As the River Serpent and Fiend Bear battled fiercely on the top deck the River Bandits have already progressed to the point where they have disabled a good amount of the Quinte’s weapons giving them the confidence on an attempt to board. 

Despite the Quinte being better equipped compared to the River Bandits it was always going to be an uphill battle with the amount of ships they were up against. 

The River Bandits had over forty ships from their years of plunder and they were able to expertly disable the Quinte with the River Serpent. 

A River Serpent of this size alone would be difficult to pin down for even a vessel like the Quinte, combined with the River Bandit fleet they were unable to focus on the River Serpent diverting their attention to the number of ships that cornered them from all sides. 

This allowed the River Serpent to act more impudently as the Mages, main offence of the ship was distracted from creating barriers, diverting attacks and launching their own offence towards the ships that surrounded them, it was why they made the decision to allow the Druid to distract it instead of focusing on it and since they realised the River Bandits wanted to only disable the vessel, not sink they put more attention on delaying the River Bandits as much as possible from boarding. 

“What happened to the barriers and weapons? Why have they failed so quickly, those Bandits are about to board!” The captain of the Quinte shouted at his colleague in frustration. 

His colleague on the other hand nervously twitched for a while before replying, “Well the crew kind of assumed we’d have no trouble as always, so the Qi stones are not even at full capacity…”

The captains face turned beet red before transforming to a resigned, defeated look, after all even he had began to grow too relaxed upon learning the truth. 

The River Bandits had made the pass too safe for the nobles, the cooperation meant the River Bandits also fiercely removed any rivals which made the pass the safest it has ever been for noble vessels. 

“Looks like we’re truly doomed this time.” The captain knew even running at full capacity at most it could buy them a bit longer time, however being this heavily corned it was only a matter of time before they were defeated anyways. 

However the captain still gave out another order, “Inform the Mages to save their Qi, it’s futile targeting such a strong serpent anyways, focus fully on the bandits, inform the crew that we’re now preparing to be boarded!”

A clamour emerged after the captain gave out his orders, the guards on the ship knew their duty, they were well-trained and capable, even though the nobles shirked on pretty much everything else a detachment of guards like this represented the power of their house so of course they’d be fairly strong. 

The River Bandit vessels noticing the dwindling firepower from the Quinte decided it was time to launch their first assault.

Five vessels was sent out of the bandit fleet becoming the first to approach, as they drew closer the Quinte forces suddenly came alive. 

The Mages began to launch an offence, the remaining active weapons also began to unload simultaneously. The ship was on the verge of defeat but was not prepared to be boarded so easily! 

As the River Bandits barriers glimmered upon coming under fire, a large spell was abruptly prepared, generating an intense amount of Water Qi, stronger than any of the Mages on the ship are capable of.

Althaea look that moment to use a one of the few signature offensive water spells at the later tiers, although water mages were primarily healers and lacked the offensive power of other elements, being in the higher tiers whilst also having the perfect supplementary environment like this would empower a water spell greatly.

“Tidal Wave.” Althaea said saying the incarnation firmly. 

At that moment a large wave suddenly starting gathering out in the water in front of the small wave of ships, its height continued to climb higher and higher until it reached a staggering 40 feet. 

The bandits already started panicking, how where they supposed to know a Mage with the strength to cast such a spell was on board the ship? 

At that moment Althaea smiled as she strained to hold the spell to the limit, deciding it was time to let go she sent the wave directly towards the approaching bandits who already began to hastily put up defences.

Yet would this be enough to stop the spell? 

The bandits barely had enough time to attempt to defuse the power of the spell before it hit them, the shields and barriers provided by the mages, inscriptions held for a period before completely collapsing sending the bandit ships into smithereens. 

Althaea spell still had great momentum after destroying the five bandit ships with it continuing to approach the fleet, however although the approaching bandits at the forefront had insufficient time to prepare an adequate defence, the remaining bandits had plenty of ways to reduce the power of such a spell.

Though individually weaker the numerous bandit mages in their fleet began to draw the Qi out of the spell and began to disperse its power into the surroundings.

With Althaea no longer manipulating the spell, the bandit Water mages strained to pull the energy out of the spell weakening it over and over until the waves strength was insignificant by the time it reached the rest of the bandit ships, harmlessly hitting against the bandits ship barrier, the wave was now a fraction of the size it had been from when Althaea sent it towards them. 

The River Bandits let out a sigh of relief before growing incensed at losing five ships. 

Mages can defend against large destructive spells like that with sufficient time but it was tiresome for the mages involved. 

It took a great deal of concentration from a number of bandit mages to deal with that spell, using Qi manipulation to diffuse spells was one of the means a Mage has of defending against powerful area spells such as that. 

However, the bandits knew it would almost be impossible to react in time if they were to approach so closely like the previous five vessels sending a wave of fear through them.

Yet Farrox grew angered at the cowardice shouting, “This is just a demonstration to make you back off! To cast a spell of such strength, I doubt there will be another anytime soon, this is the best time for you fools to attack!” 

The River Bandits knew their leader was correct and began to approach again yet this time far more cautiously.

The ships were well spread out and approached from all directions at the beginning. Another five of the bandit vessels quickly approached the Quinte and this time the resistance was far less.

Farrox was right, the spell had heavily drained Althaea’s Qi reserves and although the destruction of the bandit vessels drew a large amount of cheers from the ship, it barely put a dent to the number of the ships that surrounded them and soon five more approached. 

Arwen on the other hand continued to do his best at fighting back the sneaky serpent, it seemed to have entered a frenzy and was completely focused on him at this time ignoring the others on the ship entirely. 

He had already torn down the water barrier surrounding the serpent and was drawing blood from his claws and maw, yet these were minor injuries too such a large serpent and it just seemed to enrage it even more. 

