The Way of the Clan 8

by Dem Mikhaylov

  "Thank you, bro!" Klest flew up to me, whose face was so gloomy that you could put it in a dictionary in the entry defining universal despair. “Support us! These bitches are tearing the flagship! They are ripping sails to shreds! Swine!”

  The suffering of the captain could not be described properly. Together with the ship, his soul was being torn to pieces.

  “No problem,” I smiled with encouragement and walked from the bridge, spotted by warriors on all sides.

  Behind me were two mages, spewing lightning discharges from their wands. A fragment of the mast fell down near us and disappeared before our very eyes, literally eaten by the flying "termites.” I could not make out whether the piranhas were indeed based on termites — certainly the mad fantasy was effective and terrible, and set against us. Had Valdira’s fortune turned away from the Sleepless? Well, one would expect it — we were the pioneers. All trials we had to pass.

  But those who followed us — as analysts confirmed — those who would come here second would already suffer a lesser penalty.

  “Hey!” I yelled, trying to shout over the furious noise of devastation. “What should I do, Malice? Command me, mentor.”

  “Get up close and do it! Make the aura of great power!” Malice yelled furiously. “Light up your soul, Navigator! Now we show these creatures the sweet smile of Hernan Cortes! The Incas they are or not, the owners of the local lands and waters or not - now we will show them who is in charge here! You won’t believe but Malice is in malice!”

  "I quite believe it," I snorted.

  "And you will not only support me – all magicians now close in on us, speaking the incantations of the Great Ones. That is where it came in handy to the fullest. In both protection and attack – all will be increased by three percent. Thank you – this is a huge increase in power!”

  “Always ready.”

  “BB is a damn fool sometimes! She left two hundred scouts overboard to their deaths! She was not ashamed! And to ask Ros for a little help — that is embarrassing to her ... ugh!”

  “Yeah…”

  "Prepare yourself. And after this ... right after ... you will tell your daughter that a normal fisherman does not fish in the sky! And I have a few words for you to convey to Orbit too! That one should not entice piranhas with sweets, and not to cut them up with knives and not to turn them into ghosts!”

  "Wow… you are not kidding are you?”

  “No! I envy them! I want to do it too!”

  “To fish in the sky? Or to lure piranhas with sweets, and then stab with a knife?”

  “Everything together, at once! Now…”

  “Go…”

  Spreading my hands “as required,“ I threw back my head and looked up into the sky – it was also required – but I saw only the belly and muzzles of the monsters. And then I activated the Aura of Great Power ... everything flickered around, and we were covered with a blanket woven of black, scarlet and golden fibers. Malice smiled, and jerked his whole body when the rays of amber light struck him from the other mages of support.

  And then Malice smiled wide, very, very wide, even smiled too much, showing all his three hundred teeth in a broad grin ... no less, I swear that I saw that many teeth. A predatory, very predatory grin able to compete with the smile of the Cheshire cat.

  The sky above us trembled – along with those thousands of monsters. The sky turned into a dark yellow color with crimson striations. What a beautiful post-apocalyptic sunset ... I did not have time to enjoy the view. Looking through the layers of protective auras, the protection dome and the rows of flying piranhas – the flagship began to spin, with every passing moment gaining momentum. It took me a few seconds to understand that it was not the Black Queen and not the ocean that was rotating. It was the sky — as terrible and noiselessness as the attacks of enemies. It did not last long — ten seconds at best. And then the world around us ripped to hundreds of colorful glass fragments. A deafening roar hit the ears, and everything rushed up, with the speed of missiles going into the hole that opened above us, which looked like the mouth of an unknown giant monster.

  Piranhas, loose cargo, fragments and scraps of rigging, some beasts and even a couple of players – all were drawn into the magical vacuum cleaner, whose funnel slowly turned in different directions, obeying the Will of Malice. Crystal pots of mana were swallowed by the mages of support with frequency. Dozens of magical scrolls unknown to me, golden papers covered with scarlet ink were turned to dust. On fingers of Malice, rings and rings burst and disappeared. One after the other, emeralds and sapphires shattered into small pieces. The precious stones evaporated.

