Dreams of the Sunken Moon

Zelkova, done with one of her good deeds for the day, sank back into the water and continued swimming around, shiny rocks and moss catching her eye every now and then.

Caldswell was relieved that the man who'd fallen overboard had been successfully rescued, and even more so to see that the mermaid didn't attempt to eat the man in the water, but rather assist in his rescue. The black-haired neko called down jokingly to the man, "Professor, I trust you had a nice swim?" He then laughed his hearty laugh. He was attemting to shake off his worry with levity, as he always did, and it always worked.

Reg was also glad to see the man was safe and sound, and he stumbled over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Might I ask what it was that knocked you off the ship," Reg asked the white-haired man. I really hope it wasn't the fault of that mermaid, attempting to make a snack of this man, he thought, Or we may all be in more trouble than we realize.

(Is something the matter? Is my last post difficult to follow up with?)

With both Shadow and Sidonis back on board Nihlus gave a sigh of relief that both were safe and sound today was turning out to be quite the day what with a giant mermaid that did not attack them and offered her aid and even kept her word in helping return both Sidonis and Shadow back onto the ship. Walking up to Sidonis Nihlus did a cursory look over him to make sure he didn't have hypothermia or any injuries that were to serious.

"Hey Professor try staying on this side of the rails you'll find you stay dry longer" Nihlus laughed trying to get rid of his nervousness once he was done looking Sidonis over and went to find Shadow make sure that the kid was doing fine. Entering the ship Nihlus kept an eye out and his senses alert for anything, if there was one sure way for a person to get themselves killed and those around them it was to try and attack a giant mermaid and Shadow had looked rather angry rather then happy at seeing that Zelkovia had saved him and Sidonis rather hen turn them into a convenient snack.

"Hey Shadow you alright?" Nihlus asked approaching Shadow calmly from the side.

Professor Langsley simply chuckled at Caldswell's comment. "It was actually... ah but if only I had brought my trunks" he said as he dried himself off. He turned to Reg and simply shrugged. "I'm not sure to tell you the truth, you see I was distracted before I was thrown off the boat, so I really don't know if the mermaid caused me to go overboard or not." After he dried off, he suddenly coughed violently saw that a bit of blood came out. "Damn... " He quickly wiped it off and continued to smile at the others with reassurance that he was okay.

Takamoto was a little dazed at the appearance of this professor, he hadn't even noticed him on board. But the again...this ship looks like it has more to it then meets the, and same goes to its passengers he thought, watching the professor cough. He then turned and called out to Caldswell. "Well now that our man over board is now on board, I think it would be wise to set sail again...before anything else decides to knock us all over board."

Caldswell heeded the samurai's words, as he'd been thinking the same thing himself. He once again pulled the lever near the helm of the vessel and the sails raised themselves once more, and the Kira II began moving forward to their goal. Caldswell himself hadn't remembered the professor boarding the ship, either. Maybe one of his crewmen allowed him on board? Or perhaps he's a stowaway. Either way, there wasn't much he could do about it now, so he decided to forget about it and focus on steering the ship.

Reg became concerned at Sidonis' coughing blood. If he wasn't at his best, he could be a hinderance to them. On the other hand, Reg had to admit he wasn't feeling so well himself. He decided to go inside the Kira II as Shadow and Nihlus had to rest. If he wasn't going to be much help, he may as well stay out of the way. He found a cot to lie on and shut his eyes.

Inside the ship Shadow was in his own world just staring at one direction, he had no idea if anyone was around him. Every second his rage was building. "I-it can't b-be... wait..." Shadow realised something and he opend one of his pockets and what came out was a post card, since he had been in the water the writing on the back was mostly wiped off. He stared at the picture at the front side of it. The mermaid that was with them looked the exact same on the picture of the post card, it even had the eyepatch. Then suddenly a tear slowly slided its way down shadow's face. "Rggg... so... now I know... why this huge thing has been ticking me off... just when I thought he was alive... now I know ALL of my family are dead..." Saying that he got up slowly, grabbed his weapon and this time made it into a crossbow, and took a step every three seconds to the outside of the ship. "I'll... i'll!" He shouted. He was still in his own world doing this so he had no idea that there was someone by him.

(I'd like to say, it'd be a tad more believable if you'd mentioned Zelkova's eyepatch there. She would have had it in that picture, it's not something she recently obtained. But even so, I like how you link her to your character's past. ^_^)

(Man, it's been a while. School has been a monopoly in regards to my time. Anyways, I figured I would post while I could.)

Raimi, after the man was returned to the ship, climbed back to his perch. Once there, he relaxed, enjoying the view and watching over the area. Katchi had gone back to hunting for fish, obviously quite happy and enjoying the hunt. Sekaki had decided to sit on the farthest point over the water, hanging her legs off the sides, and humming a quiet song.

(Should I wait to sic my next preds on you until after Shadow's anger is resolved or just go ahead?)

Zelkova was happy to see someone else in the water again. Noticing it was that same girl from before, Zelkova decided to show her a very beautiful seashell, which sparkled in the sunlight shining down under the water.

