With the dwindling of boarding Bloated and the recession of the giants' attacks, the first wave of the Orphan's assault was driven back. Nasira was half a breath close from letting a sigh of relief but held it, knowing this was just the beginning. Then that sigh released as one of exasperation when beneath the waves, the corpses of boats arose like great sharks of splinter and shrapnel. She had accounted for many scenarios, but never could she have imagined the absurdity she witnessed now. Thanks to the combined efforts of Kimiko and the Lervondas, at least, one of the smaller boats crumpled apart, leaving only its twin and the Dounderlun behind in their wake.
Then the Dounderlun lunged forward and clamped its jagged maw against the Lervondas's aft, the arisen abomination of wood, iron, and tar trying to drag them all down into the depths. With a roar louder and fiercer than those of the Lervondas itself, Caitlin practically throw herself towards the stern, straining with all her cursed and divine energy to free her vessel, their vessel, from the clamping jaws of this makeshift beast. Hurrying over to Caitlin's side, Nasira wrapped one arm around Caitlin's, embers of strength flowing through and empowering the tentacle's musculature in its effort to break the monster's hold. Then she wrapped her other arm around Caitlin's tentacle and aided in her pull, not bolstered by flame but using her inherent strength nonetheless.
"You were mourned, Dounderlun, but your time has ended. Return to rest, upon your deathbed beneath the waves...!"
The Orphan was tough, but not vulnerable, huh? Even Revache's broken hand made it feel pain. His skin was unyielding... and wasn't that bad? Sword had trouble beating on the soft loser chaff, not shattering glass. She'd beaten samurai to death in full plate, then propped them back up like nothing was wrong. The shock from her blows liquefied them inside their armor. But argh, so far away! The rat chick could bounce across the water like a ninja, but her strength couldn't carry her with a safe jump. And would it even work?
She had a way to check her theory: that fucking boat eating their ass. The way they were talking about it, and how what, William, had mentioned it, clearly it was part of the other Pilgrims' adventures here.
"We're gonna mourn this one, alright? I wanna have that on the fuckin' docket when we're outta here. Now that it's loosened up..." Sword climbed to the back of the boat, confident, eyes wide. She took a wide stance, right next to Nasira and Cait. "You need one last jerk to push it off us, like, obvy. This is called a Tet... su..." She twisted her body, took a wide stance, low. Both arms up. Then, she shoved up and backwards, throwing the back of her shoulder into the Dounderlun's prow in an explosive bodycheck attack. "ZANKOOOOO!!"
roaming, lurking, arguing
The Lervondas
The ship shuddered in pain, as the corrupted Dounderlun heaved its full weight onto the aft. Inch by inch, the Lervondas was pushed into the water, with the wild sea rushing over the deck. Caitlin screamed and cursed, as she tried to yank the giant wrack off, but her efforts might as well amounted to an ant trying to push a bull. Even Nasira rushing to her side and trying to help did nothing to pull the maddened Dounderlun away.
But then Sword appeared and slammed herself into the Dounderlun's bow with a mighty cry. This finally had an effect, as the Oni's tremendous strength made the blackened ship groan over the impact. Caitlin and Nasira pulled again and suddenly the bow of the Dounderlun shuddered and creaked.
With a loud, screeching cacophony of breaking wood and shattering iron, the Dounderlun slipped off the aft and crashed back into the sea. Cold spray showered the Pilgrims, as they were rewarded with the corrupted vessels frustrated roar.
WHAM!
Everyone was thrown off their feet, as the second ship rammed into their portside. With the Lervondas slowed down by the Dounderlun, it had pulled around and had gone onto ramming course. Wood splintered, as its coral-encrusted bow broke through the Lervondas side, making the ship roar in pain.
The impact threw Caitlin and Nasira nearly over the railing, but in the last second someone grabbed them by the shoulder and pulled them back. "I have you!", yelled Masaru. Then he grunted, as something hit him in the shoulder. An arrow had logded itself into his flesh. The undead general looked over his shoulder and then stepped before Caitlin. Several more arrows hit him, causing him to groan in discomfort. A shower of arrows hit the deck, aiming mainly for the pirate captain, who was keeping the Lervondas on course.
A blubbered battlecry echoed over the shop, as a crew of Bloated rushed over the bow of the corrupted ship and jumped onto the Lervondas. Up front, three massive creatures, that consisted of little more than a grotesque array of flesh, limbs and wailing faces, crudely held together by black ink. The same creature that Poppy had encountered back then. And already they threw their heavy bodies onto the deck and towards the main-mast.
"Throw them back! If we lose the sail, we're sitting ducks!", yelled Masaru, pulling out an arrow from his shoulder. "And we need to finish off the Dounderlun, before she comes around for another run!"
Suddenly, Aisha jumped from the water onto the railing. "There is a huge hole in the hull. We are taking on water!", she said, visibly trying to remain calm.
"Then someone needs to go to the Kiln and power it up!", ordered Masaru.
"On it!", yelled Revache, storming under deck.
Masaru nodded, before storming onto the main deck and laying into the Bloated with his blade.
Urzael meanwhile suddenly set down near Poppy on the crows nest. He breathed heavily, sweat running from his face, the exertion visible. Still, his eyes glowed with grim determination, as he looked out towards the Orphan, who was still holding his face and ranting mad against nothing.
