The Tunnels of Woe

Book 1: A Bounty Like No Other

Chapter 4 Part 3: A Desperate Shot

No matter. The hand cannon had made their trial too simple for a proper song.

A thunk on the side of the skiff was Tirro’s first warning that a new threat had appeared. His next was the webbed clawed slimy black skinned hand which slapped its way over the edge of the boat three feet from his head. A moment later a whole forest of hands and heads started swarming over the railings.

The sirens’ had caught their charge. Now here was proper messy work. Tirro threw his cannon into the open cabin door, and drew his knife even while bringing the crossbow to bear on a hideous cyclops creature with scaly snake skin and a shark fin on its disturbingly human like back.

The burst of light blinded and scourged a whole wave of monsters sending them screeching back into the sea. The cursed rain of corpses and twisted appendages had scarcely bathed the ocean in blood before a mighty crash signaled the impending doom of the horde of unnatural seaborn creatures from the other side of the boat.

Uncle Curroz had risked. With a swerve of the wheel he had rubbed the skiff against a solid rock pillar scraping the mass of undead and cursed creatures from their hull like ticks from a mangy hound. Only two denizens of this cursed lagoon hobbled and flopped their way onto the deck, and Tirro was upon them.

The first was an undead rotting corpse of what must have been a truly massive sailor with a moldy black beard ratted and matted, but still tucked into his faded satin pants. Bones peaked out from the flesh while a single glowing yellow eye glared out at the world. Out from the gaping cavernous whole of the empty eye socket came crustaceans and an electric spitting eel. Worse of all were the coiled hissing snakes peeking out from under the long brimmed hat.

Not just an undead, but an undead gorgon at that. If they had not been within their shields and wards, or if they had less time to charge after their mad dash from the horror in the tunnels, the sickening petrification would’ve taken hold that all such a cursed race had the ability to employ.

It was not pure stone unless dealing with a true tyrant of the gorgons and descendants of Gordoroth, but the paralysis could be deadly on the battlefield nonetheless. Being undead such abilities had lessened with the decay of the flesh. Still, Tirro lashed at the gorgon mariner first to end the threat before either their mage wards depleted. Their stores were low after the days of fighting and consumption of fuel.

The deckhand knew the only proper way to deal with a descendant of the cursed snake mother. Taking his long dagger Tirro struck at the exposed neck of the tittering monster hacking again and again, taking more than one lashing snake head in the process, till the leering head fell to the deck and the twitching corpse reached blindly and fruitlessly for its attacker.

Stepping under the flailing arms and bleeding headless stump, Tirro crushed the snaked head with the metal butt of his crossbow. The gore was but a drop in the mess already caked upon the decks of the floundering skiff. Tirro couldn’t even be bothered to ponder how he would cleanse the ship if they lived. He was beyond the worries of mortal men as the young deckhand faced his second opponent.

This was a Siren of surpassing beauty with long black hair and overflowing exposed feminine features over her dolphin-like tail that nonetheless still had the scales like that of a fish. The beauty did not last. Clearly realizing that no pretty face was going to pause Tirro’s bloodlust the Siren shrieked and lunged.

Her face morphed in a moment growing three times their normal size. Her jaw snapping and unhinging before snapping into a larger shape to accommodate the oversized dripping teeth. The monster’s skin changed from silky white to leathery black in an instant resembling a beetle shell but slimy as a slug, and her hair became like seaweed and grasping kelp.

If this had not been just the latest horror in a continuing nightmare Tirro might have paused at the sight. However, at this point no ugly visage could shock him into hesitating. The beast found this out far too late to save her horrid hide.

Tirro’s blade found her gaping mouth, and angled straight into her brain breaking several teeth in the process. Blood spurted, and the fiend gurgled. Her eyes bulged as she went limp. The deckhand kicked her off his blade without ceremony, and dropped her like a sack of rotting fish.

Without pausing Tirro dragged himself up to the front of the ship. Each wave they crested resounding with the thuds of crushed monsters in the waves attempting to overwhelm them in the angry seas. A chunk and metallic click resounded over the torrent of rain and screaming beasts. The sound told the young man his arbalest had loaded another light bolt, and as if from heavenly inspiration Tirro knew just where that bolt must fly.

The list of the ship made aiming difficult as Uncle Curroz drove the floundering skiff with all speed. Water was filling in the port side where their contact with the pillar had been the heaviest. They would not long keep the ship seaworthy in this tempest. Twas well then that they would not need her to stay floating for much longer.

Tirro steadied his crossbow on the railing at the bow of the ship. The seahag covered herself in what was left of her massive tentacles misinterpreting Tirro’s purpose. He was not aiming for the witch. More than a light bolt was needed to cleanse that filth. No, he waited, and aimed for the black crown on the red headed merwoman’s head. A dark malice hung around the cursed cap, and Tirro could feel time slow and his arms gain strength as the Spirit of the Farther in the Heavens came upon him once more.

The deckhand felt more than he knew when to fire. It was an impossible shot, and if not for the grace of his savior Tirro would’ve taken the mermaid’s head. Instead a bright streak shattered the crown and rubies sending an inhuman shriek through the night like a thousand demons were sent screaming into the abyss.

The skull island and the black rocks shook violently, and the waves around them roiled. A massive wave ripped out in all directions as if a giant had picked up the skull island and dropped the hideous visage back into the sea.

A feminine cry of rage came up from the cage, and wonder upon wonders Tirro spied terror all over the massive seahag’s features. Perhaps they weren’t going to be a siren’s supper after all.

The Story Will Continue Every Wednesday.

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