Nessa held on tightly as she was pulled free from solid comfort the ship’s deck could provide, though it was questionable how much comfort that same deck offered tangled as it was in the horns of a diamond goat. That was Sinéad’s problem, so Nessa chose to stop worrying about it once she was certain the two of them were out of range from any of the three heads. Nessa knew she’d have worries enough trying to figure out how to deal with the totem. Frigid air cut at the skin of her cheeks, and light glittered though the body of the totem. The sight would have been impossibly beautiful, if it wasn’t so damned bright, or, trying to eat them.
Caleb from the looks of things was trying to get the totem to impale itself, which wasn’t a bad idea. Squinting against the light Nessa studied the totem, pretty and solid but at the edges and joints things looked well scraped.
“Can’t tell what’s controlling it, but it’s showing its age where it moves, yeah?” Nessa called over the wind. “Maybe if I could get a shard of diamond, or if we follow Caleb’s lead we might be able to break something important.” It wasn’t much of a plan, but she didn’t have the tools on hand for anything better.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
The ship survived, which was likely more than could be said for everyone here, by the end of the day. The chimera had drawn close - close enough that the horn of the goat was hooked around the banister of the rail. Sinéad gave it the briefest of glances, and the sharpest of smiles.
"Lash it down! Ciaran, go assist." Of course, the chimera thought it was capturing them, but there was no reason it couldn't be the other way around. In a place like this, there wasn't much room to maneuver the ship, and the chimera had the better angle on them. Keeping it in one place would only make things easier for them. Beck called out about Leo, and the boy had actually managed to get himself eaten alive. Since it didn't seem to be bothering him yet, she was counting that as the best possible outcome. Beck and Juniper were considering rope, but Sinéad overrode that in an instant.
"Drop him an anchor instead! Right down the throat." If the Hard Nox was already entangled with the beast, might as well make it more so, and with something that would be a little harder to swallow. If they could get the ship's anchor down there, they could hold fast to it, as well as possibly keep the lion's head occupied - and once that was accomplished, well, Sinéad had some other ideas as well.
Lucien seemed to be holding his own well enough, hopefully he found this little divergence amusing. Caleb had managed to survive thus far, and Alys had reached for Nessa to bring her over. Unfortunately, they weren't likely to get the totem - the thing that had been a totem - unaware, but hopefully the three of them could come up with something. It would be good for them. Good practice, she thought.
The fairy was agile, and jumped aside at the last moment. The scorpion's tail slashed against the cheek of the walrus, shearing through the spindles of glittering whiskers that soon fell on the snowy ground like icicles. The creatures paid them little heed - it was only a small loss, not something so serious as the torn off wing of their siblings-chimera. Freed from the ground, the totem-centipede was far more flexible, and dove itself quickly down to earth once more, insect mandibles snapping at the man who had twice evaded them.
A heron's head shrieked a harsh warning cry, alerting the rest of them to the presence of a pair of newcomers flying in on the cusp of the chill wind. It did not bother to see if they were friends - there were no friends here. Instead, the lashing barbed tail came around once more, not in a stinging motion, but a wide swing, perhaps to knock them tumbling down into the deep ravine below.
It had done such things before. The bodies at the bottom were still frozen there, dead but not decaying, forever unthawed. Sometimes they would look at them, as a reminder.
Emryk's brow creased at the revelation. "What?" His knurled visage turned to face the clamor beyond the clinic door; idly, he held a hand upon Emer's shoulder, steadying her against his frame as he moved past the gathered crew and out upon the deck. Then, with a hoist of his other arm, he picked the wisewoman up in her entirety, pressing her against his chest as he made his way across the battlefield. The beast was far, but it would soon be close. The beast of diamonds-- a well of souls. Was it an amalgam, as he'd suspected? Upon reaching Sinead, he let Emer back upon her feet, glancing back towards the chimaera that fought with the rest of the Hard Nox.
No time to think, or deliberate. Never enough time. Emryk focused his attention upon the Captain, brow furrowed.
