The spawn began dragging its body towards Yun, who was struggling against his restraints. It got on all fours, aiming those sharp tusks towards its next victim.
Yun winced from the friction burns his efforts were causing, but there was no way he was stopping.
The spawn lunged. At the same time, the rope finally snapped.
Yun rolled away just as the spawn launched itself at him. Its bone-tusks stabbed the mast where his chest had been seconds before, leaving it stuck.
Despite the rolling deck and his bound ankles, Yun managed to find his balance and shift his center of gravity with ease. His body moved before his mind caught up — the [Incubant] Trait at work?
Freeing itself, the spawn recovered and lunged at him once more. Yun dove and landed next to the abandoned cutlass.
There's a ship full of people… Stop focusing on me!
Snatching it up, he nimbly rose and cut his ankles loose.
The spawn swiped its claws, forcing Yun to raise the heavy blade for a block. He reeled from the impact's force as it traveled up his forearms, but he gritted his teeth and maintained his stance.
The creature continued with its unrelenting assault, chaining slashes together into one lethal flurry. Yun met each slash with strenuous parries, but he was being pushed back portside — a few more inches, and he'd topple over into the raging sea.
The spawn's attacks mainly consisted of low tail sweeps and overhand claw swipes. Yun's eyes fed him just enough information to allow him to block, jump, and dodge, but he was far too weak to exploit any opening meaningfully.
That being said, Yun was still pleasantly surprised by how easy it was for him to move. It still hurt to manoeuvre, but maybe his situation wasn't so terrible.
His Traits at least made him, if not powerful, a bitch and a half to catch off guard.
Just as a smile crept up his face, a rotting bone cut him just below his eye. He managed to evade a fatal strike, but the abomination wasn't finished. It rotated its body, sending a swift tail sweep that lifted Yun off his feet. A loud thump echoed as his head bounced off the wood.
Argh! Never mind.
The ensuing headache served as a cruel reminder: just because he could see it coming didn't mean he suddenly gained the speed to dodge anything.
The spawn drew its tail back, preparing to bring it down on Yun's head. Lights off.
He hefted the cutlass, praying for his paltry strength to deliver, and met the tail with a loud clang as steel met stone.
"Kiukkkk!"
The creature's blood dripped from the resulting cut and blinded Yun before he knew what was going on. All he heard was a gurgled shriek that crept under his skin. A sharp pain bloomed in his ribs, and then…
He was flying.
The Dragon's spawn kicked Yun two meters in the air, sending him crashing into an empty rum barrel.
"Damn gremlin."
The spawn was definitely not a gremlin. But its incessant gurgles, which almost sounded like mockery, combined with the scuttles of its movements, irritated Yun as much as when he'd watch a protagonist struggle against a mere goblin. Something less than half his size.
Oh, the irony.
The various aches plaguing his body blended into one. His wrists, ribs, head, knees, and ankles all bled, the discomfort only exacerbated by stinging salt-air. He rose, face grimacing, and grunted from something sharp piercing his insides.
The spawn traced Yun with its eyeless gaze, having found weak, helpless prey. It paid no attention to its brethren falling to the Blood Maiden crew, nor to its progenitor breaking the sky with its own fierce battle.
It was just it and Yun.
Yun remembered the Plague catalysts he witnessed from the wall, aimlessly wandering the wasteland just outside the East Wing. He didn't want to end up like that. Even death was better.
"I'll show you weak, gremlin. Come at me!"
Gurgling, the spawn leapt at Yun. "Kiukkkk!"
"Huh?"
Yun's hands started shaking. They'd been shaking out of fear already, but this felt different. The cutlass suddenly became heavier; his fingers had gone numb and useless, like he was trying to grip it with his wrists turned into sand.
"Come on, not now."
He needed a second. Just one second for the feeling to come back so he could land a definitive blow.
A lone deckhand stumbled out of a hard-won skirmish two steps away. He was young, and couldn't have been much older than Yun himself. He was close enough to reach.
Yun ran at him, and the spawn gave chase. Once he reached him, Yun drove a shoulder into the boy's back, shoving him square into the spawn's path.
The deckhand's confused yelp morphed into a scream as the sharp bone that had been arcing for the back of Yun's throat buried itself in his shoulder instead. Both of them went down in a heap, and the spawn ruthlessly mauled its temporary meal.
That bought Yun maybe five seconds, which was more than enough time. He flexed his fingers, the sensation of the blade's cold handle came crawling back into them, and the cutlass steadied in his grip.
The spawn wrenched its head up from the deckhand, focusing back on its original prize.
It leapt once more. "Kiukkkk!"
Yun crouched and launched himself under the spawn. Tracing its trajectory, he could predict when and where it'd land.
He strained his muscles, gripping the cutlass with both arms. Summoning all his might, Yun twisted and swung behind him, catching the creature in what passed for its neck, lopping its head clean off. All before it landed.
The head tumbled onto the tainted wood, only to be crushed by its own siblings, who were still engaging the Blood Maiden crew in battle.
Yun plopped to the ground, gasping for air. All he did was swing his cutlass, yet he felt drained of all energy.
A melodious voice filled his ears, celebrating his first kill.
[Through death, celestial essence purges all traces of the Plague, granting mercy to the fallen].
[You have purged a dormant-core Mortal, spawn of the 'Lost Sea' King].