With a ponderous groan, the bone serpent reared up to strike. Water sluiced off its frame, and lumps of the strange, powder-like substance that covered the sea clung to its body. Given its sheer size, it wouldn’t be hard for it to sink the ship, and she didn’t like their odds of living through that. Well, Blue Scales and Eileen would be fine. They could both breathe underwater. The rest of them would not be so lucky. An assortment of projectiles – both mundane and magical – arced up to meet the towering monstrosity of bone, courtesy of the ship’s crew and the other adventurers. It barely seemed to notice the attacks.
“To arms!” someone bellowed. “To arms! We’re under attack!”
Aria snorted inelegantly. If there was a single person on this ship capable of fighting in broad daylight who hadn’t already grabbed a weapon, they were either a coward or insane. Left unchallenged, the bone serpent would sink the ship. The only way they were going to survive was by fighting it off. Luckily, the ship’s crew had several members with magic well suited to reinforcing and repairing the vessel. Otherwise, the bone serpent’s first attack would have cracked the ship in half. As more projectiles thundered into the bone serpent, it lunged forward, all but flopping onto the ship. It wasn’t a graceful attack, but the creature’s bulk made it devastating.
Adventurers scrambled to get clear as a section of the deck cracked and gave way beneath the bone serpent’s weight. The rest of the ship shuddered beneath the impact, and Aria could hear wild cursing and hurried prayers as more sounds of cracking wood and straining metal filled the air. The bone serpent hauled itself up to strike again, and a bolt of magic caught it in the side of the head. The explosion that followed knocked its head sharply to one side, and the monster rounded on the adventurers. Twin pinpoints of crimson light flared to life within its skull, and it gave a deep, rumbling roar.
Despite the damage the bone serpent had done with a single blow, the adventurers already on deck hadn’t lost any of their enthusiasm. Not only were they fighting to keep the ship in one piece but slaying a bone serpent would also be a notable achievement that would definitely help them secure further employment. If they could retrieve it, the creature’s core would also be worth quite a bit of money.
“Get over here!” Aria shouted to Eric and Blue Scales. “We need to find its core. Someone get Jonathan. With his Words he might be able to –”
The bone serpent lunged again, moving far faster than anything so big had any right to. All she caught was a flash of white before its head struck the side of the ship. There was an ominous crack, and the bone serpent yanked its head free of the hull. Chunks of mangled wood ripped free, and the deck tilted crazily beneath them as the ship struggled to stay upright.
“We can’t let it focus on the ship!” Aria cried. “We need to get its attention!”
By some stroke of good fortune, the attack had hit above the waterline. However, from the frantic – and familiar – screaming she could hear, Jonathan’s cabin must have been exposed to daylight. She grimaced. And she’d thought her luck was bad. Jonathan could certainly give her a run for her money and then some.
“[Holy Lance]!” A brilliant beam of white light raced from her hands and slammed into the bone serpent’s side. It shuddered and recoiled, but it regained its bearings far more quickly than she’d like. Her eye twitched. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Holy magic had a natural advantage against creatures animated by necromancy, but this creature was likely so full of necromantic energy it could shrug off most holy attacks. She could try to hit it with something bigger, but she’d need time to prepare, which would leave her a sitting duck.
“Focus your fire!” she shouted to the other adventurers, unsure of how many of them knew anything about bone serpents. “It doesn’t have any real weak points except its core. Try to drive it back before it can sink the ship. Aim for the joints if you can. It won’t kill it, but it will slow it down.”
Some of them listened – a former paladin was usually a good person to take advice from when fighting an unholy abomination – but the majority continued to pelt the bone serpent with whatever projectile attacks they could unleash. She shook her head in dismay. This was the difference between adventurers and an army. Adventurers might be more skilled than the average soldier, but they were notoriously bad at working together outside of their own teams.
“Eric,” she growled. “Distract it.”
He grinned teasingly. “You really want me to charge at the giant monster that can break a ship in half with its head?”
