Chapter 142: Unpleasant Reunions
Coop’s brisk footsteps crunched as he stepped through shattered glass and dismembered seaweed leaves. The bridge of the cruise ship had clearly seen some fighting, but the center of the conflict had shifted entirely to the bow before Coop arrived. The seaweed had ambushed the ship while it drifted through the deep ocean, surprising the passengers and getting a firm hold on the vessel before they had a chance to prevent it. That left the Empire’s refugees fighting a losing battle where they were outmatched and outmaneuvered by the Unchosen crab.
Coop hurried, climbing through the broken windows of the ship’s bridge, outside, to the ledge overlooking the bow of the ship. As soon as he was clear of the threshold, he planted his foot, already winding up as he burst into the open air, and hissed with effort as he squeezed his abs, twisted his hips, and rotated his shoulders, generating power from his legs all the way through his body. He launched his opening salvo, heaving it almost straight up with gusto. The heavy spear flew into the night sky while his follow through took him all the way to the edge of the narrow space.
He was nearly at the top of the cruise ship, in the relative center, above and behind the battle between the strangers that had arrived with the ship and the lashing blades of seaweed. They were doing their best to stand up to the grasping vines, but it only took a quick glance to realize they were severely outclassed. The passengers of the ship wouldn’t be able to extricate themselves from the clinging seaweed with how slowly they fought back. The ship had lost all of its momentum long before Coop arrived, so it had no chance of breaking through.
The groups of fighters tried to work together, but a handful of humans with inadequate levels and limited combat experience struggled against just one or two seaweed blades. If the seaweed was specifically out for blood, they would have been slaughtered, but other than incidental strikes, it only continued to seek purchase on the ship. They fought to dislodge it more than anything else, hacking at rooted leaves with poor quality weapons or depleting their mana with weak spells that only occasionally dealt visible damage if they struck at all.
Coop had well over ten thousand repetitions with high arcing throws after hunting the Primal Kites on the Ghost Reef sandbars, so it wasn’t a problem to immediately judge the distance and get underneath the toss. There was no chance he would miss a target that was 200 feet wide, stationary as the ship was, with the combatants at an impasse. The fact the crab was in a position that would prevent any collateral damage, hanging off the side, was icing on the cake.
The spear shot into the night sky, disappearing as it rose through the wispy clouds among the twinkling stars. The only evidence of the missile’s passing were the rings it formed in the clouds as the backdraft punched through, but no one was looking up at the moment.
Coop wasn’t worried about dealing the minimum amount of damage necessary to defeat a regular, level 20 Primal Kite in order to keep his grind time efficient, so he had really launched his weapon. Maybe he underestimated his own Strength a bit, because it would be a while before the heavy spear came back down, judging by its momentum. It was the first time had a full send on a heavy spear throw, so even he was a bit surprised by the result. In the meantime, he started hopping down ledges, holding only his shield, planning on making his arrival known.
A blade of seaweed, almost as wide as he was tall, tried to snatch his legs while he dropped, but Coop twisted his torso and batted it away with the edge of his round shield. His Strength was enough to redirect the leaf, if not outright destroy it.
“On your left!” He called out before he landed among the first group of random people fighting on the uppermost open air balcony. The scattered debris of destroyed lounge chairs joined several gaping holes from where seaweed had bored through surfaces. Only one of the combatants had the awareness to even turn at Coop’s warning, but Coop landed in time. He bashed the tip of another blade of seaweed away from the group’s unprotected blindspot on their left flank as it arose from beneath the terraced balcony.
“There are rescue boats at the back of the ship. You can evacuate.” Coop announced in the temporary lull he had created as the fighters turned to him in surprise. Then, he managed to sever a few seaweed blades that were pulled taut against the ship, despite the edge of his shield not being particularly sharp, clearing out their balcony so they would at least be somewhat free to move around. He only spent a few more seconds before he moved down to the next level.
“Who the hell was that? Did he only have a shield?” He heard someone question over the shouts and clamor of fighting on the levels below, but Coop was already among the next group.
As he went from balcony to balcony, spreading the message that help had arrived and providing some relief to the struggling volunteer fighters, he left them slightly stunned at how easily he countered the seaweed blades. They slowly started to regroup, getting a chance to organize against the onslaught of unthinking vine-like attacks, thanks to his efforts. They were still engaged with more blades of seaweed, but their morale clearly jumped when Coop provided even a small amount of aid, turning the tide of what was a clearly losing battle in saving the ship to a temporary stalemate. The knowledge that evacuation was possible definitely helped.