by Rosie Scott
The pirates had the advantage of an ambush from above, but we had the advantage in numbers. Eerie half-humanoid half-creature corpses spotted the camp, but now all remaining native beastmen had completed their metamorphoses, so our flying foes could no longer rely on the delays of our vulnerable transformations. Although our remaining enemies flew, the land and water-based beastmen and mercenaries defending the camp from below greatly outnumbered them. Surely this wasn't Cale's entire plan. If it was, the pirates had already lost.
Just west of the rubble of our hut, Koby stood over the body of a bird-kin Jaecar had paralyzed in mid-flight. He stamped on the bird-kin's feathery throat with his boot, crushing its windpipe and holding it still as he thrust his black sword into its chest. He tore the blade through the barrel of its torso one jerk at a time, cracking through its sternal keel to disembowel it. Heaving with his efforts, Koby lifted his face toward the coast and wiped the sweat from his brow with an impatient forearm. He immediately stiffened with realization. I followed his gaze; over the twisted skyline of the swamps, the stars were blocked out of the lower skies as something large slowly approached from the western seas. Spots of firelight from lamps on quarterdecks revealed crews of warrior pirates and beastmen reinforcements prepared to disembark on the shores of the Forks.
Koby turned back to the camp and screamed, “Reinforcements from the seas!”
Cale's hasty departure suddenly made sense, as did his earlier screeching signal of attack. The flying shapeshifters weren't all he had; they were merely part one of a multi-part assault. If I hadn't paralyzed him for precious minutes earlier, it was quite possible he could have signaled the rest of his forces sooner and overwhelmed us all at once.
Impatient for blood, Jayce crawled to the western swamps and plunged into the waters in a splash. Her rough back scales glistened in an ever-moving S-shape as the crocodile-kin undulated toward the northern coast, swimming to hasten her arrival. I and other beastmen and warriors started to follow her lead until a mercenary sent out another alarm behind us.
“Ships in the south!”
I stopped. Turned. While Cale's flying beast ambush distracted us, multiple pirate vessels heeded the captain's earlier signal and closed in on either side of the island's pinched center. With all our men occupying this relatively small strip of land, they would soon surround us. We had hundreds of mercenaries here, but there was no telling how many pirates Cale recruited for this task. Even if we outnumbered them, fighting this battle while surrounded gave them the advantage.
I glimpsed Vallen and other muscular beastmen hurrying to the dropping off point in the south, so I spun back to the north and bounded for the coast. Two pirate vessels came into view; while one dropped anchor farther west and prepared rowboats with which to deliver its warriors, the second went around it to prepare to do the same at the next section of shoreline. The more pirates we killed before they could reach the coast, the better chance we had of winning this battle. Using all four legs to quicken my pace, I rushed toward the ocean.
Under soft starlight, Neliah stood in the shallow water of the coast, facing the approaching hostile vessels with her arms raised to the sky. In her open palms grew balls of crackling flame. Neliah thrust the magic toward the heavens and backed away from the water, unsheathing her twin hooks to prepare for battle on the frontlines. I raced past her with such speed and force that her long hair blew forward from the resulting breeze.
My scaled feet sunk into the soft moist earth of the broken shoreline as I launched myself forward into the ocean. I did not fear Neliah's approaching spell; my alteration shield from earlier held firm, having not yet been hit with offensive magic. As I undulated quickly toward the second pirate vessel, its heavy anchor splashed into the waters on the opposite side of its hull, trailing bubbles as it sunk to secure the ship's place near the shoreline. I swam under the vessel's slimy keel to its other side. As I dug my claws into its imperfections and climbed the ship's hull out of the ocean, I noticed the world had darkened during my short underwater swim. Impenetrable malevolent clouds cast the stars out of the sky, and the heavens flickered orange with foreboding promises.
