Mythos: Last Stand
Chapter 32 — ...Storm
by Caide Fullerton
Jackie gazed across the ocean at the approaching ship. Before they'd left the port, the pirates had given them a tool called a spyglass. It was a nifty thing that let them see much further than normal; the ship was still a spec on the horizon to their bare eyes, but they could make it out somewhat clearly through the lens.
Jackie: “It’s a small ship. Like the ones that assaulted Avek Tirion. There are… maybe six or so people aboard.”
Jahd: “They won’t win a naval battle, then. Probably lookin’ ta board us.” The Zombie spoke from beside them, manning the ship’s wheel; once Raffica spotted the ship, he’d taken over from one of the Golems.
Jackie: “We outnumber them. Especially with the Golems.”
Jahd: “The stonefolk won’t fight; it ain’t in their nature. Our forces’re just th’eight of us.”
Jackie: “We should still have the advantage, then… except that half of us are Human.”
Jahd: “Aye. Gettin’ boarded’s our worst-case scenario.” He looked up, to where a yellow glow was zipping circles around the backmost mast. “Oi, Sils!?”
Sils: “Full speed ahead! We’ll outrun ‘em as planned!”
The Sylph shouted back and flew a wider, oblong loop around the mast, a vortex of swirling wind trailing behind her, visible with a soft bluish glow. Her flight took her behind the ship’s stern, and as she returned she thrust her arms forward. The vortex behind her surged forward, thinning out into many tendrils of wind that faded into nothingness.
At least, they visibly faded, perhaps due to being spread so thin. Their impact, on the other hand, was enough to shake the entire ship. All five of the ship’s sails—two on each of the masts and a smaller one hanging from the bowsprit—billowed out, causing the vessel to lurch forward with increased speed. Unleashing the wind seemed to exert a real effort on Sils’s body—she was still flying forward, but the weight of her magic pushed her back, keeping her frozen in air. No, not frozen; she was moving at the exact speed of the boat. This was clearly a technique in which she was well-practiced.
Jackie returned their gaze to the horizon. Raffica had spotted the ship a little over a minute ago, but its appearance here was concerning. They shouldn’t reach the blockade for another hour, and said blocked should have consisted entirely of ships comparable in size to their own. Worst of all, this ship hadn’t simply been patrolling the shoreline or sailing towards Avek Tirion; it’d been headed straight for them from the moment it was spotted.
This ship wasn’t part of the blockade, of that they were quite sure. The enemy somehow knew where they were and had sent this smaller, faster ship to intercept them.
The speed from Sils’s wind gave them a considerable boost, but it wasn’t something she could maintain indefinitely. Jackie had earned a rudimentary understanding of her racial magic. Sils ‘collected’ wind through movement, and could then unleash and manipulate what she’d gathered; she was collecting a decent amount as she powered the sails, but not as much as she was using. The boost was already starting to peter out; she’d have to spend time gathering more wind before boosting them again, meaning they could only move at maximum speed for short bursts. They raised their spyglass, carefully watching the enemy ship’s approach.
Jackie: “...we aren’t gonna make it. They’ll reach us before we’re past them.”
Jahd: “It’ll come down ta how well we can prevent ‘em from boardin’, then. I can man a cannon, but the chances o’ hittin’ a ship that small’re slim.”
Jackie nodded and moved to the edge of the deck; they were on the highest, backmost deck with Jahd, but most of their other companions were assembled on the deck below, which made up the majority of the ship’s surface. “Raffica! Could you use your Snap on their ship?”
The red-haired girl looked their way and nodded. “I could, but I wouldn’t be able to fight as well after.”
Jackie: “We’ll save that for a last resort, then.” Further ideas clicked together, and they looked up to Sils, her stockpile of wind finally running dry. “Hopefully, we won’t have to fight them at all. Let’s cut them off before they reach us.”
* ? *
Valis stood atop her ship’s helm, arms crossed as she snuck impatient glances at the helmsman beside her. As a proud Mer warrior, she found it demeaning to ride a vessel atop the water, even if she understood the ship’s utility. If it were up to her, she and her squad would swim the seas themselves, without assistance, and fight through their exhaustion as they faced their foes in combat.
Such ideas were more honorable, perhaps, and more the Merfolk way, but they were incompatible with war. She would have needed to know about the enemy’s plans much sooner in advance to cover the distance without a ship, and swimming would have put her and her men at an undeniable and unnecessary disadvantage.
