Secondary quest: Protect Quiet Wharf from the wrong kind of pinch.

Dainin thought several curseS as this appeared in his vision. He knew perfectly well that his armor was still in the shop. That meant his Chaos Bow focus was with it since the gem was affixed to his chest plate. He headed outside immediately, it was dusk, and the light was fading.

There was a large three-mast ship cracking and breaking on the ship, people screaming and bailing from it wearing regalia of some city Dainin had never been to, water sloshing violently everywhere as what looked like an upside-down ship with a giant crab claw was trying to pull it apart with its awkward pincers.

Mysteera. Why. He thought as he looked down to his right, reviewing his abilities. He wasn’t looking forward to any of this.

Path grabbed onto his wrist, “What are you doing?” She was in bare feet.

“Well, I am going to go and protect the people.”

“Against that? How? I wouldn’t want to fight it as a dragon. Is Mysteera going to make it into another woman for you?” she demanded.

“Just stay up here,” he said, moving, and then pausing as he drug her with him when she wouldn’t let go. “Path.”

“Don’t go,” she said flatly, but her eyes were a bit big.

“It’ll be all right.” Probably. He did not actually know. “Just wait for me.” It gave him a little bit of a fluttering feeling as he saw that worry for him, despite all they had been through together. Though perhaps it is more she does not know what she would do all by herself, at this point.

He ran down the small incline toward the beach. He put out his right hand, Blade of Unusual Chance, he thought as he summoned it.

It didn’t take him too long to reach the thing’s legs. Each leg was about twice his height, about as thick around as he was, and the tattered remains of the upside-down ship cracked and broke with ever movement of the creature. He saw a beady eye looking all about, the big pincer gripped onto the last remaining mast of the other ship, trying to break it off. Is it one of those crabs that try to carry a home around with it? Why in all the God’s realms is it this massive?

Even forest gods were only two or three times the size of their ordinary counterparts, but this thing was massive. Scurry like a mouse, he thought frantically to engage the ability as he sprinted out of the way of several legs pounding into the sand near him as the mast broke off of the tipped ship.

Screaming, breaking timber, ocean splashing everywhere, liquidy sand sucking at his feet… this was not an ideal battlefield. He tried focusing on Indomitable Lion and steel his resolve to charge back into the legs, bending slightly bracing on his legs as he swung with all his might to cut through a segment of one of the curved legs.

The beast above him made a distressed sounding chirpy rumbling noise that made him feel guilty even though it tried to drive a massive leg down onto him to retaliate. He scurried out the way just in time. Then he got kicked, flying through the air, he returned the blade to storage, and focused on rag doll, bouncing across the beach, scrambling back to his feet.

There was someone trapped in a crack of the ship, screaming his head off, beating on the crab wherever he could reach with a rolling pin. I need to focus. There are people at risk at this moment.

He raced back toward the creature, planning to go for another leg. The thing pivoted in an unexpected way, and he had to stop short as he heard it hiss at him. When he tried to cut through the carapace, his blade took a chunk out of it, but could not go through. When he had to move to the side, he tripped over the segment of the leg he had cut at the joint, sprawling in the muddy beach sand again. This is definitely not an environment I am used to fighting in, a type of creature I know how to fight.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

He focused on his imber magic, coating himself in muddy, sandy ice as a leg came stoping down, trying to both protect himself and unbalance the creature. Its many legs though, were not individually a tripping hazard for it. He had been able to charge in on his faith, on his desire to help the people in the ship; perhaps even fueled a little with his experience fighting the forest god and Path, but he was starting to feel proper fear about his situation. He shoved upwards with his ice, pressing the leg off of him as he pulled himself up in the same motion. Mysteera is with me, I have got this, he tried to reassure himself.

***

Path paced back and forth on the cobbles, disliking the way the stone bit into her bare feet, watching onlooking humans gathering in the doorways of various houses and listening to some of their children cry. None of them go to help. They just watch. She paced again, huffing out. Why do I even care? She asked herself as she began to pick her way forward, down the cobbled street toward the fight, so she could see better. Why would it matter to me? Why am I upset?

She watched a pillar of ice and sand rise from the beach, trying to force the big creature back, but its weight was so massive that it just broke off. He condemned me to this fate. His hands wielded the curse that made me helpless. Why do I care?

She felt she should be glad that this sea monster was attempting to mangle up the paladin that cursed her. Some curses lifted when the person who brought them about died. Why should she care at all about any of this? But, she felt her heart racing all the same. She felt uncomfortable anxiety in the pit of her stomach. This whole thing cost me my hoard and my life as I know it.

She began to run toward the beach, the cobbles biting into her feet. What will I even do? I am completely helpless like this. The ground is painful. What will I do against a ship monster? She had been trying to get away from the pirates when she suggested to Dainin that they come here to protect the town, but she had not expected her words to become so literally true. She felt mocked by the Goddess whose angry eyes she had on her.

She looked down at the artifact, once an amulet, now a delicate-looking ring on her thumb. He’s been gentle and has not let anyone mock me, even though I have a hard time with everything, she thought to it. And he’s… the last thing I feel like I have left that I can rely on belonging to me. So, give me a moment to do something useful, won’t you?

There was no answer from the artifact or goddess, and as her feet came to the end of cobbles to stubbly grass the tender soles could not tolerate she stopped. She closed her eyes, focusing inward, toward her center of magic, it felt like there was a barrier around it, sealing her into this form and away from her true strength. Anger and anxiety built up as she listened to the cracking of ships and screaming. She could imagine any one of those cries of terror being Dainin if she opened her eyes. She didn’t open them, she didn’t look, she had to find a way through this curse, even if it was just temporary.

Every spell has a weakness. Every barrier has a gap. She told herself in the middle of the anxiety that she felt that was making her heart pound noisily in her ears and seizing control of her lungs. She felt herself gasping, but she ignored it. A gap. She looked near her hand, where the artifact was, it had to be the focal point of her curse from the Goddess. Then she saw it, the slightest crackle of space beneath the gem of the ring.

There we go, she thought. She focused on that meditative half-real half-visualized and imagined space. Magic was a spiritual thing you had to sense, and it was also a spiritual thing that became physical in the world. She forced her focus through that space. It took a lot of magical effort to reclaim her body from that barrier, and the barrier was repairing itself almost as fast as she was widening it, so she didn’t suspect she’d manage to keep herself free all that long.

That’s all right, she thought as she felt scales blossoming along her skin. It only needs to be a few minutes. I can practice extending it later.

***

Dainin was on his feet. The mast on the galleon shattered, the sail falling to the beach. Some people had escaped the decks and were fleeing up the beach. Some of them had bows but did not dare fire into the mayhem where people were. Too heavy to bully with ice. Shell is so strong I cannot cut it. Legs are only weak at the joint, but it has multiple, and it’s so strong that it is shaking that ship about like it’s a sea shell. The weight of this issue was really starting to sink in as he scuttled backward to avoid getting knocked by a mast, sails, and swinging pincer claw. This feels even scarier without my armor, he thought desperately as he dove beneath the creature and where the broken bow of the original ship was dragging the sand.

Then, there was a great screeching roar. Oh dear Lady Luck, please no more monsters, he thought desperately, chest tightening with fear as he turned to look.

He should have stayed focused on what he was doing, the damn crab-like thing turned its whole body around, and he got caught in rigging hanging off the mast it was swinging about. He felt something crack. No armor, he thought desperately as red sparks spread through his vision.