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The monsters poured down freely, like a torrential downpour, from the bright blue sky without a single cloud in sight.
“They’re [Moonyohuh (文鳐魚)]! Grade-8!” I cried out.
Most of them still had their cloaking ability on, but their grotesque number was working against them. They began to pelt the sails and the masts, opalescent light shining for a brief moment before giving way to the greyish-blue scales and the dull slime that coated their skin. The monsters were vaguely fish shaped –and by fish, I mean the size of a six hundred pound Tuna in the ocean– with winds right behind their gills. But those wings weren’t for flapping, rather they were used to glide and change directions.
Like they were now.
Seeing their brethren make contact with the mast and sails, the fish monsters switched direction. Instead of falling vertically and rubbing against the ship parts, they started to swerve with renewed vigor.
They started pelting themselves into the masts and sails.
“The masts! They’re after the masts!” Even as I cried it out, three other voices joined me at the same time.
“Get them before they leave us as fish food in the open ocean!” A voice I recognized as Delas.
“Do not let them damage the ship!” Borealis ordered.
But Zenom’s voice wrapped around our own voices like a giant outstretched hand, embracing it and crushing it to nothingness with orders of his own. The man was a natural born leader and he had the voice to match it.
“Blader who can hit anything at range! Link up with the Mages! Shielders! Defend them!” Zenom cried out, his eyes searching for a way to get up there.
I was looking around too, trying to find a way to get to the top of the masts. Downhere, there was nothing I could do.
The ropes. I could climb the ropes.
A couple of the other adventurers had the same idea I had. They latched themselves onto the ropes or masts, climbing with deceitful speed. But halfway up, the Moonyohuh saw them. Their fish eyes looked devoid of thought, but they must have been capable of some kind of strategy. The a small group of monsters broke off and began to slam into the adventurers that were trying to climb the masts.
“Slaveborn!”
I leaped off of a rope seconds before the sedan-sized fish could break bones, feeling the gut-wrenching sensation of free-fall. Spinning, I saw the person who had yelled out my name –L’teya. She was still covered in her cloak head to toe but there was no mistake about it. The muscled arms and tanned skin, the red hair peeking out, it was L’teya for sure.
She took two axes and crossed them over one another, creating a flat surface.
I saw the hint of a smile underneath the cowl.
I landed squarely on the axes and literally surged into the air like a space rocket, defying gravity with the help of the Barbarian Elf’s supernatural strength.
Feeling akin to a whack-a-mole, I reached the peak of the throw, right in the middle of the Moonyohuh’s pack. How did I know? I thought she threw me into a space devoid of them. But what had happened was that they were simply invisible, floating around as if the sky were an aquarium. Freakishly, they turned as one, fixated on me with those dead-fish eyes.
But I had been ready for this. Perhaps I was the only one who could do this. I don’t think the other adventurers realized just how many of these monsters were in the air. They probably estimated a few dozen. I had known though, Moonyohuh’s wouldn’t do a frontal assault like this unless their swarm was at least the size of the ship. Which meant that in the sky right now were hundreds of them watching us, ready to pounce.
Then they went mad like piranhas, opening their mouths and revealing skin-ripping teeth and all gliding towards me at once.
I felt my senses turn sharp, clear and absent of clutter. As the first wave of them reached me, I twisted my body sideways, feeling the tension build up in my spine and then released it all at once. The new falchion in cut through the heads of three Moonyohuhs, and was automatically followed up by my King’s Guard –the Lunar Shield snapping to position and blocking the next strike. One Moonyohuh came dangerously close but I was on the descent now, it sailed harmlessly above me.
I stabbed out above me in instinct, turning off the Aura and sticking my sword in the fish to catch a ride.
The monster went livid and started squirming. It reminded me too much of going to a Omakase and seeing the fish struggle under the sushi chef’s grip. Somewhere between animal and monster, there was life and it too felt a primal sense of pain that didn’t need words to communicate. I shouldered my squeamishness away, seeing another monster come up from below with its jaws wide open.
