The Wreck of the Onphanion

The Wreck of the Onphanion Part 3

                      Part 3:  Encounter with the Sahuagin

      Almost exactly 10 hours after Hank had entered his small hemisphere it disappeared leaving him in the fetal position on the floor of Merlisas entrance room. He rose up to his full height and took Merlisa in. She was now wearing leather armor made from sharkskin, wore silver bracers on her wrist that had a strength enchantment on them, and a circlet with a large pearl at it's center and a magical enchantment on it that improved her endurance. She also had a pack over her back and a sword in a scabbard on her waist. The sword was a nasty piece of work with two enchantments on it, one that let it ignore anything that wasn't living, which would let the sword cut right through the water, and any armor her target was wearing and a second that would cause wounds inflicted with it to not clot as easily as normal. "You ready?" Merlisa asked skeptically.
     "Yeah."
     "No gear? It will take over a day to get there."
     "I know, all I need is my magic."
     "No components?"
     "Don't need them."
     Merlisa had spoken to Yosta again the previous night after Hank had retired for the night. He voiced his concern about just how powerful this wizard was, he was either using spells that Yosta had never even heard of before or he had found some way to bypass the need for spell components, and chanting, which was a mainstay of magic with exceptions being few and far in-between. Every time she learned something more about this wizard something in the back of her head told her to swim away that the risk wasn't worth the reward. But she was growing to hate her trips to Hearport Harbor and every other surface city she visited on her trading trips so she ignored it. "If I die on this trip my ghost is going to haunt your family for a thousand generations."
     "That won't be a problem I did guarantee your safety afterall."
     "I'm still skeptical about one wizard fighting an entire colony of Sahuagin."
     "Only one colony, this should be easy then," Hank said jovially. "Let's get going."

      It was noontime before they made their way into the Sahuagin territory, and they managed to travel through it for two hours before Sahuagin approached them.
     "What's the plan?" Merlisa asked.
     "There's only twelve of them," Hank said. "With my magic and your magic circlet it should be easy to out swim them, either that or we stand and fight them."
     "Sahuagin never give up a chase," Merlisa said. "There is a kelp forest a head if we divert our course we can hide for a few days and lose them."
     "I don't have time for that," Hank said ceasing to swim and planting his feet on the sandy ocean bottom. "Hang tight I'll handle this."
      Merlisa was dumbfounded, twelve on two was bad odds, she didn't care how powerful a wizard he was. The Sahuagin wasted no time catching up to their now stationary prey and fanned out into a semi-circle surrounding them. The Sahuagin were humanoid creatures covered in scales with webbed feet and hands, they wore leather armor and were armed with an assortment of spears, swords and nets, not to mention their razor sharp teeth and claws on both their hands and feet, their leader was armed with a trident. "You trespass in Sahuagin waters," their leader spoke. "Come quietly, you are to be sacrifices for our goddess."
Hank paused for a moment, considering his options, after about a minute he spoke. "Well as I'm not a follower of your goddess it would be inappropriate to sacrifice me to her I think. No? Well we have no quarrel with you Sahuagin, let us through safely and we'll be gone before you know it."
     At a signal from their leader two of the Sahuagin nearest to Hank dove forward spears in front of them. Using his magic enhanced agility and strength Hank deftly dodged the spears and grabbed the Sahuagins faces and brought his hands together sending their dark red blood and poorly utilized brains into the ocean. "Kill him!" Their leader screamed in rage. "Capture the merwoman alive!" The Sahuagin all moved forward towards Hank and Merlisa.
     Merlisa had already drawn her sword and was ready to deal with the two Sahuagin that approached her. The one that would reach her first was armed with a spear, she dodged to the side at the last second and brought her sword down. The Sahuagin moved to parry the blow but the enchantment on her sword allowed it's blade to go clean through the spear and cut his hand off. The Sahuagin roared in pain and anger and swiped at her with the claws on his remaining hand, she was ready for this and reached up, grabbed his wrist and with her strength enhancing bracers she pulled the Sahuagin to her side and whipped her sword back up across his chest cutting him clean in half. She barely had time to fling the top-half of her former opponent into the net that the second Sahuagin that had come after her had thrown. The second Sahuagin was annoyed at losing his surprise, though he was still armed with a sword, the first Sahuagin had underestimated her and died for it, this one would not make that same mistake. Although Merlisa knew how to use a sword well enough, she was a merchant not a warrior, unlike this Sahuagin, a long battle would favor him heavily. Merlisa knew her weapon well, it's enchantment would allow her to swing it more easily underwater, but it also made it so that she couldn't parry a blow with it. Merlisa rose her sword up and swung directly for her enemies neck hoping that either he didn't notice that it had passed right through his friends spear earlier or that instinct would kick in and he'd try to parry. Her gamble paid off the Sahuagin attempted to parry her strike, but her sword passed right through it and cleanly decapitated her foe, Sahuagin may not be smart but they still needed their heads to survive. Merlisa turned to the rest of the battle and was shocked by what she saw. Hank had one hand on the center blade of the leaders trident, and his other hand planted in the Sahuagin leaders chest then pulling his heart right out of it and then crushing the still-beating heart right in his hand. Two of the other Sahuagin had been reduced to blackened husks, two more were locked into a giant ice block their last moments of terror frozen on their faces, and two more were floating harmlessly with blood flowing out of several dozen holes in them.
     "You OK?" Hank asked looking at her. "You get the three that went after you?"
     "I'm fine," Merlisa said surveying the carnage. "Only two came after me though."
Hank looked over the battlefield and counted the bodies. "We're missing one, there were twelve but only eleven corpses." The sound of a Sahuagin blowing into a conch shell drew their attention, all the blood and gore floating in the water had hidden him from view. The sound was enough for Hank to zero in on his location and he cast a quick spell on the trident to allow it to hit it's target without fail and threw it at the sound of the conch which cut off suddenly. Hank swam over to the last Sahuagin to confirm that it was in fact dead.
     When he didn't leave the body immediately Merlisa grew anxious. "Is something wrong? Let's get out of here before their reinforcements arrive."
     Hank turned to each of the other Sahuagin bodies, slowly one at a time, then turned to Merlisa. "Have you heard of any demons in these waters?"
     "Not in several generations." Merlisa said. "Why?"
     "Five of these Sahuagin are infused with demon blood."
     "What does that mean?"
     "It means they're meaner, nastier and stronger than normal Sahuagin." Hank explained. "That also means they're serving a demon, demon blood isn't given freely."
     "Well let's head back to Ralthas." Merlisa said. "We'll be safe there and we can try again in a few days and take a longer route around to avoid them."
     "Not an option," Hank said. "I'm in too much of a hurry. I can cast a haste spell on you and..."
     "Oh no no," Merlisa interrupted. "Those spells prematurely age you. I'm not shaving a few months off of my life so that you can save a few days."
     "That is not how that magic works, those are false rumors spread by people who don't understand how magic works."
     "I don't believe you."
     "Fine," Hank said swimming over next to Merlisa and grabbing her around the waist. "Hold on tight." He said as cast a haste spell on himself and took off like an arrow towards their destination.

     That is part 3, let me know what you think, as always comments and feedback are the lifeblood of a new author.