William’s cabin was filled with the sound of fevered panting as he slammed his hips over and over into Nendra’s own. Each time he did, the sound of flesh clapping against flesh resounded against the walls.
“Gods, big and small, what in the Pit’s name do they feed you noble boys,” the orcish sailor groaned from her supine position on the cabin’s bed, sweat-coated green skin glinting in the early morning light. “How do they make you so eager!?”
The boy in question just grinned as he held onto the larger woman’s oversized hips - using them as leverage.
They’d started this little rendezvous with her on top, obviously quite pleased at being invited into the cabin of a young man whose interests were clear.
That hadn’t lasted too long. What humans lacked in size relative to orcs, they more than made up for in stamina.
“Ah!” she gasped as he tweaked her nipples just a bit, the dark green nubs hardening under his careful ministrations.
They’d been at it for a while now. As evidenced by the rather large puddle that had formed amidst his sheets, one that he’d have to hide using magic.
Fortunately, he’d discreetly approached Nendra – as he’d learned her name was - at the end of her shift, when no one would be looking for her. Sure, that also meant she was a bleary eyed at the time, but such considerations had been as air in the wind before the possibility of bunking down with a – possibly – virginal human noble who was clearly out for a bit of a strange thrill with one of the ‘lower classes’.
…Or at least, that was what William assumed had been going through the orc’s head when she’d crossed the threshold into his cabin.
Truth be told, there hadn’t been all that much talking prior to… well… this.
“Ugh!” She gasped.
“Shhhh,” he in turn faux- whispered. “If you make too much noise, someone might discover you’re in here.”
Of course, he’d long since figured out that the possibility of being caught only added to the thrill for the sailor, as he felt her insides tighten around him.
Which in turn only fed into his own desires. While he’d hardly say he’d become anything like a sexual sadist, he’d admit that constantly being placed in the position of the ‘lesser sex’ meant there was a bit of a thrill in…
Well, dominating is a bit of a strong word for it, he thought.
…But he did enjoy taking charge. Especially when the person he was taking charge of was an incredibly sexy veteran sailor who could likely shatter his spine with one arm tied behind her back.
It had been a lot of fun, ‘turning the tables’ on her so to speak. The older woman had come into his cabin expecting to play the domineering seductress with an adventurous but otherwise naïve noble boy.
Instead…
“I- I can’t- I can’t. I’m- I’m going to cum.”
“Not yet,” he crooned, slowing the pace of his thrust – even as he increased the pressure of his ministrations to her sensitive and rock-hard nipples. “I’m not quite there yet. And we wouldn’t want you popping off without me. Again.”
Sure, he’d already cum twice, but it would take him a minute to work up to his third – one of the few benefits of being reborn into a younger and significantly more virile form. By contrast, Nedra had already cum six or seven times and clearly had no issue moving onto her eighth.
Alas, William could just about see the sun was about to rise through the cabin’s porthole and he’d need to wrap things up soon. Indeed, he could already hear feet rushing about the deck above them.
And if he wanted things to end with a ‘bang’ that meant he couldn’t let Nedra pop off before he was ready.
A state of readiness that admittedly got somewhat closer he heard the woman all but whimper as she tried to taper down her arousal to keep her orgasm at bay for just a few minutes longer.
In response, he slowly increased the tempo of his thrusts, getting ready to-
“William!?” The voice, accompanied by the loud pounding at the door almost made him jump out of his skin. “Wake up! We need to move.”
The two lovers stared at each other in surprise before both leapt into action with a curse. Rushing over to grab his pants, William watched as Nendra scooped up her shirt with surprising grace even as she ducked behind the bed.
All the while his aunt continued pounding on the door.
“William!? Will!?”
“Coming!” he shouted at the wooden portal as he pulled on the pants, before hopping over to grab the latch.
Opening it just a crack, he peered out into the gloom of the ship’s hallway.
“What?” he asked his slightly disheveled looking aunt.
“We have a problem,” she answered shortly.
His eyes roamed down to the item in her off hand. “I can see that.”
He sincerely doubted his aunt would have her bolt-bow cocked and out for any other reason, the vaguely crossbow shaped weapon gleaming menacingly as she stood in the doorway.
