Chapter 33.2- And so the Dragons Danced

A fourth boulder fell before me and this time I did not even feel my body give out. Suddenly, I was on one knee and struggling to breathe. I wasn’t tired. I knew I wasn’t. It was just that my body could not take the influx of positive and negative energies that came with channeling and using lightning. It was fine in small doses, but four lightning bolts in quick succession was probably more than anyone else would even have been able to attempt. Still, the failure stung. Especially when three boulders flew on over me like my previous efforts in striking them down had meant nothing. To be honest, it probably had.

Nevertheless, I was stuck. Another one of my ships had been hit in the latest salvo, and all I could hear was the sound of my solidiers dying. These were my men. They’d fought for me, bled for me, and now they would die for me.

“Abandon ship” I screamed at the top of my voice, even as I knew that most of the men were far ahead of me when it came to that. I turned to the men next to me. They were the ones I’d shared a campfire with all those weeks ago. “Jump in the water” I ordered, and credit to them, they hesitated. “Jump!” I rose my voice to drive the point home and they did as bid. I tried pushing myself up to my feet but was only able to stand by leaning heavily on the ramp. Another set of boulders flew overhead. They weren’t bothered about accuracy anymore. It made sense, I realised. Dozens of escape boats had left the ships behind and were now rowing in a dozen different directions.

My men were deserting. And I could not even bring myself to blame them. Had I not promised them victory above all else? This wasn’t victory. If I was breaking my end of the deal, so too could they. Of course, I was not allowed to wallow for long.

“Natsu” Toji screamed, hoisting a bleeding Maki over his shoulders. I did not hear his next words, attention fixated on the drip drip of her precious lifeblood as it spilled across the deck.

“What happened to her?” I yelled without even realising that I was yelling.

“She got impaled on some metal that go dislodged in the first hit. Toph was able to bend it out but we need to get her medical attention, and we need to get her out of here” Toji’s words were barely out of his mouth when I suddenly found myself flying through the air. I flew, dislodged from my position by the impact of one of the boulders that I’d thought had gone overhead on the back end of the ship. I didn’t feel it when my body struck the ship again after the ship’s mast moved in a rush of screeching metal to prevent me from entering the water. I didn’t feel it either when I landed on the deck, fully losing consciousness seconds later.