Zachary lay on the jagged boulder for a while to catch his breath. He had depleted all of the Eternum within his soul defending against the blue tiger sharks. He had expended almost all of his physical energy swimming to shore and getting out of the water. In his current state, he could easily die to the weakest wild Ensouled.
“Help! Help!”
A weak cry from below caught his attention. He sat up and found a soggy figure floating up and down with the rough waves. With a short stature, they were struggling and failing to grab hold of anything. It looked as if they were about to drown at any moment.
He watched the person crash against the rocks several times. He wasn't sure if he should help. They were fellow prisoners on the ship but now they should be enemies. If he did nothing, it would be one less soul competing for the presidential pardons.
"Damn it!" He muttered, shaking his head.
He laid down on his stomach and scooted to the edge. He reached down with one hand and shouted, "Over here! Come here!"
That person's eyes widened. Then they struggled toward him. The waves carried them up and down a few times until he finally caught their small hand with his.
He tried to pull but it was difficult. He used his other hand but he almost slid off the boulder and back into the water.
After struggling for what seemed like forever, the other person managed to get a few good holds with their free hand and finally climbed to safety with his help. The two of them promptly sat down and gasped for air.
“Thank you.” The voice was warm and pleasant, the voice of a young woman.
Her long brown hair hung in clumps and hid most of her face but a pair of vivid green eyes shined through. He felt a strange sense of familiarity which went away as quickly as it came. There was no way he had met her before.
“No worries.” He replied.
The two of them fell into awkward silence. Due to their closeness, they avoided staring at each other and looked around their surroundings. The beach was mostly made of rocks, big and small. It was a product of erosion from the black cliffs that loomed over them in the near distance, another obstacle before they could reach the jungle.
More prisoners were arriving on the beach with each passing breath. Despite the casualties, there was still a large number that survived. They were all adept summoners after all, not helpless novices.
The blue tiger sharks that attacked them were dangerous but not adept rank Ensouled. They were able to cause so much mayhem because of the advantage of being in their natural environment as well as the innate skill to completely hide themselves in water. The prisoners also had no water-attribute summons to fight back with.
“Ah! What are those?” The woman yelled suddenly.
Zachary looked toward where she was pointing. His mouth opened in shock as an enormous flock of flying Ensouled emerged over the top of the jungle canopy. They were high in the sky and formed a dark cloud. They looked like overgrown seagulls except they had two pairs of wings, one larger and one smaller. Their sharp beaks and long talons gleamed dangerously under the morning sun. Their white features shone brightly although some of them were stained crimson with what looked suspiciously like blood.
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“Where are they going… the ship!” He exclaimed.
The strange flying beasts quickly surrounded the navy vessel. They squawked and flapped their wings menacingly. There were so many that they cast a shadow over the sea.
“Did they kill that armored eagle?” He wondered out loud.
Such a large flock of wild Ensouled would be able to kill a single Ensouled of a higher rank, albeit with many casualties. Maybe they now wanted revenge.
Suddenly, one of the birds dived toward one of the guards and their iron fur gorilla. The two Ensouled collided with a sickening sound. The reverberation of Eternum crashing together made the air around them shimmer.
The woman beside him gasped.
The seagull was so big that the impact sent the gorilla backward multiple steps. The gorilla also suffered a gaping wound on its arm where the gull’s beak had pierced it. The summoner shouted some inaudible commands and the gorilla hugged the seagull, not letting it fly back into the sky.
The guard then retrieved a thin, rectangular object from a pocket. It was a summoning card!
Zachary held his breath, eager to see what Ensouled would be summoned.
The guard shouted something else and held the summoning card to his forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows. This was the gateway to a human soul. The summoning card in the guard’s hand glowed red. Immediately after, a beam of bright red light shot out, turning into a small creature that landed on the iron fur gorilla’s head. Its fur was yellow with streaks of orange. Its squashed face contained large watery eyes, a button nose, and a small mouth.
“Oh! That’s an ember cat!” The woman squealed, sounding more like a little girl than a hardened criminal.
It was indeed an ember cat, a very popular Ensouled in the Republic of Adorin. Unlike the armored eagle from before, ember cats were widely available to the public.
The small feline quickly showcased its most iconic skill, ember slash!
The ball of fur turned into flashes of yellow and orange. The overgrown seagull screeched in pain as its body was quickly shredded by flames. Its feathers burned to ash and numerous black marks appeared on its flesh. It struggled to escape but the iron fur gorilla was too heavy. The other gulls in the sky shrieked in anger and one of them plunged down to free their brethren. It smashed into the same gorilla, sending bodies sliding across the deck.
The ember cat deftly dodged away and landed on the deck. The other summon, the gorilla, fared far worse. Blood flowed like fresh springs from numerous puncture wounds. It collapsed on the ground and no longer moved even as the two gulls continued to peck at it furiously.
The guard fell to his knees and clutched his forehead. Zachary also felt a faint throb of pain himself. He could sympathize with what the other person was going through, the death of a summon, the shattering of the bond between souls.
More guards as well as sailors rushed over to help. So did the seagulls. The flat top of the ship turned into a chaotic battlefield. The seagulls used their numbers to attack in groups while the humans could summon multiple Ensouled to work together. The iron fur gorilla acted as the shield while the ember cat was the spear.
“Ember cats are so awesome.” The woman sighed, “Don’t you think so?”
Zachary felt another stab of pain in his forehead, “Tch… I hate cats.”
A look of horror appeared on her face as if she couldn’t believe he had just said that.
“It doesn’t matter, it looks like they won’t be able to hold on. Look.” He pointed.
Corpses steadily piled up on the deck of the ship. There were far more dead gorillas than seagulls. Ember cats also fell and so did their summoners. Even with the entire ship’s crew joining in, the human side was still being pushed back.
This place wasn’t the Old World. These were beasts of the New World. One navy ship full of low rank summoners was far from enough.
The smokestack at the rear of the ship belched steam and the ship started to move. It retreated before everyone onboard was slaughtered by the bloodthirsty flock of beasts.
Zachary got to his feet. “We should get off the beach. We’re too exposed here. I don’t want to wait until those crazy seagulls come back for easier prey.”
She nodded, her prior discontent towards him seemingly forgotten, “Okay.”