Part the One-Hundred Seventy-Sixth
In which: Reyu gets her bear on… or does she?
From the crow’s nest of The Tranquil Shore, Jor watches the battle unfold below him. Everyone is swarming over the other ship now. Like ants… or, they’re kind of big for ants, actually. And they don’t have that many legs. They’re more like… big, two-legged ants. Yeah, that’s it.
Jor pulls back on his bow to unleash another round of ant-killing arrows and takes careful aim at the big guy Welk has been playing with. “Come on Velka,” he croons to his Karonian instrument of death, supple like a reed in his hands, “don’t fail me now.”
The arrows fly true. Well, mostly. One pierces his target’s leg and comes out the other side again. The other two miss by mere inches, but allow Welk to swoop in and stab while the large fighter is off-balance.
###
Thatch lunges back at Welk, slashing wildly and missing completely, as his opponent easily evades him.
“You no good son of a wildebeest!” Thatch shouts.
Welk makes little beckoning motions with his hands. “Bring it on, goose-lover.”
Neither notices Brother Bradley silently climbing out of the water and over the rail. The monk crosses the deck, absolutely silent. He brings his foot back, and just as he is about to deliver a devastating kick to Thatch’s kidneys… Thatch dodges to the side, trying to avoid another one of Welk’s wild swings. Brother Bradley’s foot barely misses him.
Thatch whirls around in shock. Crazed swordsman in front of him. Monk behind. Oh bother, he thinks to himself, I’m flanked.
###
Lira would really like to help Thatch, but she’s got other targets to worry about. The hunting horn has summoned a dire wolverine on the deck of the Tranquil Shore, which she directs to attack Ragya before she can get off another sonic ball. Mentally unbalanced or not, the other sorcerer proves to be just as susceptible to melee attacks as most others of her talents. She screams as the animal scores her with its claws.
Trusting the wolverine to keep itself occupied for a little bit with Sakeem and Ragya, Lira turns her attention to Jor.
Lira takes a deep breath. If you see a bad guy, she reminds herself, hit him with a magic missile. [size=-2](He killed that sailor with a single arrow. He’s going to kill me.)[/size] Lira tells the little voice in her head: You think you’re the only person on this ship who doesn’t want to die? You think Ehkt made you the way you are so that you could let other people fight for you? Who else can take him out? [size=-2](No one. I’m going to die.)[/size] …But I’m going to hurt him first.
And with that almost comforting thought… she casts.
The blue bolts impact, and Jor jumps in sudden pain. He scans the deck, and an instant later, he’s drawing a bead on Lira.
That’s right, Lira dares him silently with more courage than she feels, take your best shot.
Jor lets fly with three arrows in quick succession. The first is low, and hits the steps Lira has crouched behind. He corrects his aim and sends the second hurtling through the air, through the gap in the spindles of the stair-rail and right through the gap between Lira’s fourth and fifth ribs.
The force is enough to knock the sorcerer back a step, but although it hurts like hell, she can tell that the wound isn’t enough to kill her. Jor sees this as well, and adjusts again, this time to send his arrow right through Lira’s heart.
Lira can only watch, frozen, as the arrow sings through the air. It’s heading right for her. It’s going to hit her. There’s nowhere for her to hide. It’s going to hit, right in the center of… the wooden spindle of the stair rail.
Lira watches the vibrating shaft of the arrow, embedded in the wood mere inches from her face. Well, maybe Ehkt really does favor the bold.
(That and the cover bonus, boo-yah!)
###
At the other end of the Fool’s Errand Zokuth vents her frustrations at Annika’s lightening bolt by dropping another member of the crew who unwisely attempts to cross her path.
Maklim goes for a more direct approach.
“Got any more tricks up your sleeve, Sweetheart?” he asks. Stepping forward and slashing down with his sword, as though to split Annika’s head in two.
The blade comes whizzing down, then, at the last second, skips harmlessly away, as though deflected by an invisible shield. Or, rather, an invisible shield.
“Just one or two,” she allows.
Maklim blinks. “Well that’s neat, ain’t it?” He then decides that standing in front of an enemy spell-caster who has just toasted two members of his crew is perhaps not the best idea and dashes up the stairs to join Zokuth.
Annika, seeing that immediate targets are no longer in her face, follows Lira’s two magic missiles to Jor with a set of her own. Before she becomes his next target, Annika opens the door behind her and ducks into the cover of the captain’s cabin.
###
Sakeem and Ragya have their hands full with Lira’s summoned dire wolverine. Sakkem yells at Ragya to get away, then waves his hands madly, trying to attract the animal’s attention. “Over here! Take me! Leave her alone!”
For her part, Ragya backs up a step, begins to cast—and is nailed by Kiara’s readied arrow. Still, the damage doesn’t seem to affect her concentration as another sonic ball goes off. This time it’s on her own ship, catching the wolverine in its cacophonous field. Sakeem soaks a blow by the creature’s claws to hit it back with a freezing ray, still yelling at the animal to leave his sister alone.
The wolverine obliges, and—enraged by the wounds inflicted by Ragya’s sonic ball—turns its deadly claws on Sakeem. The young wizard doesn’t stand a chance. Two slashes send him to the deck, and a snap of the creature’s foaming jaws ensures that he will never rise from it.
###
At midships, some distance away, Aurelia raises a Sedellan holy symbol. “Twilight Goddess, bestow thy deadly kiss…” she whispers seductively. Black energy begins to crackle around her fingertips,
Anvil catches sight of her casting. Odd, he thinks, that looks like an inflict spell. But those spells cannot be cast at distance—
Black energy flies from Aurelia’s fingertips, straight at Anvil.
Anvil dives out of the way. Though perhaps I am wrong, Anvil thinks. The black energy dissipates as it strikes the deck beside him. Aurelia scowls.
###
Back aboard The Fool’s Errand, Lira notes the effectiveness of the wolverine, but keeps her concentration on the archer in the crow’s nest. Casting quickly before he can ready another assault, she sends another pair of magic missiles streaking over to the other ship.
Jor sees the glowing blue bolts coming, and dives below the rim of the crow’s nest, effectively putting himself out of Lira’s sight. Lira shakes her head. Too little, too late. The bolts follow him, and the archer does not rise.
###
Thatch is still caught between Welk and Brother Bradley, but—for the moment at least—it isn’t bothering him too much. Brother Bradley launches one volley of blows after another, but seems pathologically unable to connect.
Thatch ignores him, instead concentrating on Welk’s wild swordplay. It’s nothing he can pin down, but there is a pattern to the seemingly random lunges and thrusts. Thatch watches patiently for his opening, ignoring the shouted taunts about his sword, his mother, and even his haircut, until he sees his moment.
Then, in a single swing he pulls his sword around, up and under Welk’s guard, skewering him through the chest. Welk looks down for a moment, almost surprised, then drops off Thatch’s blade and falls to the deck.
Then Thatch turns his attention to Brother Bradley.
###
Yasmine comes back to consciousness amid the clang of swords, the crackle of magic, and… a pool of bear-slobber?
She looks up at the huge brown bear standing over her, licking the closing wound on her chest.
“I hope you’re the elf,” she tells it.
The bear stops its ministrations and nods.
“Umm… thank you then.”
The bear helps Yasmine climb back to her feet, then goes to tend another wounded sailor. Well, I’ve got to hand it to the captain, Yasmine thinks. He promised it would be an adventure.
And without another hesitation, she jumps back into the fray.
. And I want to see Anvil dispense some Justice despite a bolt in the chest.
Still, I'm looking forward to seeing some maul-full goodness myself, in the next update.
) which you can find 