Reactivating Aura, my falchion slid through the belly of the monster and I slipped away –seeing its innards flow downwards into the belly of its brother that had been trying to eat me. I was in freefall again and there was a definite thump as the Lunar Shield blocked another tackle. But this time, the fish didn’t bounce away, it kept at it. It’s jaws got cut into by the Lunar shield as the Moonyo-uh tried to strain over it and get to me.
The smell of rotten fish washed over me as I shoved the Lunar Shield deeper into its jaws, releasing King’s Guard for a moment. The Moonyo-uh swallowed it whole.
I activated King’s Guard again.
The fish monster had been about to glide away and slammed into another of its kind, its tail thrashing and jaws open in a silent scream. One side of its body bulged as the Lunar Shield attempted to return to orbit, and I used it as a foothold to jump towards a nearby mast.
Finally, a foothold.
But there was no time to rest.
I ducked and weaved, sword flickering out with ease and gutting another Moonyo-uh with Aura. There was no shield anymore, I had to constantly be on the move. I rolled forward, dodging four of them and once and skewering another fish right between the eyes. They swarmed together, tails slamming into each other and making wet slapping sounds, coming towards me as one group.
Stolen story; please report.
There was the sound of flesh being ripped open and my Lunar shield finally returned to me, covered in fish gut.
｢Lock Slaveborn casts [High Tide] ｣
Dozens of Moonyo-uh went tumbling away from me, caught in the Lunar Shield’s psychic blast. At the same time, I felt three different buffs flow into me, a total of eight times. Speed, Attack and Defense, all at once. I stopped trying to keep track of them long ago, it was nearly impossible in the heat of battle. But I could het a general sense of which stat had been raised the most and lucky for me, it was attack.
The Moonyo-uhs caught in the blast slammed into the masts or downright fell to the ground, falling prey to hugnry adventurers. The ones that got slammd into something had something in common with the ones that were struck by my sword but had yet to taste death: all of them had ink tree branches branded on their body.
I squeezd my fist and cast [Hateful Wound].
As one, the monsters mouths opened in a soundless yell along with the maddened flopping of their tails, the only way these wretched things knew how to convey pain.
I wasn’t alone anymore though. While I had kept the flying fish monsters distracted, the other adventurers had managed to bring themselves up. Delas was the first, swinging his daggers and flitting around. Wherever his daggers stabbed, blood poured and the monster seemed to fall into a kind of stupor –very slight but noticeable if you studied closely.
Zenom didn’t use any Core abilities –he didn’t need to. He leapt from mast to mast, swinging his greatsword and cleaving the giant monsters in two with each stroke. While Zenom, Delas and I moved about with our blades to cause havoc, Borealis was different. He stayed in one spot with his shield and rhythmically banged on it with his Gladius. [Belly Drum], a Core Ability taken from a Grade-6 monster. While it lowered your HP, it gave you two benefits: a raise in defense and Maximum HP.
Slowly, red mist made of blood began to dissipate out of the Vetilius Scion and the fish near him went into a frenzy, shooting towards him with hunger in their eyes. The Vetilius Scion got to work, his Gladius flashing out and leaving wounds that seemed to poison the monsters. Not only that, the red mist itself was some kind of poison too. Most likely, had the abilities [Poisonous Blood], [Blood Mist] and [Belly Drum]. Plus if he had some kind of lifesteal property-
Yup. I saw the red mist around him disappear as he struck more and more monsters. He was healing through the damage he did.
I had thought Borealis was a blader. I was wrong, he was a shielder –a Knight-build with Vampiric properties.
But even with Aura, Borealis lacked the damage necessary to kill the Grade-8 monsters en-masse. Delas and Zenom immediately went to work, running down the number of monsters with impunity.