A high-pitched whistle accompanied the first meteor's homicidal trek for the sea. Surprised curses and cries followed as the pirates realized they and their vessels were at the mercy of a rare elemental mage. The night glowed orange as the giant fireball loomed overhead; it crashed into the side railing of the other vessel, tearing through rigging and exploding a large segment of taffrail into splinters. The ship rocked from the immense force, causing some pirate warriors and beastmen to lose their balance and tumble to the deck. One of the rowboats they were lowering on the other side of the vessel snapped loose and crashed into the seas.
I hauled myself up onto the pirate ship's main deck, and a heat wave flowed through my arms from the immense effort. Under the glowing orange light of another meteor, warriors scrambled around, reeling boats down to the water to deliver reinforcements to shore. Impatient beastmen jumped overboard, for they had no gear to protect and wouldn't be rattled by the fall. I was outnumbered by humans and the occasional elf, but that had never fazed me.
The second meteor struck the waters on the opposite side of the ship; the resulting backsplash was tainted red and peppered with broken lumber and furry mutilated limbs from at least two species of blood-kin. During the noisy chaos of the hit, I attacked.
I sprung forward off the railing, pouncing a pirate before she knew I was there. As she crashed forward to the deck with my weight, I clutched my hand over the back of her cranium so tightly my claws punctured her scalp and cut off locks of flowing black hair. Using gravity as my malicious companion, I leaned forward over her head as her face finally slammed into hardwood; the pirate's skull collapsed inward under my weight, puncturing her brain with shards of bone while releasing smashed gray matter around the palm of my webbed hand. It killed her instantly, but it also called attention to me. Four nearby pirates heard the commotion and unsheathed their weapons, quickly surrounding me and hacking at glimmering scales with steel. I hopped up from the corpse and spun, whipping my tail in a bone-breaking circle and hitting the nearest ruffian in the face with an open palm.
Splat!
Gore from my last victim transferred to the left side of his face in streaks of chunky crimson. The flesh beside his ear swelled and split as the hinge of his mandible shattered. The pirate panicked, holding his jaw closed with one hand while bleeding from the mouth, flecks of broken enamel escaping his lips. Before I could finish the kill, the quarterdeck brightened with a flash of looming firelight.
BOOM!
Suddenly, everything was a blur and intense heat massaged my scales. My alteration shield vibrated with a buzz as it absorbed a sudden burst of magical energy. It seemed one of Neliah's meteors had hit me, but only the physical force affected my magical protection. I flew backwards through the air at great speeds, my stomach rolling over itself as it tried to rapidly adjust. I attempted to dig my back talons into the wood, but my feet were in the air. Only when I collided backwards into a group of ruffians did I come to a stop. I turned to fight them, but my immense muscular weight had crushed them into the taffrail. They shuddered and groaned with the pain of broken bones and collapsed internal organs. With one foot, I kicked the closest man in the chest. A series of cracks broke out into the air; the first few were his ribs as they broke with the hit, and the last was the railing as it finally caved to all the pressure. The injured group of pirates fell overboard, the resulting splashes inaudible through the raging meteor shower. If their wounds didn't kill them, Jayce or the other water-based beastmen now swarming the waters would.
I turned back to look over the deck. Charred mutilated limbs littered hardwood in pools of ash and blood. Wood splinters and blackened segments of rope seasoned corpses and supplies alike from destroyed crates, masts, and rigging. One black sail rained pieces of glowing fabric as it burned from corner to corner. Many pirates I hadn't had time to fight w
ere splayed across the deck, skin bubbling from contact burns. Meteors crushed some from their impact alone. There were plenty more pirates for me to fight, of course, but right then it was more evident than ever that hiring Neliah was one of the best decisions I'd ever made. With just one spell, she slowed their shore assault and took many of them out of the equation altogether.
Maybe we did have a chance at surviving this.
In mere seconds of utter confusion and chaos, I quickly corrected my uncharacteristic optimism. Severe stabbing pain pierced my shoulders and underarms. Blood drizzled out of multiple resulting puncture wounds, trailing down the sides of my chest in streaks of sticky heat. My feet left hardwood as a flying beastman abruptly snatched me from the deck and carried me into the night sky.
