"Hard over to port, now!" the captain barked, prompting Halloth to spin the wheel and Yuel to reel in a rope. The portside steering fin above Rylan creaked as it extended into the fog flowing by overhead.

Suddenly, the deck heaved upwards, sending everyone stumbling as the ropes connected to the floater momentarily grew slack.

"Soren!" the captain called out to the prow, where Rylan's friend was peering down over the railing. "What was that?!"

"I-I don't know—there was nothing at our bow!"

Rylan threw a glance over the edge on his side as well. His heart skipped a beat as he noticed a rapidly brightening white glow passing beneath the ship. Dreadmaw's spirit. "Captain, that was Dreadmaw hitting our keel! It's coming up on this side!"

Captain Hammermore strode over as the beast's shadow moved into view. At first, it continued to move away from the ship. Then a sweep of its massive tail spun it around to face them, its gaping jaws shining nightmarishly through the fog streaming into its gullet.

"Holly, can you get a bead on it?" the captain yelled down.

"Yes, I see it!"

"Then fire at will!"

A moment later, the steel harpoon was sent flying with a deep twang, the recoil reverberating through the ship. It hit Dreadmaw in the flank with a heavy thump.

The weight of the projectile sent ripples travelling through the Malequints thick, blubbery skin, and actually caused the creature to lose all of its forward momentum, even making it drift back a little.

Rylan wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste. He drew back Arphin, charging his Knife-Throwing Skill to full as he did, then whipped his arm forward.

Arphin flew through the air as a glowing, golden streak, then bored into the shark's flank, passing right through its gills and continuing to move deeper for an impressively long time.

Rylan could hear Arphin whooping through the connection, and moreover, could feel the spiritgear pass through Dreadmaw's soft, oily tissue without much hindrance.

Finally, the mana empowering his Skill ran out and the blade came to a halt. [That was awesome!]

"Are you near anything important?' Rylan asked hurriedly.

[I don't think so, Boss; I actually passed most of the way through to the other side... I did come near its bloodpump, I believe, but I didn't hit it.]

'All right,' Rylan replied, his stomach sinking. 'Just come back then; let's not waste our mana.'

Rylan lifted his hand as he felt Arphin tugging at their connection. A moment later, the sentient blade popped back into his hand, fully clean. All the damage wrought by their attack was a tiny—if deep—cut in its gill that was slowly oozing an airy red foam, barely visible from where he was standing.

Bringing down a floating monstrosity as big as Dreadmaw would take more than that. A lot more.

In fact, with how slowly the frothy goop seeped out, it might take a thousand similar cuts to take it down. Rylan had neither the time nor the mana to deliver those. What he wanted to do instead, was get Arphin near something critical, like a gasbladder or a major artery, then have the spiritblade rip out a piece on the way back, like they'd done with the ramtusk.

He'd told the story of how he'd used his Recall runework in a new way the night before, so he wasn't worried about showing it off. The problem was just getting Arphin in the right spot.

The spiritgear couldn't actually sense inside of bodies too well, unfortunately. Apparently he was able to detect when people's 'bloodpumps' accelerated only because of the pulsing on their skin.

Meanwhile, the ship had aligned itself with the flowing fog, and was rapidly accelerating forward, causing the rope connecting the harpoon to Dreadmaw to pull taut. Big as the shark was, the ship clearly still held at least a comparable amount of mass, as the beast was jerked along after them.

For the first time since Rylan had come across it, the gapejaw shark produced a noise. It started as a low, guttural growl, but quickly grew into a hair-raising, rumbling roar.

Then the shark twisted its body, bit down on the rope, and yanked.

The sound of bamboo creaking and snapping was accompanied by a yelp. Looking over the railing at the caster port below, Rylan saw the large harpooncaster had been ripped clean off its swivel mount.

Before he could line up another throw, a swish of its powerful tail saw Dreadmaw disappear into the fog, with the caster still dangling from the harpoon in its side.

"Are you all right, Holly?" the captain bellowed over the railing.

"Yes, I-I'm fine. But I lost my caster!"

