I don’t know what I was expecting from the fight with Hullbreak, but this awkward standoff wasn’t it. I was expecting to have a big battle under the waves, but my ‘assault’ force is staring at only a fraction of the sharks I was expecting, and those sharks don’t exactly look enthusiastic about a fight right now anyway.

So while everyone underwater is trying to figure out what they should actually be doing, I’m staring at a blob on the map that’s only getting closer and closer to Fourdock. I’m not exactly worried they’ll actually be able to do what Hullbreak was threatening, but I’m not so certain that I can keep him from hurting any of the townsfolk.

Sure, there are a ton of adventurers and such, but there’s also a bunch of just normal people in town, too. I’m pretty sure even a couple gulls wouldn’t be a problem for the average townie, but there’s way more than a couple gulls coming in, not to mention that Scion.

I can’t say for certain what affinity it has just yet, but there’s a lot of storm clouds rolling in with the huge flock of gulls. If he can drop a lightning storm or something on the town… that’d be bad.

The ringing bell seems to be getting people’s attention, at least. Aranya and Yvonne are already out to try to organize the town for… I don’t even know what. Should they evacuate? Where? To me? It’d probably be easier to keep them safe like that, but I don’t know how many people would be willing to do that.

My regular delvers probably would, but a lot of them are the ones I’d need to be least worried about. Even the ones who only run the maze or gather from my nodes still have to do a little bit of fighting. Not enough to fight off a gigantic flock of gulls, but at least enough to fend off a couple, I’d hope.

Ugh, I wish I had more time to organize this whole mess. Leo is still trying to get back, but I don’t know how long it’ll take him, even with the shortcut. Ok, focus. Less wishing, more doing. Larx and the spiderkin triumvirate are on their way to the public war room, guided by Thing and Fluffles, respectively. I’ll just have to hope they can provide the manpower to get the town to do whatever they’re going to do.

Aranya and Yvonne seemed like they’re going to go get Ragnar and Aelara, and then either organize the adventurer’s guild, or get the ODA’s help… or both. That means I need to buy time. And by me, I mean Poe. I don’t want to put this on his shoulders, but he really is the only one I have right now to try to keep that storm at bay.

Perhaps more precisely: in the bay. As long as they’re over the water, they can’t do much damage to the town. Poe’s a smart birb, though, and doesn’t need me to tell him that. He caws as he flies over the town, recalling the various expeditions, and preparing an army of black to face the invaders of white.

Poe

The Marshal flies quickly, though not as quickly as he can. Rushing like that is a good way to arrive there without any backup. While he’s a strong scion, he doesn’t want to try to fight off a literal army on his own. While his wind affinity is certainly a boon in the air, he’s starting to suspect this Quartermaster has storm affinity. It’s not exactly a counter to wind, but it would guarantee any fighting will be chaotic and intense.

He caws, loud and clear, to summon any expeditions that are out. While most of the crows and ravens were roosting when this threat was discovered, there are still some out on their various tasks. While Poe doubts a fresh scion could stand up to him, he’s not so arrogant that he’ll bring anything but his best against this foe. The delvers of Fourdock might not be tied to Lord Thedeim like Aranya and Yvonne, but he still doesn’t wish to see them harmed.

The feel of the air changes as he soars over the ocean: a certain saltiness to the breeze now, and weaker thermals. It only takes a small flex of his affinity to maintain his and his army’s speed and altitude, but it is still a bit of effort. It will give the gulls a small advantage, but hopefully nothing significant. He estimates the numbers to be about equal, but he knows he and his birds have a significant edge in experience. They’ve been active in defending Lord Thedeim for almost his entire existence, as well as challenging delvers. These gulls, on the other hand, only have experience in raids, and have not been having a good time of it recently, either.

Poe calls his forces to a halt as they near the army of gulls, and he can see his counterpart among them. The albatross looks to be even slightly larger than Poe, probably following a similar path as Tiny. If so, it will be a tenacious foe, though hopefully not too far along that particular path.

The Marshal resists the urge to embrace his titles just yet, and instead ensures the winds carry his caw, demanding the other scion leave. His crows and ravens echo the challenge with a cacophony of “Run!”, “Flee!”, and “Hide!” The chatter is silenced by the albatross’ reply, carried by thunder. The other scion has no intention of leaving peacefully.

Poe embraces the power of his titles, the Marshal of Murders and Lord of Unkindnesses having no time for niceties in this situation. If this Quartermaster will not leave in peace, he can leave in pieces.

He caws his orders and guides his forces, the otherworldly sound and coordination surprising the opposing scion. To his credit, he doesn’t back down. The gulls shriek their cries and charge the lines. The Quartermaster starts to gather ominous thunderheads, and that will be Poe’s focus for his personal attacks.

The inexperience of the gulls is apparent in the charge, as they don’t keep a coherent line. The leaders are easily picked off by ravens diving, and with them uncoordinated, they can’t press any advantage of mass to push Poe’s forces back. His front lines even let some of the gulls through, to be torn apart by the ravens behind. He loses some corvids, of course, but he’s clearly getting the better of the engagement.

The albatross isn’t being idle, though, and tries to use the thunderheads as siege equipment, trying to blast holes in the shifting tides of the engagement. While some lightning does get through, Poe isn’t exactly sitting idle, either. Blades and spears of wind disrupt the cloud formations, severely weakening the lightning when it’s not outright stopped.

