The System Seas

The crew assembled around the mast, each doing their best to keep the little fairies at bay as they swept towards them like floodwater. Marco fired his gun wildly as he sliced back and forth with his rapier. Elisa slammed her palms into the ground again and again, making little explosive blasts of fire that seemed to do a very good job of keeping her side clear. Riv, like Marco, had nothing better than sweeping his club back and forth, making Fairy fly around every time but slowly letting them through.

It was Aethe who started to stagger first, though. Shooting each target with a bow was not efficient, and stomping on them would only do so much so fast. She took bites and scratches, and Marco could tell she was starting to slow down just from the pacing of her bow-twangs.

In the meantime, he and Riv weren’t that far behind. He suspected the only thing keeping the sturdy up and fighting at the moment was his superior vitality, but that wouldn’t last forever.

“Elisa! We need a better plan!” he yelled.

“I have one!” she yelled back. “But it’s going to suck!”

“Then it sucks!” Marco tried to angle himself to protect Aethe, who was really starting to lag behind now. “We need to move fast.”

“Riv! Can you get a powder barrel? And open it?” Elisa asked.

“Yes,” Riv said. “It will be all I can do, though.”

“Then do it. Now!”

Riv jumped away from the group, stomping quickly over to the cannons and bashing the lid of the barrel into splinters with his club before picking it up. On the way there, he picked up a few bites. On the way back, he got tons of the wounds, so many that he was dripping blood through his boots as he returned. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ n0velfire.net

“This sucks,” he said. “I have a few more seconds. What now?”

“Put it on its side. Spin it. Hard. Marco, help him.”

“Elisa…”

“Juth doo it.” Aethe slurred, obviously numbed. “Fasth.”

Marco obeyed. With Riv’s help, they managed to snap the barrel into a spin so strong it emptied almost completely, sending powder spraying across the whole deck.

“Hold on to your ears,” Elisa said. “This is going to be the worst.”

Lighting her hand on fire again, Elisa slammed it into the now-explosive deck. Little venomous Fairies went flying everywhere as Marco’s eardrums all but burst from the sound of it. This was a much less intense explosion than if the powder had been all in one pile. It was still a lot to deal with. The stuff they had been supplied with was top-quality, system-enhanced stuff. It contained a lot of power in each grain, which meant that as the Fairies were torn apart or sent screaming through the air the crew was getting blown up a little, too.

Marco got back to his feet, dizzy and disoriented. He was the first up, and there were still fairies around. He staggered around the deck, stabbing stragglers and putting half-dead enemies out of their misery. Aethe was now fully grounded, as was Riv. Elisa did what she could to help, but this was mostly his job.

The powder had done its task though.

The Fairies were as the system said. Their fragility couldn’t deal with a sudden flash of flame and explosion of any size. Meanwhile, Marco and the crew had taken some damage, but not enough to keep any of them off their feet for more than a few moments. It took a long, painful, staggering minute, but soon the ocean was clear except for them.

“Well, that was horrifying.” Riv was recovering a bit faster than the others. “The entire deck is scorched.”

“The entire us is scorched.” Aethe rubbed her burned arm. “I hated that entire fight.”

“I guess it teaches us something. We aren’t good against swarms of things.” Elisa scowled. “And I don’t have any great way to fix that.”

Marco was the only one grinning. “Looks like we did get something, though. Before I can cash it in we need to haul these little boats aboard for repair materials.”

The miniature watercraft weren’t hard to get ahold of, considering the Fairies had brought them right up to the sides of the hull. They hauled the aboard and initiated the repair process, which really didn’t have to do a lot to bring them back up to ship-shape.

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As soon as the materials had turned into usable energy for the repair process, the notification in Marco’s head completed almost immediately.