{Jay}
I was at the back of the ship again.
It's been six days since Cees told me they're going to try to kill us, but he didn't know the plan.
Maud is keeping it close to her chest, but that's fine by me.
Anything she throws at us I will probably be able to handle.
So, while I'm waiting for that, I'm testing the limits on my golems.
I felt Patty settle back into my mind.
How far did you make it?
The connection seemed to get a little hinky after a mile.
I still feel a little bad about just leaving a bunch of dead bodies out there in the sea.
At least the clones just faded away.
Yeah, I don't know how to feel about that either.
You were just a mermaid.
I need to conserve mana. I don't know when they'll attack us.
You don't even have legs to stretch anyway.
Uh-huh.
Ignoring her, I headed to the front of the ship.
Everyone was up on the deck.
Flora leaning on the main mast reading her scrolls, Eric and Jurea are maintaining their respective weapons, and Lyra is arguing with Maud.
I went over to Lrya.
"You know nothing about this sea!"
I heard Maud tell Lyra.
"Yeah, but I know going through sea mountains with you is stupid!"
"And why's that?!"
"What's going on?"
I asked, and Lyra pointed ahead of us to a group of seamounts rising out of the sea.
"She wants to take us into there, and"
She turned to glare at Maud.
"I know a trap when I see one!"
Maud snorted derisively.
"We are on the same ship, and we are weaker than your beast. How could we possibly attack you?"
At least she acknowledges she can't beat me.
"You could have someone waiting for us!"
Maud laughed.
"We weren't planning on taking passengers, this was thrust upon us! So, at no time could we have possibly planned an ambush!"
She grinned at Lyra.
I know she's up to something, but I just can't put my finger on it.
Patty, mini status.
------------------
Energy : 1,000/1,300
Health : 1,600 /1,600
Stamina : 1,006/1,006
Extra energy : 5,000
------------------
I have enough energy to fight if things go poorly, but...
"No, go around."
I told Maud flatly.
"It's my ship!"
She yelled at me.
"And it's my friends' lives. Go. Around. Now."
I glared at her. Now, as I've said before, I'm a three hundred pound predator staring down at maybe a hundred and ten pound one.
She took a subconscious step back.
"We...ugh...would lose over two month's time going around. This time of the year brutal currents in the direction of the shore would throw our small ship around, forcing us to go further out to sea."
I don't know if that's true or not, but I know I smell bullshit.
"I. Don't. Care."
"Well, I do."
Flora had stopped reading, and came over to us.
"A delay that long would make us miss the tournament!"
"Money doesn't matter if we are dead!"
Maud was looking back and forth between Flora, Lyra, and I.
"You really think these weak shits can take us on?!"
Maud's eyes narrowed when Flora said that, but she said nothing.
"I could kill them all by myself."
Maud snorted at that.
"You threatened them! They don't have to fight us if they just lead us to our deaths!"
Lyra had stopped arguing, and started rubbing her temples.
"If they are leading us anywhere, then it's someplace they think they can come out of unscathed; and anything they can handle, so can I!"
Out of the corner of my eye I can see that Eric is also holding her hands over her ears.
I'll check on her later, and Jurea's over there anyway; but for right now I got to get this ship turned around.
"This isn't a pissing contest! It's...it's...a..."
It was getting harder to think by the second.
Like when the words got formed, they'd slip from my grasp like silly putty.
Ha, silly putty, what a funny word.
No! Funny is a funny word. It has funny in it's name!
Hey, funny spelled backwards is ynnuf, which means... what was I thinking about again?
After I didn't finish my thought after a few passed seconds, Flora started shaking me.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Can't she tell?
I'm high, duuuuh!
Shit, how'd I get high?
Flora started waving her hand in front of my face.
It moved super slow across my field of vision, and is glowing!
The streams of colors persisted even after she removed her hand.
Holy shiiiit! Whatever they've got me on is the good stuff.
"What the hell did you do?!"
Flora yelled at Maud, and Maud just smiled at her.
"I thought we were just little dummies who couldn't possibly best you, guess we're smarter than you thought."
