To be fair, I had changed a lot in the last months, but a pinnacle of care and patience I was not. So, I was supremely unprepared to calm an unclassed child. Well, I did not know that. If he was thirteen than he would just have received his class. Thoughts like this are why I am not good with children. He was right there.
”How old are you, Samson?“ We were just leaving the sunken areas and came to the common storerooms above.
”Almost thirteen, my lo...Hannibal. I cannot wait to get my class.“
He had calmed down quite a bit since we had returned to familiar regions of the Wreckage.
”Honestly? Neither can I.“ I murmured. The first class everyone got was often predictable and basic, and depended a lot on the trade and training your parents gave you. The situation often times was clear enough. But Samson? A boy taken by the Wyldlings, enslaved in the Wyld, freed and talking, or listening to, strange creatures in the ocean...The poor thing had a story to tell, and I now knew the gods to be hungry for those...
We found the [Cook], who had taken the boy under her care, and I spoke briefly with her. She was pretty flustered and angry, as I told her that he had ventured into the dangerous depths of the Wreckage. But she cared. She was not the mother. She had nothing herself. And yet she cared for the boy. I thanked her for it, watching her cheeks redden under the praise.
I finally turned Samson to me, both of my hands gripping his shoulders as I bend to look him in the eyes. ”And you, Samson. Do not run off again to sounds and noises of the ocean. You come and find me, or someone from the Wounded Pride. That is First Officer Higgins, Magus Thimotheus, Simue or Veneir, and tell us about it. We know that you are not crazy and that you can hear what no one else can and that is important.“
He nodded, a little intimidated. I turned to the woman.
”And you, Aenne, was it? Thank you for the care, but if you see him wander off, or if he...acts differently. You send for me as well, do you hear me?“
She nodded and even tried a poor curtesy, her hand firmly on the head of Samson.
”And come tell me when you have received your class, Samson.“ I smiled as I turned away.
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The rest of the night passed without another incident and another two Nightmares fell under the fighters and [Harpooneers] working together before we called it a night.
The morning found me with the usual company, plus Locksley, breaking the fast under the open sky. Meat and seafood, as always. I had retold the events of the night before, which prompted the others to discuss various threats of the sea.
”Luring humans into the water is a habit of sea creatures that is...not exactly common, but not unheard of.“ Higgins said, mouth full, gesturing with his fork. ”Sirens, for example, lure the unexpected sailors onto riffs with visions of beauty and love, and a song so hauntingly beautiful, the men steer their ships right onto a rock.“
”Sirens are not so common as they have been.“ Lockley added. ”They were thoroughly hunted down. But they still are the reason no ship will set sails without enough women on board.“
”What else could it be?“ Thimotheus mused. ”Some kind of enchantment or mind control? You said the boy did not have a choice?“
I shrugged. ”He seemed to not be under a spell until the very end. And he was aware of what was happening, hence his attempt to call for help.“
”A charm then?“ Thimotheus asked.
”A Skill would do.“ Veneir said. ”Like the sort diplomats, courtesans and socialites use. Easy to resist, if they are polite, but the allure to please them is real.“
”There has to be a connection to the creatures in the bay. And monsters do not level.“ I said.
”Monsters do not.“ Locksley said. ”But there are a few beings under the sun where the usual categories get...murky. The shark-men of Tal’run use Skills, for example, and thus are thought to be not monster but people. But you would not be able to tell when they come for you in the shallows. The same goes for all sorts...giants, I heard of. Cyclops, Ogres, Werebeasts...“
”I got the feeling whatever sang the song for the boy meant him no harm. Quite the contrary. There is something out there trying to protect him.“
”From what?“ Higgins asked.
”The thing that attacked our longboats.“ I said. ”It must be. We thought there to be two creatures out there - one inspecting the boat and one attacking the first. The way the tentacled one disappeared looked like he was dragged away or shoved off.“
”But how would they have gotten so close to the shore?“ Veneir asked, frowning.
