The Dreadful Hunt

by J. E. Thompson

  “You think that you can best the Red Titan?” the gnome bellowed in anger, puffing up his chest and rising out of the barrel like an awakened demon. “The legendary master of the seas? The raider of a thousand—”

  Shyola’s fist flew forward, striking the gnome square on the nose. Blood sprayed outward, and he squawked in a mixture of pain and indignation, falling back down into his barrel, which was padded with blankets and a stuffed bear.

  “Sit tight,” the succubus said, grabbing the top of the barrel and slamming it firmly in place. Muffled, aggrieved shouts echoed from within as Shyola hefted the barrel onto her shoulder and winced. “Ugh! He’s heavier than he looks…”

  “We just need to make it to the prow,” Vexx said, pausing briefly to scoop up as many coins as he could quickly gather. There was a veritable treasure trove here, but they didn’t have the time to clean it out, and he’d learned from experience that it was best to take what he could get. Either way, he reckoned it would easily pay for what the fishing boat crew had demanded and net them a considerable profit as well.

  Together, the dungeoneers quickly moved toward the stairs that led to the decks above. But just as they reached the door, a group of pirates burst through, gleaming scimitars at the ready.

  “Ethereal Screech!” Vexx called out, sending a blast of ghastly skulls flying out of his staff. His studies in the Black Arts had steadily grown from his experience in dungeoneering, and the shrieking skulls crashed into the throng of pirates, tearing through flesh and ripping out splintered chunks of wood from the deck. Still, some managed to leap forward and evade the detonations, and more pirates began pouring in from other directions.

  Kaylin’s bow thrummed as she fired, taking down those charging from the front while Shyola guarded their flanks. The sound of a cracking whip echoed, followed by screams of agony as the nimble succubus danced around the pursuing pirates.

  “Die!”

  Vexx twisted around to see a pirate with a black eyepatch charging toward him, the scruffy man glared at him through his one good eye, and his tattered jerkin was stained with blood. Vexx darted to the side as the pirate slashed wildly with his cutlass, then dodged back as it was followed by another, the gleaming weapon slicing through the air to lodge itself into the side of the barrel. Vexx caught a glimpse of the panicked Red Titan looking out as the angry pirate hacked a chunk of wood out of the barrel.

  “Watch where you’re swinging!” the gnome shouted.

  “Eh?” The pirate blinked, hesitating as he saw the Red Titan through the hole he’d carved into the barrel. “Cap’n?”

  Vexx thrust his staff into the distracted pirate’s face. The intense fire swallowed the man in flames, and the pirate collapsed in a bloody, smoldering heap.

  “We have your captain!” Vexx called out over the din of combat, slapping his palm against the top of the barrel. “We have your captain! Stop fighting!”

  It took a few moments, but soon, the press of the crowd slackened as the pirates slowly lowered their weapons and backed away from the dungeoneers. Shyola stalked toward the gnome captain and summoned her glowing whip. She walked with a slight limp but hid the pain of her injury well.

  “Leave us be, or we’ll kill him!” she hissed, her expression murderous in the flickering light.

  A silence fell, broken only by the gnome captain. “Listen to her,” he muttered.

  Vexx jerked his head toward the stairs, and Shyola hefted the barrel onto her shoulder as Kaylin cleared the path ahead. Grumpy-looking corsairs shuffled aside, and they could do nothing but watch as the dungeoneers ascended from the bowels of the ship.

  Heading to Shore

  “You got what you were after, didn’t you?” the Red Titan grumbled as Shyola dragged him along inside his barrel. “It isn’t right, you know. Coming into my property and taking what you like.”

  “You’re a pirate,” Vexx scoffed, lifting his staff in a subtle warning as he guarded the rear. He followed the others backward as they climbed up the stairs to the main deck.

  “That’s completely different.”

  Opting not to debate the finer points of piracy, Vexx stayed silent and kept a watchful eye on a few of the bolder pirates that followed close behind them. The steady rain continued, and Shyola almost slipped as they headed toward the prow.

  “Whoa, easy there!” the Red Titan called out.

