Silence - Chapter 37

2/3

* * *


A pirate's scuffed boot kicked open the door.

Reign of Vellus!

A narrow cone of blue lightning and kinetic Mana caught the door, slamming it closed again before blasting through it entirely. Beyond, a line of unwashed pirates fell atop one another, the stairs and their fellows fouling their feet. Pit screeched, and several Wingblades flew into the breach.

You Have Killed A Unknown Pirate (x2)!

XP Earned!

Wrack and Ruin!

Felix snarled as he advanced, baseball pitching the orb of acid through the narrow door. The sounds of sizzling was closely followed by screams. Three more pirates fell, according to his notifications. Yet more were coming. A lot more.

Frost Spears, Wingblades, Reign of Vellus, and Shadow Whip struck out as the pirates charged forward. Death was their only reward, but still they came. At some point, a few of the larger raiders muscled through their fellow's corpses to strike at them directly. Pit's Cry and Felix's Corrosive Strike dispatched them as easily as any other. What few Skills the pirates attempted were pale, ghostly things that washed against his Armored Skin or Tempered Body. Time moved at a glacial pace, each spell or blow a slow motion effort, yet within two minutes the entire fight was done. The both of them panted, standing amid two dozen corpses and not a scratch on either of them.

Notifications trilled in his ears but Felix accepted them without much attention. "Pit, you good?" A confirming chirrup. "Then we move ahead. To the stern and the Mana engine."

His plan, such as it was, hinged on reaching the inscribed engine before he was overwhelmed. With the Mana engine destroyed and the reserves dispersed into the air, the Fury would be dead in the water, so to speak. Even if they lashed a hundred pirates to it, the engine wouldn't work if he tore it apart.

He'd worry about the six other galleons when it came to it.

Just outside the door was a narrow staircase. It led up at a steep angle to a wide landing, and the interior was completely dark to his normal eyes. His Manasight, however, saw it all thanks to the abundant life Mana that thrummed through the entirety of the ship. The two of them bounded forward, making the landing in two large hops, and paused. Another staircase led upward to a second landing before pivoting again upward to the main deck. The sound of screaming monsters and hollering raiders filled the air, and Felix allowed himself a grim smile. The voidbeasts had arrived.

Just what you get, bastards.

There was a long hallway leading astern, and the two of them took it, fast as they were able.


* * *


Doors flashed by, Felix pushing his Agility to new heights in his search for the engine room. Each side portal was ignored, clearly storage or places to sleep for the pirates. A few times he ran into folks belting on swords and hefting spears as they exited their quarters. These died with barely a whimper, Felix and Pit tearing through them like tissue paper. None of them were Apprentice Tier, and those that were—back at the hold—their Bodies might as well have been made of cardboard and paste for all the protection it gave them.

Near the end of the corridor, a particularly scruffy looking Human barreled out of their chambers, caught sight of Felix and panicked. He fled the short distance to the last door of the hallway which, by the smell and sounds, led to a large galley.

Felix and Pit didn't slow, chasing the man around the corner and into a room filled with steam and the sounds of frantic chopping. Yet as he searched the large room for his quarry, he caught sight of three Goblins staring at him in terror, and a tall woman with ochre skin and sea-green hair. He knew her. Dahlia, the one who gave us food and a map. She met their eyes, her large cleaver freezing in place. Felix frowned, feeling...something—She looked to her left—and Felix's Perception caught the sour stink of unwashed flesh.

"Pit! Cry!"

"SKREAAH!"

Influence of the Wisp!

You Have Enthralled An Unknown Pirate (x6) for 3 Seconds!

Pit's Cry Has Stunned An Unknown Pirate (x3) for 1 Second!

Both effects overlapped each other, strengthening their debilitating effect as blue-white wispfire crawled across the kitchen. The small Goblins, their own cleavers in hand, froze among the large Hobgoblins, Humans, and single Dwarf. The fire ate into them, dropping their Health rapidly, and neither Felix nor Pit gave any quarter. Claws and fists split flesh and broke bones, until only the woman remained. He looked apologetically at the Goblins that had come at Pit.

"I killed your people too, I—"

"Don't," Dahlia said. "Don't apologize. These would have gutted you without hesitation." She pushed against the bone counters of the galley, looking around. "They'd been lyin' in wait, ever since you started a racket down the hall. Suppose this makes us square, then?"

