OOC: Sorry I took so long to reply. I finally got the time to finish my post. It's difficult when you're going through 2 part time jobs, a sports club, and university courses while trying to write Informer articles, create RSF10, and appease Karl all at once.
And my apologies, Matthew, but I posted this just after I found out you made Alex 43 just teleport there. Sure, it would've saved them quite a bit of time, but there's just no fun in having an immediate plot, is there?
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SWC HEADQUARTERS - MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN _______________________________________________
"Interesting story, Karl." I replied.
We were sitting around the large mahogany table eating what Manya liked to call his "Greensplash Supreme". We didn't know what was in it and what combination of herbs and spices he added, but he assured Gia that it was purely vegetarian and that was good enough for him as well as the rest of us. The nice thing about vegetarianism, Gia said, is that he doesn't have to eat twice his own weight in meat each day like regular dragons do. 3 large bowls of salad, soup, or anything of the sort was perfect for a White Dragon of his size.
It was night-time now. The sky hardly changed, except for the fact that it had become completely black rather then just a dark grey. The rain continued falling, making me wonder whether our strawberry plants were getting a good watering or were drowning now. Sometimes we had to stop talking because of the loud whipping of the thunder over us, its brilliant lightning flashed overlapping our chandelier light and casting a number of spooky shadows all over the chapel.
Karl made a quick recovery. Even though he still has scratches and bruises galore from the ship-ride and the 'things', he was looking much better now. His appetite certainly grew since the last I saw him; he just finished thirds and was calling for a fourth serving. Fortunately for him, Manya was just too used to making too much food and we had leftovers more then new things.
Dex was finally up and apparently feeling better. His fur was brushed, his robe was off, and he smelled of soap when he came down here. He didn't say anything to us yet all day, though, which is pretty normal for him. At least he liked Manya's cooking quite a bit, otherwise he probably still wouldn't be with us anymore.
"This is why I need to be protected from 'them'." said Karl 67, "And I'm sure you guys can help me."
All eyes were on me. I'm the leader of the SWC, so it was usually my decision if everyone else didn't want to have a say.
"Of course we can." I said without hesitation, "You're always welcome here."
"Yes, indeed." said Gia, "If any of 'them' come, I'll show them Saradomin's justice."
"It's a pleasure to cook for you." said Manya, "Stay as long as you want."
"Mmmph." confirmed Dex, his mouth still full of veggies.
That was that. We already had a room for Karl prepared, as we did with any other guest.
"By the way," said Gia, "Who exactly are 'they'?"
"Easterners." replied Karl, "Warriors who come from the eastern lands."
"Morytanians?" I asked, concerned.
"Those and a number of others." said Karl.
"Why are they after you?" I asked.
"I have no ide-" Karl started, but paused.
I heard it too. Amidst the almost musical chorus of rhythmic lightning, thunder, and waves, the sound of creaking wood interrupted the harmony. This wood, though, sounded vaguely familiar. Like the creak one would usually hear when they are sailing on a-
*BAM!*
THAT was no thunder. Something small, heavy, and hard struck the side of the church wall, knocking a number of candles down. I was immediately thankful I went overboard on the frame supports or we would've never survived that night.
We were all suddenly up and ready. My spear somehow found its way to my hand, which happens so much now that I can no longer tell how it does it. Gia made a quick lunge and retrieved his half-ton sword with one hand and held it in front as if the intruders were already inside the building. Dex didn't have a weapon, but he didn't need one. Neither did Manya, who ran upstairs in fear.
"Status!" I shouted,
"Battleships." said Gia, listening carefully, "I'd wager more then one. They're using 5 decimeter cannons and have boarding parties."
Another cannonball hit the wall, but it still didn't show signs of giving away. I can imagine what our attackers were thinking.
I immediately issued orders, "Gia, secure the main eastern doors, Dex, take Karl 67 down to the cellar."
"I can fight!" protested Karl.
"Karl, you're our guest." I said, "We must protect you. That is what you wanted after all, isn't it? Besides, you're in no condition to fight just yet."
"Aw, you're no fun." he complained as Dex almost forced him downstairs.
