Trade Interruptions Two: Electric Bugaloo

[redford]

A large wave rocked the ship John had made his bed in, tossing him from his hammock. He hit the ground with a heavy thump, barely opening his eyes in sleepy rage against both the wave and the captain.

His strange companion had just left the room as he looked up, dragging a massive sword behind him.

No stranger than myself though, I suppose, John thought as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. The screams of sailors and the grinding of rocks, as if from a giant's millstone, sounded through the decks of the ship, and his body acted on instinct. If anything, the Ussyles was under attack, and he needed to be there to defend it. He leapt to his feet, looking around for his massive tower shield. Finding it in the dark of his quarters, he fused the armor of his left hand to it and rushed to the stairs.

He emerged, blinking into the light, and instinctively took a step back as he saw the behemoth. His eyes widened in shock at the ships crashed around it.

"By the Thayne," he whispered as he tried to form a plan in his head. Either way, he needed to act, or the slow-moving colossus would wreck them like it had the countless other ships scattered round.

The marble pillar to the side of the ship wasn't going to sink, and hopefully wouldn't rock too much with the waves, so John made a running leap across the water to the thing, landing squarely on top of it, next to his strange companion, who roared fiercely at the behemoth.

The half-giant planted his shield in the marble, willing his armor to cover his body. flowed up like quicksilver, clicking into place to cover his entire body. The cool sensation of the armor coming up dumped adrenaline into his system, and he smirked a little at the thought of battling this extreme foe. His shield split into two, forming into two large war-hammers that he now held in both hands. The giant could probably blow through the shield easily, and he needed all the offensive power he could get.

[Josette]

"Move!" Her barking command carried as much force as the elbows she threw, shoving men and women alike as she plowed past. Despite the small space, there were still plenty of individuals around to mutter their disapproval. The knight initiate paid them no mind, her icy gaze reserved only for the end of the narrow corridor. She had no time for whatever insults the wealthy passengers could form under their breath. She had more important things to attend to.

As usual, her main concern was Aelin Valth. Though she would never admit as much, Josette preferred to keep him within her sight when they were on excursions such as this. He had a nasty habit of getting himself into trouble, and it appeared that this trip was no exception. Only an hour before, the elf-mage had drawn him from the room Josette and Aelin shared, and asked him to escort her top-side. The blonde had paid no attention to the female knight, and Josette had refused to invite herself along. It was not until a young boy poked his head into her room to declare that Bethany had fallen overboard did the woman spring into action.

Idiot boy, she thought, anger bubbling in the pit of her stomach, and prompting her to move more quickly. How the hell did he manage to lose her off the side of the ship?

A hard hand met her breastplate with a jarring thud. Instinct balled her hand into a fist, and she might have struck the burly man had the ground not suddenly lurched beneath her. Both she and the deck hand were thrown against the hall's wooden paneling, amidst a chorus of frightened cries from the other passengers. By the time the raven-haired woman scrambled to her feet, the man was once again blocking her path.

"Sorry miss," he shouted over the panicked chatter, "you can't go up there. Seems we've run across some sort of beast, and-"

"And do I not look like I can handle it?" Josette bit back, motioning to her armor, and the sword that never left her side. "Besides, I do not plan to be trapped down here if this ship is reduced to toothpicks."

Her careless words only roused another round of terrified shouts. But the man, recognizing that there were far important battles to be fought, allowed the young knight to pass. Long, hurried strides carried her up the steps, and into a scene of complete chaos.

The first thing that she noticed was the great stone beast, who had already dealt more damage than she could comprehend in that moment. "Aelin!" she cried out, but her voice hardly carried against the pandemonium. It was no use, she recognized that immediately. She would not find him in this madness. He would have to find his own way.

Fully committing herself to this line of logic, Josette allowed the adrenaline and years of training to take over. Battle mode, her first-year swords master affectionately dubbed it - when nothing else mattered but the task she had been given. "Don't get in her way when she's like that," the man had teased Aelin during one training session. "You're likely to lose a limb."

With a sharp, metallic hiss, she freed her sword from its sheath. Most individuals scurried about with no direction, their expressions that of pure terror. But one figure was different. He was enormous in stature, clutching two equally huge war-hammers. He moved with purpose, and so drew Josette's attention.

"Need assistance?" she shouted, so not to startle him as she moved up alongside.

