Joroboros
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[YF] Chapter 233: Weight
🕑 Added 2024-09-25 03:01:32 +0000 UTCIt isn’t long before we reach Sylvan’s target. First, the islands’ mountain peaks rise over the horizon, followed by the tip of a lone tower. Finally, from my position flying far above the ship, dozens of masts come into view.
I dive back down to the deck below, passing the burning jets I have thrusting into the sail to amplify the ships speed. Flames bathe my body as I touch down, twisting my form from that of a falcon to bipedal in the blink of an eye.
“There is a fleet of fifty docked ahead,” I say, striding up to to the steersman at his helm. Down here on the deck, the only thing visible is the peaks of the islands. It would still be a few minutes before anything more became visible.
“That sounds about what we expected.” Sylvan shrugs.
“You believed you could take on a fleet three times your size?” I ask sceptically. None of the heqet here have the strength of a Beith, so I doubt there will be any impressive single man shows of force.
“My crew are a quality bunch.” Sylvan curls his lip, annoyed at his capabilities being doubted. “I wouldn’t have joined this ship otherwise.”
I shake my head at that, but don’t comment further. A single enhanced warrior — like those I’d seen in the first naval battle — is all the enemy needs to wipe out this quality crew of his. But I don’t plan on letting him face much of the enemy anyway. He and his men will only get the last remnants of opposition; I know enough about the heqet now to realise they won’t surrender against any but their own.
Leal has taken it upon herself to improve the longship. She hangs over the side of the prow, painting away at the black timber where it straightened from a curve to point upward. Where she got the paint, I don’t know. The suitcase she’d taken with her to my wasteland had been swapped out for a few much less obstructive pouches. Markings had always been her passion, not inscriptions, so I doubt she took much inscription material with her.
Unless she’s somehow found a way to use that Anatla energy to change more than herself… which I know she hasn’t.
She teeters on the edge of the ship, her body showing off far less markings than usual. I’d be worried about her falling into the dangerous waters below, if I hadn’t already seen her do so and come out without a scratch. Leal knows what she’s doing… even if she doesn’t look it.
I’m interested to know what she’s making, but I’ll have to ask her later; the sole tower at the rear of the docks has finally come into view, and it looks like they’ve seen us as well. A pyre burns at the top, where only minutes ago it didn’t. Some sort of warning system?
If only we were closer. I could extinguish the flames before anyone could notice and we’d catch the entire fleet off guard. Well, fifty ships shouldn’t be a problem for me, but it is a good thing to know for future battles.
My flames roar in the air above each of Sylvan’s vessels. I can’t help it. The urge to rush forward and burn everything is strong. The sails of the boats now spreading out beyond the horizon are each an inviting presence. A gift of firewood ready to burn and add to my inferno. As much as I should approach this with the proper care of a battle, these are slavers, they deserve nothing better than to become fuel. Being given the opportunity of returning to the cycle, rather than being buried, is a benefit almost too good for them.
“Do not burn the ships if you can avoid it,” Sylvan says suddenly, making me turn. He stares into my eyes for a moment, unsettled, which is a surprise from the heqet.
“Why?” I ask.
“The less damage done to the ships, the easier it will be for us to integrate them into our fleet.” His moment of hesitance is gone in a moment, making me doubt whether I actually saw it or not.
“I will try,” I say, reluctantly. Not being able to burn away their ships wouldn’t be an issue, if I hadn’t already sworn with Leal to limit the number of deaths I would inflict. How am I supposed to fight an army when I can’t burn either the warriors, or their main weapon? Sure, I can take their axes, but that won’t stop them anywhere near as effectively as the loss of their longships will.
Timber creaks as I snuff out the flames powering us forward. Now that I realise the two easy paths for me are gone, I need to do something to delay the heqet’s arrival to battle. I cross the ship, reaching Leal’s side. So enraptured in her work, she doesn’t notice me. I’m pretty sure she has yet to notice the fleet ahead of us as well.
“Leal.” She startles, and the hand holding her over the bulwark slips. A yelp escapes her throat and her other arm comes around to save herself a fall, successfully gripping the wood, but throwing her inscription brush a dozen metres through the air.
“Ah, yes?” She tries her best to look nonchalant, but fails miserably when she realises she no longer has her tool in hand.
A strand of fire that caught the brush brings it down and hands it back. Leal smiles slightly, but I can see the embarrassment in her eyes. For a moment, I consider poking fun at her. Unfortunately, there’s no time to waste. “You coming with?” I ask, pointing out to the horizon where the larger fleet spreads out from the dock.
“Huh?” Leal turns. “Oh. We’re here already?” She doesn’t sound very enthusiastic. “Yeah. Let’s get this over with.”
She slides the engraving brush into a pouch and with a flash of that otherworldly energy, she’s back to the Leal I’ve always known. The water mage. Considering my limitations, I’ll be very glad to have her help.
