Morn ducked under the blow of a Levjottun, quickly lashing out with a metal toed boot. The force of the kick pushed him onto his back. Morn flicked a safety switch on the gauntlet on his left arm as he slid across the ground and arrived beneath another Levjottun. With a smile, Morn clenched his prosthetic fist closed.
With a clicking sound, his fingers pressed down on a heavy mechanical lever on his palm. His elbow rocketed back into the ground as he braced himself. A hiss sounded out as a torrent of gas exploded from a Morn's knuckles.
The highly compressed Folia rocketed through the underbelly of the Levjottun, tearing a hole straight through its chest, breaking through its organs and eventually its spine. Morn looked up, peering through the hole at the bright noon sky.
Morn quickly rolled backward, avoiding the Levjottun as it collapsed onto the ground, nearly crushing him. The kickback from the first shot pushed back a bolt on his prosthetic hand with a clank.
A small length of the gas belt fed out the other side of the Folia Lance as a fresh vial of gas clicked into place in the device. Morn turned to the two remaining Levjottun, baring his teeth as he unslung the drill from his back. Morn immediately pulled the lever and clicked the ignitor with his free hand.
Flames shot forward, drowning the Levjottun in fire. The creatures let loose gurgling screams as they caught fire, their skin boiling. Morn rushed at the nearest of the two monsters.
Ignoring the flames, he reached out with his flame proof prosthetic and grabbed the creature's head, barely steadying it in place long enough to slam the drill's vibrating bit into its eye socket. The creature fell to the ground, dying instantly as the drill scrambled its brain.
The final Levjottun stood from the ground and lunged at Morn, having put out the flames in the damp mass on the forest floor. The Levjottun opened its jaws wide, prepared to eat Morn alive.
Mimicking Azur's actions from the first day on the island, though using his hand instead of a gas drill, Morn raised his left arm in front of his body and faced the creature. He smiled as his fingers curled into a fist, depressing the lever of the Folia lance once again. As the creature's maw surrounded his hand, about to bite down, Morn whispered.
"This one's from Azur."
Gas exploded from the hand, cancelling out the Levjottun's momentum completely as it blew apart the creature's skull. The headless corpse fell to the forest floor, landing with a soft thud.
Morn slung the drill over his back, then returned to his wheelbarrow and continued through the forest. After an uneventful half hour, Morn arrived at the short cliffside. After a minute, Morn located the rowboat and began tossing supplies down into the boat.
After unloading the wheelbarrow, Morn climbed carefully down the several metre cliff, arriving gently in the rowboat. Morn opened a sack, removing a mechanical box with a pipe-like object sticking out of its back.
He placed the box carefully on the back of the rowboat, screwing it into place and adding a metal support beam that stretched to the middle of the rowboat.
After ensuring it was securely attached and the pipe sat just below the water, Morn removed two large tanks of Folia from his bag. Azur and Morn had both brought a large tank of gas to the island.
With Azur's equipment ownerless, Morn had filled the tank with Folia for the Skip-boat to use. Morn laid the tanks down in the middle of the boat, tying them down to avoid them accidentally falling overboard. Morn then stretched a tube from one of the tanks to the Folia-pipe.
After tying down his other bags of equipment, Morn donned his inhalant mask and laid down in the boat. After screwing in a vial with an extremely small dose of Antil, barely enough to last several minutes, Morn inhaled deeply. The sleeping gas quickly took effect, causing Morn to fall asleep.
The bright stars soon appeared in his mind, hovering over a map of Malsata. The red light that Morn assumed to be himself shone brightly in the Storm Commons, not far from Fairjott.
The beams of light soon appeared, and the familiar dream of being pulled under the ocean and into the tree of hands flashed by. A moment later, Morn awoke. Knowing roughly the direction he needed to travel in, Morn sat at the end of the boat, next to the control lever of the Folia-pipe.