  The celestial yellowness slowly subsided and blue again appeared. Hell's sucking funnel worked for just a minute, but during this time, many monsters disappeared. The last sucking sound ... and the funnel was gone...

  “Countdown has begun! Four! ” Shouted one of the wizards, and Malice nodded, strangely folding his hands over himself and weaving his fingers.

  “Three!” Nothing changed.

  “Two!”

  "One ... and ... there it is!"

  “Ugh!” Exhaled Malice, dropping his hands. “Every time I'm afraid that it will not work ...

  "Where are the piranhas?" I asked, feverishly looking around.

  There are many monsters around us, but not in such an insane quantity anymore. The defense forces now coped with ease, the smoking piranhas fell one after another, and if the clap of an alchemical explosion was heard, a dozen creatures collapsed on the deck at once.

  “You killed them?! Ten thousand piranhas dead in a minute? And where was our experience, then? I did not get anything ...”

  "Dead?" Smiled Malice. “If only! It does not hurt to dream, Ros. Get ready, return to the bridge, shoot on command.”

  “No problem.”

  Changing the spell, I waited for the moment when the force field disappeared and immediately "dropped" some thorny forests, covering them with a deck strewn with twitching monsters. The rest of the magicians struck with fire, ice, stone shrapnel, wood spikes. We walked along the deck of the flagship and sowed death around us. This time there was experience added ... little by little, but it was added. Piranhas, after all, were still very high level — from one hundredth to one hundred and sixtieth. And there were thousands of these creatures...

  "So, where are the piranhas? As one friend of mine says – there are no fish here! Where are they?!

  “In the pocket,” Malice smiled again. “In a spatial pocket. Or in a space pot with a mouthful of magical sealing wax – and a sealing wax composed of the mana we injected into it. And there is a lot — lots of mana, that is. But the sealing wax will not last for long...”

  “How long will it last?” I clarified, looking with caution up. If right now, a whole vat of piranhas spilled on us…

  “For such a cost – quite a long time, buddy. The pot will last for several hours. And the emergency breaking has already been handed over to someone.”

  "To whom?" I asked.

  “The leader of the detachment on the surface. And he will act strictly according to instructions – at the sight of the enemy fleet, break the pot and give the world a snide smile!” The BB answered for Malice, standing on the top step of the stairs leading to the command bridge. “Well done!”

  "I lost all my jewelry," said Malice, nodding farewell to the support mages, who had busily taken a few bottles of wine from the table went to the back deck. “It burnt out.”

  “That was the price,” she shrugged her shoulders. “We will restore it. Thank you, Ros. We owe you for this.”

  "No," I corrected. "Not at all. Friendly help. A thanks for taking care of Roska.”

  “Of course. Then I will not enter the catapult Tyrant gnawed into the statement of expenses.”

  "Hmm ... thanks. I will talk to Tyrant. Furry piranha ...”

  The Baroness fled to the other end of the bridge, where she began to watch the struggle of three ships with a cloud of flying piranhas be
aring millipedes in their teeth. And not just holding – chewing them! The centipedes wriggled and burst, and an abundant acid rain fell downward ... the ships smoked, the sails getting holes in them, unable to catch the wind.

  The flagship began to change course abruptly and the picture opening on my side changed dramatically. I saw the usually majestic, dying azure whales fluttering on the surface of the water. And I saw them from afar — the spectacle was not for the faint-hearted ... the whales twitched and fought on the water, not in pain, but in an attempt to escape, trying to knock hundreds of toothy fish away from themselves. But if you looked at them from a fair distance, you would see how three whales were being rapidly devoured alive ... Nightmarish…

  “Flying piranhas,” began Klest, who had returned to the deck, furiously tearing a fish from his sleeve, throwing it onto the deck and starting to furiously trample it. “All the rigging was devoured! The equipment must be changed! Top priority!”

