Chapter 19 - Storm's Eye

The soldiers that were below deck all sprang into action. They all moved to climb the ladder but it only allowed a single person to go up at a time. When the first person got up to the top, they froze when they saw the giant monster. Those below waited for a while but started to grow impatient.

"Move!" the soldier on the ladder yelled as he shoved the first man forward.

But he soon stopped moving when he too, saw the monster. The monster roared a second time and the air started to get humid. Ocean water started to evaporate before their eyes and a swirl of grey clouds appeared above the ship. The clouds kept spiraling and eventually formed a giant cyclone with the monster and ship at the center. Gusting gales caused giant waves that tilted and spun the boat around and round.

The men started to move up the ladder a bit quicker but there was always a pause, a moment of fear that overtook them. This monster looked quite normal but it had the ability to cause a powerful storm. Marcus's face was pale because he knew they were trapped. The only way out was to fight the monster and defeat it, otherwise who knew how long the storm could keep going and whether or not the monster wasn't able to just ram the ship until it sank.

"Prepare your bows and get ready to fire onto the monster!" Marcus shouted.

Sir Ruk jumped to the opposite side of the ship and was trying to lower an escape vessel for himself. A soldier ran up to him and grabbed him by his arm. "Sir Ruk, you cannot go! It's too dangerous to leave the ship!"

Sir Ruk shook the soldier off and yelled "That's a Mamalark! I'm not going to stay on this ship and face it head on, I'd rather take my chances on this dingy!"

He gave up trying to slowly lower the raft and jumped in. Then he took out his short sword and tried to use it to saw off the rope that held it up. But before he could cut the rope and breakaway from the ship, Arnest grabbed the navigator and pulled him back onto the deck.

"Tell me more about this monster." Arnest tightened his grip so Sir Ruk couldn't try and escape again.

Sir Ruk tried to break free but Arnest had a tight grip, stronger than a normal full grown man, let alone compared to a similarly aged twelve year old. After giving up trying to escape, he sat on the ground cross-legged with a deep frown.

"If this is going to be my last resting place, so be it. But I’ll be damned if I have to help someone who ended up getting me killed."

The navigator's entire demeanor changed from the stately and amicable knight to a resentful deserter. Arnest didn't really pay it any mind and started to twist his arm. Sir Ruk only winced at first but Arnest continued to increase the pain with more twists. It wasn't long till the knightly navigator was crying for his mother.

"Ow ow ow. Stop! I'll tell you about the monster, just stop!"

Arnest stopped twisting but still firmly gripped his captive. He gave Sir Ruk a look and the navigator started talking.

"Mamalarks are a type of monster that uses water magic. They usually target large ships, first entrapping them in a storm and then ramming the boat until it sinks. Men don't die usually due to the sinking boat but once they fall into the water the monster gobbles them whole."

"Is that all you know?" Arnest asked.

"That's it. Can I go now?"

Arnest smiled but started to twist his arm again.

"Ow ow! Okay! I lied, I do know something more!" Sir Ruk screamed in pain.

"I don't know if it's true but there's a children's story about Mamalarks. It says the weak spot of a Mamalark is their blowhole located at the top of their body, a quarter down and away from the tip of their nose."

"That's all I know, really. Now let me go!" Sir Ruk pulled his arm away but Arnest held on.

Instead of releasing him, Arnest pulled out his sword and swung down with the backside. It hit the back of Sir Ruk's head and knocked him unconscious and he fell to the ground. The soldier who was watching just stared at Arnest with a tinge of fear. Arnest turned towards the soldier and said "Please take Sir Ruk away and lock him in his quarters. I feel he has gotten too excited and may need some rest."

"Y-yes, of course, young lord." the soldier stuttered and ran away. But soon ran back because he forgot to take Sir Ruk with him. He picked up the unconscious knight and carried him below deck.

“Now then...How to deal with this Mamalark…”

The elf soldiers were firing volley after volley of arrows but it couldn’t penetrate through the fat blubbered skin. Most of them bounced off and at best entered into the skin half an inch deep. Swords were useless seeing as the monster kept out of arm's length distance. So with their two main weapons ineffective the elves were out of ideas. Marcus stood at the front and just kept commanding for the next volley.

An idea that some of the men from Fox Village was to maybe jump on top of the monster and try using the sickle swords to chop at the skin. If given a few chops, they believed their swords could easily penetrate and cause some serious damage. But the Mamalark did not stay still. It moved around constantly, diving in and out of the water. Each time it roared the winds and rain would get harsher. This idea of directly jumping onto the monster was scrapped almost immediately.

