by Shawn Wyatt
Her cries fell on deaf ears.
The portal shrank with each monster that touched it until it winked out of existence, its cheering light replaced once more by the crushing darkness.
The girl cursed, intensely and creatively, and turned toward the monster that still screeched its hatred at her.
“You’re going to pay for that."
Chapter Sixteen: Siren Song
The water elemental cut a striking figure. Its body blocked the sun, but the rays of light filtered through and fractured a hundred different ways, each beam dancing and swimming through the murky liquid.
A tendril of water burst from the side of the elemental's body and coalesced into a makeshift arm.
A figure lounged on a piece of driftwood, hidden behind the elemental. Scintillating scales covered a feminine figure and turned into cream-colored flesh halfway up her torso. The woman shook hair the color of fresh seaweed from a perfect face.
She was beautiful.
In fact, she may have been the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She smiled and extended a hand, a lazy wave from languid fingers. A wave of fatigue washed over me and I blinked, my eyelids heavy.
In that moment, stories flooded my mind—tales of sirens, of women that lured men to their deaths with beauty and song. A fog would descend over the men, and all decisions made would be as those made in the early morning hours before sleep had shaken away its grip.
I blinked and turned away. “Bastion, don’t look directly at her.”
The Prophet had already drawn his sword. “What do you mean?”
“She’s got some kind of charm spell. I think she’s a siren of some type.”
“I don’t feel anything,” he said. Flames burst along his sword as he brandished it toward the elemental. “No random sea witch holds a candle to Kalia.”
The sea witch began to hum. With each note of her song, the pressure in my skull intensified. I could not look at her to check her level or her title.
"Doesn't seem to affect women," Evey said. She took a wide stance and aimed her bow at the witch, her eyes narrowed on the distant target. She loosed her arrow, accompanied by arcane words that set the tip ablaze in golden light. It flew straight and fast and missed the sea witch by mere inches.
The monster screeched in fury and retreated. Her form flickered from that of a beautiful woman to a horrid beast, her arms too long for her body and a face devoid of features. The image of the woman settled back in place, but the sight of her true form broke her spell.
"Thanks," I said.
“Don’t mention it. It’s just embarrassing that a monster could lure you in that easily,” Evey said. “Especially one quite as hideous as that one.”
“Hideous? You aren’t seeing the mermaid?”
“No mermaid. Only the alien-demon thing.”
I gave a rueful laugh. “Guess her spells really are meant to work on men. That’s irritating.” The sea witch had retreated out of weapon range, but remained close enough to command the elemental. The creature surged in place, its arm poised to strike. “Quinn, can you move us?” I asked.
“Not at all. As choppy as that monster has made the sea, we’d capsize.”
“Alright,” I said. “Guess we have to take care of the elemental first.”
The elemental drifted closer to the ship. The moment its arm came in range, Bastion swung. His flame-wreathed blade sliced clear through the monster's body, but when the steam cleared water crept back into the gash. The elemental had taken no damage.
Bastion leapt away a split-second before a blast of water slammed into ship like a high-pressure fire hose. “Hope you’ve got a better idea than what I just tried,” he said. “Didn’t seem to work.”
"Any idea what the freezing point of salt water is?" I asked. The Prophet raised an eyebrow. I loaded a Freezing Shot shell—one of only three left—and took aim. In theory, I could freeze the elemental since its body was made of water. I squeezed the trigger.
The shot erupted with a sound like breaking glass. When the bullet found its mark, fingers of frost reached out from the shattered shell and raced around the elemental. The creature stopped moving. Inside its watery body, near the center of the torso, I noticed a small orb. The orb also noticed me, and retreated farther inside the elemental’s body.
“There, in the center,” I called. “Aim for the orb.”
Evey nocked an arrow. Her bowstring quivered with power. The moment her shot connected, the ice holding the elemental in place would shatter. We had a only an instant to make the shot count.
She loosed the arrow with a twang. It pierced the ice and bored into the monster. The ice slowed the arrow, but it would reach the orb. I waited a beat and fired.
The bullet and arrow reached the orb at the same time. The elemental roared in fury when the orb shattered, before dissolving into nothing.
“Nice going,” Bastion called. He flashed us a thumbs up. “Now watch out for old and ugly. She’s waiting.”
The witch hovered just out of range of even the best bowshot, but her screams of fury reached us still. I focused on her and hoped the memory of her true appearance would negate her spell.
[Sea Witch, Level 22]
I gave a low whistle. She was the strongest enemy we had fought so far except for raid bosses. And she knew how to stay out of range of attacks.
This could be a problem.
I fired off two shots. One fell short, and the witch dodged the other as easily as if I had been a balloon tossed in her direction. But she didn't try to attack. “Wish, how fast can you cast Spiritshard?”
“There’s no cool down. I can cast it as often as I want, but it takes time to charge up to deal any real damage. Smaller bursts would barely register.”
“Would the attacks slow her down?"
Wish thought for a moment. “It’s a possibility. But shooting off spell after spell like that will eat into my mana.”
“Do it,” I said.
