Tide of Shadows Ch 25: Chains

Jos clapped the asura on her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. Danni mumbled a few words and a spray of healing water shot up out of the deck, drenching Nahg. Those waters spread out and pooled around Jos and Danni’s feet. Within a few seconds, the scrapes and cuts on Jos’s wrists were gone. 

She rubbed the soft, tender flesh . “Oh damn, that feels better. Thank you.”

Nahg let out a weak  groan which morphed into a growl.

The asura’s head drooped a little. “My pleasure.”

Jos knew these two weren’t going to be good for a fight anytime soon. She was tired too, but that didn’t matter. This was her mess, and she had to clean it up. “Okay, you two hang back here. Watch the cargo. I’ll be back.”

As a series of gunshots went off and feet pounded across overhead, Danni looked up then nodded.

On her way out of the hold, Jos stopped at the doorway and summoned a decoy clone. A shiver ran down her spine as she stared at the near-perfect copy of herself. The two Joses nodded and the clone darted through the doorway. The real Jos followed a few yards behind. 

Ahead, the passageway brightened as they neared daylight. The moment her clone stepped out of the darkness, an Inquest sailor pounced, sliding his dagger into her ribs again and again. 

Just as the clone started to fade, the real Jos jumped out of the passageway, grabbed the asura’s wrist and wrenched the dagger free. The Inquest sailor gave a gurgling yelp as she slid the blade into his throat. 

When she pulled the weapon free, she rose up and looked around at the chaos. Inquest sailors were everywhere, trying to stamp out her crew. And they were succeeding. Rage boiled in Jos as she saw several of her crew go down under blade and gun. 

The words started in her chest. Ancient words of magic and power. Jos let her anger and fury fuel her casting. She let it take her well past any reasonable limit. She knew she could very well burn herself to a cinder, but she didn’t care. With every scrap of power she had, Jos summoned clones and phantasms, as many as she could. As each one popped into existence, it darted out and started attacking the enemy. In a matter of seconds, the Inquest ship’s main deck was flooded with copies of herself. She knew her copies couldn’t turn the tide of the fight on their own, but maybe they could give her people enough of a distraction to regroup.

But she didn’t have time to wait around and see. No, she had one mission. As she scanned the fighting, her gaze landed on her target and she screamed, “Dreeax!”

High Captain Dreeax parried an attack from Nexx’s nephew with her longsword and dagger and kicked him square in the chest. Tukk flew back, slammed against the ship’s railing and slumped to the deck. Dreeax turned, a wide, wicked smile creasing her face. 

The two captains stalked toward each other, parrying and punching other attackers along the way. Finally, they met face to face in the center of the chaos and death. 

Dreeax snarled. “I was soooo hoping you’d escape. I thought your capture was a little too easy, took most of the fun out of killing you. THIS is how it should be… Captain to Captain.”

As each clone and phantasm was destroyed, she felt a tiny bit of her power return. “Funny, I was thinking you got lucky. Me being tied up was the only way you were going to be able to kill me.”

“We’ll see.” Dreeax angled her chin at Jos and leaped forward. 

With her one dagger, Jos parried the high captain’s sword attack and ducked under the dagger swipe. Coming up, she slid her blade under her opponent’s hard-light armor and nicked the asura’s soft flesh. 

High Captain Dreeax hissed and jumped back. “So, first blood to you, but last will be mine.”

The high captain lunged again just as Jos sensed movement behind. Jos dodged to the side. A sword stabbed the air where she’d just been, right toward Dreeax, but the high captain parried the attack away. 

With her free hand, Jos chopped down on her second Inquest attacker’s wrist and their sword clattered to the ground. Using her new opponent like a maypole, she twisted around behind him and pushed the sailor straight onto Dreeax’s blade. The high captain cursed and shoved the dying crewmember away. 

Snatching up the short sword, Jos readied for the next attack.The pair continued their dance of blades amid the chaos, but even as she held her own, Jos felt her strength fading. She could not keep this up for long. To make it worse, the high captain showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, as the battle waged on Dreeax seemed to be getting stronger and faster. 

“You can’t win this, Captain.” Dreeax took a step back. Even though her chest heaved from effort, the broad smile and predatory stance showed just how energized she was. 

Jos, on the other hand, gasped for each breath and struggled against a cramp starting in her side. She held her sword out, more to keep a safe distance from her opponent than anything else. “You sure about that?”

A nice swig of rum would help right about now.

Gathering a bit of her strength, Jos made the motion with her dagger hand and summoned a clone. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew Dreeax was right. She wasn’t going to win this fight on her own. 

A perfectly lifelike clone appeared just to the high captains side and pounced. Dreeax dodged and the two began to go at it. Jos needed to get back into it, but her arms felt like charr-iron weights. She also knew Dreeax’s fight with the clone wouldn’t last long; one cut of the asura’s sword and the fake Jos would vanish.

Strike and parry. The clone and Dreeax fought back and forth, steady and balanced. Finally, the clone’s blade slipped past the high captain’s guard and nicked her arm. Dreeax jumped back and glanced down at where the wound should have been, but there was none. 

The asura’s evil smile morphed into a snarl as she turned from the clone and back to Jos. “Nice trick, but it doesn’t do any real damage, does it?”

Shit.

Dreeax took a step closer to Jos. “I have to say, this battle between us has been one of the best I’ve had in quite some time. I enjoyed the challenge. But…”

Jos hoisted her weapon, ready to fend off her attacker. “But?”

The high captain lifted her chin and stared down her button nose at Jos. “But it’s time for you to die.”

Jos lunged. But, even as her strike was deflected, sharp pain sliced through her side. She stumbled back. Bright red dripped from the asura’s sword. Jos looked down. More of her blood was streaming from the fresh wound. 

“You’re tired and slow. Just give it over now.”

Jos scoffed. Despite the pain, she straightened her back and assumed a fighting stance. “You think we’re done? I’m just getting sta—”

Her knees buckled and she dropped onto all fours, her sword clattering to the deck.

Dreeax’s wet sword blade appeared next to Jos’s face. “Oh no. I think you’re done.”

“No.” Not like this.

The high captain chuckled. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

Jos looked up.

Dreeax held her sword with the point down. “Give my regards to uh...what’s his name? Oh yes, Grenth.”

This was it. This was the moment she saved her crew from her own mistakes… or she died. She gave a small smile and chuckled. She still wished she had a little rum to go with her victory, or defeat.

Jos snapped her finger. Purple light flashed and suddenly she was standing behind the high captain. Dreeax plunged her blade down into the neck of the clone Jos had just swapped places with. When the clone vanished, Dreeax looked around as if she were lost. 

“I have a better idea,” Jos said as she stepped forward. 

The high captain whipped around. “What?”

Captain Jos plunged her dagger straight into the asura’s heart. “Why don’t you say hello for me.”

Dreeax’s eyes widened. Her weapons slipped from her fingers as her eyes took on that glassy, far away look of death. Finally, the asura collapsed to the deck, her eyes still open.

Jos stared down at the high captain’s corpse for several seconds then gave a curt nod. “There we go—”

And her legs gave way again. Her face smacked against the hard wood of the deck. Screams echoed all around her. Her toes began to feel cold and darkness pressed in on her. Far off, she heard someone call her name. 

A calm settled over Jos. She’d used too much power, too much magic. She’d lost, even though she’d won.

Still, what surprised her most wasn’t that she was going to die. Rather, that she was going to die sober.

Then she chuckled and was swallowed by the black.