The sound of cannon fire echoes across the waves as the two ships collide in a fierce battle. The Dreamers instantly spring to action, instinctively dividing themselves into groups based on their current locations to prepare for action.

Scribe, Rosary, Globe and Paw begin hauling cannonballs above deck to allow all the other Dreamers the ability to continuously fire. Chains rapidly scaled the crows nest, seeming to prepare his own plan. Lantern gripped the wheel with venom. Time to go.

The crew on the brigantine consisted of humanoid fish creatures wearing clunky armour and awkwardly waddling across the deck. They swarmed across, some brandishing scimitars and swords whilst others quickly loaded cannons and fired. The Fisherman oversaw the battle from above, pointing his scimitar and blubbering out orders. Their faces twisted into snarls of anger and aggression as they prepared to ram into the Dreamer’s ship and board.

Lantern swiftly turned the ship to catch the wind draft and swerve out of the way of the brigantine, which attempted to ram the ship directly. The wind currents were also fake, just like everything else in the Abyss, and this wasn’t exactly fair in a naval battle. But the Dreamers weren’t playing fair either.

As the brigantine failed to complete the collision, Chains leapt from the crows nest and grappled himself to it with his Omni, formed into a pair of chains. Lantern turned the ship desperately to combat the instantly changing wind current to attempt to match the movement of the brigantine. Scribe paused transferring cannonballs to wave his hand around, forming barriers to block the incoming projectiles. 

The Dreamer with an unidentifiable weapon as his symbol (Sariel decided to note him down as Blade) called out, ‘On me!’ and channelled an Aspect to teleport directly onto the brigantine, swapping places with a confused salmon-pirate, who was quickly skewered.

Chains wrought havoc on the deck of the ship, dashing forward and using the chains to drag as many fishmen along as possible, swirling around to slam them into the hapless beings. Blade unsheathed his Omni to deliver cut after cut onto the crew.

But the brigantine was massive, and though the chaos helped, it didn’t entirely stop the continuous cannonball fire that was being sustained. Scribe attempted to block every shot to the best of his ability, but with every barrier that blocked a shot, his movements grew slower and more staggered. Sariel landed a shot on the hull of the brigantine, but it didn’t deter it from turning around and preparing for another ram attempt.

The two ships were locked in a deadly dance, circling each other as their crews fought for control of the seas. Lantern looked possessed, spinning the wheel with a desperate fervour attempting to catch the wind drafts that changed in the most unpredictable ways.

Speaking of the captain, what was the Fisherman doing? Sariel saw him draw out a massive object from behind him. A fishing rod? He threw it into the ocean, and… 

The battle seemed to pause for a second whilst the Fisherman dragged out a massive creature from the depths of the water. It was a massive beast, easily the size of a boulder, with long, sinewy arms and legs that ended in razor-sharp claws. Depth Lurker. 

There was a very simple reason that the Dreamers dared not travel the ocean on Otherside. The answer was that it was simply death. A variety of deadly creatures existed in the depths, and their names were not recorded mostly because the Dreamers lacked any information at all about what actually existed in the water below. Thus, they were all given one collective name; Depth Lurkers.

Its body was covered in thick, glistening scales, and its eyes glowed with an otherworldly light. It had a gaping maw full of razor-sharp teeth that could rend anything instantly. 

The Fisherman looked up at the Dreamers, and made eye contact with Sariel. He opened up his toothless mouth into a smile before launching it into the Dreamer’s ship, sending splinters of wood flying in all directions.

Sariel could feel the heat radiating off its body, and the smell of its briny breath was overpowering. It seemed like a creature born of nightmares, but that was just standard for everyone. Sariel took a deep breath to link up a chain and swapped his Omni to his signature greatsword. ‘Concentrate! King, join up with me and get rid of this fish! Everyone else, just focus on returning fire!’ 

Returning fire, indeed. Chains and Blade on the other ship were still causing major disruptions, but they were soon to find themselves outmatched if the cover of cannon fire halted. Scribe kneeled to the floor in exhaustion, finally allowing the first projectile to land into the hull of the ship, sending everyone staggering backwards as they recovered. Cannonfire was returned, sending the fish people scattering. The Fisherman himself finally dropped from the crows nest, making his way to interrupt Cain and Blade’s onslaught.

As for Sariel and King? They had their own issue to address. The issue in question sent two blisteringly fast tentacles slamming into the deck of the ship where Sariel had been standing. King flashed forward, illuminating the area and blinding the creature for a while before white wisps swirled around his fist. ‘Stand back!’ 

Sariel felt the air heat up. Glancing over, he witnessed massive Spirit gauntlets form themselves on King’s hands as he delivered a brutal blow onto the Depth Lurker, sending a perfect right hook into its body. A left hook followed, and a flurry of blows staggered it back again and again. 

It attempted to lash out with another tentacle, but it was dragged back by Sariel as the chains pulled it towards his waiting arms, where a precise greatsword slash knocked it back into King, who sent it back to Sariel. For a solid ten seconds, they knocked it back and forth between them, delivering damage over and over again. 

But there was a very large issue. The issue was that it simply had too much health. 

‘It’s not going to die, King!’ Sariel yelled out. ‘We’re going to need to find a different method to do this!’ 

King glanced at the ocean. ‘We could toss it back, maybe? Ah. Oh no.’ 