Flora huffed.
"Don't give yourself too much credit, you've done nothing to actually gain my respect."
Maud pointed at Flora.
"This wasn't about gaining your respect!"
Flora rolled her eyes.
"Yes, it was. You know I'm better than you, so you were jealous. Don't worry, it's a completely natural feeling for those so far beneath me. You know intellectually."
She paused for a second.
"Intellectually means..."
Maud threw her hands up in exasperation.
"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS, YOU POMPOUS ASS! I'M NOT INFERIOR TO YOU! IF ANYTHING, YOU'RE BELOW ME! I'M THE ONE WHO CAME UP WITH THE PLAN TO CAPTURE SOME MERMAIDS, AND TAKE Y'ALL INTO LULLABY RIDGE! ME, NOT YOU!"
She screamed while pointing at her newly made necklace.
"Lullaby Ridge? So, it's music that's affecting them? So, that must mean it's a musically inclined sea monster here, one weak enough that you think you'll be able to escape from, and one that gets preyed upon by mermaids. Sirens, you brought us into a siren den."
Maud's grin grew crueler.
"Who's the smart one now bitch? I don't know why you haven't fallen under the birds' sway yet, but when you do we are gonna chop you up, throw you into the sea, and watch as the fish eat away any evidence you were ever alive."
Flora took a deep sigh.
"Who's the smart one? Not you, that's for damn sure. I don't know who your enchanter is, but that will only stop their song from affecting you. Not prevent them from attacking..."
Maud cut her off.
"They're glorified vultures. They only attack crashed ships, and we have no attention to crash."
We entered the seamount range, the shadows of which plunged us into dusk-like darkness.
"But what they're really good at is disabling even the strongest opponents. Pirates normally lure heavily armored merchant and pirate hunter ships here to kill them."
Flora grimaced.
"So, that's your plan, incapacitate us and kill us will we stare at nothing."
Perched on the rocky crags were angels, angels with multicolored feathers that were singing without opening their mouths.
"Well, too bad, doesn't look like it's going to pan out like you thought."
Maud motioned to me.
"Looks like it's going to work to me."
"He's not our only fight.."
Before she could finish that sentence, Lyra interrupted her.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
She was screaming while holding her head while Eric was just on her knees crying.
Maud's eyes sparkled in glee.
"You were saying? But you know it would be a waste to just kill all of you. So, we'll just cut off those two's limbs and sell them to the types of freaks who get off on that."
She was pointing at Eric and Lyra.
"As for you, well, I'll flay you slowly!"
I need to help the...Wow! an angel flew right above me.
it landed with a group of ten other angels, and even more were settling on the other crags.
Though they were super beautiful, with their female shaped bodies, soft downey looking feathers cover their entire bodies, and powerful wings and talons; most of them were really skinny.
Their bones are showing through their skin.
whamp!
Flora hit me on the head.
"Snap out of it! {Healing Palms}!"
Holy shit, I can see the magic! It's transparent, and I'm breathing it in.
Don't be stupid, you can't see air.
Shut up Patty!
I can't hear the color blue over you. I think it's about to tell me the secrets of the universe!
"Turn this ship around right now!"
Jurea yelled, while brandishing her weapon.
Eric is lying on the deck in the fetal position.
"Or I'll flay you, tie a rope to your legs, and throw you over board. The fish will eat your flesh as the salt burns you."
The otter threw back her head and laughed a hearty laugh.
"It's cute that you think you can attack me, but"
she gestured to the rest of the crew that was surrounding them - save for Arjun, who's up in the crow's nest, and Ashera's water puppets - who had each sucked up some salt from the salt bins, compressed the mineral till it is as hard and sharp as a blade at the ends of their arms.
So that's why they waste the salt like that! still a waste though.
"as you can see, not only are you outnumbered; but your beast is out of commission, and you can't attack us back. We're the only ones who can sail this ship, you have to keep us alive! HAHAHAHAHA!"
WHAMP!
Jurea hit her so hard she flew back, with blood spurting from her nose.
"Da butch hed me*!"
(*The bitch hit me!)
