Chapter 1957: Grand Sea Battle
Bronnya and Jallen closed around them. Scar stepped beside Lilith with a dagger in each hand as Void’s violet eyes opened fully.
"[Void Step]."
Void drew her free fingers across the space before them. Darkness swallowed the group and delivered them onto the ice beside the Fomorian.
The raiders clinging to the hull released their axes and turned on the Lilies, rushing across the ice to surround them.
The void mage raised one palm and folded compressed nothing around every Fomorian except the lieutenant, sealing his reinforcements inside a single pocket of emptiness.
"[Void Push]..."
She pushed her hand toward the sky, and the pocket launched with it. She stripped the air from its path as it climbed, giving the trapped pirates no wind resistance to slow them. The raiders became blue-gray specks in a heartbeat before her magic punched them through the clouds and carried them out of sight.
*CLAAANG!*
"Damned wenches!" The powerful pirate’s spear caught Lilith’s white-burning sword. He drove her backward, striking her beneath the ribs with his lower fist before Bronnya forced herself between them.
"Lilith!"
"I’m fine!" Lilith spat, blood on her teeth. "This filthy thing is amazing!"
The pirate drove his spear into Bronnya’s shield. Its edge bent against her shoulder, and her feet slid backward until Jallen braced behind her.
"[Mend Flesh]!" Jallen cast, touching two fingers to her weapon. Light closed the cut opening across Bronnya’s shoulder, but the tanker still had to turn the next thrust aside to keep it from impaling them both.
Scar slipped around Bronnya’s shield and thrust at the lieutenant’s ribs. "Stop getting excited over the strength of your enemies, orc..."
He dropped his shield to catch her dagger, but her second blade cut across a lower wrist.
"Another one?!"
He kicked Scar in the stomach before she could withdraw. She skidded across the ice on one knee, then rose with both daggers still in her hands.
"Scar!" Lilith lunged at the arm lifting his spear, forcing him to turn back toward her.
"It’s okay." Scar was already circling toward his shield side again.
The Fomorian hooked his lower fingers downward.
"[Crushing Current]!"
Narethi watched the ice sink beneath them. He was trying to drag them underwater, where he could breathe and they couldn’t.
"[Cyclone]." Quinlan circled his free hand, driving wind beneath the frozen slab to lift it against the Fomorian’s pull.
The pirate threw more magic against it. His upper arms held his weapons while both lower hands strained to overturn the ice.
"[Aqua Lance]!" the pirate captain roared from his deck.
His water jet shot toward Quinlan’s head while the remaining casters held their vessel level. Quinlan raised his saber hand across its path.
"[Ice Wall]."
The jet shattered the barrier beside his helmet, spraying him with ice. His other hand kept the wind beneath the Lilies’ feet as he turned his saber toward the captain.
"[Inferno Blast]."
Fire swept across the pirate deck, and the captain threw up a water shield with a furious bellow. His men stumbled beneath it, fighting to keep their hands aimed at the sea.
Serika folded her fingers over her palms and crossed her fists.
"[Solar Drive]!"
Flame drove her from Narethi’s rail toward the lieutenant on the ice. Her foot struck his shield, but he heaved it upward, throwing her over his head.
She twisted in the air and landed behind him, sliding toward the edge of the ice. He reversed his spear and thrust at her stomach before she could get upright.
Bronnya caught the shaft on her shield. The pirate dragged her forward with it, and Lilith struck his exposed back.
Her white-burning edge cut through his coat and opened the flesh beneath. "Argh!" He roared and tore one lower hand away from his current, sweeping it toward Serika.
"[Water Shield]!"
Seawater rose between them.
"[Blazing Fist]!" Serika drove her fist into it. Fire burst across the water, but her punch stopped before it reached him, and the recoil split the skin over her knuckles.
Narethi saw Serika keep her bleeding fist against the shield. Heat spread from her body, boiling the water around her arm while Lilith forced the pirate’s spear away from her throat.
"Come on!" Serika growled. "[Solar Eruption]!"
She slammed her other fist beside the first. The second blast tore through the thinning shield and struck his lower arms, leaving him screaming with his casting hands spread apart.
His spell broke, and the ice surged upward beneath his feet.
Jallen plunged her spear through his thigh as he stumbled, pinning his leg to the slab. "I feel like we’re back in our early days, trying to bring down a war troll..." the spearwoman reminisced.
"Silence, cunt!" The pirate pulled against it, tearing the wound wider.
"Now that you mention it, it’s true! How long has it been since we had such an uphill battle against a single enemy?" Bronnya rammed her shield into his chest while Lilith cut into the arm lifting his spear.
He still caught her blade on its shaft.
"Centuries." Scar ducked beneath his shield arm and buried a dagger in his armpit. He seized her wrist with a lower hand, wrenching her off her feet, but she forced her other blade into the same wound.
"Get off me, bitch!"
Serika planted her burning fist in the cut across his back. His grip faltered, and Lilith tore the spear aside before swinging through his neck.
His head struck the hull before dropping out of sight.
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
Scar landed beside his collapsing body and pulled her daggers free.
"Hah... Fuck..." Lilith stared at the body, breathing heavily. Then she began laughing. "Did you see that?!"
"Hell yeah!" Bronnya bellowed back, biceps flexing. "What a battle! Let’s find more of them!"
Narethi looked down. The patch was in place, its runes glowing beneath Kaelira’s bloodied hands, and the incoming water had narrowed to a trickle.
Relief hurt enough that she had to close her eyes. Her people could stand in that hold without being swept out to sea.
At the mast, Seraphiel was finishing Garron’s healing, light pouring from her palm into his wounded abdomen. Kaelira joined her to bind his damaged wing against his back with a chain, reinforcing its links with [Runeweaver’s Armory].
"The little ones," he rasped, looking toward the hatch. "Are they..."
"They’re safe," Narethi answered, her voice breaking. "They’re still here."
He eased himself upright beneath Seraphiel’s hand. Narethi wanted to go to him, but the man holding her ship needed to know he could let go.
"The hull is closed!" she shouted to Quinlan. "Thank you, nameless hero! You can go all out now!"
His red eyes turned toward her. The supporting current left her vessel, and Narethi hurried back to the helm as her ship settled deeper.
"Is that so?"
Across the gap, he drew his hand toward himself and repeated, "[Tidal Wave]." The sea pulled away from the pirate vessel’s stern.
Its bow rose on a steepening swell. The rear dropped, bending the hull across the ridge of water beneath its middle, and the captain roared for his remaining casters to help him.
"[Tidal Brace]!" Their hands pressed upward, lifting the stern with their magic. Quinlan turned his palm down, driving wind against it while the burning rigging fell around them.
"[Lightning Strike]."