"Our foe is distracted and vulnerable. On my own, I doubt I will bother him too much.", he explained, before looking down on Poppy and reaching out to her with his gauntlet. "What say you, Little Poppy? Shall we defy the Terror and shatter his pretension of perfection?"
Edited by TheNohen on Dec 1st 2022 at 6:52:24 PM
The Light That Blinds
Val
Val screeched in shock and leapt back as—holy crap, a LOT was happening, wow. Okay. Status review. Hole in the Lervondas, Dounderlun on the rear, unnamed ship on the right. Cool. Cool.
What was he supposed to do? He was out in the open and ill-suited for oceanic combat, and turning arrows into butterflies didn't seem like enough right now. They needed to get rid of the ships some...how...
And then Val had an idea.
It was so crazy it could never work—but no points for not trying.
"Aim for the eyes!" he yelled up at Poppy and Urzael as he ran over to the other boat, clearing the gap with a graceful leap. He landed on the deck and dashed up to where the helmsman stood, steering with another Bloated as his guard.
Easy targets. Val brought his staff down on the guard before he could even react, smashing the Bloated's skull like a melon. The helmsman, too, barely had time to turn around before his head was smashed between a staff and the wheel.
Grinning, Val grabbed the wheel. "Attention, passengers! We may experience some unexpected turbulence, please hold onto the railing or jump overboard if you don't wanna die!"
And with that, he spun the ship around and drove it straight into the Dounderlun.
(Presumably, he'd jump back onto the Lervondas before this maneuver could accidentally kill him.)
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Breath of the Sun
Kimiko
She'd tried her damndest to break the other ship, but had abandoned the attempt to respond to the Dounderlun - only for Sword to beat her to the punch.
Cursing at the newly swarming enemies, Kimiko rushed to meet the flesh golems before they could reach the mast.
She spun her chain around herself, and the effect was much like a buzzsaw as she mowed down the regular Bloated. Before she could move on to the Flesh Golems, her gaze flicked back over to the Dounderlun. A thought popped into her head, and Kimiko grinned.
She cartwheeled over to the main mast, to defend it from the bigger monsters. Then she jumped back to gain distance, adjusting her angle, before rocketing forward, picking up as much momentum as possible, and jump-kicking one of them in the face as hard as she could.
If her aim was correct - and the monster wasn't too heavy - the thing would go flying towards the Dounderlun. Whether it did any damage, she wasn't sure, but it would hopefully at least slow the thing.
Regardless of her success, she would continue to attack the Bloated and the Flesh Golems, hoping to keep their attention on her rather than the mast.
"I've got these guys!" She called out. "You all focus on the other ships!"
Edited by kagescorpionakki on Dec 1st 2022 at 2:04:07 PM
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
AKA Nixer
Captain Holloway
Success! After a few hiccups, of course. Her and Nasira's efforts were fruitful thanks to the assistance from Sword, and they'd successfully pulled the Dounderlon off of their literal tail. Grinning, she threw her arms around Nasira and gave her a quick smooch on the lips in celebration. Then turned away before it could even be acknowledged and looked around the ship to take an assessment of the situation.
Val had hijacked one of the ships and was clearly enjoying himself. That was... happening.
Caitlin blinked, incredulous for a moment, before shaking her head good-naturedly and leaping into the fray to address the latest invasion of their ship. She was getting somewhat tired of the constant onslaught, but she supposed that was exactly the point. The Orphan and his minions hardly intended fun, so she decided that she'd have to make her own instead.
"Oy there! Spare a few for the weaker lasses won't you?!" Cait hollered to Kimiko as she entered the fray against the Bloated and Flesh Golems, her sword whirling like that thing that hadn't been invented yet (and probably would never be) as she did her best to cover Kimiko from behind. For a second her accent had slipped, though her expression was jovial and pleased that their combined efforts had managed to rip the bowsprit off of the Dounderlon. "I can hardly take out a ship on my own, after all! So give me some room for fun, hmm? We're not far from shore now...!"
Out of particularly targeted spite, she grabbed the wrist of one Bloated and transferred her Black Spot onto his flesh, marking the second time that she'd cursed a Bloated in this shard. Nonchalantly kicking him overboard, presumably to drown in his deathly panic, she mixed in Windblasts and swipes from her Tendril to clear the deck as quickly as possible.
"Poor darling of a ship! We'll need to patch her up once this is all taken care of...!" she remarked, glancing at Kimiko as they fought. "That, and each other! This Shard is particularly disgusting, in my opinion...! Though I doubt that's being contested much!"
bork
An Ordinary Oddball
Poppy Blake
Green motes of witchlight danced around Poppy like tiny will-o-wisps as Poppy clasped Urzael's gauntlet with a strength that belied her frail body and nodded. The crow's nest unfurled around them, reconfiguring with an organic, undulating grace as vines pulled themselves back and latched onto indentations and newly-formed knots in wood. What they were in now was a makeshift trebuchet, designed to launch them both into the thick of things.
"Pardon me for but a moment," Poppy said as she clambered onto the knight. "It will be easier for you to maneuver in the air and fight if I am on your back, you see, and I will be able to aim over your head. And if you but give me the word, we may yet serve as reminders that all things, great and small, must pass."
The vines of the ship tensed as if to underscore Poppy's determination.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Dec 2nd 2022 at 8:53:07 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
roaming, lurking, arguing
The Lervondas
"Pass they will, indeed. If not on their own, then made so by those of righteous will." Urzael kneeled down, as the vines began to tense. His wings spread out, loose feathers falling from them. An almost eager, grim smile played over his lips, as he clenched his fist.
