Chapter 72: Entangled (Patreon)

[The king’s private chambers]

The Court Seer burst into the room while the king reads at his desk.

Court Seer: Your majesty! The future has been revealed to my eyes and in it I have seen a tragedy. 

The King: What have you seen?

Court Seer: Your wife, the lady queen, giving birth to the royal heir. Blood floods the floor of her royal suites, and the baby and mother lost.

The king stares into the distance, pain on his face, but his mind is at work.

The King: You are certain?

The Court Seer nods solemnly.

-Act I of the Keyhole of Time

—

Kole watched stunned at the massive monster. He’d grown used to the smaller cloakers, having battled them for weeks with hardly an injury, but this giant brought back the initial fear he’d overcome, and then some.

It closed its mouth on the adventurer, silencing its cries, and when it opened its mouth once more only gore-stained teeth remained. A second tail shot over the edge, wrapping around the foremast pulling the cloaker fulling onto the deck. Two more tails quested out, searching for victims to knock into the sea.

The creature’s wing-like appendages came down onto the deck, acting as legs, and it used them to lift its head up to a height suitable for biting off sailors’ heads.

The crew fled from the bow of the deck, some having the presence of mind to fire their weapons at it as they ran. The appearance of the creature had been sudden, and it knocked two more of the four-man adventuring party overboard that had served on the evening watch. The last member of the crew, an ax wielding orc let out a roar of anguish and charged at the maw. It succeeded in dodging a tail swipe only for the cloaker to collapse atop of him, crushing it under its bulk.

As that occurred, Kole and the rest of the crew not immediately around the invader came to their senses. Rakin and Zale shared a look before running at the enemy, Zale drawing her bastard sword for the first time outside of training since they entered, and Rakin even picked up a large boarding ax from the ground. 

Doug began firing arrows at the cloaker, but the stone-tipped projectiles they were left with by then couldn’t pierce its hide. Still, Doug and the ship’s crews continued to fire at the cloaker.

Kole too joined into the attack, sending an experimental blast from his rod into the monster’s side. To his relief, the attack left a gaping wound the monster’s pale red blood poured from. Doug noticed the damage immediately and sent an arrow into the hole Kole had made.

“Wow!” Kole couldn’t help but say, impressed by the shot.

Doug blushed, embarrassed by the praise, but his next shot failed to repeat the feat. 

The cloaker turned, using its four tails to pull on the masts and rigging to position itself, presenting its back to the arrows. By then, Rakin and Zale had reached it and were dodging the tails as they struck out at the pair. Learning from the mistake of the orc, the two kept away from the mouth and focused on taking swipes at the tails as they dodged their swings.

Three of the remaining four adventurers joined them up front, while the fourth joined in with the ranged assault. Kole continued to make holes in the cloaker’s hide, and the skilled archers—and less skilled sailors—aimed for these with mixed results. Kole had to stop after blasting his eighth hole in the monster’s side. He’d tried to aim for his own previous targets to widen the openings or cause internal damage, but his aim wasn’t so great. He took solace in the fact that he hadn’t missed the giant sea monster with any of his attacks.

After his eighth shot times, Kole ducked behind a mast and used the remainder of his Will to power the repair rune, pausing to still himself and focus his mind lest he make a mistake and destroy his weapon.

Unlike casting a spell, there was no feedback when he sent the Will out of him, and he had to examine the rod mid-battle to make sure it had worked.

It seems fine? He thought, not feeling confident at all in his ability to assess the integrity of runes while a giant manta ray monster attacked his friends. Not that he felt the monster attack had any bearing on his rune assessment abilities.

Before returning to the fray, Kole downed his sole clarity potion. He jumped out, ready to continue his attacks, but noticed that the five melee combatants had been reduced to three as two of the adventurers were missing, but so was one of the cloaker’s tails. Two feet below where the tails left its body, a jagged cut bled over the deck, Rakin’s ax still stuck into the cartilage of the appendage. Rakin now stood the focus of the cloaker’s ire. Spending all his focus on ducking and dodging the tails as they swiped for him.

