“How strong do you think those summoned serpents are?” Fenrir asks Oleander.

“Not sure, but I know that we have to deal with them. They’re making that ship way faster, and they’ll probably be able to turn way better than us. We’re in trouble if we don’t do something about them,” Oleander answers as he spins the wheel of The Shoebill. Another stream of freezing water shoots past the ship’s starboard side. “We’re supposed to circle back, grapple them, and stop them while everybody else catches up. Right now, we’re both just going farther and farther away from our help.”

“Think we could cross them quickly enough to get some shots off?”

“No, they’ll probably be able to avoid it, and the serpents are too low in the water to hit them.”

“I’m starting to regret just fishing all the time and never leveling up any combat skills.”

“I might be able to do something if you take the wheel,” Oleander says and looks at Fenrir.

Fenrir nods and takes the wheel from him.

Oleander reaches into the satchel hanging from his side and pulls out two large thorns from it. The thorns float in the air upon him starting his spell. Each one floats to his sides and grows larger and sharper as Oleander pours his Mana into the spell.

The thorns have grown to the size of ballista bolts when Fenrir looks back at what Oleander is doing.

“You really have been practicing,” Fenrir says.

“Of course I have been. What, did you think I wasn’t doing anything during all those times where you just wanted to fish? I’m not grumpy like Bone where he just mopes around and waits for somebody to want to do something fun,” Oleander answers.

Oleander raises his right arm, causing the thorn to his right to raise higher into the air, and then swings it forward! The right thorn soars through the air and slams right into the side of one of the serpents!

The serpent lets out its death cry just seconds before disappearing as if it were never there in the first place. Oleander raises his left arm now, going two for two, but one of the longship’s crewmembers throws a javelin that Oleander has to dodge out of the way of mid-swing. This results in the thorn going tall and slamming through their leafy sails rather than through the second serpent.

“Sorry, Fenny,” Oleander says, sounding more angry than apologetic.

“It’s alright, you got one of them. That was awesome, by the way. Can you do that some more?” Fenrir asks.

“I have more thorns, but I’m—” Oleander stumbles, almost falling over the ship’s aft, “Yeah, I’m out of Mana, sorry.”

“That’s alright. Just take it easy and I’ll handle the steering.”

“No, I can still steer.”

“You sure?”

“Have I ever been wrong before?”

Fenrir thinks about it. As far as he can remember, over the many years of knowing one another, he cannot remember a single time where Oleander was wrong about anything no matter what subject. Fenrir steps away from the wheel to help Oleander over to it. “I’m counting on you to keep us in one piece then,” Fenrir says and pats Oleander’s head.

With Oleander back at the wheel, Fenrir heads below deck to check on the situation.

Some wooden planks have been nailed over a hole in the hull near the ship’s stern, but there is still some water seeping in from underneath the planks. The sputtering of the engine doesn’t sound too healthy either.

“What’s the situation?” Fenrir asks.

“My baby is goin’ to die again if ya don’t ease up on her. She’s not meant to be goin’ full speed for this long. The hole won’t be too much of a problem as long as we don’t—” Tabitha’s answer is cut off when a stream of water shoots through the ship’s stern again, but this time, it cuts sideways through the hull to leave a giant gash in the side of the ship longer than Fenrir is tall.

Water starts pouring in as The Shoebill creaks from the damage. “Greenie, board it up! Blondie One, Two, and Wolf, grab some buckets and start scooping the water up!” Tabitha shouts.

Everybody gets to work doing exactly as Tabitha ordered. Bonekraka lifts some spare planks up to press them against the latest wound in The Shoebill, and Tabitha hammers nails into them to keep them in place. Meanwhile, Fenrir, Cassiel, and Corwin hastily run up and down between decks to scoop up water and then toss it overboard.

“Get ready!” Oleander shouts. “It’s about to attack again!”

Everybody below deck gets low on the floorboards in case another jet of water decides to sweep through the hull. The last thing any of them want is to get cut in half by water and frozen.

“It’s gone!” Oleander shouts.

Fenrir rushes above deck to see what’s happened. When he looks at the longship, the remaining serpent is no longer there. “What happened?” he asks.

