Free End Online: Volume 5 by D. Wolfin Page A

by the first attack, so we are able to
immediately launch an attack. Our party has worked together for long enough
that no words are needed in times like this. We all make eye contact, then
focus on the tentacle which attacked the prince and Verde.
    Sir Laurence’s shield dissipates into fading lights and he slashes
the tentacle from a defensive posture. His attack does minimal damage that can
barely be measured on the health bar that appears. Verde attacks with a strange
sacred art which consists of a single stab, but the damage she does is
comparable to a single scratch. Verde’s speciality lies in attacks which
hamstring, disable, or otherwise produce negative statuses on her target. These
tentacles are a big problem for her.
    “Verde, could you go down below deck and help with the cannons?”
I ask after flashing by and slashing the tentacle, my speed allowing me to cut
through its defense and doing damage similar to Mikhail’s sacred art.
    “Yes, do you know the way?” She understands my concern and
agrees immediately.
    “Only that it is the door on the right. There should be a
staircase down or something.”
    She nods her head and retreats from the deck. The tentacle our
party is attacking lifts up and away from the deck, retreating out of the range
of our melee attacks. Fen and Mason take this opportunity to demonstrate their
value by turning the tentacle into a pincushion of arrows and ice spears.
    The tentacle quickly reaches fifty percent health, but two of
the previously inactive tentacles join the fray. Suddenly, a massive explosion
sounds from below that causes me to jump in fright. Sir Laurence chuckles
lightly at me.
    One of the tentacles buckles and nearly falls back into the
window as a cannon ball hits it in the center of its flesh. It rises back up,
frantically waving back and forth, with only sixty percent health remaining.
    ‘Forty percent of its health taken off by a single cannonball!’  I think, shocked at how formidable this vessel’s cannons
are.
    Multiple explosions take place as more cannonballs find their
targets, and one of the tentacles is killed and falls back beneath the surface
of the water. The new assault seems to cause all the tentacles to enter a
berserker state. The eleven remaining tentacles writhe ferociously and lash at
us and the ship with a whip-like, frenzied attack.
    We no longer have the option of attacking, so we focus our
attention on evading and defending. Fen and I get off the easiest as our speed
completely outclasses the speed of the attacks but still are buffeted by the
shockwaves and splintered wood flying everywhere. Sir Laurence dodges one and
then raises his shield and deploys his sacred art to defend against another
two. The shield barrier barely withstands the collision of the first tentacle,
and the second shatters it and flattens Prince Charming onto the deck.
    The damage is quite severe, taking off a third of his health and
inflicting him with a sinister poison status, but I struggle not to laugh at
the pitiful sight of him going face first into the deck. I will always remember
the moment when the most prideful person I know fell flat on his face.
    Mikhail the Stalwart’s group is having a harder time of it with
one of the members dying. Moonkite is at low health, struggling to consume an
antidote to remove the tentacles’ poison before death claims her. I know how
the player’s body becomes weary and eventually unable to move the lower that
player’s health falls. Seeing Moonkite successfully consume the antidote at
five percent health remaining, I can only sigh in admiration at how much
willpower it must have taken.
    Pulling Fen close to me with one arm around her waist, I take a
defensive position next to Sir Laurence with Mason and Matrix joining. The
ship’s deck is in tatters with holes everywhere the eye looks, leaving me a
little worried about the floor collapsing. One of the cast iron railings is
also warped and bent inwards from the