"Just about," Felix smiled. She had been the one to give them the first map and supplies, the only reason he'd made it to Echo's Reach in the first place. "You need to run. Find a rowboat or skimmer or whatever. Get on it and don't look back."

Felix sent Pit padding ahead, to the double doors at the far end of the galley. Dahlia snorted. "Confident in yerself, huh?" He met her gaze, stare for stare, and maybe something in his own convinced her, because her next words flipped her tone. "How much time do I got?"

"Not much. Move fast," Felix said. He walked past her to join Pit at the double doors. "I'm bringing them all down."

He didn't look back.

The corridors branched twice more, splitting into smaller halls that all fed into odd, specialized alcoves filled with sigaldry. Each was a frustrating dead end, but Felix made sure to but his boot through them anyway. After the fourth one, the Mana in the ship had begun to stutter and flicker, its flow heavily interrupted.

Last one to check, he thought and pushed open the door. Or tried to. It was locked, and heavily at that. If he had to guess, there was a bar across the door in addition to a sparking ward. It flared with each kick and shoulder he attempted, pushing him back just as much as he attacked.

"Damn door!" he grunted.

If you simply...ate the magic of the ward, then you could get in easily.

Felix growled at the Maw's voice. He couldn't see it, but it had to be nearby. "I'm not interested in advancing whatever you've done to my 'bloodline,' Maw."

It appeared then, shrugging through the very door he tried to access. Very well. Then I suppose he'll kill you.

"What?" Felix asked, spinning around with scowl. "Who?"

"FOUND YA!"

The ceiling above him was suddenly blown apart, and Felix flinched away from the jagged boards that hit him like sword blades. What he couldn't avoid, however, was the massive hand and arm that followed. It gripped him by the chest and hauled Felix straight upward, bashing him through what floorboards remained.

Screams and shrieking calls became deafening as Felix was hauled bodily to the top decks. His view was dizzying before the hand that grabbed him hucked him against the thick mizzenmast, so hard it sent cracks crazing up the surface of it.

"OUFH!"

"You'll live," the creature that assaulted him said. It was a huge Ogre, easily twice the size of the Ram, covered in heavy void bone plate and bristling with weapons. Korm Rocksplitter, he remembered. One of Nokk's lieutenants. "But not for very long."

Felix flared his Perception as he took his feet, taking in as much as he could. The upper decks were in utter chaos. Voidbeasts swarmed them, though ten died for every pirate that was torn apart. A few of the pirates ran by, ignoring their confrontation, and Pit was crawling out of the hole behind Korm.

"You seem so sure about that," Felix said. He just needed to distracted the Ogre for a few seconds. "I've killed many of your men below."

Korm guffawed, his lantern jaw waggling in amusement. "You think I care about them?" He brought two enormous, bearded axes from his belt, easily clutching them in his hands. "All I want is blood. And your's will do just fine!"

The big bastard blurred forward, his Strength so immense that each step obliterated the deck. Felix stood his ground, hands at his side, and the Ogre's eyes glinted with disappointment.

Now!

A Frost Spear stabbed into Korm's ankles, fouling his pace, and in that moment of hesitation Felix disappeared.

Relentless Charge!

Felix ducked beneath the Ogre's axes and zipped right back into the hole in the deck, gathering Pit up with him as he did. The tenku hid in his Spirit and none too soon; one of the two axes slammed down into the hole, burying itself in the spot Pit had been. It missed Felix by bare inches.

"Shit!" He backpedaled as fast as he could, away from the door to the Mana engine as the bulk of Korm dropped into the lower deck.

"Fight me, mage! Fight me!" Korm began charged after Felix, his huge frame shattering the hallway as he did. It barely slowed him down. The Ogre Endurance and Vitality had to be massive to put up with the shear pressure of all that splintering bone, and Felix had no interest in finding out. Not in those cramped corridors.

Relentless Charge!

Along the straight-away, Felix zipped at a blistering pace, bursting through the galley to find it empty save for corpses. Yet the damn Ogre was right on his tail, his Strength clearly enough to keep up with Felix in a direct charge. He had to get out into the open, he realized. I'm a sitting duck down here.

"Boom About!"

Felix's Perception screamed at him and he thew himself forward. A massive club spun out from Korm's grip, held onto by a thick, void leather rope. Not club, Felix realized. An anchor. A fucking anchor!

He scrambled to his feet, ungainly as anything but shoving with all his might. He lurched forwards and upward, landing atop the stairs just as that anchor came back to shatter the planks below.

