A shriek rang out, from his side and he watched with wide eyes as the crew-woman that had been helping them was lifted aloft by another tentacle. She shrieked wildly, even as Karla unlimbered her bolt-bow and futilely fired at the attacking limb.
A bolt exploded from the weapon in a burst of blue-green smoke, flying through the air to dig deep into the flesh of the kraken's oversized limb.
It was a futile gesture, one William doubted the creature even noticed as the tentacle wrapped tighter and tighter around its struggling prey.
And for just a moment, William got to see the look on the sailor's terrified face before a mass of scaly fish meat covered even that.
And just like that, his resolve broke – with all the ease of a strand of spaghetti placed into an industrial press.
"Fuck it, I guess I'm doing this," he grunted as he dashed over to his still distracted aunt.
She had something he needed – and he didn't have the time to explain why he needed it.
Not if he was going to save everyone here.
"Wha- William!?" Karla grunted in confusion, weapon lowering for just a moment as she turned towards him.
In his mind, he winced apologetically even as he forced his face to contort into an expression of surprise. "No, behind you!"
Her eyes had just a moment to widen, as she turned back in an attempt to find the threat - before he slammed his palm into her midriff.
"Electricity," he whispered under his breath with a speed that could only come from long hours of practice. "One charge. Touch activation. Right hand. Knockout."
Some mages preferred to be more flowery when it came to the activation of their contracts, adding in entire verses of specificity in the name of getting as much power as they could in return for their investment.
William was not one of them.
And fortunately for him, neither was his patron.
He'd barely finished the final syllable of his activation phrase before his hands were crackling with electrical energy from beyond the dimensional gap.
Energy that flowed almost immediately into his aunt.
The marine-knight twitched, before dropping like a rock as a few thousand carefully moderated volts of lightning shot through her nervous system.
Fortunately, he caught her before her head could slam into the hard wood panels of the deck.
The same could not be said for the bolt-bow she was carrying, but he wasn't too worried about that. The things were usually built tough and she'd fired the entire magazine before he made his move.
Careful not to unduly jostle her, he gently – if quickly – bundled the unconscious woman into the lifeboat she'd just been standing over.
"Right, you should be safe-ish here," he muttered quietly. "And I really am sorry about this. Genuinely. I just… didn't have time to explain."
That, and she probably wouldn't have listened to him even if he had, given that he'd spent the last few years cementing his reputation as a reckless screw up.
Still apologizing in his mind, he flipped through the woman's belt until he found a fresh magazine for the bolt-bow. A weapon that he needed to leap to grab, as it attempted to slide overboard as the deck suddenly shifted violently in response to some movement by the beast below.
Cursing, he flicked the empty magazine off of the weapon before inserting the fresh one into the top.
Satisfied, he slung it across his shoulder by the strap, before he hurriedly reached into the rucksack on his other shoulder to fish out one of the leather satchels within. Something that only took him two attempts, after he discarded both a thermos and a leatherbound journal.
Though he had to duck as the crewmember from before swished by overhead, still gripped in the inhuman coils of an oversized tentacle.
Which served as a decent reminder of the fact that said human woman would likely be dragged down into the water – or summarily squished – any second now.
Because nothing mixes quite like being hurried and high explosives, the young man thought sarcastically as he yanked open the cap of leather satchel with his teeth, before spitting the bit of cork off to the side.
A feat he repeated two more times with similar bags, holding each awkwardly between his fingers as he did.
"Ice-Cubes. One charge. Instant Activation. Water source: Objects in right hand - contents." He grunted hurriedly.
He felt it that time. Like a muscle unclenching in his very soul, the second of two of his aether charges was sucked into the fae-realms with the unsettling sound of a small giggle.
Though he wasted not a moment dwelling on it, ignoring the momentary sense of apathy that washed over him with long practice.
Instead, he refocused his mind on the task as hand as the contract took effect.
One left, he thought as vapor seemed to flow out from the bags, turning the black powder within from damp powder to something altogether much more dangerous.
He ignored the way three relatively tiny ice-cubes fell to the floor a moment later as the released vapor spontaneously collected together before freezing.
Instead, he speared all three bags onto the tip of the bolt sticking out the end of his now reloaded bolt-bow.
"Candle. One charge. Delayed Activation: Ten seconds. Ignition Source: Objects in right hand – contents."
The muscle unclenched one final time before going slack, and William had to struggle not to sway as a wave of both apathy and lethargy washed over him.