I took the small break in the fighting to look downwards. The other adventurers hadn’t just been watching me work either. There was no way I could fight a Swarm of monsters without some kind of support and they had been the one to provide it. Kyrian was on the deck now and he worked in conjunction with the other mages –devastating effects of lightning and fire cooked the groups of fish that revealed themselves, slaying them by the dozens. Stole took place beyond the Shielders, their arrows and crossbow bolts fired with strategic accuracy.
A number of adventurers stayed behind, protecting the masts and ropes. I did see Skaris there but he wasn’t using his flames –Thank the gods, the last thing I needed was to go into debt for burning down a ship belonging to the church.
“They’re breaking!” Borealis cried out.
We worked together as one group, breaking the tide of monsters and soon the last remaining Moonyo-uhs glided into the sky, turning invisible. No doubt that they were joining the bigger swarm since we proved ourselves to be too trouble.
With that, our first battle was over.
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“Damned things. It’s going to take forever to fix all this!”
The captain was a strange man, strange for a seaman anyways. When I thought of a ship’s captain, there were two images in my mind. White & blue uniform complete with a double breasted suit with medals pinned on the chest, something you’d expect from a navy admiral. The other imagery I held was on the other end of the spectrum, clad in rags with a pointed black Captain’s hat with seemingly random but stylish tattoos peeking through the cloth. Kind of like those captains you saw in the movies. You know the ones I’m talking about.
But the captain of this ship was neither. First off, he was a dwarf. Dwarfs were supposed to hate the ocean, but apparently not him. He wasn’t dressed in rags or a admiral attire either, he was dressed in light leather armor with plates of light metal. But it could be because we had just been attacked by monsters. He was a wrinkled old prune –way too pale to be considered a sailor. But he was the captain, or so Zenom said.
“Captain, how bad are the damages?”
“It’ll take us a day or two to fix them.” The captain spoke with a clipped accent. “I recommend setting sail for one of the nearest islands. We’re going to need a lot of supplies for this one.”
The rest of us adventurers were strewn around the deck, licking out wounds so to speak. The priests and priestesses walked back and fro, healing us no matter how minor. But no one was really gravely injured, a testament to the overall level of adventurers on this trip. Even when I replayed the battle in my head, there weren’t a lot of close calls. Mostly because of the Mages who basically incinerated the monsters by the dozen.
I looked at Zenom’s expression after hearing the Captain’s reply, ignoring the healer who kneeled in front of me, shoving mana into my arms.. Zenom didn’t look too happy. “Is there no other way?”
“No other way. Sorry about that Zenom.” The dwarf captain added at the end.
Zenom nodded and I could tell the man wasn’t going to press the issue. He was going to listen to the captain’s advice, which surprised me. Then again, how stupid would you have to be to ignore the advice of a captain whose entire life revolved around ships? He began to relay messages to sailors, who started taking small rowboats towards the other ships to deliver messages.
Hardly ten minutes passed by.
There was an ear-deafening screech as the Amphiptere descended from the sky, carrying the Bishop, Cecilia and the blue-haired veiled female bodyguard. I had been wondering where Cecilia had been at that battle and her presence reminded me the other ships weren’t like us. The adventurers and the priests there were kind of the auxiliary forces –definitely not up to par with the rest of us here. She must have went over to help. How bad was the damage there?
Zenom sighed as the adventurers watched with amused expressions.
“Sir Zenom, what is the meaning of this?” The Bishop said as soon as he stepped off of the Amphiptere.
“I am happy that you are safe, Bishop.” Zenom said without an ounce of sarcasm.
“Did you not put a measure in place for this contingency?”
Zenom frowned.
“You should have been ready! The other ships have completely broken down.” The Bishop gestured wildly. “I have been told we will be making for the closest port.”
“That is true.” Zenom nodded.
“Unacceptable! We must forge on! Conditions could change.”
“He’s such a twat.” Stole whispered next to me and I heard Skaris’ growl of agreement. The priest had moved on from my arms to Stole.