As Poppy grabbed onto his back, for a moment, she could feel a shudder run down her spine. An instinctual feeling of fear flashing through her mind and a sudden, homocidial urge. Too dangerous...too dangerous, you idiot. Kill him! End him, before he ends you... The cloth of Urzael's tunic began to slowly rot beneath her fingers..
The feeling was gone as quickly as it had appeared and the rotting stopped. Urzael seemed to have noticed nothing, as he was entirely focused on the Orphan. "Hold on tight, Little Poppy!", he said and tensed visibly.
Then, they were launched into the sky.
Wind whipped past them, grasping as Poppy's hair like hand trying to pull her away. Beneath them nothing but the dark sea and whatever horros lied beneath. Then Urzael beat his wings and they soared under their own power.
The Orphan didn't notice them, until it was too late. Holding his wounded eye, he only saw them approach, when they were mere feet away from him. With an angry howl, he send two black tendrils towards them.
Urzael grunted and his naked arm began to burn with blazing fire. As the tendrils slammed into them, he thrust his burning hand and flame-touched sword into each. With a loud hiss, they burned off before they could touch Poppy. The only thing reaching the little girl was hot air and the stinging smell of burned oil.
"Now, Poppy!", barked Urzael.
Edited by TheNohen on Dec 3rd 2022 at 10:17:44 AM
????
All momentum Nasira's thoughts had in observing and adapting her tactics in real time hit a brick wall the moment Cait's lips touched her own. Standing dumbfounded and inarticulate for a few moments, Nasira turned to where the captain was, only to find empty space, Caitlin having already moved further along to help Kimiko with the flesh golems on center deck. With a red face and stiff shoulders, Nasira shook off the fleeting moment and forcibly dragged her mind back to the urgent present.
Can't let myself get distracted, no distractions, no distractions, the djinn repeated to herself, sweeping her gaze at the overarching scene. ...address it later. Right now... where can I help most...?
Poppy and Urzael attacking the Orphan. Revache fueling the Kiln. Kimiko and Caitlin defending the mast. Val steering the enemy ship. For her own part, Nasira was fortunate that, for that brief window, the enemies were clear of the aft; it afforded her time to reassess the situation. It was a simple assessment.
Val needs to a way to reboard!
Running over to the least damaged aft railing, Nasira grabbed a length of rope and conjured a weight to anchor its end, shouting to Val with fire in her diaphragm to project her voice further.
"I'll throw you a line; be ready to grab it once the boat slips under!"
An Ordinary Oddball
Poppy Blake
Poppy fought down the fear and thought it was aimed at the Orphan, though she also fought the instinct to pull back from Urzael as they hurtled through the air. For a single, weightless moment, she was able to experience the wonder of flight, thinking I'm flying, I'm flying! to herself breathlessly. But before her eyes, the Orphan reared up to halt her and Urzael's passage. And thus, spell circles manifested in a halo around her, crackling with sickly green magic. A scent of ozone and rot suffused the air.
Then a blast of Poppy's magic slammed into the Pretender, forcefully and with great prejudice.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Dec 12th 2022 at 5:35:13 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Sword had only a moment to whirl around and admire her handiwork before she ate shit as the second boat nailed them dead-on, apparently blowing a hole clean in the hull. She sprawled across the deck, thunking and rolling and cursing, ricocheted off a rail on the forecastle, and fell straight down the stairs. Her head spun and she dug her nails into the boat's deck to stand up into a hunch like a murderous drunk to look for a target. Was the mast safe? Maybe, but no, she wasn't leaving this work to a damn newbie. Using the goons as projectiles, that was a hell of a trick!
"Lemme show you how we do it in the Guilds! Who taught you how to fight, Kim? Can I call you Kim? Or Kicchan? What does your... ninja clan...? call you?" Sword asked over the cacophony of battle, casually hefting a flesh golem overhead and hurling it like a cannonball into the Dounderlun, splattering it into the hull like a rotten watermelon. She scowled and shrugged; not enough damage for her liking. "I never saw a ninja, unless Val counts. You'd be my first, if you are one at all." Murder, then: Sword smashed one in the gut, sending it staggering back as it dropped its boarding hook. She opened her fist and the hook teleported into her hand as she followed through on her punch, and as she drew her arm back she passed another golem, embedding the hook in its flesh as her arm drove by to wind up into another megaton punch, arm winding up like you'd wind a crossbow before she swung again, throwing all her body weight into the next punch to try to smash as much golem mass as possible.
roaming, lurking, arguing
The Lervondas
The Orphan scowled angrily, as his black tendrils were scorched away by Urzael. Through the momentary smoke, he peaked intensely with his one functioning eye, trying to make out what was happening behind it.
A strange green glow, that grew stronger with each heartbeat...
His eyes went wide, as suddenly an acute sense of danger awakened within him. A blast of green energy shot towards him and the Orphan came to a complete halt and hastily raised his arms.
The impact could be heard all the way back on the Lervondas. The swirling tornado of ichor and seawater stopped, halted even in its lazy circles. The Orphan hissed in pain, but was...largely unharmed. The rot could not get a hold on his perfect skin, failing to penetrate into his body to start its work. But it had left its mark on the porcelain-like surface, creating tiny webbed cracks and blemishes. Further staining the perfection of the mad Pretender.
