90

Following your orders, the villagers light torches and race down to the beached ships before the Cerulean Guards can organize. Chief Kothis and Therko lead the charge. Torches fly into the two nearer ships, and they start to burn as the herald watches in horror from the middle of the river. A moment later, he sounds a general retreat.

Doomed Cerulean Guards try to free their ships as villagers pelt them with torches and javelins. Some try to swim for safety, but they get tangled up in your nets. One vessel explodes into an inferno, forcing Chief Kothis back, his golden pectoral shining. The other gets clear and tries to raise its sails. It's then that Chief Kothis grabs a burning Cerulean Guard cape with a wooden helmet—and possibly a head—tangled up in it. He hurls it like he's an ancient Greek hero, and it hits the sail, which immediately bursts into flame. In seconds, the other ship is also alight. Guards leap off the burning ship and drown in the river, dragged down by their capes.

The last ship, carrying the herald, unfurls its sails and flees downriver. It's been a total rout for the forces of the Ziggurat.

"Is it over?" Control asks as the last ship vanishes behind a screen of trees.

Chief Kothis is about to answer when a voice booms across the village. "I have seen you."

The False Icon? No, the gray mountain is quiescent.

"I have tested you."

Then something larger than the Tyrant starts to push its way through the forest on the far side of the river.

"We're not done," Control says.

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