Rylan’s stomach sank as he watched the tip of the massive harpoon slowly shift to face them.

  Harpooning another vessel to pull them closer was a staple of naval combat, and while he’d long dreamed of witnessing or even participating in such an event, Rylan had somehow never pictured himself on the receiving end.

  “What do we do?” Leahna called out frantically.

  “Not much we can do,” Nazyr grunted. “Better cut the cable quickly if they hit, ’fore they pull us in...”

  That sounded easier said than done, especially if the harpoon hit one of the floaters at the rear of the ship.

  Well, Rylan wasn’t going to stand around and wait for that to happen. Not when there was still something he could try.

  He jogged over to the railing at the rear of the ship and drew one of his throwing knives. It looked positively tiny in his grip, compared to the massive harpoon.

  [Ehm, Boss? What are you doing?]

  ‘What I can.’

  Rylan put his left foot forward and drew back his arm, activating Knife-Throwing. Mana surged up into the knife, and he pumped it as full as he could, even pushing a little over his Overcharge limit.

  Then he activated Redirect.

  It did not... immediately accomplish what he’d hoped.

  Rather than linking up with Knife-Throwing, Redirect seemed to transform the warm ball of energy behind his sternum instead. For the first time, Rylan could really feel the waveform, his spirit itself resonating with the rhythm of excitations

  Fog, did I do this the wrong way around?!

  He pushed the thought away. There was no time to start over anyway, so he instead focused on what he was trying to accomplish, visualising the mana gathered on his knife being excited instead.

  After a long moment, something seemed to click, and Redirect shifted. The mana covering his throwing knife’s blade started to shimmer and move, resonating with the movement inside his Mana Pool.

  Then, with a deep resounding twang, the massive harpoon was fired.

  It flew up and up, thick rope trailing after it as it drew an arc through the air. Soon, it was at its highest point, and started to descend.

  Straight towards him.

  “Rylan, what are you doing?!” Leahna yelled from atop the cabin above him. “Get out of the way!”

  Rylan stood his ground, waiting another full second.

  Now!

  He whipped his arm forward, the knife flying straight at the massive harpoon like a gull charging an oncoming twincavum whale.

  His eyes remained locked on his glowing projectile, waiting for the exact moment it struck.

  Metal met metal with a soft clang. And right in that instant, Rylan pushed on his mana, activating the waveform.

  There was a flash of white light, then the throwing knife spun away. However, it had done its part.

  In that same instant, the massive harpoon’s trajectory had shifted. It shot off to the left and smashed through the ship’s railing, taking the caster that Rylan had only just used with it as it disappeared into the fog.

  [Forge, that was awesome, Boss! I definitely never doubted you for a second!]

  “Great spirits...” Leahna muttered overhead. Rylan glanced up behind him, catching her stunned expression.

  “That’s the stuff, lad!” Nazyr bellowed, pounding his fist on the railing next to her. “Now let’s give ’em a taste of their own medicine!”

  Apparently, that taste was to be launched by catapult. Huffing and puffing, Rylan helped pull the massive steel contraption around to line up the shot, only to stumble when Artoran started strumming his gittern. Not only did the catapult begin to rotate all by itself, so did its large crankwheel, causing its throwing arm to draw back.

  Nazyr was already moving on to a shack-like structure built into the deck that Rylan had originally mistaken for an oddly placed outhouse. He quickly realised his mistake when Nazyr started pulling a rope connected to a series of pulleys.

  It’s a dumbwaiter!

  A massive spherical clay jar covered in splotches of sticky black tar came into view, its lid appearing to be sealed on with wax.

  Rylan and Leahna hurried over to help get it out, and the three of them managed to roll it into the catapult’s lowered cup.

  Nazyr quickly started adjusting some levers and cranks, occasionally glancing at the ship behind them, which was getting awfully close.

  “Is this going to work?” Leahna asked, wiping her sticky hands off on her dark cloak. “Aren’t we going to overshoot them?”