“I WILL TEAR INTO YOUR FLESH” The serpent screeched sending the ship reeling from its shrill voice. 

Although the Quinte had been able to take in the large serpent and managed to focus on the Bandits at this moment in time knowing they’d be of little use to helping Arwen, it was still a destructive presence and they were greatly worried for the Druid despite the small victory Althaea provided. 

Althaea on the other hand felt herself breathing deeply after casting such a high cost spell, she had enough Qi left in the tank for more minor spells but could no longe cast anything strong enough to further prevent the next bandit vessels from closing in. 

At that moment in time the next five bandit vessels had managed to storm though the offence the Quinte had put up as a last ditch effort to prevent them from boarding, the ship was already heavily depleted and the Bandits were soon close enough to tether themselves to the ship. 

As the Bandits began throwing grappling hooks onto the Quinte, the sails had already been heavily damaged by the Bandits making it impossible outrun them even if they got past the Bandit ships not to mention the Bandit vessels are built for speed anyways.

The Bandit ships were clearly smaller than the Quinte so already they began going to the separate areas of the ship to enter the vessel, one of the bandit ships began boarding from the bow whilst the other entered through the stern. 

A large section of the ship was left for the Fiend Bear and River Serpent whose battle continued to grow fiercer by the moment.

Both haven’t went all out yet, mostly probing the other, yet it was clear the climax was soon approaching.

There seemed to be an unspoken agreement as neither Bandit nor any of the Quinte crew involved themselves in the confrontation, Althaea was ready to use healing spells on Arwen but knew her offensive magic would be highly ineffective against the River Serpent as it was heavily resistant to her attribute. 

It was already decided she would focus on the Bandits and prevent them from taking over the ship to her best abilities. 

As a number of bandits began their ascent into the ship, the Quinte began fiercely returning fire to their boarders sending a number of the bandits into the water dead.

Yet the bandits outnumbered them severely and they soon began returning fire themselves from their ships, the sound of matchlock and musket like weapons went off between both sides as an intense battle for the Quinte raged on. 

The spells of Mages fired back and forth as they fought for supremacy, the ships mages had the edge in quality but the bandits had numbers, Mages were rare compared to Warriors but the human population was huge in the Greenland continent and there were plenty of mages stuck at the low tiers with poor potential who ended up turning to a life of banditry. 

Warriors shown their might, they leapt onto the Quinte from the ship, jumping heights that would be impossible for any human on Earth, gripping their blades they began engaging with the Quinte warriors in a fierce clash that soon created a bloody air as the casualties on both sides began to pile up. 

Yet the Quinte guards although fighting fiercely taking down bandit after bandit, to the observer it would look like they were on top at the moment however they were slowly getting worn down and losing ground the longer the skirmish continued. 

The bandits replaced the lives lost with more men to throw at the Quinte guards, however every man the Quinte lost was a big blow. 

At this moment in time Althaea was launching spell after spell, “Wood Spike.” “Water Bullet” “Wood Bind.” “Heal Wounds”

The well trained Mage created chaos in the bandit ranks, she was a cut above every Mage present and it showed, yet even she would grow tired at inexhaustible numbers.

Another few of the River Bandit vessels were sent to bolster their numbers as the Bandits seemed to throw their lives at them in a desperate bid for the ship. 

The Quinte thought it unusual, what sort of greedy bandits would fight them this desperately? They thought if they demonstrated they’d suffer heavy losses, they might back off, but the Bandits shown no signs of this. 

Maybe they would know these thoughts were futile from the beginning if they knew the rewards they have been promised, Farrox had already stimulated these bandits to the maximum, especially since he has a few hidden skills as a Tamer thanks to his bond with the River Serpent that would push these men even further. 

Althaea felt she was about to collapse from exhaustion at the never ending bandits, she turned to see how Arwen was faring and that was when her eyes opened in shock.

“No!” She screamed at that moment the River Serpent eyes turned red, it had gone berserk. 

Arwen was holding steady however at this time large currents of water was gathered around the Serpent, it was finally using its gifts in water magic. 

“YOU ARE MY PREY.” Ethir screeched before an inhuman wail emerged from it as it suddenly transformed a large horn emerged from its head.

“That’s no ordinary River Serpent!” Althaea said in shock.

Arwen noticed too as he felt a power grip him that was many times stronger than he felt during the entire course of the battle. 

“YOU WILL HELP ME EVOLVE, TO RESTORE THE GREAT BLOODLINE.” Ethir said as the surrounding river seems to listen to its command.

At this moment in time Farrox smirked as he said, “Finally, just a sliver of flood dragon bloodline and yet this unawakened sliver has made you the King of all River Serpents, I was lucky to find you as an egg over two hundred years ago… disguising myself as bandit all these years to hide from those people was worth it! That High Elf brat will be great gift as I finally return, this time with a Monarch level beast by my side!” 

The thought made him excited all those years of hiding worth it. He was too weak to show his face but knew he needed resources, what better way than to be a bandit? He had raised his Serpent for a long time with a great deal of resources to stimulate the sliver of dragon bloodline in its veins and now finally he will bear the fruits for all this labour. 

The portion of bloodline had already made it larger and stronger than your average River Serpent now it was about to be awakened. 

“Devour that Druid Ethir, use him as nutrition to fuel your ascension to a true Monarch!” Farrox screamed eagerly as the Serpent used it newfound strength and mastery of water magic to bring coils of condensed water around the large bear, the Fiend Bear fought back fiercely but the Serpent overpowered him as Arwen felt himself being dragged into the depths of the water as the Serpent soon followed a hungry glint in the depth of its eyes. 

The Flood Dragon was a master of the water, even having a very weak smidge of that bloodline made the Serpent the King of this River.

It was undaunted, unbeatable it was time to feed.