The True Endgame

"Aye!" Oleander shouts back.

"Tabs, your engine going to handle being shut off and turned back on so quickly?"

"She"ll handle it," Tabitha says with her hands confidently on her hips.

"Alright, then let"s save Morven"s crew. Everybody! Hold onto something!" Fenrir orders. "Serra! Start reeling us closer when I give the order."

Serra gives him a thumbs-up from her seat and grips the lever to reel the chain in.

There is only a little bit of slack left in the chain, and it is decreasing by the second as The s...o...b..ll comes perpendicular to The Yellow Minnow"s starboard side.

Fenrir watches the slack in the chain to find the perfect moment to begin their maneuver. Perfect timing is required to pull this off, and the intensity in his eyes is truly fitting of a wolf.

"Three," he says under his breath, "two," almost time, "one…. Now! Serra, Olly!"

Oleander starts turning the ship"s wheel, hits the pedal and pulls the lever to bring in the ship"s sails, and cuts the engine at the same time as the ballista runs out of slacked chain. In that same moment, Serra pulls back on her own lever to start reeling in the chain!

The s...o...b..ll jerks as it gets turned practically ninety degrees in a matter of seconds, resulting in anything not secured on the deck getting knocked over or flung off the ship!

Oleander spins the wheel in the opposite direction now to drift The s...o...b..ll rather than let her get pulled straight in along the ballista"s chain.

"Tabs, get ready!" Fenrir shouts to her, clinging to the side of the ship trying to stay standing upright while holding the tarp.

"Keep it up, deer boy! Show "em how it"s done!" Tabitha shouts back at Oleander while getting ready with Fenrir.

"You know what I"m planning?" Fenrir asks as water splashes all around them.

"I know exactly what you"re thinkin", wolf boy," Tabitha answers.

Both of them look to the three overboard survivors trying to stay afloat in the water. "Grab this!" Fenrir shouts out to them.

The three men start swimming closer while waiting for Fenrir.

"Ready?" he asks Tabitha.

"Ready!"

The two throw the tarp with all their strength out into the water! It was rolled up before, but as soon as it hits the air, it unfurls and splashes into the water.

"Come on, don"t miss it," Fenrir whispers.

The tarp gets dragged in the water. It was long enough to reach the men at first, but thanks to the angling and speed of The s...o...b..ll, it"s getting pulled too far away. "Give it some more slack!" Fenrir shouts. Both he and Tabitha loosen their grips on the rope to allow all of it but the very end to slide through their hands.

But it"s not enough. Only a single one of the men are going to be able to reach it. The others are just barely not close enough to grab onto the tarp… but they"re close enough to grab onto each other.

They form a chain, grabbing onto each other"s arms, as the closest man clings onto the tarp with all of his strength!

"Hold on! We"ll pull you in!" Fenrir shouts.

Tabitha makes pulling the trio in easy, but there"s another issue. They have to start accelerating again already.

"We"ve got to hurry up," he says to Tabitha before looking to the ship"s stern, "Go, Olly!"

The sails unfurl and the fire stone within the engine starts combusting once more, causing The s...o...b..ll to thrust forward with speed as it straightens out and finishes its drifting maneuver.

Those three men holding onto the tarp have difficulty doing so when The s...o...b..ll suddenly starts moving so much faster, but with Tabitha"s help, Fenrir is able to pull them right up against the ship.

Ropes hanging down the side of it allow the men to grab on and climb up the rest of the way themselves.

Fenrir can only barely recognize the first two men to make it up, but the third man has an easily recognizable face. "Morven!" Fenrir shouts out, grabbing onto him to help pull him the rest of the way onboard. "Come on, we need to get you three away from the cannons."

With the three men away from the starboard cannons, it"s time for The s...o...b..ll to resume its a.s.sault on the ship.

"Bone, fire!" Fenrir orders.

Bonekraka ignites the fuse on his cannon. They"re at an angle to the longship, but Bonekraka"s shot manages to fly straight through the center of the ship and tear right through the center of the longship"s mast!

"Tournament not so bad!" Bonekraka shouts before making some vulgar gestures towards the longship. Two spears fly by him right afterward, causing him to bring out the most vulgar gestures he can think of while shouting taunting insults at them in Russian.

The s...o...b..ll is parallel to the longship once more, and now it"s time for the first carca.s.s shot. "Corwin, fire!" Fenrir orders.

"Aye!" Corwin shouts, lighting the fuse to his cannon.

Fenrir and Tabitha look at each other with s.a.d.i.s.tic grins. They"re equally excited to see just how well the shots work.

The carca.s.s shot flies out toward the longship and pierces through the starboard side of its hull, but it shatters against its port side which sends noxious flames across its deck! Fenrir and Tabitha high-five as they"ve essentially covered part of the longship"s deck, crew, and even some of the mast in what is essentially a toxic napalm. Those who were about to try throwing more spears at The s...o...b..ll are now trying to douse themselves and their ship with water to extinguish the flames, but the resistant flames prove difficult to put out.

"The h.e.l.l did ya just do?" Morven asks, coughing and still trying to catch his breath.

"Get some revenge, and we"re not done yet," Fenrir answers.

It isn"t just the fire that those onboard the longship have to worry about, but its fumes as well. The noxious fumes reach everybody on the ship even if the fire doesn"t.

Of course, the fire just doesn"t cover the entire ship yet.

"Ca.s.s, fire!" Fenrir orders.

Ca.s.siel lights her cannon and sends the second and final carca.s.s shot soaring through the air! It crashes into the back of the longship and shatters almost immediately unlike the first one. With the stronger force that it shattered at, its fragments are spread out farther and higher than the first shot"s.