  Nazyr glanced at her with his good eye, his milky-white one staring off into the distance. “I’ve set its trajectory as flat as possible, but to be honest, I haven’t the foggiest. However, if ye don’t shoot, ye’ll never hit!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  With that, the former pirate produced a piece of heatmetal and a knife, and started striking them together, aiming the sparks at the jar.

  Within seconds, the sticky liquid coating caught fire.

  “Ehm,” Artoran said as he hobbled over, still holding his gittern. “When you say ‘as flat as possible...’ Are you sure it’s going to clear the cabin?”

  “Ah... well, I’m sure they took that into account,” Nazyr replied, grabbing onto the lever controlling the firing mechanism. Still, seeing Yuel standing at the wheel atop the cabin, right in front of the catapult, he hesitated. “Ye might want to hit the deck, boo, just in case!”

  Yuel’s eyes widened, and he quickly moved aside.

  Nazyr pulled the lever, and with a loud creak the catapult’s arm shot up, sending the burning clay sphere flying.

  It cleared the cabin, barely, passing over the steering wheel with inches to spare.

  “See?” Nazyr said, as they all rushed to the rear deck. “It’s fine!”

  The burning projectile very quickly reached the top of its arc, then dropped down and smashed straight into the front of the chasing ship. The highly flammable mixture inside burst out into a massive ball of fire, spreading burning sticky tar all over the front of the deck, halting their efforts to rearm the massive harpooncaster.

  The drums stopped, the oars stilled, and soldiers came streaming out of the floaters with buckets, mops, and large swaths of cloth.

  Clearly they were prepared for this kind of thing, so Rylan had little doubt they’d be able to put out the fire, but still.

  “That ought ta keep ’em busy for a while,” Nazyr grunted in satisfaction.

  Leahna gasped. “Vapours, what is he doing?!”

  Rylan turned to follow her gaze, only to find Vidric’s sleek skymetal vessel speeding straight towards them, a white glow flickering around the sharp wing-like structures on either side of its hull.

  “He’s going to ram us,” Artoran yelled. “Hold on!”

  However, rather than continue straight towards them, Vidric banked at the last moment, and instead flew into the gap between their central and starboard floater.

  Rylan gaped down at the deck as the two blue blobs moved straight underneath them, accompanied by a horrible tearing and ripping noise.

  “Arphin, what’s happening?” he called out, even though he already had a horrible suspicion.

  [They’re ripping straight through the floaters, Boss; we’re taking in a lot of fog!]

  “I thought the floaters were clad in cloudmetal?!”

  [Not below the deck!]

  Right... because there was no way to hit them there. Almost no way. And of course Vidric had known about that weak spot.

  Within seconds, the ship started to tilt sideways.

  “We’re losing speed!” Yuel called out, having joined them at the rear railing.

  Leahna glanced around wild-eyed. “W-What do we do now? Do we sink the vessel and escape on foot?”

  Nazyr spat over the side of the railing. “Won’t work,” he growled. “They’re too close already and this place is too shallow. They’ll just rappel down and catch us on foot.”

  “Then what do we do?” Rylan demanded. “What can we do?!”

  “We have to buy some time and get beyond the Eye of Auris!” Yuel exclaimed, pointing at the massive lighthouse they were approaching. “If we sink there, we may be able to get away; the cloudbed gets much deeper there and there are caves and stuff where we can lose them in!”

  For a moment, Rylan thought he saw movement on the island, but then whoever it was moved out of his view. He just hoped the Talons didn’t have too many forces stationed there...

  “Let’s reload the catapult!” Nazyr called out, already on the move. “Maybe we can give them another taste!”

  Since they’d used the clay projectile that had lain ready in the dumbwaiter, this time, they had to venture below deck to grab another one. By the time they got it up, the deck was so slanted that they had to put in extraordinary effort to get it to the catapult’s cup.

  Thankfully, they still managed.

  The vessel chasing them was getting closer again, oars moving rhythmically as it attempted to catch up on the starboard side.