“This isn’t the time for jokes. A kraken, just latched onto the ship.” She stepped aside as a crew-woman rushed past. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t feel it.”
…Ah, so that was what that jolt had been. Honestly, he’d wondered about it, but had ultimately put it down to the enthusiasm of his partner rather than something brushing up against the ship.
Though now that he listened… yeah, he could hear both the yelling from above and the sound of something creaking.
“Well… shit,” he muttered – before slamming the door shut.
The response from his guardian was instant. “William, what the fuck!?”
Mentally apologizing even as he ignored his nearby shirt in favour of grabbing his pack off the nightstand. Sure, when he appeared on deck, it’d be a little scandalous, but the crew would probably be too busy to notice a shirtless man dashing about the place.
Probably.
And I don’t have an easy way of replacing any of this if it gets dragged to the bottom of the ocean by an oversized magical squid, he thought as he turned to Nedra.
The woman had gotten dressed in record time, which he supposed made sense given her vocation. More to the point, there was not a hint of lust in her gaze as she regarded him, despite his state of undress.
She was in full focus mode now.
“That’s the all-hands bell,” she hissed just over the sound of his aunt’s yelling.
“I know,” he nodded. “There’s a kraken. My aunt’s just outside though, so wait for us to leave then head to your station.”
The sailor nodded, before moving just to the side of the door and out of his aunt’s sightline as he once more opened the door.
“Will.” The marine-knight grunted, visibly furious. “What the fuck!?”
“Just had to grab a few things,” he muttered as he stepped out into the hall.
Fortunately, Karla was professional enough to realize that a tongue lashing would have to wait. Though William was entirely sure it would come eventually.
Provided we survive the next ten minutes, he thought as the shouts from overhead redoubled in noise as something wooden audibly shattered, making the entire ship rock.
“Fine,” his aunt grunted as she started to steer him by the crook of his elbow down the hall and around the occasional passing crew-woman. “We need to go.”
Even as William obliged, his thoughts were going a mile a minute. Mostly he was thinking about how shit his luck was.
Kraken attacks were rare. Very rare. The massive creatures weren’t usually too interested in ships, given that the crew’s invariably served as a poor source of food for an animal whose preferred prey was whales.
That was why it was assumed that when attacks did happen, it was a case of mistaken identity – or a female getting territorial during mating season.
He clambered onto the deck, blearily blinking the rising sun from his eyes, and watched a tentacle thick as his torso latch onto the deck, wrapping around the mast.
Just from a glance he knew this wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. The bright red spots running down the back of the oversized limb was proof of that. A sure-fire sign that a female was ready to lay eggs and was in the throes of heat.
And thus, very territorial.
“Get off my ship!” The captain’s voice cried from the ship’s raised quarter-deck as more and more tentacles slithered up to grip at the handrails of the vessel.
William watched with muted dismay as the woman actually hurled a fireball from her outstretched hand, a massive ball of flames lancing across the deck to strike the nearest tentacle.
With next to no effect.
The blow barely even seemed to register to the beast. Nor did the second. Or the third.
And now she’s probably spent, given the size of the contracts she just expended, William thought glumly as he watched the elven woman seem to sway in place.
“Idiot,” his aunt hissed, likely coming to the same conclusion. “She should know better than anyone that Kraken scales are magic resistant.”
After their size, that was likely the second most famous thing about the giant squid creatures, and a large part of why many coastal houses lined their airships’ hulls with their hide.
Perhaps it was desperation more than stupidity? He thought idly as he watched another bit of handrail shatter, before being dragged down into the water.
Fortunately, that fate hadn’t befallen any of the crew. Yet. For while the creature’s tentacles seemed possessed of an almost malign intelligence as they quested about the deck, latching onto things at will, the fact of the matter was that the squid below was basically just flailing blindly at what it perceived to be a rival creature of some kind.
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Unfortunately, blind flailing or not, it was still entirely capable of dragging the entire ship down once its clawed beak poked enough holes in the bottom of the hull.
“We need to get to the lifeboats.” Karla grabbed his arm, pulling him in the direction of one such item.
William’s focus though was on the crew. As he watched, the mixture of humans and orcs desperately hacked and stabbed at the limbs invading their ship, using whatever means they had available. Some had axes, others had harpoons, and some poor souls had been reduced to trying to sink their daggers into the tough slippery flesh of the great beast.
