A/N: Just a nice little sea voyage where nothing important happens.
-x-X-x-
It occurs to Axel, only after they've set sail, that he's actually never been out at sea before now. Between living in the Eyrie all his life and the last several months of insanity in King's Landing, he just hadn't gotten the chance. Perhaps he could have gotten some experience by traveling with the Royal Fleet while his armies moved over land, but he just… hadn't really thought about it at the time.
Fortunately for him, he doesn't seem to have any issues with sea sickness or balance. Nor does he need any time whatsoever to get his sea legs. While the swaying and rocking of his flagship is definitely different than standing on dry land, it's not particularly awful or even unpleasant. In fact, there's something almost… soothing about it, even if they are traveling to war.
Staring out into the horizon for a moment, Axel looks to his left and right. An armada of ships of all different shapes and sizes surrounds him in every direction. The Royal Fleet and the Redwyne Fleet combined are truly a sight to behold and they're lucky that neither suffered all that many losses against one another before Renly lost his Trial by the Seven.
Hm. Renly. Back in the Vale, when Axel had been preparing to execute Petyr Baelish for his crimes, the weasel of a man had let several things slip. Things that the traitorous Master of Coin had considered of 'great import'. Among them was the fact that it was Euron Greyjoy who gave Renly Baratheon the Valyrian Steel Sword that even now rests at Axel's waist.
Reaching down, Axel runs a hand over Stonehart's pommel, stroking it for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.
If Axel had pressed harder for Renly to tell him where Stonehart, or as it was initially named 'Rosethorn', had come from, he might have found out about Euron Greyjoy and his machinations earlier. Perhaps he could have even nipped things in the bud before this whole war could even start.
… Then again, he doubts it. Euron's pet kraken gave the Greyjoy too much sway over his people… and too much confidence in his own abilities. Sending anyone out to hunt Euron Greyjoy down would have just gotten them killed by the kraken.
Barring Axel going out and hunting down Euron to tear him limb from limb with his own hands, there was no stopping this. And Jon… Jon would have advised caution on that front. And Axel would have foolishly listened until everything happened exactly the same way in the end.
"Are you well, Your Grace?"
Blinking as he's pulled from his thoughts, Axel turns to see that his Master of Ships has stepped up beside him. Lord Davos Seaworth actually looks concerned for him and it dawns on Axel that he's probably just now realizing the King has no experience at sea either.
Chuckling, he gives the older man a smile and a nod.
"I'm fine Lord Davos. Is everything going well? Everyone staying in formation?"
Given the nature of the Kraken's size along with the absurd size of their fleet (this was a combination of two of Westeros' biggest naval forces after all) Lord Seaworth and his Redwyne Counterpart had decided on a plan that involved spreading the fleet out a great deal over a rather large area.
Not so far spread that the ships couldn't see one another, mind you. But still far enough that the Kraken, even if it was as large as the Ruins of Lannisport suggested, wouldn't be able to destroy more than a couple of ships just by breaching the surface.
And once it was entangled in those ships, the others could all surround it and begin firing on it, presumably. As it had already been explained to Axel, there was no such thing as 'nimble' or 'quick' when they had this many ships. Not unless they split the fleet in two, of course.
Fortunately, that had been deemed a bad idea by Davos and the Redwyne Admiral, because otherwise Axel would have had to step in and put his foot down. He wasn't about to be with the wrong fleet when this sea monster that Euron Greyjoy commanded came knocking.
Still, they had to be ready. They had to be prepared. The closer and closer they got to the Iron Islands, the more likely that they would have a battle on their hands.
After eyeing Axel for a time and seemingly deciding that his King wasn't just putting on a brave face, Davos finally nods.
"Aye, Your Grace. Everyone is still accounted for. No sightings of Ironborn Vessels or Krakens just yet."
Of course, as if to prove him wrong…
"IRONBORN ON THE HORIZON!"
The warning shout comes down to them from up in the crow's nest, causing Axel and Davos to both look out into the distance. The Ironborn ships are just specks at this point, but Davos nevertheless curses and begins belting out orders.
