From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my p4tr0ns: Morpheaus, and RTB <3 <3 <3 Become a p4tr0n too and read up to FOUR chapters ahead!:
h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / t r a s h w i t h g l a s s e s
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"Fuash!", the water beside our canoe washed everywhere, showering on top of us, and sending waves that almost turned our canoe upside down.
On the center of the lake that supplied the city around the Bear Mountain, in plain daylight, we fought against members of the suspicious Order we finally found some clues about after investigating around the town, and they had magical items ready to throw spells at us.
The commotion was enough to send most of the fishermen rowing back to shore in panic, but it seemed we had underestimated how many of those vessels actually supported our enemies.
"Leave this to me!", Splash promised, pulling the string of his conjured bow back, and shooting his conjured arrows at our enemies in one of the other canoes in the lake.
"Fuash", another magical boulder hurled against the lake's surface raised a water wall that stopped the shot arrows on their way.
"Shit, I can't do anything if I don't reach them first!", Mari complained, slashing a conjured wooden spear hurled against her straight in half with one of her metallic axes.
Manipulating the Manitou in the water to block the dozens of spells coming at us from one side of the canoe, I opened my mouth: "I could-"
"Don't kill them! We need prisoners to climb over this Order's ranks and find out who's their leader, other than that Broken guy!", Dam barked at me protecting himself from a fireball with his wooden doll while griping tight onto the sides of our tiny canoe so as not to be thrown overboard by the tall waves coming from all sides.
That excluded more than half of my ideas… Honestly, how was I even fighting before breaking the twenty-fifth chain link?
"Well, if no one is willing to do this, I guess I have no choice…" Dust crouched beneath an arrow shot against her, sighed, and then, surprisingly sprung back up with enough strength to shake the canoe we were in.
She spun three times in the air, and landed right into one of the enemies' vessels, leaving even our opponents stunned for a moment, before she kicked them all at once with a single leg over the edge and into the water.
As the girl with really long legs jumped again and to the next boat, however, the members of the enemy Order caught up to her strategy, and almost all of them aimed at her.
"Coyote!", Mari called.
She didn't need to say another word: while still maintaining a water barrier on one side of the canoe, I shot a jet of water before Dust, and swapped away the fireballs, spears, arrows, boulders, and blades conjured and thrown at her.
Meanwhile, Splash conjured a burning arrow with a tip made of gourd filled with oil, and shot against the emptied canoe, burning it down and not allowing the swimming enemies to get back onboard.
While Dust went around kicking everyone into the water or into the dreaming realm, jumping from canoe to canoe, a bunch of enemies finally decided to raid us, and embarked on our vessel. Much to Mari delight.
"Ho? You have some courage, darlings."
"It's better to face you than that crazed Broken!"
The green-haired girl immediately broke someone's nose with the butt of her ax, headbutt someone into unconsciousness, and cut off a guy's thumb off.
The incoming raiders, however, were armed with a myriad of magical items, and very confident: a dozen of magical waste auras exploded around our leader, and a wall of punches was thrown by body-enhanced men. Before these could reach Mari, however, a wooden doll got in the way, and blocked the attacks with its own body, exploding in a thousand pieces, but leaving the green-haired girl unscratched.
"Thanks, babe!", Mari got back to hacking and slashing.
"I'm tired of this already…!", I gritted my teeth, and sent the Manitou forward, moving the water wall like a huge wave, and crashed it right into four of the enemies' canoes, breaking their vessels and scattering their crew across the lake.
I moved my hands to the left, and the huge wave I was controlling also turned to my next target. I found my non-lethal strategy frustrated, however, when the crew of four canoes conjured a bunch of projectiles that ended the impetus of the water. Couldn't they appreciate the favor I was doing to them? I was really just a push away from exploding them from inside.
"Tch!", I clicked my tongue, and moved both my arms up, violating their soul space, and manipulating the Manitou in the wood beneath the magic item users in the boats, and turning the surface of their canoe into a spikey hell, perforating their soles, hands and buts.
Screaming, the men on top of those four canoes all jumped into the water to escape the torment of impalement.
Looking around, Mari and Dam had already dealt with the fools who dared to board us, and Splash was burning and breaking all of the emptied enemy vessels while Dust was just about to finish the last bastion of the mysterious Order in that lake: the long-legged girl jumped into the canoe, dodged a punch from a man with blood red waste, and kicked him in the chin, knocking him out immediately, then she jumped and pirouetted over the head of the crew who all shot magic and slashed with their weapons against the spot where she was just a minute ago, and landed right behind them. She supported her weight on just her hands, and with both legs, kicked the back of the nearest enemy, hurling him against his colleagues, and throwing everyone overboard. After that, she got back onboard with another pirouette, and sat down, fanning herself with a hand and looking tired.
"Shesh, how troublesome, I had to do everything myself…", Dust complained. "I almost missed being back home and having mommy and daddy doing everything for m… I-I mean! Working just as hard as my eight older brothers and sisters, of course!"
"…Hey", Aspen approached the girl, his eyebrows twitching. "If you could just jump into their ships from the beginning, why didn't you do it from the beginning?"
"…Because it was trou-" the long-legged girl started, before changing her phrase midsentence: "Because I was still planning my next move?"
"Wait, Aspen! I take responsibility for all of this! It's all my fault!", Splash said, closing his fists tight and frowning deeply.
"Then you two take this!", Damn smashed the heads of his underlings with his knuckles, leaving them behind patting their own heads with tears in their eyes.
Well, whatever. I just wanted to discover what was going on with that Order, and discover why I had to kill one of my friends. And each fight got me closer to that.