A deep presence in the ocean watched the only mage converse. Yes, this one would do, it thought as it focused on the feeling of its magical signature. It felt as radiant as the sun, warm, comforting in a way that drew the deep-sea creature close enough to the surface to both see the man and also be seen by him as well. If he managed to rip the soul out of that mage he could become incredibly powerful, potentially even take his form and allow himself to walk on land. Yes, that was the end goal after all. After he had been banished to the sea, his every goal had been to grow back his power and find a way to get back on land in order to take revenge on the one person that had cast him down into the depths of the sea. This human was the final part of that plan, the plan that would let him walk amongst humans as he had at one point done so before. Sea bubbles oozed out of its mal-formed mouth and around its sludgy face. Terrence considered what the paladin had told him. Healing magic sounded very appealing, and solar light magic didn't seem to freaky compared to some of the things he had heard of mages doing in general with their magic. And maybe he was prejudiced for this, but he was never a fan of their practitioners, fearing them to always be plotting something in mad pursuits of powers. Most of the criminals he knew were bad guys using their magic to steal rob and kill. Of course the captain knew that here were good mages like Arthur, but they seemed few and far between. Most mages seemed to want endless power regardless of the cost. He didn't trust those types of people on concept of the matter. Endless power meant endless responsibility, something that couldn't be afforded to anyone. Nobody could handle endless responsibility, and so nobody was meant to receive endless amounts of power as some dark mages aspired towards "Mages make me a bit nervous, I'm not going to lie, but you seem fine to be honest. Hargeon doesn't really get many magically inclined folk, so when we do, they're usually up to no good from what I've seen and experienced. Arthur, you've helped me realize that mages aren't always bad people, unless you're like secretly a necromancer or something haha. And I know this is probably offensive for me to be telling you all of this, but I thought I'd be genuine and honest with you about how I feel. In fact, I actually wanted to tell you about something relating to honesty. I'm not intending to actually deliver this to the location. Apparently held within our hull is some type of lacrima storage being shipped to a dark mage guild. I received this information from a very trusted informant for the Rune Knights working within the dock's parameters. Because of this intended recipient, we are rerouting the ship towards one of their private military bases where the lacrima will be seized and hopefully put to good use with the government's application. I understand that my boss was supposed to pay you, but the Rune Knights will be offering you compensation in order for your co-opperation. Y-you're not going to turn on us right?" The words were a surprise to the paladin, but his stance on the matter had not changed. He would protect his crew over the cargo any day. At this point the payment didn't really matter, he had honestly bonded with the people onboard with him on the ship. He'd fight for their lives regardless of how the job turned out. The business man held none of this loyalty, and so Arthur was eager to actually fork over the lacrima to the Rune Knights. They'd be in much better hands with them instead of a dark mage guild. Nothing positive could ever come from helping their ilk bolster their ranks. Smilinng at Terrence, Arthur could hear the hesitation in the captain's voice and took the man into a close embrace. He couldn't trouble the folk for being prejudiced in that regard. It sounded like he was truly afraid of mages not for the fact that they practiced magic, but for the effect most of them had had on his life and city. It was reasonable enough, but probably not justifiable. Comforting the man, he patted the ginger on the back before releasing him from the hug.
