Rylan frantically scanned the fog below, but couldn't find the captain's blue-glowing spirit.

[Boss, look over there!] Arphin called out, sending along a sense of location that was below Dreadmaw. [The rope's stuck in its suck-hole, between its teeth!]

Looking at where Dreadmaw was rushing away from the ship towards the other side of the ravine, Rylan indeed spotted a faint blue glow.

"Rylan, what happened?" Halloth called out, his deep voice urgent for once.

"The captain gave it a good blow, but Dreadmaw bit down on her rope and snapped it!" he called back frantically. "It's kept hold of the rope, and now it's swimming off in a starboard direction with the captain swinging below its maw!"

His words were met by a stunned silence. Rylan glanced around, studying the crew's stricken faces.

Then Soren stepped forward. "Halloth, let's chase them! As long as she doesn't fall, we can get her back on board!"

Halloth met his gaze for an instant, then seemed to make up his mind and started turning the wheel. At the same time, he pulled on a lever, causing fog to get sucked into a hole at the bow to be condensed into ballast. "Nazyr, extend the starboard fin; we're going after them."

"Aye aye!" came the grunted reply.

The ship turned, and started to accelerate after the shark.

"Ezra!" Halloth called out. "Be ready to fire at will!"

A muffled sound of affirmation came from the starboard caster port, where Ezra manned the remaining mounted harpooncaster.

In the distance, the wall of rock on the other side of the ravine loomed over them as a massive shadow, slowly gaining more detail as they drew closer.

As Dreadmaw approached the granite wall enough for the glow from its teeth to reflect off the rough surface, the massive gapejaw suddenly got lifted by an updraft. Then it swung its body around with a mighty sweep of its tail, causing the rope below its maw to swing for the rocks.

Rylan cringed as the fleck of blue—now only slightly lower than the deck—came to a sudden halt with a flash of white light.

"What was that, what happened?" Soren asked from next to him, where he too gripped the railing with white knuckles.

"It swung her into the wall—I think on purpose," Rylan replied, combining what he saw with the information Arphin was feeding him. "But her Mana Shell took the impact, and she's holding on!"

However, Dreadmaw wasn't done with her yet. The massive beast aggressively swam onward, moving first away from the wall, then back towards it to once more bash her against the rocks.

Rylan dimly heard a string of curses echoing out of the fog at the second impact.

"Hard to port!" Halloth bellowed. "I want to turn before that updraft; we need to draw level with the captain!"

At this point, the captain's form was visible through the fog. She'd hung her hammer from her back to cling to the rope two-handed, and appeared to be climbing it with just her arms, as she used her feet to ward off the wall of rock.

Rylan's eyes fell on one of the still-intact swinging ropes; there were quite a few of them along the rim of the deck. They'd somehow need to get one of those to the captain...

We're in the fog. If we get close enough, I could probably make that jump with my Skill...

Steeling himself, he lifted a hand from the railing and grabbed onto the rope, only to find another hand landing right above his own.

Soren met his surprised look with a smile. "Leave this one to me, Ryles: I got it."

Rylan hesitated for a moment, but seeing the determination in his friend's amber eyes, he ultimately released his grip. "Go get her."

Soren nodded, then lightly hopped onto the railing, white light gathering below his feet.

"Take this, you gluttonous clodpoll!" Ezra yelled.

A deep twang thrummed through the deck as a harpoon flashed upward and sank into Dreadmaw's stomach with a satisfying thud, once more anchoring the creature to the ship.

For the third time, the beast let out a rumbling roar, amplified to painful levels by the echo off the nearby wall of rock.

"Now, Soren!" Halloth shouted over the near-eardrum-rupturing noise.

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"Captain!" Soren yelled. "Get ready to grab on; I'm coming!"

Whether she'd somehow managed to hear it or not, Rylan could not make out a reply.

Then Soren spun a pirouette on the thin bamboo railing, and with a flash of light, leapt off. The young noble shot forward, twirling through the fog gracefully, but he didn't seem to have quite enough speed to make it all the way to the distant blue dot.

Suddenly, a multi-coloured shimmer flashed beneath the sole of his right foot, as his boot's runework activated. A small platform of light formed beneath his foot, and he lightly kicked off, allowing the rope to glide through his hand as he danced through the mist, leaving behind a trail of fading footholds.

Rylan gaped as his friend sailed through the fog, the rope trailing after him, hanging mostly slack. His boots work so well in the fog!

He was not jealous, though. Definitely not.

Soren reached the captain just as the titanic shark above them managed to rip itself loose from Ezra's harpoon.

Soren reached out an arm and the captain didn't hesitate, clasping onto his wrist and letting go of the rope that dangled from the gapejaw's mouth.

"He's got her!" Rylan cheered.

And not a moment too soon, as the heavy steel harpoon came tumbling down through the fog right where'd she hung mere moments before.