"Shadow! What the hell is wrong with you damn it! I've been shouting your name for the last five minutes!" Nihlus shouted grabbing Shadows shoulder and forcing him around. "Get a hold of yourself! If you cant control your own emotions then I'll ask Caldswell to have you locked in the brig until you do. Now calm down and talk to me!" Nihlus pretty much shouted starring him in the eyes frowning his ears bent back and tail flicking back and forth rapidly in agitation. The idea of placing Shadow on ice had crossed his mind more then once.

"J-just get out of my way!" Shadow suddenly snapped back. "I-I could'nt get revenge for my family but this... THIS time!" He quickly turned around and continued to walk out of the ship. "I'll make sure that mermaid goes blind!" Then he stopped and turned his head. "Heh, lock me in the brig? Well maybe after I take down this mermaid."

(Finally! Where've you been, Ultimate? O.o)

Caldswell didn't notice much of the commotion happening below deck, as he was too focused on the man who'd fell overboard, and steering the ship out of harm's way. He then realized that, with Zelkova under the ship, he likely needn't worry about threats from underwater. It was then that he heard Nihlus shout, and Shadow snap back at him. Not wanting to get involved until he knew what the argument was about, he kept his place at the helm.

Zelkova, meanwhile, was busy protecting the ship, and Katchi, from underwater threats, as she had just used a very sharp-edged seashell to slice up a rather large fish that had approached Katchi from behind with the intent to make her it's dinner.

(I'm sorry, but I can't take the waiting. Here comes your next challenge, people!)

Just as Shadow was storming out onto the deck to confront Zelkova, a trio of harpies flew over the river the Kira II was sailing on, and they spotted the ship in an instant. They flew up to the ship with a very hungry intent, as they were on the hunt, and they'd just found a dinner platter. Caldswell reacted immediately, pulling a few levers, making the raising the sails, which then folded up and the masts retreated into the inside of the ship, amidst noises of mechanic whirring. He then summoned his magic staff, Sky Scorcher, and embedded it in the wooden planks in front of him. A yellow magic circle appeared under his feet as he began charging a powerful lightning spell to deal with the threat, and as he did so, a few more complex magic circles, these ones bright red, appeared in the air around him and turned the yellow lightning around his body into red lightning. The harpies did not simply sit by and let it happen, though.

"Come one you lazy twat, stop him from charging!" commanded one of the harpies, who was evidently leading the group. Another harpy acknowledged with a rude retort, then flew directly at Caldswell, but as she skimmed over the Kira II, Zelkova struck, much more on the ball this time around. She leapt out of the water on the starboard (left for you non-sailors like me) side of the ship, swinging her tailfin over her head and bashing it into the side of the airborne harpy. Zelkova yelled "SURPRSE" and laughed, and the harpy cursed as she was smacked into the water on the port side, before Zelkova dove back into the water to press the attack.

The waves from all this action hit the Kira II powerfully on the port side, making it lean to the right very far, and the remaining harpies figured everyone on board would fall into the water. However, as the ship leaned, a steel wall extented outward and upward from the entire starboard side of the ship, which would catch anyone about to fall overboard, and due to the extra weight on that side, prevent the ship from further rocking. As the Kira II settled on even-levelling, a counterweight inside the hull of the ship activated, keeping the ship level so that all who were caught by the wall would have sufficient time to climb back on deck.

The lead harpy was both amazed and extremely irritated. "While the fish-bitch is screwing around with that lousy excuse for a flyer, you're going to take care of that grizzly old bastard!" she said as a command to the second harpy. "You don't have to get your puke coverd feathers all ruffled you old hag, I'm going already!!" was the harpy's reply. She immediately took forward towards Caldswell, who's spell was nearly finished it's preparation stage. He just needed a little more time.

(Sorry for not posting in so long guys. I've hardly had the time or internet lately...with school and all ya know? Tooooo much homework)
Cazut stopped once he heard the harpies cursing loudly. He quickly moved to Shadow and Nihlus, tired of their arguing. "If you two would quit bickering for a few minutes, maybe we could help out with our attackers. So draw your weapons and look alive!" He demanded it from them. He quickly ducked down and stared at the harpies, drawing his tachi (for those of you that don't know swords, a tachi is a sister sword to the katana). He waited for an attack again, unable to get his aim right for a shadow grenade.

(I've been a bit busy too just to add)

"Hmph... who made him leader... well I might as well take my anger out on something else." He looked at the incoming harpy then to his weapon which was currently a crossbow. He smiled slightly as the weapon in his hands had changed into a long sharp glimmering blade of some sort in which the design had somehow changed to suit him, it was light, with a red outline on the blade with black coloring on the inside of the blade. He walked forward slightly holding the blade in his right hand. "Alright you... uh... whatever you are, time to to show you what i'm made of..." Heh... i'm made of nothing, if I die here... well i'm already dead...

(You all seem to be using close-range weapons. You do realize that harpies are giant, yes?)

