The five of them spread out in a line from railing to railing, Yua portside and the captain starboard with Rai in the middle, Isa between Yua and Rai and Rowan (the crew member) between Rai and the captain. Immediately, a row of fishmen formed to clash with them, all of the piscinars wielding tridents with two hands. They attacked with uniformity and precision, making it clear that these were no disorganized mob but rather trained soldiers. Isa knew nothing of piscinars and Rai knew little more; both immediately increased their mental assessment of the threat posed by the fishmen when confronted with signs of group discipline.
Rai twisted out of the way and the captain parried with his scimitar, but the fishmen drew blood from the other three, instigating Isa’s Berserk Mode.
“Blood Lance!” Isa shouted, her voice nearly lost to the storm. She thrust her halberd forward, and a horizontal column of blood shot out from the tip, traveling all the way to the far wall that marked the start of the stern. All three of the piscinars it passed were completely covered in acidic blood that ate away scales, flesh, and even into bone. The fishmen fell to the deck, screaming for several seconds until they passed out.
At the same time, Yua put two holes in the torso of her attacker with a double thrust of her spear; it fell over backward. The captain carved into his opponent with a pair of quick slashes, making it stagger back, heavily bloodied. Rowan’s sword, on the other hand, glanced off his foe’s scales when it twisted away from his thrust.
Rai’s sword flashed through the air, wreathed in fire and lightning, with the speed of a Swift Strike art and beheaded the piscinar in front of him. The rest of the piscinars further away assembled into formation, a port-to-starboard line of five with three more behind, while the final one headed over to the door by the stern, slamming his trident into the wooden object.
“We can’t let them get belowdecks!” the captain shouted, barely making his voice heard over the storm. He blocked a thrust from the injured fishman in front of him, shoved the trident aside, and slashed across its chest, sending it to the deck. “Press forward!”
Rowan and his opponent attacked one another simultaneously. The trident caught him in the chest and his sword hit the fishman’s shoulder. Both screamed in pain, but the fishman pushed forward harder, driving Rowan back until his back slammed against the wall. Rai stepped up behind the piscinar and drove his sword through its heart from the back, his sword bursting out its chest.
Isa charged at a slight diagonal toward the center piscinar of the line blocking them, which had no weapon, just like its compatriots on either side. At the same time, Yua charged forward at the portside fishman, lunging with a quick double strike of her spear that could only be powered by an art.
“Silver Rush!”
Isa’s halberd bisected her target, while Yua’s target staggered back with two holes that went almost all the way through in its chest. The injured piscinar attempted to maul Yua with claws and teeth, but its every attack seemed to glide away from her, deflected by her Spirit’s Protection spell. She finished it off with another thrust.
The two closest fishmen flanked and attacked Isa, tearing at her with their claws in a frenzy, ripping through her reinforced scales and sending blood flying. Even so, she reacted swiftly, screaming, “Bloody Counter!” and “Wrath Strike!”, cutting both of them into pieces in retaliation.
For their part, Rai and the Captain rushed the starboard foe, which tried to stab Rai with its trident, only for him to practically flow around it. Their weapons crashed into the piscinar, killing it instantly.
The three further back drew even further back, bunching up to defend the one attacking the door, which was splintering under its assault. They leveled their tridents at the expedition members.
The captain glanced back at Rowan, who was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily.
“Rowan! Status!”
“Injured but still capable!” Rowan yelled back, straightening. The captain barely avoided slipping as he rushed back to his crew member’s side, leaving the other three to take the fight to the defending piscinars – which they did.
Yua’s spear pierced through a heart; Isa’s halberd (accompanied by a shout of “Wrath Strike!”) split a body in two; and Rai’s sword split the air, sending fire and lightning rays surging into the foe he stabbed. The final fishman spun around, the door it was attacking still standing, and let out a keening cry.
Isa stepped forward and hacked it apart.
“Look out!” Rowan shouted.
“Aaargh!” the crew member manning the wheel on the prow cried out at the same time.
Out of the rain and over the railings jumped six more piscinars, evenly spaced on port and starboard sides. Rai immediately realized that these were different, however: they had four arms and were nearly six and a half feet tall. The port enemies each held two tridents in a double-handed grip, while the starboard foes had no weapons at all. Even in the scattered light, their scales were clearly much darker than the two-armed piscinars’; Rai hoped that didn’t mean that they were significantly tougher.
The two closest Rai, both weaponless, attacked from his left and right in a wild yet coordinated flurry of claw swipes. He ducked and weaved, evading some slashes while others deflected off his forcefield armor, but despite his best efforts, a pair of claw slash sets tore through not just clothing but flesh, drawing a pained cry. With a concentrated, explosive burst of qi, Rai utilized his third-tier art Lightning Strike, his sword flashing through the rain as he stabbed the one on his right in the chest before it could react. He hit something major, causing blood to continuously pour from the wound when his blade withdrew from the wound.