Maud looked more shocked that she was hit, rather than from the actual pain.
"Gid em*!"
(*Get them!)
The crew charged at them; Flora put up air shield while pulling Fate Weaver out, and Jurea just shoved them to the side as she headed in the direction of Maud and Ashera.
Seeing this, Ashera used two of her water puppets to form one big puppet with one big mineral sword. It slithered up behind Jurea, and swung its blade at her throat.
Flora destroyed it with a powerful fireball.
"What are you doing? The captain's right there, grab her!"
Jurea ignored her, and walked right past Maud, and pointed Unicon's Love at Ashera.
"Turn us around, NOW!"
The sea elf smiled, and a swarm of water tentacles with mineral blades pressed themselves to my neck.
Blood leaked out, but the cuts healed immediately.
How annoying, can't they see I'm trying to listen to the color blue?
Oh, maybe I will....nah!
"Like, didn't you hear Maud? There's, like, nothing you can do, I'm the helmsman, but that doesn't mean I can't hurt your, like, friends. We, like, outsmarted all of you!"
A laughter that sounded like a drowned cat's yowl brought her attention back to Maud.
"Nu mudder wut yu du, eve wun! Ow lung teel da liddle watch rons dri*?"
(*No matter what you do, I've won! How long till the little witch runs dry?)
Thump!
Crack!
Jurea bashed the deck with her hammer, and cracks quickly formed outwards from her strike.
"What the fuck are you doing?!"
Flora yelled at her.
"You do realize we are on a fucking ship, right?!"
"Exactly."
"Exactly? Exactly?!"
"If you don't turn us around, I'll break your ship apart."
Most of the crew - sans Maud, and Ashera - looked terrified.
Flora just looked pissed.
"You stupid fucker, WE ARE ON THE SHIP TOO!"
Jurea just tightened her grip.
"You're, like, bluffing. Your, like, party would die!"
Jurea smiled.
"Try me."
They all entered a Mexican standoff, and more angels gathered above our heads.
Hundreds of them were singing their lovely tune.
"You're, like...."
"Uh, Captain."
Arjun yelled down from the crow's nest, cutting Ashera off.
"Nod now, cunt u see war in the muddle ov omphing!*"
(*Not now, can't you see we're in the middle of something!)
"But..."
"I GOT IT!"
My loud outburst drew all of their attention to me.
"The color blue just told me to say that Arjun is a duck!"
The all looked in my direction - weirdly.
"That is, like, the dumbest shit I've ever..."
At that moment an angel leapt off its perch, swooped downed, and used its speed and weight to knock Arjun out of the crow's nest.
"AAAAAAAAAHH!"
SPLAT!
With a sickening crunch his neck snapped, and brain goo splattered all over me.
"Or maybe it told me to tell Arjun to duck."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Blue is fickle, and hard to understand. Unlike red, red is just a prick! It's so full of itself just because it's on the flags of the superpowers of the world, but that doesn't mean it's better than blue! And another thing..."
During my rant more angels dropped from their perches, and started dive bombing everyone onboard with their talons.
Flora and Jurea are easily killing those that come close to them, but for everyone that died three more replaced it.
"Wei ere dey uttucking?! Dere scuvengers!*"
(*Why are they attacking?! They're scavengers!)
Maud yelled as she ripped one of them off of her arm.
"Look at them, they're starving! They must think we're worth the risk."
Flora said as she blasted four more with a mix of spells.
One of the angels hit me in the face with its talons.
Blood leaked down my face.
"Jay!"
Jurea started bashing and throwing her way to me.
I felt the wound heal, as many more angels started attacking me.
How fucking rude.
"Help me save them!"
Jurea yelled to Flora, but she just ran past me to the angel covered corpse of Arjun.
The angels were ripping chunks off the body to swallow, shoving their fellow angels out of the way.
Flora blasted them with a force bubble.
She then started rummaging through the body gunk.
Jurea, meanwhile, had reached me, and started fending off the angels trying to get to me.
She might be covered with bloody cuts, but everytime her hammer connected with an angel they burst apart into a cloud of blood, guts, and feathers.
