Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

"Don't worry about it," Emfa smiled, "Now, this whole thing's under tension, so keep your hands off the trigger for now. Those two handles on the side of your seat, feel them? That's how you turn it around. Try it." Emfa was on the platform as well, so when the levers were turned both would go around the center of rotation.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine leaned over to look for the handles before taking hold of them. She surprised herself when she moved it at first, but with a bit more trying, she started getting used to it.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Good," Emfa smiled, "That's how you turn when your target's outside the field of view of the turret," she pointed to the trigger points of the turret, "You move these around to turn the turret itself. The levers turn the area you can see, this is how you aim the turret. Don't pull the trigger, just try it."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine nodded and took hold of the turret, doing her best to move it around. She certainly wasn't the strongest person around, so she'd struggle if it was too heavy.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Good," moving the levers changed where Raine could aim, moving the turret changed what she was aiming at. "Now, point this thing at the side of the hydra." She hopped off and went to grab something to use as a target.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine nodded and took a moment to get herself pointed the right way before looking for what Emfa was doing.

 

[Darkling0096]

Emfa didn't find anything solid to use as a target, so instead she ripped some scales out of the hydra's hide at various points, and came back. "Okay, try and shoot the gaps in the scales."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine looked at the spots and nodded before adjusting her aim, moving it to where it seemed like it was aimed at one of the spots. She looked back down at the ballista. “Fire with...this?” She pulled the trigger.

 

[Darkling0096]

A pair of the ballista's arms whipped forward, launching a bolt way over the target. "The bolt leaves the ballista angled slightly up," Emfa shook her head, "And this thing's powerful enough that it won't go down significantly at this range. Try again, there's still threebolts loaded."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine jumped as it fired, watching the bolt fly off. She glanced at Emfa and nodded before adjusting her aim, moving it further down and firing again.

 

[Darkling0096]

It took some practice and some reloading before Raine eventually got the hang of it, how the bolt moved, the margin of error for the sigh, and all the other parts of shooting a gigantic crossbow.

 

[Fangs9090]

There was definitely a learning curve, but she eventually started getting the hang of it. Eventually, one of her bolts hit her target.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Good,", Emfa smiled and offered Raine a high five, "Now go get the bolts." Every bolt fired was a bolt that had to be retrieved, and as the bolts weighed almost as much as Raine did, the goal of this excercise was to teach 'don't shoot unless you're absolutely certain you'll hit your target'.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine smiled as she hit Emfa's hand before pausing at her next task. She looked around at the missed bolts before climbing off to go retrieve them. She could only carry one at a time, so it was rather tedious.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Every bolt you fire is a bolt someone's gotta go get once combat's over," Emfa explained, "Don't shoot unless you're sure you'll hit your target, that way you don't have to go out and collect the missed shots."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine nodded as she set one of the bolts by the ballista. "Right..." She looked around for the last one before heading over to pick it up.

 

[Darkling0096]

Loading the ballista again as Raine retrieved the bolts, Emfa and Raine continued practice.

-------------------
The saurians did not last, before long Asta had torn apart the saurians in the immediate area and everything that came to investigate the smell of meat left behind by the chimera's rampage.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta was still going at them, cleaning off the bones as best he could with his claws. Not that he ever managed to get a bone cleaned before something else showed up.

 

[Darkling0096]

Beri yawned, Asta seemed to be having too easy a time with the saurians. Leaving the chimera to the new wave of swamp beasts to go find something with some more meat on its bones.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta wasn't really paying much attention to how easy it was. Sinking his teeth and claws into these things was satisfying enough to him. He had forgotten why he was there though, more focused on fighting.

 

[Darkling0096]

While Asta murdered everything with a heartbeat around him and Beri went to go stick his nose down a hole he probably shouldn't be sniffing, back at the camp Jerry woke up from Veo's sedatives, clutching her head. "Ow..."

"She's awake," Veo called, before giving Jerry another once-over to make sure nothing bad had happened, no new limbs had grown in, her hair was still pretty much destroyed but there wasn't much a potion of healing could do about that, horns still shortened and corroded rough, her wings were fine, if stiff. "Go slow, Poli got you out before you both dissolved." She looked over at the mimic to see how Poli was coming along. Poli had said they could regenerate and the potion helped that move along, so Veo trusted Poli's word and didn't try to work the mimic's abberant anatomy.

 

[Fangs9090]

Poli appeared to be back to their usual self, returning to their lockbox form. Considering they'd reverted to true form after coming out of the snake, taking on a form was evidence of feeling better. "I'm glad you made it. I would've been upset if you died after all that."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Someone want to tell me what happened?", Jerry looked around at the concerned faces and lockbox.

"The saurians attacked us on the rafts-"

"I went overboard. The little ones couldn't get through the ring, so the broodmother got involved."

"And then a hydra titan swallowed the broodmother while you were cutting your way out," Adran jumped down from the hydra, "If not for Poli's quick thinking, you'd both be snake shit. Niudisa figured out how to make a regeneration potion, it's the reason you've got a face right now."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil spoke up. "Beri's out helping Asta get his rage under control. From what I've been able to hear, he's significantly reduced the saurian population in this area already."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Why is Asta- oh shit." Jerry stood from the cart, much to Veo's complaints, and started strapping her kit back on. "Which way did he go?"