Ozzy was not a sprinter, but he also wasn't slow. This had surprised a couple of people before. The Sculpted perk gave him a leaner body with little to no body fat, and being seven-foot tall gave you long legs. Right now, he needed every bit of help he could get. The smaller gators were running at him to close the circle. If even one of them got in a good bite and latched on, it would slow him down and it would be all over. The Imperator was still in its burrow in the salad, and low to the ground. Bits of vegetation were flying in the air as it shook its head to clear its vision. The little ones had told it a meal was coming and it was waking up.

The meal in question closed the distance as fast as he could, and was very thankful he had bought the first level of Jumping Jack, letting him jump twice his normal distance. Ben had suggested it to all of them. "Too useful in too many situations." Ozzy made a note to thank Ben, if he lived through this. And a thank you as well to Suzette for convincing him to try Bull Leaping. Without that practice he'd have never considered charging the huge croc. A level 12 monstrous boss was a raid boss for a couple of dozen people, not for one outnumbered Butcher.

He was just a couple of feet away from the tip of the crocs nose when he leaped on top of it. One foot landed on its snout, the next step between its eyes, and then he was sprinting down it's back. The tail was tricky. A croc could hit hard with its tail, and this one could probably kill him with it. He leaped again as he cleared the body, doing a poorly executed flip that left him hitting the ground hard. He bounced once, got up, and started sprinting away as the little crocs ran at him and the Imperator spun around.

He was faster than they were, and he had enough smoke that he wasn't slowing down the entire way to the big three-master. He leaped for the rail, caught it and pulled himself up. Was there enough salad on the sides for them to climb? Did crocs climb? He assumed not. But it was better to make sure. He still cast Cleanse several times, moving down the part of the ship where sargasso weed had grown up and over the rail. The spell worked as he'd hoped, clearing most of it away from the surface of the ship.

If the creatures could get aboard somehow, he'd have to make a choice between climbing the mast, or dropping off the far side and running some more. He didn't want to lead them back to the new ship, and running through the sargasso could give him more things to worry about. He saw the small army trudging his way, and then looked at the ballistae on the stern and bow. Time to work on that artillery merit badge. There were barrels of the javelins the ballistae used for ammunition down in the hold. He grabbed two barrels of the long darts and got back out of the hold and up to the bow of the ship.

The mechanism was very similar to the weapons Jorges had been producing and he was glad he'd spent some time looking at them, and watching them be fired. He cranked on the windlass, drawing back the heavy cable and loaded a javelin. The thick skeins of cables strained as the arms were drawn back. The trigger snapped up and the machine was ready to fire. Aiming was going to be tough. He was above the target, but didn't know how fast the javelin would drop. He compromised by aiming two feet above the monster's head and pulled on the trigger. With a 'twang' that made his ears hurt, the javelin shot out, went over the head of the Imperator, and speared through two of the smaller crocs.

Ozzy was impressed by the draw on the weapon, it had barely any drop. He loaded another and repeated the shot. This time the spear hit along the back of the monstrous croc, and simply bounced off. The angle was bad, and it was too easy for the javelins to be deflected when if he hit the heavy scales along the monsters back. He needed to hit it in the head.

It took him three shots to hit the Imperator in the head. By this time the creature was nearly at the ship. The javelin flew straight at the creature’s head, hitting it in the cheek and tearing a gash in the skin before skipping off. Ozzy was beginning to think he needed a bigger weapon. Luckily, the Imperator wasn't built for climbing. It tried to rear up, but couldn't bend its tail enough to let it get it's claws high enough to reach the deck. But it did give Ozzy some better shots at more vulnerable areas. Or would have if he was a better shot. As Ozzy bounced two more spears off its tough hide, and then finally hit the soft under-belly. The javelin went into the most for a full foot and stuck. The monster didn't seem to be badly hurt, but it did back off fifty feet, honked a few times, and then lay flat on the ground, digging into the turf and giving Ozzy nothing to shoot at but its armored back.

The little crocs lined up and began digging in the turf. Half of them piled up dead salad, and the other half moved it to the ship. Ozzy wasn't happy with this strategy; the damned things were organized and building a ramp for the big one! He tried shooting the little ones with the ballistae, but with the slow rate of fire, and their small size, he only killed two more using an entire barrel of darts. He went down for more ammunition.

The glass globes were still sitting in their padded crates. He toyed with setting up one of the catapults, but they couldn't shoot at something that close. He might was well just throw it and see what it did. Greek fire maybe? That seemed odd for the smoke. More likely it was some type of poison. Taking one from the hold, he stood at the edge of the ship and threw the glass ball at the Imperator. He missed, hitting the salad and the ball rolled up next to the creatures flank unbroken.