  Thankfully, that was the side where the deck was lower, so they still had a chance of hitting them.

  “Fire in the hole!” Nazyr called before he yanked the lever.

  Once again, a burning sphere of clay took to the air.

  Standing at the prow of his own, smaller vessel, Vidric hefted a glowing javelin.

  Rylan watched in disbelief as it turned into a streak of white and intercepted the projectile. Like a hammer meeting a melon, the javelin smashing the clay sphere apart, sending burning tar flying back towards their own deck.

  Most of them got off unscathed, but Nazyr got some drops on his arms, and Leahna was forced to abandon her burning cloak.

  The fire wasn’t the problem, however. The starboard side of their ship was dipping down almost into the driftline by now, and despite Izzy’s continued efforts, they were slowing down to a crawl from the added drag.

  Through the smoke and flames, Rylan saw the enemy warship slide alongside theirs. Oars were retracted as men streamed out onto its deck once more, preparing to board them. Among them, Rylan spotted at least three green glowing spirits. Moreover, the two blue blobs representing Vidric and Tamina were pulling around as well, seeming prepared to join the assault.

  “Son,” Artoran said urgently, putting his hand on Rylan’s shoulder. “Grab your sister and get out of here. We’ve gotten pretty close to the lighthouse; without me dragging you down, the two of you can still lose them on foot.”

  Wide-eyed, Rylan glanced over at Leahna, who was nocking an arrow, her face tight.

  “She won’t go willingly,” Artoran said ruefully. “So you’ll have to make her go while you can.”

  Rylan swallowed against the lump in his throat. “What makes you think I will go willingly?”

  “Because you love her more than you love me,” Artoran said with an easy smile. “As you should. Go. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

  Rylan’s eyes burned. From the smoke, of course. He gave a small, shaky nod.

  “Good lad,” Artoran said. “Just know that I’ll always be proud to call you my son.”

  With that, Artoran turned around and retrieved his gittern, walking with more ease than Rylan had ever seen him do.

  As arrows started to whizz past them, one or two bouncing off a Mana Shell, leaving nicks in his father’s cloak, Artoran tuned his instrument and spoke loudly, seeming to address the soldiers who were now jumping over the railing onto their slanted deck. “I haven’t performed in a while, so I’m a bit rusty, but I hope you lads will indulge me.”

  Rylan rushed over to Leahna, and grabbed her wrist. “Come on, we gotta go!”

  “What? But dad—”

  “Can only stop them for so long,” Rylan said through gritted teeth as he started dragging her up the slanted deck. Yuel and Nazyr were already at the top, cranking one of the harpooncasters.

  Right, shooting one of those would be the fastest way to get a rope down to the cloudbed... The duo clearly had experience with escaping a cloudship.

  Behind them, Artoran had started to strum, and was now singing a slow, melancholy melody. “All my life, I have played the fool. But now, I, am... truly a fool, for you.”

  Mana swirled through the air past them, and Rylan had the inane urge to lead his sister into a waltz. Glancing back through the smoke, he found that the soldiers seemed to be struggling with the very same problem, moving around the slanted deck with unsteady, rhythmic steps, looking more like a group of drunk revellers than soldiers as Artoran twirled gracefully through their midst, easily avoiding every haphazard attempt to strike him.

  Even the Quinthar appeared affected, if less so. It seemed their Mana Shells and more powerful spirits could still lessen the effects of Artoran’s Skills and textured mana, even if they couldn’t fully block it.

  “Come on, hurry!” Yuel called out to them as Nazyr fired the harpooncaster down into the fog. “Don’t waste your old man’s bravery!”

  With a sob, Leahna finally stopped dragging her feet. Together, they hurried over.

  “He’s a good man, he is,” Nazyr said gruffly, as Yuel grabbed onto the line and swung one leg over the railing. “You’re lucky to have a—”

  Rylan was startled by the sound of a deep thump, which was followed by a whistling sound that rapidly grew louder.

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  : Unnatural Laws

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  : Undivided Worlds

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