“There’s a demon deflecting our rounds,” he said. Ethan expected the demon to rush ahead and board the Trinity. He prepared to launch into the spiritual realm in order to defend them, but the demon did not approach.
“What’s it doing now!” Gideon demanded.
Ethan concentrated upon the demon. “I’m not sure. It’s not coming any closer.”
Bonifast’s special cannons fired several more rounds, but each met with the same demise: deflection or destruction. Meanwhile the Man-O-wars still closed on the Trinity and their shots fell into the sea nearer to the stern than before. Soon they would be able to hit the Trinity while their rounds still had enough momentum to do real damage.
Ethan watched as the demon suddenly veered away from the entire exchange. It dove into the depths of the Azure Sea and Ethan lost sight of it. “It’s gone. I’m not sure where it’s going-into the sea for some reason,” he said.
“Why would it do that?”
But Ethan could only turn to his mentor and shrug. Gideon’s expression softened. Unfortunately none of them had long to wait on the answer to the question. Something breeched the water off the starboard side approximately five hundred yards away. A plume of water erupted skyward, giving birth to a nightmare of gigantic proportion.
Calls came from all over the ship. “Sea dragon!” they yelled.
“What?” Ethan couldn’t believe what he saw. “I thought they were only myths-stories told to children!”
“Get the cannons ready port and starboard!” Levi demanded.
“Have you ever seen one of these before, Levi?” Gideon asked. The look on his face gave the priest his answer-none of them had. “I’ve only heard tales,” he said. “But who ever pays any attention to those? They say the sea dragons only hunt large whales in the depths. People have claimed to see whale carcasses shredded to pieces or bitten in half, but I never believed them.”
The snake-like serpent had armor of richly colored blue scales, except on its white underbelly. This dragon possessed no wings or appendages of any land sort at all-a sea serpent. Great fins protruded from various places on its body, allowing it to navigate more efficiently in the depths of the Azure where it normally hunted.
The beast drew its body upward and threw its hydrodynamic head toward the Trinity as the ship passed by. The dragon produced a piercing, high-pitched screech. The dragon flashed row upon row of large, serrated teeth like a shark, then plunged back into the water, the entire body following the course of the head. A great lump of its body rolled just above the water ending when the tail finished the course and disappeared beneath the surface again.
“It’s coming!” Ethan shouted. His sight allowed him to penetrate the murk and see the massive creature swimming toward the Trinity.
“Ready the guns, men!” Levi commanded. He kept a white-knuckle grip on the helm, hoping the sea dragon would not emerge at the bow or stern where defenses were weakest. “When you get a shot, take it!” he shouted to the gunnery crews.
For what seemed like an age, everything remained still. Only the sound of the Trinity treading water was heard now as even the enemy ships had stopped firing-most likely curious as to the dragon’s appearance and its next move.
Ethan watched as it drew nearer. The beast swam incredibly fast. Then the great toothy head erupted from the Azure on the Trinity’s starboard side. Its head seemed even more massive close-up and its open maw could have swallowed an elephant whole. The huge serpent held its body aloft for a moment and then brought the head down to strike.
The mouth split into rows of jagged teeth and smashed into the deck. The strike caught three men. The deck boards buckled and cracked where the men had been standing. One sailor disappeared inside the mouth completely. Another dangled by one leg caught between the teeth. He screamed frantically as his tan trousers turned red. The third man fell away to the side sustaining scrapes, cuts, and probably broken bones.
What happened to the first man in the next flash of those teeth was too horrible to describe-rows of serrated knives transformed from bone white to crimson. The second man fell away as the head rose up, chewing, swallowing. His lower leg was gone. Some rushed to help him. They brandished blades, trying to hack at the sea serpent. Gideon ran among them.
Ethan looked within the creature and saw the demon possessing it-the same which had been protecting the enemy ships. That was why the sea dragon, usually never seen, had come up from the depths to attack them. The beast struck again, becoming entangled in the rigging. Gideon jumped up and grabbed some of the ropes tangled about its head. He thrashed it with his blade.
“Shoot the body!” Levi commanded. The Man-O-wars were still approaching fast. The beast held the Trinity in place as the wind fought against the sails to drive them forward.
Cannons exploded, striking the beast where it draped over onto the deck. The sea dragon lurched and screeched, pulling away from the rigging ropes. The head sped on over the other side of the deck with the long body following like a shimmering blue archway over the ship. “Gideon!” Ethan cried.
Gideon disappeared over the side, still tangled in the ropes about the dragon’s head. Ethan leaped after him into realm shift, entering the spiritual plane to follow. Gideon tried to free himself, gouging the beast with his sword, giving it all of the effort he could muster.
The beast shot up toward the surface again, breeching with Ethan hot on its trail. He reached the head and saw the ethereal form of the demon within riding along like a passenger in a coach. Ethan’s blade leapt to his hand and he slashed into the dragon’s head-more at the demon than the animal. He had a plan.
The demon had to be struck three times to dislodge him from the dragon. The spirit writhed and then evaporated away as he’d seen happen to their kind before, during the attack on the slaver ship. Gideon thrashed, trying to catch his breath and his bearings before the serpent dove beneath the waves again. Everything happened so quickly.
Ethan leaped at the head, attempting to enter the dragon as the demon had, but he was repelled. For whatever reason, he could not possess the creature as a purely spiritual being could. Instead, he straddled the neck behind the head. His sword became liquid mercury, forming a silver chain in his hand.
Ethan wasn’t sure exactly how he accomplished it, but he didn’t care so long as he saved his friend. He had seen the demons using various weapons in combat and he wondered if they weren’t all the same weapon with this ability to change. Ethan whipped the chain over the serpentine head, then jerked it firm like a bit into the dragon’s mouth. He now held a crude bridle on the beast, hoping to force his will on the creature.
The serpent struggled against him, trying to free itself, but Ethan exerted all of his strength. He muttered a prayer for divine help and forced the dragon to submit. Willing it forward, Ethan dug into the scaly flesh and the sea dragon surged away toward the enemy ships. The Man-o-wars were almost upon the Trinity and preparing to resume their attack.
Ethan, the dragon, and a bewildered Gideon all plunged down beneath the surface of the sea. Ethan hoped Gideon could hold his breath for a few moments more as he sent the creature on the attack. The priest had little choice but to hang on for dear life.
The dragon veered to the port side of both Man-O-wars and then surged upward. The breech was so powerful that three quarters of the serpent’s thick, muscular body left the water and hung suspended over both ships. Ethan waited for just the right moment.
It all happened slightly slower than the time it took a man to blink his eyes. Ethan pulled the chain away. It became liquid then sword again. He sliced away the rope binding Gideon to the sea monster, grabbed him bodily, and leaped away.