Chapter 103: Getting the Hang of it

nuthin’ “Scramble! Scramble! Scramble!” The clanging of bells rose above the shouts that multiplied, echoing from ship to ship. Will sprinted across the water while Ria jumped from pier to pier, the frozen Saint over her shoulder. The man’s movement speed was penalized to such a degree that he was for all intents, paralyzed. Will thought. “That way!” Loth said, sprinting along behind Ria while Travis was bringing up the rear. A dark form lunged out of the water, its webbed fingers clasping around Ria’s ankle. The Tangled didn’t even slow down, her powerful leap violently ramming the fishman’s chest into the pier before he let go to save his arm. Will widened his gaze and saw that Climbers were being snatched off the piers in droves as they ran to their ships. Will glanced down and spotted even larger shadows moving through the churning ocean beneath. Will looked up and spotted the slightly pearlescent clouds he’d learned to associate with cloud coral, and by extension, sky sharks. Will thought. It wasn’t the right time to pat Loth on the head for her strategy sense, but when she called an incoming attack, it paid to “Ria!” Will shouted over the storm, catching her attention. “You wanted to save people!?” Will said, gesturing to the Climbers getting picked off in the confusion. “Here’s your chance!” Ria nodded and tossed the Saint to Loth, who let out a squeak of surprise before Travis caught up and helped her carry him. Together those two hefted the Saint and kept running. Shimmer was within eyeshot. Meanwhile, Ria split dozens of times over, each of her clones growing fins as they dove into the water. Jean was still wearing the Ring of Water Breathing, so the Tangled girls were their best underwater combatants. The water around them began to churn as Ria did battle with the attackers underwater, forcing many of them to release their captured Climbers, who dragged themselves back up on the piers, shivering and gasping. Will kept running and spotted a fishman about to pop out in front of Loth. Will turned suddenly and performed a sliding kick that shot seaspray into the air, catching the fishman in the face and forcing him away from Loth, allowing her to continue past him. Will’s hand caught the water and pulled himself up before he sank into the ocean, getting his feet back under him and jumping out of the way of a charging fish person, their claws swiping where his calves had been an instant ago. A thought occurred to Will as he danced away, a face rapidly approached from under the surface. He slammed his heel down onto the water, stiffening it for an instant as the fishman crumpled against the hard plate of water Will was standing on. When Will glanced back up, Loth and Travis were climbing the ropes onto Shimmer as the wind and waves began to get more and more violent. On either side, scaled humanoid forms were climbing up the side of Shimmer. Will thought, bursting into a sprint, grabbing Phantom Hand and flinging himself up above Shimmer’s deck, flying in a high arc above them before landing on board Shimmer. His shin bone nearly got shoved into his sternum as the swells propelled the ship up beneath his feet, but Will didn’t have time to feel pain, scrambling forward and leaning over, taking his place beside the line of Annas leaning over the side of the ship. “Push them off!” Will shouted to Anna, pointing at the boarders swarming out of the water, before he began hauling on the rope Loth was climbing, bringing her up to the deck “One moment.” Loth said, pausing as Travis took the Saint huffing with effort as he threw the frozen man over his shoulder and sprinted further on board. She turned back toward the edge and peered over for a moment before slamming her fist down on the nearby railing. With a mechanical noise, the outer scales coating Shimmer flipped with explosive force, catching the limbs of the climbing fish-people and snapping them off as the orientation of the scales reversed. The vast majority of the boarders tumbled back into the ocean, missing a hand or a few toes, but there were still a dozen or so who had managed to avoid getting a body part snipped and retained their suction-cup grip on the side of the boat. Loth growled, holding one hand to her Amulet of Chain Casting, the other directing her claws towards the boarders. Two dozen fishpeople gave strangled gasps of pain as wasps burst from their chests before setting upon their allies, driving them back into the water. One by one, Ria found the ship and climbed aboard, cuts of various sizes closing as she did. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! “Hold onto something!” Loth’s voice rose above the storm. Will craned his neck to see what she was warning of: a massive mouth erupting from the water, attempting to engulf Shimmer. With a jolt that caused dozens of people to lose their footing and tumble into the abyss, The mouth impacted the ship, not big enough to swallow Shimmer. Shimmer, half-inside the massive leviathan’s mouth, was suddenly dragged downward as the creature dove with it’s catch. Will looped his arm around the ship’s railing, using his newly minted left elbow to secure it in place. It felt like the world had dropped out from under their feet for an instant before a wall of water crashed into them, scouring the deck with the fury of an angry god. The moonlight faded above as they were dragged down further and further, before Will felt a and a jolt, transmitted through the entire ship. A fishman approached from above, moving swiftly as he was drawn inward, riding the titanic eddies propagated by Shimmer’s wake. Will quickly switched his arm out for his leg around Shimmer’s railing, Standing up in the water to wait for the fishman’s approach. Will finally got a good view of these new monsters. They had needle-like teeth, streamlined, scaled bodies, and large fins that splayed out from the sides of their short legs. Every movement screamed confidence as it approached, with all the swagger of a man approaching a duck about to be dinner. A duck he particularly disliked. Will thought, unleashing the Shortsword of Perserverance directly into its chest from Phantom Hand’s storage. The water had no effect on how fast it could move. Will grabbed the handle of the sword as the stunned monster delivered