The spirit gauntlets at King’s hands dissipated, leaving him quickly stumbling to form his Omni, but the knockback wasn’t sufficient to continue the chain anymore. It leapt forward towards King, opening its mouth to reveal its vicious teeth. He replied with a flash beside it to land another blow to its side. Minor damage numbers appeared in Sariel’s vision; again, that poison Aspect was trying its best, but it couldn’t match the health of the beast. 

‘Hold on to the ship!’ 

A massive gust of wind flew across the deck, immediately blowing the creature off the deck and into the water. Sariel and King both glanced to the side; Pane stood with his hand on a Red Trigger as it blinked out of existence. ‘Now get back to the cannons! I don’t have another Breath of Demeter on hand!’ 

That wasn’t the ending to the battle Sariel had expected, but it was true that they had to get back to work. A glance at the brigantine showed that the chaos had become unleashed as the Fisherman chased the duo who boarded the ship as they frantically sprinted across, under and over the deck. Lantern took it as an opportunity and routed the ship towards the brigantine at maximum speed, riding the wind that was finally in a favourable direction. 

‘Prepare for boarding!’ 

With a beautiful crash, the masterpiece of the ship smashed into the brigantine. The sound was like thunder, a deafening roar that echoed across the ocean. Wood splintered and flew in all directions, and Sariel felt the ship shudder beneath his feet. And then, he jumped. 

It was chaos everywhere simultaneously as all of the Dreamers leapt onto the ship. King and Sariel paired up to attempt to make their way over to assist Chains and Blade who were desperately running from the swarm of fish creatures. The Fisherman had halted his pursuit, casting his rod into the ocean to rapidly grab more fish to throw onto the boat to use in combat, being stationed at the helm of the ship as more and more random creatures were tossed onto the deck. An octopus with sharp hands? A humanoid seabrim? Everything! Just throw everything on it! 

A tug on his line led to him dragging out another Depth Lurker; or rather, Sariel noticed that it was in fact the exact same one. Globe hit a Red Trigger to darken the sky and summon dozens of shields in the sky, and with a shout they all dove and crashed into the ship. They pierced the deck, dropping the structural stability of the entire ship even further. 

‘BE CAREFUL!’ screamed Lantern. ‘Do not let the ship sink! The ocean is death!’

‘It’s too late for that,’ Rosary yelled back. ‘Everyone, rush the Fisherman! This ship is sinking, and we won’t survive it!’ 

King flashed forward, Chains leapt forward, Blade teleported beside the Fisherman by swapping places, whilst every other Dreamer simply ran towards the fish knight who was desperately dragging more creatures in the fight. The ship finally gave out, cracking in the middle and beginning to sink into the water below. The Dreamers leapt across the crack to reach the right side, opening fire onto the Fisherman. 

The Abyss Lurker made its presence known by planting its tentacles into the ship whilst attempting to land more blows on the Dreamers, accelerating the sinking of the ship. ‘Someone do something about this damn thing!’

Butterfly narrowed his eyes. Then, he leapt into the mouth of the Abyss Lurker. 

A green burst of light erupted out of its mouth, and the brutal sound of machine gun fire erupted, making the creature thrash around aimlessly before a single bullet pierced its head and ended its existence. Turns out the ‘total resistance’ factor didn’t calculate internal resistance. 

Sariel formed his greatsword and finally landed onto the Fisherman, who blocked his descent with his fishing rod. Chains appeared behind him and wrapped the chains around the Fisherman, whilst Blade slashed his greatsword across his side. The Fisherman dropped his rod and sent a pulse of Darkness around the ship, but it was a feeble effort to combat the length of chain around his head. Chains leapt into the air and did a backflip, letting the chains loose to send the Fisherman into the air.

‘Fire!’

No further signal was needed. Nine pairs of rifles appeared in nine Dreamer’s hands, peppering the Fisherman with bullets, whilst King thought about and eventually decided against leaping in the air to attempt a melee strike. His body was juggled in the air by fierce gunfire, before dropping to the bottom of the ocean. 

The fish on board were dragged into the ocean, and a downpour of Omni Orbs fell onto the ship. Lantern grabbed them all and everyone gathered around to handle the division of resources before they left the Abyss once Butterfly ripped his way out of the body of the Depth Lurker. 

Everyone was exhausted, but the battle was finally over. Lantern gave out a smile before looking around. ‘Everyone, I’d like to invite all of you to a new Coalition. Since we’ve managed to survive through this night in this new place, it would be great to join a group together. What do you all say?’

Most Dreamers looked at each other and shrugged. They agreed to join, and were met by a smile from Lantern. Of course, there were the exceptions. 

Sariel declined the offer, having just joined another Coalition the day before. Rosary and King both declined, citing personal reasons. Butterfly also decided to stay neutral, as did Chains. 

‘Okay, we’ve got 60 Aspect Orbs and 3 Aspect Gems. I’ll take an Aspect Gem, we’ll give one to Blade and Cain for their valiant effort, and spread out the Aspect Orbs between everyone else.’

Lantern went around giving everyone their resources, but when she arrived at Sariel, she only dropped two Aspect Orbs into his hand. She met his confused look with a statement. 

‘Our new coalition needs resources to grow. We hope you can understand.’

Ah. So that was how it was going to be.