  "That's what you think, Captain. You are too optimistic. You think about monkeys, about a golden cap and golden shoes,” I grimaced, looking at the foamy panorama of the sea labyrinth. “Think about the minotaur and the thread of Ariadne.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I do not like books very much,“ I began. “But at one time I read them. There was nothing more to do then, except for classifying of snowflake species and the study of brewed teas ...”

  “How you suffered... What are you talking about, Navigator?”

  “I am talking about associations. I looked at everything today and thought came to my mind. For example, about a magical country with its yellow brick road and terrible volatile monkeys. And about the labyrinth on Crete and the huge guy that lives there, with a bullish head and an evil temper.”

  "I am not getting you ... although I understand about the flying monkeys. Our fish also fly in flocks. What are you getting at?”

  “Tell me,” the BB smiled, seeming to have emerged from somewhere above. I barely managed to overcome my desire to lift my head and look under the dome of the magic shield – was there a hammock hanging from somewhere?

  “Yes, do tell… the Ros factor.”

  “Ha-ha, very funny.”

  “Come on. If the thought is sensible and important, and we have not yet thought of it, then I will give you a box of good French wine. And I know a lot about wine.”

  “Wow ...”

  "When I have to be, I'm generous. Come on — or else, I need to go and save a pack of narwhals from piranhas. They are an endangered species after all.”

  “Okay ... just do not rush me, I'm not as advanced as you and a little tongue-tied. Hmm ... in general ... The monkeys were controlled by the owner of a special golden cap,” I explained.

  "You're delirious, lad," Klest sighed.

  "Quiet, Klest," the Baroness listened attentively. "Or you'll go to the galleries to scrub your teeth with living piranhas. Go on, Ros.”

  “Magic country and Cretan labyrinth. In both places, there were monsters. Terrible monsters. But this was not the main thing. BB, you are now going back and forth, maneuvering, walking around obstacles, listening to the direction of heavenly intelligence. Go forward at the maximum available speed. Right? That is, you evaluate the Great Wall as a very complex obstacle course, which you just have to overcome, regardless of the losses. You think of the Wall as a ... mmmm ... it is so hard for a stupid guy like me to explain clever things to clever people.”

  "Go on."

  “I used to think so, too. Just get through, find a way out and leave. And then I got into a rather cold snowy place, where there was no way out, if you do not have a special magic thing like father's forgiveness or at least father's pity. At the same time, a working helicopter with a pilot should have been attached to said father's forgiveness. Otherwise, it would not work.”

  “Ros, are you okay?” Once again, Klest meddled, and then gasped, flying away after a really strong kick of the Baroness.

  “Go on.”

  “Since then, I look at any such situation at first as a prison, and not on an obstacle course,“ I spread my arms, a little embarrassed. “A type of closed zone, where there is no way out if you do not have a key. In the Magic Country with flying monkeys, this key is the ruby slippers – a teleport. In the Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the key was the thread of Ariadne – the guiding thread, holding onto which, you would reach the exit. And, looking overboard at these stones around us, I do not see a streak of obstacles, but a closed location.”

  “Wait a minute,“ the Baroness raised her palms. “You assume that we are in a huge trap. In a hostile stone labyrinth with surface level and underwater levels. And that the labyrinth is either very confusing, or tightly closed. And we can find a way out from here only if we have special magic items – like the thread of Ariadne or the ruby slippers of the flagship. So? “

  “So,” I nodded, and pointed my chin at the beating amber ray from my chest. “We are going back and forth, but sticking to this direction. And then we will reach the last wall and understand that there is no passage. Or something like this. Without shoes, the flagship not break out. This is my crazy and sudden theory.”

  “Our conversation was heard by the analysts,“ the head of Sleepless told me. “And what is surprising - none of them thought of the passage as tightly closed or locked to a certain key location. We actually thought of the Wall as an obstacle, something that we just need to overcome. Bad. Very bad. I hope that you are mistaken, Ros, but the very fact that none of our wise men thought about the fact that a long corridor can be a locked room ... very bad. I have to crack the whip. Thank you. If not a box, then I have a couple of bottles of good French wine, and a large piece of cheese and a bottle of excellent olive oil.”