Another cannonball bounced off the wall, followed almost instantly by a barrage of nearly 5 more. It sounded like they were confused as to why the church wasn't falling, so they drastically increased their power and rate of fire. I ran over to the western doors and slid the yew plank in the hatches to secure it and make sure nothing gets in that way. Gia did the same with the eastern door just when something heavy and hard struck it. That was too heavy to be a cannonball. They had a door ram!
Gia forced his whole body on the door to take in the hits, and I ran over to help. A stained glass window exploded to the left of us, showering the pews in a sea of broken glass. Poor Gia, it took him days to make those windows.
We took another hit, then a third, and then a fourth. We couldn't hold them off like this; we had to fight back.
"Ok, Gia." I said, "On my count, I'm going to remove the yew support. Once they throw the doors open, grab that ram and push them back outside again. They may have the numbers, but we still have an element of surprise."
Gia nodded. Even if they were stronger then him, I knew Gia was able to take much harder force. He backed from the door and crouched, ready to receive.
"One ..." I said. A smash on the door followed.
"Two ..." Another smash. The yew plank wasn't going to give up, and neither were we.
"Three!" I shouted, while at the same time kicking the yew plank out of its supports. The doors flew open revealing a large steel-tipped log manned by at least a dozen easterners. Gia took the ram in the chest and was pushed back a few feet before he regained his footing and the upper hand.
There is one thing I appreciated Gia for, and that was that he always took everything you asked of him to a whole new level. Instead of just pushing them back outside, Gia dug one of his tri-claws into the ram, dashed outside with it, and swung the log as though it was a twig sword, sending all 12 manners flying into the divine beyond.
He swung it 4 more times at the large crowd of invaders, covering a huge radius and sending them in multiple directions, and finally hurled the ram like a javelin into the nearest ship and struck it right in the hull. The force of impact made the ship break nearly in half and sink, taking its whole crew with it.
However, I had seriously underestimated the enemy. Instead of the expected 2 or 3 ships full of pirates and mercenaries, they had an entire armada at our doorstep. Nearly 2 dozen fully-prepped battleships surrounded the island, cannons blazing and cannonballs striking the island everywhere.
Our attackers were no weakling mercenaries, either. They were large, fully trained warriors with a thirst for blood and will gladly give up their life for their leaders intentions. Battling them reminded me of the tougher battles from the past that I could barely endure. Most of them weren't even human; I fought something that resembled a mix between a minotaur and a demon, but I couldn't tell what it really was because of all the rain.
One thing I could tell, though, was that whoever ordered all these ships to sail in a storm like this must've been a psycho-maniac. Not only did a number of them miss us and strike each other by mistake, but they were also crashing into one another because of the hard waves. However, for each ship that went down, that allowed a few others to come in for a closer attack.
"Gia, fall back!" I ordered.
He obeyed, but I didn't just yet. I still had one trick up my sleeve that might scare them a bit more. I shoved away what appeared to be a 3-tailed werewolf and brought my spear in front of me, pointing it straight up like a lightning rod. The light from my chest symbol appeared to enter my spear through my hands, giving the spear an eerie yellow electric glow. This was most of my gathered special energy, as I called it, and this energy was used in such a way that it created a magical anchor - a magnet, for the power of a being or source of my choice.
There was no need to choose, though. I already knew whose power I was summoning.
"My holy father, cast thy light. Spirit of Pureblade, judgement strike!" I shouted, flinging my spear into the air towards the battleships. I heard my voice echo by the energy, which was seemingly canceling out the other noise. Cannons fired soundlessly, screams of battle had died out, and I no longer even heard the rain hit my armor.
Then IT came. A great sword, covered and consisting of lightning bolts. It shot down like a crossbow bolt into the heart of a ship somewhere in the midst of the fleet, vaporizing it almost instantly by its amazing power. This was the Pureblade, a sword said to have been used by Lord Saradomin himself during the God wars.
From there, mayhem ensued. Pureblade blasted a half-circle chorus of lightning around it, setting surrounding ships on fire and destroying anything that hadn't taken cover. Gunpowder barrels exploded and took ships with it and burning ships fell over by the storm and crashed into others.
As the finale, the sword itself exploded in a vast orb of lightning, finishing off any of the ships in its range. The environment's sounds came back and the spell was over. Altogether, Pureblade destroyed about a dozen of the battleships in that one moment of fury. This was the power of a spell-summoner.
