Fight and Flight

With my right hand, I grip my scythe and hang from the rail while grasping Sam with my left hand. I glance to my side to find everyone else within the group has also clutched the rail with a death grip. Unfortunately, the Crawlers with their spiderlike qualities and the sticky Tar Demon both don't seem to mind the now heavily leaning ship.

However, the Crawlers seem unfocused as they all stare at the fire that has grown exponentially, with obvious anxiety.

'It seems their instincts are screaming for them to run, but they are resisting the urge. Unfortunate, to say the least.'

I then glance toward the helicopter finding it flying relatively low for whatever reason.

While staring at the helicopter, I ask, "Eden, do you think you can use your talent?"

"I don't know. I haven't used it on purpose before."

"Just try to prepare yourself I may need you to use it here in a bit. Since you have used it once, it should be much more natural to use the second time."

Before Eden can answer, the sound of the Tar Demons voice rings out, "Enough talking! The angel comes with me, and you die here."

I glance back, finding the Tar Demon much closer than before; I look toward Aponi, "Catch!"

I toss Sam's body toward Aponi, "Ah! Don't throw him; he's too heavy!"

Acting on reflex, Aponi reaches out and catches him with ease, "Eh? Has Sam been on a diet? He's so light..."

I ignore Aponi and start thinking about what I need to do, 'This will probably use up my remaining mana I'm not quite sure I have enough...well if I have to leave Audrey behind, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!'

I nod at Eden and Aponi and look toward the others "Anyone who wants to get off this ship cut your palms and let go of the rail when I say so." I toss a knife from my storage ring to Aponi and release my grip from the rail.

"Wait, what are you about to do!?" Eden and Aponi both shout.

Having released my grip, I start to slide quickly toward the Tar Demon and Crawlers. I try to act fast and break my scythe into two separate pieces. I morph the two ends of the scythe into a new shape making two sickles that resemble large fishing hooks complete with loops for the fishing line.

As I approach the Tar Demon, Phil raises his arm, and tar begins to gather into a lump. It only takes a couple of seconds for it to harden into a large oversized morningstar like object. When I am within a few feet of him, he brings down his arm with extreme force.

I roll to the side, barely avoiding his arm as it comes down with a loud thunderous bang. Wood splinters begin to rain down from Phil's attack as I work to correct my position and slide in between his legs. Lifting the sickles, I slam one of the sickles into his abdomen and the other into his thigh. The two sickles make a loud splat noise as they enter the viscous body of the demon.

"Little mosquito that's not going to do anything to me," Phil shouts in annoyance.

Phil again prepares to bring down his oversized arm, but I release my grip and slide just out of reach. I turn my gaze forward, finding myself rapidly approaching the line of Crawlers I throw my feet down to slow myself and turn my body over to face toward Phil.

I cut my palms and release two lines of chains and hook them onto the end of the sickles. Using the chains, I right myself finally being able to stand on the sloped deck with their support and begin manipulating the blood sickles stuck in Phil's body.

"You don't think I'll just pull these things out!?" Phil grabs at the two hooks and begins trying to rip them out of this body, but is surprised to find it is difficult. "What the hell did you do! Why won't these things come out."

'Psh, I've been weaving strands of blood throughout his body. Not something I could usually do, but excluding the pieces of the original Phil's body, his insides are almost entirely tar, so there really isn't anything in his body that would interfere with my magic. I just needed to wrap the threads around the only fully solid object in his body, which should be his body's core.'

"Mother! What are you doing to Father?!" I hear the sound of Justice coming up behind me.

"...We're just talking, so stay over there."

"Don't lie, Mother! Lying is bad!" Justice shrieks.

'Dealing with Justice right now is going to be a problem.'

"Eira!" I hear a voice and look to find Eden rapidly falling toward me.

Eden reaches out, embraces me stopping herself from falling any further, "Eden, what are you doing?" I ask.

Eden looks at me with determination, "I can help; just tell me what you need."

"**Sigh** Fine. Keep Justice busy and don't die, or I'll be angry."

"Okay, I won't, but who's Justice?"

I point at Justice, "The ugly raw chicken looking Crawler who keeps calling me Mother."

Not waiting for Eden's response, I grab her hand and slice it open. Using her blood, I cut my connection and tie her off to one of the sickles. I then toss her the saber that was stored in my ring.

"She won't stop me from getting you, Mother!" Justice yells and charges.

Despite her obvious nervousness, Eden jumps between Justice and me and slashes at Justice. A long gash is made along Justice's face by the force of the slash.

"AHH! You! I will kill you for keeping me from Mother!"

I turn my attention from Justice and Eden and back toward Phil. "You bitch! If I can't get these things out, then I'll bring you to me."