(Gah, I JUST got some free time. Lousy high workload. >_<)

Raimi, upon noticing the harpies, gave a loud whistle. Katchi almost immediately did what appears to be a shape shifting back flip out of the water, landing on Raimi's arm, and shifting into a small "wrap", covering a fourth of his arm almost instantly. Sakaki immediately ran next to Caldswell, chanting quickly, preparing a short range, high powered and high spreading magical blast. As his "teammates" were finishing preparing, Raimi was covered by a blue tint. "Well, this should be fun. We haven't fought three at once, have we? Alright, I'll cover this area," he yelled, swinging his arm in the direction of one of the harpies. As he swung, the "wrap" quickly took the form of a large hammer, the head nearly as large as the harpy he was aiming at, and reduced back to a small sword after it.

Taken by surprise, the harpy flying for Caldswell managed to absorb most of the impact from Raimi's hammer arm by sheer fighting instinct, though was knocked towards the right hand side of the ship. The lead harpy stayed airborne a few dozen feet in front of the bow of the Kira II, waiting for her chance to strike.

Meanwhile, the harpy Zelkova had attacked managed to fight her way to the surface and took a large gulp of air, before Zelkova grabbed her wings and puilled her back under for round two.

(I'm not sure if I should post yet. XD If not then oooops.)
Cazut smiled a bit, and put his sword into a standing position by its blade. "Hey buzzard, maybe standing flying in one place isn't such a good idea!" He yells. He quickly brings up three shadow grenades in 3 different places around him. One he hits to make it go towards the airborne harpy that waiting for its own chance. He then took up his sword and hit the other two shadow grenades, sending them at the harpy in a blade form. He smiles since they were spaced within the space big enough for it's wings to be hit by the blade-formed ones and the regular shadow grenade to hit its chest.

(On the contrary, I really appreciate everyone taking the time to post whatever they've got, so thank you! ^.^ Now let's see if I can make out what Cazut's trying to do...?)

Being so far away from the ship gave the lead harpy an excellent chance to see each attack coming. With little effort, she flapped once and twisted her body to avoid the first attack, and repeated for the following two. Deciding that nobody on the ship would be able to pose any threat to her at that distance, her attention turned to the harpy that Zelkova was fighting underwater. I didn't expect those nitwits to have a mermaid protecting them, she thought. Whatever. Any harpy within MY wingspan better be able to deal in the face of the unknown. I'm not gonna' get my talons wet for that birdbrained dingbat if she can't even take care of her own ass. Just as she was thinking, the other harpy managed to break free of Zelkova and made a mad swim/flap...sort of...maneuver towards the surface. She broke the water, but before she could figure out how to get her wet feathers airborne, Zelkova delivered a large slice to her back using a sharp-edged seashell from one of her pockets. The harpy yelled out in pain before shouting, "You pompous nimrod, I could use some backup here!!" But the lead harpy had already made her decision; she'd have to fight her own battles. Zelkova pounced on the wounded bird woman and pushed her back underwater with the relentless force of a hurricane.

The carfree collector of shells was out to lunch, and she'd been replaced by a viscious brawler wishing for nothing more than the total destruction of her foe. Though, that's not to say Zelkova wasn't still having fun.

Takamoto took a moment to assess the situation at hand before taking action. He remembered that he was armoured and would be slower bit but that didn't both him one bit as he sprinted forward, his conical hat flying off as he rushed towards the harpy at the bow of the ship. He raised a foot onto the rail and leaped off, his right hand gripping on his bananas hilt, ready for a single draw an strike. "here goes..." he said to himself as he fired his grappling hook from his left ARM in mid air, aiming at the harpys wing or leg.

Seeing the futuristic samurai well in advance, she once again flapped and twisted in the air, avoiding the hook effectively. However, before Takamoto could retract the hook for a second attempt, she caught the chain in the grip of her right-claw talons and attempted to pull Taka in her direction.

At the same time, the harpy that had been aiming for Caldswell gathered herself and attempted to reach him again, but as she closed in on him, his spell finished charging. He pointed the first two fingers on both hands toward the harpy, and the red sparking magic circles in the air around him moved into position in front of him, becoming smaller the farther from his body they were. Caldswell then fired a huge bolt of red lighting into the first magic circle, which absorbed the energy and fired it at the second in higher concentration. This was repeated once more between the second and third circles before being fired point-blank at the giant bird woman, who had flinched at the incoming attack. The incredibly intense lightning blew her right out of the sky, singeing her feathers and knocking her out. She fell smoldering into the water below, creatng a large splash before rising back to the surface and floating unconscious toward the bank of the river.

(There. Now you guys only have one to deal with...at the moment. ;3 I'm still going easy on you until I see what you guys are made of.)

Tisem had been carefully watching the battle, both a little afraid and also a little worried he could do nothing to help.

But seeing the metal man getting ready to go into action, Tisem decided he would go as well. He had only just begun to climb up the metal man's leg and reached what looked like some kind of hook device when all of a sudden the metal samurai leaped off the ship, not even noticing Tisem had climbed up.

Suddenly there was a loud BANG and Tisem suddenly found himself being hurled at great speed towards the lead harpy! The harpy had managed to to dodge the hook, but as she twirled Tisem leaped from the hook hoping to grab the harpy's tail feathers.