Aralynn was at a bit of a loss. The Tempest Wyrms were too close on board for her to use Objection. Normally in this scenario she would've used her rapier, but it had been shattered by the dwarf. She'd collected the shards, but… it wouldn't do her any good now.
Her chestplate had also been crushed so she was completely vulnerable to physical attacks. That being said, however, Aralynn was glad that she wasn't wearing an electrically conductive piece of metal on her chest while fighting eels that discharged lightning.
For now, Aralynn had drawn her revolver, though with how fast the eels moved, she doubted she could land a shot. Her only other 'weapon' was her talons.
The eels darted across the deck, their long, serpentine bodies weaving effortlessly through the air. Hadarai summoned the same emanating blue force from earlier, drawing the attention of three massive eels—each one easily larger than him.
Thankfully, none had started charging their electrical bursts yet. Rain hissed into steam as it hit Hadarai's flaming blade, the magical azure flames vaporizing every drop. Celran moved to Hadarai's side, twin cutlasses drawn, and took position back-to-back with Hadarai. He towered slightly over the stout dwarf. The eels began to circle the two like sharks.
The other three eels headed for Amon, Grango, and Aralynn respectively. Amon quickly slung his longbow over his shoulder and drew his rapier, flicking raindrops off of the blade as he darted forward to engage the eel.
His rapier flexed and danced in the rain as he jabbed and slashed at the Tempest Wyrm. He scored a couple hits as the eel squirmed past him, looking for a chance to body ram Amon.
Grango on the other hand drew twin daggers and raked both down the eel's side as it charged him, tearing lacerations out of its body as it passed.
Aralynn... wasn't as graceful. Her shots went wide, one even slamming into the mainmast. She was reloading her revolver when an eel bodied her, hurling her on to the deck for the second time of the day.
She gasped for air, winded from the blow. Aralynn was still recovering, so it hurt a lot more as she struggled to stand. Luckily, Perona was there on hand to patch her up with a quick Healer's Word.
All Aralynn could do was take potshots as the eel streaked past, again and again. Without her rapier, she was near-useless in close combat, and she wasn't about to risk using her hand-talons against a creature that hit with such force and controlled lightning.
Meanwhile, two of the eels that Celran and Hadarai were fighting thumped to the deck, their bodies charred by magical flames that had engulfed them. The two fighters repositioned to better focus on the one remaining Tempest Wyrm, who had become quite weary after its brethren had been quickly dispatched.
"I forgot to mention—their electric organs are just below the base of the neck!" Celran shouted over the storm. "Take those out, and they won't be able to use their discharges!"
"What neck? They're basically all body," Amon shot back snarkily, narrowly dodging an eel as it lunged at him.
"At the base of the head—where it narrows into the rest of their body! You can see the bit, yes?"
"I see it," Amon said, readying his rapier for a Tempest Wyrm's next pass.
That… changed everything for Aralynn. If she could hit that organ, they'd lose their lightning. Their pure strength would still be a problem, but she could manage, and she wouldn't be completely defenceless if she could use her talons.
As the eel that had been pursuing her momentarily turned its attention to Cozith, Aralynn crouched and quickly untied her boots. She yanked them off and jammed them into the bindings of a nearby crate to keep them from blowing away. Breathing out, Aralynn holstered her revolver and activated her skills.
[Agility Lv. 8 has been activated!]
[Your movements flow with the wind.]
[Dexterity Lv. 18 has been activated!]
[Your senses have been heightened, and you now have complete control of your body, exceeding humanoid limits.]
[Weak points of your enemies are now visible.]
[Your body responds to your every command.]
The base of all the Tempest Wyrms' necks glowed green as Aralynn took to the air, her powerful wings churning the air around her. Several of the wyrms turned to face this new challenger in their own domain, but that was a mistake.
Hadarai took the distraction to cut one clean through, while Grango managed to sever several wings from the one he had been fighting.
Then:
[Perona, The Minstrel of Magniloquence, has bolstered you with their magic!]
Aralynn's eyes briefly flicked to Perona, who winked. The half elf's soaked hair was plastered to her face as stray strands whipped wildly in the wind. With Perona's magic, Aralynn felt better than ever just as a Tempest Wyrm surged up toward her from below.
Oddly enough, she didn't feel afraid. After all, no matter how massive they were, eels were still just fish—and what was a natural predator and hunter of fish?
Ospreys.
[Might Lv. 1 has been activated!]
[Your muscles have been enhanced, allowing you more power than before.]
In an instant, Aralynn accelerated from her stationary place midair, diving feet-first into the Tempest Wyrm, spearing it with her talons in her dive onto the quarterdeck.
The eel immediately started thrashing and tried to discharge lightning—however, during her dive, the curved hind talons on Aralynn's feet had pierced its electrical organ through. The eel writhed helplessly beneath Aralynn as her powerful legs pinned it to the quarterdeck, her broad wings bracing her against its thrashing and the rain.
Aralynn drew her revolver and pressed it to the center of the eel's head. With one hand gripping the trigger and the other snapping back the hammer, she slamfired six shots in under two seconds.
The bullets tore through thick skin and skull until the creature finally fell still, its blood splattering across Aralynn in deep streaks of red.
She wasn't the only one who had found success in dealing with the eels, however. Looking up, Aralynn could see that Amon was having the time of his life.
With the rain and heavy storm clouds, shadows blanketed the ship. As a Tempest Wyrm lunged at Amon, he dropped backward into one, vanishing, only to reappear from another shadow where the mainmast met the envelope.
He blinked through several more shadows before bursting out of one on the ground with perfect timing, his body and blade cloaked in swirling darkness. In fact, he was almost completely obscured in the umbral black ribbons, save for his two red horns which gleamed with eerie light.
His rapier had transformed into a titanic hadal lance. Amon punched through two eels in one thrust, rain gathering to swirl around the immense weapon like a whirlpool. He then slipped through another shadow and emerged above the two thrashing wyrms, dropping down like a silent reaper rendering judgement. Shimmering like raven feathers, his shadowy lance drove clean through both of their skulls in a single strike.
His rapier then returned to its original form as the shadows peeled away from the devilkin's body, leaving him in his soaked black cloak.
Since when could he do that? Aralynn thought.
The eels' bodies twitched faintly before falling still. Breathing hard, Celran gave the order to resume course, allowing the crew and party a moment to recover. As for the eels, Celran decided the most respectful course of action was to return their bodies once they passed over open sea, giving them back to the storm and waves from which they came.
When the time came, the bodies were pushed overboard, one by one, as Celran offered a quiet prayer to Zephyr. Whatever he said seemed to work, as when the last eel slipped beneath the clouds, the airship glided into a serene pocket within the storm. Sunlight poured in from above, warming them as soft, dry clouds drifted gently around them.
They hadn't escaped the tempest just yet, however. The pocket was only a calm in the heart of the storm, and the storm was far from done with them.
From the horizon, flashes of lightning illuminated a massive silhouette—something coiling and impossibly vast, weaving its way through the clouds toward them at terrifying speed. Even from this distance, they could easily tell that it dwarfed the Tempest Wyrms.
"Just can't catch a break, huh." Celran shook his head. He exhaled slowly, then yelled out: "Bring us broadside! Ready the full battery."
They turned just in time to witness a pale, serpentine head—white as moonlight and large as a whale—pierce through the clouds, its golden eyes locking onto the Blue Locust 2.