"Join Ezra on the other side!" the captain ordered, before straightening back up with a grim expression.

"Do you think we scared it off?" Yuel asked hopefully.

The captain didn't reply, staring tensely into the mist.

Rylan could still faintly make out the light coming off its spirit, and tracked it through the fog as it circled them. "Captain, it's following us!"

Captain Hammermore swore, but didn't question how he knew. As much as he hated to admit it, Soren had probably done him a favour by spreading that rumour about his high Perception making him a 'sensitive' boy...

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Isai," she shouted up at the floater. "Full steam ahead!"

Rylan hadn't considered whether the putt-putt engine might be capable of providing more thrust, but it quickly proved it was. The puffs of steam shooting out of the pipes rapidly grew in frequency and strength, causing the ship to accelerate at an alarming rate.

"Captain!" Soren cried from his position at the prow. "I think I see the kelp forest coming up on the starboard side; we might be able to get it tangled up in there!"

Rylan glanced over, looking past Tamina towards the dim blue lights of its glowing bulbs in the distance.

"Are you crazy?" the older girl protested. "We're just as likely to get tangled up ourselves!"

"No arguing!" the captain barked. "Let me think."

Tamina clenched her jaw, but kept her mouth closed.

The spike in pressure that caused Rylan's breath to hitch warned him a split second before Arphin did.

[Boss, it's coming!]

"Captain, behind us!" Rylan warned.

Once more, a ring of glowing teeth appeared behind them, sucking in large quantities of fog as Dreadmaw approached, quickly gaining ground on them despite their acceleration. This time, it was headed straight for the closest part of the ship: the rear of the floater.

The captain didn't hesitate. "Hard to starboard! Take us into the fogging kelp!"

Bamboo creaked as Halloth spun the wheel and Nazyr absolutely hauled on the rope connected to the starboard fin.

Thanks to its high speed, the ship turned abruptly. Rylan gripped his rope tightly as the weighty hull hanging beneath the floater swung out from the motion.

For a moment, he feared it wouldn't be enough. Then Tamina was at the rear, her shield in front of her.

Squinting, Rylan felt like he could just make out the shimmering cone of darkness that extended from the momentum-robbing runework on its surface, farther than he'd ever seen her push it outward, towards the rapidly approaching gapejaw.

Tamina's braid whipped around in the fog streaming past her towards the maw, but she held her ground. Caught in the effect of her shield's momentum-robbing runework, Dreadmaw started to slow down.

Meanwhile, the putt-putt engine was still firing at full power, and the ship quickly lurched into the new heading.

It was just enough.

Dreadmaw's glowing teeth passed right behind the rear of the floater as it overshot them. A big, dark, hate-filled eye locked onto Tamina, and with a sweep of its powerful tail, Dreadmaw changed course to chase after them.

Then a curtain of glowing blue kelp came flowing around the deck and closed behind it, cutting off Rylan's view of the predator. He whirled around to where the bow of the ship was barrelling into the kelp forest, and found Soren hard at work slashing at a strand of kelp that had gotten tangled up with some rope on the starboard side.

His glowing rapier flashed and cut right through, but another strand replaced it portside.

Then the captain was there with a hooked dagger, carving through it effortlessly. "Rylan!" she called out. "Tell me where it's at!"

Rylan hurriedly glanced around. However, the blue light coming off the glowing bulbs unfortunately eliminated any chance he'd had of spotting the glow of Dreadmaw's spirit. Thankfully, Arphin didn't have such limitations.

[It's still behind us, Boss! It seems to be keeping up, but not gaining so much right now... It even closed its food-hole!]

"It's still chasing us, Captain!" Rylan relayed. "Keeping its distance—for now!"

"Good; keep me appraised!"

"Aye aye, Captain!"

While the kelp was slowing the Soggy Shepherd down a little, Tamina's fears didn't come to fruition, and they kept good pace.

Of course, their reprieve couldn't last forever.

The curtain of kelp in front of them suddenly parted, revealing unobstructed fog.