"How dare you? How dare YOU!? HOW FUCKING DAAAARE YOU!!!!" The Orphan roared and over half a dozen ichor-tentacles burst forth.
Too much for Urzael, who beat a hasty retreat with Poppy on his back, beating his wings and diving down, hounded by the Orphans strikes.
Meanwhile, Kimiko and Sword fought back to back, isolated in the whirling melee that had broken out on the main deck. Masaru, Caitlin and Willam...they were all busy themselves fighting off the small horde of corrupted Bloated, that tried to push through by sheer weight of numbers, leaving the two alone to deal with the Flesh Golems.
Kimiko drop-kicked the first one at full speed, her clawed feet sinking into the disgustingly soft flesh, like she had hit a pillow. Nonetheless, thanks to the boost of her divine ability, it careened back. Too heavy to truly be turned into a projectile, the golem only crashed over the railing and into the sea, but it took it out of the fight.
Sword then grabbed the second one and put her full strength into throwing the monstrosity. She too came up a bit short, mostly because even with her prodigious strength, trying to strike the Dounderlun with an unwilling projectile over several hundred feet was a bit of a tall order. She followed it up by disemboweling the last Golem, before burying her fist into it, splattering flesh and black ink into every direction.
For a brief moment the Flesh Golem staggered and looked like it was about to give out. But then it suddenly roared back to life. Like Poppy had experienced before, these Flesh Golems were even tougher than they looked. Where Swords punch would have killed any other enemy, the Golem's sheer mass absorbed her punch like wet clay. Ink pooled back to plug the gaps left by her and swirl around to form new flesh.
It rushed past the two, dragging the surprised Oni with it and slamming into the main mast. But then Sword dug her heels in and Kimiko let her chain fly and wrapped it around the mass of flailing limbs and screaming faces. Both women then pulled with all they had, slowly pulling the bucking, grotesque monster away from the mast, before it could do worse.
But the damage had already been done. The entire wooden mast shuddered and a nasty crack criss-crossed up to its tip. The sails were knocked out of alignment and with Caitlin busy trying to prevent them from being boarded, the Lervondas started to enter an unwilling turn to port.
A loud, monstrous roar echoed over the rough sea, as the corrupted Dounderlun saw her chance. With her maw once again wide open, the collossal ship picked up speed to crash into the Lervondas as she made her turn.
But then...just as the two ships were about to collide, the Dounderlun was struck in its side. The other corrupted ship, that had just a few minutes before wounded the Lervondas, had suddenly made an unplanned circle around and smashed into the Dounderlun from the other side.
The Dounderlun screeched in pain, ripples going through its ichor-hull. Twisting in a way no ship should be able to, it spotted the tiny, colourful figure standing on the aftdeck, that had caused this accident. The monstrous Dounderlun stared down on a grinning Valentin, who gave it a cheeky salute, before diving overboard.
Roaring in rage, the Dounderlun opened its maw and rammed its teeth into the hapless ship before it, devouring it in four brutal bites and scattering ichor and splinters everywhere.
Once again, Val was under water. The sea was so churned up and violent by all the chaos going on, that the violent currents picked him up pretty much immediately, flinging him around like a ball.
Suddenly, a splash. A smoke-shaped anchor dropped into the dark water next to him, shimmering with everburning embers. But before the young man could reach it, his hand was yanked away, as something had grabbed him by his foot.
A look down revealed the flesh golem Sword had tossed away. Its many mouths opened to a muffled, muted scream, as it tried to drag Val with it into the the abyss. Many hands reached out to grasp at his clothes, dig their nails into his flesh.
Then a blade buried itself into the golem. Then a second one. And a third and fourth and fifth one. Within moments, the monster was impaled by several fin-blades.
Gleaming in the darkness and illuminating the terrible waters with their luminescent light, were the Nesiree. Their faces filled with grim determination, they cut into the corrupted beast and tore it apart. An elegant hand grasped Val's own, long fingers interlocking with his. He looked up and saw the face of Daria, who gave him a bright, encouraging smile. She pulled him up, grasped the anchor rope and they both were hauled back to the Lervondas.
"How are things looking?", asked Urzael, without missing a beat, as he came to a rough landing on the ichor-slick deck of the Lervondas. Sweat poured from his face, blood dripped from his left shoulder where he took a blow from a tentacle that had aimed for Poppy.
Masaru grunted, as he yanked his blade out of a corpse and tossed it back into the sea. "We are stuck in a turn. Sword and Kimiko need help. The ship is still taking on water, with no word from Revache.", he said.
A screech interrupted both. The Orphan further back had finally had enough. Gesturing wildly, it plunged downwards, with the ink-storm behind it suddenly diving back into the water. A wide, pitchblack oil-slick spread out over the water.
Passing them by, it quickly overtook them and rose up between them and the island, that was now oh so close. Suddenly, the ink-like oil convulsed and spasmed. With violent twitch, it snapped upwards, yanking coral, stones, wreckages and corpses out of the sea. Within a heartbeat an impromptu chain of rocks and tiny islands had formed in front of them, ready to have the Lervondas crash into it.
"And we are about to run aground.", added Masaru. He turned and yelled. "Caitlin!?"
"I'll help the Nezingen and Oni.", snapped Urzael, drew his sword and dashed towards the main mast.
"What about her?", asked Willam, who was helping Nasira pull Valentin and the other Nesiree on board and pointed behind them. The Dounderlun once again had picked up the chase, ready to serve as the hammer to the ink-rocks anvil. Leaving bits and pieces of herself behind, the massive ship was on its last legs.
