EG Monster Island Chapter 3

********* AUTHORS NOTE***************

I got in a bunch of authors copies for Azyl, Chaos, and Condensation. If you want a signed copy, send me a message! If you're a Core Level Patron and you have been for 2 months, let me know your shipping address and I'll send you your copy. For everyone else, they are $15 shipped in the US. Outside, I will get a quote and let you know total cost. 

Enjoy! I wasn't super happy with the fight scene, let me know what you think!

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Thanks!

**** AUTHORS NOTE****

The next hour both crawled and ran by. I stood and watched the ships getting larger, worried about my friend’s dad and the people on his ship. We were about a kilometer away when Svik’s ship abruptly turned ninety degrees to our own before swinging back again. The Illyrian ship shot by, just missing a ram attempt, but lines lashed out from it to tangle on the mast and railing. Sailors ran to slice the ropes apart, but they were unable to prevent the two ships from being drawn together with a slamming sound we heard over the water.

“They are in range. Fire ranging shot,” I heard Madfiei Majnun bellow, and then three thumps echoed from behind me. Melon-sized balls of metal flew over our heads to splash down into the water a dozen meters short of the Illyrian ship. Thirty seconds later, they shot out again. Two of them hit water, while the third was deflected off an Aether shield that sprung up. Ballistae bolts shot out at us, and were returned in kind. Our ship abruptly sped up, and all of the bolts attacking us fell into the ocean behind us.

“Piercing shot!” Madfiei bellowed and the next round of catapult balls glowed a bright green. Bolts of orange and red shot out from the Illyrian ship and intercepted two of them, but the third smashed into the shield. A flare of Aether erupted from it. After a few seconds, the Aether died down, but the shield was vastly dimmer than it was. Flashes of Aether were visible as the sailors of Svik’s ship tried to fight off the Illyrians.

The fighting slowly reduced in intensity as we drew closer. At three hundred meters, Sia swooped down in front of where I was standing, and sent to me, “Come, I will take you to the other ship.”

“Jump on!” I yelled, and then vaulted the edge. Sia enlarged to his full size, and every one of my friends jumped over and fit. The last person to leap onto Sia was Knight Kaminski.

“Cannot let you have all the fun,” she smiled a terrible grin at me. “Sia, I will shield the students.” Sia’s answering screech echoed off the water. He sped in a large arc, dodging more bolts of Aether like the ones that blocked the cannon shot. The few that might have hit us were dispersed by whips of Water deftly controlled by Knight Kaminski.

I turned my Aether sight on, enhancing my senses with the Divine Senses technique, and saw the Illyrians for the first time. They were a mixture of an alligator and a person, standing on two feet with a humanoid body, but with the long, flat snout of an alligator. Their bodies were muscular and covered in green, grey, or black scales. Most of the armor they were wearing seemed to be made from more scales, always a different color than their own. The shortest of the Illyrians that I could see was still over two meters tall, and they towered over the Craesti they fought.

“Sia, swoop between the ships and cut the lines,” I thought at him, then yelled at my friends, “Get ready to jump off!” Sia cried out again, the sound loud enough to make dozens of lizard people and humans flinch. Sia flew over the ship and flared his wings, going near vertical for a second three meters off the ships hull. I leapt off him, drawing my trisula and charging up an Aether strike. A human sailor kicked an Illyrian pirate just under me, letting me land with both weapons jamming into its back.

The attacker collapsed to the ground, and my Aether Blast discharged into it, causing a small surge of Essence to flow into me. Only Smoke Gathering level, I thought as I stood, channeling the Granite Skin, Iron Bones Technique to cover my armor. I sprinted forward, leapt over a fallen sailor, and slammed into the side of another Illyrian. There were at least a hundred pirates, and only forty sailors still standing. “Rally to me,” Knight Kaminski yelled out, before splattering four lizards with a single wave of her mace. Delicate looking young woman, large metal ball being smashed around. Heh, I thought, sending out my senses. Most of the sailors and pirates were in the latter levels of the Aether Gathering tier, either Smoke or Fog, but there were a good two dozen Condensation and at least one Core. The Core-level gatherer mulched through two sailors before charging Knight Kaminski.

Wait, those sailors didn’t die? I thought, charging towards a knot of three Initial Condensation pirates. I looked around and realized that most of the sailors that were on the deck were twitching and bleeding, but alive. Jamila skidded over to one such victim, and was able to stop the twitches in only a few seconds.

That was all the time I had, before the Illyrians were on me. The first two slashed apart the Aether Blasts I sent at them, though the one on my right staggered slightly as the Air enhancement exploded out from it. The leftmost one just ignored the Fire burst and swung a massive hammer at my chest. My Aether Sight revealed he was using some type of enhancement technique. I flared the General Strengthening Technique and threw myself over his strike, kicking it in the face as I dodged. The push off its face let me avoid a blast of Water and Earth Aether mixed together in a sticky mess.

