The Umbral Messiah Pt. 06

"Fuck her."

Sari growled.

"Fuck her good."

Sari thrust and-

The door burst open.

"What the hell is-"

Sari snapped her head around and gasped as she felt her orgasm explode through her. The red haze that filled her gaze flared even brighter as time seemed to slow and she saw that the Black Watcher who stood in the door was flanked by three more, all of them looking in. Two had drawn swords. They bore the look of a squad on the hunt - and Sari felt the orgasmic pleasure of her climax ripping through her, at the same time she saw that the man at the door was drawing a sword frantically.

She lifted her palm, opened her fingers, and hissed out a single word.

"Infernus," she breathed.

She normally launched firebolts from her finger.

This time, it exploded from her palm - a trio of intertwining bolts that circled around a large orb of flames. All of them corkscrewed towards the compacted group of men in the eerie slow motion of the moment...and then the flower bloomed. The orb enveloped the body of the man in the center of the pack, while the three intertwining bolts shot off in their own right angles - streaking out to strike the man to his left, to his right, and behind him with a spattering of magical fire. Normally, fire like that would punch in and burn...but something about the spell had made the fire sticky and cloying. It swept along their bodies with shocking speed and the doorway became an inferno. Screaming men flailed within it as Sari felt her own cum sloshing around her dick, Tanzi's eyes opened to narrow slits in the moment between impact...and effect...

The screaming filled the room as Sari jerked out of Tanzi - and then the bodies hit the floor, the flames winking out, the magic sustaining them fading away, leaving smoking embers and chars and the smell of pork. Tanzi put her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "W-What the..." She whispered, while Sari yanked her pants up, then took hold of her staff.

"Get down!" she shouted, while Rana watched her with a kind of gleaming eagerness, a predatory lust that made Sari feel like a slab of meat. She ignored her - because the thundering sounds of footsteps were filling the air. The deck was shaking as people ran towards the entrance and then...the first of the men stepped down the stairs into the gundeck: A Black Walker with a sword and shield, leading the way, with a necromancer behind him. He froze, seeing the corpses as Sari thrust the point of her staff at the nearby pile of cannon balls, ready for loading. A single one flared with purple light as she channeled her telekinesis through the staff - then whipped the staff around like she was throwing.

The cannonball whistled across the room and took the man in the shield. The shield folded around the impact and he was thrown off the stairs, then smashed down.

The Necromancer shouted. "Rise from the grave!" he lifted his hands - and the charred corpses around her feet started to shift and twitch, beginning to stumble up. Sari, though, was already sprinting forward. She could almost see the glittering threads of void magic connecting the zombies to the necromancer, pale black lines that ran to his fingertips. The kind of quick, momentary, combat raising that was the mark of a master necromancer looking for some help in a hurry. Sari came to the stairs at the same time the Necromancer thrust out a shard of ice at her chest. She caught it with her staff, whipped the staff around, then blasted him with a crackling blaze of lightning.

The Necromancer, though, was ready for it. His palms slapped together and a shield of glowing blue light flashed to life around him. The lightning sparkled around him and he ducked off the stairs, thumping to the side and drawing his sidearm - a small, wicked dagger. This freed up the stairs for more Black Guards, one with two knives, the other with a bow and arrow. He aimed it down at Sari, trying to get a good angle. She ducked to the side - then leaped back as the Necromancer slashed at her.

"Die!" he snarled.

Sari glanced left, made sure she was on the starboard side, then snapped her fingers.

A single spurt of fire flared to life and the cannon to her left roared as the powder and ball loaded in it launched into the sea. The roar was almost as startling as the motion - but the motion was a five ton carriage of wood and spellworked iron smashing into the necromancer, crushing him to the floor with a howling scream. As once, the three zombies that were shambling towards Sari's back dropped to the ground, twitching and jerking spasmodically.

The Black Walker with the knives threw one with a quick jerk of his wrist. The blade whistled over and Sari knocked it out of the air with a twisting shove of her staff. But that still bought time for the knife-man to lunge at her, getting into her reach. He thrust and she jerked aside - her back crashing into the carriage of another cannon, meaning that his blade scored along her gambeson. Cloth and flesh ripped and the sting of pain barely reached Sari as she slammed her head into the Black Walker's face. Bone crunched and he stumbled back.

The archer came down the stairs, arrow knocked.

Sari swept her staff around the Black Walker who stumbled away from her - grabbing him around the neck and jerking him taut against her. The arrow thudded into his chest and he groaned. The archer, gaping, dropped his bow in horror. Sari dropped her human shield.

