Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 14] Ch.3 Shipwreck Shore

[Elkwood]

[4 days later]

"Batten the hatches and prepare the cannons. I want enough lizard skin to jumpstart my new boot making business and we found the motherload!" Flint's shouts could be heard through the storm.

The sky was dark with thunderclouds and the waves crashed against the ships as if they were trying to swallow them. But the storm wasn't the worst part.

"Brawna Attack!" someone shouted.

A large scaley maw appeared out of the water, it was large enough to swallow a horse. It looked like a catfish, but the beast had scaley lizard-like arms that were freakishly long. It used one hand to grab the railing of the ship and used the other to sweep the deck as if to scoop a victim into its mouth.

"No, you don't!" Delta blocked the attack with his body stopping the arm in the middle of its sweep.

Ace, the other adventurer, managed to slice the arm at the wrist. Which was impressive considering even its wrist was the size of a small tree.

"Rangers, Fire!" I shouted from the upper deck. In an instant a couple dozen arrows imbued with magic struck the oversized Brawna. Knocking it back into the water with an explosion of red blood.

"Starboard!" I managed to hear from another ship. I managed to glance over and say a giant crocodile nearly capsizing one of our escort ships. But those pirates were more resourceful than I could have imagined, and they were also able to fight it off with a volley of magic cannons.

You might say that this could be in our favor but...

... two more Brawna and a crocodile attacked our ship simultaneously nearly throwing everyone off their feet.

Alpha stood his ground despite the heaving of the ship in the storm. With a single flick of his wrist, he used his wand and threw small balls of blue light that exploded on contact with the monsters. They exploded with a surprising amount of concussive force that I could feel even from the top deck in the storm.

"Conserve your energy and fight smart, they heal fast and there are more than two hundred of them." Alpha ordered. "Find their weaknesses!" he shouted as the waves threatened to do as much damage as the monsters as they tried to wash away any one on deck. All except Alpha who the bigger waves seemed to avoid like he was some scary monster.

"They are too big to be regular monsters." Someone walked out on board from below deck. "This is my area of expertise." the boy said as he took off his glasses.

"Doctor Jekyll, get back inside." I ordered.

"Sorry but we've been hired out by the hounds." Liz followed after him.

"And we'd get bored if we were left out." Gareth and Macsen walked onto the deck drawing their swords.

Every little bit counts.

Jekyll threw a vial at one of the Brawna and it burst into flame. Even in this weather it didn't go out and when it screamed and dove into the water the flames still burned brightly. However, it illuminated the many numbers of monsters swarming under our ships.

Liz demonstrated her mastery of Sanguination magic as she gathered the blood from the monsters and created a variety of dangerous shapes with them. Spear-like spikes that impaled the monsters, whips that were sharper than blades splashed even more blood. She was even able to create large crimson walls of blood to block the roaring tides from washing her and Jekyll away while. Keeping the beast at bay while Jekyll managed to through vials of various effects while slicing away whole chunks with an impossibly sharp knife.