Mud Aether? Odd, I thought as I rolled on the ground. I shot a small ball of Fire into the mud slinger. He flinched back, summoning a shield of Water. I threw another ball of Metal that dissolved into his shield, before slamming him with a massive Lightning bolt. The Metal in his shield served to conduct the Lightning through it, and it twitched as it cooked from the inside out.

Hammertime was back, slamming its weapon in a diagonally downward slash to prevent me from dodging the same way. I threw more Aether into the General Strengthening Technique and built a Forceful Punch, marveling at how easy it was to move my Aether around. I twisted with the punch, holding my left trisula in a reverse grip, and hit his hammer only a few centimeters from my chest. The detonation of my Forceful Punch Technique and a technique it’d empowered its hammer strike with threw me backwards, but I was able to keep my feet. Stutter-stepping for the win!

The hammer flew out of its hands as my technique pushed out and sideways from its body, and, in a moment of serendipitous luck, smashed an Illyrian into the railing of the ship, saving a Craesti sailor. I recovered and slashed forward, cutting through the stunned pirate’s scales before slamming a blade through its eye. I leapt backwards, barely getting away from its spasming claws.

The third Illyrian shot me with a hand crossbow. I spun around, a massive surge of Aether draining into my defensive technique, and then I tripped on the body of the first Illyrian I’d slain. “Foolish human,” it sniggered, sauntering over to me while reloading. I rolled back to my feet, sending four Aether Blasts into it using the Four Twin Lightning Stabs combination technique I’d come up with. It wasn’t injured more than a light punch would have caused, but two hit its weapon, snapping it into pieces.

“Idiotic pirate,” I snarled, sending stronger Blasts into it while charging. It drew a saber and struck at me, but without the power of the warhammer guy, I wasn’t worried. I crossed my trisula and caught the strike, then twisted its saber out of its hands and stabbed it in the neck with its own weapon. I looked around, then sent a dozen Aether Blasts into Fog level gatherers, freeing up the sailors. Jon and Bridget were working together with Ming, Xiao, and Lea to clear an entire side of the ship. Vaya was holding off two Illyrians while Hanna and Jamila healed a number of sailors. Aleks, Milenna, and Lilianna were off to my right, throwing sailors behind them while defending against the Illyrians.

A shockwave knocked everyone below Condensation off their feet and staggered me as the ship began to tilt. I knelt and held onto a line before I noticed Knight Kaminski and the Core-level Illyrian attacking each other while running on the ropes holding the sales down. It was like watching one of those martial arts movies. The ropes didn’t deform at all under their weight, though the sales billowed at the displaced air from their strikes.

“You shall be my slave,” an Illyrian ground out behind me, taking advantage of my distraction. I jumped forward and heard a whip crack the air behind my head. I rolled, blindly throwing a blast behind me, then jumped as the ship rocked again. A smaller Illyrian, only ten centimeters taller than I was, stumbled as I turned and faced it. The quality of its armor was superb, and the whip glowed brightly in my Aether Sight.

“I don’t think so,” I called to it, making sure to speak in Craesti. I could feel the Illyrian language on the tip of my tongue, but I suppressed the translation ability. Another shockwave from the dueling Cores sent me sprawling, and when I looked up the Illyrian was gone. I stood, moving to assist a downed sailor, when the Illyrian Core-level gatherer smashed into, and through, the deck right in front of me.

“Be mindful of your surroundings!” Knight Kaminski yelled as she blurred past me, diving into the hole left by her opponent.

“Got it! Get it!” I yelled.

“Aiden!” Jon yelled, and I turned to find him, Bridget, and Ming fighting off a dozen Illyrians while Lea tried to stem the bleeding on Xiao’s chest. He’d taken a slash that went through his armor, and wasn’t moving.

I sprinted towards them, knocking aside two Smoke-level Illyrians and a sailor, who proceeded to beat on the downed lizards, and slammed the pointy end of my weapon into the back of two pirates trying to attack Bridget. My arms blasted through them, revealing exactly to what extent I’d grown in strength. One of them spun in a circle and collapsed, pumping its lifeblood onto the deck. The other, on my right, was sent sprawling into another pirate, knocking them both prone.

Bridget was quick to capitalize on the opening, and engaged the suddenly unsupported Illyrian on my left. With a few quick slashes, she disarmed it and then disarmed it, cutting both of its upper appendages off.

I stepped into the collapsed pair, sending a burst of Aether into my legs and kicking the downed lizardmen like they were a football. Again, my strength surprised me, easily sending both of them soaring through the air. The uninjured one was able to grasp the railing of the ship, while the other one landed in the ocean, never to surface again. “Watch my back!” I shouted to Bridget, then stepped through the motions of Wrath of the Lightning Herald. Even with all of the improvement I’d made in the technique, it still took about two seconds to trigger, an eternity in a close quarters fight like this.

Bridget stepped behind me, and vines sprouted from the floor as Vaya stopped the only other pirate that could get to me. I finished the technique, channeling extra Aether into it, and shot a supercharged lightning bolt that went through three of the Illyrians and blew a fourth off the ship.

“Watch out!” Jon screamed at me, and I dropped immediately. I dodged the whip of the talkative Illyrian, then rolled sideways as a blast of Aether cracked open the ship where I had been lying.