Suddenly, the ship dropped. Rylan clung to his rope for dear life as the deck fell away beneath his feet, leaving him briefly afloat until he caught up to it.

"We've caught a downdraft!" the captain shouted. "Everybody hold on!"

Glancing back, Rylan saw the softly glowing kelp disappear, replaced by a wall of sheer rock rising up behind them. We're getting sucked down into the ravine!

Soren seemed to have realised the same thing. "Captain, we can't keep heading straight; there's a sheer cliff up ahead!"

"Hard to port! And drop some more ballast!"

Ropes creaked and water splashed as the ship's downward momentum decreased and it started to turn. Below them, Rylan could just make out some of the flat rocks atop the odd pillars of red clay.

Then a pressure washed over him once more, causing his breath to hitch. Rylan looked around wildly, but saw nothing.

[Boss, Dreadmaw got swept down as well, farther than us; it's below the ship!]

Along with his words, Arphin sent along the impression of a terrible maw, open once more and rushing along below them...

Rylan ran towards the front of the deck, and peered over the edge of the railing. Once again, the fog proved little obstacle to his new vision, and he could clearly see a bright, approaching white glow. "Captain, Dreadmaw's coming up at the bow!"

A white glow lit up the captain's soles as she rushed over unnaturally fast, then came to an abrupt halt next to Rylan, staring over the edge with a grim expression. When a shadow became visible in the fog below, she swore.

"All right," she spoke loudly, turning back and moving a short distance from the edge. "Since it doesn't seem inclined to leave, I'm going to give it a reason. Kids: First Mate Halloth is in charge when I'm not on deck. I don't care if he ranks below you out there, when you're on board you will listen to him, got it?"

Rylan nodded, seeing his friends do the same.

The captain drew her hammer and turned towards the prow. Light flashed beneath her feet and she sped forward, grabbing another coiled-up rope one-handed as she leapt off the ship.

This time, however, her target was below her. Rylan watched wide-eyed as she slid down the rope at increasing speed.

At the same time, a white glow built up around the head of her raised hammer. Squinting through the fog, Rylan caught a glimpse of concentric circles rippling outward through the light, overlapping each other like waves in a cistern.

Textured mana! She's applying her Sapphire-Grade Skill to her Hammer-Fighting Skill!

While Sapphire-Grade Skills could be used on their own, this was their true purpose—at least, according to Soren. Applying the textured mana they produced to another Skill could create an effect greater than the sum of its parts.

As the captain continued her descent, Dreadmaw moved up through the fog, its black, rage-filled eyes slowly becoming visible. Rylan saw the moment they locked onto its foe.

Then the runes on the captain's hammer flashed—a different set than before. The second runework of her B-grade hammer activated. This one was called Drop.

The captain herself shot down. White light flared up from the palm of her hand where her Mana Shell protected her from a truly terrible rope burn. She reached Dreadmaw in an instant, then transferred her momentum to a swing of her hammer.

She hit it on its back with a thud like a massive bag of rice dropped off a really tall tower. She unfortunately didn't quite hit its spine, the coppery head of her hammer landing right beside its dorsal fin, but the effect was still impressive.

Dreadmaw was shoved down over a dozen feet. Concentric transverse waves spread from the point of impact, bleeding fissures forming in its wake. Moreover, the strike left behind what Rylan could only describe as a crater, gleaming, aquamarine shards of rib sticking out of its rough skin. More cloudmetal... it's in its bones as well!

Rylan had no doubt that hit would have flattened him. Unfortunately, Dreadmaw was a few sizes larger.

The beast let out another rumbling roar, and flexed its tail. It shot forward, moving out from underneath the captain. Then it swung around, moving up to fly right by the ship.

Rylan would have liked to take this opportunity to attack, but he was preoccupied with clinging on to the railing so he wouldn't get sucked overboard by the churning fog.

Thankfully, the massive gapejaw passed by without taking a bite of the ship. It did bite down on something, however, and it took Rylan a moment to parse the meaning behind the ragged end of rope he saw dangling in front of the ship.

Fog, where's the captain?!

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