Relentless Charge!

Cloudstep!

He shot straight up the stairwell and kicked off a glimmering platform of Mana, pivoting and launching his body the rest of the way up and out of the lower decks. The smashing clatter of the Ogre sounded just below, and Korm erupted from the stairs like a breaching whale. Felix leaped backward, right over the head of several pirates engaged in mortal combat against two Harrowings.

"Stop runnin'!"

"No!" Felix shouted back, flexed his Will, and shot into the air. The voidbeasts were thicker above the deck, and at first they rushed Felix, but he nimbly avoided their slashing claws and barbed tentacles. It was a feeding frenzy upon the Hippocamp's Fury, but while that was terrifying to see, it meant the voidbeasts weren't all focused on him. Felix zipped through the rigging, angling himself toward the stern of the ship once again.

But the Ogre was not going to give up.

With leap that set the huge ship to rocking, Korm launched himself up onto the mainmast, and two spiked axes were enough to secure a place. Felix paled. The Ogre had jumped easily fifty feet and he was not much farther away than that. He flared his Will and shot between the halyard and the shrouds, only to hear a devastating crunch from beside him. An oversized hand closed on his ankle, jerking Felix to a stop, and he snapped his head around to see Korm precariously balanced on the nearest yard.

"Got ya, you little bastard!" Korm's grey, snaggletoothed grin creased his too big face with malice.

Let go!

There was a flash of light in Korm's face, and the bruiser let go of Felix reflexively. He didn't, however, defend himself and six Frost Spears manifested before Pit's outstretched wings. Each one shot into and through the Ogre's hands, pinning one to the spar and the other to the mast itself. Korm let out a wild, animal bellow, but Felix didn't give him a chance to respond.

Wrack and Ruin!

Orb in hand, Felix darted back at Korm and shoved it directly into his eyes. Flesh sizzled and popped grotesquely but Felix didn't relent, only pressed harder. Korm's scream shifted to a higher pitch as he desperately tried to escape the pain of acid, and the Ogre tore his hands to shreds pulling free of the Frost Spears before falling sixty feet down to the deck.

The Fury bucked, knocked askew, and the spar itself started to tip and shear away. Felix panted and traded surprised looks with Pit who was also flying of his own Will. "Nice distraction."

Kill Enemy.

"Can't...can't argue there," Felix said, his breath catching up with his recovering Stamina. Voidbeasts swooped at them, but he slashed a Shadow Whip and took a gaggle of Tenebrils down.

You Have Killed A Tenebril (x6)!

XP Earned!

But no kill notification for Korm, Felix thought. How much Vitality does that guy have?

Felix swerved through the rigging and masts ahead of him, a forest of leather and bone. More voidbeasts lashed at him, but he alternated punching those that came to close and pulsing Reign of Vellus. Blue-white lightning crackled and burst above the fight below, one which Felix could tell the pirates were slowly winning. Their Skills might be wan and Void-touched, but they were hardy and bloodthirsty.

Pit screeched a warning, and Felix barely dodged a spear-like arrow from below. Eyes widening, the both of them swerved upward, just out of range of an entire volley of bolts, before turning back around. Down on the deck, near where Korm still writhed, A double line of marauders with crossbows had taken a knee, even now reloading with upsetting speed. More bolts came, some the size of normal arrows and a few similar to the ballista bolts he'd contended with earlier. They cut off his path toward the Mana engine.

Damnit! Down Pit! We have to take care of them first!

Felix followed up the thought with action, swerving wide and serpentine in an effort to elude their aim. Even so, he felt a number of the arrows jolt into his sides and back, dropping his Health several percentages at a time and ripping his jacket. But he knew if one of them hit him in the throat or eye, or one of those big bolts got him, he wouldn't be walking away. So again, he moved as if he were on fire, dodging and weaving around and across the decks, until he spiraled closer to them.

Shadow Whip!

His Will served him well, and he flashed by the archers, lashing into them with Shadow Whip. Two were bludgeoned into the ground, but two more were caught by the split ends of his Whip. And Felix hauled back, dragging their flailing forms up in the air with him before snapping them into the main mast.

"Come down and fight like a man!" Veris called to him, her face marked with all those geometric tattoos. She was the one with the huge crossbow—an arbalest—and it was wreathed in green flame, same as the ballistae.

"You want me?" Felix shouted. "Fine!"

