KEEL THE DEMONSLAYER

3 - Journey to Mount Hostenoist

A journey filled with conflicts and loss...

After a few weeks, I felt very attached to the Eritradan, or Mother Pearl. She was a formidable ship and I felt great sailing it. For me it was a surprise that my crew getting along with our passengers, about thirty dwarves led by Helmut RodgeGrest.

The truce promised by the demons was only a deception and the first attack came just three days after our departure. We found ourselves surrounded by about a hundred winged beasts.

"The sails are on fire!" yelled a sailor.

I was thankful for having the sorcerer Ylgastiir on board. He was also the ship's first officer appointed by Admiral Lazeth to sail the Eritradan to the port close to Mount Hostenoist. The sorcerer pumped strong gusts of ocean water to stop the fire.

It was a small group of demons and their goal was not to destroy us, but only to damage our ship. It they succeeded we would be an easy target to new attacks.

"Captain Keel" Ylgastiir called me urgently "the chest! Fetch the crystals immediately".

I crossed the deck and saw that the dwarves had established their defenses and were repelling the beasts with excellence. Fought with two winged beasts on my way to the main cabin. The chest was under a concealed trap door. I carried the keys on my necklace. When I opened it, the yellow brightness of the Sargentium crystals, as the humans called them, fully enlightened the cabin. Carefully, I removed only five pieces. I believed that it would be enough to help the witch.

That small chest carried the crystals we risked our lives for. They were entrusted to each of the fleet's ships to be delivered to Mount Hostenoist. Until then, we didn't know much more than that. What we learned later, was that the human ships were privileged by truce. The elven boats were persecuted, plundered and sunk. Well, not all of them. We also knew that many brave warriors had given their lives to gather the crystals. All of that was part of a major plan of the high command.

Ylgastiir was waiting at the cabin's door and accepted the crystals, relieved. Now possessing the mystical energies contained in the perfect lapped crystals, the sorcerer invoked and threw dozens of ice arrows and spears that brought down a number of demons swarming the ship.

Helmut screamed on the deck below teasing the swarm's leader "Come down and fight you coward!"

The leader was different from the others, his body was furry he had long hair. The demon also possessed larger wings and carried a huge war hammer. The attack came. Helmut dodged the violent blow only by a whisker. The floor broke when struck by the hammer, which became lodged.

The dwarf seemed shrunken compared to the size of the beast that was about four times talled. However, Helmut settled the combat with a single blow. He cut off the hand of the beast with the blade of his axe. Unarmed, the monster was surrounded and eliminated by three other dwarves. After the leader's defeat, the remnants retreated. Ylgastiir used his magic to put away the fires helped by the rest of the crew. We had escaped!

However, more attacks came in the following days and repelling them become a routine. The problem is that our casualties grew; the same as the Eritradan suffered heavy damage. Ylgastiir advised me to alter the course to seek refuge at Fort Nish, an elvish port located on the largest island of the Princes' Archipelago in the center of the Swift Sea.

Close to Nish, Ylgastiir delivered us from an attack by a vast horde summoning a whirlwind using the energy of many crystals. Our situation went critical and we wouldn't be able to resist another assault.

The rumors of a siege around the port of Nish, unfortunately, were real. We saw thousands of demons, of the most varied species, including non-winged beasts and some amphibians. Dozens of fire demons, whose bodies burned ceaselessly, crossed the skies monitoring the work of the lower caste winged demons who weren't strong enough to serve as soldiers. Whole trees were carried by groups of demons and thrown at the sea. The pile of wood, semi-sunken ships and other things floating formed islands in which the demons built nests.