Morn unmoored the boat from the rock and pushed off the cliffside, angling the boat towards Fairjott. He then rested his hand on the control-lever and with a nervous sigh, Morn readied himself.
"Well, here goes nothing! Wish me luck, Azur!"
Morn pulled the lever. A hissing sound spewed from the pipe as a steady stream of Folia began to burst from the device. Morn clung to the side of the boat with his free hand, shouting with a mix of excitement and terror as the boat launched across the water. The boat encountered a wave, but used it as a ramp to launch into the air, flying several loy forward before landing in the water again.
"Ahhhh!" Morn shouted as the boat caught air.
The boat continued skipping across the water, only stopping when Morn encountered a field of light blue salt sheets. He flicked the lever off as the boat landed in the middle of the solid salt shields.
Excitedly, Morn began to harvest the salt. This was the raw form of Flux powder, Flux salt. Although he likely had enough Folia for the trip to Fairjott, he didn't want to risk running out of fuel in the still and cursed waters of the Fifth Deadly Sea.
After several minutes of gathering shards of salt, Morn turned the boat back on, skipping across the ocean once again.
…
Night soon fell on the ocean as Morn arrived halfway to Fairjott. Although the skip-boat was far faster than rowing, the trip back to Fairjott took longer than when he and Azur had first escaped Fairjott. Toli's island had been much closer two months ago, and had since drifted much farther.
As the darkness fell, Morn began to light a lantern at the front of the row boat, but paused as he saw something in the distance. A cluster of yellow lights were moving not far from him.
He sat silently as the lights grew closer, passing close enough for him to make out more details. The lights had actually been tens of lanterns attached to a large boat.
Looking closely, Morn noticed that the boat was in the Palkian style. The ship was large, with a high back mast and crows nest for seeing long distances. The sides had folding rails that could be raised higher, or dropped over the side to form a boarding plank.
The ship had harpoons set up on the edge of the boat, meant to pull in other ships. And the bow of the boat had a heavily reinforced figurehead of Palkus the Seabird, the dweller belonging to the great island of Palk. The front of the ship was reinforced, specially designed for ramming other ships.
The ship was designed for boarding, fighting, and murder, perfect for the pirate nation of Palk. 345 years ago in the 135th year of the current era, the great island of Palk was invaded by Pirate Lord Oscairo. Oscairo had taken over the newly formed and weak government with his army of loyal pirates, reforming it into a pirate nation.
Ever since, even after the sudden disappearance of Oscairo in year 155, they had been a menace to those passing by. Of course, they wouldn't bother those with sufficient strength, or vessels that represented great nations. But privately owned vessels were fair game.
Morn let out a sigh of relief as the pirate ship passed by, close enough that Morn could hear the sound of song and laughter from aboard the ship. Had he turned on his lanterns and been spotted, the pirates would likely have captured or killed him.
Morn sat in the darkness, waiting for the pirate ship to pass by, hoping it wouldn't notice him in the darkness. As Morn waited with bated breath, the waves grew stronger suddenly, tearing past Morn's small rowboat, heading for the pirate ship.
Morn watched as the lantern light from the pirate ship revealed a massive scaled hand raising from the water. Giant claws dug into the side of the boat, pulling the ship further underwater as the Levjottun used its arms to pull itself above the water.
The large pirate boat began to tilt over as a giant humanoid head raised from the ocean, the size of half the pirate ship. Long, matted hair hung from the creature's head, hiding the edges of a massive smile. The creature let out a long, pulsating roar as it attempted to climb onto the pirate ship.
Morn stared wordlessly, horrified by the monster of the deep. Morn quickly pulled the lever, activating the folia-pipe and sending the ship skipping across the water.
Morn cast a last look over his shoulder as the boat sped away, seeing the giant creature sitting atop the pirate boat, its weight causing the boat to submerge halfway into the water. The creature was using its long, slender arms to pry the ship in half like a child opening up a gift.
Morn looked away, focusing on getting as far away from the creature and the pirates as he could, not caring which side survived.