He was absolutely savaged by both of them in return, eight sets of claws coming for him and half of them making it through his defenses, leaving him a bloody mess. Gritting his teeth, he swung his sword in a broad arc, slashing through foe and air alike, a ray of fire hitting one and a ray of lightning hitting the other. The previously-struck piscinar went down, still pouring blood. The other lunged, grabbing him and biting down where his neck connected to his shoulder. Only the fact that he was under the effects of his Blazing Soul combat art stance, which caused him to continuously heal, kept him on his feet. He downed the offender with another Swift Strike to its heart, then put a hand to his neck, wincing.
While Rai was engaged with his two foes, the two nearest Yua thrust their total of four tridents at her in a coordinated barrage. She managed to dodge around two, and a third barely swerved past her cheek, but one tore through her side. She stabbed the one on her right, but it deflected the spear with one of its tridents. They separated their weapons and attacked each other again while Isa stepped up to engage the piscinar on Yua’s left, cutting deep with a powerful swing before having her follow-up attack blocked by crossed tridents. The piscinar shoved her halberd back, then stabbed Isa from both sides. Her aura smacked it in the chest, and she followed up with a savage thrust, smashing its ribs. It fell into the railing at the same time that Yua and her opponent stabbed each other, one of the tridents veering to the side while the other struck her in the gut, digging deep. Her spear did the same to the piscinar.
Weapons came out of bodies, and Yua stumbled back. She slipped on the water covering the deck and fell backwards, landing amongst the corpses. The piscinar turned as Isa stepped around Yua to face it, and unleashed a desperate flurry of alternating thrusts at the kobold. Two deflected off her scales, but two struck true, and while she was still stuck in the prongs, it bent down and bit her shoulder.
Releasing her halberd with one hand, she drove her corrosive-blood-trailing claws into its neck with a silent casting of Corrosive Claw. It gurgled, then dropped. She pulled herself free.
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-x-
While Rai, Isa, and Yua were engaged nearer to the stern, Rowan and the captain faced a threat as well. On the starboard side, one of the unarmed four-armed piscinars landed right next to the captain, prompting Rowan’s scream of warning. The captain spun and slashed, his scimitar cutting a deep gash across the fishman’s chest. It grinned and tore at him with all four clawed hands, blood mingling with rain. Rowan moved to be back-to-back with the captain, facing the two-trident-armed piscinar by the opposite railing. It lunged, stabbing first with one and then the other trident. When it pulled out the weapons, he fell to the deck.
The captain yelled, swinging his scimitar two-handed in an X with fervor, driving the injured piscinar into the railing; the fishman barely kept to its feet. It slashed at him once, but he deflected it and countered, cutting the creature down.
Then he was stabbed four times in the back. His body jerked, and he went down.
An instant later, the crew member who had been manning the wheel came flying down to land in broken heap on the deck, and another four-armed piscinar, this one wielding four tridents (one in each hand), stepped up to the edge of the raised desk where the wheel was. It let out a savage cry.
“The crew is down!” Yua shouted, rising.
“Wrath Bolt!” Rai cast, a flaming lightning bolt shooting from his hand at an upward angle, aimed to pass through the four-weapon piscinar. The fishman moved as he cast, and the bolt merely grazed it. The flames and lightning still did some damage, but it was relatively minor.
“Sizzling Blood!” Isa called out, casting her newest second circle spell. A narrow spray of green-tinged blood, shaped like a bolt or arrow, shot out of her hand and zipped through the air, landing on the four-trident fishman’s chest. It immediately began sizzling and popping, eating away at scales and flesh. The piscinar let out a gurgling cry, then leaped down from the upper deck.
“I’m going to grab support!” Yua said, rushing back to the damaged rear door and ripping it open. “Healers! We need help!”
The two piscinars moved swiftly to chase down the elf, but Rai and Isa intercepted them. Rai stepped in front of the four-weapon fishman and used Silver Parry, catching one of the tridents before twisting and slashing, throwing the piscinar off-balance. Using the last of his qi, he followed up with a combined Lightning Strike thrust and Thunder Sunder ray creator. The piscinar jolted. Acidic blood continued to sizzle. Its eyes went blank.
Two piscinar bodies thudded to the deck, dead, Isa and Rai standing above them.
The divine mages arrived a few seconds later.
“The crew are down over there!” Rai shouted over the pounding rain.
Rowan and the captain, both bleeding out, were saved by healing spells just in time, but the victory was still a sour one: Alan, the other crew member, had died. Once everyone had been fully healed (by the divine mages and Isa, draining them of a significant amount of mana), they began vomit-inducing process of throwing the corpses – and partial corpses – overboard, where the bodies were immediately set upon by sharks. In the process, Rai discovered that the toughest one – the one that had four tridents – had on a pendant necklace – a magical pendant necklace.
He immediately studied it with Discern Flow.
“This… this controls bodies of water,” he said incredulously, voice lost to the winds. “That’s why the sea wasn’t choppy despite the storm. And it has runes indicating… this is a Tower Era artifact.” He put it in the pouch and then dragged the piscinar to the railing and, with the help of the captain, tossed it overboard.
After removing any important possessions, they also let Alan’s body into the ocean, since it would simply rot if they kept it on board. After returning down below, the captain held a short funeral service for him. Once it was over, he headed back up with the pendant to man the wheel, using the command words Rai had uncovered to keep the sea around the ship calm.
