Chapter 1958: Epic Showdown
Quinlan’s lightning tore through the water shielding the pirate deck, striking the casters trying to save their ship.
Narethi flinched at the thunder. A caster fell with smoke rising from his open mouth, and the others lost their hold on the sea.
The ship broke across Quinlan’s rising wave.
*KRAAACK!*
Its stern dropped into the water. The mounted bow tore free of its base, spilling over the side as the captain pressed his lower hands beneath himself.
"[Rising Tide]!"
A column of seawater launched him from the wreck toward Quinlan, his upper right hand drawing back his sword. He held his shield in the upper left, leaving both lower hands free for magic.
Quinlan caught the descending sword on his saber. The blow drove his blade back toward his helmet, and the captain rammed his shield into the crossed weapons before he could recover.
The shield knocked Quinlan’s saber arm wide. With his guard open, the Fomorian brought his lower palms together and aimed them at Quinlan’s stomach.
"[Aqua Lance]!"
"[Ice Wall]."
Quinlan’s barrier shattered under the concentrated jet. He twisted away, but the water struck his armored thigh and hurled him down onto the ice beside Narethi’s ship.
Crimson light flared across Synchra as her ward blunted the hit. Her leg plates thickened beneath the water, taking the force until its narrow point scored through the metal and grazed the skin beneath.
Quinlan landed on both feet, wind bracing him against the ice. A bead of blood escaped the shallow cut before the living armor flowed shut over it.
"Just one attack..."
His red eyes lifted toward the Fomorian descending after him.
"It really is a dangerous world out here."
The captain landed farther out on the frozen shelf, facing Quinlan. Open sea lay behind the pirate; the merchantman stood behind Quinlan.
"Hubby!"
Vex vaulted the rail with Lucille beside her. Quinlan caught them with wind and set them down on either side of him, their boots scraping across the ice.
Lucille carried her magma-coated axe in her right hand and the blacksteel warhammer in her left. She had enjoyed using both against the dwarves enough to bring the combination on their journey.
Blood stained her lips from the fight on deck. Every blow she had dealt or taken there had strengthened [Bloodmonger’s Fury], and she was smiling as she faced the captain.
"[Hex of Decay]!"
Vex’s dark markings shattered against the Fomorian’s skin. He laughed and lunged at her, shoving his shield toward Quinlan to block his saber.
"You can die with him!"
"[Gust]." Quinlan drove wind beneath the shield, wrenching it upward. Lucille stepped into the opening and smashed her hammer into the ribs beneath the captain’s raised left arm.
"Guh!"
The blow turned his body, carrying his sword past Vex. She cut his right forearm as the weapon passed, then withdrew beside Quinlan before the pirate could grab her with a lower hand.
"No one gets to hurt my husband on my watch, you filthy pig."
"Silence!"
The captain backed toward the seaward edge of the shelf. He spread his lower hands toward the open water on either side of the ice, then swept both palms inward.
"[Crushing Depths]!"
Seawater rose between him and the three fighters, forming a wall taller than their heads. He thrust his hands forward, driving it across the ice toward them.
"[Water Shield]." Quinlan braced his free palm against the approaching wave with his magic. Its advance slowed, but the pressure drove his boots backward toward the merchantman’s hull.
Narethi saw what the pirate intended. He would crush the fighters against her ship and break through its repaired side with the same wave.
"[Rising Tide]!"
She sent a current beneath her keel, carrying the merchantman clear of the ice. Ayame helped Lilith and Bronnya back aboard the merchantman while Black Fang kept the remaining boarders away from them.
"Where’s your fucking fire now?!" the pirate roared. "You ran out of mana, huh? Spamming so many expensive spells was a rookie mistake you’ll pay for by watching me ravage your women, bastard!"
Quinlan’s helmet turned toward him through the churning water.
"[Fortress Wall]."
A broad ramp of earth grew across the ice in front of Quinlan and his women. Its lower end faced the incoming wave; its upper edge rose above their heads and curled back toward the captain.
Quinlan released his water shield. The wave struck the ramp and rushed up its face, throwing spray high above the fighters.
"[Gust]."
He swept his hand toward the pirate, blowing the rising water back across the gap. The captain looked up as his own wave fell toward him.
"[Tidal Brace]!"
He raised his shield overhead and pointed his lower right palm upward. A barrier of seawater formed above the metal, catching the returning torrent before it could crush him.
His lower left hand was still driving fresh water toward Quinlan’s ramp.