The young man didn’t even bother to ask if his aunt’s boltbow would have any effect. An aether-propelled crossbow bolt might have been plenty deadly against a person, but they’d be little more than a splinter to a Kraken.
With that in mind, he knew the smart thing was to do exactly what his aunt was planning on doing; getting the hell off the ship.
Given the size of the attacking squid, a small transport ship like the Fair Gentleman was practically defenseless.
Once it had been sunk, hopefully the beast would lose interest, mistaking the lifeboats for little more than debris.
That was what usually happened.
Lindholm lost a ship or two every other year to krakens, and the unfortunate losses of goods and lives were simply considered the cost of doing business in the Azure Sea. A sentiment he was feeling a lot less sanguine about now that he was actually aboard one of those ‘unfortunate losses’.
“You there!” His aunt grabbed a nearby crew-woman. “Start getting this boat in the water.”
The sailor in question looked panicked for a moment, the human woman’s eyes darting between the marine-knight and whatever duty she’d been attending to. Eventually though, feudal conditioning won out and she moved to help his aunt. Soon enough the pair were fiddling with the pulley system that would lower the lifeboat over the side and into the water.
William actually moved to help himself… before pausing.
A wet thud from nearby drew his gaze, and as he turned, he found his gaze landing on a ‘new front’ that had opened up in the nearby battle. Across the deck from him, an orc woman with a tattoo around her throat desperately stabbed at a tentacle that had just wrapped around another one of the lifeboats.
Her efforts were for naught though. Even as he watched, the pulleys holding the thing in place snapped, and the boat was dragged overboard, shattering into little more than kindling in the process, before the splintered remnants were dragged down into the water below.
…Taking with it roughly one quarter of the ship’s lifeboat capacity. Only three of the craft now remained.
Which meant that at least one quarter of the crew would now no longer be able to evacuate given the total absence of redundancy that he could see.
Turning to his aunt, he had to pitch his voice to be heard over the carnage around him. “Has the captain contacted the Indomitable? We’re only a day out from Ashfield County.”
The loss of the lifeboat wouldn’t be so bad if rescue was on the way. The kraken would lose interest in the ship once she dragged it under, and the crew would be able to hotseat the lifeboats – or use pieces of wreckage as floatation devices while they waited for help.
Help that would only take a few hours if an airship was on the way.
“The captain doesn’t have an orb,” the human sailor answered before his aunt could. “We used to… but she sold it last year. Said we didn’t need it given how quiet the route was.”
Karla cursed, sending him a pitying look even as she continued to turn the lever for the pulleys. “There’s your answer kiddo. Unless some other ship stumbles across us. And they have an orb. And they manage to avoid pissing off this kraken when they arrive - then we’re on our own.”
Meaning they’d have to row for the coast.
Which was doable, he thought as he gauged the distance. Swimming that far won’t be though.
No, unless something happened to scare off the Kraken, a lot of people were going to drown today.
And with that thought, the weight of the pots in his rucksack seemed to grow incredibly heavy. Not that they’d ever been light. Both physically and metaphorically.
The contents they contained were capable of upsetting the balance of power across the planet after all. They represented an avenue of technological development that hadn’t even been broached in this world.
That power was one he’d intended to harness for the greater good of the entire planet.
Just not here. And not now, he thought frantically.
Secrecy was his first and best defence after all, and it was a protection that he’d only ever intended to shed once he reached the academy. And even then only in part, to build some notoriety, with a fair amount of subterfuge thrown in to obfuscate the ‘how’.
What were a few random crew-members on a ramshackle transport ship compared to that?
A shriek rang out, from his side and he watched with wide eyes as the crew-woman that had been helping them was lifted aloft by another tentacle. She shrieked wildly, even as Karla unlimbered her bolt-bow and futilely fired at the attacking limb.
A bolt exploded from the weapon in a burst of blue-green smoke, flying through the air to dig deep into the flesh of the kraken’s oversized limb.
It was a futile gesture, one William doubted the creature even noticed as the tentacle wrapped tighter and tighter around its struggling prey.