"Nah, don't worry about it, you're right that there are a lot of evil mages in this world. I'm part of a guild actually that disposes of them alongside other things of that nature. I'll hapilly deliver the lacrima to the Rune Knights, and I honestly don't even need payment, because it's not why I'm doing this job. I agreed to come on this boat in order to help you guys out, and I maybe wanted money at the start for my troubles, but not anymore, not now that I know each and every one of you." Arthur was about to continue his speech but suddenly his magical senses were overwhelmed in what felt like pure death and drowning despair. It was like the evil magical signature lashed out with hands desperately grabing for anything to prevent itself from drowning and being lost to the depths. The sheer suddenness of the attack knocked the wind out of him as he fell to the deck's edge with a wheezing gasp. Kneeing himself up on the ground, Arthur quickly cast a protection spell and watched the golden aegis form around both him and the captain. "Arthur! Are you okay? What's happening?" Forcing himself to stand strong against the sudden presence, Arthur lashed out his magical signature in turn, allowing himself to stand strong against the torrent of energy overwhelming and coating the ship. Bubbles breached the water of the ship right next to him. "We're being attacked by something magical, get inside, I'll handle this!" Requipping his sword, Dawn's Edge appeared in his grasp after a burst of blue and golden flaring light. Arthur's pace quickened as he awaited for whatever the fuck it was to breach the surface. His sense of the undead let him feel its presence and general figure. It was massive, humanoid, and fucking angry. This would be interesting, an undead underwater creature? Arthur just had to make sure that the ship itself didn't become too damaged, because he wasn't sure if he could use his magic to patch it up. Instead, Arthur cast a few weak warding spells over the entirety of the ship's form. It wouldn't protect much, but stop the ship from getting destroyed in the crossfire of his oncoming magical fight. The captain retrieved a gun from his pockets. 'I don't have much magic at all, but I can fire a few rounds of this gun, I'll fight with you! I can't just leave you alone out here, I'm your captain." This was becoming a worse situation the longer it drew itself out. Terrence didn't want to retreat, he instead wanted to be able to fire a few magical bullets from his gun. For a normal non-mage, they'd only be able to fire off a few rounds before being overcome by magical fatigue. That was not something he wanted to deal with right at the moment, but neither was the undead abomination about to breach the water's surface. Any second now, the paladin thought as a large mass burst in a spray of salt water. The rotting stench of death coating their surroundings in a thick and putrid miasma. It seemed to be a moving mass of water-logged decomposing flesh. Barnacles and seaweed grew from its grey flesh. A large misshaped head wore a pirate's hat alongside various other shredded and thrashed adornments. The monster wore a torn and ripped pirate suit, having lost all of its color from water bleaching. A burst of dark water magic was suddenly cast towards Arthur before the villain could even give himself time to explain his monologue or evil plans. With an aegis burst from his armor, the paladin absorbed the bolt of dark water element and sprouted wings from his back. Shining iridescently in the sunlight, the wings unfurled and carried him off the ship and up into the sky above the open ocean. He needed to get away from the ship so that any of the attacks were less likely to hit their vessel, even though he had somewhat warded its materials. The warding wasn't strong enough for him to just actively fight from it, and besides, that would be putting the captain in danger. "Arthur! What are you doing?!? Are those wings? What the fuck is that thing?" Yeah, definitely time to fly away from the ship as a distraction. The creature's blue-glowing eyes followed him with rectangular pupils as he darted away from another blast of magic. This time, a decaying flesh tentacle pierced the ocean's surface and caught the paladin off guard. A look of freight washed over his face as the tentacle's tip managed to pierce through his now-cracking shield. Arthur could feel himself being stabbed by the appendage as the creature laughed in eerie delight. Pain blossomed in his chest as blood trickled down his armor's plates. Casting a healing spell on himself, Arthur prayed to Helios for strength while repairing his shield. Gathering light on the edge of his blade, Arthur discharged the magical energy in a piercing blow to the sea monster. And it made sense, then, what the creature had done, its tentacle could pierce. Arthur had been caught off guard that first time, but he wasn't going to let it happen again as he swiftly dodged another tentacle appearing from the water. Gathering holy magic in his left hand, Arthur cast a smiting spell on the wretched abomination. Fire burned at its water-logged body as it writhed in pain. Water magic