Cursed Draw

And as I looked upon it I was forced to ask myself. What is a king to a god?

-The Audacious Deck Builder's Guide to: The Ocean, The Silver Sea

Chapter 21: From The Abyss

Darius

Darius had fully anticipated the journey he and Alley were taking to be a grand adventure, an epic quest featuring mysterious locales, mighty monsters, and beautiful women. So he wasn’t upset to be clinging to what was essentially a dingy’s older brother while eel-shaped dragons and the megafauna answer to calamari battled it out around him.

It’s just that by his count they had started this journey a mere five hours earlier and most adventures tended to wait a little longer before they surrounded you with dozens of warring sea monsters.

The River dragons outnumbered the four Krakens at least ten to one, but they seemed to prefer fleeing. Only engaging the tentacled monsters when they had no other choice.

Darius supposed he couldn't blame them. The Abyss King Krakens weren't called ‘kings’ for no reason, they were monstrously powerful creatures. This was precisely why the boys had planned to hunt one of the octopus-like monsters and that was when Alley could actually Manifest things to aid the hunt.

Ducking under the swinging beam of the sail Darius worked the rigging at Alley's commands while the dark-haired boy desperately worked the rudder to drive them around, between and in one case over the warring monsters. Riding a huge wave caused by a rolling mass of at least three dragons grappling with one of the enormous Kraken. The skiff was able to launch over a pair of the fleeing serpents.

Behind him, Darius could hear Alley whooping in excitement. His voice filled with the joy that could only be found in these moments where life and death were half in your own hands and half the purview of fickle gods. Before he knew it Darius was adding his own joyful hollering to the shouts of his friend.

Around the little ship, something changed. Where moments ago the surging dragons and hunting krakens were creating a living river of ever-shifting rapids now the water had become oddly still. No, that wasn't quite right. It was more like the direction of the currents had suddenly reversed. The Krakens had seemingly vanished and the ship along with the dragons on either side of it. Came to a juddering halt.

“Wha?!” Shouted Alley as the boat began to drag backward against the wind. Looking behind them the boys experienced a shared moment of silent horror. The sea behind had fallen away into a whirlpool of utterly ludicrous width and depth, easily large enough to swallow Valeton three times over. It looked to Darius as though some divine being had poked a hole in the bottom of the ocean.

He was more than a little disappointed to see it honestly wasn’t that far from the truth of the matter. Hundreds of feet below at the center of the watery vortex was a fifth Kraken. While technically the same species as the Abyss Kings that had fled before it, this particular tentacled beast stole the word ‘Monster’ from every other creature present. It was called an Abyss God Kraken; An Abyss King that had grown so old and bloated with Water and Pressure Resonances that it could manipulate the very ocean around it.

Simultaneously both boys let out a long resigned sigh as the front of the boat began to rise into the air. The Bay Runner, like dozens of the MuckDwell Dragons, was being dragged into the walls of the vortex.

“Oh, what the fuck is going on with my life!?” Yelled Alley, drawing a grim laugh from Darius before the boys exploded into the action of desperately trying to survive.

Tipped Practically vertically the little skiff was pulled sideways around the lip of the whirlpool.

The boat along with most of the dragons had been caught by the very edge of the Resonance fueled vortex. Several MuckDwells were not so lucky.

Raising one enormous tentacle the Abyss God plunged the appendage into the spinning wall of water around it. Ripping a River Dragon out of the whirlpool it slammed the squirming serpent down with contemptuous ease. Eliciting an audible crack the creature's spine was broken by the force of the swing. Tentacle and Dragon returned below the bulk of the kraken presumably so the monster could feed.

“Harpoon!” Screamed Alley over the roaring water.

Darius Who had already come to the same conclusion was dodging his own falling supplies as he used the railing and rigging to climb to the tip of the bow. As he did he activated his Deck. Darius’ dealer grew warm as it summoned little images of four cards down near his left hand. Normally you wouldn’t feel the difference but with the whipping wind and water chilling his skin, the little bar in his ear felt strangely hot.

Grabbing a hold of the harpoon winch the red-headed boy pulled himself up into the temporary ledge created by the ship’s tilt. Now all he had to do was unlock the winch, find a Dragon in the water that had a good chance of escaping the edge of the vortex, and harpoon it. All while not falling to a grizzly doom. What could be simpler?