“It just disappeared. Guess it ran out of time or energy or something,” Oleander guesses.

“I’ll take it. Now, we have to use this time to get on with the plan. You ready?”

“Of course!”

“Serra! Ready?!” Fenrir shouts.

“Ready!” Serra shouts back.

“Tabs, can the engine handle one final burst?”

“She’ll try it but make it quick!” Tabitha shouts.

“Alright, we’ve only got one chance at this, so let’s make it work. Hold onto something!” Fenrir shouts to the crew.

The Shoebill performs its hardest turn yet as it sharply turns one hundred and eighty degrees. It now directly faces the longship.

“Serra!” Fenrir shouts. “Fire!”

The ballista fires its fishing-hook-tipped bolt right the longship’s mast again and reels in on it to get it stuck there.

“Grappled!” Serra shouts back.

“Cannons, ready!” Fenrir orders.

Bonekraka, Cassiel, and Corwin come back above deck and get in position at their respective cannons. Each one is already loaded and ready to fire, so all they have to do is wait to get lined up – well, and dodge the multitude of javelins being thrown at them. Fortunately, any holes in the hull caused by the javelins are quickly repaired thanks to The Shoebill’s latest upgrade.

“Fire!”

The Shoebill unloads its portside cannons on the longship! Each shot tears through the side of its hull, but none of the crew are hit and any damage is quickly repaired.

Fenrir and the rest of the crew were expecting to have javelins tossed their way once they were this close, but instead, the longship’s crew are either trying to dodge or block the cannon shots while a few of them are climbing their mast to un-grapple their ship.

But that’s alright. Serra already grappled their ship, so all they have to do now is keep them from getting away and buy enough time for Jax and the others to surround the longship. Once they do, the longship will be faced with so much cannon fire and magic that they won’t be able to survive. No matter how powerful the crewmembers may be, no matter how overpowered the ship’s hull might be – they won’t be able to survive the onslaught that is prepared for them.

Well, that was the plan.

There is one major flaw in the plan that, now thinking about it, Fenrir should have been more wary of.

“H-hey, Fen, why are they fighting?” Cassiel asks.

“Because this was a fucking trap. I knew not to trust that guy just because Jax and them did! How did I make such a stupid mistake?!” Fenrir shouts, slamming a fist against The Shoebill’s mast as he watches The Steel Tiger fire on its own allies.

Three allied ships have already sunk, two more are on fire because of Alexander himself personally using magic to set their ships aflame, and only The Weeping Tit and Barracuda’s Nightmare are left without damage. Each of them open fire on The Steel Tiger, but their shots bounce off the near-impervious hull or only cause minor dents in it.

“Cut the line, Serra!” Fenrir orders.

“Captain, what about slowing—” Corwin stops when he sees Fenrir’s glare.

“Those bastards are the least of our concern right now. We have to go help Jax and White Tooth before that bastard sinks them,” Fenrir explains.

The chain line connecting the ballista to its shot is cut loose, allowing The Shoebill to speed towards the battle unhindered by the longship.

“I thought he wanted fame and to take credit for everything?” Cassiel asks.

“Yeah, exactly. I’m such an idiot. Oleander! Full speed ahead! Serra, take Bone’s place on the cannon. Bone, get back down there and get ready to help Tabs with repairs. Everybody! Get ready for a potential boarding!” Fenrir shouts out his latest orders as The Shoebill heads directly for The Steel Tiger.

Several grapple shots are fired from Barracuda’s Nightmare and latch onto the side of The Steel Tiger. Fenrir sees White Tooth himself brandishing a cutlass and about to jump onto the enemy’s ship as soon as they’re pulled in close enough.

“He looks strong,” Serra says.

“Yeah, he should be able to deal with at least a couple of those bastards,” Fenrir says.

As soon as the ships slam into each other’s sides, White Tooth leaps over from his own ship and subsequently gets immolated by Alexander’s magic. The flames from Alexander’s hands are enough to completely engulf White Tooth’s body as well as shoot past him to ignite Barracuda’s Nightmare’s sails.

The rest of its crew are dealt with in short order.

Jax and the crew of The Weeping Tit are the only allies that The Shoebill has left.