He dropped from the air, speeding toward the crossbowman so hard and fast that none of them noticed Pit swing in from behind. Frost Spear after Frost Spear shot forth, stabbing through the men and even knocking the arbalest out of Veris' hands. She growled in frustration, but then Felix was atop her.

Corrosive Strike!

A single heavy blow from his fist was all that was needed. Veris' tattooed skull burst like a gourd, and Felix flung himself away in disgusted alarm. In fact, he noticed that many of the pirates had died in a similar fashion, as if their insides had all but hollowed out.

"Holy hell, is that what happens after a few centuries?" Felix asked, for once hoping the Maw would interrupt him to call him a fool, if only to explain. Yet the Maw didn't respond.

Relentless Charge!

His Perception saved his butt again, flaring in warning just as a long dagger slammed into the space he once stood. It hit so hard it punched halfway through the bone plank and hardly quivered at all. Felix snapped his head up, locking eyes with an enraged Elf balanced precariously upon one of the rigging lines. Celat, he remembered, and they looked pissed as they conjured a fan of individual blades.

"Fuck me," Felix hissed. "This is the boss battle from hell." From his side, a few more pirates fired crossbows at them. "Pit! Take them out!"

Pit squawked and ran off, just as Celat flickered, vanishing before Felix's eyes but not all his senses. Blades showered down on him, slicing him no deeper than papercuts, but strength seemed to bleed from the wounds. Dimly, he could sense a whispering shadow leap at him, and trusting more to instinct than surety, Felix got his arms up to deflect the Elf's final blades. His Armored Skin blunted the hit, but he still felt hot liquid run down his elbows and a savage, burning pain just at the edge of his awareness. Pain Resistance blunted the agony, but it didn't erase it. He doubted he'd withstand another. Celat pulled back, so fast that to everyone else he was no doubt a faint blur; yet Felix had time enough to snap his hands out and seize the blades themselves.

Celat staggered, halted in mid-step and confused. The ire on his face gave way to befuddlement as Felix held onto the razor edge of his daggers, cutting his own hands. In that split second, just as Celat was letting go of the daggers, Felix thrust his head forward and bashed it into the Elf's face. Blood squirts in all directions, Celat's nose a pulped ruin, and Celat stumbled backward. Off balance, again.

Reign of Vellus!

A powerful cone of kinetic force hurled the Elf away from Felix, but a quick Shadow Whip snagged him by the chest. Felix yanked back, hard, and the assassin reversed direction. Right into his fist. It was such a deliberate tactic that Felix was half-surprised it worked, that Celat hadn't reacted.

Reign of Vellus!

Shadow Whip!

Punch.

Reign of Vellus!

Shadow Whip!

Punch.

By the third blow, the Elf's bandolier of knives had deformed across his chest, and he was screaming. Celat broke free of the Whip with a final surge of Strength, but Felix was ready. He grappled with the Elf, seizing his arms and chest and squeezing with all his might before lifting the both of them up with his Will alone. Celat struggled, bashing his own head in Felix, but he barely felt it at all.

"You're the last, then," Felix snarled. Celat's eyes widened, and then rounded in terror as Felix pivoted them and rocketed downward...straight into the deck. Through the deck.

You Have Killed Celat!

XP Earned!

It had all happened so fast, so powerfully, that no more than a handful of seconds had passed.

Felix stuttered to his feet, feeling woozy and more than a little Mana drained. He'd used so much in such a short time, it felt like his ears were ringing and the boat was spinning. Still, he had a ways to go yet. Quite a ways.

Reign of Vellus!

Those pirates that had come close scattered, thrown back, leaving Felix to wearily climb the stairs to the quarterdeck, and confront the small grey man that stood there. The Nixie licked his lips nervously before smiling a wide, shark-toothed smile. "Felix. What a coincidence meeting you here."

"You came hunting, Nokk," Felix accused. "You came hunting innocent people!"

That smile grew into a smirk. "Did you think me a liar, when I said we live for plunder? Who'd you think we took?" Nokk unsheathed a cutlass and a narrower saber. Both shimmered with a dusty-brown light. Earth Mana. "We take what we want, when we want it! No walls nor beast nor empty Void will stop us, eh!?"

A ragged cheer came from those nearby, the majority of them finishing off the voidbeasts they faced. Streamers of whitened rainbow light rose from all across the deck, tangling with the sails and rigging so that it seemed they sat in a cloud. Nokk pointed his cutlass at Felix and tipped his tricorn hat back with the blade of his saber.