…So why the hell did my arms still hurt?
My attention was stolen by the interaction between Zenom and the Bishop.
“It is the Captain’s advice that-”
“I know that is what Captain Fluporuin said.” The Bishop rounded on Zenom, lowering his voice. “Our mission is a holy mission, one that has been ordained to us by the Church and the Light, Flame and Shield. We cannot delay, even now the forces of darkness gather, strengthening themselves.”
I saw some of the adventurers roll their eyes. But none of my party members dismissed what the Bishop said. It had hit too close to the mark. Because unbeknownst to him, we were the forces of Darkness that he was talking about.
“Bishop, I must respectfully disagree. It would be suicide, a death without meaning, if we were to forge ahead. We must make proper repairs, that is what I deem to be the correct action to better serve our Lord.”
“What you seem to be correct, Sir Zenom.” The Bishop narrowed his eyes. “I must question why this decision was made without prayer.” Then whispering, “I must question if you have even consulted the Lord at all, because to me it seems like you are not –just gallivanting off with ideas of your own withour consulting the betters of your faith!”
The Holy Knight didn’t immediately respond. He just kind of froze, then slowly, ever so slowly, turned towards the thin priest.
Zenom stared down the Bishop.
The air around the man changed and I held my breath. You can tell when someone gets mad, because their demeanor changes. Zenom wasn’t the man to explode in anger, but he was like a glacier instead. Always existing beneath the waves and you weren’t really sure just how big it was until you slammed into it. And from the looks of it, the Bishop just did.
“Bishop, with all due respect,” It was Zenom’s turn to take a step closer to the Bishop. “I must ask you to repeat what you said. For it sounded like you questioned my Faith and Dedication to the Lord.”
As soon as Zenom took a step, the blue-haired Kojisa bodyguard stepped in between them.
For a moment, no one spoke.
“The other ships are too damaged to continue at any rate. Without the Auxiliary forces, we won’t have enough supplies for the trip back home. Even if we can make emergency repairs, supplies will be an issue.” Cecilia cut in.
The tension died down somewhat as Zenom’s shoulder lowered a fraction of an inch. “Once we have decided on our destination, I will be contacting you, Bishop.”
“Please do so, Sir Zenom.” If Zenom had scared the Bishop, it didn’t show. The Bishop sneered as he got on top of the Amphiptere and flew off again.
“Heard he has his own private ship.” Kyrian said to me. He was being healed by the priest now.
And… it wasn’t working.
Actually, the guy healed me, then Stole, then Skaris and was working on Kyrian now. But none of our wounds were closed fully. Hell, Skaris’ wound was still dripping blood through the bandage.
What the hell?
“Hey, priest… uh… priest?” I called hesitantly.
The priest turned to me. But the hood was raised over his head and I couldn’t see more than the bottom half of his face. He had this double chin and some missing tooth, but smiled and pointed at himself. I noticed that his robe was rounded in the middle –definitely unusual for a priest of the Church of Light, who were supposed to be on a strict diet.
“Call me?” His voice was deep but the speech was slurred and I reeled back at something unfamiliar in his tone, yet something I’d heard before. The words were slightly mispronounced, like he couldn’t speak very well.
“Are you out of Mana?” I asked.
He smiled brightly and held up his hands, which glowed with bluish-green healing mana. Why were our wounds not being healed?
Then he cocked his head to the side and said, “All good! All Good!” Atleast, I think that’s what he tried to say. It came out more like “Allwoo! Ahwoo!”
Before, I could pry further, I heard the sound of boots striking the deck.
I turned to see Zenom standing behind me
“Slaveborn. I’d like to talk to you. If you would please, join me in the Captain’s Quarters.” Then he pivoted on his heel, asking a few other adventerurs to join him.
As he walked away, the priest broke out into a happy grin again.
“Allwoo! Ahwoo!”
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