"Finally!"
Flora yelled, then ran toward me.
She shot an angel that was about to bite down on Jurea's turned back with an ice spear, and forced Arjun's necklace onto me.
My head cleared immediately, and my hand shot out, grabbed a siren by the head, and squashed it.
Flora glanced at the dead monster, then back to me.
"I'm glad you're back. Now, take me into your subspace. We are going to be overrun."
In a flash Jurea and Eric was absorbed.
Flora was shocked, and then that shock turned into anger.
"What the fuck?! You forget me!"
"No, I didn't. Now, get Lyra and Cees under deck now."
Out of the three of them only she was unharmed.
She'd be the best option to get Lyra and Cees to safety.
Not that she was seeing it that way.
"I freed you from that spell to save my ass..."
"That wasn't a suggestion, do it now!"
I felt some of my energy leave me as I finally gave another magical order.
She looked pissed, but shut her mouth and went to get the others under the deck.
I meanwhile just walked forward, tanking and healing the talon strikes from the sirens.
"{Boulder}."
I caught the boulder with my right hand, smashed it onto my left wrist, and used my crafting stat to shape it into a small arm-shield with a electric glyph on the surface of it.
"{Boulder}."
The second one I shaped into a bat with small fire glyphs covering it.
These motherfuckers played with my head!
The next one to swoop down on me got a faceful of rocky shield.
The glyph activated, and it got electrocuted.
Volt after deadly volt surged through its body frying it from the inside.
By the time it hit the deck a few seconds later, it was already dead.
The next up got bashed with my bat. I felt its bones get obliterated.
It flew off the ship set aflame, and landed in the uncaring sea.
I grabbed one by the leg as it was flying by to slam it against the deck, and then as it was stunned, I bit into its throat to tear it out.
The never ending wave of nexts came after me.
I backhanded one, only to have to kick another.
My bat became heavier and slicker with their blood coating it.
My arm-shield became chipped from the constant banging on exposed bone.
But my anger still wasn't sated.
I'll kill them all!
All who tried to escape got pulled back down via my webs, only to meet their maker in the very next second.
A sudden jostling almost threw me off my feet, but due to Jurea's training on the wagon I regained my balance.
We had hit one of the seamounts!
I glanced at the traitorous sea elf to see that she was trying to sail and fend off attacking sirens, and saw that she was failing spectacularly.
Mini status.
------------------
Energy : 980/1,300
Health : 1,560 /1,600
Stamina : 986/1,006
Extra energy : 5,000
------------------
Patty, you're up.
A golem in the form of the monster wasp I got mana clone from appeared.
Keep the elf alive.
I don't give a shit about the rest of them, but we need her to sail.
She shoot out her ass-blade, and nabbed one of the sirens about to bite into Ashera's neck.
"Wut da fug!*"
(*What the fuck!)
Maud started to extra panic when she saw the wasp.
Patty's ass-blade zipped back into her, and she spun around to charge at Ashera.
Her mandibles reaped the lives of many sirens on the way there.
Mini status.
------------------
Energy : 380/1,300
Health : 1,590 /1,600
Stamina : 950/1,006
Extra energy : 5,000
------------------
I kept moving forward, killing all in my path, until I reached the bow of the ship.
More and more of the sirens came at me, leaving the injured crew alone.
I guess the sirens realized that if they'd have any hope of bringing this ship down, they'd have to take me down first.
Pity, only one more after Arjun had died, I wouldn't shed a tear for anymore who'd kicked the bucket either.
Using my killing spree as cover, most of the remaining crew went under deck as well. Maud herself went to Ashera holding her harpoon, swinging at any errant sirens not bit in half by Patty.
The ship was making good time through the seamounts, or at least it was sailing smoother.
The mounts just keep going and going.
More and more sirens sought to escape, only to be ripped back down and killed.
I don't know how many I had killed when multiple sirens sent a piercing birdcall up into the sky.
A louder birdcall responded to their cries.
What fucking now!
Booooooom!
We were traveling smoothly when a sonic boom hit the side of the ship.