Zale tried to capitalize on the monster’s tunnel vision and landed an overhanded swing on one of the tails, but her blade only made it a third of the way through the tough flesh. The tail surged in response to the attack and threw Zale over the edge of the deck.

Rakin let out a roar, but managed to contain his fiery fury and Kole’s heart lurched in his chest before he remembered that this was the dungeon and that she’d likely appear safe in the Dahn before her armor could drag her to the bottom of the ocean.

Will she be soaked? Kole wondered idly despite the battle. 

He shook away the thought and reassessed. The arrow attacks had slowed as the archers tried to conserve their arrows for good shots on the holes in the hide. Kole could have continued but felt that wouldn’t be enough. It was then he noticed the cloaker’s odd behavior.

As it attacked Rakin and the rapier-wielding elven adventurer it kept its back to the archers. When its targets moved out of sight, behind it, fanned all three of its remaining tails out to try to strike blindly at the hidden enemy, but it never turned to face them.

“It’s face is vulnerable!” Kole shouted to Doug and the other archers.

Doug nodded, and Kole turned invisible, running down the deck toward the bow of the ship. Rakin’s fists and the rapier would have little chance of striking the eyes or mouth of the cloaker. Kole watched Rakin, amazed as he approached at the dwarf’s speed and agility. Whenever Kole thought him trapped by an incoming swipe of the tail, the dwarf moved its body in a way Kole could hardly comprehend to bend out of its way.

The elf was nimble too, but that was expected of an else. To see the dwarf move with grace incongruous with his demeanor and stature. Kole had to slow as he neared the creature as the deck was slick with blood from the tail stump, which itself had stopped bleeding by then.

At Doug’s command, the archers had completely stopped firing while Kole was invisible near the battle. Kole kept to the rail, gripping it dearly as he tried to get around to the monster’s front He hadn’t realized it until then, but the flailing of the giant cloaker was rocking the ship.

A loud splintering crack rang out followed by the squalling wail of twisting wood as one of the masts finally gave way under the force of cloaker’s pulls as it used it to maneuver. The cloaker pulled itself forward in a lurch of its two other tails. The foremast quickly but then slowed as the rigging caught hold. The ropes couldn’t handle the weight, however, and they snapped one by one and the mast toppled into the sea.

Headless of the danger of the falling mast, the elf took the opportunity to slash at the body of the cloaker as it flew past him, leaving a long shallow gash along its side. Robbed of the mast it had been using to leap around the deck, the creature’s movements slowed as it used its tails on the smaller fixtures and structures at the bow of the ship.

Once certain the mast wouldn’t swing back at him, Kole continued his run into the fray. The ship’s swaying slowed as the cloaker became less mobile, and Kole quickly covered the ground and the eyes of the cloaker came within view as he stood along the rail, twenty feet from where Rakin battled the tails. 

Kole had considered his options on the way over on his method of attack. Magic Missile as a spell was incredibly useful when he needed to hit a creature, the spell had a homing component that unerringly sought the creature targeted by the spell. Unfortunately, when the target moved, the spell didn’t let Kole choose where exactly on it he wanted to hit. If he aimed at a bullseye of an archery butt, he’d hit it every time, but if Tigereye through the target into the air, his bolts of force would follow after it until it hit the first part it caught up to. With the cloaker moving about, the Force bolts of Magic Missile would spread out and hit the beast all over.

So, Kole had settled on using his blasting rod. His aim was okay, but the eyes were large, and he could get close. He inched closer, watching the pattern of the tail attacks and choosing a route obstructed by the debris of the deck that made tail attacks unlikely.

“Create an opening for me!” Kole shouted to Rakin, once he was as close as he dared.

The dwarf complied immediately, while the elf looked a little confused but battled on. Rakin let out a very unmonkly roar and ran at the cloaker’s face with a jagged piece of wood. He ducked under one tail, leapt over another only to be knocked back the third, sending him flying into a pile of sail and rope left over from the collapsed mast.