Fortunately, it was fleeting, he raised his weapon in the direction of the nearest tentacle. Which happened to be the one holding the human sailor.
Tracing the point of the weapon down, he very deliberately pointed it as far away from the woman as he could without letting the intended impact point be too close to the water.
He hoped.
Just as he hoped his aim wasn't off, because if it was, a whole lot of nothing was about to happen and they were all fucked.
The swaying of the deck didn't help. Nor did the fact that the tentacle was hardly staying still. And finally, he knew there was the fact that he'd need to account for the extra drag provided by three bags full of powder dangling off the end of his bolt.
Oh, and he only had eight more seconds to line up his shot.
…He held his breath.
Seven.
His fingers tightened around the grip of the bolt-bow, the pressure within its firing chamber building as he channeled wild aether through the intake valve pressed against his thumb.
Six.
A move that was far from comfortable after expending the entirety of his refined aether-reserves prepping this shot, but still perfectly doable.
Five.
It was just like flexing a cramping muscle was all. Only, said muscle was in his soul.
Four.
Off to his right, someone screamed. The deck tilted. Somewhere a rope snapped.
Three.
Gently, he pulled back on the trigger.
Don't squeeze it, a voice in his mind supplied. Keep it a single smooth motion. When it fires, it should honestly take you off guard.
And it did. An eruption of blue-green gas that exploded from the front of the bolt-bow, propelling the bolt itself through the air.
Two.
…And deep into the thick scaly flesh of the Kraken.
"One," he muttered with cool satisfaction.
As explosions went, it was pretty underwhelming. A bag full of loose powder was hardly anything at the end of the day. Little more than a firework with less pyrotechnics.
With that said, it was still an explosion.
And as William heard the low hiss and pop, he watched as the tentacle he'd been aiming at practically disintegrated at the base.
The response was instantaneous, a low shriek that echoed across the ocean and vibrated in his very chest as the top half of the now severed limb fell to the deck – the crew woman in its coils slightly dazed and sore, but still struggling to untangle herself from the now limp bit of squid.
Truth be told the loss of a limb was hardly too serious an injury for a kraken. Much like squid and octopi, they were perfectly capable of regrowing tentacles.
With that said, he watched as across the ship the great limbs of the beast retreated back, sliding down into the water once more with eerie synchronicity.
After all, just because the animal could recover from the blow didn't mean it didn't hurt. And if the 'rival kraken' had hurt it once, the oversized squid likely feared it could be hurt again.
With that in mind, a small clash over territory was hardly worth the possibility of maiming or death.
Not when she'd yet to lay her eggs.
With that in mind, William watched from over the side of the ship as the water below swelled with the great beast's movements as it swam away from the Fair Gentleman with all haste its remaining seven limbs could summon.
The entire crew watched with muted unease as the creature continued to circle for half a minute, before finally diving. In seconds, the great beast had disappeared once more beneath the waves.
And William finally allowed himself a small sigh of relief.
I've no idea what I'd have done if she came back for round two, he thought.
Reaching for the bolt-bow, he was just in the process of removing the live bolt and magazine when he nearly leapt out of his skin as a great cheer rang out from the crew behind him.
"Three cheers for the Kraken Slayer!" The distinctive voice of Nemoa rang out from the quarterdeck. "The man whose magic trumped a sea-beasts scales!"
William turned, panic in his eyes, to see with horror that the entire crew was staring at him as they continued to cheer loudly, waving their bloody weapons high into the air. Even the woman who'd just untangled herself from the tentacles was beaming at him.
He didn't know how much they'd seen, but he did know at least a few of them had seen his final attack on the beast.
Though hopefully, they'd only turned to look in his direction after the explosion rang out.
Well shit, he thought as a crowd of excitable sailors rushed over to him. There goes my plan to say my aunt passed out after summoning a giant lightning bolt.
Which of course, as if summoned by his thoughts, just so happened to be the moment the woman in question blearily peered out from over the side of the life-boat he'd stashed her in.
Trying not to wince even as he deliberately turned to her instead of the crowd of excitable sailors rushing in, he tried to sound commiserating.
"Hey Aunt Karla, how's the head? Because that bit of debris came out of nowhere."
…He really hoped he sounded convincing, because if he fucked up this first lie, the next seventy would need to become a lot more complicated.
A lot more complicated, he thought as he met the woman's confused expression with the most innocent expression of happy relief he could possibly muster just as the crowd surged in around them.