The enormous serpent coiled across the sky and moved as if the air itself was solid ground. Bairan glared forward, his eyes burning with disgust and rage. He struggled to maintain a calm facade, but his forced smile looked twisted and horrendous.
The red orbs of the creature blinked and twitched, then suddenly blazed with deadly light.
Six massive streams of crimson beams erupted from the creature's eyes and rocketed toward the ship. Bairan didn't flinch. One moment he stood on bow's egde—the next, he had vanished.
Northern thrust out his hand and cast momentum guard to shield the entire ship. But the beams sliced through his barrier without slowing, shattering it like glass, and hammered the vessel with crushing force.
The beams tore into the ship's side, ripping apart the right side of the deck, hull, and keel. The entire structure exploded in a shower of concrete and flying debris.