On either side, even with them far away, Axel can hear the captains on the ships closest to them doing the same, their voices carrying on the wind like some sort of Siren's Song.
And then… a horn blast. But it's not one of theirs' Axel is pretty sure. He steps up to the railing, looking off in the distance towards the Ironborn Fleet. However, it's not the Ironborn Fleet that he's worried about. It never has been.
There's still dozens of miles of ocean between them and the enemy. But that distant horn hadn't come from anywhere around him, it had come from in front of them. Axel's eyes narrow thoughtfully as he looks at the water… it looks darker doesn't it? No… that's not a trick of the light. That's a shape beneath the waves. And it's coming right for them.
The horn summons the kraken and sends it after a target. Axel knows this instinctively somehow. He can feel it in his bones. Just as he can feel in his bones that if he lets the Kraken reach them, it will sink this ship and drown everyone on it except for him. And then it will be among his fleet and able to do untold damage to everyone.
No. That cannot be allowed to happen. Axel turns to Davos as what he has to do crystallizes in his mind's eye.
"Lord Davos!"
It takes a moment for his shout to reach the other man and if Axel were anyone else, he's sure that his Master of Ships would have ignored him and focused on the task at hand. But he is the King and in the end, Lord Seaworth turns to him, confused and looking quite harried at this point.
"Yes Your Grace?!"
"I'm going to go kill the Kraken! Relay orders to the rest of the fleet to avoid the beast and aim for the Ironborn! I want them run the fuck down, all the way back to their shitty little islands!"
Again, amidst all the hustle and bustle, Davos doesn't immediately understand what Axel is saying. He's already moving down the stairs towards the deck for the front of the ship when the former smuggler races to the railing and calls out to him.
"My King! What… what are you saying?! Come back!"
Turning back, Axel locks eyes with his Master of Ships and gives him a cheery grin. Despite the distance between them now, he makes sure his words carry all the same.
"You've got this, Seaworth. See you soon."
And then Axel turns and leaps. Wood splinters beneath his feet as he jumps, causing him to wince a little bit… but it probably wasn't anything too bad and the ship could always be fixed later. Besides, he has more important things to worry about.
Drawing Stonehart while he's in midair, Axel roars as he flings himself through the sky. For a brief moment, he imagines he looks rather insane to the men of both his fleets, soaring through the air towards the Ironborn, but much too far away to actually reach their boats.
That's okay though, because the Ironborn Fleet was never the goal. Looking down from his new vantage point high above it all, Axel can more clearly see the massive dark shape beneath the ocean waves now. Sucking as deep a breath as he can manage, he grins savagely and points Stonehart's tip straight down.
A moment later he hits the water like a fucking stone, sinking immediately and feeling his Valyrian Steel Sword bite deep into something immense, meaty… and very thick skinned. Then, almost instantly, something else slams into Axel's body, ripping him off of the Kraken's back.
Fortunately his grip on Stonehart is ironclad, or he might have lost the Valyrian Steel Sword in the sea monster's flesh right then and there. Instead, he's able to rip it out, dragging it through thick skin and dense flesh before it finally comes free.
At the same time… everything goes dark. It takes Axel a moment to realize that this is because the Kraken has swung him under it, putting it's immense bulk between him and the ocean's surface as it tries to beat him down with its appendages.
Axel is fighting blind, but that isn't going to stop him. He's only ever swam in lakes and rivers up in the Mountains… but that isn't going to stop him either. The water all around him certainly doesn't stop him from swinging Stonehart rapidly, slicing through the beast in front of him.
The Kraken is so big that… it's impossible for him to miss. At the same time though, Axel does briefly wonder how the fuck he's supposed to kill the damn thing. Stonehart might be able to cut through it's flesh, but that doesn't mean much when there's this much flesh! He won't stop though. Axel can't stop, not now.