Darius glanced down at the hovering cards quickly taking note of what he had. Knowing what was in your hand at a moment’s notice was an important part of mastering one’s Deck. Everyone knew that. ‘Primal Forge, Hunter’s Intuition, The Final Thrust, Display The Trophies.’

“Hunter’s Intuition” He declared activating the card.

Trials Deck- Prince Of The Dawn Hunt

Hunter's Intuition

Resonance: Pursuit

Select up to five targets in view. For the next three minutes gain the ability to predict the general movements of the selected targets

[This only applies to general movements. Hunter's Intuition cannot predict smaller movements like dodges, attacks, or blocks.]

There were dozens of the serpentine dragons struggling just beneath the surface of the swirling waters. All Darius could do was try his best and hope one of the five he picked was going to make it. If not, well at least those five had been eliminated from the multitude he had to pick from.

Before his eyes future trails of the five dragons unfolded like dotted lines on a map, but across the canvas of reality.

Darius wouldn’t have long to make his choice and land the throw, with each rotation around the whirlpool the boat made, the deeper its back end tilted over the lip. Soon they would be sucked into the vortex propper and there would be nothing either of them could do to save themselves.

Unlocking the winch he tracked the movement lines and made ready to throw his ancient bone spear.

“There!” He hissed. The ship made another half-pass around whirlpool and Darius unleashed his heirloom harpoon. The chain of the unlocked winch rattled as its length unspooled behind the spear. Exactly as his Hunter’s Intuition Card had predicted Darius’ target moved into the path of the barbed weapon.

Pursuit was an excellent Resonance for a hunter. It held all sorts of speed and utility Cards that assisted in tracking prey or surviving the far wilderness. With rare exception though it didn’t do much for you in the way of stopping power. While his Deck would easily give Darius the ability to find a monster or outmaneuver it. Actually puncturing the thick hides and firm scales of your average monster was another matter altogether.

So when the unerringly thrown spear punched into the fleeing River Dragon it did so based off of both the disproportionate penetrative ability of the heirloom weapon and good old fashioned Knots muscle.

Instantly the iron chain pulled taught buckling the winch and arresting the boat’s backward movement. At least for a few moments, where a second before the dragon had been about to fully escape the whirling vortex. Now its struggles were insufficient, Darius could see its movement line shift from fleeing into the sea, to being dragged into the walls of the whirlpool. When that became reality The Bay Runner would go with it.

“Shit” Darius swore. Looking down at his hand he knew what he would find.

‘Primal Forge, The Final Thrust, Display The Trophies.’ All useless here. Primal Forge would temporarily transform his spear if he’d still been holding it. Final Thrust was a card for melee execution strikes and Display The Trophies required him to have recently slain something. It would be another twenty seconds or so before he drew a replacement for Hunter’s Intuition. By that time there was a very good chance they would be worse than doomed.

For what he hoped wasn’t the last time Darius wished his friend could still Manifest Cards. While they had long committed to the friendly rivalry of best friends. A rivalry that Darius had always been a half step behind in, higher rank or not. The fact of the matter was a True Deck was almost always superior to a Trials Deck. Gaining the edge was nice and all but Alley being locked down was far from how he wanted to get ahead. Especially as it might very well be the difference between them living and dying.

Swinging back and forth the boat shunted back a few feet practically dangling over the edge of the vortex. The dragon was struggling but the weight of the skiff would soon prove too much if the winch didn’t snap off first. On either side of the creature, MuckDwells lucky enough not to be harpooned were cresting the final edge of the vortex and escaping. If he could somehow harpoon one of them as well the ship might be saved.

Darius turned to call for Alley’s hook just in time to see the weapon whip through the air in an oddly curved arc past him. The red-headed boy blinked, that was a hell of a throw, and while Alley wasn’t in bad shape or anything it should have been well out of the range of his arm.

Should have been but wasn’t. Soaring through the air with significant force and even greater accuracy the hook and CoreSteel chain continued their curved path catching one of the serpentine dragons by the jaw just as its head crested the water.

Darius could have made that throw, but even he had to admit it was impressive in the extreme. Especially coming from Alley who had always been more of a ‘duck, dip, dive, and dodge.’ kind of fighter. Oh well every Knots knew better than to question a good thing, and he was happy to ask about it later.

For now, both Darius and Alley broke into laughing cheers as the hooked dragons managed to overcome the edge of the whirlpool and pull the skiff to relative safety. It was likely really bad for the structure of the ship, they had lost almost all of their supplies, and both boys were sore and saturated. Yet they were still alive and still afloat, so they laughed.