Phil grabs the chain connected to my palm and prepares to yank it with all his might. Seeing this, I quickly shorten the chain, bringing myself close, and then break the connection. Phil pulls the chain with tremendous force only to find it is no longer connected, causing him to fall backward.

Taking advance of the opportunity, I once again reconnect the chain and yell at the rest of the group, "Now hold up your bloody palms and slide this way!"

All of them hesitate, excluding Aponi, who releases her grip without question; Aponi still carrying Sam slides toward me. Seeing Aponi, the others also follow suit. As quickly as possible, I manipulate chains and attach them to the bleeding palms of the group. It only takes a moment before the seven people are all connected to one another via the chains.

'Okay, now for the hard part.'

Pulling more blood from the palms of all the people I gather enough to launch a long chain toward the low flying helicopter. The chain wraps around the landing gear of the helicopter. Seeing the odd situation, the helicopter pilot panics, and jerks to the helicopter to the side, causing the group of people to be suddenly dragged into one another.

"Damn moron!" Aponi yells at the helicopter while everyone else simply seems dazed and confused.

Slowly the helicopter starts to rise higher, lifting the eight people off the deck. I look at Phil, Eden, Justice, and the Crawlers and can't help but frown.

'I only have enough mana to form maybe one more set of chains, and I can't kill Phil quick enough here, so I guess I'll just have to bring Phil with us.'

Using the last of my mana, I release the last chain from my palm and attach it to the bottom of the chain carrying the group of people. A moment later, Phil is slowly being lifted by the helicopter as well.

"What the...?!" Phil starts to struggle but having already been lifted from the ground, his attempts aren't very effective.

'I'll take him with us and finish him off then. This has the potential to go horribly, but I can't let him escape.'

I slide down the deck toward Eden, who is still hooked to Phil and grab onto her, "We are leaving."

"No! Mother, you can't leave! Stop watching and get them!" Justice yells.

Hearing Justice, the Crawlers all shriek and begin charging, enclosing us on all sides. The helicopter slowly but surely starts to rise with everyone attached, but the excess weight is a lot for it to carry.

I wrap around Eden and cover my ears, "Eden! Now please use your talent now, or they are going to drag down the helicopter."

"but..."

Uncovering my ears, I grab the saber from Eden and look at her, "No time for buts! Just concentrate on the feeling you had that day."

Eden doesn't say anything else; she just closes her eye. The Crawlers quickly begin approaching, and I raise the saber. However, I glance at Eden and notice strange glowing lines running from Eden's eye toward her throat.

'Uh, oh.'

I put the saber away and quickly cover my ears again only for Eden to open her eye once again. Eden's eye glows brightly with an azure color as visible blue waves of energy begin to rise from Eden's throat.

Eden opens her mouth, and the air begins to vibrate, "AHHHHHH!"

A blue force begins to move through the air away from Eden toward the Crawlers causing them to begin rolling around on the deck in pain and confusion. For myself, I can feel drops of blood fall from my eyes at the tremendous energy that Eden's talent is putting off.

'What...Is this not way stronger than your average banshee?'

The pilot of the helicopter, obviously getting some backlash from Eden's talent, jerks the controls again, sending us barreling toward the wall of Crawlers. Eden stops her talent abruptly as we both crash into the line of Crawlers like a wrecking ball, but the Crawlers don't do much of anything as they still haven't recovered from Eden's ability. The helicopter continues to swing wildly, dragging everyone past the rail of the ship. I glimpse downward to find the ground is hundreds of feet underneath and tighten my grip onto Eden.

I can see Justice beginning to recover from Eden's wail as she begins to realize what's happening; she yells, "Mo...Mother! Mother, no, don't leave me, and you took Father too! Why? Mother! I'll find you. I'll follow you! We all will."

I roll my eyes under my mask and look at Eden, "You okay?"

"...I guess, but Eira, why did you bring him?" Eden points above us at Phil.

"Because he needs to die, but there was way too much going on there, so I brought him with us."

'There's no way I'm not going to complete that task the system gave me, but I can't tell Eden that.'

"Damnit! Why did you do this, and why won't these stupid things come out!?" Phil yells.

**Boom!**

I look toward the 'Moonlight' where yet another explosion rings out. The Crawlers who have finally recovered begin to swarm down from the 'Moonlight.' I turn, my gaze to the distance where I can see military vehicles, helicopters, and soldiers quickly approaching the Port of Anchorage.

Before I can thoroughly analyze the situation, I hear Phil yell, "If I can't get these things out, then I'll bring you to me!"

"**Sigh** You've already said that." I can feel Eden and I slowly being dragged upward toward Phil when a familiar voice speaks.

[Ding!]

[Side Task: Escape the Moonlight Cruise - Complete]