Chapter 29 - Enter Land, Man.

While the square-cube law can be somewhat mitigated by use of extradimensional support, the fact of the matter is that the larger something is in a particular dimension, the more constrained it’s movement is in that direction. That being said, there is no restriction on movement if said object is large in only one or two directions…

The first thing that hit the crew was the overwhelming sense of dread. Everywhere they looked was absolutely nauseating, with the simply reason being that the entire place was alive. There were eyes, teeth, bone, and other animalistic appendages jutting out in a crude mockery of a forest.

Henry turned back to the ocean at the shore and made several retching noises while the rest of the group looked away politely.

“Okay. I’ll be the first to say it. What is wrong with this place?”, said Victor suddenly.

Everybody else on the shore jumped up in surprise at his sudden appearance.

“Weren’t you in your room?”, said silk in annoyance.

Before Victor could respond, a hulking beast approached them, bringing the stench of rotting flesh with it. Dripping and visceral, it looked like someone had tried to make a human figure out of ropes, covered it in wax, and let it melt for a bit. It was nearly one and a half times taller than Henry, and hunched over near the top of its back. Its head was nothing but a messy tangle of red vines, and every step made a grinding sound on account of the crystalline greatsword it carried behind it. Said sword was made up of what appeared to be the bloodlike substance that dripped from it’s limbs, with it being a pale, watery pinkish blade that was curved yet wide. The back of it looked considerably less pristine than the front, with several notches in it.

Just as it raised itś sword, Victor went out and slashed at the neck of the abomination, then winced as his ribs creaked menacingly again.

"I already said that you gotta let yer ribs set properly you fool boy!", shouted henry.

The grotesque creature stumbled back a bit, then took the sword and put it into a two handed grip with the point facing towards the sky. It then harshly brought down the claymore, with it being barely stopped by Silk, blades crossed with the crude weapon caught between the two Thiefs blades. A slash in the back of what would normally be its neck appeared, the mark of a sneak attack carefully taken by a cleaver, courtesy of Levi.

Carefully muttering a chant, Bundo finished his incantation as the enemy suddenly had nails of coal pierce its hands as silk got out of the way of the massive zweihander. Weighed down, the hulking brute then was unceremoniously shot in the back of the torso by Henry, who then put down his weapon and inspected the barrel with a mirror for any blockage.

As the thing collapsed, the crew let out a sigh of relief. Whatever that thing was, it was strong enough that it took the entire crew’s effort sans Fluffy to take down.

“Can’t we just skip this island?”, said Henry.

He made a good point. There didn’t really seem to be anything of worth here - the sword of the marauding creature quickly dissolved into a puddle as they watched.

Victor sighed and went belowdecks looking for a mop.

After discussing for a while, everyone decided that it was probably best to go to the next island. Silk raised the anchor up, using her prodigious strength to hoist it up in one throw.

Just as they decided to start up the engine and go, they all felt a massive thump. Looking at the misty waves below them, Levi frowned.

“I think that the island disagrees with our plan to adjourn”, she said.

Indeed, tendrils of fleshy loam had begun wrapping around the bottom of the wooden hull, searching for any gaps it could force itself through.

“What do we do now?”, asked henry as he looked around.

Silk shrugged and took out one of her swords.

“Usually, when things get like this, we kill whatever is causing problems for us.”