blasted against his shields as the force of the magic attacked disrupted his aerial momentum and sent him back as his wings flapped wildly to keep him airborn. The monster definitely wasn't weak, Arthur thought as an arm appeared from the water, clutching what looked like an unholy trident. Pointing it at the paladin, Arthur blinked out of the way as a ray of black magic was cast his way. Gathering the sunlight bearing down on them, Arthur healed the micro tearing of his muscles to prevent and prolong the onset of exhaustion. As he made a quick slash at the creature's arm, A bright beam of light burst down on the monster from the sky. A deep rumbling shook the water's surface as the creature spoke in a wicked tone. "You dare challenge pirate captain Makoa?" This was more of the villain type he was used to, giving their name and motivations during the fight for no good reason. Salt water splashed into the air as Arthur took the direct impact of another tentacle. At this point, he diddn't even know how many appendages he was fighting at once, but he couldn't let them just gather on the surface. He needed to destroy them before he was outnumbered. Blinking away from another attack, Arthur teleported in a bust of golden light as he appeared next to a swaying tentacle. Cutting through the side having suction cups, black blood sprayed from the creature's wound as it polluted the water's surface. The cleaved appendage slithered back under the water as the two other tentacles made made stabs at him, catching him in the side and drawing blood through his various sources of armor. Arthur had never really fought a creature of this level before, one that was capable of piercing his armor. He couldn't let the fight go on for too much longer, fearing the consequences that would put on him. It's not as if he had used too much mana, but there was the chance that the sea monster could pull out some other piercing attack that would gravely wound him. In that situation, none of his shields or armoring would protect him from such an attack. This was the first time piercing damage had been used against him, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Dark-infused water splashed against his aegis burst and somewhat chipped at the makeshift shield. It would last for a few more water spells, but would probably shatter if it by one of those damned tentacles. He needed to get rid of those damned tentacles before he even considered taking on the creature's central mass. Makoa's actual body only seemed capable of doing magical damage with the dark water and darkness bursts from the trident. He wasn't sure how much damage the trident could deal when wielded as a melee weapon, but Arthur wasn't really looking to find that out for himself. Instead, Arthur absorbed sunlight and magic into his blade before making one long slash that was cast forward like a shockwave. Hitting both tentacles at once, they too were cleaved in half in a gushing explosion of putrified blood. Another blast of light bust down from the sky as the creature shrieked in pain. One of the things that Arthur liked most about his magic was that it made it really easy to take out the undead given their natural weakness to light-type holy magic. Gathering a beam of light on his blade, the mage sent it flying towards the monster, watching as it exploded on contact in a blindingly white burst of light. Recoiling in pure blinding fury, the monster slashed wildly with is trident, stirring up large waves being sent in every direction. Worriedly, Arthur glanced to the side as he watched one of the large water walls going in the ships direction. In a hurry, Arthur cast a large wall of holy magic to block the wave. As water did, it crashed upon impact and cascaded over the barrier to scatter droplets of water in the air like mist. A rainbow appeared over the ship's entirely as the mist rained down upon its deck. From this distance, it was a little hard to see Terrence, but he could see the man cheering for him while also apparently making motions of distress. Chuckling, the paladin strengthened his grip on his blade before blinking right up to the creature's face. Swinging down his sword, the blade of dawn cut through the undead wretch's visage. Black blood trickled down its face as its arms dropped the trident and clawed at his face in an attempt to swat away his attacker. Bolts of black magic were cast in every direct in a vain attempt to fling the paladin away from his body. With one final stab of his sword, Arthur decapitated the monster and watched in satisfaction as it sunk down into the murky depths of the ocean, hopefully to never return. Wiping sweat and putrid blood from his face, Arthur let his lungs gasp for breath. Being this exhausted was never fun, that battle had taken a lot of magic out of him with all the instant wards he had cast. Flying black to the ship's edge, Arthur landed in front of the crew that emerged from the ship. They were all hooting and clapping and whistling in celebration. "Wow, just wow, good job Arthur, that was one hell of a fight. I could never fight against anything like that. Thank you so much."
Arthur nodded. "Don't mention it."