"What the fuck?!"
The harder he pushed with that hand, the more water climbed the ramp and came crashing back onto his head. His knees bent beneath the weight.
Narethi stared at the path of the wave. Quinlan was letting the pirate supply its force, using earth to lift it and wind to throw it back at him.
The captain wrenched his lower left hand away from the sea, canceling his attack. Water stopped pouring onto the ice, and the wave already at the ramp began draining away.
Quinlan spread his fingers toward it.
"[Water Shield]."
He gathered the retreating water into a suspended mass above the ramp, catching it before it could return to the ocean.
"You brought all this water over for me," he said. "I won’t waste it."
Quinlan swept his hand down. The captured mass poured onto the captain’s overhead barrier, driving him onto one knee.
"[Tidal Brace]!" The Fomorian raised his lower left palm beside his right. "[Tidal Brace]!!"
With both hands supporting his defense, he forced the falling water upward long enough to begin standing. Quinlan drove wind down through the torrent, and the captain’s knee struck the ice again.
Blood ran from his nose onto his bared teeth.
"Ngh! You..."
Quinlan lowered the earthen ramp into the ice, opening the path between them. Vex and Lucille advanced with him while he kept the captured water pressing down on the pirate’s barrier.
Vex moved toward the captain’s right, facing his sword. Lucille went left, where he was holding his shield above his head.
"Get away from me!"
The pirate slashed at Vex.
"Over my dead body." Quinlan flicked two fingers sideways, pushing wind against the sword, and she caught the weakened swing on her own blade.
She turned his sword outward and cut deeper into his wounded forearm. He screamed and tried to pull away from her, leaving his other side exposed to Lucille.
His lower left arm was still extended upward, palm supporting the water barrier. Lucille planted her foot beside him and swung her axe at the elbow beneath it.
"Got you~"
The magma-coated blade tore through flesh and bone in one blow. His severed arm struck the ice with its fingers still spread.
"AAAAAGH!"
Lucille completed the swing with blood spraying across her coat, her hammer ready in her other hand.
"You should’ve kept your men off my ship," Narethi whispered.
The captain’s water barrier sagged with only his lower right hand supporting it. Before the torrent could fall on Lucille, Quinlan swept it sideways against the pirate’s raised shield.
"Why do you still have mana?! What is your class?!" The captain howled, lurching over his words.
The impact ripped the shield free, tearing its straps and wrenching the pirate’s upper left shoulder out of its socket. The shield spun out to sea while Quinlan lifted the water over the fighters again.
"Never heard of Elemental Sovereign?"
"Hahaha!" The captain broke into ugly laughter. "An Elemental Sovereign, you?! A shitty fucking Epic-tier class?! Doing all this to my men? Stop lying!"
Vex stepped back from the sword’s reach, and Lucille withdrew beside her. The pirate lurched upright, blood pumping from his missing arm.
He turned toward the open sea behind him. His lower right hand swept upward, drawing a wave toward the edge of the shelf to carry him away.
"[Rising Tide]!"
Quinlan pointed past the pirate’s shoulder.
"[Frozen Sea]."
The escape wave froze as it rose, forming an ice wall across the pirate’s path. He struck it shoulder-first and staggered back, his sword shaking in his wounded right arm.
"Stay back! I’ll fucking kill you!"
Narethi knew that voice. She had heard the same desperate fury in her own throat when she told the pirate captain he could drown.
Watching him search for a way out filled her with vicious satisfaction. Then her gaze rose to the water hanging above the ice, enough to bury every fighter beneath it.
Quinlan held it there while Vex wiped spray from her eyes beside him. Lucille stood within reach of his free hand, her weapons dripping.
Both women kept their eyes on the pirate, trusting Quinlan to keep the water above them.
’Such trust...’
The sight frightened Narethi.
’Such powers...’
He had kept her carpenter dry through a shattered hull with that same control, and now he was using it to take a man apart.
The captain lunged at Quinlan with his sword, thrusting his lower right palm forward beneath the blade.
"[Aqua Lance]!"
Quinlan turned the sword aside with his saber and swept his free hand across the forming jet.
"[Frozen Sea]."
The water froze against the pirate’s palm. Quinlan grew the ice down to the shelf, trapping that last spellcasting hand in a solid column before the Fomorian could pull it back.
His lunge carried his body past the anchored arm, wrenching the elbow backward.
*CRACK!*
"AAAAAGH!"