Well, that sucked. He was about to get another, when he got the idea to shoot the glob with the ballistae. The first shot went high, glancing off the Imperators back. The second hit the ball, and it shattered. He saw a light blue mist come out and spread. Where it touched the salad, the vegetation was rapidly turning black and disappearing. The Imperator suddenly came awake, roaring and moving away from the rapidly forming crater. The side of the creature was blackened. The top scales seemed unhurt, but there was a wound in its side, and it wasn't happy about that. Ozzy sprinted to the hold for more ammunition.

He grabbed one of the crates of eight spheres and carefully carried them upstairs. Taking the first, he threw it hard at the Imperator forty feet away from him. With the creature standing, it was hard to miss. The globe shatter against it's shoulder. One front leg and part of its shoulder began to melt away. The sargasso near it was becoming a crater, and the smaller crocs turned black and died immediately. The large monster was much tougher. He was wounding it, but only a layer at a time. He tossed two more, hitting it both times. The Imperator was furious now, with small wounds in many places, scales falling off and raw muscle showing as its skin was dissolved. But despite some of its limbs being half gone, it wasn’t slowing down.

Ozzy saw it glare at him, and then run at the half-destroyed ramp. It jumped, hit the ramp, and jumped again. Its head smashed through the rail and the front legs were on the deck as the rear legs scrambled to get traction. Ozzy had backed away to the other rail. Looking over, he saw a couple dozen smaller crocs waiting for him below. The ammunition crate was too close to the big croc, and he didn't want to go into the hold for more. With no other place to go, he started climbing the mast of the ship, putting distance between himself and the Imperator.

The giant croc's hind legs finally dug in, and it heaved itself aboard the ship. The ammunition crate ended up under its belly as the front right leg snapped and collapse. The huge belly of the 15-ton creature slammed down onto the crate, shattering the remaining globes. Clouds of blue mist came out, spreading everywhere and running down the sides of the ship. The Sarcosuchus Imperator roared and screamed, and the smaller crocs raced to aid it, instead getting faced full of mist and dying. The Imperator collapsed and screamed, and after a minute lay still, less and less of it visible as the mist ate away at it.

Ozzy kept climbing. The mist wasn't done. He saw some of it pour into the hold, and some pour across the deck. Wood began to disappear. The mist spread further, eating away at the ship. The mast Ozzy was at the top of began to shake. The hull of the ship was now dissolving. If the mast broke and he fell into the mist, Ozzy had no doubt he'd share the Imperator's fate. He rocked back and forth, making the mast sway. At the end of one swing, he heard a snap, and the mast kept slowly falling, with him at the end of the pendulum. The blow drove him down into the sargasso three feet, and he scramble up, not knowing how close the mist was.

As he stumbled away from the growing crater, one of the crocs ran up to attack him. He punted it fifty feet into the middle of what had used to be a ship. Several more waddled towards him and he repeated the tactic of running at them and pretending they were soccer balls.

The mist seemed to have stopped expanding. A large crater had formed a hundred feet across and was rapidly filling with smoke. Ozzy guessed that the hole must extend down through the island of vegetation. A few bits of wood floated in the smoke. The bow and stern of the ship were still there, with nothing between them. In the center of the crater floated many glass spheres, freed from the ship and their crates. The glass spheres seemed to be the only thing the gas hadn't destroyed. Along with the spheres was the skull and armored hide of the croc, and a sparkling wooden treasure chest.

Looking at the crater, Ozzy thought that he should probably remove that sphere that was in the hold of the Splinter, and get it off the ship before he told Woodrat this story.

The Imperator is dead! Long live the Imperator!

Not all victories are heroic; just ask Odysseus. He'll remind you that a win by guile is still a win. When the other guy is a lot bigger than you, you use whatever weapon you have to take him down.

You have slain Sarcosuchus Imperator, king of the crocs. For killing a Level 12 Monstrous Creature you receive 30 CSP.

-You have gained the skill: Ballista. You have gained 1000 experience in Ballista. Ballista is a primary PER skill.

-You have gained 1000 experience in perception.

-You have earned 500 experience in Bull Leaping and 500 AGI experience

-You have gained 2000 experience that you may place into any skill, along with an equal amount of experience in the statistic that governs that skill.

You have destroyed a ship! Destroy 6 more ships to finish your quest.