Servant's Pride

23. To the Depths

"Be ye sure this be the best idea?"

Hongjoong glimpsed around the deck. His fingers held up the sturdy rope with burning coal. Sparks rained from it like stars in the night sky. Making sure that none would set the ship aflame, Hongjoong balanced them in the air. Jongho did the same next to him, while San ignited the last coal balls.

The arm of the kraken whipped over the deck, intending to kill. Its movements sharply whisked around, shambling up the already disrupted deck. Yeosang let go of a guttural yell when it came too close to him, scrambling onto the helm to cover. He was the only one currently firing at the beast, though he mostly made it his mission to dodge the fleshy tentacles of death. The booming of cannons and the smoke in the air had subsided since Wooyoung was out of commission. Yet the kraken whipped at them with fiery determination.

"Only idea we 'ave as o' now," San replied between his grit teeth. A fire was never a good idea around wooden ships. But Hongjoong saw the appeal of why it might get the creature moving.

Hongjoong dropped on the deck when the Grief suddenly lurched sidewards. His fingers clutched onto the rope as his body skittered off, pulling the thing tight. With a hand on the railing, Jongho held on tight, his clutch on the rope stopping Hongjoong from skittering off.

In the ocean beyond the ship, an enormous body thinly veiled by the water shifted. The waves it generated threw the ship around like a doll. Powerless against the wrath of nature.

Hongjoong saw a bloody stump of a mostly chopped off tentacle escape into the water. Most likely the one in the guts of the ship that Mingi and Yunho had finally eliminated. Tense, he watched blue blood tint the waters nearly black as the slithering limb disappeared.

How many? How many had they shot down? Half?

The Grief drifted off and regained her balance. The wild pounding of hammers on wood sounded from downstairs.

Once the last piece of coal ignited in San's hands, he abruptly sprung to his feet. He got a leather bag with oil they used to fuel their lamps from nearby. With it clutched to his chest, he investigated the horizon.

Hongjoong's chest hurt as he scrambled to his feet. While he could breathe fine, he suspected that the earlier pressure against his ribcage might have been worse than he had assumed initially. No time to get the rum to numb the pain. He hastened to follow San as he approached the vicious tentacle that currently reached for their ship again.

Never before Hongjoong had fought a battle this uncertain. Without an enemy he could reach and without an end in sight. The kraken was the one in power here. It could easily sink their ship if it so wanted. The fact that it didn't, but also didn't seem to weaken despite their desperate attacks was the disturbing anxiety gnawing at the back of Hongjoong's mind.

With a grimace and his elbows pressed to his body as if to alleviate his pain, he stood at the ready.

"Come 'ere if ye dare!" San snapped at the tentacle up ahead. Another one felt up the ship behind them, on the side no one presently protected. By the lack of agony it was met with, it had sneaked far up, ready to wrap around the mast again and push them around like toy soldiers.

Swaying hypnotically, the limb delayed for another moment. Yeosang ceased the fire, and they all watched it curl and uncurl for a nervous second. Maybe the kraken assumed it had killed them all already.

Enraptured by the sight of those huge suckers that could probably rip his head off his shoulders as they dilated and tightened again, Hongjoong nearly missed it coming closer. Only when San gave a harsh pull on the rope, he remembered their mission.