This, she concluded, was why she was not in charge; she had risen the ranks through the virtue of her strength and usefulness, but the ways of Evendel were different than the ways of Atlantis. Where Merfolk reveled in proving themselves by any means necessary, the Elkiir would scoff at such self-imposed disadvantages as foolish—to a degree, they would be right.
She might understand why things were the way they were, but that didn’t mean she liked it. Every fiber of her being was reviled by the idea of riding a ship, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself it was the normal, correct, logical thing to do. In the same vein, she found herself resenting the soldier beside her; that a fellow Mer had learned how to properly pilot a ship seemed a violation of the way of the world.
Rrrip.
It was a strange sound, but before she could process what it was, it repeated. Several rips rang out—the sound of tearing cloth. Her gaze snapped upward, to the ship’s sail. Several thin trails of glowing white had pierced it, curving through the air in graceful arcs. The glows tore through the sail, reducing it to useless ribbons.
Once they were done with the sail, the glowing projectiles turned on her men. Warriors shot in all directions to avoid the whistling bullets, some diving overboard to take refuge in the sea, others cowering behind shields.
Amateurs. The comfort of an organized army may provide better results at scale, but it forged weaker men. These Merfolk knew not the way of their own people.
Valis smirked. Her body surged forward.
She practically flew off the ship’s helm, her hands falling to her sides and tearing her weapons free from her belt—dual scimitars, their blades carved of bone. As she fell towards the deck below, one of the glows shot towards her. She met it with her blade, striking the projectile with perfect precision. It held back her edge almost like a physical object, but whereas she could exert continual force, the glow only lost power as it fought her; in the blink of an eye, the glow lost out and was reduced to a puff of wind.
Valis hit the deck. The rest of the glows homed in on her from all directions. She did not run or cower; twisting her slim body between the glows, she struck each of them one by one. Within just a few seconds, her blades had rent them all to nothing.
Valis: “The ship is useless now!” She shouted, hardly able to contain her glee. “If you call yourself a warrior, prove it—swim to the pirates before they escape!”
She didn’t wait for a response before diving into the sea, sheathing her swords midair. She trusted the others would follow, and she didn’t much care if they didn’t; she’d face the pirates alone if she had to. If she couldn’t win the 9v1, she simply wasn’t strong enough. Such was the way of the Merfolk. The true way. The correct way.
This was going to be fun.
* ? *
Jackie watched through their spyglass as the enemy ship’s sail was sabotaged and its occupants all jumped ship. They couldn’t yet tell what any of the sailors were—in terms of their race or their equipment—but diving into the water seemed an odd choice.
A moment later, Sils rematerialized nearby and muttered a “Fuck” under her breath, which filled them with incredible confidence. “They’re Merfolk. I’ll hit the sails again.”
Merfolk? Had Jackie heard of that race before? “Gimme a summary?”
Jahd: “Amphibious warriors,” Jahd called down from the helm. “They’ve got serpentine bodies, tough skin, an’ incredible strength. Supernaturally good swimmers, able to yank themselves around.”
They returned their gaze to the sea as the ship lurched once more. Sils’s boost was weaker than before, and several of the Merfolk looked to have already covered half the distance between the ships. The fastest among them were swimming at comparable speeds to the ship they’d been riding.
They should’ve foreseen that the enemies might swim. Now that they thought about it, the same race had been involved in the attack on Avek Tirion. The enemy commander was one step ahead again.
Was there anything they could do to keep the Merfolk at bay? They might be incredible swimmers, but Jackie doubted they could match the ship’s speed for an extended period of time, especially if Sils kept boosting it. They’d get exhausted and be forced to abandon the chase eventually. Until then, Jackie and the others just needed to prevent them from boarding.
Something shot up onto the main deck’s railing—a metal hook which sank one of its claws into the wood. Below, a blue-skinned figure emerged from the water, rappelling up a rope connected to the hook; the rail creaked under their weight.
Something needed to be done. Jackie had a clear shot at the enemy; they could knock them down with a javelin, though they’d almost certainly never see the weapon again. The sentimental value it held wasn’t as important as making sure everyone survived.
Before they could act, someone else kicked into action below. They almost breathed a sigh of relief.
Helena: “Sorry about your ship, Sils!” She shouted up at the fairy as she made for the railing.
Tossing her sword aside, Helena gripped the warhammer strapped to her back. With a hefty tug, the leather holding it in place unraveled, and she swung it at the railing. A mighty crack rang out as metal struck wood, a portion of the railing crumpling under her strength. A half-moment later it buckled further under the weight of the ascending Mer; a final kick from Helena cast a chunk of wood to the sea, and the Mer along with it.