Unfortunately, that attack took up nearly all my energy and I staggered. I count on that spell as a finisher, for I usually need to rest a bit after performing it. It seemed that this time I wouldn't get the chance.
Summoning up whatever energy I had remaining, I almost scrambled over the slippery stone back into our sanctuary and Gia closed the doors behind me, sticking the yew plank back in, figuring that it would take them a while to get another door ram on the island.
"No matter how many times I see that," complimented Gia, "It never fails to fill me with hope that Saradomin's power will always and forever triumph over evil."
"No matter how many times I do that," I answered, "It doesn't feel any better after."
He caught me before I hit the ground in exhaustion and slung me over his back. A banging on the door behind me told us they brought another ram and that we had better get to the cellar.
Gia threw the door open and almost slid down the steps. We passed the cellar, which held our provisions of food and supplies that usually lasted us a few months, and went down the extra 4 flights of stairs to the basement.
The basement was an underground cavern that had been hollowed out to form a large rocky dome. At the far end was a lake that took up about a third of the floor, and it was directly connected to the open ocean so that aquatic creatures bearing the ability to reason had a sanctuary as well in case they were in trouble. We have cured a number of poisoned dagonnoth over the years because of this cavern, giving us closer ties with the aquatic world. Now might be the time where it would all pay off.
The lake itself was still and motionless, unaffected by the storm raging above our heads. Aside from the occasional thunder-crack above us, everything was quite silent down here. In fact, if we stayed down here long enough, we could possibly forget that we were under attack because of the sudden peace and quiet.
Karl 67 and Dex were already down there. Dex had grabbed Karl a full set of leather armor to help protect him from the freezing water. However, Manya was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Manya?" I asked.
"Don't ask me. He ran upstairs!" said Dex.
"WHAT?" I shouted.
"Chill out, man. I'll go find him." he said, running for the stairs.
"No, Dex. I'm the host. I should go." I said.
"Alex, your guest is right there." said Dex, gesturing towards Karl 67, "Get him to safely, and I'll find Manya. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself! I'm a host as much as you are."
With that, Dex dashed upstairs. I didn't say anything. If there was anything I ever learned about him, it was that there was no arguing with Dex no matter what the topic was. He turned the turning point in the dark stone stairs and went out of sight.
This was wrong. They were my guests. Maybe for nearly a year, but they were still my guests nevertheless. A host does not stand around and let the guests save themselves. But what could I do now? I could hardly move.
"Alex 43, let's go." said Gia.
I snapped out of it. Above us, we heard sounds of battle and shouts of war start to destroy the blissful silence. Dex helped me host for a long time, so there was no reason he couldn't do it again. Karl and I jumped onto Gia's back, grabbing onto a leather harness on his armor that he sewed on for riders to grab onto, and we dove right into the lake.
If it was winter, neither of us would've survived the cold shock that we experienced in that moment. We were fortunate that it was the beginning of fall, and the water was only bearably cold. That didn't mean we could stay in the ocean all night, however.
There are a number of stories I have read regarding underwater travel. Usually it is described as clear and spectacular, as though the writer was actually flying above an alien world, able to dive and touch the wonders that lied below. Experiencing it for real like this told me that those books were all but real.
There was no possible way to tell what was 2 feet ahead of you. The water was dark, murky, and dead, and I had no idea how anything could survive in conditions like this. I could feel the force of the waves above us constantly pushing us in one direction, giving us at least a way of telling where we were going. If I ever fell down and sunk to the bottom of this black abyss, I would probably be lost for an eternity until the constant movement of the water washed my empty rusted armor onto the shore of some distant land.
Gia is a strong swimmer; the only dragon I knew that actually enjoyed a cool dip. Any other dragon anyone asked would laugh at the mere mention of a swim, and would do whatever it takes to stay away from water unless they were thirsty. Gia told me that the White Dragons all had to learn the stronger fundamentals of swimming because of a booby trap they set in their final fortress that wiped out the entire army of Zaros in one instant.