"If it's-- diamond, you'll need-- impact. It's hard to scratch and harder to cut, but a blow from a blunt object-- fast, and strong-- will shatter it. The cracks will propagate-- it's only a matter of starting them." He looked to Emer, then back to Sinead. "She has something to tell you. Take your men, and tell them to grab hammers, pickaxes, chisels-- anything that can strike and smash, not cut. This--" Finally, he could not withhold his suspicions, and they undercut his speech in the midst of him telling it. The rock of the boat pushed him forward, and he continued to move, a grimace wrought upon his face. "-- we should not kill this thing." Regardless, he stepped away, moving to the bow of the ship-- his voice raising into a shout as he pushed through, clarion words cutting above the deafening clamor of the battle. "It is a BAD OMEN! NO GOOD WILL COME OF THIS."
And yet he pushed forward. What was he to do? This beast threatened to kill all that he had sworn to protect. He disliked the thought of leaving Emer-- especially with her own omen to bear-- but there had been a crate of hammers and pickaxes at the bow of the ship that he had taken to using as part of his exercise, and they were needed. Now, more than ever. Emryk bounded up the steps to the bow, heavy footfalls drowned out amongst the sounds of screeching, animalistic hatred. They were trespassers. Whatever this was, it was a sentry. Was it formed from the fallen souls of its extinct predecessors? Or, perhaps, it was an entity formed from the essence of intruders, damned into service even in death. She'd told him stories of creatures like these, far beyond the walls of their kingdoms and villages.
His hand tremored as he ripped open the crate. Enough of that. Hands of stone. With a grunt, Emryk picked up the crate of tools and began to carry it, pushing himself to the railing that overlooked the main deck before hurling it over the edge to a clear spot by the stairs. The crate shattered-- the tools spilled forth, clattering along the wood for others to pick up. Hopefully, they were smart enough to intuit the next steps. Sinead had yelled for assistance upon dropping anchor-- a maneuver to damage one of the beast's heads.
"RAISE US HIGHER, IF YOU CAN!" Emryk roared to the captain. "IF WE DROP IT FROM HIGH ENOUGH ABOVE, IT MAY SHATTER THE HEAD OUTRIGHT." The displeasure he felt at such a notion was quickly swallowed, and he moved to the catshead, staring at the two-ton anchor that currently had an arm hooked over the railing. With a sigh of exasperation, Emryk quickly ducked beneath the iron arm and grabbed onto the fluke with either hand, pressing himself up into it with a choked grunt to leverage his body weight against the metal and push the anchor over the edge of the railing entirely to let it hang free. It was not without cost; his back burned with exertion, and his hands ached from the weight they bore, but with a few moments of shoving himself against the arm, the entire apparatus was sent over the edge to hang from the catshead. The wood creaked, protesting the reckless act and the strain it put upon the bar, but it held firm. The Baron gave a weighty gasp as he staggered back, claws digging into the railing of the Hard Nox as he pushed himself towards the capstan.
"TELL ME... WHEN... THE DAMNED THING IS UNDERNEATH THE-- ANCHOR!" He shouted to nobody in particular, hoping someone heard him. "LURE IT THERE, IF YOU-- HAVE TO."
Caleb exhaled and smiled when he realized he was still alive and that his guess was correct, diamond could break diamond. He moved to the left tooth, but before he could grasp it the creature dove down, the top head targeting him once more. He tried to fly away, but a sudden cramp kept his wings from lifting him up and Caleb fell, trying to hold onto some part of the centipede - hopefully not one of it's mouths.
***
The bleeding stopped after emptying at least a liter of the golden substance but before it did, the piece removed from the wing interfered in the serpent’s attack. The impact made it retreat, leaving a crack on the top of its head. Chimera didn’t feel pain, as well as it didn’t feel fear. It attacked again, trying to wrap itself around the arm holding the diamond shard.
On its other end, the goat kept swaying its head from side to side until the banister broke, releasing the Nox from its grasp. Chimera stood on its two legs and the lion roared, while claws scratched the side of the ship and its eagle head dove down, trying to take a bite of the annoying insect who kept trying to set it on fire.
***
The ship shook violently, but this time it didn’t catch Beck by surprise. Juniper’s arm remained around her waist, but she had also reached for the banister to avoid depending on the fire mage to stand upright. With a loud cracking noise the shaking stopped, and the archer noticed a huge chunk of the Nox’ railing had been pulled out by the goat’s horn.
