The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Six: Eddelin City]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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"Let me guess," Kracht said, as Arkal put the chess piece back. "He established contact with Reinhardt. And told you not to trust me."

"Yep," said the blacksmith.

"Well, then. Do you trust me?"

Arkal paced around the room, looking at the mineral man, saying nothing. Finally, he spoke.

"I don't know much about reading people, Kracht," he began. "But I know a lot about materials. I know what would make a good sword, what's good in an axe, a shield, armor... you get the picture."

"Yes, I am well aware of this," Kracht said, bored. "What are you getting at?"

"I also know when a material's... well, let's call it 'good luck' or 'bad luck'. I don't think I can explain it better than that to someone else. If something's bad luck, I don't touch it. Even if I could use it to make the strongest weapon in the world."

Arkal stared directly at Kracht.

"You're all material, plus you're alive, sorta. I've been getting mixed signals from you ever since this game started. But this whole conversation, you've been looking like good luck." He held up Xadrez' chess piece. "And as soon as I got that last message... this thing's started lookin' like serious bad luck."

He grinned.

"Maybe I'm just a crazy old man. Maybe that chesshead's been rubbing me the wrong way lately. But whatever it is, my instincts are tellin' me to side with you. I'm gonna trust you, Kracht. Now, what the heck are we going to do?"

There was a sudden knock on the door. "Cap'n! Cap'n!" shouted a voice on the other side. "We need ya out here, there's somethin' ya gotta see!"

Kracht yelled back to the messenger. "If it's that important, you can tell me what it is so I know this isn't some sort of silly ruse to cause a mutiny. Which won't work."

"That's just it, Cap'n! We don't know what it is!"

"Wonderful." Kracht turned to the smith. "Well, I suppose we should see what it is, hmm? I wouldn't want us to die because we hit an iceberg and none of these men had ever seen snow before." He walked to the door, Arkal following.

Up on deck, it became clear what the problem was, and why no one was able to identify it. They hadn't seen the Ovoid, and so couldn't recognize the odd surface of the strange landmass up ahead. But to Artkal and Kracht, the color and texture were very familiar.

"What's that blasted thing doing now?" Arkal asked, severely confused.

"I have no idea. This is the strangest thing I've seen the Ovoid do since that iteration where it nearly dropped Cyk'nl on us. Except I'm... reasonably certain that one was some sort of accident. This is rather clearly intentional."

Arkal blinked. "Wait, what was that other thing?"

"Ah, well. Somehow the Ovoid was able to pull the entire city of Cyk'nl through the dimensions, still in midair. We avoided a direct hit, but it released the beast sealed within the depths of the city..."

"The WHAT?"

"Oh, you missed the legend this time? Well, it hardly matters, I doubt we'll be seeing it. Mind you, the way this iteration has been going, if it somehow were released I'd expect it to be something completely different from the last one."

"Cap'n!" shouted one of the pirates. "Somethin' be approachin'! Should we fire on it?"

Kracht looked around, and spotted a dragon flying towards them with a worried-looking man in tan riding on its back.

"Hold fire. If this was an attack, we wouldn't have even seen it coming."

The dragon flew up to the side of the ship. The nervous clone spoke up.

"On behalf of the Entity," he said, sweat dripping from his brow, "we would like to offer you our services as a guide. Please, follow us."

It flew in front of the ship. Arkal and Kracht looked at each other, befuddled.

"I don't suppose you have any idea what to do," the smith said.

"Not with foreknowledge, no." Kracht sighed. "But for the moment, I suppose we follow the dragon."