Chapter 59: The Eleventh Floor[2]
The assault seemed endless, wave after wave of mermen jumped at the group but finally, after what felt like hours compressed into minutes, the attackers retreated.
The mermen clicked and hissed before sinking back beneath the waves same as the tentacled monster.
The boat rocked violently then steadied. The water returned to calm though the smell of blood still lingered in air.
Xior looked at the deck, cuts marred the wood and splinters poked out from the railings and one of the support beams cracked where the tentacle had struck. The boat was still afloat, but barely.
Alice leaned heavily on the railing, sweat glistening on her brow and Becca lowered her sword as she wiped the blade clean.
For some time the only sound was the slow lapping of waves against each other. Alice broke the silence. "Well, that was fun."
"Fun?" Becca turned sharply. "We’re stranded in an ocean with no map, no land and a half broken boat. If another wave like that comes, we’re finished. But I do think that was somewhat fun."
Xior looked at the two women, Becca who was fierce as always and Alice who had found freedom from the position of Chief.
Alice raised her brows. "So what do you suggest? Swin?"
"I suggest we stop waiting for death," Becca replied. "We need a plan."
Xior spoke in a low voice. "And if there is no land?"
Her jaw tightened but she didn’t have a reply to his question. Beatrice spoke again. "I heard something, while they were here I heard whispers in the wind."
The others looked at her intently, Alice tilted her head. "Voices?" She questioned.
Beatrice nodded with wide eyes. "They were saying...’Turn back.’ Over and over."
Xior’s gaze lingered on the horizon, the endless water reminded him of the endless expanse of barren land in the Abyss with the ever intimidating black hole looming over the horizon.
Something about the horizon pressed into him, it was heavy and suffocating but he was used to the suffocating feeling he felt in the Abyss which was far far worse than this.
The battle was over but a slight unease remained among them. Far out, where the sea met the sky, a low roll of thunder echoed, though no storm clouds marred the blue above.
****
The days blurred together on the open water. The little boat drifted aimlessly, carried them wherever the currents pleased.
The sun baked their skin by day and the salt wind scoured their throats by night. What little food they had brought was gone within the first two days. Now there was nothing but the sea.
Beatrice dangled her hands over the side of the boat, her brows frowned in concentration. She tried catching the fish but each time she lunged her hands forward to catch one, the creatures scattered as if sensing her hands.
"I almost had it that time," she muttered and puffed her cheeks in frustration.
Alice flopped down besides her and rubbed her big rabbit ears. "Almost doesn’t fill my stomach and neither yours. At this rate, we’re going to be eat seaweed stew. You can cook it right, Becca? Just like that carrot and meat stew."
Becca shot her a glare from where she sat, sharpening her sword. "Try it, and you’ll be eating my blade instead." She said with a chuckle.
"Mm, salty," Alice teased.
Xior sat apart, silent as always but his eyes were fixed on the horizon. He hadn’t spoken much since the ambush.
The only sounds from him were the occasional grind of metal as he adjusted the straps of his gauntlet.
The waves lapped steadily, each crest and fall showed their helplessness. The monotony gnawed at them. Even Alice who was clam and full of energy had grown subdued.
One morning the world shifted for them, the sky dimmed though no clouds covered the sun, the ocean darkened, its blue green surface turning an ominous black.
The waves rose higher, rolling beneath the boat with unnatural force.
Beatrice blurted out. "What’s happening?"
"Something’s coming," Becca said, standing ready with her sword in hand.
A low rumble echoed beneath the wave and then the sea exploded upwards. From the depths surged a serpentine creature, its scales glimmered with pale sapphire light.
The creature’s long neck arched towards the heavens, it’s mouth opening to release a hiss like a storm’s fury.
Its fins ran along its spine, tattered as if bound by shackles. Its eyes glowed faintly with weariness.
"A dragon," Alice breathed, her voice full of awe. "A water dragon."
The young water dragon hovered above the waves, its massive body coiled around itself. Yet there was something about its movements, they lacked strength.
"It’s sealed," Xior muttered. "The Tower is doing this, maybe it will be a boss monster on the later floors."
The dragon reared back and released a jet of pressurized water. It cut across the sea like a blade but Becca stepped forward, her sword split the torrent with an arc of wind and before it could snap the mast in half.
Xior leapt across the deck and met the beast’s snapping jaws with a brutal strike, the impact shuddering through both the man and the dragon.
The creature roared, rearing back, blood misting the air where its scales had cracked.
Alice conjured a gust of wind, and pushed back the crashing waves the dragon’s thrashing had created.
The fight raged for minutes but the dragon’s strikes grew weaker. Its eyes flickered with pain and frustration. With a final roar it dove back into the sea, vanishing beneath the waves.
The sky lightened and the silence returned. Alice exhaled. "That was only a young one, wasn’t it?"
Becca lowered her sword slowly and looked at the water from the side. "And it is not done with us yet."
Xior wiped the blood from his gauntlet and stared at the faint ripples where the dragon had vanished. He said nothing as they drifted on, without any land in sight.