The necromancer gurgled out. "Kill...her!"

The Black Walker looked at his dying friend. Then at the charred corpses. Then at the half mangled necromancer. Then he stammered.

"I-Is it true what Benji said. That most of the rest of the ship's dead? That we're hunting for..."

"Me, yeah," Sari said, panting heavily.

The Black Walker dropped his sword as fast as he could.

"I...curse..." The Necromancer choked out. "With...my dying breath."

Sari, taking a glance down at the Necromancer, saw that the cannon had only mangled his leg. She sighed.

"You're not dying," she said.

"Now, lets go and lower that pretty little gangplank so your pretty little friend can get aboard," Rana said, sitting on the unfired cannon. She beamed at him. "And maybe you can tell her about your other pretty little friend." She nodded at Tanzi, who was wobbling out of her room, her eyes wide as saucers as she gaped at the violence around the room. Sari knelt down, then murmured to the Necromancer.

"If you give me the key to that slave collar, I'll let her heal you," she said, quietly.

The Necromancer, his face going even more pale by the second, hissed out a soft. "Karlok!"

The collar around Tanzi's neck popped free and she gasped in, then breathed out.

"There," Sari said, smiling at her. "S-So, uh...glad the collar made things, uh, easier for. You know. Us."

Tanzi smirked. "The collar had very little to do with that," she crooned.

"I have to gang the plank!" Sari stammered, then turned and sprinted towards the stairs.

***

"Sari, you're outstanding!" Charlotte squealed as she rushed up the gangplank to her, throwing her arms around Sari. Sari, who's legs were feeling quite wobbly, almost collapsed onto her ass, while Sir Seldon bellowed orders. Sailors and soldiers and magicians hurried aboard the ship, rushing across it. Prisoners - glum Black Walkers and limping Necromancer - were ushered off, but as they walked towards the town guard, Charlotte did a quick headcount. Her mouth opened slowly, and then she whispered. "H-How many were aboard?"

One of Lord Menelag's soldiers - the slow, chubby one that Sari remembered from the sewer - stuck his head above the stairs and shouted: "Good Dragons! There's like, a dozen bodies down here!"

Everyone looked at Sari.

Sari blushed. "W-Well, I...I just took them on in small groups," she said, biting her lip.

"She took on six of them at once," Tanzai said, walking towards the knot of people. She bowed to Charlotte. "Lady Menelag, I'm sorry to say that I spent most of the time I should have spent preparing this ship as a captive. However, the Necromancers and their minions shouldn't have...done..." She blinked. "What in the Dragon's name is that?"

They all turned.

The air was filling with white dots, bright against the midnight sky. They arced above the city - and then expanded outwards as they reached the area above the port. Sari frowned, then stepped to the railing, craning her head up. They looked like canvas that had been stitched into circular patterns that caught the air, slowing the decent of whatever was in the center of them. The canvas glowed with shimmering magic.

"Reinforcements."

The rough, raspy voice, was Hecate. She was lashed to a liter and being dragged aboard by four sailors, who were all looking quite nervous at the fact they were carrying a ghoul onto their home for the next few weeks. Sari looked back up, in time to see that one of the chutes was close enough that she could see what was being suspended by them: A cube of bones, locked together in a complex pattern. A single arm thrust from the cube - and was holding a dagger. That dagger sawed and cut the lash - and the bones dropped the last twenty odd feet. They hit the ground, scattering - some broke, but most of them were intact. They spread out with a clattering sound.

Sari's heart went cold.

"Get the gangplank up!" she shouted. "Get the ship ready to sail! Now! Now!"

"What-" Seldon said, but Charlotte was already shouting orders.

The bones rattled - then snapped together. The cube had been twelve skeletons, mixed up and compacted as close together as they could. Now, they stood as a group. Another chute landed, and the skeletons ran to it, their bones rattling. Soon, they were bearing spears and shields - even as another bone-box shattered onto the ground. So long as the void-magic cluster that kept the skeletons functioning wasn't destroyed by the landing, the skeletons were able to merge back together again and prepare themselves.

The town guard, shocked by this sudden arrival of almost thirty skeletons in a space of a few moments, gaped, then fled, abandoning their prisoners. The skeletons, for their part, ignored them. They were instead focused on advancing towards the gangplank that Charlotte picked up and flung away with a wave of her hand. Purple fire sent it hurtling away as the skeletons started to fish out bow and arrows from their supply crates. Soon, arrows began to plunge into the deck with eerie hissing thumps.

Charlotte ducked against the railing for some measure of cover, then thrust out her hand. A bead of light exploded into one of the skeletons - a firebolt taking down the void magic cluster. The skeleton crumpled into nothingness and was replaced by another.

