Oh how they fought!
Forwards and backwards
@Kamala Graham went, the Lifeline that she grasped propelling her into the face of the storm a second time, her petite form caught in the explosion of steam. And yet, she rolled with that force still, launching herself back upon the Longship like a leaf caught in a storm.
@Erick Stryker caught her before she could smash headfirst into the mast, his hands grabbing at the very state of her being and forcing it to a previous iteration in order to undo the consequences of her self-effacing ways, but the Faerin didn't even allow herself a breath before she was up once more, springtime benedictions enveloping her friends. And as the tides once again rose up to swallow them whole,
@Chrys rose to his own task, the Stalwart Defender unshaken by the force of the waves that crashed against his form. Around him, a spirit most bullish emanated, the very symbol of enduring strength upon the land, challenging that insurmountable titan of the sea!
And in the corona of that glorious declaration about trout and algae,
@Charlotte Ann Marie gathered her strength again, the cold seeping deeper and deeper into her bones. She stoked the inner flames nonetheless, and though she could no longer feel her fingers, the beastfolk didn't need to either; her sword was frozen stuck to the palm of her hand, and all she needed to do was strike down with it! Scales bent as she slid her blade underneath, wrenching them out as she climbed further up towards the Crown of the Leviathan.
@Ayna Nietzsche too, clad in seven thunders, returned once more, the brackish blood of the great beast steaming against her garments as she drove her polearm at a frenetic pace. Under the combined assault, a tangible reaction was finally teased out from the Witch's Spawn, a tremor along its entire body.
It was enough to almost flip the Longship over, the
ripples of the Leviathan's discomfort. The ocean heaved and hurled, but through it all,
@Kirius kept the vessel on track. Even with oars snapped, the phantasmal limbs that he projected could serve as paddles all on their own, the black hands cresting in and out of the ocean to propel the longship ever-forward!
Forward from open waters to the tangled weave of the Seaborn's thousand tentacles.
Now.
Now they were within its reach.
Thunder clapped, another eruption of steam searing those who fought upon the Crown. The waves buckled and became as a sledgehammer, pummeling the guardian that stood before it all. The storm of ice and lightning wore down all warriors without mercy or focus. It was a battle of attrition against a titan of enormous mass, and slowly, gradually…it was waking up.
Steady yourselves! It's awakening!
Atop the Leviathan, Ulfr raised his axe, a sanguine gale swirling around its rune-carved steel. With blows that clanged like a war-forge, he swung it over and over against the monstrosity's eye and yet could not do so much as tear open the transparent eyelid. Another curse, another roar, and the scattered force of furious blows scattered like sparks, then found a home upon the weapons of the two Starcalled who fought upon the Crown as well. Blades of flame and lightning sparked with ever-greater energy, begging to be released, beacons of devastation!
But the Leviathan raised its head.
And those beacons, blazing so bright, were but matchsticks upon the skull of the Seaborn Titan. They truly have been only fighting upon its Crown; its head alone dwarfed the merchant galleons that were anchored at the ports.
The Sea had always been greater than the Land.
As they gazed upon that creature, in all its terrible might, Kamala and Erick could both hear it. An unnatural whisper, a siren's lament. Driving into their skulls, that undulating whine filled with such longing, such passion, that their very blood spilled out from their eyes, their nose, their ears, their mouth. Their blood, so eager to return to the ancestral land, to the saltwater abyss!
But their sanity remained, rooting them to the creaking Longship.
Was it the light of that Light-Blessed God whom the Witch wished to consume? Was it the brilliance of self-sacrifice that caused her to croon? Or was it simply that the
kindling of the Lantern existed only to be swallowed by the infinite waves?
Yes.
It should drown that Light.
