Night falls onto the kingdom. Guards armed with spears glide around the castle, ever vigilant for the now criminal Seraphim. Suddenly lights within the castle begin to flash on and a loud gong begins to sound. It was a wounded guard, blueish blood streaked his forehead, striking a large scallop shell hanging above the castle walls. “Seraphim’s been spotted!” the guard yells. “He’s in the trident room!” All guards patrolling within ear shot rapidly glide into the castle, straight into the throne room. As they enter, they see three guards lying unconscious on the floor. They look up to see Seraphim hovering over the Trident of Pelagia, holding one unconscious guard by the throat. Seraphim turns his attention from the trident to the guards standing at the doorway. “Just come quietly, advisor”, said one of the guards, his spear pointing at Seraphim.

“Hmph”, chuckled Seraphim, closing his eyes. “We all know that Pelagia was a great merperson, a hero to our race! Yet history has forgotten just what he was protecting us from. Why is that I ask you?” Serpahim opens his eyes and anger rushes over his face. He throws the guard he was holding toward the others with terrifying force. The guards at the doorway are forced backward as their compatriot crashes into them. Seraphim turns back to face the trident. “I know what he was protecting us from! Those disgusting other races! Especially those humans! You might not be able to see it, but me! I who has been gifted by the magic! I can see their true colors for what they are! They’re grotesque! And I will be more than satisfied when they leave this city!” Seraphim reaches his webbed hand out for the trident. “With or without their lives.”

Seraphim grabs the Trident and pulls it out from the wall. The room shakes as the trident reacts to his touch, shooting out waves of golden magic aura throughout the room. The fluorescent pattern on Seraphim’s arms and face shine a brilliant gold. The trident’s magic begins to settle down until gaining shape. A golden aura surrounds the trident as Seraphim’s body pattern glows brilliantly. A large school of rainbow avra agapi swim through the windows and converge around Seraphim’s glowing figure. Seraphim raises his free hand outward toward the startled guards. “Do you all not see?” he said. “I’m the successor of Pelagria! It is I who shall keep Oahantis safe from danger. Join me so we may protect it together!” The guards are afraid but reluctantly raise their spears, attempting to coat them in aura to no avail. Their fear holds them back from being able to maintain their auras’ shape. “Pity.” Seraphim holds the trident high into the water, then slashes it at the fear filled guards. A large wave of golden aura flies from the tips of trident and hits the guards, sending them out the doorway and slamming onto the hallway walls, knocking them out.

Rushing to the sound of the commotion, Psy and Trace enter the hallway as the guards are sent flying out of the trident room. A blue hand covered in golden aura extends out from the room and grabs the edge of the doorway. Avra agapi swarm out of the room and into the hallway. Seraphim floats out into the hallway and quickly notices Psy’s and Trace’s presences. He smiles a wicked smile, “just the filth I was hoping to find”, he said. Trace floats backwards, stunned by the shear presence emanating out of the glittering Seraphim. Psy however stretches out his arms from his sides, coating his hands in his bubbling purple aura, prepared for a fight. Seraphim wastes no time and aims a trident thrust straight at a Psy. Anticipating this, Psy grabs onto the trident between its three prongs before it reaches his body. The clashing auras spark gold and purple in reaction to each other. To Psy’s surprise, his magic that normally degrades objects has no effect on the trident. With a confident and angry smile Seraphim continues his thrust into Psy, pushing him through the ivory walls of the hallway and out into the courtyard outside.

Psy’s body flies through the water until he crashes into the ground, leaving a skid mark from his collision into the courtyard grounds. Seraphim steps out from the newly made hole in the castle walls to observe his handiwork. “Damn fin head”, winced Psy recuperating from his impact. Seraphim smiles a pointy toothed smile.

“You are a fool pale one”, said Seraphim. “Your dirty human aura will not besmirch my brilliant one! Now prepare for your inevitable demise, human!” Seraphim floats slowly toward Psy. Psy stands himself back up, unzips his sleeves and removes them to reveal his pasty white arms. He covers them in his purple aura and begin slashing his aura at the oncoming Seraphim. His aura collides with Seraphim’s golden aura covered body, only to dissipate at collision as if it was dust. Completely unfazed by Psy’s attacks, Seraphim continues to gain ground on Psy until he’s only feet away from him. Psy stops his assault on Seraphim and stares him in his eyes. “Your foul attacks mean nothing to me, for I am the successor of Pelagria. Now to rid our beautiful city of you, human filth.” Seraphim raises the trident high into the water and brings it down upon Psy. Psy readies himself, crossing his bare arms together in an attempt to cover his body with his aura.