WC: 2597
"Nah, don't worry about it, you're right that there are a lot of evil mages in this world. I'm part of a guild actually that disposes of them alongside other things of that nature. I'll hapilly deliver the lacrima to the Rune Knights, and I honestly don't even need payment, because it's not why I'm doing this job. I agreed to come on this boat in order to help you guys out, and I maybe wanted money at the start for my troubles, but not anymore, not now that I know each and every one of you." Arthur was about to continue his speech but suddenly his magical senses were overwhelmed in what felt like pure death and drowning despair. It was like the evil magical signature lashed out with hands desperately grabing for anything to prevent itself from drowning and being lost to the depths. The sheer suddenness of the attack knocked the wind out of him as he fell to the deck's edge with a wheezing gasp. Kneeing himself up on the ground, Arthur quickly cast a protection spell and watched the golden aegis form around both him and the captain. "Arthur! Are you okay? What's happening?" Forcing himself to stand strong against the sudden presence, Arthur lashed out his magical signature in turn, allowing himself to stand strong against the torrent of energy overwhelming and coating the ship. Bubbles breached the water of the ship right next to him. "We're being attacked by something magical, get inside, I'll handle this!" Requipping his sword, Dawn's Edge appeared in his grasp after a burst of blue and golden flaring light. Arthur's pace quickened as he awaited for whatever the fuck it was to breach the surface. His sense of the undead let him feel its presence and general figure. It was massive, humanoid, and fucking angry. This would be interesting, an undead underwater creature? Arthur just had to make sure that the ship itself didn't become too damaged, because he wasn't sure if he could use his magic to patch it up. Instead, Arthur cast a few weak warding spells over the entirety of the ship's form. It wouldn't protect much, but stop the ship from getting destroyed in the crossfire of his oncoming magical fight. The captain retrieved a gun from his pockets. 'I don't have much magic at all, but I can fire a few rounds of this gun, I'll fight with you! I can't just leave you alone out here, I'm your captain." This was becoming a worse situation the longer it drew itself out. Terrence didn't want to retreat, he instead wanted to be able to fire a few magical bullets from his gun. For a normal non-mage, they'd only be able to fire off a few rounds before being overcome by magical fatigue. That was not something he wanted to deal with right at the moment, but neither was the undead abomination about to breach the water's surface. Any second now, the paladin thought as a large mass burst in a spray of salt water. The rotting stench of death coating their surroundings in a thick and putrid miasma. It seemed to be a moving mass of water-logged decomposing flesh. Barnacles and seaweed grew from its grey flesh. A large misshaped head wore a pirate's hat alongside various other shredded and thrashed adornments. The monster wore a torn and ripped pirate suit, having lost all of its color from water bleaching. A burst of dark water magic was suddenly cast towards Arthur before the villain could even give himself time to explain his monologue or evil plans. With an aegis burst from his armor, the paladin absorbed the bolt of dark water element and sprouted wings from his back. Shining iridescently in the sunlight, the wings unfurled and carried him off the ship and up into the sky above the open ocean. He needed to get away from the ship so that any of the attacks were less likely to hit their vessel, even though he had somewhat warded its materials. The warding wasn't strong enough for him to just actively fight from it, and besides, that would be putting the captain in danger. "Arthur! What are you doing?!? Are those wings? What the fuck is that thing?" Yeah, definitely time to fly away from the ship as a distraction. The creature's blue-glowing eyes followed him with rectangular pupils as he darted away from another blast of magic. This time, a decaying flesh tentacle pierced the ocean's surface and caught the paladin off guard. A look of freight washed over his face as the tentacle's tip managed to pierce through his now-cracking shield. Arthur could feel himself being stabbed by the appendage as the creature laughed in eerie delight. Pain blossomed in his chest as blood trickled down his armor's plates. Casting a healing spell on himself, Arthur prayed to Helios for strength while repairing his shield. Gathering light on the edge of his blade, Arthur discharged the magical energy in a piercing blow to the sea monster. And it made sense, then, what the creature had done, its tentacle could pierce. Arthur had been caught off guard that first time, but he wasn't going to let it happen again as he swiftly dodged another tentacle appearing from the water. Gathering holy magic in his left hand, Arthur cast a smiting spell on the wretched abomination. Fire burned at its water-logged body as it writhed in pain. Water magic