“Look out!” She yelled when the eagle’s beak came crashing down towards them. Instinctively Beck pushed the blonde out of the way, before getting swallowed whole by the bird head.
The steady ringing of Leo’s slashing blows slowed, incrementally as sweat beaded his clammy forehead and his arms grew heavy from his efforts. His hands ached from the reverberations, the cold that had begun to settle into them spreading despite his activity deepening the pain to feel as if it went through the bone. With heavy breaths he stopped his frantic attacks, disappointed that he had caused no damage but unsurprised by the result. The battle raged outside of the diamond beast, cannonballs and torrents of flame seeming to do as much harm to the crystal body as he had.
As the chimera’s bovine head entangled the ship and the other heads lashed out at the occupants Leo settled onto his haunches, catching his breath while he watched through distorted panes of diamond. Lucien had spilled the contents of the golden veins, the ichor spreading over the translucent back of the creature before the flow was naturally staunched. For his efforts he was being assailed by the snake like tail, diamond fangs seeking immortal flesh for the offense. Gouts of red and orange cast strange shadows and shattering rays of light on the snow beneath the beast, bathing over Leo as his breathing leveled and the weariness in his arms recovered slightly.
There was nothing to do about the permeating cold, his toes joining his fingers in their frigidity as he rubbed his palms together. Huddled as he was the air still tore through his clothing like blades of ice, cutting at the core of his being and shaving off fractions of degrees from his body temperature with each moment. A soft clink echoed through the hollow of the chimera’s cavern, louder for some reason than any of the other battle sounds. He didn’t know where it came from, but it sounded like the crack of glass. He could only hope it was a sign that the crew had started making headway.
The chimera reared back, the floor beneath Leo suddenly a transparent wall that he scrambled over, the hollow of the creature’s leg providing him his only purchase to keep his position relatively close to where he had entered. A shadow crossed the distorted light, and in a fraction of an instant he saw the curved beak of the center snap around a shadowy shape as it fell from the careening ship.
His exhaustion was forgotten, panic blooming in his chest and pushing the flames to the side, his body launching into action before he had even formed a thought. In that moment it did not matter who had been devoured, whether it be the friends he had yet to make or those he already trusted. He couldn’t allow this creature to take even one of them away. The bird’s throat was straight, less a slope and more a chasm, and the fall was at least equal to the one Caleb had subjected the vampire to the previous day. His outstretched arms had barely covered the space below the center head when the person’s weight slammed into them, dragging both rescuer and the dislodged with frightening speed to the glittering floor.
Leo grunted with the exertion, the sharp pain as his legs absorbed the impact of his own weight and Beck’s as the creature returned to its natural quadrupedal position. He gave her a moment, his gaze still locked onto the action above and the ominous shadow that dangled beneath the ship, before he gently set the archer on her feet. She seemed so much younger, up close and freed from the surrounding gristle that a ship full of pirates retained. The image of Ciaran’s face, gently lined from his years beneath the sun, imposed itself in comparison and Leo wondered again at the relation between the Master Gunner and the archer.
”We need to move!” his eyes had only glanced at her for a moment before darting back up. Distorted as the image might have been, Leo knew the shape of the anchor well enough to guess what was coming. Whether freed from the battle or set loose as a weapon, the massive hunk of metal posed a real threat to anything beneath it if it fell. He took Beck’s free hand, gently pulling her away from the front of the chimera and toward a single golden thread that had caught his attention.
No sooner had Nessa's plan registered with Alys, her blue gaze immediately landing on the totem's appendages, when the tail struck, connecting with the walrus' face. Long, thin shards of glittering diamond fell to the ground, piercing the ground like knives, many remaining vertical within the thick coating of snow. As if reading her mind, the young vampire spoke again, this time advising the fairy to lower them both, just enough to gather their potential weapons. If Nessa could get a hand on a couple of those whiskers, perhaps they could strike those weakened joints, immobilizing sections of the centipede. And even better, if she could escape with one of those sharpened diamonds... well that would surely bring her a small fortune. And yet, they laid at the foot of the totem, an unfortunate difficulty that made the possibility of being trampled quite high.
But how those diamonds glittered.