Driven by its unworldy rage, it very much intended to drag the Lervondas with it to a watery grave.
Edited by TheNohen on Dec 12th 2022 at 7:42:55 PM
AKA Nixer
Captain Holloway
"On it!" Holloway hollered in response to Masaru, as she plunged her sword for the last time into a Bloated's torso before wrenching her blade free and breaking away from the fight, sprinting back up to Lervondas' helm. She scowled as she saw the battered Dounderlon behind them, but she knew this was their chance to finally sink the wretched ship. Gripping the wheel, she used her experience navigating the Dire Waters in Panthalassa to carefully weave the crippled Lervondas through the rocks and islands. There was barely any room, but she'd be lying if she said she hadn't seen worse. This was child's play compared to the average trip to Caeligg, in terms of precision manoeuvres. But this process was considerably harder considering that the sails were no longer under the control of the Lervondas; meaning that Cait and her impromptu crew would have to do this the old-fashioned way.
"Anyone, for gods' sakes take the sails and help me with this bloody thing! Knock that nasty ship into the rocks while you're at it!" she called out, glancing back over her shoulder at Dounderlon and attempting to dupe it into running aground. "Smash it to pieces! We're almost out of this!"
If this darling ship is ruined, that accursed Orphan will go straight to the damned Abyss.
The ichor-slick deck wasn't helping things either, especially when she was trying to weave a ship using a giant wheel with practically no grip in her boots. Caitlin mentally added a wash to her ever-expanding list of things she needed to get done once they were out of this situation.
Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 12th 2022 at 7:01:27 PM
bork
Breath of the Sun
Kimiko
Before she could respond to Sword's question, the third Golem surprised them both by charging faster than she'd expected. Her chain sank into twisted flesh, but it wasn't enough to stop it from ramming the mast.
She winced at the crack, but thankfully she was able to pry the thing away before it did any more damage.
"Kicchan is fine!" Kimiko finally called back to Sword as the two of them pulled the monster away. "And I'll tell you about my childhood once we kill this fucking thing!"
Her arms strained with effort as the thing thrashed against her grip. She couldn't afford to let go with either arm. Fortunately, she had another limb that wasn't constrained.
Her tail began to snatch up the weapons dropped by the dead Bloated, taking anything within reach and flinging it at the Golem, aiming for its legs to cripple it and whatever passed for its head to hopefully blind it.
She then caught a familiar face flying towards them.
"Urzael! Help us kill this thing so we can move the sails!"
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
An Ordinary Oddball
Poppy Blake
As they wheeled away from the Orphan, Poppy craned her head around and narrowed her eyes at the mad Pretender, already seeing that a sheen of green sea algae was coalescing around the cracks blasted by her almighty blow. If they had another occasion to do another fly-by, it was possible that she could leverage it into another opportunity, though the chance was thin. As the Orphan shrank into a speck in the distance, Poppy held on tight to the Ashen Knight and turned around to bury her head into his shoulder.
Sliding off of Urzael as they landed, Poppy lifted herself back into the rigging again with the intention of getting the sails back under control, with vines growing and lashing together the cracks in the main sail, fusing together for a temporary fix as the little girl clung on for dear life in the crow's nest. The other sails began rotating back into position, though slowly, since she was controlling all of them at once.
"It's alright! I'm here!" she shouted, hands glowing with bright green vigor as she commanded the living parts of the Lervondas. "Sails are getting back into position, starting now!"
Edited by JumpingFruit on Jan 15th 2023 at 8:23:34 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
The Light That Blinds
Val
...
He was underwater again.
He was underwater, sinking, dragged down deeper and deeper and with no way of knowing which way was up and gods he hated this he hated everything about this Shard he just wanted to be out—
Fortunately, this did not last long, as the Nesiree came to the rescue. Hooray for the Nesiree! (If they got out of this alive, he had to thank Nasira for their entire existence.)
Val emerged onto the deck of the Lervondas, soaked to the bone and hacking up water. He seemed to be in that state a lot. He turned to look at the Dounderlun, and couldn't help but smile smugly at the damage he'd dealt. But there was no time to be proud—they were still very much in danger, and the ship was sustaining heavy damage.
What the heck is Revache doing down there?
"I'm gonna go make sure Revache is still alive!" Val yelled, dashing down to find the Kiln. "If I don't come back tell my story!"
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
roaming, lurking, arguing
Below Deck
It was chaos, as Valentin jumped down the hatch. His boots were drenched in an instant, as he landed in ankle-deep water. It reeked of salt, algae and rotten meat and further back, one could see still the gaping hole in the side of the Lervondas. It was closing visibly, with new wood growing like scab over a wound. But painfully slow.
Too slow.
As Val headed towards the Kiln, he bumped into something floating in the brackish water. A Bloated corpse, burned almost to a crisp. Several others showed up as well, some torn to pieces, others stuck to the wall by a blast of fire, their flesh liquified by the heat. It was evident, those were the remains of a boarding crew that had made its way through the hull-breach back there.
More noise drew the Rouen's attention and when Val finally got to the Kiln-Chamber, he finally saw Revache.
The Dragonblooded was slumped against the door, bleeding from a nasty headwound and holding her right arm, which looked badly broken. Blood ran down her face and her breath ran ragged. Only small embers played around her lips, with no more flame-breath materializing at the moment. In front of hovered a strange, golden mask, like one used to bury a noble or a king in the old days. It glowed with a gilded light, creating a wall before Revache, that looked like it was made out of several hexagonal glass-shards.