“Psy!” yelled Trace from the hole in the castle walls. Just as the trident was coming down onto Psy, suddenly something shoots into the courtyard and impacts the trident, deflecting it and sending the powerful thrust backwards. The something skids to a halt on the ground, a small cloud of dust floats away from it.

“What’s up bro? You getting into a fight without me?” The something reveals itself to be Zed, but his right arm is different. Where his robotic arm once was is now an arm that appeared to be made from shells and sand. A scallop shell rested upon his shoulder, his upper arm and forearm were now made from large, wavy red striped cowrie shells; and his elbow was covered by a sand dollar. The cowrie shell of his forearm was dotted by four proothisi helix shells. The palm of his hand was two clam shells fused together and his fingers were made from a light-colored sand that moved with no limitations from joints. The same light-colored sand filled the joints of the arm.

“Oh, the striped one”, Seraphim said. “While I would greatly enjoy removing the world of this evil magic”, Seraphim points the trident at Psy. “I recall you being the scum that attacked me earlier in the royal dining hall.” Seraphim then points the trident at Zed.

“Ya, and I’m still feeling pretty hungry”, retorted Zed. “How about seconds, fin head?” A vein bulges from Seraphim’s forehead and small gold sparks spark from his hand where it met the trident.

“Garbage!” Seraphim said. He begins to raise the trident but suddenly loses sight of Zed. Before Seraphim can even react, he peers down to find Zed crouched beneath him, Zed’s newly made fist readying a punch. Water shoots from the proothisi helixes on Zed’s arm, sending his fist into Seraphim’s chin, upper cutting him. Seraphim not only feels the full force of Zed’s fist impacting his chin, he also feels a vibration echoing throughout his head. The impact sends Seraphim straight upward into the water, high above the castle courtyard. Seraphim stops himself from flying further into the water by bracing his body. He grits his shark like teeth and holds his head, still feeling the mysterious vibrations reverberating in his skull. His angered gaze stares right at Zed like daggers. Zed looks right into that gaze with no fear and a grin on his face. He points his arm upward and the proothisi helixes on his arm propel him upward until he’s at the same level as Seraphim but about twenty feet away.

Trace is watching in astonishment at the two combatants staring each other down. She turns her attention to Psy. “You ok down there?” she asked. Psy looks at Trace, raises one arm up as if waving hi, and then proceeds to lay down and ‘float’ in the water. “Alright then… but what’s going on with Zed’s arm? And none of Psy’s attacks were doing anything to that creep. Zed punches him once and the guy grabs his head like he’s having a migraine.”

“I might be able to enlighten you”, princess Kali said floating closer from behind Trace.

“Oh Prince- I mean- Kali! Did you know what’s going on here?” asked Trace.

“Well maybe, but I’m not sure even I fully understand”, Kali said. “After I brought Zed to our armory, he excitedly began looking at all the accessories and mismatched parts. He even grabbed some of the proothisi helixes that the little ones use for swim practice. Then he grabbed some very large doniseis cowries! Before I could even tell him there’s no way such large doniseis will aid someone his size from speaking, he started putting everything together. He convinced me to touch his craft and pour my aura into it like he had seen Seraphim and the guards do with their weapons, and before I knew it, he had formed that arm!” Kali looks upward at Zed with admiration. “You have a very talented friend their Trace.”

“Ya, I guess so”, replied Trace.

“He said it needed a name befitting the materials he used to make it. Being unfamiliar with our customs he asked me if I could think of something”, said Kali

“So, did you?” asked Trace curiously.

“Yes,” replied Kali. “Oasi Bratso.”

Back upward, Zed is flexing his sandy fingers back and forth and bending his newly formed joints. He smiles at a recuperating Seraphim. “So how do you like these doni-whatevers?” Zed asked Seraphim. “I remembered Brine earlier telling us how the snails of these shells use vibrations to defend against predators.” Zed flicks his doniseis forearm. It reverberates longer than one would expect it to. “Figured a punch from one of these things would pack a real wallop.”

“Wow! You were actually listening to Brine?!” yelled Trace from the safety of the castle.

“Loved that you joined us Trace”, responded Zed sarcastically. Seraphim finally regains his composure.