Kole saw his chance the moment after Rakin was struck, aimed his rod at the cloaker’s open mouth, and sent power into the rod. The purple blast of force shot straight past the swordlike teeth and disappeared into the darkness of its gaping maw. While Kole couldn’t see the impact of his strike, the effect was immediate, and the cloaker rear in pain briefly before dropping flat to the ground. It scanned the deck and quickly saw the now visible Kole.

Kole dove, turning invisible as he did, narrowly missing the tail that struck the rail he’d been near. He scrambled across the deck, slipping in the blood as the tails of the cloaking crashed down on the deck indiscriminately searching for the invisible gnat that had caused it pain. Made ran towards the archers in the hopes of the cloaker moving to face him but the cloaker blindly attacked in the area he’d been in.

Invisible, duh! Kole chastised himself. Standing on a crate, Kole let his invisibility lapse and fired another blast at the cloaker. The blast struck it on its wing, leaving another wound, and the cloaker snapped around to face Kole, finally giving the archers a line of fire on its vulnerable face.

Kole risked a glance to the archers, but they were holding their fire. Doug half an arrow drawn, eyes closed in focus.

“What are they waiting for!?” he asked aloud.

As if on cue, Doug loosed the arrow. Kole turned back to the enemy just in time to see a tail coming for him.

“Roh-ka,” he shouted, placing his hand before him as he cast the newest version of his Shield spell.

The semi-translucent barrier appeared before him outstretched palm, and Kole couldn’t help but close his eyes as the limb came for him.

There’s no way this will stop it, He thought as he accepted his imminent expulsion from the dungeon.

Had his eyes been open, he would have been shocked to see the tip of the tail strike the shield, only to be deflected up and over him.

When he wasn’t dead in the next instant, Kole had the presence of mind to open his eyes in time to see the after-effects of Doug’s arrow. It hadn’t struck the cloaker at all, but the other new construction wall at the bow he’d not yet cannibalized for arrows. Where it struck, the wood warped and melted, flowing into the form of roots and shot out to the cloaker.

The monster left Kole alone as it began to battle the ship itself. The wood began to wrap around the creature, pulling it to the deck, but more importantly, holding it in its current orientation.

“Loose!” someone shouted from behind Kole and heard dozens of arrows rushed over him at the trapped enemy.

Most hit what served as the creature’s face, bouncing harmlessly to the deck, but enough struck true, and the eyes of the beast slammed shut, arrows sticking out between the lids and leaking page white liquid.

The cloaker lost all semblance of control and began swinging its tails blindly, striking all over the deck. Kole joined in the ranged barrage with his blasting rod. Rakin took the opportunity to charge, now wielding an ax. He dodged his way to the creature’s head, stuck as it was to the deck, and landed a heavy swing into its left eye. Before he could draw the ax out, a tail struck him and threw him back. The elf made an attempt to do the same as Rakin, but his sword pierced the monster’s flesh, finding nothing critical and he too was thrown.

Kole began to lose hope. Even with the monster trapped, they couldn’t killed it. He racked his brain trying to think of something they could do when he saw something climbing cresting over the edge of the ship.

Kole stared in awe—for more than one reason—as a very pale and very naked young woman climbed onto the deck behind the cloaker and pulled out the ax Rakin had left in its tail stump. The cloaker lashed a tail back at the sensation, But the new attacker vanished into black mist only to reappear a moment later on the cloaker’s back, ax in hand. She took to bounds forward, navigating over the woods that strained to hold the cloaker down, and brought the pick end of the ax down in an overhead swing

For a moment the cloaker spasmed, tails writhing for a moment as its wings bucked against the restraints before the monster collapsed onto the deck. The surviving crew and adventurers let out a cheer and Zale looked on from the back of the cloaker with triumph. That is until she realized her unclothed state. In the act of vanishing out of her armor, she left her clothes and disguise bracelet behind.

Her skin immediately darkened in embarrassment—something in the moment before he looked away Kole learned was a full body reaction. Zale vanished again, reappearing out of sight behind the cloaker.

“Someone get me some clothes!” she shouted.