It didn't last long, though, as a massive rusted anchor crashed into it and shattered it to pieces. The mask was blown away, bounced off the wall and sunk into the water. Revache winced. "Damn...couldn't have stayed dead, huh.", she muttered.
In front of her stayed the biggest Bloated Val had ever seen. A true mountain of a man, with as much fat as muscle on him and clad in a dark leather-cloak and big seamen-boots. He was also missing his head, with the now familiar black ichor flowing out and around the empty neck, like boiling liquid.
The corrupted Admiral reverse gripped his anchor and slowly stepped towards Revache, ready to finish her off.
On Deck
The golem struggled mightily, as it was slowly pulled away from the mast. Its hands and faces grasped at the chain, trying to pull it apart or gnaw through it. Kimiko's impromptu projectiles battered against its bulk, plunging into the ichor and dead flesh, but not doing more than annoy it.
But before Kimiko and Sword had to become creative, Urzael jumped onto it and plunged his blade down, sinking it deep into the corrupted creature. Gritting his teeth, he gathered flames around his swordarm and hissed.
"Incinerate!"
Fire flowed down his blade and engulfed the creature within moments. Like before, the ichor violently lit up under the heat. The Golem screeched in agony, as it fell apart under its own weight and without the corrupted liquid to hold it together.
Before they could celebrate, though, the roar of the Dounderlun reminded them of the imminent threat. The Lervondas swayed violently around, as Caitlin flung the rudder around to avoid the rocks and islets before them. Thanks to Poppy trying her level best to keep the damaged mast steady, the limping Lervondas was able to pull off the maneuvers Cait was aksing from her. But even though the pirate-captain was able to brave these obstacles with a skill that would make even experienced seamen blush with envy, she could not avoid them slowing down.
And the Dounderlun herself made no effort to maneuver. Plowing forward, she crashed through the corals and boulders, throwing her bulk and her momentum to race closer and closer, even as she was losing bits and pieces of herself.
An almost maddening, suicidal charge.
Nasira - Final Stretch
Lifting Val and Daria out of the water, Nasira nodded as Val shouted his intent. "Understood; I'll help keep up the fight here!"
That being said, the deck itself was clear of hostiles; in the distance Nasira could see the shore - despite everything the plan was still in motion. The Orphan used its absurd power to raise detritus in their way but Caitlin with the aid of Poppy expertly maneuvered around the obstacles. That just left one threat to tend to: the ravenous jaws of the Dounderlun.
Nasira gathered up as much smoke as she could, collecting it into a large, condensed mass before sending it hurtling towards the beast. The form the smoke materialized in wasn't anything complicated, nor did it need to be. All it needed was to be massive, a heavy enough projectile to punch one last hole through the corrupted ship so it could finally be laid to rest.
And so Nasira threw a giant iron ball at the Dounderlun with all her might, arms strained even with her fire reinforcing her strength, intent to sink the monstrous enemy.
The Light That Blinds
Val
...oh crud.
Val was not an expert, but he was reasonably sure this was a Bad Thing. There was a giant Bloated wielding an anchor, Revache was about to die, and the Kiln was flooded so they probably couldn't start any fires.
Okay. First priority: the Bloated. Val darted behind the monster and slammed his staff into its back, aiming for the spine. With a loud CRACK, the Bloated fell over, landed on its face with a splash, and didn't move again.
"Hi!" he said, waving to Revache. "Don't worry, the cavalry's here! Just, uh..." His voice faltered as he looked around. "Just gotta salvage this. Somehow."
He paused, then ran around to grab things—stray pieces of wood, seaweed, anything that looked vaguely flammable—and tossed them into the Kiln. By the end of it, he had a small pile, barely enough for a campfire but hopefully enough for one last kindling. Then he tossed the Bloated in there too, because why not.
That done, Val knelt down in the water and grabbed two pieces of wood, frantically rubbing them together to try to get at least an ember of flame. Sure, everything was soaked, but he had to try, right? Even if that meant he'd be right in the center of the Kiln when it lit up.
"Please," he muttered as he worked. "Please, please work. Please give us a fire, please repair our boat, please don't let us drown and doom yourself to a watery grave. If the price for your fire is my life, I promise to pay it. Burn me if you must, but please lend us your power, for this final dance with death. Please."
It was a shoddy prayer. But it was all he could think of at the moment.
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Breath of the Sun
Kimiko
"Thanks, Urz!" She called, as the monster finally died. She reeled in her chain, heated slightly by Urzael's flame, and turned to the final opponent. The Dounderlun, coming in for one last, mad charge.
She spotted Nasira throwing an iron ball at it, and moved to assist. When Nasira threw the ball, Kimiko caught it with her chain and spun it around like a flail, flowing with and adding to the momentum it already had, before releasing it once more towards the Dounderlun.
"Begone now." She murmured as the ball flew. "Go back to the depths, where you belong."
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
"Aaa aaa, man's gotta make sure he's the one to kill me!" Sword said tauntingly, if only to cover up the genuine relief she felt at him picking up the kill on these things. Without any fire attacks of her own it was really all she could do to open up enemies for executions, wearing away at their guard for a decisive strike. Like what was happening now, finishing off the fucking boat! They just had to eliminate this one fucking guy and it would be over! She was with Kimiko on that.
