Iscladon Breaking (Book One in the Cerios Chronicles)

Chapter 6-Games

Chapter 6

Games

They all stood in a rough circle surrounding the target, weapons drawn. Slikver moved closer to it, but Karys gestured for him to stand back.

"Not yet," he said, "the shadows won't do anything yet; we have to wait for them to form."

Slikver nodded sharply, then resumed his ready stance. After a few moments, the multicolored target moved slightly, sliding off the side of the ship, until the target rested on the water off the port side of the ship. Those manning the cannons prepared them quickly.

The shadows suddenly reared upwards, a long shape thrusting from the target. For a moment it remained formless, the colors swirling, until it resolved into a massive serpent, one with green fins running down its spine. Its neck narrowed towards the top before bulging outwards to form a roughly diamond shaped head that looked as if was hewn of red rock. The eyes were a solid blue, with no iris or pupil to speak of. Its mouth opened to reveal long white fangs, and it roared, a sound that inspired as much awe as fear.

Though Slikver hated to admit it, there was a sort of beauty about the creature, he could tell it was not one, but many, crafted together with perfect synchronicity. He briefly considered the potential the shadows possessed, but the creatures lunge towards the crew swiftly drew his thoughts away from beauty and towards danger.

He had soon viciously attacked the shadows, ripping gaping bloodless holes in them which looked more like rips in paper than actual wounds. When he glimpsed inside one of the wounds, he saw only the other side of the creature, telling him it was hollow.

He immediately began to consider the possibilities, his first instinct was to attempt to crush it, but he doubted that would work. It was flat once, so why would it bother it to be flat again? He considered and discarded several possibilities, dodging and inflicting blows all the while.

Then the cannons finally got a piece of the monster, with rather dramatic results.

The impact from the cannonball tore a massive piece off the side of the creature, tearing its left side to shreds. It struck below the narrowing of the neck, and as it tugged backwards the whole serpent was shoved temporarily out of the water, and Slikver grinned slightly as an idea struck him.

He gathered several supplies while dodging both his crewmates and the serpent, including a sharp hook, some rope and a large metal disc roughly the size around as a cannonball.

He grimaced for a moment, realizing that, for his contraption to take shape, he would need to bore a hole through the metal disc. He pulled out the Malk to do just that, but was saved from the need as the serpent lunged towards him again, sharp teeth glinting.

He easily dodged it, but he shoved the disc in its mouth quickly, spearing it slightly on the end of a tooth and then pulling it off.

"Why thank you," he called pleasantly to the serpent trying to kill him, "saves me quite a bit of time!"

Several of the crew member looked him as if he was insane, but he was too busy threading the rope through the disc to notice. He knotted the rope on the other side to ensure it didn't slip out, then slipped several inches of fuse into a charge packet. The fuse went on the side of the disc with the knot, and he used a small amount of black powder to ensure the fuse inside would light from the fuse outside.

He inserted the fuse and powder, then the disc, then the rope, then the packet of explosive charge, then the hook into the cannon. He quickly called out to his crewmates.

"Hit the deck!"

He lit the fuse.

The hook flew out, trailing the rope behind it, the hook soon flew through the creature, eliciting a hiss, and he was pleased to see only a hole in it big enough for the still unwinding rope. He held his breath for a moment as the rope reached the end of its length, then released it as the disc flew from the cannon, catching on the edges of the creatures wounds. The serpent howled as it was pulled far away, farther than he had expected.