99 Vol 2. pt. 36 Patch 6.0: The Second Round (1/2)

Bonekraka takes one of his axes and runs its sharp edge against his arm, cutting the flesh and allowing his blood to drop down into the ocean below it.

One Razorfang eel jumps up from the water, but when it sees Bonekraka staring back down at it, it decides not to bite onto his arm. Fortunately for the orc, one more eel jumps up from the water with his arm as its target!

”Grab it!” Fenrir shouts.

Bonekraka remains completely still as the eel latches onto his arm, sinking its long and viciously sharp fangs into his flesh, and then he grabs it right underneath its head with his free hand.

The eel tries to trash around, but its deadliest part is its fangs. There is nothing remarkable about the rest of the body, so having its wet and slippery tail smacking against Bonekraka does little to annoy him.

”Caught it,” Bonekraka says, turning to face the rest of the crew while blood seeps onto the deck from where the eel's mouth is attached to his arm.

”You – you were just supposed to catch it, not let it actually bite you,” Fenrir explains.

”You try grabbing slippery eel with bare hands. Tell me how works for you,” Bonekraka answers.

Cassiel walks up to Bonekraka and starts healing him to make up for the damage that the eel is doing by gnawing on his arm.

”Well, that's one way to catch them I guess. Just go toss it in a barrel and let's get back. Seems like we're the first to catch one, so let's be the first back,” Fenrir says.

Rock looks at the eel and barks.

”It's fine. He's letting it bite him,” Fenrir tells Rock.

She whines and growls but backs off.

”Yeah, we need to get out of here,” Oleander says while pointing to their rear.

The longship is closing in. The Steel Tiger is close behind the longship as well.

Fenrir and Oleander look at one another and nod.

While Bonekraka yanks the eel off of his arm, letting it take some of his flesh with it, Oleander heads back to the ship's wheel and starts the engine up once more while unfurling the sails.

He has done plenty of sailing and steering of old ships in games before, but Tabitha's system makes it far easier than it was in all of his past experiences.

The longship comes within range of one of the other ships stopped to fish for eels. Those who are rowing on the longship give their ship a short burst of speed to help it plow directly into the side of the stopped ship, tearing through its hull and allowing them to board it.

The Shoebill escapes while it can.

”Why are we going the long way around the isle? Should we not just go back the way we came?” Corwin asks Fenrir.

”I'd rather us not get any closer to those pricks than we have to, and there's no way that we'll have any competition other than Ull's bastards and Alexander. Even going the long way, we should still have a lead on them with our speed,” Fenrir explains.

Fenrir's prediction turns out to be correct. The Shoebill goes around the isle and is already on a straight shot back to the city when its crew sees the only two ships left from the fishing spot on their way back: the longship and The Steel Tiger.

”Look, we're in the lead. Let's cut back on the engine now, alright?” Tabitha proposes.

”Alright. Don't want to blow it,” Fenrir agrees and gives Oleander the order.

Oleander reduces the engine's power to only half of its full potential, but a small explosion rocks the ship forward and sends everybody on board stumbling.

”What happened?!” Fenrir shouts.

Tabitha rushes below deck and Fenrir follows.

Where once was an engine is now a decently sized hole in the back of The Shoebill's hull. Water is pouring in through the hole, and all that is left of Tabitha's engine are metal fragments that have been shot throughout the hull. Some of them have pierced the hull on their own and created smaller holes that water is now seeping in through.

”Tabs—” Fenrir starts talking, but the determined engineer is already getting to work.

”Everybody but the deer down here, now!” Tabitha shouts while lifting up a large enough plank to cover the hole left by the engine.

Fenrir rushes up to her and uses his body to keep it held against the hole while Tabitha starts hammering nails into it.

”What happened?” Corwin asks.

”Less questions, more fixin'! Patch up every single hole ya see!” Tabitha orders.

When Fenrir looks at Tabitha's face to try and determine what she's thinking, what he sees are flushed cheeks and teary eyes. She only looks into his eyes for a moment just long enough for him to see how she's feeling. Rather than learn if she's confident about the ship staying afloat and being able to repair all of this damage, he sees a girl who is embarrassed, frustrated, and just sad.