"But you've attacked my crew—my ship!—twice now. That be a sin, Felix. And sinnin' deserves punishment!" Nokk raised his voice. "Men! Don't let this bastard off the quarterdeck!"

All around him, Felix saw the crew stand up and brandish weapons, a wall of flesh and bone and steel to hem them in. Nokk laughed and twirled his blades. "Let's end this, boy!"

The pirate captain came at him fast, his Agility clearly matching Felix's own. Felix dodged, or tried to, taking a hit on the shoulder before he could pivot away. It felt as if he'd been hit by a mountain, and the force of the blow sent Felix skidding across the deck. Right into the wall of unwashed raiders.

"RAAH!"

Scimitars and cutlasses slammed down at Felix, but he deflected or dodged them completely. Nokk might have his speed matched, but his crew didn't come close.

Reign of Vellus!

The crew immediately behind him were blasted into the waist-high walls of the quarterdeck, and several didn't get back up at all. But Felix couldn't spare thoughts for finishing them, because a wave of jagged stone blasted from Nokk. Felix grunted as it clipped him, shaving off more Health and flipping him end over end onto the deck.

"Hah! Never expected that, did you mage?!" Nokk crowed, his wide mouth filled with a shark's grin. "There's more where it came from!"

The pirate captain spun, his two blades gathering up a pale vapor. It roiled and twisted, turning a faint dusty-brown again, and spears of stone formed in mid-air before flying at Felix faster than arrows. Felix snarled and twisted himself, ducking and weaving between the spears, simultaneously feeding the dregs of his Essence into his core flame.

Dodge is level 27!

Dodge is level 28!

Reign of Vellus is level 29!

...

Reign of Vellus is level 32!

Shadow Whip is level 28!

Shadow Whip is level 29!

Roaring now, Felix bobbed under the final earthen spear, rising before a surprised Nokk and lifting his entire Nixie body with a single uppercut. The bastard flipped backward, his long coat flapping, and his tricorn hat was catapulted into the Void.

"More where that came from, too," he muttered.

"Cap'n's down!"

"Get the mage!"

Influence of the Wisp!

Purple and orange Mana vapor rolled out of his channels in a wave, splashing over the first two rows of charging pirates. They froze, to a man, limned in flickering wispfire that rapidly ate at their Health. Those behind them pulled back, burned by their fellows.

You Have Enthralled An Unknown Pirate (x24) for 3 Seconds!

Not a lot of time. Felix trod to the captain, the only pirate not affected. His Will must be as high as his Agility. Damn. He lifted his leg to stomp on the man's back, but before he connected the pirate rolled and slashed at his calf. Felix jerked back in an awkward hop, narrowly missing the blades from carving a chunk from his leg.

"You'll not be rid of me so easy, Felix," Nokk hissed, rolling to his feet. His gray head was bald and covered in curious lines, like scars evenly spaced. "I've not survived so long in the Void to die by your hand, mage."

"I don't care how long you've been here. I'm done with taking shit from people like you," Felix snarled and advanced, his fists up. Nokk went for a thrust, but Felix surprised him. A Shadow Whip formed in his offhand and lashed out, snagging the captain's leading wrist. With a wrench, Felix pulled them close—too close for his swords to be effective.

Corrosive Strike!

The acid punch took Nokk in the chest, driving him down into the deck. But the Nixie was wily. He rebounded, owing to some Skill no doubt, and tumbled backward out of Felix's range.

"Agh! You fight as dirty as any of my crew," Nokk said, though it didn't sound like a compliment. "Just as stupid, to let me gain distance again!"

"Did I?" Felix asked.

Nokk raised an eyebrow and then glanced down in fear. To his wrist. Where a Shadow Whip still coiled tightly. "Avet's teeth..."

Felix pulled, hard, his high Strength yanking Nokk off his feet once again. The captain flew toward Felix, screaming, but managed to get his swords up between them.

Reign of Vellus!

The kinetic blast knocked the blades askew, while the crackling lightning sizzled along the length of them. Nokk spasmed as the lightning grounded through him, and when Felix punched his left wrist he dropped the saber completely. The remainder of the kinetic blast flung the Nixie away from Felix once again, except this time his shadowy tether snapped.

