The Power of Ten

Chapter 8-213: Blood and Ice in the Water

The drone’s call for help faded a minute later, but we had direction and distance, so that didn’t matter. Miles of ocean blew by under Sleipner’s tires as we headed that way.

There was some stormy weather ahead, with the localized flashes that indicated that something had been using Weather Magic. Given the number of people on the world who could use Weather Magic right now was exactly one, that meant something not human had done so, and didn’t that bode well for a vacation?

Given how Sama was humming certain two-tones, I felt like reminding her that sound travels much faster in the water, but left off.

“You’re good on aquatic combat?” I had to ask, impressed.

“Technically, I don’t have a Swim speed, buuuut...” Eight canines flashed, and sharks fled in envy, “a Vajra presses out against non-living, unattended material. With proper pressure manipulation, my, it is a wonder just how fast someone who gets in hours and hours of practice in the Missouri River and Lake Michigan and stuff can move down there.”

She was primarily a Flowing Waters swordswoman. Using a sword underwater would be nothing whatsoever...

Briggs chuckled deeply. “One of the reasons I didn’t have any problems leaving the Temple of the First Light is because after Sama arrived, she’d go hunting out in the harbor and the Chesapeake. I’ve definitely got to get a lot more practice in, but by the time she got done, the sahaug and their servants had fled from the harbor and the Bay entirely.”

“It had been too long since I let loose,” Sama admitted. “I may have gotten a bit single-minded about tracking them down, idiots that thought I couldn’t find them underwater...”

I was aware of the technique, but the Sama I remembered had come up with it outside the game, not inside it. Most people just used Flight spells or similar items to move around underwater, which worked just as well down there as up top.

Well, small surprise this Sama had done so here. She wasn’t dumb, and fighting in all terrains was kind of a Melee thing, being a Feat and Favored Terrain investment sort of thing.

I’d probably have to do the same at some point. So much stuff to buy...

In any event, if she ran into a megalodon down here or something, I could only pity the shark. She’d probably dive down its gullet and come out the opposite end as the most efficient way to kill it.

---

The ship wasn’t far now, but its lights were off, and with the Haze, there was naturally precious little light on a chopping sea being churned up by uneven gusts of wind and lit only by the occasional off-colored lightning up above.

Definitely some strong, unnatural Weather Magic at work. I could break it if I needed to, but that could wait until we wandered in and really messed up something’s day. Night.

Master Fred’s eyes were gleaming blackly as he looked into the distance, uninhibited by either rain or darkness at the moment. Stormsight/Mistsight/Cloudsight treated precipitation as transparent as glass, and of course Devilsight ignored darkness entirely.

He also had Eagle Eyes as of eight hours ago, which would last for sixteen more, courtesy of someone I knew. x50 magnification of the world leapt ahead, and he could see what we were coming up on.

-Numerous figures coming up out of the ocean onto the deck of the ship, climbing nets. Humanoid, scaled, probably sahaug. There is something in the water to the rear of the ship, tentacles are extending up at least sixty feet onto the deck, some of the creatures are using them as ladders. Giant octopus, squid, something?-

“Kraken,” I said before anyone else.

“Pop it,” Briggs said without hesitation. “Mass slaughter on the deck. I’ll start below decks. Is the area Stilled or Inter-d’d?”

“I don’t see any magic to that effect, but there’s a lot of wind.”

“An issue?”

“No, I’ve got a pretty stable ride.”

He thought I was talking about Sleipner. “Okay, bring us in on the starboard stern, and I’ll get up there. Nail the kraken on approach, if you would.”

I had inherited a massive dislike of aquatic monsters in general, kraken in particular, and I was pretty sure Briggs and Sama had, too. No, scratch that. The rumbling in Briggs’ voice promised devastation.

Back in the game, Briggs had been Commander of Redshore, elected/appointed to/taking command of all that city’s military and, in the end, civilian population. Even the Shore Mages of Redshore obeyed when he gave orders, as he was on the front line of the incessant attacks on the only port city in the game. Aquatic invaders backed by demons of Dagon and their spawn invaded and assaulted the city on a regular basis, harassing its ships and fishermen, messing with the fish stocks, poisoning the waters, and generally acting like total asshats who could flee into the deep ocean beyond our reach whenever they wanted.

He was drawn to port cities because he loathed those things... and he could fight them. They were right to fear him.

If he could pull off that Vajra trick and follow them down to their homes, oh, boy, were they in for a world of trouble...

The players had loved and hated the invasions. Just hearing the words sahaug and kraken brought that stinking deep-sea demonic fishy stench to mind, and the urge to burn it in vivus.

Sleipner was rapidly decelerating to get more control as we hit that mile mark. Someone I knew had thought some niche spells should be useful, given we were going to be in the water, and I murmured the Watersight that turned the foamy black seas around us as clear as glass, corrected for refraction, and generally revealed everything as if it was open air. Master Fred could get the same effect if he immersed himself and had the Whim for it, but he had a lot of Masteries related to a Wavepact to pick up, given it hadn’t even been a day yet...

Heck, he still needed to get all his /5’s, now that he was a Nine. The only one he’d picked up was Wrath/5, which got him to his full base of 9 dice with five active Pacts, 11 with the stole of his Warlock’s Chasuble... which he now needed to add some additional embroidery to...