My vision blurred with speed. I saw pirate ships spotted with fire, a violent brawl between men and beasts on shore, and the glimmer of starlight on troubled waters, but the images shook nonsensically with flight. I reached up, trailing my fingers from the puncture wounds in my shoulders to the legs which carried me. Only when I gripped them did I glance up to see Cale's slender silver underbelly.
Cale wasn't picking me up to play. I figured he would try to drop me over ship or land and let gravity do the rest. I built a paralyze spell in one palm before dispelling it after the leviathan battle came to mind; even falls into the ocean could be fatal from a certain height, and based on how tiny the mercenaries appeared to be in my blurred vision, we were far above the treeline of the swamps. I flailed up at the wyvern-kin's underbelly, but my claws futilely scraped off his scales. While painfully dangling from ever-tearing puncture wounds and at this awkward angle, I couldn't hit hard enough to damage him.
Glimmering water under my dangling feet changed to the shadowed greenery of the swamps as Cale circled back toward the battlefield of the camp. I gripped his legs as hard as I could, preparing for the inevitable drop. As we passed over a particularly hardy swamp tree, Cale's toes unclenched, letting me go. My body abruptly dropped, but my hands kept their grip, sliding until stopping my descent by holding desperately onto the knobs of Cale's backward knees. His body dipped lower as my weight remained attached to him, and a disgruntled hiss sounded from his throat. Blood audibly gushed from the uninhibited tears in my scales and muscle and trailed through the swamps like rain. The westernmost shacks and pathways appeared in view, proof that we zoomed quickly back to camp.
Schew!
A glimmer of silver arced over us; Cale ducked in his flight to avoid the projectile and clipped the end of one wing on an outstretched branch. After the crack of a lightweight bone, the wyvern-kin screeched in pain and the world started spiraling; I let go of Cale's legs, dropping to the swamps and praying to the gods the water wasn't too shallow.
Crrnk.
Stars danced before my vision from blunt force trauma to my spine. I stared upward, overwhelming dizziness and nausea consuming me as swamp canopies and night skies swirled above. Shock paralyzed my body for the moment, save for my pesky sciatic nerve that took that time to send shooting neurological pains up and down my entire right side. In a far away echo, I heard Cale crash into another shack. Collapsing wood could not override his wail of reptilian annoyance.
My heart pounded out another rush of blood in a heat wave as it attempted to give control of my body back to me. I twitched my webbed fingers, feeling the wood of an elevated walkway beneath me, not water. I'd waited a half-second too long to fall.
What sounded like a wooden explosion preceded Cale's next wyvern screech. My back refused to move for the moment, so I tilted my head backwards, seeing an upside-down view of the wyvern-kin bursting out of the rubble.
Schew!
Another silver streak. This time, the projectile hit. Cale lurched his head back in a pained reaction to a silver bolt that pierced his left eye. Blood drained from its exterior corner, but the hit wasn't fatal; perhaps the bolt's angle was off and rather than impale the brain, it scraped against inhibiting bone.
“Come on, fucker!” Hassan screamed from the eastern camp, reloading his arbalest. His green eyes were virulent with anger and a desperate need to avenge Kali. The alteration shield surrounding him that would reject magic gave him the confidence to face Cale. Still, panic cluttered my chest as I squirmed against the agony to stand, for such guards could not protect him against physical attacks.
Schew!
Cale jerked his head to the side to avoid the next bolt. Whipping his wings out to the sides once more, he ascended to the skies through a gap in the canopies.
As frustrating as it was that Cale could retreat from battle at any time, that he'd done it now rather than take his anger out on Hassan gave me temporary relief. Still trying to force my body through its injuries, I hobbled toward the eastern camp, using the walkways I'd helped build myself.
Hassan crouched and aimed his arbalest at a sharp angle in the skies just above him. Thanks to the cluttered swamp canopies between us, I couldn't yet see who pursued him. Only the sinking feeling in my gut gave me a clue.
A rumbling of electric indigestion sounded out from the skies. Cale descended to hover close to the ground in front of Hassan and arced his head back in preparation of a spell.