“Impossible”, snarked Seraphim. “Even if you could build such a contraption, how could you possibly be able to use it?” Seraphim squints his eyes and looks closely at the Oasi Bratso. “Oh, I see now. Your body remain magicless as ever. However, that abomination you’ve created is packed full of merpeople magic. It’s just responding to your thoughts.” Seraphim chuckles. “I give you credit, you piece of human trash must have some form of magic affinity to be able to use such a device. However, a piece of filth with some magic affinity is still apiece of filth that is no match for a gifted merperson such as I!” Seraphim flexes his body as he emits a powerful display of his golden magical aura.

“Ya. Ya. Ya”, retorted Zed. “Great light show you got going there. How about less flexing and more getting your butt kicked? This is still just a test drive for the Oasi Bratso so give me a workout, will ya fin head?” Seraphim scowls menacingly at Zed for his insult and quickly shoots through the water, pointing the trident straight at Zed. Zed reacts by pointing the Oasi Bratso upward, the proothisi jets propel him out of the way of Seraphim’s strike. Seraphim continues his onslaught, but Zed evades each time using the Oasi Bratso. With each missed attack Seraphim only becomes more and more enraged. “The propulsion system is working pretty good so how about…” Zed dodges another one of Seraphim’s attacks, but this time as he dodges, he quickly aims the fist of the Oasi Bratso at Seraphim. The proothisi shells turn themselves, now aiming their jets at Seraphim. Seraphim is barely able to look back at Zed before the jets of the proothisi shells unleash a pressurized blast of water right into Seraphim’s back. Seraphim’s sent hurdling into the ground of the castle courtyard with a large crash, dust clouds envelop the crash site.

Zed smiles feeling victorious as he jets over to his brother. Trace and Kali who were watching from the hole in the castle float over to the brothers. “How do you guys like the improvised pressure punch?” Zed asked the group.

“I don’t care if that thing shot seaweed, as long as that arm’s still working”, responded Trace.

“Of course, it’s still working!” Zed said almost insulted.

“Well I thought it was magnificent”, Kali interjected.

“It’s good to have someone here besides my brother who can recognize a masterpiece, isn’t that right Psy?” Zed asked.

“Mmhmm”, responded Psy as he floats by on his back. Zed laughs at his brother’s lack luster response, which was then followed by the girls. Princess Kali stops laughing and clears her throat.

“I do believe I owe you some gratitude, Zed Shima, for taking care of this little mess in our humble kingdom”, said princess Kali as she bowed. “As princess of Oahantis, I thank you Zed Shima.”

“Oh, I don’t need any of that from you princess!” Zed said blushing as he rubbed the back of his head. “the fin head had it coming to him!” As Zed finishes his sentence a wave of golden aura blasts out from Seraphim’s crash site. The avra agapi rush in and swarm the surrounding magic. The points of the trident pierce through the dust clouds and slashes through it, revealing a bruised and battered Seraphim, his aura glowing brilliantly.

“My name is Seraphim! You damned human garbage!” Seraphim yelled. “I will not be beaten by the likes of you!” Seraphim’s face was contorted with rage as he yelled like a wild beast. The trident’s jewel begins to shine as his golden aura began changing. The pattern on his body slowly turns from gold to black before the aura he was emitting changes to black as well. The avar agape as suddenly as they had congregated just as quickly disperse from Seraphim. Zed and the group watch in astonishment as Seraphim’s body grows larger and much more muscular.

“Whooooaaaa…” said Psy. “What’s up with him?”

“I’ve heard of this but never actually witnessed it to such a degree”, said Kali. “Magic is strongly influenced by emotion. Seraphim’s hatred for humanity is influencing the magic in the Trident of Pelagria. But merpeople can only coat objects with their auras. Whatever’s happening to Seraphim’s body is something I’ve never seen before.”

The group continues to watch as Seraphim’s figure continues to grow, his jaw growing to width of his body and the fin on his head grew downward from his head down his back. Now easily ten feet tall, Seraphim stops yelling as his metamorphosis ends. His head no longer resembled Seraphim but something more like an anglerfish. Seraphim cracks open his huge jaws, inhaling water as he does so. Suddenly he flexes his torso and lets out and ear piecing roar. His black aura sends out a shockwave, pushing the group back and damages the surroundings. Coral trees shatter and the castle walls crack at the impact of Seraphim’s ferocious aura.