The longship is lit on fire from its bow to nearly its stern, and its tree of a mast is quickly turning into a raging blaze as its leaves and branches serve as perfect kindling for the spreading flames.

"Serra, slack the line! Olly, line our port side up to their ship!" Fenrir shouts.

"Grab onto something!" Oleander shouts back before cutting the engine and bringing in the sails again.

The s...o...b..ll enters another drift, but this time, it is far sharper and completely reverses their course.

"Portside cannons!" Fenrir orders.

Bonekraka, Corwin, and Ca.s.siel man the cannons opposite of the ones they were just at. All three volleys so far have been shot from the starboard side of The s...o...b..ll, and now it"s time for the port side"s cannons to get in on the action.

"Seven seconds between each shot, starting with Bone, anndddd… fire!" Fenrir shouts.

The shots are just regular cannonb.a.l.l.s now, but their target is now a ship aflame that has been repairing itself heavily over the past ten minutes.

Each shot tears through the longship"s starboard side. Fenrir sees two of its crew get directly hit!

"Great shots! Now, Olly, hard right and then full speed ahead!" Fenrir shouts the beginning of his plan"s final phase.

Rock has been desperately clinging onto the mast this entire time trying not to get flung off the ship with all of the drastic turns it has been taking, and this latest turn is no different.

"Serra! Reel it in and don"t stop!"

With sails unfurled, Tabitha"s engine firing at full power, and Serra reeling in the ballista"s line, The s...o...b..ll jerks to a near stop.

But only a near one.

Tabitha"s engine continues propelling the ship forward, refusing to stop.

"What do you think is going to give up first? The engine, the line, or their mast?" Fenrir asks Tabitha.

"I don"t see my signature anywhere on their mast, so ain"t no way my toys are gonna give up before it!" Tabitha answers.

The longship"s crew has been too busy trying to put out the flames on the ship and themselves to get it unstuck from The Yellow Minnow. Both ships are now getting pulled by The s...o...b..ll now, but the longship"s crew hear their mast starting to crack and bend.

"Don"t ya dare give up!" Tabitha shouts at her ballista.

Serra, still sitting in the ballista"s seat, pats the weapon a few times to try and encourage it not to surrender.

The top half of the longship"s mast cracks off from its bottom half, being yanked into the air and splashing down in the water off the ship"s portside!

"Take that ya pointy-eared b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Nothin" beats the engineerin" of Tabitha Strism!" Tabitha shouts while waving her fists towards the longship.

"Alright, we can cut the li—" Fenrir starts, but gets interrupted by Tabitha.

"Don"t! I"ve got an idea. Bring that mast of theirs in. Ya don"t just want to leave our biggest catch of the day behind, do ya?"
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"Alright, alright. Serra, reel it in. The rest of yo—"

This time he gets interrupted by Ca.s.siel jumping onto him and hugging him. "We got them!" she happily announces. "And I think I got like, three new skills during that!"

"Yeah, we got them," Fenrir says, patting her head. "Since when are you so affectionate around everybody?"

Ca.s.siel realizes what she"s doing. With a huff, she pushes him away and straightens her clothes out. "I - I mean, good job. Your plan was smart."

"Thanks, Ca.s.s Ca.s.s. You all did a great job – like, seriously. That went perfectly. I honestly don"t think it could"ve gone any better, so you should all be proud of yourselves."

Fenrir hears the engine starting to sputter below deck right after he stops talking.

Tabitha rushes down there.

While she takes care of that, Fenrir walks over to Morven and the other two crewmembers. "You guys alright?" Fenrir asks.

"Aye, thanks to you. We owe you our lives, Mr. Wolf. We lost some good men… but that"s just how this world is. Can"t expect anythin" to last," Morven answers.

One of the men next to him speaks up. "My brother… they – they just… killed him without even looking at him. What did we do to deserve this?"

Fenrir looks down. Even if these three men were saved, at least four still died.

Even though he knows that he couldn"t have possibly saved any more than he has, he still feels responsible for it. He knows that it"s irrational. He knows that it"s unhealthy. However, he still feels like it"s his fault.

"I"m sorry for your loss. I promise you that once this is all over, I"m going to try and help you and all the others as much as I can. You have every right to enjoy this world as much as us adventurers do," Fenrir says.

"That"s a mighty n.o.ble goal of yours, Mr. Wolf, but how the h.e.l.l do ya plan on doin" something like that?" Morven asks.

"What can I say? I have a habit of taking on the biggest challenges there are."

"Fen!" Serra shouts from the ship"s stern.

Fenrir hurries to the back and looks at what she"s pointing out.

The bottom half of the longship"s mast is already regrowing, and most of the flames have been put out. At least a dozen men are still alive on the longship and are now using its oars to take them backward out of The Yellow Minnow. As soon as their ship breaks free from it, The Yellow Minnow begins its descent to the bottom of the harbor.

Morven, now standing next to Fenrir, salutes as his ship sinks.

Fenrir, Serra, and Oleander join in saluting the sinking vessel.

"d.a.m.n good ship she was. Most men like to upgrade to bigger and better ships when they can, but I stuck with "er from the beginnin"," Morven says.

"I"m—" Fenrir cuts himself off when he notices the longship turning to face The s...o...b..ll.

"Tabs! How"s the engine?" Fenrir shouts, rushing to the stairs.

"She"s out! Gotta dock and get some new parts to fix her up!" Tabitha shouts up to him.

"s.h.i.t."