Chapter 37: Turbulent Waters
The sea cutters schooled around the Grace of the Mists in a cyclone of armored scales and razored fins. They scored gashes in the railings and threatened Nathan with dismemberment with every moment.
But he danced through the openings in their swarm. It would have been impossible if he’d been stuck on the deck, but by moving with the rhythm of the monsters he avoided their strikes. He swum through the air like one of them, darting and dashing in spurts that coincided with their abrupt jerks of acceleration. The rapid starts and stops pushed his movement abilities to their limit as he tried to understand just how the sea cutters were moving so quickly.
Each time one of the monsters changed course there was a twist of water mana, but the magic wasn’t strong enough to accelerate them as quickly as they were going. Additionally, the shape definitely wasn’t a spell. But Nathan could feel a nearly instantaneous flash of wizardry accompanying each motion, though it was too fast for him to probe into.
Wizard fishes. What will Davrar come up with next?
Gunfire and the sound of heavy bodies striking panes of force sounded below Nathan as the Heirs fought against the onslaught. They were nearly invisible at the eye of the storm, waves of scaled bodies striking and being repulsed. Blood sprayed widely as Sarah and Aarl struck out at the swarm, but the violence just seemed to feed the frenzy of the attacking monsters.
Nathan extended his aura out tentatively, intersecting with the nearest fish and trying to interfere with their magic and see what happened. He succeeded, though not entirely. The fish nearest him still changed direction, but they did so without control. Several of them slammed into each other and more blood gouted as their fins cut through metallic scales like a sword through paper.
I still don’t really understand what’s going on here. This is a much smaller and more efficient application of wizardry than anything I’ve seen before.
Tranquility 2 achieved!
Then lightning blasted out from Stella, chaining through the school of fish. The spell was paired with a magnetic containment field to keep the lightning contained above the ship and prevent it from touching the water. It seemed that she'd listened to Eolinne, and wanted to avoid tempting any other monsters. She still managed to hit every single fish that was over the ship - and Nathan.