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I make it just in time to watch two more arrows whisk their way down into the water. There’s no way of knowing how much danger I was really in. Would they have practiced shooting things in the ocean? Spearfishers certainly know how to hit targets in the water, but spearfishing is usually a job for human slaves, not elf warriors.
Either way, I’m safe now under the bow of the middle boat. I can’t see Laiken now, but I know he’s out there.We’re doing this together.
The only tool I have is the small crude knife I recovered from the camp, but it’s enough. There was no reason to design a boat to withstand this kind of attack. And so, it’s easy to find a nail sticking out just a little bit and wrench the knife under it. With a little bit of jimmying, the nail comes out and the board begins to loosen. Another nail pops out, and by pressing my feet against the hull, I’m able to wrench away an entire piece of the bottom of the ship. Immediately, water begins to pour into the vessel.
I swim straight down and away from the ship. Immediately, the archers are shooting at me again. And then suddenly, something much heavier hits the water.
It’s a dark elf, sword drawn and swimming directly at me. He’s faster in the water than I am, and he grabs me before I can swim deep enough to escape. His arm is wrapped around my waist, and he’s kicking his way up towards the surface. I have to use both of my arms to keep his sword away from my body.
That’s when Laiken emerges from below. His tentacles wrap around the arms of the elf holding me and pry him off me. I watch Laiken pull the struggling elf down into the shadowy depths just before I would have broken the surface, then I swim down myself.
Both of the other two ships are coming closer to the middle ship, presumably to pick up its crew.
Good. Exactly as planned.
Now comes the dangerous part. I have to be the distraction.
That’s okay. I’m good at that.
I swim for the ship on the right. This time, I go straight for the helm of the ship. As I suspect, there aren’t archers posted here.
I poke my head out of the water immediately in front of the ship.
“There she is!” I hear an elf cry! “The escaped human! In the water, dead ahead!”
Already, I’m back underwater. I swim under the ship, straight towards the prow.
As I expect, when I come up, no one sees me. They’re all searching the water in front of the ship, looking for my shadow moving under the water.
I climb up onto the ship. There’s one elf, a caster with a bow, who’s within easy reach of me.
He hears something, probably the dripping of water. The moment he does, I wrap my arms around his shoulder and jump back into the ocean, pulling him with me.
Laiken is waiting below. Before the elf can understand what’s happened or begin to fight back, his tentacles are wrapped around him, pulling him down into the darkness.
Arrows zip through the water. I swim around them and make my way back under the ship.
If that doesn’t get them nervous, I don’t know what will.
I swim back towards the central boat. Two smaller rafts have been put to sea from inside it. Those are my targets.
As I start to get close to the first one, a bolt of green lightning flies so close to me that I feel its heat on my face. Immediately, I swim deeper, backing up. There’s a caster on board this raft. That’s a more serious issue.
I swim straight up and poke my head above the water. Immediately, another bolt of energy is headed at me, and I duck down in order to dodge it. However, I see where the caster is standing on the boat. That’s all I need.
I swim down, arc back up, and come up directly underneath the raft. I don’t know if the caster even attempted to hit me again. If they did, it didn’t get close enough for me to see it.
I splash the water to the left side of the raft using my feet. As I expect, a bolt of green immediately shoots down on that side. As that happens, I’m already rising up directly beside the caster. Before he can turn around, I pull him into the water with me.
The water begins to warm as he surrounds his arms with green energy. I have to let him go, and he twists up to face me, bringing his arms together to cast a bolt of energy directly at me.
But before he can fire, Laiken’s tentacles wrap around him and pull him down. The bolt fires, but it goes off to the side. Once again, Laiken has saved my life.
With the caster down, the whole raft is vulnerable. I swim up again, underneath the ship. I hesitate for a few seconds, planning the attack, then kick my way up.
I break the surface, grab onto the edge of the life raft, and pull it down with all my strength. Just as I expected, the small, flimsy affair tilts in the water. An archer who was trying to fire at me falls into the water, and his shot goes wide.
I dive down. As I do, one of the elves from the raft grabs onto my foot. I struggle for a moment before kicking him in the face. The pain startles him, and I slip my foot away to swim down and away.
