Lasutro opened their eyes to an only marginally less dangerous situation than the one she had beheld before she lost consciousness. The Leviathan, though still looming over the edge of the ship with its partially stained teeth, the beast was marked in several places on its sickly green body with puncture wounds, some still holding the very spears that created them. The splotches of blood scattered on the deck were mostly washed away by the storm that pushed the ship through the tempestuous waves which rocked the boat further.
As Lasutro broke from the paralysis forced upon them by their fear, she ran once more for the shelter and safety that she was sure there would be below deck where she had left nearly all their belongings with a few exceptions which included the memoir she had just finished reading. And once more she found themselves thrown from their foothold, the combination of the storm and the raging sea against the ship preventing their advancement. Taking a deep breath, Lasutro prepared themselves to once again make their way to safety, remembering to take into account the shifting of the ship and the intense gusts of wind.
When Lasutro ran forward, she felt a familiar yet far more intense pull on their mana from their wrist, that nearly threw them off track again, but she pushed on. Despite the distraction and burden it placed on them, she maintained their focus, even as lightning struck the deck in front of them, though it did create some pause in their movement forward. The moment Lasutro paused, their position on the deck shifted with the rocking of the rest of ship in a manner that was nearly perfect for their continued approach, which she took gladly, paritaly sliding across the deck unburdened by any other force. As she neared the entrance she had sought for what seemed like forever, though in reality it had only been mere minutes since their first attempt, Lasutro found themselves glancing at the leviathan attacking the ship, just as a series of explosions filled their ears. A sound that was muffled partly by the thunder and rain of the storm.
Lasutro stood captivated by the sight of the now fully enraged beast, a moment from their destination, watching as the battle between the crew of the Jesters Torrent, the storm and the Leviathan raged on. Despite the cries within themselves to continue their beholding of the fight, and the more lethal cries that urged them to join the fight, Lasutro managed to push themselves to turn away from the scene, stopping only when she reached their destination
As they maneuvered their way below deck, the sounds of the battle and storm above them muted, however in place of the thunderous noises of above, the controlled yells of members of the crew who had run below deck from where Lasutro had previously seen cannons, along with a variety of panicked screams from a healthy portion of their fellow students to be. Walking amongst the controlled chaos that she had just become witness to, Lasutro moved carefully and made their way back to the lower decks to their room when she heard the call to fire and instinctively, along with the other passengers who weren’t overcome with their panic, covered their ears. Although she managed to cover their ears just in time to avoid the most deafening effects of the cannon fire, she still found their hearing muddled by a faint ringing.
Disoriented once more, though far less then she was above deck, Lasutro quickly recomposed themselves after a short moment of respite before taking account of their location once more. As they turned about from where they stood, pushing aside the dulled screams of panic around them, Lasutro found themselves facing the gun deck, where she slowly began to refocus their attention to finding their way to their room when suddenly their still ringing ears were assaulted with the sounds of pained screams and the violent splintering of wood.
Pushed to the floor by the impact that she had been too slow to react to, Lasutro took another breath and forced themselves up, turning their head to face the gun deck once more. There, in place of the bustling crew she had seen moments before was instead scattered splinters of what was once the outside of the ship along with the algae covered head of the leviathan in the process of violently removing their head from the deck, finding it stuck, partially impaled by the impact they made. Though the serpent's growls still drew fear from Lasutro, she couldn’t help but continued watching it while it struggled, each of its greater jerks rocking the ship with a lesser, but no less disorienting force. As the leviathan struggled with its mostly ineffective efforts to free itself, the recovered members of the crew charged at it with thick pieces of former gun deck, even as the more violent waves of the storm began rushing in through the ship's new opening.
Soaked once more by the sea that had flowed through the opening, Lasutro found their nostrils filled by a combination of the sea and the storm. As the leviathan grew increasingly irritated with their situation and more wounded, a fate that also described the few members of the crew that believed the serpent's jaws were an ineffective position, its struggle grew to point that it began to foster panic among the mostly calm crewman that were spread along the former gun deck. Just as the panic began to spread, Lasutro, despite their own terror of the creature, found themselves pulling on their somewhat drained mana and performing the delicate somatic motions for their most effective attack spell, with a greater speed and accuracy then she thought possible.
Between the claps of thunder, the crackling energy of their spell sprung to life beside them, the sounds of the rapidly condensing energy momentarily joining the orchestra of the storm and serpent. As Lasutro pulled the last bit of mana they needed for the spell and felt the familiar drain, she sent forth the three bolts of energy toward the still struggling head of the serpent, each striking true against the webbed crests that partially armored the head. Despite the increased power of the bolts granted by Lasutro’s greater mana usage and the increased efficiency of their spellcasting, against the flesh of the leviathan they seemed to suddenly disperse across its hide, albeit incompletely. Although their spell wasn’t as effective as she hoped it would be, the bolts still managed to create an unpleasant hole that dug into the more solid flesh of the serpent, which partly disconnected one of its crests.
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With their rapidly fading strength, Lasutro watched as the serpent made another attempt to escape the position it had put itself in. Its first attempt following its injury from Lasutro’s spell was met with the same failure it had achieved before with the exception of the attempt’s unintentional effect of tearing the serpent’s crest further. On its following attempts the leviathan became increasingly violent with each try, until it finally pulled itself from the hole in the ship it had created, completely disconnecting its partially torn crest as it did so leaving it behind as it dived beneath the murky waves of the stormy sea.