Throwing us all off our feet, except for Patty who was hovering above the deck.
A white feathered missile shot past the Wavecutter.
It swooped up, flared its wings, and dove back down towards us.
It is a siren bigger than the others - at least my height, and has a wingspan over twenty feet.
Boom!
It shot another sound shockwave at us.
Patty!
She shot skyward, and flew in hot pursuit of the siren.
They zipped back and forth, neither winning nor losing ground.
Two mana clones of the wasps appeared, and all three started to do complex flight maneuvers to box in the siren.
As they flew above me I shot a web onto the siren's talon, and pulled it down onto the deck with a thud.
Using its talons it slices my webbing, and stands up.
It flares its wings, and prepares to blast another shockwave at me; but I'm faster.
In a second I'm bashing my bat over its head.
A small explosion happened as my bat finally snapped in half.
That propelled it sideways with a burn down the left side of its face, but still alive.
It stood up again, but this time it turned around and spread its wings to fly away.
It got maybe ten feet into the air before I got there, talon grasped in my hands yet again, and flung it backwards onto the deck.
I then pounced on it, my knees pinning its wings in place as I tear into it with my claws.
Its skin is tougher than its Low-rank pals, and its mana barrier wasn't quitting either.
It's either a Mid-rank, or a special monster.
It's barrier broke, now making it completely at my mercy now, unable to defend itself.
I could end it now, swiftly taking its life.
But it's their fault I couldn't protect Eric, Lyra, and Jurea.
I kept slashing it, but avoided its neck and other vitals.
They fucked with my mind!
I lifted its head to then bash it down on the deck.
After I'm done with this monster, I'm gonna kill that piece of shit otter!
I'm going to eat her heart...
Eric's voice finally reached me.
My claw stopped mid-air, posed to keep slashing.
The siren below me is barely conscious, bleeding out, and hardly a threat.
Kreeeee!
Looking around I noticed that the sirens didn't really flee, but instead were hovering out of range of Patty's flight paths.
They are all focused on the siren underneath me.
Kreeeee!
A particularly young looking one let out a cry, and started to dive.
Kre...eeeee...eee!
The siren leader let out a struggled warning shriek, and the young one corrected its course and rejoined the other sirens.
I looked back down at her.
The only emotion I could read is acceptance.
She's ready to die.
Her whole attack was just to buy the rest of the sirens time to escape.
"Wud ere u witing fur? Kull id!*"
(*What are you waiting for? Kill it!)
Ignoring the otter I extended my hand towards her, and she closed her eyes.
Waiting for it to all be over.
And one more slash would do it too.
A slight movement of my claws and she would just be reduced to a pile of XP.
Shut up Patty.
"{Healing palms}."
Her injuries mended themselves as I stood up.
She slowly stood up herself, and looked between me and Patty flying up above.
I flicked my head in the universal gesture of get going before my common sense returns, and I kill you.
She spared one final look my way before taking off.
Because....
I looked over at Maud and Ashera.
"She's not the one I want to kill."
I said that last bit loud enough for both of them to hear it, and hear it they did.
Maud held her harpoon out towards me as I slowly stalked towards them.
Ashera, however, could do nothing as I'm guessing her mana reserves are super low right now.
Maud opened her mouth to threaten me, but I talked right over her.
"Oh, go ahead, talk. Give me yet another reason to kill you."
She waited in silence as I finish getting over to them.
I slapped her weapon out of her hands, and stood over her.
She is quivering like a leaf, terrified at what I'm about to do.
"You, like, can't hurt us."
Ashera squeaked out.
I turned to her.
"Oh?"
She nervously swallowed.
"Um, like, Maud said you'll need us. So, like, you can't kill us."
I lifted my hand, and she flinched.
"Did you ever think that Maud is full of shit? That she doesn't know everything."
I pointed up to Patty flying above our heads.
"Like I don't think she knew I could do that, do you?"
She vigorously shook her head.
"What, like, are you going to do with us then?"
"Well, now, that's the question of the hour, isn't it?"
Stop ruining my badass dialogue!
Shut up Patty!