Are You Experienced?

The enemy fleet drew closer, and John could make out their faces clearly in his scope as he felled sniper after sniper. Each time he cleared an enemy lookout, it was refilled by the time he finished the next. Their bullets peppered his defenses, and when he heard Discordance he ripped his rifle away and rolled aside. Not a moment later a bullet flew through the hole his scope and eye had occupied. He picked the next one that caught his eye and resumed his work.

Lance tore through an enemy sail fighting a huge man with an electrified spear. He bobbed back and forth on angelic wings dodging each spear thrust but the aura of electricity around the weapon leapt to him, zapping him with each dodged attack. It slowed him down each time until he was too slow and the proper blade of the spear slashed open his metal-reinforced chest. He leaned into the blow and thrust his adamantine staff directly into the enemy's face. John tried to help, following up Lance's hit with a barrage of sniper fire that hit the spearman's face like pebbles.

The electromage recoiled and leapt back off the air. Lance, on the other hand, began to fall from the sky. His wings disappeared and he picked up speed, falling toward the ocean.

His enemy reoriented himself, then lunged off the air toward Lance, his spear trailing lightning as he dove toward the weakened shifter who could make no effort to stop his fall into the sea below.

Shelle ripped through the air leaving a great torrent in her wake as she intercepted their enemy. One hand pointed two fingers toward Lance, a powerful gust blasting him onto the deck of their ship. The other blasted the enemy back in a tsunami interwoven with her elemental energy. It ravaged the spearman and swept him away for a few moments before he dispelled the attack with electrified slashes.

All the ships lurched to a stop as the water went unnaturally calm; no waves broke the surface.

"You're strong. Are you in charge of this vessel?" Shango slowly walked on the air back toward her but stopped in the middle between their ship and his fleet.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Shelle replied, floating away from him and back to their ship. "I don't suppose you're going to just let us pass?"

The feedback of speakers echoed toward them, then a grainy, shrewd voice came on, "You are in the territory of the Shango pirates, controlled by Captain Shango of the Thunder, the King of the East East Sea and Champion of Lightning. Join us or die!"

Shango rolled his eyes and looked back at his zealous crew.

Shelle raised an eyebrow at his lack of enthusiasm. "You'll kill us if we refuse?"

"Steal everything you have and set you adrift. You seem the type that would be able to just fly to safety." Shango grinned, taking in Shelle's current state, especially the iridescent elemental ring behind her. "It'd be easier for everyone if you joined. Become a part of one of Actaea's most powerful and profitable crews. What say you?"

Shelle had her hands behind her back, and from his perspective John could see a bright sphere appear in her palm, though her aura did not change. Mana flowed like water from her iridescent elemental ring into the spell, slowly growing the sphere. "What do I get out of it?"

"Unlimited resources for any magical experiments you like, so long as you produce something useful every once in a while. A cut of our profits. Adventure, respect, freedom," Shango said, reaching out an arm. "Your friends can join too. They have a place among our ranks, I'm sure."

That's not too dissimilar from the Rider-Waite offer. I wonder what Shango's quitting policy is like. I wonder what the Rider-Waite quitting policy is like, John wondered, freely scanning their enemy during this ceasefire. Shelle kept charging the spell in her palm, and her hand almost looked as though it were struggling to contain it.

"That's awfully hospitable of you. It would be foolish to reject such an offer." She descended until she touched down toward the front of their ship.

"I'm glad you agree! So-" Shango leapt toward them, but Shelle wasn't willing to let him step any closer.

"Inspiratione magicae!" She brought her hand out from behind her back and opened her fist. The energy sphere she had restrained projected a destructive blast at the spearman.

Shango spun his spear in front of him like a baton to create a circular electric shield. Her blast slowly pushed him back as he spun the spear faster and faster before taking a firm grip of it with both hands and sending an electric slice through the beam. The crescent of electricity cut through the beam at the same pace the orb emitted it, protecting him but not progressing.

Shelle reached a hand into the ring at her back and plucked a handful of spheres out, scattering them in the air as she flew around Shango. Each stayed in place and fired an equally devastating beam at him.

Shango bobbed and weaved through the air, hopping away from beams and slicing through others. Each time Shelle drew close, he sent a bolt toward her from a spear thrust, but despite their blinding speed she managed to fly around each one.

Boathane left her perch and pulled a mighty wall of oak up out of the ocean between them and a barrage of cannon fire from the enemy fleet. One pointed ear wavered in the direction of her defensive trees, maintaining their shield without looking at it as she examined Lance's injuries. She tenderly traced a finger up his chest; medical bindings and bandages of blessed vine sprouted from his injuries and covered them. Shelle's words carried to each of them as she fought the enemy captain.

"Lance, make a huge wave that will crash into the enemy from behind."

Lance groaned as he got up, shaking his head. "Okay. No more fighting in this form. Speed I can do."

"Boathane, you're on crowd control. Make sure the enemy fleet doesn't damage our ship."

"Aye-aye, Cap'n." Boathane kissed Lance on the cheek then sank into his shadow, reappearing on the treetops of the grove she created between them and their enemies.

Boathane rapidly fired arrows into the wooden ships in front of her. They did little damage, but wherever they hit the coloration of the wooden deck changed from the usual bright red-brown to the dark brown-black of her trees.

"John, keep the snipers off me. Target those easier to take down, it looks like they all have the same rifle."

"Consider it done," John replied, using Symphony of the Night to enhance his vision and quickly spying each enemy sniper. He got to work in a steady rhythm of taking out four or five enemies before switching to a different sniping hole. Behind the enemy fleet Lance was a vague blur dashing across the water, dragging the edge of his staff across the surface. A sizeable wave began to form in his wake.

Shango jumped through the air, twirling and contorting to dodge around the barrage of beam sentries Shelle had scattered through the sky. They encircled and closed around him, trapping him in an incredibly destructive cage of mana. He knew better than to touch any of it, and so stood on the air in the middle. "Very impressive! You've got me trapped, hit me with your best shot."

"I intend to," Shelle darkly claimed, beginning to mutter an incantation in the same breath. All the rogue beam sentries that weren't keeping him trapped retreated back into her, and the mana circle behind her began to spin faster and faster, slowly thinning.

"Meteo. Uro. Magicae Telum." Three massive meteors appeared high in the sky, all heading directly toward Shango. A black, hellish fire began to creep from all sides of his cage toward him. A magic missile appeared in front of her, quickly growing to the size of their ship.

"I'll do the same!" Shango yelled, spinning his spear and charging electricity through it. He swayed from side to side to avoid the tendrils of inky black fire that sought to reduce him to ash.

"No, this ends now! Adtritis Carcere!" The iridescent bars around him stretched and lurched toward him, clinging to him like a hundred coiling snakes. His arms were pressed to his sides, and hellflame ate at his flesh. "Why do you look so happy?!"

"I've never met anybody as strong as you, it's incredibly exciting," Shango gasped as he struggled to move, the three massive meteors quickly closing in on him. "Can I make it out of this one? Even I don't know, but I'm going to find out!"

The words had hardly left his mouth before he was blocked from view by the meteors closing in from his left and right diagonals and directly above. Black flame completely surrounded him, and Shelle let loose her magic missile.