  “Settle down,” Shyola shot back.

  The emerging pirates spread all around them, mixing with the sentries and sailors who had remained on the top deck. More than a few of them rushed past with buckets of sand and water, but the scent of burning wood still rose from below.

  It’s probably too much to hope that this was enough, Vexx thought to himself. The growing horde of pirates forming along the deck made him uneasy. This could go very badly…

  “There’s the kraken beak,” the Red Titan sputtered. “Now, let me go!”

  “I’ll get it,” Kaylin announced, weaving past the ship’s wheel, where the pilot stood. The man sneered at the dungeoneers.

  Kaylin carefully pulled herself toward the figurehead as another crack of distant thunder echoed around them.

  “Let the captain go,” one corsair growled as he approached, a mace clutched in his right hand. The others continued crowding in, coming closer and closer until Vexx jabbed his staff forward. He quickly transitioned from his glowing spray of flames to a frigid frost, creating a line of spreading ice along the wet deck in a large crescent around the ship’s wheel.

  “Don’t even think to cross that!” Vexx shouted.

  “Got the beak!”

  Vexx looked back to see Kaylin peering over at them in triumph, clutching the kraken’s beak in one hand. She stuffed it in her clothes, then shifted her grip on the slick surface, eyes widening as her boots slid off the rain-soaked prow.

  “Kaylin!”

  She fell free with a shout of surprise. By the time she splashed into the roiling ocean, several pirates were inching onto the icy surface, a few stumbling and sliding as well.

  “Oh, hells,” Shyola muttered. “Master, we need to make a break for the rope. But first,” she spun around as the Red Titan howled from within his barrel, “man overboard!”

  Shy tossed the barrel away as the pirates called out in distress. All at once, they surged forward, weapons raised and hatred clear in their eyes. Vexx whirled around to fire off an Ethereal Screech, the howling netherworldly skulls ripping through the front ranks with high-pitched detonations. But others charged in from the sides, and Vexx desperately fired a blast of flame to his right before switching to his left. One pirate’s cutlass slammed down, grazing Vexx’s shoulder as he dodged aside and burned the man to a crisp.

  Then Shyola was among them, her spectral whip lashing from side to side, creating space for them to escape. The succubus grabbed Vexx firmly by his injured shoulder and dragged him through the chaos.

  “Ow, Shy!”

  Vexx bit down hard on his tongue but pushed the pain away as he was hauled through the shifting crowd of pirates. It was all he could do to continually stream flames at everything within a close radius. He stumbled and cursed as a stray swing from an enraged pirate sliced shallowly over his leg. Shy was there to shove him back up and toward the far side of the ship.

  And there it was: the grappling hook that had brought them here.

  Fumbling through his bloody robes, Vexx grabbed a health potion and downed it even as he lurched forward, straightening and quickening his pace as it dulled the pain and began to knit his fresh wounds. Vexx spun around as he reached the grappling hook.

  Shy was tiring, and he winced as she took a heavy hit to the face with the backswing of a war axe. Three rowdy corsairs pushed forward with weapons raised, but Shy’s whip flickered away into nothingness.

  In an instant, Vexx fired three fireballs at their heads, too tired to even feel his usual flash of satisfaction as their weapons clattered to the ground. He helped Shy up and gestured at the rope.

>   “Go first!” Vexx commanded, leaning against the railing and firing blast after blast of fire magic into the throng of pirates. Shy opened her mouth as if to argue—then nodded, brushing past him and grabbing the rope. She pushed outward, hurriedly lowering herself to the waiting fishing boat.

  Vexx’s head throbbed, the exertion of wielding intense magic starting to take its toll on his body. But there was no time to grab another potion. All he could do was fire a final Ethereal Screech to slow down the advancing mass of pirates, crying out as a throwing knife sailed through the air and buried itself in his arm.

  Realizing that the battle was impossible to win, Vexx jumped over the railing, clutching desperately to the sodden rope. With his overloaded rucksack swinging from side to side, Vexx slid halfway down the rope, nearly dropping his staff. He cast his feverish eyes downward to see Shyola clambering aboard.

