Another volley of cannon balls caused Nash to groan as she tried to keep the tank under control. She felt the tank shake hard and she could hear the wheels inside the track unbending themselves as the last of the health potion in the line was used up. Nash knew they couldn''t take too many more hits from the ship. Because of her they only had two healing potions left for the tank and on top of that she had used some of their precious light mana. “Darn it!” Nash said under her breath. Without radar the rest of the crew was blind to the threat and without the compass, Alex couldn''t give her an escape route. Nash''s heat began to heat faster and faster as fear and panic began to take over her mind.
“Panicking is never an option. You must have faith in your abilities and find the path the Lord has chosen for you.” Once again her grandfather''s words came to her in her time of need. Nash closed her eyes, settled her beating heart and began to meditate. She needed to clear her mind and embrace the gifts she had been born with and the discipline her clan had instilled in her. She may not be able to hear, smell, or even see the enemy but there was another way to track it, astral-tethering. “Manifest my miracle. Turn my faith into divine guidance.” Nash said in a silent prayer. She let her other senses go dull and only focused on detecting the energy around her and driving. She didn''t need her sight to drive, she had grown comfortable enough with the tank to know where the controls were by feel and muscle memory.
She embraced the dark world behind her eyelids, she could no longer see the physical world, but now she could see the unseen. Underneath them were enormous pockets of malicious energy. She could see ten feet wide red fish shaped blobs swimming below them. It was like a massive lake filled with evil monstersous fish. Even more interesting than that was Sam and Alex’s energy. Inside of Alex’s mana pool slept a golden wolf cub. It was almost like Alex’s mana had been turned into an egg for the wolf. Sam had the same kind blue energy as her brother''s but it didn''t have some strange creature inside of it. But there was an extra aura next to her, like her violin had its own agenda. It had red malicious energy but it was becoming lighter almost pink. Like it was slowly being tamed. Nash wasn''t very interested in Liora’s energy. It was a raging purple flame with a black flame burning in the center of it. It''s exactly what she expected to be there. Finally she found the ship. It wasn''t very hard to find a giant frigate sized mass of malicious energy. She shot out a thin rainbow like line, that looked almost as fragile as fine glass, but it would keep her aware of the ship''s movements as long as her concentration held.
“Nash open your eyes! Don’t resign yourself to this fate. We still have time to... to figure something out.” Alex had started shouting worriedly but he didn''t know what to do either. He could see her calming herself down and muttering something with her eyes closed. It looked like she had already excepted the inevitable. He needed to do something. He needed to find a way out of this situation. “Don''t bother her Alex!” Liora interrupted his thoughts. “But look at her! She''s given up. We still have time to find away out of this. I can find something or maybe Sam can fix her radar.” Alex argued weakly. Sam shook her head. “There''s too much interference. I can''t lock on to the wood and the cannons are made from premium grade shadow steel. I can''t find anything for my radar to lock on to. I''m mostly worthless right now. I can play you a song request on my violin but that''s about it.” Alex was stunned. He was having a hard thinking of something, anything that could fix this mess. Well anything that didn''t involve invoking the Moon’s power. Even worse Liora seemed to be happy about the situation. “Your underestimating our driver.” Liora chuckled. “She hasn''t given up, in fact she''s found away. Take a look for yourself.” Liora said while sending over her screen.
Alex could see a volley of cannon balls bouncing all around them on Liora''s turret screen, but somehow Nash dodged them with her eyes closed no less. “It''s a skill called astral-tethering.” Liora began. “It''s often used by paladins and templars as a way to see through illusions. Instead of relying on one''s eyes, this skill allows the user to view the enemy with their soul. It''s not very easy to use or practical, because of the concentration required. It''s actually surprising she can use it and drive at the same time.” Liora said pleased with the absolute bargain of a driver she had acquired. “Nash is already at her limit, so you two need to come up with a way to find that ship through any means necessary.
“I can''t track it but Nash can? That''s totally unfair. My radar can''t track via soul vision.” Sam complained. “Wait my radar can''t track the soul connection but Ingall can.” A light bulb suddenly went on in the female twin’s head. “Hey Alex! I got an idea.” Sam said as she sent a copy of her radar screen to him. “What am I looking for?” Alex asked. Nothing yet. I''m going to use Nash’s connection to find the ship and then update its location on the radar screen. I know you don''t want to do it, but can you use the moon, to get a direction and plot out the ships attack patterns and routes?” Sam asked already knowing what the answer was. “Nooo! Absolutely not!” Alex shouted but “I... I don''t a choice do I.” Alex could feel his sister''s smile, he didn''t have to look to see it was there.