Dropping down slightly, Alys steered them towards the snow-covered ledge the totem stood on - the discarded whiskers just feet away. Nothing would come easily though, not when the tail swung towards the pair, threatening to dismantle their plan - or worse. Gritting her teeth, the fairy turned sharply, yanking Nessa in the opposite direction, just barely preventing them both from being hit. But the weight and momentum gained proved to be too much, sending them careening towards the rocky side of the mountain. Alys adjusted her position and forced her wings to beat even harder, desperate to regain control. "Fuck," she yelled, stopping them from slamming into the wall, but not without the side of her hip and thigh scrapping against the rock formation. She could only hope Nessa didn't sustain any injuries.
Breathing heavily, Alys regained her composure and dropped back down a second time, heading straight for the whiskers. They needed to be quick about this - for more than one reason. Without warning, she released her grip from one of Nessa's forearms, the shift causing them to dip down a little faster, until equilibrium was met once more, her free hand further supporting the one forearm that kept the vampire suspended. "Grab as many as you can. And fast. I don't know how much longer I can do this." Wings, back, arms, hip, and thigh - everything was on fire, burning as exhaustion flooded through her.
Before they could make a move, the rails broke free, separating the Nox and the chimera once more. Their footing regained, Juniper let go of Beck for a moment, looking to the captain as she called out orders. The anchor? That would certainly be enough to at least hurt the thing, but Leo was still-
No, there wasn't time to consider that. The changeling clenched their jaw and began taking a few shaky steps towards the anchor. Leo was alive, he was inside the thing. Dropping the anchor on it could kill him. Dropping the anchor on the chimera was also their best chance at saving everyone else. Logically, dropping the anchor now made the most sense, but still they hesitated. Shouldn't they try to save him? He was part of the crew, he went through the cages, wasn't it only fair to rescue him, just as they had been rescued from Solomon King before?
Their consideration made them slow, and Emryk arrived first, taking the weight in his arms and lifting it singlehandedly. Juniper stopped, looking between the Baron and Beck, considering what to do, before something caught their eye, near where Lucien was keeping a section of the creation occupied. A spot, where the light came off the back of the thing differently, less clearly. It clicked, then, along with the shouting by the Baron that they hadn't yet had time to process, that it wasn't ice, just as they had suspected. This much gemstone was definitely harder to deal with than they had anticipated.
But there was ice, and that ice was bunched on the things back, where a wing had been broken away innumerable years before, sealing veins of liquid gold. Lucien had managed to expose one, and the ichor flowed like blood. The beginnings of a plan formed in the sorceresses mind, and they looked to Beck again, though they began walking towards the rail, now splinters. "Go help Emryk, I'm going to try to-"
They were interrupted suddenly, by another assault from the chimera. The eagle head dove down towards them. There was no time to move, no way to react in time. Their feet were involuntarily lifted from the deck, shoved to the side by Beck, who was subsequently swallowed whole in their stead. Juniper landed heavily on their side, certain they would have a wonderful bruise on their hip in the morning, but that was the least of their worries. Anger flared, at the creature, and at their lack of attention. Fierce eyes looked to Baron Emryk, their jaw set. "I'll get it still. Listen for my shout, then drop it."
They flew back to their feet, boots pounding against the deck as they broke into a sprint towards the creature as it began to fall back to the ground below. Rational thought was no longer a concern as they leaped from the Nox, aiming to go over the three heads. The sorceress, with flames trailing from their hands in mid-flight, called out the Navigators name, though they were uncertain if he would ever hear, as immediately after, they stuck both hands towards the ruined wing, and the patch of ice sealing the chimera's veins closed, and let their anger burn.
Hopefully, the captain trusted their judgment as much as they did.
“Fu—” Nessa drew her legs up as the tail swung by, the fabric of her cloak sliding over the smooth surface. Be it the whip of air or the sudden change in momentum, Nessa held on tight as they were knocked off course from their sparking prizes. Nessa kept her body pulled tight as the walls of the mountain suddenly loomed close. Nessa uncurled suddenly as they drew near, she swung her feet back the heel of her boot catching the wall and sending a spike of pain up her leg. The motion was awkward, but she bent her leg as they swiped past, trying to cushion the impact as much as she could before Alys got her wings back under her.