And for just a moment, William got to see the look on the sailor’s terrified face before a mass of scaly fish meat covered even that.
And just like that, his resolve broke – with all the ease of a strand of spaghetti placed into an industrial press.
“Fuck it, I guess I’m doing this,” he grunted as he dashed over to his still distracted aunt.
She had something he needed – and he didn’t have the time to explain why he needed it.
Not if he was going to save everyone here.
“Wha- William!?” Karla grunted in confusion, weapon lowering for just a moment as she turned towards him.
In his mind, he winced apologetically even as he forced his face to contort into an expression of surprise. “No, behind you!”
Her eyes had just a moment to widen, as she turned back in an attempt to find the threat - before he slammed his palm into her midriff.
“Electricity,” he whispered under his breath with a speed that could only come from long hours of practice. “One charge. Touch activation. Right hand. Knockout.”
Some mages preferred to be more flowery when it came to the activation of their contracts, adding in entire verses of specificity in the name of getting as much power as they could in return for their investment.
William was not one of them.
And fortunately for him, neither was his patron.
He’d barely finished the final syllable of his activation phrase before his hands were crackling with electrical energy from beyond the dimensional gap.
Energy that flowed almost immediately into his aunt.
The marine-knight twitched, before dropping like a rock as a few thousand carefully moderated volts of lightning shot through her nervous system.
Fortunately, he caught her before her head could slam into the hard wood panels of the deck.
The same could not be said for the bolt-bow she was carrying, but he wasn’t too worried about that. The things were usually built tough and she’d fired the entire magazine before he made his move.
Careful not to unduly jostle her, he gently – if quickly – bundled the unconscious woman into the lifeboat she’d just been standing over.
“Right, you should be safe-ish here,” he muttered quietly. “And I really am sorry about this. Genuinely. I just… didn’t have time to explain.”
That, and she probably wouldn’t have listened to him even if he had, given that he’d spent the last few years cementing his reputation as a reckless screw up.
Still apologizing in his mind, he flipped through the woman’s belt until he found a fresh magazine for the bolt-bow. A weapon that he needed to leap to grab, as it attempted to slide overboard as the deck suddenly shifted violently in response to some movement by the beast below.
Cursing, he flicked the empty magazine off of the weapon before inserting the fresh one into the top.
Satisfied, he slung it across his shoulder by the strap, before he hurriedly reached into the rucksack on his other shoulder to fish out one of the leather satchels within. Something that only took him two attempts, after he discarded both a thermos and a leatherbound journal.
Though he had to duck as the crewmember from before swished by overhead, still gripped in the inhuman coils of an oversized tentacle.
Which served as a decent reminder of the fact that said human woman would likely be dragged down into the water – or summarily squished – any second now.
Because nothing mixes quite like being hurried and high explosives, the young man thought sarcastically as he yanked open the cap of leather satchel with his teeth, before spitting the bit of cork off to the side.
A feat he repeated two more times with similar bags, holding each awkwardly between his fingers as he did.
“Ice-Cubes. One charge. Instant Activation. Water source: Objects in right hand - contents.” He grunted hurriedly.
He felt it that time. Like a muscle unclenching in his very soul, the second of two of his aether charges was sucked into the fae-realms with the unsettling sound of a small giggle.
Though he wasted not a moment dwelling on it, ignoring the momentary sense of apathy that washed over him with long practice.
Instead, he refocused his mind on the task as hand as the contract took effect.
One left, he thought as vapor seemed to flow out from the bags, turning the black powder within from damp powder to something altogether much more dangerous.
He ignored the way three relatively tiny ice-cubes fell to the floor a moment later as the released vapor spontaneously collected together before freezing.
Instead, he speared all three bags onto the tip of the bolt sticking out the end of his now reloaded bolt-bow.
“Candle. One charge. Delayed Activation: Ten seconds. Ignition Source: Objects in right hand – contents.”
The muscle unclenched one final time before going slack, and William had to struggle not to sway as a wave of both apathy and lethargy washed over him.
Fortunately, it was fleeting, he raised his weapon in the direction of the nearest tentacle. Which happened to be the one holding the human sailor.
Tracing the point of the weapon down, he very deliberately pointed it as far away from the woman as he could without letting the intended impact point be too close to the water.