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“Mother Moon in all your grace and beauty, please give this lost apostle direction.” With a sudden jolt, he could feel the moon’s influence seeping in, but now he knew which direction he was headed in. His eyes ached as they slowly changed from amber to gold. His scalp itches as, silky sliver strands slowly pushed out the spikey brown hair. His hair wasn''t shoulder length yet, but he hoped to finish this fight before he transformed too much. The moon pulled on his ears, slowly pulling them upward and into a less human shape. More triangular with sliver fur forming on the tips.
“Manifest my music! It''s time to begin our concert Ingall!” Sam said as her dark brown and midnight blue violin appeared in her hands. The strings and bow produced violent orange sparks as they made contact. Nash groaned as the horrible noise assaulted her mind and ears. Her soul vision blurred as her connection was rattled by the violin’s discord. “I’ve hit the connection!” Sam said with glee. “I don''t think that was a good thing.” Alex responded. He could see the agony all over Nash''s face and they had barely missed the volley by a quarter of an inch. “It’s a great thing. It means I''m on the right track. I just need to find the harmony.” The strings sparked with purple flames as she drug the bow across. Nash groaned less loudly. It was less awful and distracting, but still not helpful. It felt like an off key song. It was like a friend doing a poor job at singing their favorite song. Slightly painful but somehow enduring.
Sam brought the bow against the strings once more, this time blue flames roared. Sam''s smile widened. She had found her muse. Sam began to play a fast energetic folk tale like song. She could feel her inspiration surging. Her fiddle burned hot with an energetic blue flame. Nash could feel it too. Suddenly her connection was more solid than before. It was no longer like glass waiting to be broken it was now solid as steel and able to withstand anything that came its way. She no longer had a vague idea of where it was, now not only did she know where the ship was but when exactly it was going to fire.
Alex saw the ship pop up on radar and breathed a sigh of relief. There was now a good chance this fight would be over sooner than later. He could already feel his waist narrowing and hips widening. He could even wiggle a nub of a tail that was growing. But now wasn''t the time to worry about it. “B9!” Alex shouted, while sending a grid map of the lake to Liora. Her amethyst eyes sparkled and her smile widened.
“Its time to begin the counterattack! Manifest my will! Command cards active!” Liora’s voice boomed. The obsidian colored leather pouch on her hip glowed with a purple hue and then five dark cards materialized in her hands. Her cards contained the crest of her family on the back. An ice shield with a proud amethyst jewel in the center. “Enter draw phase!” A sixth card appeared in her hand. “Hmm...” She mulled over her options. She had drawn two smoke shells, which weren''t useful in this situation. A dragon fire rocket barrage and an ice lance rocket barrage. She wasn''t sure how far the four and a half inch rockets would penetrate the Kidd’s Revenge’s wooden hull. The last two cards were an HE shell and a super heavy AP shell. Ideally she would have liked to get a normal AP shell first and test the penetration.
“Enter load phase!” Liora commanded. The breech mechanism opened on her command. “Load HE!” The HE shell card disappeared from her hand and then the shell appeared in the breech, after which the mechanism closed. “Load ice lance barrage!” Again the card disappeared from her hand, followed by the once empty forty-four rocket racks filling with four and a half inch ice blue rockets. “Enter Fire phase!” The rocket racks came to life, firing all the ice blue rockets in an impressive volley of fire. They screamed like metallic banshees as they head in the ship''s direction. Nash smiled as she felt the ship become rocked by a series of explosions. Massive shards of ice now covered the hull of the ship and prevented some of the cannons from being able to fire on that side. After seeing the rockets detonate, she fired the main gun, now knowing for sure where the ship was. Orange flashed from the barrel and moments later a large explosion rang out.
While impressive the counterattack had failed to take down the ship and soon more cannonballs were dancing around FrostBreaker. “It looks like they''re turning to get in front of us! D9!” Alex said giving his best guess at where she should aim.
“Draw phase!” The image of a gremlin appeared in her hand. A potentially useful card but more importantly. “Load phase! Load Super heavy AP!” The gun’s breech once again obeyed her command and filled itself with the shell. “Load dragon fire rockets!” The racks once more filled with rockets, this time of a crimson variety. “Fire phase!” The shell left the muzzle at an incredibly speed. The shell ripped through Kidd’s Revenge smashing two cannons out of ship. They hit the snow covered ice with a heavy thud before cracking the ice and sinking. A follow-up of dragon fire rockets collided with the pirate frigate and set off some gun powder and started fires. It was a short lived victory as the well trained skeleton crew quickly put out the fires.