The True Endgame

There are two large differences this time around. One, the twenty partic.i.p.ating ships are all in the water next to one another rather than docked at the piers. Two, there is no dome over the water this time.

"h.e.l.lo! I hope everybody is excited for the second round of the tournament! You spectators won"t be getting to watch everything directly today, but we"ll have games, stalls, and a display of the tournament for you to entertain yourselves with!" the feminine announcer explains. Right after she stops talking, a large screen drops down from the tower at the entrance to the city and unfurls itself. A magic user then summons what appears to be a group of orbs that fly down toward the ships, and each one projects what they are seeing onto the ma.s.sive screen. There is one orb for each ship.

Serra and Ca.s.siel both try to subtly hide behind Fenrir when they see themselves on the screen for thousands upon thousands of players and NPCs alike to watch.

"Now, when the race starts, you"ll be racing to the far end of Razorfang Isle where you will catch a Razorfang eel, and after catching one, it is a race back to here! The first three crews to return here with a Razorfang eel will proceed to the final round of the tournament! You may only engage with other crews and their ships beyond the tower. Any on this side of the tower are not to be engaged, and if any of you try it, then you will be disqualified from the final round of the tournament as well as face banishment from the city."

"Why isn"t fighting allowed here this time?" Serra asks, tugging on the back of Fenrir"s vest.

"Guessing it"s because they"re not putting that barrier up, so there"s nothing to keep cannonb.a.l.l.s from shooting into the city," Fenrir answers.

"Boring."

"You"re a s.a.d.i.s.t."

"Only sometimes."

"You know what those eels look like, Corwin?" Fenrir asks.
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Because the eels only live on the far end of the isle, and their waters have been blocked off from fishing in preparation for the tournament, Fenrir was never allowed the chance to sail out there and get some practice with them.

"ah, yes. They are very… vicious. One could consider them a warmup to the juvenile serpent of the final round," Corwin explains. "They tend to swarm around their prey and move very quickly, have teeth that can easily tear through flesh, and work in groups."

"So basically, eel piranhas," Fenrir says.

"If piranhas were as big as your arm, yes."

"Oh. Yeah, those sound pretty scary."

"You don"t sound that scared, Fen," Ca.s.siel says.

"Well, as long as one of us doesn"t fall overboard, what"re they going to do? They can"t hurt us on the ship. Well, the one we catch could probably hurt us."

The announcer speaks up again. "And now, let the second round begin!"

"Olly! Build us up to full speed and get us out there!" Fenrir orders.

"On it!" Oleander shouts back, unfurling The s...o...b..ll"s sails and turning on the engine.

The longship gets the lead at the start thanks to the combined rowing efforts of its crew. The s...o...b..ll is right behind it and catching up. The rest of the partic.i.p.ating ships are lagging behind.

"Just don"t overdo it!" Tabitha shouts from below deck. "I just finished repairs on my baby this morning, so don"t stress her out too much!"

"We"ll take it easy after we get a good lead. Wait, we didn"t tell you the plan, did we?"

"What plan?" Ca.s.siel asks.

Fenrir remembers that he had no time to tell any of the girls, nor Corwin, about the plan he came up with from his meeting with the other crews.

"What plan?!" Tabitha shouts.

"Uhh, don"t worry about it. Just hope that everything keeps working properly," Fenrir shouts down to her.

Fenrir looks off the side of the ship and sees the longship in sight as they pa.s.s it.

Of the crews partic.i.p.ating in the plan, three of their ships are following directly behind The s...o...b..ll while the other four follow behind the longship. The rest of the ships are just racing toward the objective for the tournament.

Sinking the longship without overwhelming it with fire seems to be impossible. So, rather than try and sink it, they are just going to kill everybody aboard it.

"Get us halfway there and then cut the engine!" Fenrir orders Oleander.

"So, what"s this plan you"re talking about?" Ca.s.siel asks.

"That meeting with the other captains – we"re going to," Fenrir looks up at the magical orb following their ship. It"s far enough away that he doubts it could hear, and he doesn"t know if it can hear anything at all in the first place. "We"re going to try baiting the longship and then grapple its mast again. Then, we"re going to stop them in the water while seven friendly ships surround it and start blasting it."