Schew!
Hassan's next bolt gleamed from between two of the wyvern-kin's scales just above the heart. Despite drawing blood, it did not fell him. Hassan stood with his arbalest to flee, as visibly confused by Cale's intentions as I felt.
With a high-pitched squeal of exertion, Cale spread his jaws and released a torrent of crackling electricity. Brightly colored veins of air magic shot through the air and crawled over Hassan's shield, eating at its strength before ultimately being rejected and slithering across soil to search for unprotected victims. Mercenaries without alteration guards in the nearby vicinity were seized by the magic and rattled in place, smoking from ears and eyes. Grasping his arbalest in one hand, Hassan ran for cover; his shield was continually fading, and he could not regenerate it himself.
“Get out of there!” Koby screamed, rushing to the area behind Cale with his hand in a bag hanging at his waist containing his acid projectiles.
I rushed as quickly as I could to the scene, pushing off walls and railings to quicken my wounded gait. Mercenary archers took aim at the wyvern-kin. Arrows pierced leathery flesh, but Cale's target was clear. He followed Hassan in the low skies, continuously shooting lightning at his weakening protections.
At last, the alteration shield faded and flickered out entirely. With no further guards against magic, veins of purple and blue latched onto Hassan and seized his body into a paralyzed standstill. A choking gasp escaped his throat before his body shook fiercely with a magic-induced seizure. Plumes of smoke rose from his eyes and ears moments before blood started draining from both.
Satisfied with his kill, Cale closed his mouth and ascended into the skies. Friends and crew members were screaming in panic, grief, and rage, but I heard nothing save for the pounding of my heart. The electricity let Hassan's body free from its grasp; his fingers unclenched first, dropping his arbalest to the dirt. His off-balance body followed, collapsing forward in a pool of his own blood. Smoke rose from the singed ends of his long black hair.
I shook profusely with an onslaught of mourning and rage. All remaining sanity fled my mind, leaving only animalistic instinct. I rampaged forward, knowing nothing but carnage. Agony shot through my injured body that I pushed past its limits, but like a masochist it only fueled me. Cale had gotten away after killing a friend once before. I wouldn't let it happen again.
Only one of us would live to see the sunrise.
Thirty-two
Koby's eyes gleamed with tragic grief as he skidded to a stop with a clay ball of acid in his hand. He cranked his arm back and let it fly. The projectile followed Cale in an upward arc, cracking open on his back and releasing a sizzling acid that splashed over his upper tail. Following a bubbling hiss, smoke rose from the wyvern-kin's scales as the alchemical concoction ate thr
ough natural armor and then the muscle beneath. An agonized screech shattered through the heavens, and his body shook with sudden shock. Cale's ascension ceased as he twisted in the skies, desperate for a glance at his injury.
Koby ran forward, another clay ball at the ready. With a look of total determination, he launched it at Cale's head.
The wyvern-kin glanced up. His only good reptilian eye locked on to the projectile in flight and tracked its trajectory back to Koby. After he merely dipped to the side, the second acid ball missed its target, cracking open on the earth of the inclining hill in a burst of smoke that rose from degrading botanical matter.
Cale dove forward. Koby cursed and backed up rapidly in retreat, his black eyes searching frantically for cover. Like a cannonball of muscle and madness, I barreled into the scene between the two, catapulting my body through the air as Cale skimmed the ground in his downward pursuit.
I crashed into Cale's left side, my left arm under his wing and the other over his back. He cried out in frustration; with a ruined left eye, he hadn't seen my approach. I kicked my legs under me until they became tangled with his own. Off-balance and weighed down with me attached like a leech, he tumbled to the earth as it coalesced with the shallow swamps. Water splashed and bubbled around us as we slid to a stop against a thorny barricade, partially submerged.
I let go of the wyvern-kin just to stand. My bloodthirsty eyes scanned over his flailing body as he attempted to right himself in the water, the top of his head scraping off the barricade. Finding his right wing splashing heavily against the shallow waters, I targeted it and pounced on his back.