However, that didn't mean we could stay underwater forever. Although Gia could hold his breath for almost half an hour and I didn't have to breathe period, it wasn't long before I felt Karl tugging upwards, desperate for air. Gia swam upwards towards the random flashes of lightning and broke the surface of the water in record time.
I was quite impressed by the distance we covered. Our beloved chapel stood in the distance, its 6-pointed star now advertising a disaster. Apparently, they couldn't burn down the fireproof frame because of the rain and the chemical mixture Gia brought us from a hundred thousand years ago that I used to cover it all, so they instead settled for burning furniture and cloth from the interior.
There was a long silence, disregarding the cannons and thunder. Two of my closest friends were in that building, overwhelmed by a dozen battleships and raiding parties. If Dex was still holding them off, then he was doing one heck of a job doing it. Karl here wasn't doing too good even with the leather clothing, and if we didn't get him to shore soon, he could suffer hypothermia. What kind of a host am I? I should've gone instead of Dex to find Manya and to fight off every last one of them.
Gia knew what I was thinking, "Don't stress yourself over it. Dex is right, he's as much of a host as you are. Plus, you just summoned Pureblade and you can't swim. You wouldn't have been able to do anything."
"I know." I said, "You're right. Dex is right. What was I thinking."
"You wanted to help everyone." replied Gia, "That's a good trait to have. I admire that about you."
"Thanks. Let's get to land quickly before-aaack!"
Something underwater had grabbed my leg and pulled itself up, and if he didn't reveal himself as a friend almost immediately after, I would've impaled him with my spear due to pure instinct.
"Nothing like a good swim right after dinner, eh?" he sarcastically said, coughing out water.
Dex grabbed onto the harness and pulled himself up. Gia, thankful that it wasn't a sea troll, continued swimming.
"Dex? How did you find us?" I asked.
"Luck, I suppose." replied Dex, "Or instinct. Or luck, I couldn't really tell. I just kept on swimming and I found you."
I was glad to see one of my 2 friends escaped OK, but I wasn't satisfied yet.
"Where's Manya?" I asked.
"Gone." said Dex, "I don't know if he's been captured, thrown out to sea, or just a really good hider. I couldn't find him anywhere. And if I can't find him, they can't find him, so I wouldn't be too worried."
"Yeah." I said, "He's hiding. He's alright."
To keep our spirits up when we believe someone is lost, we all force ourselves to believe that he or she is just fine until we ourselves see otherwise.
"Looks like we're not out of this yet."
Gia was gesturing towards the island. I saw that the boarding parties had all finished boarding and the ships were moving against the storm in our direction due to strong oars that sprouted out from either side. That must've been how they caught up to Karl so fast.
"Hang on, everyone!" I shouted, grabbing the harness with both hands.
Gia swam like mad, almost rocketing through the water. Gia could race any trading ship and even tow one if he had to from Port Sarim all the way to Port Phasmatys. As a result of Gia's sudden speed burst, however, the ships and their paddling oars also increased their speed. They had seen us and were determined not to let us get away.
Karl was all but unconscious; his hand began slipping and I sacrificed one of my grips to catch him in my arm to prevent him from falling off. Dex, being very light, was almost skipping the water and I saw him bounce on the surface tension like a pebble beside me. Looking behind me, I saw the barnacle encrusted battleships closing in regardless of our speed, the one in the front beginning to turn so it could start firing its cannons on us.
"Gia, we're not going to make it!" Dex shouted.
"Yes we will!" Gia shouted back, and he dove back down into the rough water.
At first, I thought that Gia was diving to avoid a barrage of cannonballs, but that couldn't have been the case because we still had at least 5 minutes before they were properly aligned. Then suddenly, when he was about 20 feet below the surface of the water, he let out a long high-pitched cry I have never heard him emit before and then swam back up to the surface so Karl could breathe.
By now, the ships were in range. One of them turned to fire its cannons on us and 2 others took the lead and attempted to squeeze us in. Our last resort would be to climb onboard one of those ships and take it by force, but we had no idea what we were up against. Gia swam to the right, attempting to prevent us from getting trapped in between them.
He was successful; the boat passed us, forcing us away with its wake. Gia swam hard and grabbed the hull of the boat with his claws. Then, with his strong climbing skills, he began to scale the boat, pulling us out of the water with him.