Nessa bared her teeth as they pulled away from the wall, a throb in her heel that felt no worse than a high drop. Nothing more to it than to bear her fangs until it passed, as it always did. Alys was quick to get them back on track, releasing her hold on one of Nessa’s arms which the vampire reciprocated. Her other shoulder protested but Nessa paid it no heed as she shifted her weight to reach down to the ground.
“Aye, keep us steady” Nessa called over the cut of the wind as they dropped close to the ground. Rainbows danced in the cracked edges of the broken whiskers, colored the blanket of snow which covered the ground. Nessa didn’t have time to pick the choice pieces of diamond, instead she plucked up those that were within reach and seemed long enough to do damage. The first couple she quickly pushed into the strap holding her knives to her thigh, pinning them in place, and a few more she simply gripped tight in her hand, long enough to be useful. She’d need to pass one to Caleb when she could, but for now she had enough for herself and Alys.
“I’ve got enough!” Nessa called, squeezing tight the bundle in her hand.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
The shard struck, jarring Lucien’s arm as the two nearly unbreakable substances crashed against each other. It was enough to send the serpent retreating temporarily, a crack forming in its head. It coiled as best it could, preparing another strike. Lucien was doing the same, a deadly game between two predators, each focused on the other, working to read the moves of the other, working to plan three steps ahead. But of course, as both predators kept their attention locked on the other, a third slipped into the fray.
Lucien heard his name called and dragged his attention away from the chimera’s tail to witness the flaming Juniper. They leapt from the deck, trailing their own flame as they soared towards the chimera, their call both a warning and a plea. Killing this beast was his first priority, so Lucien complied. As the serpent lashed out at Lucien once more, he leapt. Not away, but instead Lucien threw himself at the snake, diamond shard clutched in both hands. He brought it down viciously, all his strength behind the blow as he sought to embed it within the crystalline creature. As Juniper’s flame washed over the beast, Lucien extended a hand, hoping the ensuing flailing would bring him within range of the pyromancer.
And if it did not, they had only themself to blame as they plummeted.
No impact, but the flying things had dispersed anyway, one of them striking the wall in its haste to get away, holding fast to the second as they fell to the snow covered ground, scrabbling amongst the icy detritus. As if by an afterthought, the totem-centipede raised one of their great glittering legs, bringing it down quickly towards where the tiny thief-of-parts had fallen, to impale her in place. They had done such things, in the past. Sometimes they did not kill the little pests, and then the great creatures waited, with all the patience of the aeons, until the screaming had stopped - before casting the frostbitten corpse down the ravine amongst the others.
There was not much for entertainment up here in the frozen mountains, after all.
The swing of their foremost jaw jaw had missed the flying creature, but it was weakening already, here in the cold. Most of these invaders did not last long, in the frozen places. There were some that did, of course, but most of them it was merely a matter of delaying them until the greater threat of the cold destroyed them. They did not particularly care for the cold - things would have been more interesting without it.
Nonetheless, the small creature fell weakly from the air, a hand grabbing on to the beak of a great heron to break its fall. The heron beak opened and snapped, whether to take off a small finger or to toss the creature down amongst the others, it did not know.
The one that had flown into the rock rose higher, trying to pull the small thief-of-parts off of the icy ground. The totem-centipede fixed her with the gaze of a single great glassy eye, staring into her and wondering when this one, too, would tire.
Sinéad gave the ex-baron a quick, sharp nod of her head. Her knowledge of diamonds mostly involved estimating how much they were worth. She knew quite a bit about the cut and quality, but had never been called on to destroy one before. She had learned that being an effective captain meant that in situations like this, the best thing to do was listen to the expert.
Ciaran hadn't gotten around to trying to lash down the goat head yet, so Sinéad gave him a quick "Belay that - disentangle it instead, chop the railing with axes if you need to." If they got out of this with the loss of no more than a little wood, that was easily fixed. The chimera had darted another head forward, swallowing up the archer - not an instantaneous death, it seemed, but death nonetheless unless they could get them out of there somehow. It didn't seem likely that they'd pass through the other end.