"We can't send men up to the rigging in that!" Seldon shouted. "Everyone, stay down until the army arrives."

Sari blinked.

"I have an idea!" She said, then crawled on her belly as arrows wined overhead - some thudding point down into the deck. She came to the stairs leading down to the gundeck, swung herself around, and dropped into the darkness. She landed with a pant, then whispered to herself. "Okay. Lets hope that I'm right."

The Black Walker's plan had been to blow the ship if it was taken - but they had cannon loaded and ready. Solid shot for the starboard side, to shoot any ships coming in. But what would they have for the port?

Well.

Sari held out her hands. She closed her eyes, then let telekinesis flow through her. Her arms flickered with purple flames and her fingertips spread as she felt every single cannon. Their carriages were made so a single man could aim them, with some effort. So, she was able to shift and twist them just so, angling them. She opened her eyes, glaring out through the gunport ahead of her. She saw the skeletons were formed up: The back rank had archers, the middle rank had grappling hooks, and the front rank had shields and spreads. The shields were interlocked, creating an impenetrable wall to any fire bolts or arrows shot back at them.

The second row started to twirl their grappling hooks. The motion was eerie - perfectly timed, as if every skeleton was using the same pattern of motions. Sari could picture exactly what it was they'd do once the hooks clamped in - drag the ship in, then swarm over the side.

She gulped.

"Rana, this is gonna get loud," she whispered.

"Oh, what-" Rana started.

Sari snapped her fingers.

Ten sparks flashed.

The world came to an end in roaring flames and smoke. The cannons jolted backwards all at once, the entire ship rocking with the sudden impact of their movement. Ropes strained and cannons groaned, their carriages snapping to a stop on their wheels. A wall of impenetrable smoke appeared and Sari felt her head ring like she was a bell and had just been rung to bring in the end of the year. Coughs and cries of confusion and alarm came from the deck - and the smoke slowly drifted away as Sari stuck her head past one of the cannons, her eyes wide.

The harbor was a twisted mess of shattered wood and pulped planks. Bone fragments were draped here and there. A single spear, hanging in the air, remaining balanced on its butt for a few precarious moments, slowly clattered to the side.

The entire ship burst into screaming cheers as Sari grinned.

***

As the sails belled outwards and the ship began to sail away from the darkened city and the night and the sounds of battle from the skeletons that had undershot the port. Sari stood in the room she had been given, her belongings (meager as they were) laid out on the bed, and watched the water sweeping by. She sighed, quietly, while Rana grinned at her.

"Soooooo, that was fun," she said.

"Rana..." Sari said. "Tell me the truth."

"About-"

"You know what about," Sari said, turning to face her, frowning. "That...vision in the sewers? The...the red haze? The blood lust?" She gestured to herself. "It happened again. And that magical spell I cast? Firebolts can be...cast at higher levels of power, by arcane masters. I don't know thing one about that. And...being able to cast like that, without warning? It's..." She shook her head. "It doesn't take a genius to connect you and that."

Rana frowned, slightly. "Fine," she said. "I was having a little fun in the sewers - sparking lust in you and bringing some joy. I may have...overdone it slightly." She sighed. "You went wild. Fucking Hecate for hours and hours. When you were done, you were so exhausted that I had to...pilot your body to the sewers again - but then you started to rouse, and I vacated. I thought a white lie would be comforting."

"And the spell?" she asked.

"That, I think, was just desperation," Rana said, casually. "You were lustful, you were in danger. Magic is run by life energies and willpower. You were exalted in your will - balls deep in a cute goblin..." She smirked. "So, you were able to push a spell beyond its normal functions. Easy peasy."

"And you're not...doing anything to me?" Sari asked.

"Of course not!" Rana said, chuckling. "Master Phenrig would skin my soul out of my body if I did anything to you. I swear, by my name as Ranach Koiren Zinovian Thule." She clasped her hand, pressing it to her chest, and Sari knew the weight of that promise. That was her full, true name. So...

Rana was telling the truth.

Sari narrowed her eyes. "Is that the full truth?"

Rana barked out a loud, sarcastic laugh.

A soft rapping sound came to the door and Sari started.

"I bet it's that cute gob, here for another round," Rana purred as Sari stepped to the door. She opened it...

And blinked.

Standing there was Charlotte. Her finger twined through her flame red hair, twisting it around and around her finger as she cocked her head, biting her lip. "Hey," she said, quietly. "C-Can I come in? To talk?"

TO BE CONTINUED