  “Take my staff!” he shouted, tossing it down to her. The injured succubus leaned over the side of the fishing boat, snatching it out of the air. Wood splinters rained down on him, and the pirates’ angered shouts seemed to be coming from directly above him. The rope shook and he heard the disconcerting sounds of sawing from above. Finally, he risked a glance, seeing a one-eyed pirate viciously hacking at the rope.

  “Master, jump!” Shyola called out.

  Vexx nodded resolutely, then pushed out forcefully from the side of the ship. The rope gave way, and suddenly, he was clutching at air. He fell onto the deck of the fishing boat with a pained cry, choking in a ragged breath. He blinked and looked upward at the side of the pirate vessel where furious pirates glared down at him.

  As he struggled to his knees, he saw Shyola uncorking another health potion. “Drink up,” she said, slipping the potion into Vexx’s hand. He groaned and brought the vial to his mouth, sighing as the red liquid worked itself into his system, dulling his pain once again. An arrow soared down from above, piercing Shyola’s left calf, but she barely winced.

  Instead, she slashed downward with her whip, cutting the fletchings off, and she grimaced as she pulled the other half of the arrow through. She tossed the bloody arrow aside.

  “We need to get out of here,” Shy said.

  Vexx braced a hand on the deck, gathering the strength to stand. He pulled his arms free of his rucksack and left it where it was before taking his staff from Shyola. Vexx aimed a gust of wind magic into their sails; never his best skill, but at least it was enough to get them away from the pirate ship. He fired another gust of wind, then patted his robes and closed his hand around a mana potion.

  He threw it back and relished the feeling of his strength returning before tossing the empty bottle into the sea. Then he looked up to see another object hurtling towards them. This time, he reacted at once, slashing forward with his staff to bat the axe aside. He followed that up with a Scorching Fireball at the side of the ship where the pirates had clustered. They reeled back, scattering as the wood of the ship started to smolder.

  An arrow thrummed through the air, and Vexx threw himself to the side before sending a fireball at the archer perched precariously on the railing. The blast struck the pirate’s side, and the grizzled man howled as he plummeted into the sea. The fishing boat was moving now, curving around the pirate ship and toward the prow. Vexx fired off a series of fireballs at the ship itself before looking forward.

  He scanned the waters for Kaylin before noticing a barrel bobbing along the water. A small raft emerged from the far side of the ship, rowing over to the Red Titan, whose curses echoed even over the din.

  “I will get you bastards! You will rue the day—”

  “There’s the elf!” Shy yelled, pointing ahead. “I’ll bring us close.”

  Vexx moved over to the other side of the fishing boat. In the dark waves, he could just make out Kaylin dog-paddling desperately toward them. He stuck his staff out as the boat came near, and she grabbed it eagerly, nearly pulling him overboard as well.

  “Easy,” he muttered, digging his boots in for traction on the slick deck. He gritted his teeth and pulled back, hauling the sopping wet elf partway out of the water. Kaylin clambered aboard, hacking up sea water and sucking in greedy lungfuls of air.

  “I made it,” Kaylin sobbed.

  “Where’s your pack?” Shy asked.

  Kaylin coughed and shook her hair out of her eyes. She fumbled through her clothes and tossed the kraken’s beak onto the fishing boat’s deck. “I got that, but I had to drop the rest. I would have drowned otherwise!”

  “Damn it, elf,” Shy muttered. “There goes our profit…”

  Vexx blasted their sails with a gust of wind, and the fishing boat sailed away into the night, leaving the pirates to put out the fires in their burning ship.

  Opportunity Awaits

  “A pleasure doing business with you,” the boat captain flashed them a wide grin. “I’m just glad you got my grandma’s kraken beak and recouped our losses! Now, I can bring the crew back together and set sail again!”

  Vexx nodded, hefting his rucksack. It was depressingly light, but still, a quest was a quest. Vexx just hoped the experience was worth all the trouble.

