The central pillar of wood holding up the sails tore into two with one resounding explosion of noise. Swaths of tentacles chased after the falling trunk, ripping into it from the inside out as it ruptured apart into thousands of pieces.
SWISH-! SWISH-!
Another pair of massive tentacles burst through the waters, raising themselves high into the sky.
From below, Syllian's heart teetered on the verge of destruction.
His legs wobbled like boneless jelly while his eyes shifted between terror and comprehension.
"Run!"
Syllian's survival instincts came to life, pumping the jelly out of his legs and returning them to functional limbs.
The boy dashed toward the helm, reaching for the fence in front of the wheels.
Behind him-
Swoosh...
-A 20-metre-tall tentacle whipped downwards, chiselling the blocks of air separating it from the ship.
Laying his hand on the fence, Syllian gripped til his hands turned white.
CRACK!
Shards of wood detonated from the stern of The Adler and the ship croaked as sounds of creaking wood reverberated from behind Syllian.
Pulling himself over, the boy rolled down the side of the leaning ship just in time; bouncing and landing on splinters of sharp wood, multitudes of miniature cuts slathered his skin.
The same moment Syllian jumped over, the stern separated itself from The Adler, revealing the spilling contents of its belly.
Splash...
The Captain's carved chair slid off the edge, splashing into the water below alongside the vast volumes of debris draining from within.
Thud.
Syllian landed on the deck and pushed himself up, staggering for a moment from the impact of his head getting smacked into the wood.
Punching his skull a couple of times, the boy regained his clarity soon after.
Just in time to witness the fall of the next tentacle.
'Fuck-!'
It was above him, and soon he would become one with it.
A sauce to liven up the taste of the meal.
'The only sauce I've tasted is mud gruel!'
He didn't want to become mud gruel, not today.
Kicking off the wall, Syllian leapt through the air.
Behind his back, the air screeched as the tentacle slapped down on The Adler, cutting it down into a smaller piece once again.
This time, Syllian could see the innards of The Adler spilling.
'That would have been me.'
Today the rain was no longer water, it was the blood of The Adler.
Running along the deck, Syllian held his hands above his face, shielding himself from the shards of shrapnel pelting the air.
A portion of the main mast rested on the deck in front of Syllian, there was no way around it except by crawling beneath it.
'Can I crawl in time?!'
A critical question.
Because once again.
SWISH-! SWISH-!
The voracious tentacles pierced the skies.
CRACKLE-!
Before Syllian could appreciate the new tentacles, a blinding flash of light covered the skies.
His ears rung from the stunning noise of falling lightning, with his eyes and ears mute, Syllian's sense of smell was amplified slightly.
And from the sides, he smelt a tangy, putrid cooked scent.
A few moments passed and Syllian regained his sight.
Twitching, scarred tentacles hung high up in stasis with valleys of blood running down their flesh on the sides of the ship.
Syllian felt a weird liquid dripping down his ears but didn't waste time on the reason why.
Dropping down to the floor, he clawed his way beneath the broken mast.
Crawling with his life dependent on it he channelled his mind on the task.
One hand pushed in front of the other with his small legs assisting each movement. Tasting the wet wood beneath him, Syllian roared past his gritting teeth and broke out the other side.
"Oh. Shit."
With the help of a timely bolt of lightning, Syllian grabbed a look at what was in front of him.
The coarse dirt was visible behind the bowsprit of The Adler.
Syllian was facing down at a steep angle.
He-
The space behind the broken mast rumbled.
-was plummeting.
Raising the ship into the sky, the tentacles retaliated in the best way they knew against the skies.
Creak-
The hull of The Adler groaned ailingly, the tentacles flourished through it in maddening rage, aiming to rip the thing in two.
Its goal was straightforward.
Throw the ship at the skies.
Syllian was just a victim of their retaliation.
And now he was falling down at terrible speeds, with just a few seconds to hold on for dear life before he turned into paste.
His eyes rapidly flashed about, searching for a foothold.
'There.'
Reaching out with both hands, Smack!, his shoulders burst with pain as his fall was halted.
Hanging off a post used to anchor the secondary sails, Syllian didn't turn his eyes back to the tentacles.
Instead, he searched for the next foothold to jump to.
His goal:
'There.'
The ladder.
Eyeing a section of the barricade that had been broken and lodged into the deck nearby, Syllian began swinging his body.
Building up some momentum, he got ready to jump.
Rumble-!
The sound of the ship falling apart accelerated just then.
His body suddenly started falling, it was slow but noticeable.
'The anchor isn't rooted into the ship anymore.'
The anchor had been jeopardized.
Wasting no time, Syllian swung his petite body back and forth one last time and jumped.
Flying past shooting sections of debris-
Thud.
-he grasped onto the broken barricade.
Before he could celebrate, the wound on his chest squeezed with pain. Droplets of blood seeped through his clothing, his injury had opened slightly.
Syllian struggled to grasp onto this broken barricade, the wood was plastered with water and blood; it was slippery.