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Arnest used a modified [Shadow Step] to climb up the main mast to the crow’s nest. Instead of being an nondescript shadowed mass, it had two sharpened points near where his feet would be. It allowed him to grip onto the surface and run up it very quickly.

Once at the top, he squinted, staring at the Mamalark. It was moving quite fast so it was hard to see all the details of the monster. It had a fat body that was about the same size of the ship, a long fin that stuck out the top even when it was underwater and a coned head. It was only when the monster stopped momentarily to roar was when Arnest saw it. The blowhole. A quarter of the body down away from the tip of the nose. Exactly where Sir Ruk said it would be.

He activated [Shadow Bow] but again, it was a modified version. The shape of the bow was fairly simple and so was the arrow. However when he nocked the shadow arrow he increased the mana flow and the shaft grew in size, becoming long like a barrel. The string extended far and the tensile strength increased exponentially like the barrel. The arrow also increased in width and became a large cylindrical cone. When the entire spell was complete, it looked like a small cannon.

Arnest took aim at the blowhole and took a deep breath. After adjusting for the strong winds he released, both arrow and breath. The arrow which was more a cannonball rocketed out towards the monster. His aim was fair and it barrelled towards the blowhole. But the monster saw the huge spell and dove into the water. The arrow slammed into the ocean and a huge explosion thundered. The residual energy caused a misting which turned into a fog.

“It’s much smarter than a typical beast. Or maybe it has stronger instincts.”

Arnest didn’t falter due to his failure and repeated his chant for [Shadow Bow]. The arrow cannon soon formed again and he looked for the Mamalark. It was darting back and forth in a snakelike fashion.

“I only can shoot a few of these with my current amount of mana.” he reminded himself.

The monster started beelining towards the ship from under water. It’s large top fin could be seen and slowly became more visible as it rose. Then the monster collided with the ship, causing it to vibrate violently. A few of the men who were on the side of the ship fell off into the ocean. The Mamalark was quick to catch them with its mouth and swallowed them with ease.

Arnest released another shot, this time aiming a bit lower in case the monster dove again. It saw the point of impact was lower so it instead jumped up into the sky, taking the arrow fire belly up. The arrow shot into the blubber and the impact lasted for a few moments. There seemed to be a deadlock between the monsters defensive skin and the offensive power of the arrow. But in the end the arrow bounced off and was deflected to the side, crashing and exploding again into the water.

The monster was internally injured but not bad enough to cause it to flee. Instead it started to prepare and ram the ship again. It dove into the water and like last time, slowly rose so that it could hit the ship with a large mass of force. It collided with the ship and this time caused the top portion of the ship to be dented. It was a major part of the ship but it was still able to keep afloat.

Instead of setting up for another arrow, Arnest jumped down onto the monster. This was a plan that many of his men had disregarded as foolhardy and suicidal but Arnest did it anyway. He was running out of mana, time and options as the monster kept ramming into the ship. Each time it rammed was more damages he would have to pay for the ship to be repaired. But that was also only an issue if they were able to even make it out of the situation alive.

Arnest activated [Shadow Step] and turned into a shadow. He adjusted the mana so that way the entire form was like a multi-pointed ball. The pricks stuck into the monster's skin and allowed him to hold on even when it dove under water or made sharp turns. He made his way towards the location of the blowhole. The monster tried to shake Arnest off but the modified spell held on. When he made it to the weak point, he activated [Shadow Bow], modifying it into the cannon and pointing downwards.

He stared into the blowhole. It was an abyss of darkness.

Arnest released the arrow and it easily tunneled into the monster. As the arrow made it’s way through the monsters internals, it shot out tiny tendrils that shot in multiple other directions. Like a shotgun bullet, it exploded into multiple tiny little arrows that punctured all the organs on the inside and expanded outwards.

The Mamalark’s body started to expand as well, until a bloody fountain poured out of a single hole. Then a few more. Then a hundred. A thousand. And so on until the entire body was a macerated pulp and left floating in the water.

The Mamalark’s storm also ended and the suns light peaked through the remaining clouds. Arnest’s soldiers looked out into the ocean at the mess in awe and disgust. A tiny figure was floating in the middle of the puke inducing sight. He was waving with a giant smile on his face. Marcus folded his hands around his eyes, forming a pair of horrible binoculars, blocking out the sun allowing him to see who it was. It was Arnest.

“Send out a rescue vessel for the young lord.” Marcus told some of the men from Fox Village. There was no way he was sending his fellow elves on such a dirty mission.