Wish nodded and braced herself. She extended both arms, palms forward, and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. Her shoulders relaxed, but her back stayed rigid. Wish exhaled—and her eyes snapped open, lit by an unearthly blue flame.
Light the same color blue filled her hands and exploded outward. Spell after spell barreled across the distance with the staccato crack of machine gun fire. The sea witch dodged, but one shot found its mark. Another followed. She howled in annoyance and flinched as another impacted, though her HP did not waver.
"Fire now!" I called.
Bullets and arrows flew. From behind us, the first chords of a sea shanty sounded out, the soft strum of a harp accompanying them. Quinn channeled his magic into song. I recognized the effect: a mana regeneration song, cast at the cost of his own spell power. “It’s not much,” he said. “But it should help.”
Wish never took her eyes from the sea witch as magic poured from her hands. Boris and Bastion stood to either side and watched for other dangers. A moment later, Bastion shouted. “At your feet! Watch out!”
My eyes flicked down and I jumped back just as a blast of water split the air in front of me. A smaller water elemental skipped across the waves, but grew in size with each second. Another surfaced farther down, and then two more on the other side of the ship.
“Got one over here, too,” Quinn said. He shifted his harp to one side and drew a rapier from his waist.
[Water Elemental, Level 18]
“These are weaker than the first,” I called out.
“They are the first,” Wish said, her teeth gritted. I glanced at her mana bar. The constant barrage of spells took its toll. Her mana dropped faster than Quinn could restore. When her mana hit zero, she would collapse with the worst hangover of her life. “It split into pieces when killed. If you don’t kill these soon, they’ll be the same size as it.”
"You've got to be kidding," I muttered.
One of the elementals lunged forward. I fired one of the two Freezing Shot shells I had left, but the bullet went wide. The s
ea witch took advantage of the distraction to close the distance with unnatural speed.
Evey had only a few arrows left in her quiver. My own ammunition supply had taken a beating from the fight. Wish's mana had dropped so low she fought to remain standing. Quinn could only restore so much mana per second, but even his full focus could not keep up with her output.
I realized then what the witch's plan had been. She never intended to attack before now. The elements had worn us down and drained our mana. Our defenses were near zero.
I had played straight into her hand.
Wish collapsed to the ground.
The little lizard emerged from hiding and scampered onto my shoulder.
An elemental swung a right hook toward my face, but a sustained gout of flame burned stopped it short. The fire turned the attack into steam, nothing more than a splash across my face.
The lizard ran down and wrapped himself around my wrist, resting atop my pistol. It hissed at the creature in front of it.
I blinked in surprise. "Thank you," I said. The lizard chittered.
Bastion cursed in pain and his HP dropped.
I pivoted toward him. He had plunged his sword into the body of an elemental, but the creature burst into steam. The orb inside it melted, but the resulting explosion left burned the skin away from his arms.
The Prophet dropped to one knee and winced as his fingers flexed in the gesture for a healing spell. The skin on his arms grew back with supernatural speed, and he flashed me a thumbs-up. "One down!"
"Try to avoid cooking yourself next time," I said.
The sea witch slowed. The death of the elemental made her more cautious, but even her slower rate terrified me.
Evey knelt beside Wish. The Invoker had pulled herself to her knees, but waved Evey away. She whispered something, and Evey backed off. Wish placed both hands flat on the deck and shouted, "In frigore vacui!"
Frost crept across the deck and down into the sea. The remaining elementals flash-froze the moment it touched them. The sea witch saw the ice as it moved toward her, but even her speed wasn't enough to move away in time. The ice wrapped around her body and held her in place.
Wish had two points of mana left, but still she staggered to her feet. “That will hold them for sixty seconds. Finish them off before it wears off, because I can’t cast that again.” She reached into a pack at her waist, pulled out a stone, and slammed it against the orb inside the nearest elemental. The creature churned inside the ice before the stone absorbed the water and clattered to the deck. “That’s my reward.”
I loaded a Lightning Shot into my pistol and took aim. I couldn't miss. We had no chance if the witch broke free.
I squeezed the trigger. The bullet pierced the witch's frozen chest. Tongues of lighting wrapped around her body. She convulsed as tongues of electricity coursed through her veins until she collapsed, smoking, to the ice.
Evey and Bastion quickly killed the four elementals that remained. Quinn poured most of his remaining mana into Wish. She struggled to her feet. "Thanks," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
Quinn shrugged. “Don’t mention it. That was some spell you used.”
“Frostfield. Usually meant for crowd control, but it seemed appropriate at the time.”
“Smart thinking,” Quinn said.
“So is it over?” Evey asked.
Bastion stared out over the water and cursed. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’ve got more company.”
He pointed off the starboard side. Five creatures slithered across the ice. Six arms jutted from their twisted bodies, their heads jagged and misshapen and lined with razor-sharp teeth.
No nameplates or HP gauges appeared over the creatures. Withered monsters usually had staggered nameplates and gauges, but these monsters didn't look Withered. Their bodies moved in unnatural ways, like their limbs had been attached wrong. "What am I looking at?"
The creatures swarmed the sea witch's corpse and rent flesh from bone. The monsters devoured the body with a speed that made the hair on my neck stand on end.
