Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Great Fish

My father, along with Sallia, Felix and I walked towards the beach, where Olav’s fishing boat was waiting for us.

“All right, a few things I want the two of you to keep in mind,” my father said, stopping for a moment as he turned to face us. “First, as you already know, we’ll be hunting one of the great fish today. However, it might take a while to actually complete the hunt. A lot of youngsters get disappointed when they learn that a lot of their first adulthood ceremony is sitting around and waiting for a great fish to appear near us, but that’s the reality of a fishermen. A lot of time is just spend waiting.

“Second, before the fight with the great fish starts, you need to strap yourselves in at the back of the boat, all right? You’ll some time to attack the fish and participate in killing it, but that’s near the end of the fight, not the beginning. So sit tight and wait for one of the adults to give you a signal before you do anything.” I gave my father a solemn nod, and Felix did the same. My body was pretty tough compared to a regular human’s, but if a giant fish directly smacked me with its tail I would probably die instantly. I had no intention of messing around when my life was on the line.

“Apart from that, listen to Olav while on the ship – he owns the ship, and he has been doing this for years. Claus is the man who sometimes shows up around the house and gives you presents, Miria - I doubt you remember this, but when you were younger, Claus got into an accident when our fishing boat encountered some problems. He’s a good man, but he’s quite determined to pay off any debt he feels is owed - whether positive or negative. Finally, there are two other people on the ship. They’re a couple. Woman’s name is Joanna, man’s name is Agnar. Agnar’s on the quieter side, and so is Joanna. They’re good people, but not too talkative. Be nice and don’t expect them to speak up much, all right?”

“Sounds good. Thank you, dad,” I said, respectfully.

“I understand,” said Felix, nodding. “I appreciate you helping me find a fishing boat for my ceremony, as well. My mom and I were having a bit of a hard time figuring out which fishing boat to go along with, so being able to take it with Miria is a relief.”

My father gave Felix a friendly grin, before he ruffled Felix’s hair. “No worries. I know the three of you are close, and I can’t just leave one of Miria’s friends to their own devices when I can help, right? Don’t worry about it - just keep treating my daughter well and we’ll get along just fine.” 

“All right, make sure you keep calm, and don’t do anything stupid. As long as you don’t do anything unusual, we should be able to get both of you through your first ceremony without any injuries or deaths, so keep cool and do what you’re told on the boat. All right?”

My father gave Felix a good natured grin and a pat on the shoulder, before he turned to Sallia. Sallia was only five this year, so she wasn’t allowed on the fishing boats yet. She looked at both Felix and I, and I felt a small stab of reluctance as she watched us prepare for our adulthood ceremonies. Unlike Felix and I, according to the village she was only five this year. One year too young to do her adulthood ceremony. Finally, my father gave her a smile and a pat on the back. 

“Don’t worry, Aria. You’ll be able to do this next year. If I can convince Olav to take these two troublemakers on board this year, next year I can do the same for you. You won’t have to worry about finding a fishing boat to take you along. I know it must be frustrating to be a year behind, but it’s for your safety, all right? Just be patient.” It was a bit jarring to hear Sallia referred to as Aria, since Felix and I always referred to her as Sallia. Aria was, however, her name in this world, at least according to her parents.

Sallia’s expression of frustration didn’t fully go away as she watched Felix and I prepare for the boats, but she managed to school her expression into a more neutral one. If I didn’t know her so well, I might have been fooled. 

“Both of you, stay safe. Good luck, and I’ll be waiting when you get back to the shore, all right?” said Sallia. I gave her a quick hug, and Felix did the same, and then my father led Felix and I to the fishing boat. Standing inside of the wooden canoe-shaped vessel were four other adults, all of them ready to take off.

Claus, the man who my father had saved from serious injury years before, gave me a huge grin. “Glad to have you on board this year, little lady. Your father saved me from a dangerous fall years ago. If you have any questions or worries, stand near me. I’ll do whatever I can to keep you safe and help you.” Then, he also turned to Felix. “Your mother was one of the village’s finest hunters before her injury. I have nothing but respect for her, and I hope you’ll also grow into a fine man someday.” He gave Felix a more respectful nod, although I could tell it wasn’t respect directed at Felix himself.

“I do my best, sir,” said Felix. 

Two of the other adults on ship were a man and a woman, who stood at the back of the vessel. I assumed they were Joanna and Agnar. They both gave Felix and I simple nods, before they ignored us. They didn’t seem overly friendly or overly hostile to us, so I simply returned their nod before focusing on the last member of the ship.

“Good ta see ya again, Miria!. While on tha ship, I’ll be a little more serious, so ya gotta listen ta me, okay? I’ll be careful so we can get ya home safe and sound with yer ma and pa,” Olav said as he gave me a kind smile. “You too, little Felix! Good ta have ya aboard. Stay safe and don’ do anythin’ silly, and both of ye will be fine.” He gave Felix a more boisterous grin, which Felix returned, and then Olav nodded towards the back of the boat. There, I could see a few ropes were woven into the back of the boat, where Felix and I began tying ourselves to the vessel to deal with the movement we would experience later. Once we were secure, the adults prepared the boat for takeoff.