The two of us are in the air in seconds. As I carry her, I inform her of Sylvan’s intentions. “He wants to incorporate the ships into his own fleet. So we have to be careful to limit the damage we cause.”
“You can’t burn the vessels out from beneath them, then?” she asks. My large bird-like visage of fire nods. “Will you be alright?”
“Yeah. I will need to rely on you for this fight. We don’t want to take too long to disable their force before Sylvan and his crews arrive.” If I’d known he wanted to keep those ships, I would have pushed forward and disabled them long before both sides could meet.
“Of course,” Leal says. “But won’t destroying their rudders and oars be enough? I’m sure it won’t be too difficult for the heqet to replace afterwards.”
“I can. And I could probably do so long before Sylvan arrives, even with how difficult it is to split my focus and make sure the rest of the deck doesn’t burn,” I say. “But the problem is that the more Sylvan has to rebuild, the longer it will take to get on our way. If he needs these ships to pose a proper resistance, I want to make sure we’re waiting as little time as possible after our battles before we’re moving again.”
“Alright. I’ve got some ideas in that case.”
Before I can ask what she means, Leal leaps out of my flames and falls to the waters below. I chase her close, but the calmness in her expression holds me back from grabbing her out of the fall. Water suddenly surrounds the ursu, her inscriptions glow bright within the orb. As soon as it envelopes her completely, it rockets down into the calm ocean below, breaking the surface and slowing her descent until she floats softly down to sea-level.
We’re already within firing range of the defending ships, but they hold their fire. Maybe they aren’t sure what to make of us yet. Could it be possible that these heqet are less aggressive then the rest of their kind?
Of course, it’s the moment I consider the possibility that they fire on us. First, it’s a single cannon on a single vessel, but soon the whole armada unleashes our way. I wonder how much ammo they have stored away to consider firing on an individual target when they can see a fleet coming behind us.
Cannonballs and shrapnel-shot pierce my body ineffectively, while those that tumble toward Leal slam into the small hill of water that rises around her. Only those that hit the water above her have any chance of hitting the ursu, and when they do, they’ve lost all the momentum to do any damage.
I shoot through the air, rushing down the larger of the ships that likely hold the leaders or strongest heqet. Behind, I leave behind a part of myself to hover near Leal — never splitting my flames — but she doesn’t fall far behind. A wave carries her toward the nearest of of vessels. With an entire ocean at her disposal, there’s very little hyle expenditure she has to worry about. Only the markings across her body limit what she can do, and I know hers are more flexible than most.
I slam into the first ship with the full might of a train. My physical flames knock half the crew of a hundred overboard. For a moment, I watch as they flail before the hit the waves. That worked better than I expected. Despite how long I’ve remained beyond the threshold, it is still hard to internalise that my flames actually have weight now. They hit those heqet with the physicality of my old body.
Of course, my old body wasn’t exactly the most solid things going around, but it is obviously enough to strip these ships of their crew. Maybe I was a bit hasty to say this battle would be difficult without being able to kill or burn.
My flames did break against the rest of the crew, and they don’t look like they were hit with much more than a strong breeze, but it is still better than I was expecting. In an instant, all their hands sear, and they discard their axes and oars. The steersman of this ship rises to face me. The largest of the lot, and likely the most enhanced of the fleet.
I pick him up in a swirl of flame, melt his axes, and toss him overboard.
Back at the spearhead of the fleet formation, Leal rushes the first ship with a wave. It’s not nearly as powerful as the effect from the Henosis water mage we’d seen, but hers has a rather odd shape. The water dips intensely before rising in a curl.
I watch, ready to dive in and help her should she face any difficulty, as her wave hits the ship. The vessel dips, suddenly finding itself without water beneath itself. It crashes back into the liquid surface, only to rise rapidly as the wave fully captures the ship. The wave couldn’t have been more than twice the ships height, and yet I watch as it flips the vessel. Heqet, oars and all sorts of other objects not tied down fly overboard, while the ship bobs upside down in the waters.
The heqet try to swim towards Leal, who stays a few metres beneath the surface, but the ocean fights them the whole way. She ignores them, directing her wave to the next ship.
Well, that’s certainly one way to disable them. Though I hope she can flip them upright just as easily.
The battle has barely started and it’s already over. This fleet has no answer to the two of us. It really makes me wonder why the Henosis mages didn’t do the same. Maybe it was impossible against so many ships, but just including them in the fight would have had them fighting off the hordes of heqet far longer.
Well, the Henosis aren’t here. Only the heqet. And they show no capability of fighting us off. We should be able to gain a substantial foothold rapidly if all battles go like this.
Comments
Jethro H
"It really makes me wonder why the Henosis mages didn’t do the same." Fourth secret powerhouse??
Summer Coff
One fascinating thing about Leal as a character is how she's both a staunch pacifist - holding on to a distaste of killing long after any other pacifist would have given it up - and also a strategic genius. You can really tell she's a soldier, and a soldier who likes to read books.