As the serpent disappeared from sight, the members of the crew who were not sufficiently injured as to require immediate medical care, quickly divided themselves into groups, some preparing a still well placed cannon to fire in case of the leviathan’s return, others tending to the wounded, occasionally moving them past Lasutro and the final group moving to create a temporary repair of the gift granted to them by the leviathan. While the crew began their work, Lasutro clung to consciousness, the exhaustion that she had successfully avoided for the past several weeks of practice, pushed down on their eyelids with every second. As she fought the cold comfort of unconsciousness, Lasutro kept their eyes fixed upon the visible sea where the serpent had hidden below, unwilling to look away fearing that its return might damage the ship further.
Just when the tension in their muscles began to relax and Lasutro began to feel a general sense of ease, their heart beat made itself known once more. The rapid beating of their heart grew faster and faster, reaching its apex when the surface of the sea she was watch broke revealing the same wounded leviathan as before, a sight that, despite the slight sluggishness in its body, revived the formerly suppressed panic in Lasutro freezing them where she stood. In their paralysis, Lasutro watched with dread as the serpent reared its head back once more to strike again, however, just as rushed its head forward toward the ship, the unmuffled sound of the explosion filled the broken deck, quieted only by the heavy rain and winds of storm before being replaced by a roar of pain and frustration from the leviathan.
As the leviathan reared back in pain from the new wound upon its head, it gave a roar in defiance of the threat the ship had begun to pose and reared back again to make another attempt to strike the ship. Just as it prepared itself to shoot forward into the ship again, Lasutro watched as another one of the spears that she had previously seen embedded into its body, flew from somewhere above the gun deck and into one of its old wounds. With the exasperation of its injuries, the serpent gave a final roar toward the ship as if to tell it would be back before it turned and began its return beneath the still violent, but calming waves. As its long body finally disappeared from Lasutro’s sight, she felt their heart calm and with it all the tension in their body faded, before she collapsed into unconsciousness, giving into their exhaustion.
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When Lasutro woke the next morning, instead of the hammock she intended on sleeping in, she found themselves instead on one of the cots among the future students who had chosen, or been pushed into, the same room as them, each sleeping with some degree of unease. As she made their way quietly to leave the room and out into the open air of the deck, Lasutro was met with a sharp pain in their head and general soreness that together made them quickly reconsider, instead choosing to return to the comfort of the cot she had left too soon. While she laid there, in a state of energetic rest that she often found themselves in following any considerable injury, she began the gentle examination of their bandages and the wounds she had sustained, inspecting them each with care.
Following what amounted to nearly an hour of boredom, Lasutro watched out of the corners of their eyes as their roommates for the continued journey aboard the Jesters Torrent rose from their own sleep with varying degrees of lethargy. And while each seemed rather disinterested in the others, those who remained inside the room entertaining themselves with books and the occasional journal, each regularly stole glances at one another with an idle curiosity Lasutro likened to what she had read on the friendly interactions between multi species pets.
As their roommates attention started to shift on to them, Lasutro pulled themselves from the cot despite the pain, which had been marginally dulled by the extra time she had spent in bed, and quietly redressed themselves into a set of clothes that didn’t stink as much of their sweat and the sea. Then making their way up to the main deck, passing the complete, if unappealing, temporary repair of the gun deck as she did so. When she arrived onto the main deck of the ship, she couldn’t help but note the multitude of new cuts that marked its surface, in addition to those on the main mast, which she had failed to notice the day before in their panic and the obscuring nature of the storm.
Making their way around the ship, much like she had the day before, Lasutro once more took in the beauty of the sea and sky that surrounded the ship so completely. After wandering the ship for a few minutes, Lasutro found a nice spot to relax and take in the combination of sun and sea breeze, where she took a short nap before being awakened by a member of the crew whom she didn’t recognize but looked at them with a mix of disapproval and clinical concern. By the time Lasutro realized what was happening, their protests died in their throat, as the doctor examined them on the chair she suddenly found themselves in. When the doctor finished their inspection, they shook out a single small dark bead from an opaque bottle that they pulled from their coat into Lasutro’s hand. As the doctor handed the bead over, he spoke in a serious tone that did not completely hide his frustration “For any pain you have,” pausing to gesture at the pill before continuing “if it doesn’t get better tomorrow, find me.”
When the doctor turned away and made their way elsewhere in the ship, likely to check up on the injured members of the crew, Lasutro started a casual inspection of the bead she was given before swallowing it whole. A choice that she regretted near instantaneously, but she managed to avoid choking it back up, the experience rousing their previously dormant hunger and pushing them to head back below deck. There, among the few of their roommates who had not left their room to stretch their legs, Lasutro slowly indulged themselves on the rations she had brought aboard.
After she finished their meal of sorts, Lasutro returned to the main deck, though as she wandered the top of the ship she found themselves unable to rest like she had earlier. As she contemplated for a solution of sorts, she watched as the crew of the ship went about their duties and as the day went on she found themselves approaching the less busy members of the crew and asking questions on various matters of the sea. And eventually as the day came to a close, Lasutro made their final inquiries with the crew, finishing their day of unintended research on sailors and the sea with the Captain who was mostly uninterested in explaining the daily goings ons of their ship with the exception of the few things she was particularly passionate about. When the Captain finally had enough of Lasutro’s questions she sent them on their way, and she headed back down below the deck, where she quickly fell into a surprisingly restful sleep.