"Kicchan then, hell yeah! Let's put this sadsack down!" Sword leapt in the air, palm up and back, legs curled behind herself, rising up directly behind the flail. She brought one palm down in a volleyball spike, sending it flying towards the Dounderlun for a precise execution. "Be seeing you, boat! Please, actually be seeing you, fucking please!"
roaming, lurking, arguing
The Lervondas
The Dounderlun came ever closer. Every time she collided with a rock or other debris one could hear her broken frame creak and shudder. The sickening sound echoed over the raging sea. And yet, she still kept going and in fact began to pull in the ichor-slicken obstacles towards herself, patching herself with broken coral, shattered bodies and sundered wrecks. Bit by bit the giant ship started to lose more and more cohesion and as it approached, it began to look less like a ship and more like formless, horrifying mass of oily liquid and broken planks.
In the back, the Orphan stopped for a brief moment. He looked like he had found something and, with a spiteful sneer, he yanked at an invisible chain. At the same time a massive, dead, abyssal crab broke forth from underneath the waves. The dead cadaver was almost half as big as the Lervondas herself. Caitlin threw the wheel around and the entire ship was forced to enter a terrifyingly tight turn.
Just what the Dounderlun had waited for. She roared mad and jumped out of the water. As she fell down in an arc upon the heroes, she opened her now giant, iron-studded maw to once more try to devour the smaller vessel.
Instead, a huge iron ball, about as big as a carriage, sailed towards it. Nasira had created arguably the biggest object in her life with her djinn-smoke and thrown it upwards. Kimiko had grabbed the chain and swung it around for added momentum. And Sword had followed up by slamming her palm against it, putting every ounce of her considerable strength behind it. The impact left her entire arm numb and caused her bones to creak painfully, as they fractured under the stress.
But it did the trick, as the ball now careened forth with a speed greater than if it had been thrown from a catapult. The Dounderlun could not evade mid-air. In her maddened state, all she could do, was slam her maw down on the ball, as it collided with her.
The moment seemed to last agonizingly long. Everything seemed to freeze, as the projectile vanished into the dark innards of the corrupted ship. Drops of ichor, seafoam and sweat floated through the air.
Then the rear of the Dounderlun exploded!
Debris, seashells and oil sprayed everywhere. The entire ship convulsed in agony, as its insides were ripped apart by the iron ball. Any cohesion was lost. It could no longer hold itself together, as the fiery metal set it alight from the inside and the ichor burned off with a violent hiss. With a wail, the Dounderlun died her final death and broke apart. Bits and pieces rained down on deck and the rest crashed into the sea, broken and shattered beyond repair.
"NOOOOOO! NO NO NOOOO!", screamed the Orphan, grasping at his own face in frustration. "Why can nothing fucking work!? I am perfect! I cannot just fail! I did not spend hundreds of years working on completion, just for this SHIT!"
Once again he yanked at the waves. His muscles tensed and he yelled with exertion. The entire seabed began to shudder and quake. Huge waves were thrown about, causing the Lervondas to sway from side to side.
Then, bursting out of the water, came a veritable mountain of pale giants. Glued together in a twisted amalgamation of pale flesh and teeth, every single one of the remaining giants had been sewn together by the black ichor, which oozed out of every crevice and every opening.
"Dodge this, you fools!"
Below Deck
Revache groaned, closing her eyes, as the Corrupted Admiral prepared to finish her off. But the blow never came. Instead the massive Bloated just keeled over, the anchor slipping out of his finger and his legs buckling. As he collapsed, Revache saw Valentin standing behind, staff in both hands.
"Thanks...for the timely..rescue.", she mumbled, trying to get back up to her feet, but failing. Blood poured from her head and she groaned again. "Bastard...didn't notice him among all the other assholes..."
She watched Valentin hastily trying to toss any kind of fuel into the Kiln. Most of what he threw in burned off pretty much immediately, as the Kiln devoured it hungrily, but to not great effect. The hole in the back began to shrink a little bit, but that was about it.
Then his eyes fell on the Corrupted Admiral. He ran over, trying to pull him towards the Kiln. The massive body was however way too heavy for the young man and the Admiral was very much still alive, even though he was unable to move due to his shattered spine.
Then Revache finalle got up and grabbed the body as well. She gritted her teeth, in visible pain, but powered through it. "Come on...together!"
With their combined effort, they heaved the massive body onto the Kiln and tossed it inside. The body began to smoke heavily, as the Kiln tried to use it. But little else happened. The flame refused to start. It all was too wet, too cold, too weak.
The water began to rise, now all the way up to her knees. The ship was sinking bit by bit into the sea.
Revache swallowed hard, then closed her eyes and made a decision. She stumbled over to the side and bend down. When she rose up, she had the golden mask in her hands, that had protectedher. The gravemask stolen from the Orphan.
She pushed it into Valentin's hands and then tossed him out of the frontdoor of the room. "I'm sorry, Val. But I gotta finish this." With that she turned around and staggered towards the Kiln. As if the mask could sense what was about to happen, it flared up and the gleaming barrier appeared once more.
Revache took a deep breath, gathering the last bit of golden flame she still had. And then fired it right down the Kiln.
Golden flames roared into the vast emptiness of the Kiln and set alight everything, as if it all had just waited for the right embers. Within moments, it was set ablaze and the runes began to shine so bright, it hurt the eyes. Golden flames spilled out in a massive wave, as the Kiln sprung to life and soon an inferno burst forth into the room.