"Watch out for falling objects." I advised.
He flung himself to the left to avoid an on-coming cannonball, and veered to the right to dodge another. I saw 'them' above us pointing and shouting, and a number of stronger ones lobbing cannonballs down at us by hand. Just like with our church, they started getting annoyed and quickly took things to the next level. They gathered above us with an entire array of cannonballs and dropped them simultaneously. We knew that Gia couldn't dodge that and braced ourselves, but Dex's eyes began to glow and we saw that the barrage of cannonballs they dropped on us just stopped in midair, surrounded by a pale purple psionic light. They then shot back upwards and nailed their throwers in the heads, sending them flying backwards and leaving the side of the boat clear for boarding.
Fortunately, in the time that Gia was swimming, I was able to regain some of my energy and leap off his back and onto the battleship early, clearing away the stragglers so Gia could finish climbing aboard. Dex also jumped off and started launching easterners all over the place, but Karl, who was no longer conscious, was carried by Gia, who used one hand to wield his sword. Thus the ship battle for the battleship began.
Once again, I underestimated their strength in numbers. They came at us wielding a large variety of weapons, some of them even with old but deadly crossbows. Gia once again dominated the groups, sweeping his sword back and forth to keep them at a distance while Dex and I covered from the sides.
But it wasn't to last. I knew that we were in trouble even before I heard the upper deck battleship cannons get spun around by strong hands and pointed directly at us. After only 5 minutes of fighting, we were suddenly at a ceasefire, surrounded and out-muscled. The easterners held their swords in front of them, ready to slice at any sudden moves we tried to pull off.
A few of them in front of me parted to reveal what appeared to be their captain, a large muscular werewolf that carried a large metal flail and wore a wide-brimmed captain's cap and leather cloak covering most of his body. Its fur was unkempt and messy, but then, so was Dex's because of this horrible weather. A lightning bolt revealed his more detailed facial features: an eye in desperate need of an eye-patch, a long crocked snout, and several missing teeth.
For a moment, he and Dex made eye contact and seemed to growl menacingly at each other, but then he decided that Dex wasn't worth it and spoke directly to me.
"Give up the weapon and we just might let ye live." it snarled.
"Weapon?" growled Dex, but Gia silenced him with a hand gesture.
"He's not talking about you." he said.
"Just 'might', huh?" I asked sarcastically, "A 50% chance we'll live and perhaps be forced to slave for you and your ship, and 50% chance to die on our knees cowering for mercy OR a 100% chance to die fighting for what and who you believe in. Tough choice."
"Pah." spat the captain, "I was actually hoping ye'd say somethin' like that. Yer helmet would make a fine trophy."
"Come and get it, then." I said, raising my spear in challenge.
His men 'ooh'ed, started laughing, and backed away, forcing Gia and Dex back as well, and left a large circular space around us. The captain gripped the handle on his flail even harder.
"Fine. I accept yer challenge." he said with a sinister smile. He tossed his cloak off to reveal a full body armor suit and came right at me, swinging the flail in circles in front of him.
Immediately I dove to the left, narrowly dodging the flail, and went into a mindstorm to analyze the situation and enemy weaknesses. This guy valued strength over speed, similar to Gia, and his weapon, though flexible, fast, and heavy, is very predictable. My only option was to disarm him somehow and hope that his claws were in the same condition as his teeth. If that wasn't the case, I still would have range advantage against him, but at the moment, all I have is agility on my side.
I jumped to the right again to dodge a downward smash, using my spear as a pole vault to catapult to the other side of the arena. The flail actually went through the floorboards and seemed to be stuck for a second, but without much effort, the captain yanked it back out, widening out the hole.
I dashed towards him, spear in front like a lance. He swung the flail towards me and I stabbed, not at him, but at the ground a few feet from him. I was once again pole vaulted into the air, not only evading the horizontal swing, but getting over the captain's head and grabbing onto his back. I knew he could probably claw me off in no time, but I had to see what condition his claws actually were like.
Instead of clawing at me, however, he decided for some reason that it was better to just swing the flail around in an upward arc and smash me into the back of his armor. Gravity wouldn't have been quick enough, so I pulled myself upwards onto his shoulders and let the flail hit inches below me ... and actually bounce right off his armor.
