Enmity of Atlas

The whole boat began to teeter violently, Trenton grabbing onto Kiva to keep her from falling. He could even hear the sound of wood splintering and creaking from below them. Something was trying to break through the hull. Trenton tore away from the railing, pulling Kiva along with him as a barrage of bone tendrils rose out of the water and stabbed at them, smashing through the wood deck as if it were no stronger than paper mache. All around them there was shouting, movement, and bright lights, everyone scrambling towards some semblance of perceived safety. Now precariously lodged in the middle of the boat with Kiva, Trenton scanned the crowd of dark figures, searching desperately for any sign of his team.

Out of the water off to their left Trenton heard the water churning, the sound of a mighty waterfall as something rose from the depths below them. Trenton watched in horror as the looming black figure rose, 10 feet, 20 feet, 50 feet above them, the whole monster nearly the size of the main mast. Its form was hard to make out in the darkness, but Trenton could see that it was long and cylindrical, its whole body wreathed in some sort of thick scaffolding-like structure.

“They’re still below deck!” Kiva shouted in his ear, clinging close to him for protection.

“You have to bring them up! I’ll hold the line!” Trenton shouted back, covering her body from the spray of salty water drenching the top layer of the boat.

Kiva said nothing, only nodding. Without hesitation, Trenton slammed his foot into the deck, breaking through the weakened boards and throwing her down, trusting her to find her way through. He didn’t have the time to think about her. She was capable enough to see to her own. Trenton drew his hammer, stepping forward and preparing to defend the boat in any way he could, even though he was incredibly small in comparison to the creature assailing him. He’d just need to hold off until Walibeld got there from wherever he was currently.

The monster leered forwards, hovering over the boat, tendrils of bone beginning to rain down from above. Trenton weaved in between the strikes, knocking them to the side with all of his might to try and stop the beast from hitting the boat, but the beast was far stronger than he had anticipated. Trenton was barely able to even just knock the attacks to the side, a protection only to himself.

Off to his sides, the other men launched balls of magic in a desperate attempt to hurt the beast, their fire and light succeeding only in illuminating the night sky, the beast now visible in flashes. It was a long, gray, scaled serpent with rings of bone surrounding its entire body, finger-like tendrils extended on either side almost resembling feet. Trenton looked up in awe at the massive creature, its colossal body blocking the night sky above them.

“LOOK OUT!”

Someone plowed into Trenton, tackling him out of the way of a bone tendril, which slammed down onto the deck where he was standing moments prior, a close call. The entire creature lowered its body onto the deck, somehow standing on its jutting chunks of bone. What was it doing? In fact, why did a sea creature even have legs? It bolted forward, slamming into the main mast, which began to creak and fall, the wood at its base splintering into thousands of little shards. It was making its way back into the water. At this rate it was going to surround the entire boat. The structure wouldn’t last if it was attacking from every side.

“Come on! We have to get at it’s head!” the man who saved Trenton shouted, the both of them scrambling to their feet. Trenton looked closer, peering through the darkness to recognize his savior. It was Clint!

Trenton and Clint sprinted after the beast, leaping onto the falling mast and running alongside it, slowly gaining height. When the mast began to level out, its various ropes and structures keeping it aloft just long enough, they leapt off, landing hard on a chunk of bone connecting two bone rings a couple of feet from the creature's main body. The world tilted as the serpent's head struck the water, its bones leaning forward to follow it.

“HOLD ON AND CLIMB!” Clint shouted, bracing for impact.

Trenton dug his fingers into the creature's strange carapace, holding on for dear life as the three of them slammed back into the water, the murky darkness swallowing them whole. The shock of hitting the water nearly tore Trenton’s grip, but he held on, digging deeper into the small grooves at hand. As the beast swam through the depths below the boat, Trenton felt as if his whole body was being ripped apart, the pressure of the water collapsing in around him on every side. It was agony, his mind slowly fading away from him the longer he held his breath. Suddenly, a light, a brilliant beacon to guide his path, shone ahead of him, approximately the size and shape of a human. Clint, using his photomancy, had lit up his entire body, using it to pierce through the inky darkness of the water. Why Clint was even under the ship if he wasn’t a geomancer was beyond Trenton, but he was grateful. No other power would serve them quite as well at this moment. Even as the speed of their movement threatened to rend them from the great beast, they held on, crawling forward along its skeleton with every muscle in their body. Trenton tried desperately to hold onto his breath as they wormed forward, but the longer they were under the water, the greater the pressure of the water against his stomach was, causing his entire body to convulse, air slowly leaking out. He was going to pass out.

Just when Trenton thought he could bear it no longer, they burst out of the water in a massive splash. Trenton and Clint’s bodies were nearly thrown free floating into the cool night air, their only point of contact being their two hands, which gripped on for dear life. They came down on all fours, the lurching of the beast's body to a stop forcing them into the skeletal support beneath them. Trenton and Clint jumped to their feet, seizing the opportunity they’d been given and bounded forward. They leapt onto the serpent's main body which hovered still for a moment, breaking forward towards the beast's skull, several of the creature's legs now bending backwards to strike at them. It seemed that their presence was not unnoticed.

As the creature assaulted them from all sides, Trenton and Clint barreled forward, leaping over and around the hundreds of bones adorning its back to reach their destination, their desperation clear. If they had to wait another cycle, if the creature went back underwater, there was no guarantee they’d resurface again.

The head was just ahead now. It was a straight stretch to the creature's head, no more bone rings to stop them. “Right in the middle, just before the curve of its snout! That’s the spot to hit!” Clint cried out, Trenton running past him to end the fight as quickly as possible. They couldn’t risk waiting even a moment longer. The boat was sure to sink soon with the damage it had taken, even with its magical buoyancy. Unfortunately, the creature knew this. It knew they were desperate, knew they couldn’t afford to wait, and was ready for just this moment. Just as Trenton sprinted forward, a wave of bones launched at him from nearly every side, bumps even forming at his feet from bones looking to burst out of the creature's skin to skewer him. Trenton was stuck midair, both feet off the ground, watching as the bones approached him.

Suddenly, Trenton felt a force slam into his back, a quick propulsion, which pushed him past the field of bones, the stray strikes barely nicking his body. Trenton rolled against the creature's scales, the uneven ground popping him up in the air, his whole world shifting around him. Still tumbling over, Trenton managed to focus on the area behind him, the scene before him coming into view. Clint was standing where he was a moment prior, the bones burrowing through his flesh, an unheard word dying on his lips. It was a visceral sight, a shrine of bone and blood, Clint’s limb severed and held aloft, sections of his body skewed and twisted in unnatural ways, his organs gutted and splayed open to reveal his profane inner workings. It was almost like the creature was savoring this–mocking him. And in this moment, burdened with the weight of the world, something in Trenton snapped. It was a familiar feeling, strength, unbelievable power, and the sudden urge to kill–wrath.

As Trenton rolled towards the head, he drove his legs against the ground to turn his tumble into a launched, low sprint. Trenton unconsciously drove his arm into his own body, his hand and wrist sinking deep into his flesh. At the urge of some primal inclination, a voice unyielding, Trenton pulled out a massive hammer the size of his entire body. He could not see it well in the darkness, but he knew it was exactly what he needed, the heft, the force, the power. Trenton rolled over his right shoulder, curling his entire body over to bounce off of the ground and to his feet, planting himself and channeling the rest of his forward momentum into his hammer, which he drove straight downwards, right into the weak spot on the serpent's skull.

Yield