The ship rocked as it reached the threshold of the sea gate. White-capped waves, stirred into action by the cross-shore winds, battered the sea walls and were split by the ships passing through the gate, spraying salty foam into the air.
The crew watched with bated breath, eyes turned up towards the towers that controlled the sea gate, as if waiting for it to fall on the ships below. Blood curdling screams pierced the frigid night air, and amped up the wild-eyed gaze of the coxswain as he began to increase the tempo of his counts.
The oarsmen were more than willing to bear the strain, and heaved as readily as the coxswain demanded.
Any mistaken hopes that they would make it past the gate unscathed were soon to be dashed. As soon as the ship ahead of them cleared the channel through the sea gate, a single blur darker than the night itself plummeted from the heights above and landed onto the deck of the warship.
The thing left a thick, brown misty behind it, which seemed to dance about. The fog hid within it hideous and grotesque faces that would fade and reappear with little to no rhyme or reason.
The screams began anew almost as soon as the thing had landed.
“DRAW YOUR BLADES, MEN! SHIELD WALL, ABOVE!” Ragnar shouted, and his men immediately responded.
The gunners quickly assembled into groups, and began chanting. Above their heads, an effervescent barrier sprung out like a roof over the top of their ship, and not a moment too soon, as their ship passed beyond the threshold of the gate into the open sea.
Demons rained down upon the barrier, landing on it as if it were a floor. Hasted grendels and the eyeless cannatares howled in rage, as they beat relentlessly upon the barriers between them and meat below.
“NOW!” Ragnar screamed, although his command was hardly needed. The crew didn’t hesitate to swing their blades towards the demons, slicing into the legs of the fiends.
With a roar, Ragnar’s axe lit up with electricity and pulsed as mana was poured in to reinforce the blade. Then, he leapt up and, with a swing as fast as the wind, cleaved the foot of the one of the monstrosities clean off. The Grendel collapsed and howled in anguish, as a dozen blades pierced through its back, and a yellow gel-like liquid that smell like sewage poured from the gaping wounds.
The other demons didn’t wait for their turn, and scrambled towards the edges of the barriers.
“THE SEA, THE SEA!” The sergeant screamed out, waving his hands wildly. Fortunately for him, the gunners seemed to understand his intent, and quickly angled their spells. The formless barriers offered no grip, and sent the monsters careening into the water.
The grendels thrashed in the water, as their thick, dense bulk offered no advantages in the water, and quickly began to sink under the rough waves. The cannatares proved to be much more adept in the water, and swam quickly with their bestial legs like some kind of aquatic hound. Their claws latched onto the side of the ship, as men shouted and rushed to guard rails.
Each step punch multiple holes through the wooden planks in the side, as they raced upwards.
“Haste!” Ragnar spat out quickly, and raced towards the starboard side. The moment the first ugly head crested the edge, he swung his axe, letting loose a spurt of blood as the severed head flew off. The beasts treated the soldiers as little more than wet cardboard, as they clawed and bit through them like a giant hornet through a bee hive. Dismembered corpses were flung from the edge of the ship as the monsters forced their way aboard, and through a relentless barrage of blades.
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Ragnar sped quickly to the next beast, and cleaved it in twain before it pounced onto another sailor knocked prone. However, before he could catch his next breath, he grunted in pain as a claw pierced through his shoulder and forced him face-first into the deck.
He howled, and desperately flipped around… just for the dead weight of the beast to collapse on top of him. The clash of blades and the sounds of rending flesh gave way to the wails of injured and dying men, while a high pitched cry echoed from the distance across ocean.
Ragnar glanced at the large ice spike protruding from the skin-tight head of the cannatare, and then towards the group of gunners and the sergeant, before shoving the beast off with an exhausted grunt.
“Aye, that’ll do.” The harbormaster coughed, and spat out some blood. He could feel a warm drizzle from his certainly broken nose, and his lip was split open by his teeth on impact as well.
The sergeant quickly began barking orders, as the sailors and gunners rushed back into their posts. The ship that had been boarded first listed aimlessly in the water, as a silent brown cloud filled the entire deck.
Ragnar’s ship had almost overtaken them during the course of the battle, and now they had almost come aligned with each other. His blood ran cold as he stared at the dense mist, and he instinctually reacted, as had the ships gunners.
“BARRIER!” Ragnar screamed, as a barrage of cannon fire was launched at the derelict ship. A visceral howl pierced the air, and a new faceless horror leaped out from the cloud and far over the artillery blasts that shattered the lifeless ship.
Long, fleshy fingers and webbed feet crashed into Ragnar’s barrier, as the thing hissed through rows of razor sharp teeth. Its skin was wet and rubbery, and seemed almost reflective as it had gotten close enough to catch the light of the ships torches.
Its rib-cage seemed as if it had escaped from its body, yet the flesh inside showed no discernable organs. The fetid fog, however, flowed liberally from a large bone-and-flesh cage protruding from the creature’s back, along with a rapid, high-pitch squeal.
The thing didn’t wait for Ragnar’s axe, and leapt immediately off the barrier. The sergeant didn’t even get to scream, before the things maw ripped into his gut and spilled his organs like confetti onto the deck. The gunners near him shrieked, as the brown fog poured around them and caused countless boils to erupt on their skin, in their mouths and under their eyelids.
Ragnar howled in rage, and sprinted after the abomination, as his muscles exploded with mana and energy. He flanked to the side, as he tried to avoid the billowing clouds flowing behind it, yet the creature took one look at him, and seemed to sneer before it charged up the stairway and launched itself directly at the helmsman, and grabbed the man with its gangly, fleshy hands.
It lifted him up, almost as if showing off a prize, while the helmsman swung his sword at the creature. With a wet thunk, the blade stuck into the abomination’s flesh… and stayed there.
Then… he unleashed an unearthly scream that drowned out a subsequent screech, as the sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone filled the air and continued until Ragnar leapt onto the helm. Then, as if waiting for him, the monster split the man in half, splurging out a rain of red, bloody gore before chucking the lifeless halves at the raging barbarian.
The thing seemed to sneer again, and leapt over Ragnar, as if toying with a helpless child, and rushed towards the surviving crew.
“NO! NOT AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN!” Ragnar screamed, pleaded… begged, as even with all his magic, and all his years of pathological, relentless training… he was still as helpless as that cursed day seared into his memory.
The fog descended on him, and his eyes blurred with water against his will and searing pain erupted from his skin. Yet still he charged forward, as blisters crowded into his ears and strained his hearing. Yet even through that, he could hear the next screech, as clear as day.
With it came a powerful gust of searing hot wind, and a woman dressed in red and black dropped from the sky.
here!
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Also, it recently came to my attention that many of my old image links were broken... so I went back and fixed all of them! Unless Imgur suddenly collapses, I should be good now.