"Tough stuff." I thought, backflipping off and regaining my spear through a magnetic recall ability. Perhaps this was how I always had my spear in hand when I needed.
My next strategy involved annoying him. He swung the flail at me again and again, but I just continued dodging it and keeping my distance. Sure, his men were laughing and he was saying "That's right. Dance, weakling." over and over, but soon enough, they began to get bored and, in the captain's case, very annoyed. He swung harder and faster, and I had to pull off some extreme stunts just to avoid it. This wasn't working out too well, either. Sooner or later, that tireless captain would land a hit, or Karl would begin to suffer permanent damage because of the cold wet weather.
Enough was enough. I had to make my move. He came at me running and swinging the flail at waist level, so I rolled, got stepped on, and stabbed at his hand carrying the flail. The karambwan octopus poisoning I keep my spear infused with immediately took effect; in pain, his hand slipped and the flail was sent flying towards the crowd, who parted quickly and let the flail harmlessly fly off the edge into the crashing waters below.
I rose up quickly and held my spear to his neck. His crew were immediately in a silent shock. Apparently they haven't yet seen their captain get beaten before, and I should know why.
Suddenly, he backed and swiped his claws at me. I got a good look, and noticed that they were in fact in no condition for tearing apart adamantite armor. Unfortunately, my instinct got the better of me and I unwillingly jumped back anyways, leaving him to get some distance between me.
Things got worse when he gestured towards his crew and they parted, revealing two crew-members (a humanoid bear creature and perhaps an ordinary human) carrying a blazing crystalline sword for the captain to use now. I was utterly shocked, not just at the fact that he got another weapon, but also the fact that I actually recognized this sword! It was Karl 67's sword, a gift from the blaze elves in an alternate world we visited to recover the pages of the tome of the seven worlds to seal Zaros away into an alternate dimension. How he got his hands on it, I have no idea.
One thing's for certain, though, he was reverting his attack style to speed and I had to get this sword from him somehow.
The sword came at me and my spear got in the way. Right, left, right again, above; thrashing away like a madman. He was trying to force me back to the edge of the ship, so he was going all out, relying purely on his armor for defense.
I suddenly hit upon an idea. If the captain was allowed outside assistance, then I was too.
"Gia!" I shouted, "Hit the deck with your breath!"
Gia heard me from wherever he was, because the ship suddenly sparked to life as thousands of volts of electricity traveled around the conductive wet salty deck and into whatever was in contact with it. Myself, I simply absorbed the electrical energy into my spear, but it was a whole different story for the captain. His body violently shook from the energy of the surge and he was screaming. Screaming loud. So were his crew-mates from all around. I grabbed the sword, thrust it down my helmet visor and into my armor as though I was sword-swallowing, and pushed the captain off the edge of the deck and he was lost to sea. The ship was ours now.
Gia and Dex, who had jumped on Gia's back to avoid the shock, cleaved away the paralyzed easterners, fighting back whoever wasn't stunned and tossing off whoever was. It'll take the other ships around us a while to get their cannons ready to attack us because they weren't expecting to actually attack their own ship, but we still couldn't waste a second. I tossed a few cutlasses to break the ropes holding the sails up and the boat jerked forward, catching the hard wind quickly. A thump to the side of me told me Dex slipped and fell because of it, and he'll probably decide to take it out on something that is hopefully not me once he gets back up.
Gia grabbed the wheel, which was manufactured several times bigger then a usual ship wheel mainly because the captain was a 9 foot tall monstrosity. He put his full weight on it and turned the ship to a sharp left, aiming it to what he believed was north. I have another simple magnetic ability that lets my turn my spear into a compass, and doing it quickly told me he was close enough.
We started taking a few hits as we sailed northbound. We knew already that this boat was definitely not going to make the whole trip for us, and as soon as Gia stuck a board through the wheel to lock it in place, we ducked down in the front of the ship, ready to jump off and swim the rest of the way while the remainder of the ships were distracted with boarding and clean sweeping ours.
Suddenly, the ship rocked and nearly fell over, and I heard the sound of crunching wood from below. They attacked with a full barrage of cannon-fire. Clearly they had no intention of boarding and wanted us dead at any cost. I HAD to stop underestimating their intentions!