it back to him, yanking it free and warding off the narrow spear thrust towards him by the creature’s compatriot. The water was frustratingly thick, slowing down Will’s movements to a perceived crawl as he tried to fend off dozens of creatures after his blood. A moment later, Anna arrived beside him, the chubby blonde baker had grown fins, her hair creating a glittering curtain in the water as she fended off the fishmen with the help of several other copies of Ria, Jean and Bee. One the pressure was off of them, she turned and gave Will a silent thumb’s-up. Shimmer slipped out of the Leviathan’s mouth and suddenly the water slapped Will down, nearly tearing his leg off as Shimmer began flying upwards at ungodly speed. Will stowed his sword before he lost it and grabbed the railing with his hand too, looking out past the railing, out into the abyss beyond. Hundreds of baker girls were swimming directly towards him, trying to catch up with Shimmer after being washed off. It was like something out of a dream: Their hair flowed behind them, their bodies framed by the endless expanse of black that lay beyond, creating a stunning visual as the moonlight highlighted their isolated bodies. Will thought an instant before Shimmer broke the surface, catapulting up into the air, carried by its own momentum. “WHOOO!” Loth shouted from the upper deck. “You think you can stop something built!?” She beat her chest and cackled. Will managed to collect himself and roll away from the railing before the sudden return to the ocean broke his leg. The sudden impact of his chest going down while the ship bobbed did knock the wind out of him for a second, even with his high Resistance. Will thought as he scrambled to his feet. “Are you okay!?” Anna asked, erupting out of the water and arriving beside him, fins fading into legs like one of the mermaids from the old stories. The non-monster kind, anyway. “Find Mason!” Will shouted back, a bit more barking than he would’ve liked when speaking to their food, clothes, and cleaning specialist, but it was an emergency. Anna’s expression went blank for a moment and Will thought he’d pissed her off, but the girl simply pointed towards an empty section of railing. Will leaned over and spotted a shivering Mason barely clinging to a rope off the side of the ship. A Ria shot out of the water and landed on the netting beside him, grabbing their Nuker and hauling him aboard, delivering him to Will. “Mason!” Will said, getting the slender Nuker’s attention. “Eh? EH!” Mason shook out of his stupor, seemingly surprised to be alive and above the water. “Crows nest!” Will shouted, pointing. “Leviathans!” He wanted Mason to give them a mouthful of fire next time they tried to drag Shimmer under. Sёarᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. “Sky sharks!” Mason shouted back, pointing straight up. Will glanced up and spotted the thousands of sharks swirling above them, eager to pick off isolated Climbers. “Take Ria!” Ria nodded and carried Mason up to the crow’s nest, followed by dozens more of her. “Do a headcount!” Will said, grabbing one of Bee’s copies. Bee nodded, her expression going blank. “Party’s accounted for!” one of her clones said, giving him a mock salute as she sprinted past. Will’s legs buckled and he grabbed the railing as the ship went nearly vertical. “YEEEHAAAW!” Reese’s voice rose above the storm with a strange battle-cry, the emaciated sailor heaving on the steering wheel as the waves carried them up. “WILL, LOOK!” Loth shouted from her perch, pointing in front of them and down. Will dragged himself over and looked over the railing, spotting The Floating Church of Granesh in the valley of two swells, directly beneath them. Shimmer slammed down on top of the luxurious vessel, the reinforced leviathan scales cutting through the high-end wood. In a matter of seconds, the Floating Church of Granesh was sheared in two, drifting into Shimmer’s wake as they cut through the water. Will thought, wincing as he spotted hundreds of sailors scattered to the wind. The vast majority of them would not survive the night. Will shoved nonessential thoughts aside, refocusing on keeping everyone aboard Shimmer alive through the night. And on the battle went. By the time the night ended, Will was a ragged mess, splayed across the deck and staring at the sky above, which was rapidly turning it’s unnatural shade of blue as the strange sun peeked above the horizon. Anna’s face came into view, blocking some of the morning light, seemingly fine despite fighting for her life the entire night. Will knew logically it was her higher physical stats, and the fact that she could keep fresh copies in reserve, but still… “Are you okay? Do you need anything?” “Breakfast, nap and a bath. Maybe not in that order.” “I bought some oatmeal and dried blueberries in the Flotilla,” She said, putting a hot bowl on his chest. “Big spender,” Will grunted, glancing down at the steaming bowl of blueberry oatmeal under his chin and desperately tried to move his hand. It didn’t work as well as he wanted to, so Will resorted to trying to grab some of the delicious treat with his tongue. “Here,” Anna said with a sigh, taking the bowl off his chest and sitting him up before beginning to spoon-feed him the oatmeal. “Having fun?” Loth asked, arriving beside them. “I’d be lying if I said no,” Will admitted. “How can you still move?” “I wasn’t jumping around the deck from emergency to emergency all night,” Loth said with a shrug, folding her legs and sitting beside him, accepting a bowl of oatmeal from one of the dozens of Annas crisscrossing the deck with trays of steaming food. “We have to kill the Saint.” Loth said matter-of-factly between bites, causing Will to nearly inhale a blueberry. Will coughed oatmeal out of his lungs for a moment before catching his breath. “Moral dilemmas aside, he’s got some information I want,” Will said. “Then you’d better find a creative way to get it out of him before he thinks to give Anna the Berserk debuff.” Loth said, scanning the surrounding Tangled, that made up perhaps a quarter of the five hundred people aboard. ***Saint Jairus*** “So, let’s revisit that permanent two points of stat growth,” Travis Oilton said, lacing his fingers together as he studied the Saint. “I’m assuming that offer is back on the table?”