"Only a part of the Wreckage, the side close to the land and the rock, is in shallow waters. Remember that we rammed the structure that night we freed ourselves? The Albatross has considerable draft.“ Locksley explained. ”It is thankfully not enough for a Kraken, say, or a true Leviathan, or any other of the monstrously large creatures, but smaller ones? Giant squids, whales, young dragon turtles, and countless others...they surely could swim up to the Wreckage.“
”Well, to me it says we must hurry in our attempts to hunt down the thing hostile to us. We may be able to solve two problems at once. We would be free to use the bay with smaller ships and the benevolent creature might be not further enticed to charm young men off firm land, with the danger in the ocean gone.“ I had finished eating and wiped my mouth and beard clean from the grease.
”We should recall the [Hunters], do we not?.“ Veneir asked. „My mind would be more at ease with fifty bows trained on the ocean.“
Higgins shook his head. ”There is a reason we hunt with spears and harpoons, or even ballistae bolts, on the sea. A creature of that size? An arrow means nothing to it, if not fired from a magic bow, and from the hands of someone with serious levels under his belt. I reckon the [Hunters] could not even harm one of the horned sharks. Thick skin and an even thicker layer of fat to endure the cold of the sea, and that is if they do not hit the plates surrounding the head.“
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”There is no harm in being overprepared.“ I decided, already forming the Raven out of the smoke as I activated [Bearer of Bad News], to send to Grim.
”I agree.“ Locksley nodded. ”This is not the ocean we know. This is the Shattered Sea. And we do not know what we are up against. Besides, at the very least they can shoot a moving target for once.“
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And thus we began to paint the sea red. I stood on the bow of the Albatross and watched the seamen work on the dinghies and longboats, rowing out into the bay and dropping the bloodied carcasses of the Nightmares into the waters. The [Harpooneers], and seamen with hooked sticks and spears, as well as the few [Spearmen] we had, stood at the ready to bring death to the scavengers and predators that came to feast.
Red, floating, smelling, chunky red. The stench was incredible. The seagulls dove frantically after every morsel and carcass, adding to the carpet of red we had draped over the waves, calm as they were.
It was impossible to look even a foot into the waves, everything was obscured by the blood. A day to grow fat on if you were a fish quick enough to evade the steel tips of our men looking for more. I felt more unease than I had ever felt before, the sheer thought of joining the butchery, of falling down into the murky red made me retch in anticipation of the horrors that would bring. And I stood atop the Albatross. What would the fighters be thinking, down there in the dinghies and longboats?
We worked our way farther out towards the open waters, the Albatross finally casting off the pier. All eyes aboard scanned the surface, every [Artillerist] bent over their ballistae, squinting through their hatches, hand ready on the rope that would release the tension of their torsion engines.
It was unbelievable to me with how much...ease and with how less care and worry the experienced sailors worked and moved over the small, bouncing boats. They knew what was down there and yet...It was a different world. Another way of life alien to me. Higgins had told me: The ocean brought him comfort, not unease. And what I thought to be a very lonely mindset, proved to be common among the seafaring type.
Laughing, jumping, dancing on the smallest sliver of wood between them and the great unknown they...drew blood and brought death. This was not war. This was not hunting. This was something else. Why my stomach churned, though, I could not tell. I had seen my share of blood.
When the sharks came in droves, far out in the bay, even the most jovial men and women grew a little more serious and tense. Where before they had cheered every new arrival from below, they now knew that the next one could open up a maw big enough to swallow them whole.
A panicked shout rang out from the crow‘s nest and the Albatross shook and cranked as if it had rammed something solid at full speed. We tumbled over the tilting deck as the noise of cracking and bending wood filled our ears.
It had come from the other side. It had ignored the blood, and the food and the smaller ships and went straight for the Albatross.
Thick, slimy, and wet tentacles slammed into the rigging, the mast and the railing as broad as a man stands tall.
I caught my tumble on the railing and sprinted the opposite way, towards the tentacles, up the tilting deck, heaved up and shoved by the creature underneath. Behind me, sailors fell off the deck, splashing into the shark-infested waters. I could hear the concerned shouts and orders from the smaller ships, but I was concentrating on my goal ahead. I could not save them all.