Dex and I grabbed onto Gia and he leaped just as the ship took another barrage to the side and fell right over, immediately being consumed by the waves. The water actually felt quite warm when we plunged in, and I automatically presumed that was because of the blowing rain on us lowering our outer body temperatures.
Darn those ships. Ever so persistent. They crashed by our ship, now a barely flating wreck, and went directly forward, passing us on either side. Then they suddenly turned and anchored down in a large circle, surrounding the area to prevent our escape from any direction!
"Shoot, now what?" shouted Dex.
"Just be patient." said Gia.
I stared; not at the ships, but at Gia. Gia was actually sounding quite calm for a situation like this. Being in freezing cold water with a suffering guest and surrounded by a half dozen fully prepared battleships would have at least made him concerned. It seems Gia was thinking something I wasn't. He always had a keen eye for details and noticed things I haven't before.
The cannons aimed at us once more to unleash a final volley of cannon-fire and drill us down below the surface of the water. Things were looking pretty bad.
Then we all heard it. A high-pitched cry echoed throughout the sea and drowned away even the sound of the thunder claps raging above. I remember hearing that sound sometime in the past ... oh yeah, it was that cry Gia made before we boarded that ship. Did he just get a response?
Something large and monstrous rose behind the ship behind us, covered in shining oily skin. A blind eye-less head rose from the shadowy blob of black water, opening its alligator-like mouth to reveal a great many layers of teeth, each one larger then myself. Large pointy spines protruded off its back and the top of its head like a mohawk porcupine.
I watched with awe as it grabbed both sides of the ship it rose behind and tore it in half. It grabbed one half and dumped the contents of the hull into its mouth; crewman, supplies, cannonballs, gunpowder, and did the same with the other half. The remaining ships fired their cannons at it, but they harmlessly bounced off its soft rubbery hide. It let out another cry and slammed one of its powerful arms into the hull of another ship, sending it straight down into the disastrous depths of the ocean, and then slammed its other arm into a third with the same effect.
The remaining ships, I felt, did not need a description involving their submersion. All that was left to confront us was the large dagannoth, towering over the water and looking straight at us.
We looked at each other almost senselessly. The waters were clear of enemies now and at the mercy of this monstrosity. Yet, it didn't seem to have any intention of attacking us. Instead, it swiftly submerged back underwater, possibly to finish off its other 6 victories, leaving us alone in the middle of the ocean to plot our next move.
Gia didn't start swimming. Instead, he tensed up if anything.
"Hang on tight, everyone." he advised.
"Hang on tight?" I asked, "Are you actually going to be swimming at your full capacity in a condition like th-aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAH!"
The next thing I knew was sudden unexplainable speed. Gia grabbed hold of one of the great spines as the giant dagannoth passed by underneath us, revealing only its hunched back and spines as it tore through the water at speeds greater then any sea creature I knew could achieve.
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VOID KNIGHT OUTPOST _________________________________________
Shouts were heard amongst the void knights, arousing Valence and Kas'haran from their tents. Something large was heading towards the island at high speeds, with hardly any sign of slowing. The void knights gathered on the beach, ready for action against it in the storm.
"What is that?" they heard a Void Knight ask.
"I dunno, but it looks like there's something on it." replied Kas'haran.
Maeteru and Arasa joining the forming group.
"Get a barrier ready." said Maeteru.
The void knights gathered for a large shield spell and prepared to intercept the large spined shape. A wave formed in front of it and they scrambled away, unable to cast the spell in time.
"WAHOO!"
An 8-foot large dragonoid creature landed on the island, flung off by the sudden decent of the large aquatic creature. It carried what looked like 3 bundles of wrinkled baggage, but a flash of lightning revealed them as people. Most of them, anyways.
The one in the middle, a figure in full adamantite armor, jumped off and walked towards them.
"That was fun." said Gia.
"Define 'fun'!" demanded Dex, looking at Gia as though he was mental.
"Sorry for the scare, guys." said Alex 43, walking to the group, who were showing sigs of great relief, "Not the way I expected to get here. We gotta get Karl 67 to a medical tent."
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Last edited by Alex 43 on April 20th, 2007, 10:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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