Chapter Six Hundred and Three

“The roots are going to hit the keep’s core,” Desiree said. It wasn’t shouted, just spoken aloud with the same certainty that someone might use to announce that the sun was going to rise in the morning.

That somehow made it all the scarier to hear. Worse, she was probably right. The massive roots crawling up the side of the keep were movin with surprising speed. Really, it wasn’t much more than a slow walk, but that walk was vertical up the rocky sides of the keep’s underbelly.

“Clive! Bring us lower, slowly. Everyone, on defence. If you have shields, now’s the time.” I paused as the floor opened up off to the side, and Awen’s repeating crossbow turret rose out of the deck with a constant rattle of chains. “I’m going to try to hit the roots.”

The dungeon ore holding the keep afloat was about a third of the way from the bottom. If the roots reached it and broke the core, or even just tampered with it enough, the entire keep might fall.

I reached out and grasped the nearest handrail as the Beaver shook. A shockwave rushed past us, and when I looked over, one of the squid-like plants was careening away, trailing a long plume of purplish smoke as it quickly lost altitude. 

Clive did as I asked, swinging the Beaver around in a wide circle even as our engine roared and gave all it had. 

The motion brought us away from the fight a little, and as we went lower, we actually managed to get the keep between us and the enemy. It was nice to be behind cover for a moment, though the path also brought us closer to the storm walls, which looked like they were breaking up rather violently, the winds abating in some places and twisting into little vortexes in others. It sent waves of rain splashing across the deck. 

I watched as our harpy crew jumped up and clung onto the underside of the ship’s balloon, expertly moving along the ropes there to reach the nearest hole. It wasn’t long that they were covering the area around the holes with thick, gloopy tar-like glue and then slapping down square-cut patches of cloth.

Good. That would stop us from bleeding too much of our lifting gas.

I patted Clive on the back. “Keep him steady,” I said before I leapt over the railing to land on the main deck. We were approaching the keep once more. Clive called out to pull some of the sails in, so I ran out and did just that, with some help from Oda who’d come up from below and told me in a breathless tone that the loose stuff downstairs was stowed away as best they could.

Once the right sails were tucked away, I moved across the deck, then lingered awkwardly next to where Calamity was sitting and gritting his teeth. 

Caprica was kneeling next to him, some dirty bandages in hand which she’d obviously been using. There was a small first aid kit next to her as well, opened up, with some of its contents spilled out across the ground.

“H-hey,” I said, feeling a little awkward. 

I was the captain. If someone was hurt on the ship doing what I’d asked them to do, the fault would spill down onto my shoulders.

“He’ll live,” Caprica said.

“I’m gonna die, capt’n,” Calamity contradicted right away. From the sarcastic tone and the crooked grin, I knew he was just being silly. 

“Ah, it’s good that your humour isn’t broken, at least,” I said.

“Just my leg,” he replied.

Caprica shook her head. “His leg isn’t broken. The thorn punched through some muscle. It’ll hurt for a good long time, but if we can find a healer within the next week or so, it’ll heal properly, and he’ll be back up on his feet soon enough.”

“Oh, good,” I said.

Caprica gestured to the leg, which was wrapped up in several layers of bandages. “Can you hit these with some cleaning magic? The thorn wasn’t exactly clean.” 

The thorn itself was laying off to the side. Caprica had cut it on the end, and what remained was a long, dark piece of what looked like wood, almost, but it was covered in some blood and torn up on the edges. “Are you worried that bits of that are stuck in Calamity?”

“Yes,” she said.

Well, that was worrisome. Foreign bodies inside of a wound were a great way to start an infection. I fell onto my knees next to Calamity, then reached a hand out to hover over his bandaged leg. I focused just a little, but at this point, using Cleaning magic was second nature to me, and it came out as a wave of pure, whitish mana that washed over the bandages and burned away any blood or gross stuff.

Calamity didn’t react, which was good. Cleaning magic shouldn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel that nice either. 

“Broccoli!” 

I looked up and noticed Amaryllis waving me over. So, I stood, then patted Calamity on the shoulder since a hug wouldn’t be appropriate right then. “Let us know if it hurts too much, okay?” He gave me a thumb’s up while I jogged across the deck to where Amaryllis was waiting.

She opened her mouth to speak, then flinched as a huge spell went off on the other side of the keep. The air shoo, and a wash of warm air moved by, sending my hair out and almost knocking my hat off. I checked on the crew fixing the balloon, but they were hanging on well enough.

“We can’t stay here forever,” Amaryllis said. “This is... this is several high-tier people going all out. We’re not ready for this kind of fighting.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, because what else was I going to say to that? “What did you call me for?”

Amaryllis pointed. “The roots climbing over there. I bet they’re the ones that Mathew man had in containment. I don’t know what broke through the Black Avatar’s safeties, but it could be anything. Can you take care of it?”

I blinked, then nodded. The nearest of the roots were still a little ways away, but my Cleaning magic could be tied up into a projectile, and they weren’t moving that fast. “If we get closer, I’ll be able to do more, but I can start from here, sure.”

“I don’t even know if it will help,” Amaryllis admitted. “It might be climbing through the inside as well. But stunting the growth out here is at least something.”

I reached a hand out towards the keep, focused for a moment, then fired out a quick blast of Cleaning magic, shaping it into a spinning sphere as I did not too dissimilar to how my little fireball spells worked, only with S-rank Cleaning it came easier and faster than that. 

The glowing ball of magic darted forwards and smacked into one of the questing ends of an evil root. The root stopped, squirmed, then the tip of it melted away into a faint dust that was carried away by the wind. The burning effect worked backwards along the root for a little ways, but eventually it stopped. 

The root twitched a few times along its entire length, then it continued to quest upwards. 

I heard Amaryllis tsk next to me. “That did something, but you’ll have to hit it harder.”

“Okay!” I agreed. We were already a little closer. So I focused harder, collected more mana, and shaped it into a great, more powerful spell. This time, when I launched it, the spell rushed forward. It was less a ball of magic and more a firehose spray. I could feel my reserves dropping as the magic surged forwards.

Then I had it split, different tendrils of it smothering over different sections of the crawling roots.

The magic washed away decedes worth of dust and grime and dirt from the rocky bottom of the keep, and it seared into the roots, turning them black and rotten before the roots that touched the magic simply turned to dust. The effect raced downwards and into the keep through some of the lower windows that the roots had been crawling out of.

“Got it!” I shouted. “Clive, turn us around! We need to make space to--”

I winced as a loud shriek echoed through the storm.

SOUL MESSAGE HERE

I couldn't see the monsters anymore, but I could tell that something happened, especially when there were shouts from the Black Avatars.

Was it upset that I had burned the root away? 

“Captain!” Clive shouted.

It was too late. Something shot around the keep, moving so quick it was a blur. Then it slammed into the deck, sending broken planks and bits of decorative woodwork flying.

I raised my arms to protect myself from splinters. When I lowered them, I expected to see another thorn, or something, but instead... there was a person, made of twisting vines with a wooden skin and with flowers for hair, and they, she, was looking right at me.

***