People slept fitfully that night.
-x-
There were no further incidents for the rest of the ocean voyage, and eventually the jungle island that was their destination came into sight. It was a large island, known to be at least a hundred miles in diameter, which meant that there would be much ground to cover.
“Rai,” the captain said as they all stood on deck, looking toward the island during their approach. “We’re down a man already, and we haven’t even made landfall. Do you really think you can keep everyone else alive?”
Rai contemplated how to answer. “I will do everything in my power to do so, but I will prioritize protecting the defenseless over those who can fight.”
“A good answer. You and Isa may be stronger than the rest of us, but you’re not strong enough to protect everyone at the same time. Do what you can, and the rest will be as the gods will it.”
When they got closer, the captain spotted small lagoon with an opening just big enough for the ship to fit through and guided the vessel in before dropping anchor. It was already early evening, so they decided to spend the night on the ship and begin their exploration the next day. The night was noisy with the sounds of insects and wild beasts but uneventful, as nothing attempted to board the ship.
The next morning, they lowered the boarding plank and disembarked.
“Remember, everyone: Isa, Yua, and I will be in the front, Cap and Rowan will be in the back, two combat-capable mages will be on one side, the other combat-capable mage will be on the other side, and the healers and noncombatants will be in the middle,” Rai said as they organized themselves. “There are plenty of things to be interested about on this island besides our target, so I will understand if you want to slow down and take notes on a plant or animal… but don’t do it without making sure the rest of us know that’s what’s going on! We don’t want to lose anyone else. This is a hostile environment full of all sorts of dangers, so we need to stay sharp and watch each others’ backs. I want to hear everyone say ‘I understand.’”
A chorus of voices responded.
“Good. Then, Yua, you and Serpa will guide us in our search.”
“Aye, Leader.”
The jungle was thick and difficult to traverse; there were no trails, not even animal paths. There were plenty of exotic creatures, from four-winged birds with rainbow-colored plumage to giant centipedes over ten feet long to two-tailed jungle cats that could change the coloration of their coats to blend into the environment to a variety of lizards of different shapes and sizes. There were also ambulatory plants, some of which definitely looked carnivorous, and loads of bugs. The group moved slowly, partially due to the terrain and foliage and partly due to the fact that the scholars were constantly wanting to stop to catalogue unusual specimens.
Yua used throwing knives to ground several birds and her snake Serpa successfully squeezed a cross between a wolf and a boar to death in the late afternoon, and the group quickly used magic and blades to prepare them for consumption, while Rai used his new-and-improved spicer – the recreated and upgraded version of the magic tool he gave to Isa’s tribe – to flavor the meat. Yua gathered some wild plants and collected their leaves to add to the dish (after using magic to test them for poison). The group was in the middle of eating when they were surrounded by a pack of a half dozen hairless, horse-sized, six-legged wolves.
Yua noticed them first and abandoned her food, grabbing her bow and nocking an arrow as she rose to her feet, keeping her weapon trained on the wolf closest to her. Isa and Rai, realizing what was happening, were the next to stand, pulling out their weapons and readying themselves, spreading out to face two other wolves. The captain and Rowan, on the other side of the group, leapt to their feet a moment later, looking toward another wolf, and the combat-capable scholastic mages followed suit, preparing to do battle with the other two wolves, one on either side of the group.
The wolves howled as one even as the mages cast their defensive magics, then charged. Each wolf’s fangs found their mark, sinking into the legs of their targets. Then shook their heads with a vigorous twist and slammed Yua, Rai, Isa, Rowan, one of the second-circle mages, and the third circle mage to the ground before letting go.
“Hah!”
Channeling his qi, Rai slashed open his wolf’s throat, nearly severing its head. Blood gushed down onto him, followed by the wolf itself collapsing on top of him.
Guided Blow, Isa thought, casting her newest first circle spell – one that could actually (slightly) manipulate fate itself to line up an attack and increase the chances of dealing critical damage. Her halberd briefly glowed white, and then she swung it into the side of her wolf’s neck, chopping off its head in a shower of blood. Its body fell, pinning her to the ground.
Serpa lunged at the wolf that had hurt her master, sinking her teeth into the wolf’s throat and wrapping her bulk around its body, squeezing and cracking bones. The wolf struggled, but Yua got to her feet and put an arrow between its eyes before spinning and shooting the wolf attacking the third-circle scholastic mage in the side, distracting it long enough for said mage to scramble back and to his feet.
“Flame Burst!” all three scholastic mages cast, shooting blasts of fire at the wolves on either side of the group. The one menacing the two lower-circle mages jumped back and shook itself vigorously, but burns still covered its body, if lightly. The one with the arrow sticking out of its side took the blast head on and was more badly burned. Both wolves struck again. But the forcefield armor of their targets managed to stop their teeth. Another set of blasts and another arrow brought them both down.
The captain gripped his scimitar with both hands and hacked repeatedly at the wolf threatening Rowan, turning its attention to him, but it was unable to find an opening before he brought it down as well.
From start to finish, the entire battle lasted less than fifteen seconds.