  “Wow. Thank you! I accept the gift,” I was delighted. It was hard not to be happy— it was becoming harder for me to surprise Kira with my culinary skills.

  “I order the delivery.”

  "But I have not finished yet," I sighed.

  “What else?”

  "In both of my stories, before the main characters using the keys, they had to deal with the main villains first," I reminded. "And only then did they grab at the string and click the heels of the ruby slippers.”

  “So first we will have to overwhelm the patron of the Great Ocean Wall, and only then will we find a certain key? Do you think?”

  “It is trite,“ I shrugged. “Perhaps the key will fall from his corpse. Or he is the key – once we slash him down then shrouded in sea foam rocks with a roar will disperse, giving bloody heroes passage…”

  “Damn it, Ros!” Suddenly the Baroness was upset, and went away swiftly, moving at the speed of a scalded leopard with a tail burned on the hot asphalt...

  “I just assumed,” I immediately complained to Klest.

  "Well, enough with your assumptions ..." Complained Klest, and rushed off.

  “Ros, hello,“ an unfamiliar voice came from behind me. I turned around.

  “Hello,“ nodded I, looker at an unfamiliar person with a haggard face.

  “I am Znayka.”

  “I see,“ I nodded, looking at the green gaming nickname.

  “I am the head of ship analysts,“ explained the player. “We are sitting inside.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Listen, I have a big request for you. Here is an artifact of communication. It directly transmits to our room. If you come up with an idea of some kind, a delusional assumption, or something like that, then my team and I ask you very much, my friend – before you say something to the Baroness, please, I beg you, first voice your thoughts to us. It is just ... it really hurts so much when an angry black-haired fury rushes into the hall in a tight leather suit and starts to humiliate you with such with overly accurate words, kicks, and whips... it turns one on to sadomasochism in a sexual setting. You know, you, for example, already five times served as the reason for when I almost achieved — if not enlightenment of the soul — then a cosmic orgasm...”

/>   “Oh ...”

  "Yes, yes ... really," the emaciated analyst nodded, not trying to hide the suspicious glint in his eyes. "I'm already used to it myself. I even like it – when, because of you, I am humiliated. It is nothing new. I am even glad of such promises from her, and my soul is waiting impatiently for the next... probably, I will learn something new about myself... “

  “A-ah! Oh! Stop, stop, I get it. I’m sorry.”

  “I just feel sorry for the guys. They are still not accustomed to this ... one girl whimpered so plaintively after the last visit of the BB ... I would also cry, if it were not for the convulsions of the approaching...”

  “Stop! That is it! I understood! Thank you for the artifact! We will be in touch!”

  “Thank you! I deprive myself of pleasures, because such a sexual luxury is not for every analyst...”

  “I am begging you! Stop it! We agreed, didn’t we?”

  “Thank you, from all the analysts of the Sleepless to you! We will even stop planning for you an inevitable cascade of seemingly accidental deaths...”

  “Really?”

  “Yes! Really! ”

  “Thank you! Great!”

  “And you!”

  "Well, go, I will let you come to your senses and erase those events from your brain ... although it is unlikely that I will ever be the same now."

  "Good watch for you, Great Navigator! You give people this ... well ... you give everything to people ...”

  “Do not praise me anymore, I cannot stand it and ...”

  “Good luck!”

  The swaying figure of Znayka disappeared in the dim flash of a local teleport. Sighing, I massaged my temples and, with great joy, stared at a perishing gigantic dinosaur. Piranhas were eating someone alive again... Lord, what a sweet pacifying spectacle...

  The armada the Sleepless continued to move forward, stubbornly overcoming any obstacles encountered along the way. I hoped that my delirium was just nonsense, and nothing more. We should not stay here. We lost too many animals and ships. But the Great Ocean Wall trek had just begun...

  We were lucky.

  Very lucky.