The True Endgame

Serra, sitting in the ballista"s chair, fires a hooked shot connected to the ballista by a metal chain.

The fired shot flies true and, just as Serra aimed it to, flies over the monster"s arm. The hook"s line runs out of slack and falls down onto the monster"s arm, causing the hook to swing back and around the monster"s arm. Serra then starts reeling the hook back in to get its sharp points embedded inside of the monster"s arm.

Tied up and hooked, the monster tugs its arm forward to try and break free but fails. He can"t proceed forward any farther, either. With the anchor keeping The s...o...b..ll in place, it is a stalemate between the anchor"s weight and the monster"s strength.

"That must be one heavy anchor if that beast could so easily swing around a tree but not drag our anchor," Nell says.

"Tabs probably has something to do with that. Right, Tabs?" Fenrir asks.

Tabitha looks back at him and shrugs.

When he looks her in the eyes, he sees that she isn"t Tabitha. Or rather, the avatar is Tabitha without a doubt, but the one controlling said avatar is not the player that they have all come to know.

With the ship under attack, the overseer has temporarily taken control of her to fight back.

"What do we do, Fenrir?" Corwin asks, standing next to Tabitha.

Fenrir jumps a bit when Corwin talks. He forgot that the overseer could emulate the personalities and voices of the avatars that it controls, so to hear "Corwin" speak when he wasn"t expecting it is surprising and sort of disturbing.

"Reload the cannons and fire at will. Keep it distracted from trying to unhook itself," Fenrir orders.

The monster lets out an annoyed growl from being ensnared. Just when it reached the serpent and picked her up with one of his hands, his other arm got restricted and now he has to drop her to try and free himself.

Though, rather than just try to free himself, he grabs the chain connecting him to The s...o...b..ll and tugs on it with each of his hands.

The s...o...b..ll lurches toward him and faces him directly now, rendering the cannons useless as they now are pointed at nothing but open water.

"s.h.i.t," Fenrir curses. The plan was to try and hopefully delay the monster, preferably by bringing him farther out into the water, but now he"s pulling the boat closer to him instead.

The anchor isn"t heavy enough to stop him when he"s using all the strength in both of his arms.

"Release the line," Fenrir orders.

Serra pulls a lever on the side of the ballista which releases the chain and prevents the monster from pulling The s...o...b..ll in any closer.

While The s...o...b..ll is safe for the time being, the monster is now able to return his attention to the serpent. Having one arm tied up in metal chain isn"t going to bother him now. If anything, it will just serve as some extra protection against the serpent"s maw.

"Can we ram him?" Serra asks.

"Water"s too shallow. We"d stop before we even reach him," Fenrir answers.

"What about those?" Serra asks, looking at a sealed crate on the deck next to the ballista.

Fenrir doesn"t want to use those thanks to how useful they"ve been… but isn"t this a situation warranting using one of them? Only two are left of the original five, but he can"t think of a better moment to use one of those than right now.

It"s time to go all out.

"Load it up. I"ll angle us to get the port side facing him again. Wait until he"s distracted by cannon fire to shoot," Fenrir explains.

Serra nods and gets to work.

"My hero, is there anything you would like me to do?" Nell asks.

"Help Serra load the ballista," Fenrir answers before rushing to The s...o...b..ll"s stern.

Meanwhile, the monster"s new "armor" proves effective against the serpent. She tries to lash out and latch onto the arm that he swings at her, but her teeth are blocked by the metal chain surrounding his arm. If anything, chaining that monster"s arm has only a.s.sisted him rather than the serpent. The chain allows him to smash his arm down against the serpent"s body, breaking apart her scales underneath the metal.

She collapses in the water and cries out in pain. Whenever her opponent isn"t slamming his fist into her head, his chain-wrapped arm comes crashing down against her neck with enough force to dent her scales in and crack them.

Without the advantage of deep water, she is severely outcla.s.sed by her enemy. She doesn"t even truly qualify as being a boss-tier monster unlike him.

Yet, when she heard that horn sound, she knew where it was coming from and knew who the one sounding it was.

She refuses to let those who saved her suffer.
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That is exactly why she has been following The s...o...b..ll from a distance ever since the tournament.

Gathering every last ounce of determination that she can, she rears her head up, dodges her opponent"s fist, and lunges toward his neck!

His chained arm knocks her away.

Her vision is almost entirely black now. All she can see are the occasional waves breaking against her, washing over her beaten body, and the bloodthirsty monster looming over her.

The monster raises his hands in the air for one final attack. All he has to do is slam them down against her and she"ll finally be defeated.

Except, just before he swings down to finish her off, he gets knocked forward.

"As soon as he turns around!" Fenrir orders, smoke rising from the recently-fired cannons.

The monster turns around to face The s...o...b..ll once more. The cannonb.a.l.l.s did no lasting damage other than bruising his skin underneath his fur and knocking him forward a bit. With the serpent all but killed, it is time for him to annihilate the only remaining annoyance.

Serra, looking through the ballista"s scope, smiles.

She pulls the trigger and fires the ballista.

The fired bolt pierces the monster"s chest!

Its tip only managed to barely penetrate his muscular chest, but that"s enough.

The real damage doesn"t come from the bolt itself. It comes from the explosives packed into its tip.

The bolt explodes! The monster lets out the most pained scream of any monster that Fenrir has ever heard.

Smoke obstructs the damage done to the monster"s chest, but they know that it had to deal a decisive blow given that he can barely remain standing.

With one hand clutching his chest and the other keeping him held up on his knees, the monster raises his head and glares at Serra.

Serra shivers when she sees the monster looking directly at her through the scope that she"s looking through.

But, as intimidating as the monster may be, he doesn"t scare her.

"Let"s finish him," Serra says.

Fenrir looks down at the final bolt gifted to him by Thelmes.

The monster isn"t dead yet and looks ready to sacrifice himself if it means taking them down, and the serpent is vulnerable to him until he"s finished.

"Load and fire," Fenrir orders.

Fenrir helps Serra and Nell load the ballista with the final bolt.

The monster recovers from the first explosion just in time to see Serra ready to fire another one.

With one hand on the ballista"s trigger, Serra raises her middle finger with her other hand and pulls the trigger.

Another direct hit.

This time, the explosive bolt detonates inside of exposed flesh and muscle.

If anybody watching were to have traumatic content enabled, they would see a very gory and messy aftermath.

Even more shocking than any potential gore is the fact that the monster is still standing after having most of his chest blown away.

"Seriously? Why won"t you die already? Fire the cannons!" Fenrir shouts.

Two cannonb.a.l.l.s fly toward him but get blocked by his arm.

"Overpowered a.s.shole," Fenrir says.

Everybody onboard agrees with him.

"Wait," he says.

"Do you feel it, my hero?" Nell asks.

"Yeah, I do."

"Feel what?" Serra asks.

"We"ve done all we can here, but there"s somebody else who"s still in the fight," Fenrir answers.

Serra looks through her scope at the monster.

He"s still somehow managing to stand and is in the same spot that he has been.

However, when she looks behind him, the serpent is no longer there.

"Time to tap out and let her finish the fight herself," Fenrir says.

"She"s a good girl, is she not?" Nell asks.

"She is, but don"t let Rock hear me say that or she might get jealous."

The monster looks around himself and notices that the serpent is gone.

Before he can turn around to try and escape back onto land, he sees a plume of water shoot up in front of him which reveals the missing serpent.

Both monster and serpent are clinging to the last shreds of life that they have.

This next exchange of blows will decide who survives and who dies.

Neither of them plans on losing, but one of them must.

The monster smashes his fists down into the water and howls while the serpent coils around herself and shrieks.