It was the noon of the second day since Felicity, Eulisses, Trevis and two more Royal Guard members - Reed and Macey Hart - departed Baycall town. The sun burned down on most of them from the cloudless blue sky. Ever since he had shut himself in, nobody had seen Eulisses come out of Captain Nimo’s cabin. The original occupant in the meantime ensured the sedulity of his ship’s crew with practiced ease, so up to now there have been no problems on their voyage whatsoever.
A situation that was about to change, as the lookout up in the crow’s nest exclaimed. “Ship ahoy! Five - nay six vessels, under different flags! And something else disturbing the water!”
“Looks like we ran into this sea creature after all,” Nimo commented in normal volume, before roaring commands. “All hands, man your stations! Clive, Mel, Adrian, Rocco, to the port canons! Beu, Filip, Raya, Kris, the starboard ones! Seems like we get to test these beauties after all!”
Seemingly in chaos, but without delay, the crew assumed their positions. With two men per canon, they quickly loaded them and prepared to fire at a moment’s notice. Nimo was at the helm again, with Felicity next to him, overseeing the procedure. The three Royal Guard members tried their best to keep out of everyone’s way, they had no experience with handling a ship or its apparently well-practised crew.
Then, Trevis seemed to have an idea, and he turned to Felicity, “I’ll go and get Malinor!” before running below deck. The princess nodded absentmindedly, observing the ships they steadily closed the distance towards. There’s the two ships from Baycall. The three big ones, two normal and a treasure baris from Khiphamid’s merchant fleet, by the looks of it. And that flag … the Rochette duchy has sent aid as well! Already, three different nations are cooperating. Are they … circling it?
Suddenly, the situation turned more serious. The largest vessel, a six masted treasure baris, opened fire on the restless water surface. Dozens of cannons went off almost simultaneously, their roars overlaid to a deafening cacophony even from their distance. Some of the iron round shots seemed to have found their target, an inhuman outcry resounded from within the ships’ encirclement.
Then, six tree-high tentacles broke the surface from beneath and stood almost as high as the treasure baris’ masts, towering over every other ship by a margin. They ominously loomed for a moment, before crashing down on the large baris, despite the cannon fire they were under from the other vessels. Two of its masts broke and fell into the water, while the main deck seems to be cracked in multiple places from the strain it was put under.
“Its wrapping around the hull! The hull will break!” Nimo shouted with increasing concern. With the wind favourably at their back, they almost caught up to the battle site, but still weren’t in range for their own cannons to provide whatever meagre support they could. Felicity closed her eyes, accepting that many of the baris’ crew wouldn’t survive, but was startled out of her resignation by the sole door being opened full of verve, banging against the wooden wall.
--
From below deck, Eulisses rushed outside while carrying a bundle of rolled up scrolls with him. Putting the topmost just below his chin, he was struggling not to let them all slip from his grasp. Second Lieutenant Trevis was on his heels, the man had just barged in ‘his’ cabin and practically shoved him out of it.
He took a short moment to orient himself, before spotting the battlefield in front of them. There we are, already! And one of them’s in quite the pickle it seems! He unceremoniously dropped his scrolls and bent down to rummage through them. We’re still a bit away. Let’s see, where have I -- aha!
Grabbing one scroll, he sprinted towards the ship's bow, giving him an unobstructed view of the entangled ship. Its hull was in the process of breaking apart and from the other end of the tentacles, the creature peeked its head out from below the surface.
It resembled a gigantic whale, only with a grotesque mass of tentacles mounted on its head and around its maw. It let out a terrifying roar while increasing its efforts to destroy the ship in its grasp. “Leviathan,” Nimo whispered aghast, but the wizard didn’t catch it, being focused solely on the happenings in front of him.
There it is! Showing yourself will have been your last mistake! Eulisses unfurled his scroll, and with the magical equivalent of poking a balloon with a needle, he unleashed the arcane energies he had stored within it. Taking only seconds for what would otherwise have been a ritual spell with minutes of casting, the wizard threw his arms up in the air, guiding the spell towards the skies.
Enormous, dark grey clouds formed rapidly with him at the centre, engulfing the other ships and the momentarily confused sea creature and blotting out the sun. The monster was not alone in its stupor, everyone present at least glanced at the skies, they could see the static energy build up with the naked eye. Small discharges within the cloudy mass brought with them bluish-white flashes of light and rolling thunders.
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Eulisses was in a state of deep concentration and exertion in the meantime. I have spent much energy to scribe the scroll, but it only serves to shorten the initial incantation. Weather magic’s among the most difficult to control, as its effects are not instantaneous. But the result will be nothing like a simple Lightning Bolt either. He continued to guide the magic that caused the storm clouds to gather and escalate the natural charge within them.