“All right, let’s get goin’!” said Olav.

The adults touched the sides of the boat. Then, the runes on their bodies lit up, and I felt mana start flowing out of their runes and into the boat.

With a shudder, the boat jerked upwards, before its flight began to smooth out. And as simple as that, we were airborne.

How on earth did this boat actually work? I examined the sides of the boat in wonder, trying to figure out what was happening. There were no engines, no runes, nothing either mechanical or ‘magical’ looking that I could see at all. The boat just looked like a large canoe that happened to be flying.

“This is amazing!” I said, turning to my father and laughing in excitement.

 “How does it work?” asked Felix, curiosity evident on his face as well. 

The adults cackled as they looked at Felix and I, and I realized that all of the adults had been closely watching us the whole time to see our expressions when we lifted off.

“It’s the wood,” said my father, giving the side of the boat a sturdy tap with his free hand. “Some of the trees inside of the island’s forest are special. When exposed to enough mana, they start to float on their own. Apparently, they gave our ancestors one heck of a shock when they were just settling into the island, since trees sometimes just take off for the skies. Some bright bloke decided to make a fishing boat out of the wood and see if that could help them actually hunt a fish or two, and the food crisis of our ancestors was solved within a year. Nowadays, the hunters in the island do three things - first, they keep an eye out for floatwood trees. Second, they keep the land beasts away from the village. Finally, they stock up on foods that preserve themselves for long periods of time, to prepare for storm season.” My father chuckled. “The hunters aren’t strong enough to reach into the deepest parts of the forest, so we never harvest the trees there. Every few years you can see a couple trees just fly away from the depths of the island’s forests. It’s rare, but it’s always pretty funny to see part of the forest just run for the skies, don’t you think?” My father said, chuckling. Olav gave a great booming laugh, seeming to agree with my father’s mirth.

“So how are we actually flying? You said that the wood flies with enough mana, but how are you getting mana to the wood?” asked Felix, his expression perking up as he examined the wood with heightened interest.

“It’s one of the big differences between having three and four runes,” said Claus. “Your parents already told you there’s a big spike in difficulty making more runes every third rune, right? The effects of runes also start to change every three runes. Your fourth, fifth, and sixth rune, for example, will each grant you a different, unique ability that you can spend your mana reserves to use. This ability relies on you taking mana out of your body and then applying it to objects in your surroundings. Which also means that, if you apply the same ability a little differently, you can apply just the mana in your body to an object, without activating your ability. Through carefully controlling our mana and directing it through the wood, we can control the flight of the boat. The wood itself does most of the work, and we just provide the energy and control the direction. It’s a bit hard to get used to at first, and coordinating everyone takes a lot of practice, but it’s the biggest part of being a fisherman. Learning to control the boat with your teammates and keep it steady while hunting is the most important skill for anyone who wants to hunt a great fish.”

“Huh. That’s quite interesting,” said Felix, moving closer to Joanna and looking closely at the place her hand was touching the boat. He seemed fascinated enough that he slipped out of the more childish drawl he tried to use most of the time, and was now obviously trying to sense Joanna’s use of mana. I smiled gently as I watched Felix continue to quiz the sailors and tried to figure out the mechanics behind the boat. More and more, I was noticing Felix really liked interesting and unique tools. He was fascinated by the minutiae of the boat’s construction, and I remembered that he also loved learning about the trains and planes of my previous world.

My attention started to wander as the group got into more specific aspects of how to shape each piece of wood, and I instead reveled in the feeling of soaring through the sky and gazing down at the ocean beneath us. The feeling of flying was novel and extraordinary, and it was something I didn’t want to miss a moment of.

After another six hours of flight, we finally spotted a good target. The water near our boat began churning frantically, alerting both the fishermen and the two of us. Then, out of the abyssal depths of the ocean came a great fish. It was smaller than its cousins, thankfully, which meant that it should be weaker.

However, the strangest thing of all about the fish was that its geometry was slightly… wrong. It reminded me of the way some parts of the Market looked. Although the fish was much, much closer to normal geometry than the winding and moving street layout of the Market, whenever I looked at its fins or its head, it felt as though the shape was subtly shifting in the corners of my eyes, making it hard to observe parts of the fish.

The fish was completely disinterested in my observations. It gave me a disinterested roll of its dozens of eyes, before it flopped over and began lazily sunning itself on the surface of the ocean. The fishermen on the boat leaned over the sides of the wooden vessel, carefully observing the fish in detail.

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“Is it weak enough?” Asked my father.

“I think so. Looks smaller than most fish, and it doesn’t seem to have any unusual traits. I don’t notice it using any odd abilities either, so it should be pretty manageable as far as fights go,” said Claus, critically eyeing the fish.

“I agree. It doesn’t look like it’s too hard ta fight, so it should be a good target fer the kids. Let’s go for it” called Olav. My dad and the others cracked grins as they looked at the fish, before they began reaching for the sides of the boat. Strapped to the sides of the boat were several bone spears with barbed tips, tied to the boat with thick, heavy ropes. The sailors all grabbed a spear, looking at the fish and grinning to each other as they prepared. 

