Noor’s job was a simple one: while the others set off to extract as many cannons as they could from the wreckage, he was to look for other survivors and potentially useful materials. He’d wanted to scout into the castle for the monster but hadn’t pressed the issue since it was unlikely he’d find his chance to do anything until the monster came out. Not to mention that if they were hit by another wave of “heaviness,” then there would be little he could do to protect himself without casting a shielding spell.

Finding aether was his true goal of going back into the wreckage, a task made harder by having Alan as his exploratory companion. The insectoid chef appeared as capable of seeing in the dark as the draxani, but whether he was someone that could be trusted was another thing entirely.

As far as Noor was concerned, the first-mate had saddled him with a warden. Not that it was a useless warden; Alan knew the inside of the Barb far better than Noor and often took the lead through its shattered corridors.

Every so often, the ship would creak and shudder, and there would be the sound of something or another groaning and struggling to remain in place… and failing. It was not safe to stick around, and the only other reason why Noor even considered the possibility was that, just maybe, the demon hadn’t sequestered his sister or the dwarf. But if such was the case, he didn’t encounter any sign of their presence.

They did find corpses.

Lots of corpses.

It was a gruesome sight, not unlike that one straight out of a battlefield. Noor was no stranger to such grim sights, yet seeing Alan peruse through the pockets and belongings of the dead could only summon a grimace upon the fallen noble. “Must you?”

“Dead not need.” Alan didn’t slow, his many hands making quick work to pull out anything that might have caught his attention.

At first, Alan’s collection of items had not appeared worth their time, yet as he led them through the ship and into the personal quarters, the collection of keys that he’d gathered began to gain use. Small personal safes, locked doors, and a myriad of secret stashes Noor could’ve never hoped to find on his own.

They found tiny stashes of aether (each one carrying an insignificant amount, shavings meant to be barely enough to refill some weak enchanted item or another), which together netted them a single pearl. It wasn’t enough for any significant spell of worth, but it was better than having nothing at all.

The exploration had just about been ready to call it an end and get out of there when Alan’s umpteenth approach to a corpse halted abruptly. “Different.” It was the first word he’d spoken in nearly an hour, and that warranted some attention.

The body was that of a valkyrie, one of the mages on the ship to be more exact.

Her death, unlike that of the others, had not been due to brutal concussion or shattered pieces of something lodging into parts of the body that weren’t meant to be there. No, this woman had died from a slit throat.

Noor froze, suddenly aware that he was in a relatively small space, with an armed insectoid that could dice him faster than it would take him to draw his blade.

“Bad.” Alan spoke, face angled towards the corpse though his compound eyes made it impossible to really tell where his focus was aimed.

There were a thousand and one reasons the woman could’ve been murdered, a ship with a crew spending so much time close together could bolster camaraderie, but also deepen resentment. Noor wasn’t too bothered by her presence; he already distrusted the crew and the first-mate in particular.

But Alan’s reaction to this death was anything but subtle. All his fists clenched, antennae stilling in their movement, and an odd buzzing sound emanating from within his chest.

Noor chose to take a risk. “I don’t know what the people here are up to, but I don’t trust them, not after they threw Liam overboard.”

Alan stilled. "Liam?"

"He was screaming about the first-mate wanting to kill the crew," Noor hastily nodded. He would’ve preferred doing this in a different way, but with Alan being this close... escape wasn’t a possibility. Either he succeeded, or he’d have to fight the insectoid. "They dropped him with some of the cargo over the Twilight jungle."

Somehow, the calm nod the insectoid gave was more unnerving than the trembling buzz from a second ago. "This… is truth."

Only when he said those three words did Noor notice the tiny emblem the man had been holding, a telltale shimmer in the ambient mana betraying its presence. Alan didn’t say another word; he stood up and stepped away from the murdered valkyrie without repeating the ritual of rummaging through her. The man led the way out, clearly not wanting to continue their search.

No, he headed back towards the gathering point near the entrance of the castle where they’d set everything up, not once getting lost or deviating from his course.

The other crew had been busy.

Within the few hours since they’d started, they’d found the path the monster had taken towards the underground, a hole large enough to fit two carriages side by side, scratched and torn out of the very rock and soil. The tunnel twisted and curved as it went down, Noor could see only so deep; its creator apparently had avoided the harder parts of the underground terrain.

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It was around that very hole that six cannons had been propped up, arrayed in sets of two, facing one another with the tunnel’s entrance in between. The final duo were currently floating their way down to a set of wooden beams, glowing a faint purple as the crew hurried along to tie them into place.

Their “forces” had not been bolstered much since their initial reunion; merely four others had been found, half dead or too injured to be of any help. Overall it wasn’t a pretty picture; whatever creature had created this disaster had no doubt faced more formidable forces. Noor would rather not fight it to begin with, even less so when there were-

“Second-Captain!” Alan called out, moving quickly towards where the elf stood.

The first-mate’s condition had deteriorated within the past hour, with paler skin and blood-shot eyes, he showed all the typical symptoms of having to sustain several spells for an extended period of time. Mortal bodies weren’t meant to stay in contact with concentrated mana for too long; no doubt Hosan had pushed himself to be able to rush things.