blasted against his shields as the force of the magic attacked disrupted his aerial momentum and sent him back as his wings flapped wildly to keep him airborn. The monster definitely wasn't weak, Arthur thought as an arm appeared from the water, clutching what looked like an unholy trident. Pointing it at the paladin, Arthur blinked out of the way as a ray of black magic was cast his way. Gathering the sunlight bearing down on them, Arthur healed the micro tearing of his muscles to prevent and prolong the onset of exhaustion. As he made a quick slash at the creature's arm, A bright beam of light burst down on the monster from the sky. A deep rumbling shook the water's surface as the creature spoke in a wicked tone. "You dare challenge pirate captain Makoa?" This was more of the villain type he was used to, giving their name and motivations during the fight for no good reason. Salt water splashed into the air as Arthur took the direct impact of another tentacle. At this point, he diddn't even know how many appendages he was fighting at once, but he couldn't let them just gather on the surface. He needed to destroy them before he was outnumbered. Blinking away from another attack, Arthur teleported in a bust of golden light as he appeared next to a swaying tentacle. Cutting through the side having suction cups, black blood sprayed from the creature's wound as it polluted the water's surface. The cleaved appendage slithered back under the water as the two other tentacles made made stabs at him, catching him in the side and drawing blood through his various sources of armor. Arthur had never really fought a creature of this level before, one that was capable of piercing his armor. He couldn't let the fight go on for too much longer, fearing the consequences that would put on him. It's not as if he had used too much mana, but there was the chance that the sea monster could pull out some other piercing attack that would gravely wound him. In that situation, none of his shields or armoring would protect him from such an attack. This was the first time piercing damage had been used against him, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Dark-infused water splashed against his aegis burst and somewhat chipped at the makeshift shield. It would last for a few more water spells, but would probably shatter if it by one of those damned tentacles. He needed to get rid of those damned tentacles before he even considered taking on the creature's central mass. Makoa's actual body only seemed capable of doing magical damage with the dark water and darkness bursts from the trident. He wasn't sure how much damage the trident could deal when wielded as a melee weapon, but Arthur wasn't really looking to find that out for himself. Instead, Arthur absorbed sunlight and magic into his blade before making one long slash that was cast forward like a shockwave. Hitting both tentacles at once, they too were cleaved in half in a gushing explosion of putrified blood. Another blast of light bust down from the sky as the creature shrieked in pain. One of the things that Arthur liked most about his magic was that it made it really easy to take out the undead given their natural weakness to light-type holy magic. Gathering a beam of light on his blade, the mage sent it flying towards the monster, watching as it exploded on contact in a blindingly white burst of light. Recoiling in pure blinding fury, the monster slashed wildly with is trident, stirring up large waves being sent in every direction. Worriedly, Arthur glanced to the side as he watched one of the large water walls going in the ships direction. In a hurry, Arthur cast a large wall of holy magic to block the wave. As water did, it crashed upon impact and cascaded over the barrier to scatter droplets of water in the air like mist. A rainbow appeared over the ship's entirely as the mist rained down upon its deck. From this distance, it was a little hard to see Terrence, but he could see the man cheering for him while also apparently making motions of distress. Chuckling, the paladin strengthened his grip on his blade before blinking right up to the creature's face. Swinging down his sword, the blade of dawn cut through the undead wretch's visage. Black blood trickled down its face as its arms dropped the trident and clawed at his face in an attempt to swat away his attacker. Bolts of black magic were cast in every direct in a vain attempt to fling the paladin away from his body. With one final stab of his sword, Arthur decapitated the monster and watched in satisfaction as it sunk down into the murky depths of the ocean, hopefully to never return. Wiping sweat and putrid blood from his face, Arthur let his lungs gasp for breath. Being this exhausted was never fun, that battle had taken a lot of magic out of him with all the instant wards he had cast. Flying black to the ship's edge, Arthur landed in front of the crew that emerged from the ship. They were all hooting and clapping and whistling in celebration. "Wow, just wow, good job Arthur, that was one hell of a fight. I could never fight against anything like that. Thank you so much."
Arthur nodded. "Don't mention it."
WC: 2597