The Leviathan seemed to assess the situation in the sky as nothing of relevance to it, and made to resume its efforts to destroy one of the largest and most advanced naval vessels the humans had ever managed to build. Despite the exquisite craftsmanship and the crew constantly hacking away at the tentacles that wrapped around the hull, the baris finally yielded to the pressure and broke apart. Sailors yelled as they fell into the sea, while others desperately clung to the ship pieces. The unlucky ones instantly got crushed under the tentacles, that whipped around with the resistance of the hull suddenly gone.
Eulisses wasn’t aware of being too late in a sense, as his eyes were still locked with the storm clouds. When he was finally ready, he lowered his gaze, only to be met with carnage. He winced, as he saw the former proud vessel reduced to driftwood and the seawater turning red from the blood of the brutally killed men and women, who were nothing in the face of the gigantic sea creature.
The round shots fired by the other ships seemed to just be able to penetrate its skin, nowhere dealing enough damage to kill or incapacitate it. I need to end this now, before more get killed. Gathering his determination, he rotated his upper body and reached for a point in the sky above the Leviathan.
Despite the gravity of the situation, or maybe because of it, he couldn’t help himself but spout a nonsense line. “I call down on you. Judgement!” With these words Eulisses gestured as if he pulled down something heavy from above, even going down on one knee in the process, clearly exhausted. Only, it was not theatrics.
A blindingly bright light flashed, as an enormous spear of lightning struck the Leviathan like an angry god. The deafening thunder rolled over the ships like a shockwave, almost toppling the closest one, the one from Rochette. The creature was hurled away by the great force, its upper half catapulted out of the water, and crashed down between the two remaining Khiphamid ships. It didn’t let out a roar or anything of the like, however, and after that just lifelessly drifted on the water.
No one on their own ship made a sound or move, everyone paralyzed by shock. Felicity was the first to break out of it, and she ran to the kneeling Eulisses. “Are you alright?" she asked with concern. She grabbed him under his arm and helped him up. He managed to stand on his wobbly feet with difficulties, thankful for the shoulder to rest on. “I’ll practically be useless for the next couple of days, but there’s a price to everything,” and in noticeably lower voice, “Thank you.”
“Is it dead?” the princess asked, while glancing at the Leviathan, its head still smouldering from the burns. Eulisses breathed heavily, more an automatic reaction to his exhaustion than deliberately mimicking having lungs, and shook his head. “If it can survive that, then we better run away with all our might.” He pointed to one scroll on the ground, “If so, rip this apart.”
Trevis had approached them in the meantime, and bent down to pick the pointed out scroll up, to give it to Felicity. “What is it?” he asked, his voice still shaking from the magic he just witnessed.
“A teleportation scroll, takes you back to the capital, Baymere.” Eulisses glanced at Felicity. “It’s aimed at the archives. With your magic, you’ll probably fall unconscious for a week or so from powering the spell. Still, better than dying for sure against a monster that can survive cannons and lightning.”
Nimo’s voice came from behind them. “I don’t think the Leviathan survived,” he pointed at one of the two remaining baris that closed the distance to its body, “and Khiphamid’s already moving to make sure of it.”
“The sunk ship, we have to help them!” Felicity exclaimed, which elicited a nod from both Eulisses and Trevis beside her. “Aye lads, you’ve heard the lady! We’re going to pick up some cast aways!” Nemo commanded and went back to the helm to steer their ship towards the wreckage. While one of the ships from Baycall joined the baris in checking on the Leviathan, the rest moved with them to rescue the survivors.
--
“We got another one, pull!” Felicity followed Trevis’ shout and put her back into pulling on the rough rope with little care for the skin of her hands. She stood in row with the sailors that were not needed to maneuver the ship, as well as Royal Guard Reed and Macey. All the while Trevis took up to coordinate the groups into pulling the cast away they found with even motions onto deck.
Towards the bow of the ship, the five men they had already rescued were gathered. They wrapped in blankets, still shivering. If it was because of the cold seawater or the horrors of being up close to the Leviathan ripping their ship apart, she couldn’t tell.
Eulisses sat beside them, recovering from the exhaustion of the magic he had weaved earlier. With her body busy doing menial work, Felicity’s mind was free to wander back to the event she had witnessed minutes ago. That magic was … incredible. It looked greater than what a squadron of our most powerful battlemages might be able to do, and that with enough resources and time to prepare. He had what - a day to prepare his ‘scrolls’ and a minute or two to actually cast the magic?
A slight shiver ran down her back as the implications of this started to dawn on her. With two minutes for more than artillery-class magic, how short can he go for personal-class, instantaneous? Her mind raced, as she started to adjust her plans to the revelation. I have to clear it with him, but if so, the tournament might turn out to be no problem at all. If we even need it any more. We just had two other nations witness the might of our ‘Hero’, the summit may just have to recognize the title officially now. The final push to unify the four against the Convergence …
The fruit of all her diplomatic endeavours of the last two years, now seemed ripe and almost in her grasp, ready to be plucked.