  “So, what does that leave us with?” Shyola huffed. While she was generally indifferent to concepts like money, she had enough of a fondness for alcohol to see the benefits of turning a profit. Shyola stripped off the stained bandage on the side of her head and tossed it off the jetty of Golden Streams Landing. Kaylin scowled at her littering but said nothing.

  “After we stock back up on supplies and potions?” Vexx shrugged. “We probably have enough for a round of drinks and a meal,” he said, trudging back into Golden Streams Landing. The guards at the far end of the jetty recognized the dungeoneers by sight at this point and stepped aside, though their suspicious expressions still lingered. “Then, we should get out of town. One final meal at the Shattered Seagull?”

  Shy snorted. “If she’ll let us in.”

  Firenza didn’t look particularly thrilled about seeing them again, but there wasn’t much business, so she sat them at one of the outdoor tables and took their orders. The dungeoneers relaxed in the ocean breeze and listened to the noise of another busy day in Golden Streams Landing. Kaylin dozed off until the food arrived, brightening up at once and digging in.

  “Still some bits and bobs,” Vexx mused to himself as he took stock of their supplies. “A new rucksack for Kaylin. Some seashells…who put those in here?”

  Kaylin raised a hand. “They looked pretty,” she insisted.

  “Nobody’s buying seashells,” Vexx muttered, tossing them aside. “Let’s see, a few bandages…Shyola, are you good?”

  “Of course, darling,” Shyola drawled, brushing back her hair to reveal the side of her forehead, slightly reddened but no worse for wear. “A few scratches won’t put me down.”

  “A couple copper rings, a knife…” He pulled out an eyepatch and gave it a skeptical glance. “You know how much eyepatches sell for?” Vexx grumbled, dropping it back in and rummaging around in his rucksack.

  “Ooh, is this a riddle?” Kaylin asked, perking up.

  “Nothing! Or next to nothing, anyway,” he bit out, shaking his head and setting the rucksack down in annoyance. “We’ve spent all this time in Golden Streams Landing, and if anything, we seem even worse off than when we started,” Vexx sighed. “I guess that’s dungeoneering for you.”

  “At least they fixed the deck here,” Shyola pointed out, the succubus leaning back in her seat. The steady sound of the waves brought with it the drifting smell of seawater, something that was becoming increasingly familiar to them.

  “We’re out of quests though,” Vexx pointed out, catching sight of the bartender frowning at them. “And she’s out of patience,” he muttered.

  “Easy, let’s go to Fallanden,” Kaylin insisted once again. Shyola and Vexx grunted, shaking their heads as usual. The elf slammed her fists down on the table, annoyed. “Well, if that’s the way you’re all going to be, then what’s the point of
just sitting around? We can at least do another circuit of the town. Maybe someone will have a quest for us. You know…opportunity awaits!”

  “I’m sick of waiting,” Shyola muttered. “I think the elf might be onto something,” she said, crossing one shapely leg over the other. A passing party of sailors paused to leer at the display.

  Vexx shrugged. “It’s not like we’ll get any service here,” he said, rising under the faded sign of the Shattered Seagull. The tavern’s proprietor had told them to get lost some time ago, and it seemed like they were quickly overstaying their welcome.

  “Let’s go, then,” he said, stepping out into the steady flow of midday traffic. “Keep your eyes open.”

  “Oh, I see something…”

  “Yes?” Vexx responded, looking over at Shy, who was positively drooling as she stared at an older man who was walking the opposite way. He held an elegantly carved staff, and his robes were distinctly those that were reserved for magicians. Vexx watched the man, frowning at the sight. He seemed an utterly unexceptional character, older than Vexx and visibly paunchy.

  So, what if he has the robes of a graduate of the Magical Academy of Fallanden, Vexx mused to himself. It doesn’t matter if you graduate. Just if you attend. It’s the knowledge you were after, not a degree. Or the status. Or the robes. Or the reputation. Or the job opportunities.

  Still, he frowned at the sight, never quite comfortable with the memory of being expelled for simply experimenting on the bodies buried in the nearby cemetery.

  “Ah, what I would give to devour that man’s soul,” Shyola murmured, licking her lips. “He positively radiates magic and innocence.”