The force of the explosion shattered the barrier and threw Valentin back. The last thing he saw was Revache clinging to the Kiln and continuing to breath fire, even as it enveloped her completely. Then the flames spilled out and began racing across the walls and over the ship.
Wood began to grow, the hole in the side vanished rapidly and the water inside the ship turned to steam. The Lervondas came to life, as new power flowed through her. The mast began to set itself straight again. The sails gleamed in golden light.
Everything grew and prospered anew.
On deck
The pale giants rose up in front of them. No time to evade. No time to maneuver. They were too close, too fast. A collision was imminent. The Orphan shrill, spiteful laughter rung in their ears, as the oil-slicken, tortured, pale mass of flesh towered above them.
Then everything was set ablaze. Golden flames coursed over the deck, flickering like divine dancers. The bowsprit suddenly gleamed in a bright light, like a burning spear. The Lervondas shuddered with new energy and leaned forward into the waves. Water hit the bow and broke apart, being split as if by a sword.
And as the bowsprit impacted upon the mountain before it, the flames burst forth. In an instant the ichor burned away with a shrill hiss, as its cursed existence was cleansed by the divine fire. The flesh broke apart under the impact and the entire grotesque chimera exploded, as the Lervondas plowed through it with a triumphant, deafening roar.
With nothing now in their way, the group shot over the waves and towards the Wharf. Caitlin steered the Lervondas into the protected cavern with the ease of a practiced seafarer, before they came to a shuddering halt against the stone-pier.
Behind them, they could hear the Orphan suffer a mental breakdown. By now, he had become completely unintelligible with rage, flinging profanities around like a spoiled prince. His hands dug into the woman underneath him and pushed. In his rage, his hate, his mad desire to punish them, to finally wipe out these pests, he forewent his plans of rebirth, of perfection.
With a shuddering groan, he pushed himself completely out. His legs were shriveled up and wet, looking more like halfgrown, unfininished, twisted porcelain. Instead of feet, he had only bones sticking out, but by now he had stopped caring.
All he wanted now was kill them.
An Ordinary Oddball
Poppy Blake
All was blinding golden light for a glorious, all-encompassing moment while Poppy tried to blink the dark spots out of her eyes and and keep up her second-by-second minute adjustment of the Lervondas' sails. The young girl wondered at Caitlin's skill at the helm, but had no more time to consider it as the ship executed a tight turn that nearly flung Poppy off of her perch on the mast. At one point, she dangled precariously as the ship almost rolled fully onto its side and the mast tilted so that it thrust her over the spraying ocean water.
Finally, the Lervondas pulled into the wharf and its stone pier, and Poppy lowered herself to the deck using the vine rigging, a section of it breaking off and hardening to form a knobby staff as she staggered towards the shore. Halfway through, her sea legs overtook her and she tripped, prompting her to scramble as best as she could away from the fast-approaching Orphan on all fours. Propping herself up with her staff, she suddenly realized what that golden light earlier had meant.
"Where's Val and Revache?" she asked as loudly as she could while still coughing and spitting out seawater. "The Kiln, the fire...did one of them...?"
Edited by JumpingFruit on Jan 21st 2023 at 12:25:42 PM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
The Light That Blinds
Val
...
It wasn't working.
...so this is how we die.
For a moment, Val just...stayed there. On his knees, staring into space as the water rose higher and higher. He didn't laugh, he didn't rage, he didn't despair. He felt...numb. Of all the ways to go...drowning.
...
And then Revache shoved a mask into his hands and pushed him out the door.
Val yelped in surprise, stumbling back. The mask gleamed brightly, and a barrier sprung up in front of him. He watched as Revache inhaled deeply—and, all too late, realized what was about to happen. "W-wait, Revache—!"
The Kiln exploded.
The sheer force of the flames broke the barrier and threw Val back, where he careened into a wall. The sheer brightness hurt his eyes, but he couldn't look away.
The fire seemed to move in slow motion. Val watched, wide-eyed, as it slowly wrapped around Revache's silhouette, engulfing it until nothing but the golden fire remained. It crept out of the Kiln, washing over the ship, turning water to steam and causing wood to grow—
—and then time moved as normal, and Val suddenly had a very good idea of what it was like to be caught in a firestorm, because he was.
No sooner had Poppy finished her sentence then did Val come stumbling out onto the deck. Scorch marks covered his clothes, and one hand held tightly to his staff while the other clutched the mask. He looked...haunted.
"Might need a change of plans. Down one." And with that, exhaustion took over, and Val collapsed.
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Captain Holloway
"You accursed BLOODY SHIP!"
Caitlin was moving before she could even register what she was doing, up towards the aft of the ship and away from the wheel. Her face was red and twisted into an expression of fury as she screamed and thrust her arm out towards the Dounderlun; a Windblast practically exploding itself out of her arm as she tried to knock the rival ship loose. As if realising midway through her thoughtless rage that this was a hopeless effort, she switched back to her Kraken's Reach and attempted to ensnare the bowsprit in a tight grip. With all her might, she heaved, with her tattoos glowing brightly as she tried to rip the bowsprit away.
Which was likely also a hopeless effort, but she was throwing her all into it, and she could feel her arm beginning to shrivel and wither from the strain of the magic pumping through it. Surely, something beneficial could come out of this!
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!!"
Edited by Enirboreh on Nov 27th 2022 at 8:46:26 PM
bork