, instead of taking the road, she followed the ravine’s shore to check the progress. The entire ravine was already flooded, though it wasn’t quite deep enough for Umbra.

Fortunately, with each passing second, more water rushed in. It would be a tight fit, but it should be possible. Hopefully, it was worth it. The elementals might have already noticed the flooding. As long as it bought them a few minutes, it should be enough. Once they evaded the blockade, they had the advantage.

Far faster than her previous trip, she spotted the mayor’s house standing like an island in the middle of the bay that was once the west side of town. She followed the shore until she stumbled upon her raft, untying it before jumping in.

After a single yank of the pull cord, the motor fired up. She dropped the motor into the water only for it to bottom out, prompting her to jump out and push the raft further into the water, then jump back on. This time, the prop dropped below the waterline. The raft jerked as she shifted the motor into gear and turned toward the heavily listing Umbra. Worried she wouldn’t make it in time, she cranked the throttle, shooting off with a roar of the little motor.

Her worries turned out to be pointless as before she even passed the mayor’s house, Umbra’s list corrected. A quick prod of her bonds told her she was the last one to arrive, but all she could do was clench the throttle, unable to go any faster. Compared to her running, she felt like she was going in slow motion.

Finally, when she reached after what felt like an eon, she killed the motor and yanked it into its compartment, then slammed it closed. She sprinted inside, worry eating at her as she didn’t hear the engines of Umbra running.

Upon reaching the control room, she found Eva frantically pressing the start button, but nothing happened.

A flashback to when she saved Umbra from Port Alberni prompted her to nudge the girl aside and press the button herself. This time, a rumbling sounded behind them as the engines turned over, but at a noticeably slower rate than usual. Undeterred, she tried again, but received the same result. On the third try, just when she was about to release the start button to try again, it fired a few times, then exploded into life.

She slammed Umbra into drive and turned her toward the ravine. A glance at the massive screen Eva installed caused her to frown. It was black. In fact, now that she had Umbra started, she noticed most of the electronics didn’t light up. Umbra must be in worse shape than she thought. It was like when she limped around before Port Alberni fixed her up.

Whatever the problem was, they would deal with it once they escaped. She just hoped Umbra had enough in her to pull it off. Without the cameras, it would be hard to dodge submerged buildings and trees. An idea sparked, prompting her to glance at Eva who was the only one above deck sparking another worry. What was going on below deck? Was it so bad that it required everyone else? All the more reason to make a run for it as fast as possible.

“Could you please spot for me? Tell me if I’m close to hitting anything.”

Eva nodded her head, expression serious as she dashed out of the control room and circled around the front deck, looking for anything. After a moment, she waved her hands and pointed toward the left, prompting Elysia to follow her direction.

With Eva’s direction, they reached the entrance to the ravine without trouble. However, just as she entered the fifty meter wide strip of water, Eva frantically waved her hands and yelled to stop.

Trusting the girl’s judgment, she slammed Umbra into reverse, stalling the boat’s momentum, and dashed out onto the front deck to check what was going on. Hidden underwater was a warehouse spanning almost the entirety of the ravine.

Her mind flashed back to what it was causing her to face palm. She forgot a few months before the merge, one of the major lumbar companies in town built a new building. They even marketed it as a last defense against the ravine if it were to flood again. Of course, that was all just an excuse to take taxpayer’s money to help build it. The problem was, they really did build the warehouse spanning most of the ravine. Her eyes scanned the water, looking for anywhere to sneak through, locking on to a shorter section which, if she remembered right, was the offices.

With no other choice, she pointed where she wanted to go, causing Eva to pale but nod her head in agreement.

Elysia returned to the steering wheel and shifted Umbra back into drive while turning her to the right. As Eva directed her, they snuck over the warehouse, cringing as they heard the bottom of Umbra scraping the roof, but they made it over without clipping the propellers.

She tried her best to ignore the yelling below deck as she followed Eva’s directions through the ravine. Fortunately, nothing else proved unavoidable, as the ravine was fairly sparsely built in fear of it flooding again. Most of it was low income housing as it was cheaper to buy land in the ravine. The buildings that survived the merge were mostly single story, allowing them to easily pass over the top. Really, the only obstacles they had to avoid were the scattering of trees.

When they reached the section, they recently flooded, Elysia clenched the steering wheel expecting to bottom out but Eva seemed unworried as she waved her forward.

Everything went smoothly from that point until they reached the ravine. Even before Eva waved for her to stop, Elysia throttle down and joined the girl to inspect the levy for the best spot to cross it.

As she feared, the levy didn’t collapse all the way. The wave only chopped off a few meters. The water level was right at the edge of what Umbra could flowed over in perfect condition, but a glance over the side showed Umbra was floating a little deeper in the water than she usually did. That fact brought further worry to Umbra’s condition, but again, she pushed it off in favor of solving the current problem.

She withdrew a handful of nuts and bolts and threw them toward the levy. Just in case, she threw a couple more handfuls. Then she checked to ensure there was a nice pile of metal to target, even underwater. As satisfied as she could be, she fed a twelve strand lightning bolt down her arm and aimed at the pile of metal, hoping the water didn’t distort her aim.

The lightning bolt shot out of her arm, causing it to jolt back, but she ignored the slight stinging in her shoulder as she watched the lightning strike the pile of nuts blasting a crater in the levy. To fill the gap, water rushed in, further eroding the levy. When the water settled, a smile formed, as there was a large chunk of the levy missing more than enough for Umbra to travel over.

Elysia returned to the steering wheel and sent Umbra forward with Eva pointing to where she needed to go. Despite knowing she had plenty of clearance, she cringed as Umbra floated over the levy, only to relax when Umbra passed into the ocean.

Her relief only lasted for a moment, however, as a glance to her right showed dozens of boats approaching. Fortunately, nothing blocked her way to the south, so she gunned the engines and shot off, hoping Umbra had enough in her to escape.