“I thought you’d appreciate the opportunity.” She grinned back, and a Word left her lips. White light settled around the tip of his spear. “It won’t be enough to kill it, but it should help you leave some scratches.”
“Well, I would hate to disappoint.” He breezed forward, as light and easy on his feet as a dancer or a wolf. “Just promise to fish me out of the water if I fall in. If mermen dislike these waters, I doubt a werewolf would enjoy them.”
Aria laughed. She’d yet to meet a foe Eric was scared to face. Oh, he knew better than to pick fights with monsters like dragons, but he wasn’t scared of them. Grinning like a maniac, the werewolf sprinted across the deck and then hurled himself at the bone serpent in a casual display of acrobatics that a human would have been hard-pressed to match even with Words. The long, high arc of his jump carried him up over the shattered railing of the deck and toward the monster’s body. As he landed, he twisted to drive his spear into the narrow gap between two thick plates of bone to strike at one of the creature’s joints. The sound the weapon made as it struck rattled Aria’s teeth.
She had seen Eric drive his spear right through solid plate armour. But even with her Word enhancing it, the weapon struggled to find purchase. Sparks flew from the point of impact, and several small shards of bone broke loose before the spear skittered off. Eric cursed and turned to kick off the bone serpent’s side. The monster’s head swung around, and Eric twisted in mid-air to avoid being caught in its jagged teeth. He landed back on the deck a few paces from Aria and growled. In his hands, his spear was still shaking from the impact.
“Okay. I’m not going to lie. That guy is pretty tough.”
Another adventurer was less fortunate. He tried to repeat Eric’s feat with his axe only to be struck by the bone serpent’s head in mid leap. He might as well have been hit by a battering ram. He gave a strangled cry and hurtled through the air to land in the water more than thirty yards from the ship. His colleagues roared in outrage, but their cries were drowned out as the bone serpent jerked its head forward and spat a hail of bone shards from its mouth. Aria bit back a curse. This must be a stronger variety of bone serpent. The adventurers were caught flatfooted, and Aria sighed as she realised one of them was the one who always picked fights with her. She might live to regret this, but she couldn’t just watch them get slaughtered.
“I hope she remembers this the next time she wants to pick a fight,” Aria muttered as she extended one hand and poured power into a word. “[Wall of Radiance]!” The other woman was more adept at personal and weapon enhancement, but Aria was far better at defence and general support.
The Word was one given to those who followed her god and others like him. A brilliant barrier of white light appeared in front of the adventurers. The barrier flickered briefly beneath the barrage of bone shards, but the adventurers were smart enough to retreat while they could. The instant they were clear, Aria dismissed the Word. It was a powerful defensive technique, but it was also very draining. Unlike some people – the Blood Emperor came to mind – she did not have bottomless reserves of magic. The other woman met her gaze for a moment and nodded sombrely before raising her war hammer and charging forward.
“Blue Scales!” Aria shouted. “Can you slow it down at all?” The merman had used his magic to drag the axe-wielding adventurer back onto the ship and heal him.
The towering merman batted aside several bone shards with his trident and flung a broken piece of railing at
the bone serpent. “One moment.” He jabbed his weapon at the monster. “[Binding Tide]!”
Tendrils of water rose out of the ocean – more slowly and in fewer numbers than Aria was used to seeing – and wrapped around the bone serpent. She frowned. There must truly be something wrong with the water here if even Blue Scales’s Words were weakened. The monster fought to get free, but Blue Scales refused to relent. The tendrils wrapped around the bone serpent even as its thrashing ripped another chunk out of the side of the ship. The other adventurers seized the opportunity to launch a fresh wave of projectiles. Aria looked around. Where was Roger? They could definitely use his power right now. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Miles bound onto the deck with Jonathan’s crate hoisted over one shoulder.
“Miles! Should you be out here with Jonathan?”
“Given the gaping hole in my master’s cabin and the steadily widening cracks, I thought it best to leave while we were able.” He put the crate down and calmly assessed the situation. “Although you do have a point. It is hardly safe here either.”