[Cards of Fate]

The beast howled and hammered its fists against its chest in a primal display of power as it lumbered towards the marble platform. It raised its arms and prepared to slam both fists down onto its opponents, but was stopped by the cracking of several canons. The other ship had spun around the arena and prepped its main guns, letting loose a volley of cannon balls. Most of the balls glanced harmlessly off the behemoth, but one struck true and glanced the beast’s back where another mound of glowing rubies seemed to protrude. Cracking, the gems let off several red sparks, eliciting a howl of pain from the creature as it staggered forward. Losing its balance, the creature fell forward, slamming its head on the platform William and John were standing on.

(short post because I didn’t have much to reply to. Hysteria is in next. Same thing, 72 hours from now…)

[Revenant]

Waves slammed into the marble platform one after another in a seemingly endless procession. These were the same waves battering the Ussyles and its sister ship, but the vessels’ had the benefit of size and weight to counteract the crashing waves. The marble platform did not.

As tough as it had been for William to maintain his footing on the slick stone, it was doubly so with the leaden weight of John beside him. It had been further doubled by the colossus’ violent thrashing, and William was glad that his feet were covered in rough bone. Each wave threw the front of the pillar half a dozen feet into the air as it hit them, only to plunge them back down into the trough as the wave lifted the back of the pillar in turn as it passed under them.

Even though he’d gained his sea legs during the voyage out, William could feel the violent motion churning his insides. Fighting was William’s forte, and he rarely second-guessed himself in the heat of battle. He preferred to act and react to changing situations as they occurred, leaving critique of his methods for hindsight. But another eight foot drop as he desperately clung to the surface of the marble while the colossus loomed over him made William seriously question the wisdom of charging directly out to sea to fight this monstrosity.

The colossus raised an arm overhead as it approached, the massive thing easily draping the entire twenty-foot platform in shadow. William knew that he’d have little room to maneuver out on the open sea against something that massive. It was just too big to dodge effectively without solid ground underfoot to use his superior speed on. Carver weighed heavily in his hand, prompting William to question his decision to heft the massive weapon out here with him.

”Perhaps my first instinct was right,” he thought, weighing his options.

Swimming with the massive blade was right out. Even with his titanic level of strength there would be no way to stay afloat while carrying a broad eighty pound brick like the Carver. He stole a glance at the armor covering John’s gigantic frame and shook his head. That, at least, was one worry William didn’t have.

Leaping back to the Ussyles seemed to be the best option that William had available. He could try for another hunk of floating debris, but none seemed as stable as the marble pillar, and he was already having to spend most of his time maintaining his balance as it was. What he needed was for something to distract the colossus so he’d have time to reach it unnoticed.

William tensed to make the jump just as the second ship’s black powder cannons roared into the colossus’ back. This, William reckoned, was just the opportunity that he’d been waiting for. He adjusted his plan instantly and instead of leaping from his crouch towards the Ussyles, William released his grip on the marble on the next wave’s upswing, sliding back along platform’s slick length. He braced his warscythe and the Carver against the platform, the weapons’ razor edges digging neat furrows through the stone but giving him three points of contact to steady himself and to keep from flopping to one side and being washed overboard by the breaking spray.

Ignoring John, William focused on the colossus. The cannons had done their job and thrown the massive creature off balance. Instead of a crushing arm descending upon them, it was an awkward head butt, one that shows an absolute lack of grace or accuracy. The stone head slammed into the front of the platform as it began its descent down the backside of the wave. The force of the blow, added to the already downward facing slant of the marble and catapulted the entire thing end over end. This had been what William had been waiting for, and as the pillar’s stern shot into the air he leaped with all his might, rising in an arc over the colossus’ back.

“Target the red crystals,” he roared openly so that everyone on the circling ships could hear. His destructive enlightenment had pinpointed the monster’s weakness and the cannon fire had confirmed it. The stone that built up the bulk of the creature’s body seemed nigh impenetrable, but those crystals were far more susceptible.

William reached the apex of his jump and began falling back towards the colossus with a rabid eagerness. Hesitation was gone, and there was once again no doubt in his actions. He called on the hot winds that enabled him to fly, shifting the force of his molten core to the task. But instead of slowing his descent, William added speed to it. He also used it to nudge his trajectory towards an outcropping of glowing rubies protruding from the back on one of the creature’s shoulders.

Grinning, William twisted, pulling the long haft of the warscythe in tightly against him and angling the blade flat so that it wouldn’t catch the air and impede his momentum. Then he twisted and, with one arm, stretched the massive hacking blade behind him, intending to bring it down on top of those crystals with all the force that his strength, plummeting velocity, and eight pounds of ancient dragon bone could muster.