The Beach, Sunday afternoon

[heroic_jawline]

Thanks to the help he'd gotten from mermaid he met yesterday, Steve had learned that His Own True Love had been enchanted by a sea-witch, which had necessitated going around the island, like five times an Epic Quest where he had Met Many Strange Creatures and Formed Friendships and Learned Lessons and all that good stuff.

But now it was time for the Exciting Finish! Steve banged his fist against his shield. "Come out and fight me!" he yelled to the water.

Patriot, his trusty animal companion, sat at his feet. "Yeah, come out and fight him!"

Anyone want to fight a giant but not entirely terrifying because children were watching, apparently, sea dragon? Because here it came!

Comments

[sake_shinigami]

And who better to help fight a (not very scary but still very large) dragon than a skilled and dedicated samurai warrior? Shunsui appeared, as if out of no where, his meditation in the woods having allowed him to tap into the energy of the island and sense, his eyes flying open and his hand to his sword, of a fiercesome danger than needed to be defeated, and someone who might need his help. And it didn't take him long after arriving to assess the situation and know why he was here.

"A formitable beast!" he declared. "Suddenly, the reason for all my training seems evident! Would you like assistance in defeating this enemy?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Yes, please!" Steve said because teamwork was important to reinforce For the Children!

"Have you fought a sea dragon before?"

[sake_shinigami]

"There is a great legend of a sea dragon that may one day rise from the great sea that brave warriors must rise up to defeat to defend the kingdoms," Shunsui said with a deep reverence, "but, until this very day, I have seen such creatures only in tales. But I believe, together, we may triumph against this foe!"

Because they were the Good Guys, who Worked Hard, and that was what happened!

[heroic_jawline]

The sea dragon roared loudly, but not in a "send the children fleeing from the room" way!

"Let's go find out!" Steve said, running towards the water.

[sake_shinigami]

"Let's!" Shunsui agreed, sprinting with light feet alongside his new compatriot, drawing his swords as he moved. Once he reached the edge of the water, he lept up effortless, soundlessly, practically defying gravity as he rose up to slice at the dragon.

Of course the swords hit. Not that one could see it, because there was a dramatic flash of light at the point of contact, and there was absolutely no blood to indicate that such a blow had been served. There was just a moment where the dragon recoiled and Shunsui landed softly back on the shore with a perfectly halting anime gasp as he declared, "It's strong!"

Perhaps they would need something far greater than weapons to seize their victory...

[heroic_jawline]

Would they also need the friends they made along the way? Because here came all of the woodland creatures Steve had met last night!

They were singing some kind of weirdly catchy song and all had outfits on that would be available in kids' meals at your nearest fast food place.

Sea dragons, sadly, were not known for being vulnerable to ear worms, so this was probably not helping anything, but it certainly worked as a big end of movie fight sequence.

"Allow me to assist!" Steve said, doing the kind of overcomplicated flip he absolutely did in regular fights, too, landing on the sea dragon's head and hitting it with a solid-sounding clang from his shield that, again, showed no actual damage.

[sake_shinigami]

"Good hit!" Shunsui called out, because it was, he knew it instinctively, despite, you know, the complete and total lack of physical evidence suggesting that it actually was.

And, with that, he turned toward the woodland creatures to implore them for their assistance, especially a flock of herons that had inexplicably shown up because that was the symbol for his house and factored in heavily into all of the attacks of his very specialized samurai school.

"Let us show this beast that birds of a feather truly do flock together!" he declared, before turning toward the dragon again and, with a very elaborate leap that involved the cranes bursting out behind him in a flurry of wind and feathers, he called out "Tonde iru sagi no kaminokaze!" and flew toward the dragon with another attack.

It was all very pretty and elaborate and looked very cool, but what it actually did was anyone's guess.

[heroic_jawline]

Who needed substance when you had very cool especially with a MCU character involved snaredrum.gif?

"Amazing!"

Steve was all about the positive reinforcement! He hit the dragon with his shield again in a blow that would probably cave in someone's head on a non-kid friendly medium.