The crew, already spent, took one look and fell back. A few raised their weapons with shaking hands. Most just stared.
Two figures pulled themselves from the hold behind the corrupted mass. Still human. Smoky and Scruffy, looking half-dead but intact.
Yun watched with furrowed eyebrows. "How the hell?"
No time for that. The newly mutated monstrosities surged forward.
Miri was already moving, red essence gathering around her blade. She met the first wave head-on, her strikes burning through the Plagued like they were paper. But there were too many. Even with her power, she was one person against a horde.
The crew joined her, forming a desperate line. Yun watched from the rail, his grip tight on the cutlass. His gaze drifted past the battle, toward the storm barrier fifty meters ahead.
We need to leave. Now.
Yun's gaze snapped to Miri. She'd just cut down three Plagued prisoners in one fluid motion, but her movements were slower now. Exhausted. The rest of the crew was barely holding on.
He needed her attention. He needed her to listen. And he had maybe thirty seconds before this all went to hell.
"Lady Miri!"
Her head turned fractionally, grey eyes finding him through the chaos.
"The barrier!" Yun pointed at the storm wall ahead. "I can guide us through!"
She cut down another Plagued prisoner, essence flaring. "We can't abandon…"
"YOUR BROTHER'S GOING TO WIN!" Yun shouted over the sounds of battle. "And when he does, you want to tell him you lost the ship to prisoners?!"
Miri's jaw clenched. She drove her blade through the nearest Plagued, then pulled back from the front line.
"Hold them!" she commanded the crew, her voice carrying that unnatural weight. "Mortin, Haska, to me!"
Two crew members broke from formation, including the drunk that slapped him, forming up beside her as she cut a path back toward the bridge. Some prisoners followed, drawn by movement. Miri spun, her blade trailing red essence in a wide arc.
"Ignite."
The wave of power crashed into the pursuing horde, buying precious seconds.
She hit the bridge at a run, both hands gripping the wheel. The ship lurched forward, the red barrier intensifying as she poured essence into the script circle.
The Blood Maiden shot forward, leaving the Plagued stumbling across the suddenly moving deck. Some tumbled overboard. Others crashed into the remaining crew, who hacked at them with desperate, exhausted swings.
But Miri's attention was split: steering, maintaining the barrier, powering the propulsion. The ship's course wavered, veering three degrees off-line.
She's going to hit the barrier wrong and kill us all.
Yun ran. His bare feet found purchase on the blood-slicked wood as he took the stairs to the bridge two at a time. Miri didn't even look at him, her entire focus on the wheel. Yun's eyes tracked the barrier's rotation, calculating. For the best chance at escape, they had to cut through where the water was thinnest. This is gonna hurt.
He activated [Eyes of Acuity]. The physical properties of the world opened up to him, bombarding his mind with numerical values: distance from barrier, the barrier's rate of rotation, even the velocity and angle of approach.
"You need to adjust!" Yun said, coming up beside her. "Three degrees port!"
"Who do you think…"
"The barrier's rotating. You're going to hit the thickest part. THREE DEGREES PORT!"
Miri's knuckles were white on the wheel. She didn't move. The barrier loomed closer. Thirty meters to be exact.
Yun grabbed the wheel beside her hands. Their eyes met. Grey steel meeting desperate brown. Miri's jaw set. She hauled the wheel. The Blood Maiden tilted, cutting through water at a sharp angle. The crew shouted in alarm as the deck pitched. Two Plagued prisoners slid overboard, their screams cut short by impact.
Twenty meters.
"Two more degrees! Keep it steady!"
Miri adjusted. Her arms were shaking with effort, red essence bleeding off her in waves as she fought to maintain the barrier, propulsion, and course all at once. The Blood Maiden was now wreathed in her crimson flames, earning its name. Yun had slumped over, leaning on the helm after losing all the power in his legs.
Fifteen meters.
"Can you condense the barrier at the bow?" Yun said.
"That'll leave the rest of the ship exposed."
"We'll need it to punch through. Please listen!"
In truth, Yun wasn't really sure himself. But if public education taught him one thing, a sharp force beats a blunt one. It's at least better than slamming the ship into it raw and praying.
Ten meters.
Miri released one hand from the wheel long enough to draw her blade. Red essence gathered at the tip, then shot forward, condensing at the Blood Maiden's prow into a spear of solidified power.
"HOLD ON!" she roared.
The crew grabbed whatever they could. Smoky and Scruffy threw themselves flat on the deck. Yun gripped the railing beside the wheel, his knuckles white.
Five meters.
The storm barrier filled his vision. Churning starlight, the Itheon's residual power made manifest. This close, Yun could see the individual threads of energy weaving together, and the weak point where they thinned just slightly. Celestial essence.
"Steady now!" he shouted. "Don't adjust!"
Miri's face was pale, sweat streaming down her temples. "I swear to the Court, if you're wrong—"
The red spear at the bow struck first.
The barrier shrieked. Light exploded outward as red vital essence tore into the weave. Miri commanded ignition once more.
For one terrible moment, the two forces pushed against each other, neither giving ground.
Then, the barrier cracked.
The Blood Maiden slammed into the opening.
The world buzzed from the pressurized light and screaming wood. Yun felt his teeth rattle, his vision white-out. Something shattered, masts splintering, rail breaking, the deck itself groaning under impossible strain. Screams of agony surfaced and drowned again at a chilling tempo, but they were still moving forward. Still pushing through.
The pressure peaked…
Finally, with a thunderous crack, the Blood Maiden burst through.
Yun's vision cleared. Open sea ahead. Real stars scattered naturally in the night sky above. Behind them, the barrier sealed itself with a low rumble, trapping the Lost Sea King and Captain Maliki in their arena.
They were free.
And waiting for them ahead was a mass of land.
They had arrived at the Itheon's island.