"Damn," he said, but was already chasing after the pirate captain. Abruptly, however, Felix felt a flash of pain and fear. Not his own. He spared a glance around him, almost instantly spotting a point of combat on the far side of the ship, where Pit flew among several pirates with nets and hooked spears. "Pit!"

"Think of yourself, boy! You're facing death now!"

Nokk came at him, his remaining sword positively blazing with earth Mana. He swung at the ground again, sending rising pillars of conjured stone up from the deck. Again, and again, and each time Felix dodged from its path. Yet he was driven back further and further, corralled, until he could sense the cold steel of the pirate crew waiting just paces away. Felix conjured a Shadow Whip to dash the ring of crew away from his back, but the moment of concentration and effort that took opened him up. He felt a sharp stab of pain as Nokk accelerated and thrust his cutlass deep into Felix's right pectoral.

Felix screamed, the pain overwhelming his resistance as earth Mana poured directly into his flesh. It rampaged there, spikes and boulders that attempted to tear him apart from within. The appeared, her—its!—face afraid and furious.

Cycle your Mana, Felix! Use your channels to draw it away! Devour it!

He almost didn't, out of sheer stubbornness, but the pain forced his hand. Felix pulsed his core, pushing the Mana inside him around his looping channels with increasing speed. The barrage of earth Mana lessened as his own pumped through his body, each loop proving to settle him in some way that made little sense to Felix. He did not, however, eat it with Ravenous Tithe.

"Get off me!" Felix shouted, kicking at Nokk. The Nixie danced back, his cutlass going with him, and leaving a bloody wound in Felix's chest. He grunted and stood, one hand putting pressure on the injury.

Nokk tilted his head, his victorious smile now a worried frown. "How do you still stand? That should have kill you!"

"I'm too mad to die," Felix snarled, and back in he went.

With his Agility matched, it became a battle of technique and skill. Nokk continuously outmaneuvered Felix, moving in a way that seemed impossible. His feet kept taking complicated steps that somehow reminded him of Vess though it was nothing like her own.

"Just. Stay. Still. And. Die!" Each word punctuated by a slash or thrust, each one barely dodged or deflected by his bare hands. Felix's palms and knuckles were weeping blood at that point, and his Endurance was beginning to flag. Sensing victory, Nokk pushed, delivering a final thrust filled to the brim with earthen Mana.

Felix flared his Will and let it yank him up, into the air at the last second. Confounded, Nokk barely slowed his attack, and the brunt of his offensive exploded into the Control Node that had been behind Felix.

"No!" Nokk spun, murder on his face. "Look what you did, boy! You—"

"You did that yourself," Felix panted. His Stamina was reaching new lows, and his Mana and Health were little better. His hovering stuttered a bit. "It's over. Your ship can't move any longer."

"It ain't over till your dead!" Nokk screamed, and fished two soft objects from his purple leather jacket. Manabladders, Felix realized, a half-second before the Nixie hurled them onto the deck. They burst, their Mana splashing upward in a fountain. "Sword of Damocles!"

The Mana joined with Nokk's own pale vapor, spiraling into a massive stone blade easily the size of the ship's mainmast. It hung twenty feet above Felix for only an instant, before it came screaming downward. Felix fled, Willing himself away, but the sword simply angled itself after him.

"It will follow you until you die!" Nokk cheerfully screamed. His face was drawn and his limbs shaking, but he crowed in glee. "There's no escapin' it! Die, boy! Die for darin' to cross Cap'n Nokk and the Ten Hands!"

The Sword of Damocles hurtled after him, inching closer with every second. It was faster than Felix's Will could propel him, and it was only a matter of time. Nokk was right.

*KKKRAASH!*

Spinning through the rigging, spars, and masts, Felix led the Sword on a desperate chase. The Sword, however, was not so graceful. It sheared through lines and masts with equal ease, severing sails and dropping tree-sized bones from the sky. Below the pirates screamed and scattered as first the mainmast and then the foremast fell. The deck shattered, and Nokk was screaming obscenities so foul it made Felix laugh.

It was a wild, hysterical laugh that bubbled up as the Sword bore down on him. If he was gonna die, he'd make it worth it.

He stopped.

Stone Shaping!

As the Sword sped for his throat, Felix reached out his Will and seized the earthen Mana that comprised it. There was resistance, but Felix had nothing left to lose. He threw everything he had at it, every scrap of Will and Alacrity he could manage, until he felt that resistance pop.

And then he was engulfed.