Overworking his mind, Syllian found the next spot right after.
'...Too far.'
It was slightly beyond his reach.
Syllian was too short.
CREAK-!
Turning his head to the noise, he saw the ship slowly splitting in two. The broken section was rapidly approaching and he had one more jump to make before he could reach the ladder.
A dumb idea abruptly crackled through Syllian's mind.
'That will work, right?'
Decisively, Syllian abandoned his original route.
Then, he waited.
Creak...
The ship continued splitting in half, throwing splinters of wood as far as the eye could see into the air.
It approached Syllian, but still, he waited.
Feeling his fingers begin to lose grip, Syllian cursed the tentacles in his mind, 'Work faster you rotten shits!'
Crack.
The hull sputtered, pausing the demolition for a moment.
It did the opposite of what Syllian hoped.
But not for long.
BOOM!
Dozens of tentacles gouged the solemn, dark waters, slapping into one another in bursts of ear-rupturing smacks.
For a second Syllian felt his soul bubble up his throat, wanting to escape to the next life.
'Hell no.'
Syllian switched straight back to his old plan, there was no time to wait.
Crack-!
The Adler's hull rapidly deteriorated, and the gash running down the hull vertically began expanding once more. Except this time, it was the final stretch.
Just like ripping a piece of clothing, the first part was the hardest, but once you approached the flimsy section, the rest was easy.
Listening to the noise of the ship tearing apart through his still ringing ears, Syllian wondered just how loud it would have been if his ears were functioning normally.
'Scratch that, the new plan it is.'
Switching back, Syllian pushed himself up the debris he was hanging on to.
Carefully standing on the broken barricade, he silently hoped it wouldn't fall apart beneath him.
If it did, he would die.
Plain and simple.
Taking a deep breath through his aching chest, Syllian firmed his resolve.
'Three.'
The broken hull was about to reach him.
'Two.'
In front of Syllian's eyes, The Adler had been roughly sliced in half, he could vividly see the other side of the interior, even the cannons in the lower deck.
"Go!"
Syllian's arms flailed beside him for a second, then, reaching for the section of the hull closest to him, he pushed them out in front.
His plan?
Hug the broken section of The Adler down to the ladder.
Yes, it was crazy.
At any moment climbing down, a section of debris could end his life, and if he was too slow, he would die alongside it.
But, by placing one half his body on the hull, and the other half on the vertical, broken section. He could efficiently lower himself, at the risk of suddenly losing grip and sliding down, of course, but what was life without risk?
'Screw risk.'
Yeah, screw that, he wanted no risk.
But the next best option was dying.
His decision from before to try and save both Lanner and Allen while putting himself at risk ended up getting all 3 of them almost killed.
And Lanner did die.
The Trial of Ruin had taught him a grave lesson.
Without strength, he had no freedom of choice.
Without strength, he would suffocate.
And he had to endure, endure until he had strength.
'At least enough to kill this tentacle bastard.'
It was a grand goal.
BANG!
But he had to live first.
Slamming into the sharp corner, Syllian hissed through his teeth as he felt his chest wound deepen.
The Adler was slowly rising from the ground, so Syllian rapidly climbed down.
Feeling debris slice the air beside him, Syllian gulped down the rising acids from his stomach.
With every second, Syllian felt like his life was about to slip between his fingers.
Literally.
The deck of The Adler was too slippery, and his fingers were too weak to hold onto such a slippery surface.
After a few more seconds, the boy could no longer keep up with the rate at which the ship broke.
The hull had almost split in half now.
Pausing his climb, Syllian conjured up his strength and turned his head to the left and downwards.
Swaying below the bowsprit, the shoddy ladder was still in one piece.
Calming his heart, Syllian cursed one last time, then-
"Make it!"
-jumped with everything he had in him.
CRACK!
The hull behind him cracked into millions of miniature shards, and from the depths of the broken Adler, dozens more tentacles slammed into the last section of the hull.
Shredding the bowsprit into hundreds more pieces.
Syllian's hand rattled through the ladder as he tried to slow down his fall until he finally came to a halt.
But the ladder was no longer connected to the ship, so he fell once more.
Splash!
This time, though, it was into the waters.
Syllian made it.
Struggling up, he looked at the ship in the air, and at the dozens upon hundreds of tentacles hanging beneath the bottom of the ship.
The only difference was that the ship was no longer one, it was now two.
And being below the ship, debris was still falling towards him.
Weaving past the rain of wooden shards, Syllian made landfall, he was now in relative safety.
His body was wet, his chest wound stung and bled, and his mind was tired.
Looking at the terrifying sight, Syllian observed as the tentacles slowly reeled back the ships, and...
Boom-
...flung them into the air.
Syllian had almost died just because the tentacles wanted to throw the ship at the sky.
All for a fruitless endeavour on the Mutant's end.
Otherwise, he would have had an easier time escaping.
'How funny.'
Syllian wasn't amused in the slightest.
Unbeknownst to Syllian, the water just centimetres away from him started seething.
Boiling.
...Approaching.