He hoped.
Just as he hoped his aim wasn’t off, because if it was, a whole lot of nothing was about to happen and they were all fucked.
The swaying of the deck didn’t help. Nor did the fact that the tentacle was hardly staying still. And finally, he knew there was the fact that he’d need to account for the extra drag provided by three bags full of powder dangling off the end of his bolt.
Oh, and he only had eight more seconds to line up his shot.
…He held his breath.
Seven.
His fingers tightened around the grip of the bolt-bow, the pressure within its firing chamber building as he channeled wild aether through the intake valve pressed against his thumb.
Six.
A move that was far from comfortable after expending the entirety of his refined aether-reserves prepping this shot, but still perfectly doable.
Five.
It was just like flexing a cramping muscle was all. Only, said muscle was in his soul.
Four.
Off to his right, someone screamed. The deck tilted. Somewhere a rope snapped.
Three.
Gently, he pulled back on the trigger.
Don’t squeeze it, a voice in his mind supplied. Keep it a single smooth motion. When it fires, it should honestly take you off guard.
And it did. An eruption of blue-green gas that exploded from the front of the bolt-bow, propelling the bolt itself through the air.
Two.
…And deep into the thick scaly flesh of the Kraken.
“One,” he muttered with cool satisfaction.
As explosions went, it was pretty underwhelming. A bag full of loose powder was hardly anything at the end of the day. Little more than a firework with less pyrotechnics.
With that said, it was still an explosion.
And as William heard the low hiss and pop, he watched as the tentacle he’d been aiming at practically disintegrated at the base.
The response was instantaneous, a low shriek that echoed across the ocean and vibrated in his very chest as the top half of the now severed limb fell to the deck – the crew woman in its coils slightly dazed and sore, but still struggling to untangle herself from the now limp bit of squid.
Truth be told the loss of a limb was hardly too serious an injury for a kraken. Much like squid and octopi, they were perfectly capable of regrowing tentacles.
With that said, he watched as across the ship the great limbs of the beast retreated back, sliding down into the water once more with eerie synchronicity.
After all, just because the animal could recover from the blow didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. And if the ‘rival kraken’ had hurt it once, the oversized squid likely feared it could be hurt again.
With that in mind, a small clash over territory was hardly worth the possibility of maiming or death.
Not when she’d yet to lay her eggs.
With that in mind, William watched from over the side of the ship as the water below swelled with the great beast’s movements as it swam away from the Fair Gentleman with all haste its remaining seven limbs could summon.
The entire crew watched with muted unease as the creature continued to circle for half a minute, before finally diving. In seconds, the great beast had disappeared once more beneath the waves.
And William finally allowed himself a small sigh of relief.
I’ve no idea what I’d have done if she came back for round two, he thought.
Reaching for the bolt-bow, he was just in the process of removing the live bolt and magazine when he nearly leapt out of his skin as a great cheer rang out from the crew behind him.
“Three cheers for the Kraken Slayer!” The distinctive voice of Nemoa rang out from the quarterdeck. “The man whose magic trumped a sea-beasts scales!”
William turned, panic in his eyes, to see with horror that the entire crew was staring at him as they continued to cheer loudly, waving their bloody weapons high into the air. Even the woman who’d just untangled herself from the tentacles was beaming at him.
He didn’t know how much they’d seen, but he did know at least a few of them had seen his final attack on the beast.
Though hopefully, they’d only turned to look in his direction after the explosion rang out.
Well shit, he thought as a crowd of excitable sailors rushed over to him. There goes my plan to say my aunt passed out after summoning a giant lightning bolt.
Which of course, as if summoned by his thoughts, just so happened to be the moment the woman in question blearily peered out from over the side of the life-boat he’d stashed her in.
Trying not to wince even as he deliberately turned to her instead of the crowd of excitable sailors rushing in, he tried to sound commiserating.
“Hey Aunt Karla, how’s the head? Because that bit of debris came out of nowhere.”
…He really hoped he sounded convincing, because if he fucked up this first lie, the next seventy would need to become a lot more complicated.
A lot more complicated, he thought as he met the woman’s confused expression with the most innocent expression of happy relief he could possibly muster just as the crowd surged in around them.