To her left, another hook had already been tossed, its wielder ascending faster than the other. Just as they cleared the height of the railing, a red blur shot towards them. Raffica delivered a jet-powered kick squarely to the warrior’s jaw. The attack sent him stumbling back down the rope, Raffica springing off him and into the air.
Beneath the soaring Alphicca, Lii made for the railing next. She leapt at it, both arms raised, and molded both of her hands into heavy battle-axes. Letting gravity take the reins, she cleaved cleanly through the beam to either side of the hook; it fell to the sea just as the previous had.
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Two of them dealt with, at least for now. It was quite difficult to make out the approaching Merfolk, given how their blue skin blended in with the water, but Jackie was quite sure the frontrunners had consisted of three shapes. Where had the third gone? Were they trying to flank to another angle? Sabotage the ship from below?
No. They caught sight of the shape again. It had dove deeper into the water instead of throwing a hook like the other two. Why?
Their answer came on its own.
The Mer erupted from the surface of the water like a bullet, drawing a graceful arc through the air. They ascended, past the deck, past the railing, over the heads of several of Jackie’s friends, and landed right in the middle of the main deck, blades brandished mid-leap.
???: “You’re all more cunning than I expected. I must thank you for that—it’s already made this much more interesting.” The warrior licked her lips. “Please continue to impress me.~”
She was tall and slim with rippling muscles, her skin a soft cerulean. Her hair was a darker, almost black shade of blue, tied back in a scorpion-tail braid. Her ears flared out, webbed like a fish’s fins. She was dressed light, wearing only a tight cloth wrap around her chest, a loincloth around her hips, and a bone-carved breastplate with no back or sides, contoured perfectly for the front of her body. A symbol of a crossed sword and quill was plastered over one breast of her armor; Jackie recognized the same symbol from Annelys’s uniform.
As for her legs… she had none. Her body was humanoid from the hips up; below that, skin transitioned into gleaming scales and a long, serpentine tail, adorned with long, flat fins like those of an eel. It was coiled up into a winding bundle on the deck, her human half standing tall above it. She wore a wide grin of jagged teeth, a glint in her eyes as her gaze flicked between her opponents.
Naturally, everyone turned to her, weapons raised in preparation for a fight. Nobody seemed to dare make the first move. She surveyed them all calmly, not dismayed in the slightest to be outnumbered. Quite the opposite—she looked ecstatic.
???: “Hook in your tails, eh? Oh, or are you waiting for an introduction?” She relaxed her stance, letting our a harsh chuckle. “Suppose I got ahead of myself, didn’t I? Would be rude to kill each other before exchanging names.
“Fine, then. I am Valis, a proud warrior of the Merfolk, a Corporal in the Evendelian army, and she who has tamed a Leviathan. As for each of you…”
She trailed off, jabbing one of her scimitars at each of the people before her as she muttered, “The Alphicca, allowed to kill. The Zombie, allowed to kill. The Sylph, allowed to kill. The Ghost… not present? And as for you five…” She waved her blade broadly, gesturing at the four Humans and Lii. “Which of you’s the Mimic?”
Helena: “Why do you ask?”
Valis grinned. “I am absolutely not to kill the Humans, precious specimens as they are. The Mimic, on the other hand… the lieutenant said I could kill it if necessary.”
Helena’s hands tightened on her hammer’s shaft. “It’s me.”
Valis: “Oh, that so?” Her expression softened, a flash of a kindly smile.
In the next moment, she’d covered half the distance between her and Helena, weapons outstretched. “Thanks for making this easier, then.~”
Helena barely had time to raise her shield before the attack arrived. It was just a scimitar, a relatively light, one-handed weapon, but its impact against her shield sent her stumbling backwards. Valis slithered after her, her other arm poised to strike—
A blade came crashing down to meet Valis’s—Jahd had leapt down from the helm, his odachi clamoring against Valis’s blade of bone. The meteoric impact had Valis bending backwards, but she sent the Zombie tumbling away with a sweep of her arm.
Valis: “Yes, come at me all at once! Those pissants who call themselves warriors will be here before long; you’d best end me before they board!”
A hurricane of action unfolded in the following seconds. Raffica flew at Valis, aiming a kick for her head just as she had with the previous warrior. Valis blocked the strike with one arm, though the impact sent her reeling to the side; her tail remained firm on the floor, so she did not stumble. From across the deck, Sam fired an arrow which Valis blocked with her other forearm, barely reacting as the projectile pierced her skin. Her body swung forward, reversing the momentum from Raffica’s attack like a weighted punching bag; homing back in on the Alphicca, she swung.
