A good thing he’d gotten there when he had, another moment and the sailor would have been dead. Maelen had always hated head wounds, in the seventy-five years he’d been healing, head wounds had been the most difficult. All that nerve tissue. Nervous tissue just didn’t respond well to healing and regrowth. While he could have stopped with just eliminating the swelling, the damage had been sufficient to probably cause permanent mental impairment if not promptly repaired. Thus he had to take additional time. As he finished, and the sailor blinked, conscious again. Maelen stood and hurried over to the forecastle.
Zzzt... Zap... Crack!
Crack... Crack... Crack!
Gastropé was back in business. He got off a whole succession of quick bolts to the other ship. Maelen bent down over a badly burnt sailor. In less than a minute he had the burns stabilized and healing. He’d get the process going and head to the next one. At this point he didn’t have time for full healing, three other sailors were down as well.
More bolts continued to rage back and forth, along with the occasional fireball. Jenn was busily putting out fires with her magic. Tom hadn’t done much of anything except clear debris. As he finished the last of the sailors, Maelen glanced up to Gastropé who was looking at the end of his rope. He’d been going one on one with the other two wizards by and large. Actually the big wizard still hadn’t attacked, just the lesser one.
Gastropé took a large breath, and twiddled his hands some more, suddenly from his hands sprung a long cone of brilliant light that sprung between the ships, hitting the weaker wizard directly. With that, Gastropé dropped to the deck, panting. His singed and smoking clothing causing him to cough from his own smoke. Jenn too was looking a bit bedraggled; the mast had apparently sapped her strength.
Things were not good, Maelen decided. He extended his vision a bit more to see what was happening on the enemy ship. The younger wizard, for so the weaker one was, had collapsed to the deck, but was not dead. The older wizard finally seemed to be taking an active role. “Jenn,” Maelen shouted, “the stronger wizard is getting ready to cast something!”
Jenn looked at him blankly for a moment. “Stronger... wizard?” She closed her eyes and began mumbling something. Maelen returned his eyes to the other ship. As he did so, he saw a giant bolt of lightning almost majestically arc between the enemy ship and his own. Almost as if time had slowed, as it does in those moments when adrenaline starts pumping through one’s system in large quantities, he watched it head for the forecastle.
The ship lurched forward suddenly, as Jenn’s spell apparently tried to move the ship out of the way. Jenn collapsed, exhausted by the effort. At the same time-slowed instant, the bolt streaking across the water struck the ship on the stern castle. Maelen watching it, almost hypnotically, saw it strike one of the seemingly frail humans on the sterncastle.
Suddenly, time started to speed up as Maelen realized it was Edwyrd that the bolt had hit! The young man’s entire body arched as this incredibly protracted lightning bolt, with easily five times the electricity of the younger wizard’s bolts released its energy into his body. The electrical discharge was immense, to say the least. The very air around Edwyrd seemed to glow. His body leaping into the air and crashing back on the far side of the deck. Maelen shook his head in sorrow. He’d seen wizard’s lightning bolts like that before. The man was a true master of the art. No one unprotected could have survived that. Maelen wouldn’t have enough left to heal by the time he got there.
Jenn saw this, even as she was collapsing. “Edwyrd! No!” she cried. Maelen began hurrying over to the body, even though there was nothing he could do. As he hurried over, he heard Jenn yelling at no one in particular, “What the everlasting goddess have we gotten into? That maniac wizard’s got to be nearly as powerful as Trisfelt or Hortwell! Whoever heard of pirates with that kind of firepower?”
Even as he reached the main deck from the forecastle, he was doing a double take. Edwyrd was staggering to his feet. Maelen had to blink. The young man was totally naked, his clothes apparently disintegrated by the lightning. The startling thing however was what Maelen’s enhanced eyesight could see, the lad wasn’t even burned! He had literally seen the electrical discharge arcing all over the boy’s body, yet not a burn on him!
As Edwyrd staggered to his feet, he snarled and began to rush to the railing closest to the enemy ship. Even as Edwyrd reached the railing, Maelen noted that the big wizard was preparing another spell. Edwyrd reached the railing and raised his right hand, making a fist and pointing it towards the wizard on the other ship. Maelen had halted in his tracks, amazed by what he’d seen.