“Claus, start us off!” Said Olav. I looked on with interest as mana flooded out of Claus’s body, before the spear in his hands began to writhe.

The spear seemed to grow larger and sharper in his hands. I couldn’t see any physical changes, but I felt a prickling sense of danger when I looked at the spear.

Then, Claus hurled the spear towards the fish. The other fishermen followed suit a moment later, trailing behind Claus’s spear as they streaked through the air. Claus’s bone spear tore into the scales of the fish. Instantly, it began writhing, managing to deflect two of the other spears in midair. However, two of the other spears managed to lodge themselves into the skin of the fish.

Then the ship lurched. The fish began thrashing, before flipping back and trying to dive back into the ocean. The ropes connected to the spears tensed, dragging the ship to and fro as the fish tried to escape. However, the sailors flooded the boat with mana as the fish struggled, and managed to keep the boat in the air and relatively undamaged during the struggle. As much as the fish wanted to escape the boat, now that we had hooked the fish we wouldn’t let it go.

“Pull up!” called Olav, pouring more mana into the boat. The others all gripped the sides of the boat more tightly, before they increased how much mana they were pumping into the ship. The sickening rolling of the flying boat stopped, righting itself, and Felix and I finally stopped feeling like ragdolls that were being tossed around left and right.

Finally, the ropes and the ship began straining, as they dragged the fish back out of the depths of the ocean. However, it didn’t fully leave the water before it started fighting back.

“Get ready for its first counterattack!” Yelled Olav, a moment later. 

Suddenly, a new current of water appeared in the Ocean around us. As the fish flailed, the water actively assisted it, trying to suck the fish back into the ocean and tear it away from our fishing spears.

My father and Joanna stepped up to the side of the boat, and winds began to whip at the fish and water around us. Their ability to feed mana into the boat decreased, but the fish was also being dragged out of the water by the power of the winds they two were summoning. At the same time, Claus took hold of another bone spear and hurled it into the side of the fish, causing it to writhe in greater agony and solidify the connection between the fish and the boat.

Finally, Olav extended one of his fingers over the side of the boat. I noticed six runes light up on his body, glowing a dark red color, before he sliced open one of his fingers with the tip of a spear. A drop of blood fell out of his wound, before it whizzed towards the fish.

When the drop of blood made contact with the fish, it drilled into its body. The fish’s dozens of eyes began rolling wildly, and it stopped messing with the water around it and began flopping around. 

The drop of blood had disappeared inside of its body, but the fish seemed more distracted by Olav’s attack than any of the other attacks raining down on it. And despite the fact that four of the five fishermen were focused on attacking the fish, Joanna’s husband managed to keep the boat afloat, and even ensure that the boat was slowly floating higher and higher.

The moment the fish’s body left the water, my father and Joanna stopped using their rune abilities, and instead returned their attention to the boat itself. They pumped more mana into the wood, and the boat jerked as it began flying higher and higher out of the water.

For another minute, the fish continued to struggle, with Olav and Claus attacking the fish while my father, Agnar, and Joanna kept the boat afloat. Then, the fish’s energy seemed to dwindle. It grew weaker and more feeble, and its attempts to manipulate the ocean around it started to die down.

“You two can act now,” my father said, handing Felix and I a bone spear each. “Use as much of your mana as you can to boost your arm strength, and then send it straight into the fish. If you miss, we have more spears, so don’t worry. Just focus on wearing down its strength as much as you can with a few extra injuries. If you’re a good enough shot, aim for its eyes - they never like having those destroyed.”

Felix and I tested the spears for a moment, before we unstrapped a bit of our body from the rope harnesses and leaned over the side of the boat. Now that the fish wasn’t struggling so much, the boat was much more stable than before, making it easy to stay on board and get a good throw in. I took careful aim, before burning through half of my mana and throwing my spear.

My Grade 7 strength was nothing to sneeze at, especially with extra mana to boost my body strength. My spear flew through the air, along with Felix’s, before the two spears cut into the fish’s face. Neither of us hit an eye, unfortunately, and compared to the size of the fish it felt kind of like we had stabbed it with a sewing needle. However, with the fish already dying, it wasn’t able to respond to our attacks at all. 

Finally, the fish stopped moving. A single drop of blood existed the body of the fish, before it flew back into the cut on Olav’s body. He grinned.

“Got ‘im. I hit the brain wit’ my ability, so it shouldn’t be alive pretty soon if it ain’t already dead. Most fish do a better job expellin’ my blood drop, but this ‘un was pretty weak,” he said. Then, he turned to the other fishermen in the boat, including Felix and I. “Good job, everyone! Ya did great work today.” Then, he focused on just the two of us, ignoring the adults in the boat for a second. “And congratulations on completin’ your first adulthood ceremony.” Then, the boat began to slowly fly back towards the island.

 

After perhaps twenty seconds, I felt a rush of Achievement enter my body.

Slaughter: Assist the Locals in killing a Great Fish for the first time Influence: Successfully pass your first Adulthood Ceremony

Achievement +25, +50

It was over. We had passed our first coming of age ceremony and hunted one of the great fish!