"What about friendly fire? If they"re circled around it and all shooting at it, won"t they hit each other?"

"Not if they s.p.a.ce themselves out like I showed them to. We should be the only ones in danger of friendly fire, but as long as we"ve got this wood regrowing itself, we"ll be fine."

Fenrir looks over the back of the ship now. The longship is already changing course to head directly for them rather than to the island.

"They"re stubborn. This will be easy. They probably just want revenge at this point and don"t even care about winning," Fenrir says.

"Can we trust everybody else?" Serra asks.

"Jax picked all the crews out himself and vouched for them, and I trust him. Only one I"m not sure about is that Alexander guy. I"m pretty sure he"s just helping out because he wants to get on people"s good sides. He"ll probably try stealing the show and taking credit for everything."

"He seemed like that type," Ca.s.siel says. "What about after we sink it? Is the alliance over afterwards?"

"Kind of. We"re all going to compete to see who wins, but we"re not going to attack each other. Attacking the ships that aren"t part of the plan will be allowed since they"ve got a head start on the fishing, but that"s it," Fenrir explains, looking over at the eleven ships heading for the isle"s fishing spot.

"Captain, is it not obvious that we are leading them away in the wrong direction?" Corwin asks.

"I"m sure it is, but they don"t care. They just want to kill us."

"What of the other ships chasing them? Should they not realize they are being led into a trap?"

"Being obvious is part of the plan. Honestly, you probably shouldn"t even call it a trap. It"s more of a challenge. They know everybody hates them, I know they hate us, and we"re the two fastest ships there are right now. We"re alone from everybody else, so they"ll get the chance to take us down before everybody else catches up. We just have to survive long enough for everybody else to catch up, and then they"re dead."

"I see. Well, I have faith in you, Fenrir. I know that Olly would not have agreed to this if he did not believe it was a good plan."

"He"s the one who came up with it. I just helped by betting that these a.s.sholes would be focused on us and chase us out here," Fenrir explains with a shrug.

"Then, if it is Olly"s plan, I am certain it will succeed!" Corwin says with a wide smile.

"You sound way more certain of it now even though it"s the same plan as before. What, am I not as trustworthy as him?"

"N-no, it is not that, it is just tha—"

"I"m teasing you, relax."

Fenrir feels something poke his side.

When he looks down, he sees Serra with a disappointed face at his lack of reaction. However, when she gently strokes the tips of her fingers against the base of his tail, she does get the sort of Ca.s.siel-esque reaction that she was hoping for.

"What, are you the only one allowed to tease people or something?" Fenrir asks Serra.

Serra nods and reaches for his tail again, but Fenrir keeps it away from her.

Something catches his attention out of the corner of his eye.

Rod"s gem is pulsating rapidly. "What"s up, Ro—" Fenrir is cut off when a javelin tears through the air right next to his head. "…s.h.i.t. My heart is racing from that. How the h.e.l.l are they so accurate from that far back?" Fenrir asks, looking over the stern once more.

The longship is quickly approaching them despite The s...o...b..ll being at almost full speed. It probably helps the longship that there are what appear to be a couple of large serpents chained to the front of it pulling it through the water.

"You"re kidding me, right? Where did those come from?" Fenrir asks.

"Probably magic. We saw that they could summon that giant water thing, so they can probably summon other beings as well. Guess they summoned some serpents," Oleander theorizes.

One of the serpents raises its head to spray a stream of pressurized water at The s...o...b..ll! The water cuts through the hull with ease.

"Good thing we"ve got that regrowing… wood," Fenrir says, realizing that the wood that the water cut through has been frozen and isn"t regrowing.

"Tabs!" Fenrir shouts.

"Busy! Takin" on water, can"t let the engine get flooded!" Tabitha shouts from below.

"Bone, Corwin, Ca.s.siel, go help Tabs down there. Oleander, evasive maneuvers and full speed, Serra, get ready on the ballista," Fenrir orders the crew.

"What"s the plan?" Oleander asks.

Fenrir reaches into his vest and pulls out a small gun-like device that was handed to him by Jax during the meeting. Pointing it to the air, he pulls the trigger and shoots a glaring flare into the sky.

The rest of the ships in the plan shoot their own flares as well.

"We continue the plan," Fenrir answers. "We"re going to kill everybody on board of that ship."