The squidlings recovered quickly, slowly making their way for Kewari. Despite outnumbering her, they approached cautiously as if she might combust at any moment. Malysseus’s thoughts strayed to whether or not the squidlings had encountered Wizards previously. It would explain their hesitation, even approaching one individual if they had. Particularly at one individual. Most Wizards worked alone.

Springing to action, he spun the wheel, likely sending the people below deck into a new round of illness. The ship jerked, causing Kewari to nearly topple over. Luckily, she had proper sea legs and managed to hold on by grabbing the edge of the trapdoor’s frame. The squidlings didn’t flinch, causing him to curse. The stupid creatures had suction cups on the bottom of their human-looking feet.

Malysseus yelled to Kewari as he slowly righted the ship, “Close that door!”

He had been hoping she would duck below deck and bar the trapdoor. Instead, she came onto the deck, closing the trapdoor firmly behind her. She took in each squidling, noting where they were stationed. Some color drained from her face as she realized she was surrounded, but she displayed no other signs of weakness.

As the ship righted its heading—as much as it could in a storm—the squidlings approached the lone healer. Malysseus grit his teeth as he steadied the wheel, locking it into place. He wanted to start blasting the interlopers to smithereens, but his Mana was still recovering from his practice earlier. The whole point of his exercise was to strain his reservoir since converting essence was much more strenuous than summoning it. The reservoir was strained.

He started to slowly approach, creeping forward bit by bit. The squidlings didn’t notice him, at least not yet, so he continued with the process. He kept his eyes on them every bit of the way. Kewari kept her head on a swivel as the creatures slowly approached her. She searched for an opening, looking for any way to punish the monsters for their mistakes.

She got her chance when a solitary squidling steeled some of its nerves, charging alone. The squidling summoned a small spear with magic of its own, holding the spear level as it charged. The other squidlings stopped their advance, watching to see what happened to their fellow. Kewari waited. Her muscles tensed. With perfect timing, she ducked underneath the spear, twirling like a dancer, and punched him directly in the solar plexus. She was a sailor, not a slouch.

Malysseus was still too far to charge with his cutlass. The enemies were so focused on Kewari that they didn’t notice his continual approach. He mentally prepared himself as he crept forward, readying the magic intention in his mind.

Two more squidlings charged after Kewari from opposite sides. She moved toward the first, meeting the creature before they could sandwich her. The first stab passed by her side as she slipped it. She ducked under the second strike by dipping her shoulder. The creature lunged for its third attack, and she used the creature’s momentum to send it toppling into the other squidling. She carried no weapons but had already brought three of them to their backs. Unfortunately, the first opponent started recovering, making her outnumbered three to one.

Kewari continued a series of martial arts moves as Malysseus drew ever closer. Two miserable circumstances happened simultaneously. The first was a squidling on the outskirts catching Malysseus in the act as he stealthed closer, calling forth its spear. The squid beak happily chirped as the creature threatened him.

The second unfortunate instance was the innovation of a particularly smart squidling. Seeing an opening, it threw its spear at Kewari without giving her a chance to retaliate. The spear impacted her in the elbow, severely limiting the mobility of her left arm. With a single move, her martial ability sank. And that was the advantage raw strength of numbers could bring to battle.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Malysseus was left with no choice but to call upon his magic power. Calling on ice magic, he locked the squidling in front of him in place. It nearly tripped over its ankles. The creature mouthed a string of unintelligible clicks—a language of some kind—and tried to stab the ice at its feet. He rushed past the beast, heading for the melee where Kewari was on the defensive.

She slipped through stab after stab, weaving through spears. His eyes were glued as he rushed to her aid. It was a deadly dance where a single mistake could be the end. Malysseus passed by a squidling as he ran for the melee. Drawing his cutlass, he bisected the creature, not even stopping his strides. He felt good about it. The easy victory would have spurred a braggadocious speech if danger weren’t still afoot.

Finally, Malysseus and Kewari joined forces, only a few feet from the trapdoor to the belly of the ship. He stood with her, fighting back to back, as he knocked aside spears with the flat of his blade. Sparks of harmless ice crystals sprayed from the cutlass with every block.

Kewari, feeling some of the pressure alleviated, started to fight back against her opponent as Malysseus dueled the other two. With a swirl, he knocked aside two spears at the same time. Casting with his free hand, he started peppering his opponents with tiny ice crystals.

“Cover me,” she said, the request half pleading and half authoritarian. Since Malysseus was already in the process of casting ice magic, he focused the same energy into a new spell. As he tugged on the threads of magic within himself, a small dome of ice formed around the old friends.

“We’re covered,” he said. “That dome will only hold for a half minute or so, especially if they get the idea of attacking it. What do we do?”

Without a word, Kewari grunted as she wrested the spear from her arm. She started the process of healing the spear. Opening his eyes to the flow of Mana, Malysseus watched Mana flood out of her in droves. Her body was nearly drained by the time she was done, but her arm was completely healed.

“Try not to get yourself injured,” she said. “If I have to heal you again, I’m going to pass out. Or worse.”

“Ready?” he asked, certainly uninterested in getting injured.

“Ready.”

Focusing intensely, Malysseus wrapped his Mana around the dome. He exploded the ice dome into small fragments and sent the fragments hurtling away from him and Kewari. A chorus of soft clicking noises quickly shifted to distressed cries and rapid angry squidling words.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Kewari said.

Feeling the focus of a battle trance, he did not reply. Instead, Malysseus leaped into combat with the now-injured pair of squidlings. One of the squidlings lunged. He kicked the spear aside with his left foot. Stepping into the original trajectory of the attack, he slashed twice into his first enemy, sending it tumbling—dead.

The second enemy, sensing an opening, attacked with its spear, aiming directly for his heart. Before the weapon could land, Malysseus formed a large shard of ice and sent it blasting into the chest of his other opponent. The monster was sent soaring, landing overboard with a hole in its chest.

Next to him, using her skilled dodging to outmaneuver the opponent, Kewari broke the leg of one of her opponents. She stepped forward, grabbed another squidling, and threw it overboard with a surge of Mana. He heard a second crack, knowing that the enemy wouldn’t return any time soon. Although he was feeling proud of his friend, Malysseus felt the heightened anxiety and adrenaline of time slowing.

The squidlings had trouble finding more openings in the melee without endangering their fellows. Instead, they had slowly approached, while attention was elsewhere, and fully boxed in the Captain and his Second Mate. Even the one from the ice had been freed.

None of that would cause issues on its own. The spear sailing directly for Kewari’s gut, on the other hand, was a grave problem with her unable to heal injuries. Malysseus needed to make a split-second decision. So he did.

He reached for his Mana, holding nothing back. He tapped all of his Mana at once. His body, mind, and soul all strained to the brink as he tried to form the sum of his Mana into a brutal spell attack.

He formed the spell. His body tried to answer the call of his intentions, vague as they were. In the end, the spell’s purpose constructed what he was searching for, most of all, in his subconsciousness. Lightning magic erupted from his body, bolts of lightning striking in all directions. The eye of the storm broke, raging anew as his spell wreaked havoc on the ship’s deck.

One of the sails caught a bolt of lightning, catching fire. Two crates on the deck were downright destroyed by rogue bolts. The squidlings, as well, were obliterated by the lightning. Kewari was—

Malysseus blacked out, falling unconscious.