“Are you finally done?” Bea asked, after I put down my tablet. After taking care of the cephalopods, I decided to double check the situation elsewhere. Guess I took a little bit longer than expected.

“Sorry, I wanted to know what the situation was, and it took longer for the Dread Isles to make a move than I expected,” I replied.

“And…” Bella asked, hovering over my shoulder.

“They sent Estelle, the swamp hag, and her hag sisters into the Ballroom. It’s kind of a strange choice, since we’ll hit the Mangrove Swamp floor next, and that’d leave it practically undefended. I guess they’re counting on the hags being able to clear the Ballroom, faster than we can finish up here.”

“So, why don’t we rush down this guy, get ahead of them?” Bea inquired, as she settled down on a rock to pet George.

“Estelle, and her kin, would be a hard counter for our setup. Ranged magic. Even if we get ahead, the last thing we want to do is get ambushed by her.” I grabbed my glaive, and jumped up onto a small outcropping, so I could get a better view of the overturned ship’s hull being used as a boss area. The bow of the old wreck had been completely removed, making a rough entrance, but the rest was sealed up tight. Even though there were cannon ports, which functioned as crude windows, they were too small for any of us to fit through. “Plus I really don’t want to fight a close combat expert, in such tight quarters, unless we have to.”

“Wait! We might have something for that!” Jenkins called. I turned to see her throwing various bits and bobs out of her backpack. Out of the corner of my eye I also saw George, Bea, and Bella slowly move away from the area, just in case anything exploded. “Where is it? Millie, have you seen the promethium explosives? I’m sure I packed them.”

The other gremlins exchanged a quick glance, then each pulled out a large glass orb full of liquid. Everyone else took another step back. “What are those?” I asked, suspiciously.

“Promethium is like oil, but with the added advantage that it ignites as soon as it’s exposed to air. Very flammable,” Jenkins replied, taking one of the orbs from her compatriots.

“How is that an advantage? It sounds like a safety hazard,” Bea grumbled.

“You say safety hazard, I say experimental weapon. Throw one of these puppies into an enclosed space, and it’ll either fry the occupants, or drive them outside.” Jenkins held one of the orbs out towards me, so I jumped back down, and carefully took it. The orb was surprisingly light, and as I turned it over, watching the liquid slosh around I couldn’t help to notice a tiny crack in the underside. It took everything I had to keep from throwing the thing as far away as I could right there and then.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any other highly volatile items on you, would you?” I said, eyeing up the quartet of gremlins suspiciously.

“Only the gunpowder based ones,” Jenkins replied, as she started pulling a wide variety of black powder weapons out of her bag.

“Right… well, no more mixing highly unstable fire-starting devices with explosives. You should know better.”

Jenkins just shrugged, “Wouldn’t be the worst accident I’d caused, or experienced,” she said. The other gremlins just nodded. I made a note to prioritize health and safety, in any future matches. I was pretty sure that If I didn’t, it was only a matter of time until there was an ‘accident.’

I gently returned the orb to Jenkins, before taking one giant step away. “Fine, we’ll try your orbs. They’ll get them out of your packs, if nothing else. Do you think you can climb up on top of that lodge, to drop those through the gunports?”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“No problem.” The gremlins all grinned. I wasn’t sure if it was out of confidence, or if it was because they were about to test a weapon. I decided not to ask.

“Then I’ll leave it to you to sneak around the side. Give Bea, Bella, George and I a few minutes to set up, then drop those orbs inside. Once that’s done, rush back to the front, got it?” The gremlins nodded, even more enthusiastically, then immediately trudged down the hill towards the shipwreck.

As they ran off, Bella floated up behind me. “Do you really think it’s smart to rely on those experimental weapons?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the retreating gremlins.

“Absolutely not,” I replied. “I just want those things as far away from us as possible. If they help, great. If not, at least they don’t detonate on top of us.”

“Good plan,” Bea grunted, as we all watched the little squad of wannabe sappers trudge towards their target.

—

Bea, Bella and I had just enough time to set up outside the entrance, when the sound of breaking glass echoed out from within the makeshift shelter. A massive wave of heat erupted out of the door, followed by screaming. I winced as the first troll stumbled out of the door, his robes covered in burning liquid. I hesitated, horrified by the sight, but Bea didn’t. She lashed out, stabbing the man, and causing him to derez immediately.

Seconds later two more people stumbled out. This time I didn’t hesitate, cutting down one with my glaive, while Bella sucked the life out of the second. We waited for a few more seconds, but no one else exited the shelter. Instead there was the sound of splintering wood, and shouts from around the side. I sprinted that direction, rounding the edge just in time to see a massive, heavily burned hammerhead sharkin impale Jenkins on a massive greatsword. At his feet were two trolls, still smoldering, but not moving. The massive shark-man just looked my way, bellowed at me, and charged.

I just barely managed to get my glaive up before he smashed into me. The very force of his blow took the wind out of me, and threw me a few feet away. It felt like getting charged like a minotaur. As I struggled to get back to my feet, George and Bea struck. The big spider smashed into his legs, running full tilt, while Bea dove down, striking at his head and neck. It was impressive coordination, too bad it didn’t last long.

George managed to stagger, but not topple the sharkin. Instead the man just turned, and kicked the arachnid back into the wall of the shelter. The spider hit the side with an audible crunch, then slumped to the floor and lay still. Bea managed to get a couple of good stabs into the brawler, attracting his attention, but his thick skin managed to deflect most of it. With a grunt of annoyance, he reached up, snatched one of Bea’s arms, and tossed her away. I winced as I watched Bea tumble across the ground, skidding to a stop a few feet away. At least she was in better shape than George, but not by much.

Before he could follow up, and finish Bea off, I stumbled forward. With most people I’d try to play footsies, stay at max range and poke them with my glaive, but I had a feeling that this berserker would take anything I could throw, and just retaliate with his longer blade. So, instead I jumped on his back, and threw my glaive around his neck and started stabbing him with my vambraces.

He immediately raged, despite the shaft pressed against his windpipe, he bellowed. For the first few seconds he tried to pull the glaive out of my hands, and when he couldn’t get the leverage he did everything he could to dislodge me. He slammed backwards, crushing me against the burning wall. The blow set my ears ringing, and I heard the wall crack, threatening to give way at the impact, but I refused to let go. Thankfully that’s when Bella and the last two gremlins showed up.

“Help me,” I just managed to squeeze out, before being smashed against the wall again. Bella immediately jumped into action, diving down, and passing through the massive sharkin. For the first time since the fight started, he stumbled. Whether it was from Bella, the lack of oxygen, or my poisons, I didn’t know. When he fell to his knees I stopped stabbing, and instead used the rest of my legs to brace myself, so I wouldn’t let up the pressure on his windpipe.

Bella swept through the sharkin a few more times, causing him to weaken further, and after another minute or so he finally fell over, unconscious. I just lay there, on his back, until Bea managed to hobble over and finish him off. When he derezed, I just dropped to the ground, exhausted.

“Are you okay?” Bella asked, concerned.

Everything hurt, I didn’t want to move, so just answered her from where I was, laying face down in the sand. “No.”