Kingsbane slashed deep into the flesh of the tentacle as I ran past the first one. I caught a sliding sailor the next moment, gripping him at his shirt, dragging him to something he could hold onto. It was absolute mayhem.
The deck tilted back again, everything loose still on the ship suddenly sliding back in the direction they had just come from. The creature had heaved itself on the side of the ship. Behind the couple of catch arms and tentacles, where a beak as big as a barn door. It was some sort of a squid, we had discussed this at length, but it was too big it was...off.
His smooth and rubbery hide was speckled with...pustules of some sort. Red, throbbing tumors, evenly distributed along his body. His eyes were blankly staring ahead. And the tentacles...after the initial thrashing, they just grabbed onto the stem of the masts and whatever else they could get a hold of. Not moving any further.
Then the pustules popped. Little, slithering creatures with no legs, like snakes or worms, but with a humanoid torso, wielding spears and knives rained on the deck or came over the body of the squid, throwing themselves unto the sailors with wild abandon, despite the difference in size.
A wild brawl erupted, as the sailors grabbed whatever they could, belay nails being the most prominent weapon in a pinch, and defended themselves. From the aft deck, I heard the commanding shouts of Captain Locksley cutting through the chaos, bringing order and direction, while the [Water Dragon Shot] of Higgins flooded a group of them straight down into the hungry maelstrom of feeding sharks.
I was halfway to the battle as the beak of the giant squid opened. And in the shadows beyond were a spacious room, with living and breathing walls, out of which now similar creatures pushed. Body of a snake or an eel, but the muscular torso of a man, crowned with a fish‘s head in every form and color. They were bigger than even humans and wielded clubs and hammers looking to be made out of corals.
”[This is my Ship!]“ shouted Captain Locksley, as his Skill erupted out of him like a physical wave of force, throwing back the boarding party. Then he, and the [Naval Officers] and [Marines] under his command, crashed into the enemies. Skills exploded in fountains of water, ghostly strikes, and snakes of blue fire snapping after the enemy, without touching the wood of the ship.
At the same time, the ballistae fired. From the broadside under deck, only two or three could fire at the Squid thing directly in front of them, but they did as fast as they could. But there were more torsion engines on the Albatross. Two on the aft castle and one directly at the bow. One smaller one was installed at the three crow’s nests each, and all of them fired at their target.
I just saw the longboats with the [Harpooneers] rounding the Albatross, rowing as fast as humanly possible to get in range for the harpoons, as I reached the battle in full sprint, slamming into one of the larger creatures, running him through with Kingsbane.
But he did not go down, his murky, lidless eyes turned opaque and he swiveled his head to me, raising his two-handed maul above his head.
I shot him with a full-force [Cutting Winds] directly into the face, blowing up my cheeks to keep it going for as long as I could, as I pulled Kingsbane out of his stomach while he got pushed back by the freezing gust of wind.
I cleaved his head in twain while he tried to scratch the frost out of his eyes.
[Gyohin Basher defeated! Reward: 12 EP]
„You know what they are, Lily?“ I murmured as I ran to another target in this skirmish, but Lily did not answer, probably to not disturb me.
And thus the battle for the Albatross commenced, as hundreds of the smaller Gyohins and dozens of the bigger ones poured onto the deck, held off by Captain Locksley and his men, while Grims [Hunters] began picking out targets in the back after they had finally climbed to positions that gave them a good angle to shoot. The hung in the rigging and stood on the castles, or even the stairs or on a barrel, sinking arrows that would not miss in the mass of the attackers.
In the back, our smaller ships began attacking and whittling away at the giant squid, or picking of Gyohins who had fallen into the water. They rescued more than one fallen human from the ferocious horned sharks as well.
Every now and again a ballistae bolt would nail one Gyohin to the planks, or throw them down in a heap of bodies, as the lightning of the enchantments shocked groups of them into painful muscle spasms.
We had that battle well under control.