For about 2 days, everything remains quiet. Each group takes turns keeping watch as you soar towards your destination. Currently,
Reinhardt and Tarja are on watch. About an hour after midnight, you think you hear something out of place.
Both of you hear a whistling sound, like something moving very fast just passed the ship. Furthermore, Reinhardt, you see a shadow quickly passing over the ship. A few seconds later, you both hear the sound again. Then again. By the second time, the crew that are currently up hear it too, and everyone awake sees the shadow as well. As the crew begin to panic, the shadow grows larger as a large black wyvern with icy blue wings lands on the back of the ship. As it lands, two of the figures on its back jump off onto the deck as the third shoots an arrow straight through the shoulder of the man currently piloting the ship.
Reinhardt, you are up!
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Almost instintively, Reinhardt brings his shield forward trying to block any incoming arrows, but the moment he hears the pilot groan he understands what might be the attacker's goal: stop the boat by targetting the pilot.
"Miss Steelcutter, you take the one on the left and I take the right one! We need to tackle the Draccus Minoris without annoyances or interference!" says the professor as he quickly moves towards the 'man' on his right, his curved blade describing a downwards flourish before cutting upwards in a diagonal manner.
Before they can react, the one on the left crumples to the deck with a bloody gash across his chest.
Tarja, you are up!
Tarja pauses before her first steps. "Uh, seems that's no longer necessary, Professor." Shifting course, she steps around to the side, gathering aqueous energy into her hand, before unleashing a torrent of water at the raider mounted on the wyvern's back, trying to catch him at such an angle to push him off of the boat. Her crystals emit a faint, brief glow as she channels some of the excess gathered arcane energy into her axe, briefly limning it in a purple glow.
The blast of water hits them straight in the chest, knocking them over the edge and almost off the boat, as they barely manage to hold on to the rail with one hand.
Wyvern:
The Wyvern leaps towards Reinhardt, attempting a bite.
Riders:
As the Wyvern does this, the figure on top notches an arrow and fires at Tarja.
Just as the arrow hits Tarja, the rest of you come above deck.
Hideaki is on his feet almost as soon as he awakens, grabbing his daishō in his left hand as he races to the door of his room and throws it open. He sprints up the stairs and onto the deck, taking in the situation at a glance.
He draws Kujirosou in a smooth motion while he runs at the wyvern, its fine blade glinting in the ship's lights as he slashes at the creature's chest.
In his days as a mercenary, one thing that set Finrik above his competition was his ability to operate on very little sleep. Having grown accustomed to such a schedule, the halfling was fully awake, tinkering away in his lab, when the ship was attacked. Leaping to his feet, Finrik snatches his sheathed weapon from its spot beside his bed, barges through the door, and bursts onto the deck, where he quickly surveys the situation, taking note of the wounded.
"Well, that was a mistake," he mutters, eyeing the wyvern and its rider as he draws an extravagant, black-and-gold sword with a branching, jagged blade that looks only half as long as it should. Then, with a brief utterance, the halfling winks out of sight.
Nox creeps up onto deck, unseen by most.
Assessing the situation, she takes cover in a pile of rope, and waves a paw at the attackers. As she does so, a cloud of red and black motes appears, bursting into existence off the side of the boat, covering all their attackers in clearly visible, pulsating red motes and leaving a good number of them blinded.
Sometimes, Tarja thinks to herself, magic and metal go together. Not so much this time, though.
With a slight frown, she snaps the offending shaft off, and rushes at the soaked, prone raider, gripping her axe in both hands. With a small leap, she brings the blade down with her full weight behind it, aiming to create a roast-sized hole in his chest cavity.
As the Wyvern lands and you all move to intercept, the crew scatters, running for cover. A few pull out crossbows and load them, but don't fire them yet.
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Dodging the beast's maw with a shift of his feet to the side, Reinhardt slashes forward to its neck with a quick and clean twist of the wrist before the beast can evade.
Without pause, the professor returns to a guarded stance with his shield forward and the tip of his sword aiming to the floor.
"I can contain the drake, focus on the goons!" he yells to Tarja.
As Yamauchi slashes the wyvern, it glances off the scales, doing nothing more than annoying the beast.
Finrik vanishes, completely unseen and unheard.
Nox creeps up unnoticed, casting glitterdust on the wyvern and rider. The rider flails on the wyvern's back, blinded, but the wyvern seems unaffected.
Tarja swings her axe down on the raider, her axe sinking into his chest, killing him.
Reinhardt's slash goes clean through the scales just below its neck, drawing blood as the beast roars in pain.
Raiders:
The Wyvern lashes out at the Reinhardt, Enraged.
HIT!
HIT!
MISS!
MISS!
HIT!
As the beast attacks, Reinhardt manages to dodge both wings, but is stung and then Bitten and grappled by the creature.
Yamauchi shrieks a tengu warcry as he again attacks the wyvern, trying to fell it before it can kill Reinhardt.
Nox stays in the shadow, but far to her left, a sphere of boiling black and red magma springs into existence, streaking across the battlefield in the blink of an eye, engulfing the raiders still standing.
Unwilling to allow the Professor to come to any more harm, Finrik lunges at the wyvern and slashes at its underbelly.