Raffica crossed her arms, catching the attack with the chitin armor on her forearms, but she was still sent crashing down onto the deck. Taking her place before Valis could pursue her was Jahd, his sword a flash of silver. He unleashed a flurry of slashes; Valis met them with a flurry of her own. She slithered circles around him as their blades clashed, a jagged grin plastered onto her face the entire time. As she spun, her tail stretched out and struck an approaching Strade’s legs, sending him tumbling past her.
The exchange of clangs came to a pause as Valis caught Jahd’s sword near the hilt with the curved, dull back of one of her scimitars. She swung the other down on the very end of his blade, creating a lever that tore the sword from his grip, sending it spinning high into the air.
She wasted no time before lunging forward, Jahd leaping back. Her attack earned her only a shallow cut across his chest, but he was unarmed—vulnerable. It was now that Jackie finally intervened from above, flinging one of their javelins. The Mer was forced to abandon her pursuit, twisting her body away from the projectile. The opening was just long enough for Jahd to draw his dual wakizashi before diving back into battle.
Zombie and Mer once again exchanged a flurry of blows, but things turned in Valis’s favor much quicker than before. Her strength batted aside Jahd’s lighter weapons with ease. The clash lasted only a couple seconds before she twisted her body around, knocking Jahd off-balance with a heavy blow to one of his blade before slamming her tail into his side to send him tumbling away. She’d turned to face Helena, who was back on her feet and charging the Mer with her hammer at her side.
Valis stood ready to receive the attack; Helena was undaunted. She skidded across the last of the distance between them, swinging her hammer wide and striking Valis’s unarmored side. The Mer rocked from the blow, but her body remained firmly affixed in place.
Time seemed to pause for a moment, the pair’s eyes meeting.
Helena dropped her hammer, hastily throwing her shield out in front of her. At the same time, Valis tossed one of her scimitars into the air and drew back an arm. Her fist met the metal surface of Helena’s shield, the girl crumpling flat against the floor.
Valis caught her scimitar out of the air and slithered a step back from Helena, allowing everyone around her a moment to rise back to their feet. “Is this the best you pirates can muster? I expected more.” She glanced to the other end of the deck, where a shaking Lii was standing guard beside Sam. “One of you hasn’t even attacked yet.”
Sils: “Two of us, actually.” The fairy’s voice echoed across the deck as she zipped about; she’d stopped boosting the sails at some point during the scuffle. “If ya really want ta see what we’re capable of, I’ll show ya.”
Valis raised an eyebrow, a glint in her eyes. “I’ve never killed a Sylph before. I suppose hitting something so small and so fast will be a challenge, but all it’ll take is one hit to end things. Is your magic impressive enough to make a difference?”
Sils: “Everythin’ about me’s impressive. My magic, my ship, an’ my crew, too!” She materialized near the right railing, a swirling vortex of wind behind her. “A! Hard ta starboard!”
Jackie glanced behind them, where one of the Golems, A, had taken hold of the wheel. It spun it hard to the right, causing the whole ship to lurch as it swerved. At the same time, Sils thrust her arms forward, socking Valis with a mighty gust of wind. She slid, off-balance, and crouched down to strike a blade into the deck. Before she could, a third force assaulted her—Raffica’s boot. The kick sent her sliding back until her back struck the port-side railing; the centrifugal force of the turning ship kept her glued to the surface.
Valis: “Ha! Impressive tricks, but not enough to—“
She cut off, her eyes darting to a figure which had finally started to move for the first time since the battle began—Lii. The mimic strode across the deck, spiked soles keeping her steady despite the ship’s movements. She made her way to the rest of the group before turning sharply towards Valis, practically leaping forward. As her body cut through the air, her form melted away, solidifying into something taller, rounder.
A large stone wheel.
Six feet of polished stone barreled down the deck, carried by Lii’s momentum and the continued turning of the ship. It crashed against Valis, instantly smashing through the railing behind her; both Mer and wheel fell overboard.
Sils: “A, to port! Get us back on track!”
The ship lurched again, this time in the opposite direction. Helena staggered to her feet despite the erratic movement, rushing to the edge of the deck where Lii and Valis had just fallen. “We have to help Lii!”
Sils: “I know that, damnit! Raffica—“
Raffica: “Already on it!” The girl whizzed past Helena, diving overboard, her jets blasting on as her body angled downward.
Jackie: [Raffica, Lii, keep me updated. We’ll—]
Their eyes were drawn to the horizon.
Raffica: [Jackie? Did something happen?]