Instead of conceding the fight, though, the Quartermaster tries a new tactic. While smaller thunderheads are easy enough to disrupt, there is still a lot of cloud cover. The albatross shrieks and brings forth rain… starting with a few drops, but it steadily grows, and quickly puts Poe and his forces on the back wing.

The gulls are more used to flying in poor weather, and it’s showing. The chaotic dance of the melee starts to descend into just ordinary chaos. Poe tries to disrupt the clouds, but there’s just too many to disperse with his attacks. He needs to wade in and battle the opposing scion more directly.

He caws his challenge, and the albatross screeches in mocking reply before darting into the clouds. Poe knows he’ll be at a severe disadvantage in the clouds, but he has to do something to try to stop the storm! He pulls several dozen of his crows into the ceiling of clouds with him, using them as extra eyes and ears to track down the Quartermaster.

A bolt of lightning takes one of the crows, but several others spot the enemy’s outline. Poe sends a slash of wind, and is rewarded with a pained squawk from the enemy scion.

Poe can’t tell how long he chases the Quartermaster, but he can feel his crows and ravens regrouping under the clouds, fending off the weakening attacks of the gulls. He also manages to lash out many times at his foe, and seems to hit more often than not.

It’s with surprise that he suddenly bursts from the wall of clouds, into a clear area much colder than the surroundings. In the center is the Quartermaster, looking battered, but also somehow victorious. Poe is confused until he feels dread from his Lord Thedeim, and a strange sort of storm flashes through the bond. Usually found in much warmer climates, it’s a storm that can scour whole islands to bare sand and rock. He doesn’t know exactly how strong this hurricane is, nor how the Quartermaster managed to afford it, but he is pretty sure the storm will hit Fourdock even if Poe kills the albatross.

Poe grits his beak as he prepares to test that theory, before realizing he and the Quartermaster are no longer the only scions in the eye of this storm. Prismatic colors fill the air as Fluffles makes his entrance, the power of Lord Thedeim radiating from the winged serpent.

Fluffles

As soon as he got the three spiderkin leaders to the war room, Fluffles left. The Denmaster wants him to help Poe as soon as he can. He’s a bit nervous about trying to help the more experienced fighter, but he understands Thedeim’s reasoning. Fluffles isn’t exactly a subtle scion in his efforts, but when fighting an army, there’s not a lot of need for subtlety.

Once he gets to the surface, he can see what the Denmaster meant. Even from here, he can hear the sounds of Poe and the enemy scion fighting, their armies cawing and yelling. The huge flocks can even be seen, diving and fighting through thick sheets of rain. He feels a whisper through the bond to go over the low clouds, and to use whatever mana is needed to do so quickly.

If it weren’t for the impending disaster to the town, Fluffles would find the speed invigorating, the mana intoxicating. But the seriousness of the situation makes it difficult to truly revel in the experience. He doesn’t suppress the bit of pride he feels, though, at his effective use of the mana. Proper application and proper form lets him fly faster than he would have thought possible, even forming a subtle cone in front of the flying serpent.

He’s pretty sure it only takes him minutes to get over the battlefield, but it feels like hours. Since he was sent high, he must be after the enemy scion, rather than the birds obscured by the thick cloud cover. He frowns as he spots a hole in the clouds, and soon sees Poe burst into the clearing. At the center, he sees the albatross, looking battered, but not beaten.

Then the Denmaster whispers why. A hurricane. But Fluffles can’t stop something like that, he doesn’t even have wind affinity, let alone storm!

Momentum

The word is confusing to get in a situation like this. With kinetic as his first affinity, Fluffles understands what it is, but he doesn’t understand how it applies to this situation. There’s nothing moving out here! Just him, Poe, and the enemy scion!

Fluffles flaps his wings a few more times to help stabilize himself from a stray gust, his attention flicking to the slowly-swirling clouds below him. He watches them for a few seconds, the whisper from the Denmaster echoing in his mind soon joined by an odd thing Rocky has said many times: Stuff is made of stuff.

He always found it to be nonsensical, but Thing and Queen always agree with a conspiratorial smile. They could be playing some prank… but what if they’re not. Kinetic affinity is about movement. If the clouds are moving… if the air is moving…

Almost without thinking, Fluffles descends towards the two bird scions. The albatross thinks he’s won, even if Poe kills him. Fluffles doesn’t know if it has enough power to wipe out Fourdock, but it won’t exactly just tickle it. But his epiphany has given him an idea to kill two birds with one stone… or one bird with its own stone.

He fully embraces his Conduit title, and can practically feel the kinetic energy of the storm singing to him. Poe looks in awe, while the Quartermaster simply tries to flee. It takes but a drop of the Denmaster’s mana to rob the enemy bird of the kinetic energy he would use to flee, locking him in place as he unworks the storm.

He pulls the energy from the air and focusses it in front of himself, slowly forming a swirling orb of air. A boom emanates from the orb as he adds more and more energy to it, the air inside passing the speed of sound. As he keeps slowing the storm, he muffles further booms, remembering the words of the Denmaster that escaping sounds are inefficiencies. He draws deeply of the Denmaster’s mana as he works. While moving energy takes much less mana than making it directly, there is still a lot of energy involved. He finally feels the storm reach a tipping point, no longer having the momentum to keep going.

He turns his focus to the enemy scion, the massive albatross somehow having gone even whiter. Fluffles simply hisses at him, no real malice in it, before unleashing the orb’s kinetic energy on the unfortunate scion. The hurricane’s eye blinks, the storm dissipates, and only a puff of feathers remains of the Quartermaster.