“How is the battle going?” Jonathan asked from within the crate. “Please, tell me we’re winning.”
“I wish I could, but the bone serpent refuses to fall easily.”
Despite their best efforts, the gathered adventurers simply weren’t doing enough damage. Blue Scales didn’t look like he could hold it for much longer either. Jagged arcs of necromantic energy crackled along the creature’s body, and the tendrils of water began to boil away. Aria looked around again. What was taking Roger and Susannah so long to attack, and where had Eileen gone? A moment later, she received her answer.
“Boarders!” Susannah yelled.
Aria turned. Smaller bone creatures – eerie, twisted conglomerations of bone that looked like warped combinations of sharks, seals, and other marine animals – had begun to clamber aboard. Eileen was in her bear form, and she waded into the thick of the lesser monsters. A single blow was often enough to destroy them, but their sheer numbers were enough to stymie the shape-shifter’s advance. Beside Eileen, Susannah had grabbed a stout wooden staff from a wounded adventurer, and the ranger was batting bone creature after bone creature aside with remarkable ease. It would have been a perfect moment for Roger to blast all of the bone creatures aside with one of his Words, but the raccoon was busy using [Wall of Pumice] to plug several gaping holes in the side of the ship. It wasn’t the best solution, but pumice was one of the few rocks capable of floating on water. If worse came to worst, he might even be able to fashion a giant raft out of the substance.
Susannah bashed another bone creature over the head before the staff in her hands shattered. The other woman cursed and lashed out with one hand. The [Pulverise] she used to enhance her strike turned her next opponent into powder. With a roar, Eileen surged forward again, and more adventurers hurried over to help her and Susannah stem the tide. Looking back at the bone serpent, Aria turned just in time to see it finally break free. Eric cursed and leapt forward again. The werewolf struck with mad abandon as he somehow managed to keep his footing atop the beast.
“This is not going the way I had intended,” Eric said as he fought to keep his balance. Enhanced by her Word, his spear was definitely doing damage, but not quickly enough to truly slow the beast down. Another stream of bone shards threatened to swamp the deck, and Aria and a handful of other adventurers blanketed the area in defensive Words.
“This isn’t working.” Aria retreated to a relatively safe section of the deck and began to gather her power. The bone serpent turned in her direction, but Blue Scales unleashed a withering blast of lightning that drove it back for a moment before another group of adventurers sent plumes of fire, ice, and shadow at the monster. “[Purifying Light]!”
The resulting stream of light was almost blinding in its intensity, and Aria’s jaw clenched as she poured power into the Word. The bone serpent jerked back in a bid to get clear, but another Word from Blue Scales created more water tendrils. The merman hauled the bone serpent back into the attack, and Aria grit her teeth and dumped more of her magic into her Word. Her attack finally came to an end, and the bone serpent rounded on her. Cracks had spread across many of the plates of bone that covered its body, and the burning red light in its eye sockets seemed far dimmer than before. She bit back a curse. She’d definitely hurt it, but it was still a deadly threat.
“You should start running.” Eric shattered one of the plates of bone along the bone serpent’s spine with his next strike. “Because I think you pissed it off.”
Aria threw herself to the side as the bone serpent lunged for her. Eric threw his weight onto his spear, and the bone serpent’s attack went awry, missing her by inches. “This is why paladins never get to retire,” she muttered as it lunged for her again. “Either the monsters get them, or they get accused of heresy and hunted down.”
Eileen was there to meet the bone serpent’s next charge. She couldn’t hope to stop it completely, but her bulk was enough to slow it down. Aria scrambled clear, and Blue Scales once again tried to pin the bone serpent in place with tendrils of water. Suddenly, a massive bolt of lightning crackled down from the sky. The bone serpent gave a piercing shriek that was drowned out by the tremendous peal of thunder that followed the attack. Roger had entered the battle. As Blue Scales continued to grapple with the bone serpent, Roger leapt up onto the rigging, unleashing bolt after bolt of lightning, a relentless, deafening barrage that proved he was every bit as powerful as he’d claimed. Plates of bone all along the creature’s body shattered, and its thrashing grew more and more frantic.