Moving underwater is… easy at least. Surprisingly so. Axel was expecting to get a little bit bogged down, but instead he finds himself swimming more easily in the water than he walks on land. Still, Euron's pet is no slouch. The Kraken isn't just big, its strong. In fact, it's possibly the strongest thing that Axel has ever faced. Every single swipe of one of its tentacles actually knocks Axel around down here, even causing him some pain in the process as he's battered to and fro.
The problem, really, is that he's like a blind gnat harassing this thing from all angles. As it tosses him around, the pain it's visiting upon him is more soreness than agony… but at the same time, he feels like he's not really hurting it either. Valyrian Steel cuts through it just fine, but the thing is so big that his sword might as well be a damn sewing needle for all the damage it's doing.
At the same time, Axel realizes that the beast has some intelligence to it. Because right now… it's trying to push him deeper. Trying to take him all the way down to the sea floor. Does it think to drown him, maybe? Does it want to pin him to the bottom of the ocean until he runs out of air and expires? You know… there was something to be said about that.
Axel grins, even though he can't see. As he's pushed deeper and deeper, he makes a show of swinging Stonehart around, slicing through the Kraken here and there to make it clear he's still fighting, still struggling. At the same time though, he's no longer trying so hard to get back to the surface, not that he was before. He's no longer fighting to outmaneuver the Kraken either, instead allowing it to box him in like it clearly wants to. Until finally… Axel's back hits stone.
The Kraken smashes him into rock, but Axel barely feels it. A tentacle bigger than his flagship pins him to some sort of solid surface. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Finally, at long last… Axel stops sandbagging. Now that he has something to brace himself against, he shows far more of his true strength.
First, he lifts the tentacle trying to pin him down, pushing it up until he can stand. More tentacles join the first in trying to keep him pinned, but that… that just lets Axel pinpoint exactly where the Kraken's main body is. And once he knows that… he grins savagely, points Stonehart straight up… and pushes off of the sea floor beneath his feet.
KRAK-THOOM!
Sand, rock, and water explode out from Axel in all directions as he truly lets himself MOVE. Stonehart points the way and he stabs into and then THROUGH the Kraken on top of him, still trying to pin him down. He keeps going from there, propelled forward by the blast, absolutely flying through the water… until finally, he breaches the surface and positively SOARS up into the sky.
Honestly, he's not expecting that. It must be the fastest he's ever moved before, even faster than his run from King's Landing to the Bloody Gate. For a split second, Axel is able to look around and see a rather strange sight. The location where he and the Kraken have been fighting has become a No Man's Land.
It's like a treacherous whirlpool with the waters choppy as all hell and tentacles thrashing about this way and that. Boats that get too close are almost sucked in, and all of them suffer damage to their hulls. They suffer a lot more than just some hull damage if they can't avoid the tentacles…
But that's not important… because Axel knows the Kraken isn't dead yet. Looking down beneath him, he can see the dark shape beneath the water getting larger and larger again as it follows him back towards the surface. He's dealt it a grievous blow, but not a fatal one. Even drilling through its entire body with his sword hadn't been enough.
That was alright though, he would fall back down any moment now and do it again and- wait a second. Why… why wasn't he falling? Axel blinks owlishly as he looks down at himself and finally realizes that he's hovering in midair. To be fair, it feels exactly like what he was doing underwater. Had he even been swimming down there? Or was he flying… the entire time?
Before he can ponder that further though, Euron's Kraken breaches the water below. Screeching its rage and anger, bleeding profusely from the path he'd cut through it with his body, it reaches for him with multiple massive appendages. Axel bares his teeth in response and points his sword down at the damn thing's open beak.
He'd figure out what was happening with him suddenly flying later. Right now, he had a monster to kill. Bracing himself against seemingly nothing at all as the Kraken reaches for him with its massive appendages, Axel points Stonehart downward once more… and this time doesn't just drop. This time, in a way he can't explain, he leaps forward from naught but midair, lancing downwards with a roar to answer the Kraken's injured, furious screech.
It was time to finish this once and for all.
-x-X-x-
A/N: That's right ladies and gentlemen. He flies now.
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