Word Count: 1391 (+3 exp)Level: 7 - Total EXP: 12/70
Location: Edge of the Blue: Black BayBy touch alone Ace Cadet could tell if the items forming in his hands were at all useful to him at the moment. Something soft and pliable, something heavy and unyielding... he stored these items away by habit, not using any brain power on sorting out what they were or what to do with them. One item though he held up to his face, squinting his eyes to try and get a better look at through the dark water. It's shape was
familiar, and as soon as it clicked in his mind and he knew what he was holding, the Cadet was quick to shed his helm and don the rebreather. The drainage valve began working almost immediately, mechanical gills churning to life and sucking the water from inside the mask, pushing it out. Before it was even finished, as soon as the Cadet's mouth was above water he tried to draw breath again - and found none, just emptiness and burning in his throat. The mask still needed time to convert his breath back into oxygen. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all, but when finally the mask was working as intended the Cadet thought it was worth the pain. It beat drowning after all.
Ace Cadet got his bearings again now that the threat of drowning had been staved off for now. With the rebreather's latent armor skill awakened it provided more air than it normally would be able to. Combined with Blazermate's periodic bursts of healing, the emergency the hunter had found himself in was suddenly a lot less extreme. That wasn't to say he was out of the thick of it yet though. The abyssals were rousing themselves after being struck by the Crush Shot, and one by one they started darting around the interior with their teeth and guns flashing. The Cadet would have to fight his way through the monsters, make sure his allies were alive and get back to the staircase leading out of the hold, all while fighting the heavy pulling current of water...
wait, heavy current?Having been free floating when Shippy opened her maw, the Cadet was easily swept up and out of the ship as she spat up everyone and everything that'd been inside. Barrels, abyssals, he and and the others that were down in the hold. At some point Frog had joined them as well, if that flash of green skin was anything to go by. It took the monsters much less time to get their bearings after being ejected out, and they swarmed. Joining their brethren they made for the ship, or for the sinking heroes.
The Cadet drew his sword and shield. With the blade he repelled the abyssals that charged in, the weapon quick and clean in the water. With their armor the sword couldn't quite cut through, but it cracked their metal skin and shattered their armaments. Those that preferred firing from a distance, well their shots were much more bearable with a shield between them and himself.
There was large abyssal coming up fast from beneath, one suspiciously humanoid. It had Blazermate in it's clutches!
Wait a sec... is that Link? The psuedo-abyssal was heading right for him, and on closer inspection it did seem to be Link himself, with some changes. He must have absorbed an abyssal spirit to survive when the hold flooded. That was smart. The Cadet eased up, letting Link catch him as he swam with the others towards the surface. It took nearly no time at all to breach, and the Cadet prepared to be launched along with Blazermate and Frog back onto Shippy's now very different looking deck. Then a splash and a sudden attack had the Cadet slipping from the Link's grasp, leaving the Hylian to tussle with the jaws of the abyssal.
The hunter sunk down a little, leaving room for Link to battle with it. Around them, cannonballs and heavy ballista bolts sliced through the water and turned surrounding abyssals to ash. Was the tide turning in their favor?
He swam up once Link was finished, forcing himself through the ocean water even in his armor. It seemed like Link was planning to stay under and support from there. Ace Cadet couldn't argue that plan even if the rebreather allowed him to speak. He tapped on the Hylian's arm a few times and showed him a mega potion produced from his pouch, insistently offering it to Link. If he was staying below, who knew when or if Blazermate's beam could reach him - and hopefully even without words, it would be easy enough to tell what the potion was just by the look of it. With the benefit of being able to consume it underwater (and really the Cadet had never questioned the logistics of that), surely it might help him.
The Cadet knew he wouldn't be quite as useful in the water, so he broke the ocean's surface and quickly took aim at Shippy's railing with his slinger. When it connected he hauled himself towards her and over the side back onto the deck, shoving any handsy enemies that were trying to climb up. As soon as he was back on board the Cadet removed the rebreather and heaved for a few moments, getting a good few mouthfuls of fresh air. He could see that the situation on board was still hectic, but with Kamek and Sakura coming down to assist from the Atomos, plus the shipgirl and her shark swimming nearby, he thought they might just get through. A small, dark shape sped out from a corner of the deck and got right in under his legs. Initially the Cadet startled, but it was just BB, a little singed but miraculously otherwise unharmed. He scooped the piglet up and tucked it into his bag where he figured she might be safest.
"You hold on tight," he told it.
Waterlogged but determined, the Cadet shouted to the crew,
"What's the plan?", and the Captain answered just as loudly, "We be making our getaway to the river!" That seemed like a good plan indeed.
"Heard!" There were a couple of cannons still unmanned, which he planned to take over. First, though, if they wanted to make a clean getaway they needed speed. Once more drawing his bow, the Cadet dropped onto one knee, the metal of his armor clanging against the ship's reinforced deck. He lifted his arms up, nocking an unusual looking arrow. He pulled the drawstring hard, pulling the ends of the bow to bend and aiming straight up in the air. When he let the arrow fly it sailed up and burst, raining a shower of invigorating powder down on Shippy and everyone on board. It only needed to touch them to speed them up, increasing their movement prowess.
I hope this works on boats! He didn't stop with just Shippy and her crew. He aimed out over the water where Sakura was skating around in a panic and where Kamek was hovering, spreading the powder over them as well. If Link came above water maybe it would even reach him too.
It was about that time that another new, gigantic abyssal showed itself.
"Just our luck," the Cadet laughed despite himself. However if they got themselves out of the previous bind, surely they could make it out of any. He was preparing to try and shoot down any kind of shell the demon shot at them, but to his surprise it was focused on another ship instead.
"It's gonna fire on the Jackdaw!" Finding no time to swap from his bow to the cannon emplacement, he fired arrows out quickly at the abbysals flying through the air. Whether those that planned to bomb them that or the ones tossed out by the demon, the arrows stopped their momentum and dropped them into the sea if they didn't perish outright.
Could they do anything to assist the Jackdaw? Would their weapons even reach the demon from there, and if they made a beeline for her would they reach the monster before it fired? It seemed like Kamek had some kind of plan in place, so the hunter moved towards the circle of koopas, making sure that any brave abyssal boarders were turned to ash before they could interfere with whatever ritual he was planning.
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Very heroic, my friends 