Soren stopped producing platforms, and the rope they dangled from grew taut as they started to swing back towards the ship. Much like the harpoon, really, which Ezra was quickly hauling back in.

Of course, with how much length of rope Soren had let slip through his fingers, he and the captain were near its lower end, and would end up hanging far below the ship.

At the same time, Halloth turned off the fog condenser below the bow, and dumped the water it had gathered. "Extend the starboard fin!" he ordered, spinning the wheel starboard. "Let's get out of here!"

Wait, starboard?!

Rylan's eyes widened as Halloth turned the ship straight towards the cliff. Within seconds, it caught the updraft close to the wall, and lurched upward.

However, the manoeuvre wasn't done yet, and they kept turning. Rylan held his breath as the front of the ship's floater swung just past the rough rock. Finally, they straightened out after a full one-eighty turn, now moving the other way along the cliff, and much closer to it.

It was working though: the ship was rising rapidly now, and moving in the exact opposite direction Dreadmaw had been.

Rylan leaned over the railing at the prow to look down, and spotted Soren and the captain steadily climbing. Smiling, he waved at them.

Then his smile froze as a pressure washed over him, causing his breath to hitch. Down below the green and blue lights that signified Soren and the Captain, he spotted a growing white glow.

[Boss!] Arphin urgently called out, but Rylan was already lifting his hands to his mouth.

"Captain, Soren! Dreadmaw's coming up below you!"

Behind him, he dimly heard Halloth let out some choice curses.

Rylan didn't—couldn't—look away, however, his blood chilling as a massive set of open jaws loomed out of the fog. Aquamarine-glowing teeth formed an outline that, from his perspective, encircled his friend and the captain perfectly.

And as fast as the ship was rising, Dreadmaw was outpacing them.

His heart beat in his throat as he drew Arphin, his fingers clutching the white leather handle in a painfully tight grip. Maybe I could hit its skull through the roof of its mouth? If Arphin gets stuck there, we could try to rip out a section of its brain...

If it were only a fist-sized clump like last time, though, Rylan had no idea if that would be enough to meaningfully harm the creature.

Moreover, he'd have to throw Arphin right past Soren and the captain, who were swaying and moving around erratically. In fact, as he watched, Soren did something rather unexpected.

The young noble stopped climbing the rope. Instead, he spun himself around it as multi-coloured light lit up beneath his feet. Then he leapt straight up, pushing off against the small platforms and pulling the rope up with him.

The length of rope between Soren and the ship went slack as Rylan's friend continued to form platforms beneath his boots and kicking off from them, hauling the captain up after him.

Somehow, it was working, and Soren was actually getting closer to the deck. The only real question was whether he had enough mana. If he stopped just below the edge...

Rylan quickly grabbed the upper end of the rope where it hung past the railing and started hauling it in. Tamina appeared next to him and started to help as best she could.

Together, they managed to reel in all of the slack, and until they could start to actually help Soren pull the captain up faster. Rylan's heart beat in his throat while the seconds slipped by until finally, they reached the deck.

As Rylan helped Soren clamber onboard, Tamina thrust out her hand for the captain to grab. However, she didn't take it.

Instead, holding onto the railing one-handed, she looked back down at the still-approaching maw... and drew her hammer. "Step aside, girl."

Tamina stared at her, then pulled back her hand and did as asked.

The captain pulled herself up a little higher, raising her head above the railing, her feet propped up against the side of the ship.

"Black Sheep!" she called out. "It has been my pleasure to serve as your captain. Spirits willing, we shall meet again... in the Spiritvale."

"Captain, what are you—" Yuel cried.

However, the captain had already brought her hand up for a salute. The hand that had been holding the railing.

With her customary shark-like grin, she started to fall backwards. Then she spun around and kicked off from the side of the ship.

Rylan watched, wide-eyed, as the captain lifted her hammer overhead, grasping it with both hands as she began her descent. Its deepmetal head lit up so bright that he had to squint against it, barely able to make out the pattern of concentric circles flowing through the concentrated mana.

Then she once more activated her hammer's second runework, Drop, and shot down.

In a flash, she entered the maw full of glowing teeth, and swung her hammer at Dreadmaw's palate. A dull, booming thud rang out, accompanied by the shriek of bending metal from the shark's deforming bones. A shockwave visibly travelled outward from the point of impact, which Rylan felt in his stomach. Following that came a spray of glowing aquamarine teeth, with streamers of fog trailing behind them. Some of them even made it all the way up onto the deck, and Rylan had to move his head aside to avoid taking one on the chin.

So that's what a 'serious' swing looks like, he dimly thought.

Dreadmaw lurched, losing much of its momentum in an instant.

The captain had come to a halt in the back of its wide-open maw, goopy, airy blood already pooling around her ankles.

She looked back up, still grinning, and for a moment, Rylan caught her eyes, and believed she'd done it.

Then, with a violent snap, the maw closed around her.

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