"Does a diamond chimera shit geodes?" An idle question, not really directed at anyone in particular. Perhaps the only one close enough to hear it was... Emer. What was she doing up here in the cold? If the wisewoman caught her death of it, Sinéad was going to use Emryk's thick skull to smash the beast. "Hold onto something, I'm going to try to pull us up." A motion of the lever and the sails billowed, catching the heated air and releasing a great cloud of steam as the ice and snow that surrounded them sublimed. Sinéad doubted she could get much height, but she did what she could to put the ship above the beast, and hoped someone had the aim to drop the anchor atop it.
Perhaps if it shattered, they'd be able to retrieve their stolen crew. Emer could treat frostbite.
The long beak Caleb had held onto was not only slippery as fuck, it was also trying to kill him. Caleb let go of it before it snapped, saving his fingers from getting chewed, and flapped his wings once again, succeeding at taking flight despite the pain.
It was only when flying away that Caleb spotted Alys, who had returned with Nessa, like he’d asked her to. The vampire was armed with the walrus’ whiskers, and a plan began to form on his brain. He hovered over the snow and took a handful of it, shaping it into a ball and tossing it at the nearest diamond head.
“Hey, humongous freak!” Once he got at least one pair of eyes on him he flipped the totem-centipede off and flew towards the crevasse. If he was right and these things were protectors of whatever was in there, it wouldn’t just let him in. It was worth a shot.
“I’ll keep it distracted!” He shouted at the two women. “Break this fucking thing!”
***
Something stung on her right ankle, but Beck had other matters to worry about, like trying not to fall on her head and break her neck. Lucky for her Leo had been waiting, arms outstretched and prepared to catch her.
“Thank you.” She breathed out, finally looking down at her foot when it touched the translucent ground. A dark red stain spread through her trousers, and a small puddle of blood began to take shape. Through the torn apart fabric she could see the 4 inch cut left by the harpie’s sharp beak. She would have kneeled to try and improvise a bandage if she hadn’t looked up, reminding of the baron’s plan. A plan that could very easily get them both killed along with the Chimera if it worked.
Holding to his arm for support, Beck joined Leo, running towards the rear end of the diamond creature. Bloody footprints marked her steps , avoiding stepping over the golden pipes that spread like vines throughout the inners of the sculpture. Beck had seen it from above, but it was much prettier from up close. Like liquid gold, but shinier.
A second strike, hitting precisely at the same spot as the first one amplified the crack on the serpent’s skull. Golden liquid began to pour out of it, as well as from the open veins from its broken wings, unclogged after the ice had melted. Chimera didn’t feel heat as well as it didn’t feel cold, but it was aware of the leak and it roared angrily as the shimmery stripes from the goat’s horns began to fade. To make matters worse, the enemy flew higher and out of reach. Chimera flapped its wings, unable to catch flight due to one of them being broken.
Serpent hissed, moving aimlessly like a loose hose. The broken wing, as well as the other one kept flapping, not to try to get itself up in the air anymore, but to try to drop the intruders standing on top of it.
With Nessa dangling beneath her, gathering thin shards of broken diamond, mere seconds turned into an eternity. But Alys didn't stop shifting her gaze between the vampire and the totem that towered over them. Her vigilance proved to be warranted fairly quickly though; an incoming leg caused the fairy to jerk them both to the side, just after Nessa had announced that she was finished. Thankfully, they were both low to the ground and far enough from the side of the mountain to avoid another collision, or worse, a broken neck. The abrupt movement caused her grip to loosen, sending the pair sprawling into the snow-covered earth. And although the leg slammed down onto nothing but rock, the impact caused a sprinkling of snow and ice to coat the two pirates. Her teeth began to chatter once more, the cold infiltrating her sore body, and in that moment, all she wanted was another warm embrace.
But there was no time for that, not with looming danger, and not after hearing Caleb's distant shout. They had shit to do.
Alys got to her feet and turned to her partner, shaking hand outstretched - either an offer for support or a silent request for a couple of whiskers - that was up to Nessa's interpretation. Her gaze wandered up towards one of the heads, to the eye that seemed to be trained on her. For a moment, she wondered whether this thing could feel, whether it was capable of choice, or whether it understood the words spoken. "So... go for the joints?"