There were a lot of hammerhead sharks in the water around us. Like, hundreds, just in my line of sight.

I so informed Sama, who just laughed. “Cleave Trains are Cleave Rivers, too, and sharks in a blood frenzy chew on everything!”

Which meant she was going to be cutting through the water aggressively enough that they wouldn’t be targeting her by default.

I didn’t have Aqueous Spell, the Metamagic that both allowed me to break the surface of water with a spell and target something from beyond, and to cast underwater. So, my targets were going to be at or on the surface.

Happily, Sleipner wasn’t touching the surface of the water, and his engine didn’t roar unless he wanted it to. The attackers weren’t hearing us coming, which was going to be bad for them.

We were four hundred paces out when I got to my feet, and Sama stood up on her Wagon, fitting a Mask over her face for underwater work, just in case. I hopped in the air as I gestured to the side, using Binding magic to accelerate the call to my Eidolon.

Her eyes almost popped when the big flaming horse-deer-wolf-lion skeleton thing that was The Old Steed exploded out of the surface of the sea, and caught me smoothly. The Gust of Wind I’d Arcane Fusion’d at the same time gave him a tailwind, and burning clawed hooves raced into the air, Racing and Rising Winds lightfoot cutting through any hostile winds with impunity as he did so.

Yeah, I had a clear view of the kraken now, as I got some real height, ignored the storm-force winds, and brought up my Shards.

Cold blue Rays flashed out: Paired, Admixed, Splitting, Fastcast.josei

Oh, Chained and Bursting, for the foundation, focusing on clusters of floating heads, bodies on the deck of the ship, those clambering over the kraken, and, of course, the creature itself.

Twelve Rays of uttercold reached out, and the krak of carbon dioxide freezing solid, nitrogen dripping, and naturally enough all the water close to them crossing that solidification threshold was pretty loud. So were the lines of ice hanging in midair for a precious moment... and then they were exploding all over the damn place, and exploding into silent, still balls of whiteness when they did.

The kraken ate the Fastcast quartet of them directly, straight up. Its coloration might or might not indicate demonic blood, and I wasn’t going to take a chance on some resistance or immunity or whatever softening the blow. To make it more fun, the Burst that came out of it hit everything within five feet of its entire form, which was naturally splayed out all over the damn place.

The water couldn’t take it, and none of the sahaug were prepared for half damage from four beams. I didn’t have to target any of them; they basically froze solid in mid-step, as did five feet of water around the kraken... and the kraken, too, of course.

As for the rest of the area, it was crisscrossed with a wild and crazy web of lights, extending from explosion to explosion, dotting the side of the ship and the ocean with dozens of balls of ice and frozen sahaug rather abruptly.

Mmm, their threat declined precipitously, it did, at least on this side of the ship, where all my efforts were concentrated.

All the wankers on the other side of the ship? All they saw was a flash of blue light, and suddenly their kraken buddy and all those aboard it were frozen solid for some reason.

The natural response was threat assessment, and the impeded visibility wasn’t helping them any, as looking through driving rain is different than looking through water. I had Steed dim the fires on himself, as I didn’t want them picking me out as he surged for altitude, driven by a hundred-mph wind under his arse, giving me a better view of the other side of the ship.

My smile was merciless as I picked out all the floating heads and staring faces looking around, wondering what was happening.

This time, Residual Metamagic added Widening, and I didn’t use Rays.

There were over two hundred Shards, each set of the twelve targeting different areas, and each Shard then leaping out to a different viable target within sixty feet on its Chain, each point of contact also triggering a Burst for half damage.

Kicker damage was like +9d6. I had an Aquatic Baneskull, after all, thank you Miss Sahaug Priestess.

The explosions fanned out across the surface, hitting hundreds of sahaug on the deck, the hull, and floating in the water before they could duck away and flee. Chilling white explosions rang out, not nearly so cold as before... but, oh, them Kickers.

Force, lightning, and cold tore the sahaug apart, sent them flying in all directions, and ravaged them. Frozen corpses filled the sea with sheathes of ice about them, and all the sahaug left alive abruptly dove for depth.

Briggs was standing as Sleipner came up alongside, completely unperturbed that I’d done most of the work by killing the chaff. Sama was already gone and in the water, and any submerged sahaug were going to have a wicked and bloody surprise moving past them down there.

You weren’t supposed to be able to use slashing weapons effectively underwater, after all.

Briggs hopped twenty feet up and sixty feet over off the Wagon, bounced off the frozen tentacles of the kraken twice more, and was on the deck. He cleared space through the frozen corpses around him by swinging Endure, shattering the frozen dead like brittle china and opening a path, vivus blossoming among the scattered pieces like gasoline on a fire.

“Master Fred, take out the control tower!” he ordered, voice carrying perfectly. There was a swirl of shadow as Master Fred vanished off Sleipner, who trundled into the air on golden plates of force, heading for the deck himself to make sure something didn’t come up from below and mess up his transmission. Blazes of light in the control cabin of the ship announced Master Fred’s arrival there, and I’m sure something was appreciating his diligence.