Perhaps it was thanks to their higher elevation up on the helm. Perhaps it was thanks to their heightened senses of perception. Perhaps it was thanks to their cautious disposition, always on the lookout for danger.
Whatever was the cause, Jackie was the first to see what approached on the horizon ahead. They leaned over the edge of the helm’s railing to shout, both out loud and through their thoughts,
Jackie: “Another ship, straight ahead!”
As if that weren’t bad enough, they heard the sharp clinks of several coordinated hooks sinking their claws into wood.
* ? *
Valis felt the air being forced out of her lungs as the stone wheel struck her. She tumbled overboard and was enveloped in the warm water of the sea. At some point, she’d dropped her swords, as well.
So the tall one had lied about being the Mimic; it’d been the coward all along. Valis grimaced; she’d nearly been fooled into killing one of the Humans. Marjoriee would no doubt scold her if she found out. Beihart, too.
No matter; they won’t find out. She had more important things to worry about at the moment, anyways.
Her hands clutched at the stone weighing down at her, and with a grunt she wrenched herself free of the falling stone wheel. Now that she was alone with it, it would be easy to tear the Mimic apart; stone was well within the bounds of what she could destroy.
No, perhaps she shouldn’t. Much as she wanted to kill the vile thing, Marjoriee had said that she should only do so if absolutely necessary. For that matter, defeating such a dangerous enemy without killing it might actually pose more of a challenge; for once, following orders to the letter might actually be a benefit.
Fine, then. Beat the Mimic within an inch of its life and return it to her ship; should be easy enough down here in the water—in her domain. She twisted around to face the stone wheel, which was now touching down on the sea floor. Flexing her tail, she—
—was sent spinning out by a sudden impact.
Something had whizzed past her, delivering a strike to her shoulder. She righted herself, eyes focusing on it. The culprit was an Alphiccan girl—the same one from the ship’s deck. Come to help her friend?
She licked her lips. Cute.
Expression hardening, the Alphicca charged at her again. The girl’s jets carried her with impressive speed. Just before reaching Valis, she pivoted off to the side. Several more pivots had her zig-zagging around the Mer, finally approaching from below with a punch to the gut.
Valis took the blow without resistance. It was a mighty one—she could feel the impact even through her armor. The strength of an Alphicca was not to be underestimated, even by the physically-gifted Merfolk.
No, underestimate it Valis had not. She’d taken the blow intentionally; by weathering it, she’d earned the perfect opportunity for a counterattack. Her own fist slammed down into the girl’s cute face, sending her staggering back through the water, a scarlet trail escaping her nose.
Valis gave her no chance to recover. She spread her arms out to the side; from them extended ethereal, fin-like protrusions. Similar structures appeared on her hips and along her tail. They were not real, physical fins, of course; you could not touch or grab or harm them. They were simply a visible representation of the Merfolk’s racial magic—of their supernatural affinity for swimming.
In the blink of an eye, she was in front of the Alphicca again, one arm already reared back. The Alphicca crossed her arms to catch the punch with her chitin; Valis surged forward and grabbed one of her arms with her free hand, wrenching the girl’s guard open before delivering another punch to her gut.
Her strike had no doubt harmed the Alphicca much more than her punch had harmed Valis. She reeled, bubbles erupting from her mouth as precious air was wasted.
As pleasant as this fistfight was, the water was dulling the impacts of her strikes. She needed to find her swords. Glancing around, she caught sight of one, slowly floating down to the sea floor near where the stone wheel had fallen.
…the stone wheel. It was gone.
A shadow blanketed her skin.
Her ‘fins’ carried her to the side just as something lurched at her. It’d been something small a moment before, minuscule enough that she hadn’t noticed it. It’d twisted into something huge in but an instant.
She’d narrowly escaped being caught in the jaws of a great white shark.
Valis’s smile widened. Now this was going to be fun.
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Chapter Glossary:
Valis - A proud Mer warrior, a Corporal in the Evendelian army, and she who has tamed a Leviathan. Back in her day, you swam uphill both ways to school and hunted sharks for dinner every evening.
Atlantis - The aquatic nation of the Merfolk. For most of history, they were a purely nomadic race; this nation's founding was a relatively recent development, and many Merfolk still wander the seas as nomads. A society of rugged individualist warriors.
Merfolk - A race of amphibious, serpentine demihumans. Known for their incredibly physical strength & durability and their supernaturally gifted swimming. Their racial magic lets them Tug themselves in any directions while submerged in water. The singular of 'Merfolk' is 'Mer', by the way!
Do you think you could survive a single punch from Valis? Be honest!