“Not now, Alan.” The mage growled through gritted teeth, keeping his focus on the cannons he was levitating into place.

The insectoid man came to a halt in front of the crowd, raising the hand that held the enchanted talisman. “Did Second-Captain kill Mimir? Did Second-Captain kill Liam?”

Noor’s scales shuddered at the sudden shift in atmosphere.

Every other crew member gathered there didn’t react with shock or anger; they merely turned to glance at Hosan, clearly waiting for their cue. Noor’s hand flew to the pommel of his scimitar, stepping back and carefully gauging who might be the first one to make a move. The others were not positioned for an attack; there was ample distance and no weapons easily available to them. Would the best option be to run? He had the aether-marble; if Alan bought him time, then Noor would be able to cast something simple and maybe create an opening…

“You know, no matter how hard I tried, your chicken soup was the only thing I found tolerable about you.”

The cannons, previously suspended mid-air on purple energy, suddenly flew at them. Alan and Noor jumped in opposite directions, watching as the cannons crashed into the Barb’s already shattered hull. Opposite them, the elf sagged, clutching the side of his slightly burnt head. The other crew were moving in, closing ranks and rushing to take advantage of their broken balance.

Alan pulled six short blades out from within the crevices of the chitin plates covering his body. Each weapon was a wicked thing, thin and long, a flattened stinger meant for penetrating thrusts rather than slashing.

While Noor sought cover, Alan leapt at the approaching crew. The insectoid weaved his body through the attacks as if dancing, using his own natural body armor to ignore most of the slashing attacks, his own blades parrying and throwing off the rest.

The draxani stopped cold, eyes widening at the sight unfolding before him. At first, Alan had moved in with the intent of barreling through towards Hosan, but as soon as it became apparent he wouldn’t be able to rush past, he switched strategies. The creature moved his arms at frightening speed, using three of his blades to defend while the other three would thrust at chests and heads.

When the first two mercenaries fell, their heads punctured by Alan’s rapiers, the others hesitated.

“Buy me some time!” Hosan commanded, and the crew responded by quickly moving to form a more solid defensive formation in front of the elf as he pulled out a pearl of aether.

Noor hesitated for a split second. Even if they disrupted Hosan’s spell, unless they managed to do so from a safe distance, they’d get caught in the blast from the collapse. The only reasonable option would be to make a run for it. But was that the right choice? Alan didn’t seem the most stable bunch, and the insectoid was impossible to read.

It felt like a harsh thing to claim, but Noor would just be happy if both sides destroyed each other. And yet, he pulled out the pearl of aether they’d gathered over the past few hours, pinching out a smidge of it, enough to coat his finger-pads. Feeling the mana within the aether, he began to pull forth on it, drawing the very simple pattern of the most basic of seven-passing spells, “fire bead.”

“Stop him!” Hosan screamed, hurrying to weave his own spell as both mages worked on the knotted patterns with deft fingers.

Hosan was casting something relatively powerful if not very complex, the patterns of the knot between his fingers pulsing with a deep azure, the sign of it being water magic in some form. The elf had taken the approach of ensuring Alan would not pose a threat, a hard task against a hardened and very mobile target.

Noor had opted for speed above all else, and though he lacked the skill and deftness of his younger sibling, the young noble had had his fair share of practice. Claws tore and snipped at the errant mana, drawing out the near-circular weaved pattern over and over, smoothing out the tiny imperfections. His spell would finish before Hosan's, and they both knew it.

The mercenaries tried to split up and charge him, to get an angle from where to launch a ranged attack on him. Anything that would disrupt the spell and cause an implosion. Alan didn’t give them the opportunity; the insectoid man’s style might have been ill-suited for protecting another, but he kept aggressively assaulting anyone that got too far from the main group.

Noor was the first to finish, the twist in magic collapsing into a singular marble of searing heat. Without a moment's hesitation, he aimed at the opposing mage and let the magical fire loose in an arc.

Panic and fear emerged on the face of every mercenary, each of them abruptly needing to make the choice between risking the fire or risking the implosion of Hosan's spell. Three chose the former, leaping to get in the way, shields raised.

The instant the marble of flames touched the wood, a cone of fire burst forward, washing over all three of the mercenaries. Their scream lasted barely a moment; little was left of them, only charred remains.

And Hosan, knocked back, half burnt.

The spell in the elf's hands wavered, flickering and for a split second threatened to collapse. Every mercenary present lunged away from Hosan, all too aware that the spell contained far more power than Noor’s, and the implosion could very well take them all in one go. It was a hesitation Alan lacked; the insectoid leapt through the panicking mercenaries, finding an angle to throw one of his sabers.

But the spell didn't collapse, the disruption had come a second too late. With a burst of blue light, the spell lashed out, shooting a thin stream of water that had such force it made the air crackle. It punched straight through the insectoid's abdomen and deep through the stone on the opposite side of the room, bisecting him cleanly in half, each part falling in opposite directions, twitching, purple blood splattering across the floor.

Noor didn’t wait to see what would follow; he bolted straight into the tunnel.

Straight towards the monster's den.