Drych Lake
As the remaining pieces of the Pride's broken ship swayed atop the surface of the lake alongside small chunks of wafting ice, all of the Pride bar one had resurfaced and pulled themselves atop the ice mooring the Spa's larger ship. As Lute and Jett struggled against incoming shots of rings from Marcy's cannon, Moira and Syed had to contend with Penelope's penalty – transforming the poor, guilt wracked electromage into, of all things, a giraffe! Was there any limits to the woman's magic or cruelty at all? Moira, now oblivious to the antics of her friends or anything else, was consumed in a bout of screaming and swearing at the staff riding Penelope, shouting obscenity after obscenity until a calm voice from behind her stopped her.
"Easy, Moira," Marcus' gentle voice called out, and she turned to see the well endowed Marcus lift himself out of the cold water and onto the ice. "We need to keep our heads about ourselves, and from there we'll be able to win."
"Bah." Moira spat. "She pisses me off."
"Hahaha." Marcus laughed, as a gentle golden glow washed over him, courtesy of the distant spell casting Amy.
As the antics aboard the stalled Spa ship continued, Amy and Aria, in the Pride's remaining ship, were actually moving as quietly as they could towards the finish line. After all, the rules of the game were to not only ring the entire opposition, but cross the finish line as well. The duo trusted their friends to be able to accomplish the first part, as they took care of the second. They also couldn't risk getting too close to the others and having their boat destroyed as well. To help cover them, Aria threw up an illusion about them, rendering them completely invisible should anyone look in their direction. Hopefully that would work.
"Let's wipe the smirk off her face and win this, shall we?" Marcus smiled, closing his eyes and concentrating his magic. The ends of his robes began to flutter from the wind generated by his channelling, growing faster and faster the more his concentrated power grew. Until, suddenly…
Moira, Syed and Marcus were lifted off the ice, flying through the air from a gigantic gust of concentrated wind erupting beneath their feet. From behind, Jett and Lute were blasted forwards by another gust of wind from Marcus, so that all five members rocketed towards the deck. All of them landed atop the Spa ship's deck, the majority on their feet, Lute predictably on his derrier, to a stunned and disbelieving Marcy. One second the Spa team had stolen the advantage against the Pride who were attacking them and now… now the numbers were definitely against them!
"See? Gyahaha. Toldya I didn't kill them." Gramps laughed, cracking his knuckles and limbering up his body to face the oncoming challenge. By his feet, Jasper stood ready to battle as well, one ring in his mouth, his tail wagging determinedly from side to side. Marcy cautiously stepped backwards to create space between them, his pugil sticks already twirling in her hands.
"Ugh!" Estelle grunted, as a strengthened Tau came upon her. Estelle raised her sheathed sword up, ready to parry against the young man, but didn't anticipate what was to happen next:- the youth's staff extending, hitting Estelle with a solid whack from a distance she had assumed she'd be safe in. Estelle's body toppled with the hit to her shoulder, and recoiled in the other direction after Tau spun and smacked Estelle from the other side. Twirling his staff about so that its movements were a flurry, Tau centered his ground and thrust his staff forwards, in a stabbing motion aimed as Estelle's chest. He scored another solid hit, and with it Tau's confidence began to grow.
Until he discovered he couldn't pull the staff back. He tried tugging it a number of times, but simply… couldn't.
"Er…"
"You." Tau yelped as he saw Estelle's angry eyes lift up from the ground to stare daggers at him. With the end of Tau's staff pressed against her chest, Estelle had, with her free hand, caught it. With her newly gained muscle from her transformation aiding her, Estelle was willing to bet that Tau wouldn't be able to pull the staff free from her. In fact, with a yank from Estelle on the staff pulling it towards her, and Tau with it, he'd be lucky if he didn't lose his weapon and footing entirely! "I have had about enough of you, you little punk!!"
Meanwhile, on the remaining spot of the Spa ship's deck, the contest between Harvey Jr and Nani continued. With Nani fleeing from the large, more muscular Harvey, the only tactic really available to the pirate was one that came naturally to all good seabound dogs – duplicity. Nani's call, of Harvey Jr's girlfriend being in danger, did the trick in making him stop, and be left completely confused by the comment. Girlfriend? What girlfriend? And danger? What danger?
He didn't understand any of these things, but nevertheless he turned around to look over the side of the ship, and try to find an answer to it. He just blinked, at the calm waters below.
And that, was Nani's chance to strike.
From behind, she lunged at Harvey Jr, swinging her lifering down at Harvey Jr's head, capturing him just as she expected…!
Except the life float got stuck against his shoulders and didn't really cover his waist as it was meant to. Harvey Jr, being a big lad, was simply just a bit too big for the float to cover. Harvey Jr and Nani locked eyes for a moment, blinking at each other and staring in dumbfounded silence. Were there different sized rings, or was this another Spa cheat, or… what? Neither knew.
Then the ring extended and cut off Harvey Jr's vision, even if it failed to cover his body. He flailed from the sudden blinding, his arms swinging round and round like a windmill. He stumbled back and tripped, banging his head on the floor. He didn't move after.
Nani looked over the still body, wondering if this was really a victory or not, and if the giant ox would get back up again.