"I've never seen anything like them," Quinn said. "And I've seen a lot."
"Kill them now," I said. I loaded the last Caster Shell activated Bombardment. Explosions rained down around the monsters and killed three of them outright. The ice broke apart into disparate sheets. The two survivors sprinted toward the ship and leapt across the broken ice.
Bastion readied his sword, but Boris dove from the side of the ship and caught one of the creatures mid-jump. He pinned the monster with the weight of his body and lashed out with is claws. A snap of his jaws later and it stopped moving.
The remaining monster lunged. Quinn snapped his wrist forward, and three daggers found their mark in its side.
The monster fell dead.
Light flashed across us as the level up prompt appeared in my vision, as translucent as ever. Level 24.
I slumped down to the deck. “I think it’s over now.”
Boris clambered on the deck just in time. Frostfield wore off and the sea returned to normal. The bear gave the water a long, hard glare and settled in the center of the deck.
“Fighting on the ocean is hard. Toris wasn’t exactly easy, but at least it was dry," I said.
Everyone laughed, but Evey kept her eyes locked on the horizon. I saw her brow furrow for a split second before she smiled again. "Come on. Let's head back and get our reward."
Chapter Seventeen: Correspondence
The voyage back to Napari was a quiet one.
The wind filled our sails and propelled us forward with little need for adjustments. Quinn set the rigging and leaned back, the hard work done. I checked my gear and readied it case anymore of the strange creatures appeared, but no more did.
All conversation, however, revolved around them.
“What were those?” Evey asked. “Even the Withered monsters have name plates. Those had nothing.”
I shrugged. “A glitch? Things have changed a lot in-game since Foscor took over.”
“Even a glitched monster would still show some data. Those just seemed...incomplete.”
“Died easy enough, though,” Bastion said. “That’s all I care about.”
I laughed, but the monsters made me uneasy. Until now, everything in the game had made sense. Not any sort of traditional sense, but the world and creatures followed a sort of twisted logic. Those monsters had not.
Nameplates hovered at the edge of my vision and displayed hit points, mana, and status. I could make the nameplates appear over individual people's heads with a thought. No matter how real this world felt, everything in it was computer generated, and that meant logic.
A lack of logic was a problem.
“Napari ahead,” Quinn said. “I’m taking Betsy around so we can skip the observation platform.”
With the wind at our back, he steered the ship with ease. Napari awaited us, his monumental head held above the water. When the ship slowed to a stop, Evey gave a slight bow. “The task is complete,” she said.
Napari hummed his acknowledgement deep in his throat. "You did well. I sensed the witch's magic vanish."
“Will you lower the barrier?” Evey asked.
“I will, little one,” Napari said. “But first, you must rest.”
"We will rest on the way," I said. "The corruption is already spreading too fast."
“And the corruption will spread faster still if you perish because of a simple mistake. Rest is necessary for the body, and even more so when you feel you have no time to rest. I will hold the barrier in place until you wake tomorrow morning. Stop and partake of my city’s bounty. You may find it to be a surprising place.”
I glanced at the party. Scarlet was still out there, looking for us. Staying in one place too long was risky.
“Great Turtle, we can’t stay. A pirate by the name of Scarlet has actively been searching for us since we crossed her path," I said.
“The pirates will not reach you here,” Napari said.
“They will find it hard to sail their ships forward when the winds themselves seem to work against them. At this moment, they are in the midst of a great sea squall.” In the distance, I heard the faintest rumble of thunder.
I should have realized. Napari controlled weather magic. He could send away ships he did not want to allow into the city. I sighed. “Much as I hate to admit it, he has a point. Our stop in Fenua wasn't exactly restful. We haven’t had time to breathe since our first run-in with Scarlet, to be honest. Sleeping in a bed instead of the hold would be nice.”
“I agree,” Evey said.
“Same.” Bastion stretched and rolled his neck. “Maybe a hot bath. My skin feels sticky from all the salt.”
“You will find an inn in the middle of the city. There you can rest for free tonight. The innkeepers are members of the Merchant Marines, and they have made an arrangement with me in return for certain treats.” Napari chuckled. “Turtles have their vices, just as humans do.”
I wondered what kind of treat the Great Turtle liked. How much chocolate could something his size eat?
“Thank you, Great Turtle,” Evey said. “We will take you up on the offer. We will let you know when we set sail tomorrow so you can lower the barrier.”
“No need, little one. I will know. And you will find the winds at your back as you continue on this journey. Now that I no longer have to devote a portion of my power to stalling the sea witch’s advance, I can lend my aid.”
Quinn steered Betsy away from the turtle and around to the docks. We donned our disguises once more and made our way into the city as the sun dropped below the horizon and cast an orange light over the streets.
“What kind of inn do you think this is?” Wish asked.
"If it's like the other Merchant Marine inns, it's nice. There are perks to being the richest guild out there." Quinn shrugged. "I'm just glad I'm not paying for it."
I laughed. “Free can be a trap,” I said. In the real world, my apartment’s couch had been free. It was wedged into a nook in the wall not because I lacked space—though I did—but because any leeway on either side of it would result in a huge sag in the center.