“Stand still, slave!” the Illyrian hissed at me.

“How about nope?” I kicked up to my feet. It was standing three meters away with an expression of pure hate on its reptilian face. I guess my translation ability is also giving me body language, I wondered, then charged up an Aether Blast, filled it with Fire and Air, and sent it into its face.

“Pathetic,” it snorted contemptuously, then sliced my Blast in half with its whip. That is when the Fire and Air mix I stuck inside exploded, ripping the whip out of its hands.

“Really?” I laughed at it, then charged. It snarled at me, drawing a saber and met my charge. I ducked a slash and tried to stab it, but it rotated its torso so my trisula’s point skidded off the scale armor it was wearing. It reversed its slash into a downward elbow, hitting me on the back of the head. My circlet blunted the blow, and I rolled forward to my feet to recover. I turned quickly, crossing my trisula to my right where I sensed a slash incoming.

The attack hit with the strongest force I’d ever felt from someone at my own gathering level, sliding me back as I held against the saber. With a twist, I attempted to wrench the sword out of its hands, but the Illyrian held on and stumbled past me in a quasi hip throw. I flipped the pirate, but it used its tail to stop its momentum. It swung an uppercut at me, using the force of the flip, that I was barely able to dodge.

I slipped on a rope, nearly falling, but managed to jump backwards. I slammed into a Fog Gathering Illyrian, who was then cut down by a sailor. “Long time no see,” they said to me. I looked quickly and realized it was Svik.

“Fancy meeting you here, you know, on your boat,” I laughed, sending another Aether Blast at the lizard I was fighting.

“I will have you know the Hradur Skip is a beautiful ship, not a mere boat,” Svik said, affronted on behalf of his vessel. He ducked a slash from an Illrian. The Aether from it dissipated on my skin, too weak to hurt. “And you seem to have grown immensely!”

“Thanks.” I got ready to charge my opponent when a massive feeling of pressure crushed me, and everyone else, to the deck. The Illyrians were less affected, and I struggled to return to my feet. This is harder to push against than the Jellyfish of Doom! Though, I think the source is weaker than it was, but a lot closer. The pirate I was fighting slowly walked towards me, when a second wave of pressure rolled over the ship and crushed it to the deck. The force on me didn’t increase, and I recognized the flavor of the aura as Librarian Narwan’s.

An Illyrian appeared in mid-air, moving too fast for me to see anything more than a blur from where they came from. A split-second later, Librarian Narwan appeared and slapped them so far they became a dot in my vision. Of course, they zipped back, causing a sonic boom, but Librarian Narwan just caught the attack. “Khazganci, my old enemy,” I heard him say, then an Ashkhas appeared next to him and pried the two apart.

“Ambassador Jash’e,” Ambassador Saf’Ir appeared next to the other three, and the mix of auras finally drove me to the floor. “Cease this at once.” The pressure cut off.

“Children,” Ambassador Jash’e’s voice seemed to boom through the air, pounding off every person on the ship, “separate.” She glared at the Illyrian, who vanished, only to reappear next to the pirate I was fighting and take them away.

I glared at them for a second, then they were gone. I ran to the railing, thinking of continuing to fight, when my vision turned white for a second. The Illyrian ship grew in my sight, and then the hull disappeared. I seemed to zoom in on a room with seven chained humans wearing rags. The vision focused on a young woman. She had high cheekbones and a delicate face, with tear streaks running through the grime covering her. Her hair was matted and tangled, but a rich brown in color. “She is another!” Light’s voice echoed in my head.

Light, really! You gave a hero to the Illyrians! I swore at the deity in my head, but she didn’t deign to give me an answer. Fine, I’ll have to rescue her, and the rest of the slaves. I grabbed the railing, preparing to jump over to the other ship.

“Not now,” Librarian Narwan said, appearing next to me. “The Illyrian’s are on their way to compete in the tournament as well. You will have your chance there.”

“Why did they do this?” I gestured at the fallen sailors.

“Slaves and plunder. They are pirates. Most of the sailors will live, with treatment. We will be escorting them to Monster Island to prevent a repeat of this. It is too bad we were not stopped earlier,” his tone signified anything but. “Unfortunately, Madfiei Majnun is very good at his position, and managed to destroy the main mast of the Illyrian ship. They will have to work hard to repair it and still arrive in time. Or they may simply be eliminated for not showing up. What a shame.”

“Are we allowed to duel or fight for prizes from them?”

“Most likely, yes. Why?”

“They have human slaves on that ship. Including one like me. I want to free them,” I growled.

“How do you know?” Librarian Narwan turned his full attention to me. I told him about my attempt at praying to Light, and her response. “Good to know. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything now, or we would be removed from the tournament. I will think on this problem. Now, come, we return to our ship. Take time to process this experience.”

“Did they take any prisoners from Svik’s crew?”

“Those they did, we forced them to return. Now, on,” he gestured and made a platform of Air. Two other platforms rose from the ship and took us back to ours.