“Jonathan,” she shouted. “Can you find its core?” Miles was next to the vampire’s crate, fighting off lesser bone creatures.
The vampire yelped as Miles was forced to grab the crate and retreat before the bone serpent’s thrashing could smash it to kindling. “Give me a second!” His magic rippled outward. “I think I found something. It’s five feet and six and a half inches from the base of the skull, right in the middle of its body. It’s behind multiple plates of bone, but that’s where the necromantic energy seems densest.”
Aria winced. The armour there was thicker than anywhere else. “Thanks. But it might be tough for us to reach.”
“Leave it to me.” Susannah must have overheard. She grabbed Roger and leapt clear as the bone serpent managed to turn its head enough to fire a volley of bone shards at the raccoon. Despite being carried around like a sack of potatoes, the raccoon continued his magical onslaught. “I can get through that armour.”
“Are you sure?”
Susannah tossed Roger back at the rigging, and the raccoon climbed up to get a better vantage point. “Trust me.”
Aria found herself smiling. There was something infectious about the archer’s enthusiasm. “Just don’t miss.”
“I never miss.” Susannah smirked as Roger rolled his eyes before making a noise that somehow managed to convey complete scepticism. “That doesn’t count, Roger. I was nine, and you totally distracted me.”
Aria called out to the others. “Susannah thinks she can hit its core. We need to distract it.”
The others didn’t have to be told twice, and Aria’s heart swelled with pride. The bone serpent’s thrashing grew stronger, but they managed to keep it in place long enough for Susannah to raise her bow, aim, and loose a single arrow.
[Pierce].
It was such a simple Word. Aria had seen it countless times. But she had never seen anyone use it at as such a high level. It reminded her of the affinity Jonathan had for Words like [Scry]. The arrow lanced through the air and pierced right through the bone serpent before vanishing into the distance without slowing down. For a split-second, the necromantic nightmare was still before it gave a ponderous groan and began to crumble apart. Chunks of bone tumbled into the sea and scattered across the deck. She caught a glimpse of its core amidst the wreckage. It couldn’t have been bigger than a human head, but Susannah’s arrow had gone r
ight through the middle of it.
“Damn.” Eric whistled in approval and then darted forward to catch the core. Even broken, it would prove valuable. “That’s what I call good aim.”
Susannah smirked. “I’m not carrying my bow around for show, you know.”
Around them, the battle had come to an end. The smaller bone creatures were either in pieces or in full retreat, and the crew were seeing to the structural integrity of the ship. Aria breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against one of the few undamaged sections of the railing before thinking better of it and walking over to lean on Eileen. The bear gave an amused rumble and patted her with one enormous paw. “All right. Let’s help get this mess cleaned up. If we’re lucky, we might still make it to Mordrath in one piece.”
“And if we’re unlucky?” Jonathan asked from inside his crate.
“Then we’ll run into another bone serpent.”
“Oh.” Jonathan made a despairing sound. “Then I really hope we’re lucky.”
* * *
Miles studied the approaching shore intently. He did not have the inhumanly keen senses of a werewolf or the benefit of simply choosing whatever form was best as Eileen did, but from what he could see of the shore in the gathering twilight, it was not an inviting place at all. The beach was covered in bones, and a battered, weather-scarred peak clawed at the darkening sky.
“That place just screams creepiness,” Susannah muttered as she came to stand beside him. The fact that she could see the shore without squinting spoke volumes. Miles was certain she was mostly human, but her sight and other senses were better than they ought to be. However, it could be a passive effect from her Words, much like his master’s excellent memory. “Honestly, if we weren’t being paid so much, I’d turn around and find a nice, normal monster to kill. At the very least, I’d wait until morning to go in. Of course, since we need a vampire to move the sword, that’s not really an option.”
Attempted Adventuring (The Attempted Vampirism Series Book 2) Page 12
