The return trip was always harder.
Crossing the iron chains with empty hands was terrifying. Crossing them with a backpack full of Refined Mana Cores—each weighing five pounds and humming with volatile energy—was a suicide mission.
"Keep moving," Vera barked from the rear. "Don't look down. Don't look up. Just look at the chain."
Zain gripped the cold metal links, his knuckles white. The wind had picked up. The chains were swaying violently, swinging back and forth over the bottomless Abyss.
Ahead of him, Boz moved surprisingly gracefully for a giant, balancing his heavy pack with ease. Behind him, Jinx was whimpering, practically crawling on all fours.
"The mist is shifting," Nox warned. "Something is displacing the air currents. Large. Fast."
Zain stopped mid-step. "Captain!" he yelled into his headset. "Something is coming!"
"I see it on the radar," Silas's voice crackled in his ear, tense and sharp. "Movement at three o'clock. It's big. Sky-Eel."
A screech tore through the silence. It sounded like tearing metal mixed with a thunderclap.
From the white wall of fog to their right, a shape emerged.
It was serpentine, massive, and glowing with bio-electric light. The Sky-Eel was at least a hundred feet long, its body undulating through the air as if it were swimming in water. Arcs of blue lightning jumped between its fins.
It wasn't aiming for the ship. It was aiming for the snack dangling on the chains.
"Move! Move! Move!" Boz roared, breaking into a run along the narrow chain.
The Eel opened its maw—a nightmare of needle-teeth and static electricity—and lunged.
"Drop the loot!" Jinx screamed, freezing in panic.
"Don't you dare!" Vera grabbed Jinx by the collar and shoved him forward.
The Eel dived. It wasn't going for Jinx. It was going for the person with the most concentrated energy signature.
It was diving straight for Zain.
"It smells the Cores," Nox hissed. "And it smells Me."
Zain couldn't run. The chain was bouncing too hard. The monster was seconds away. He could see the crackling electricity in its throat.
I can't fight that, Zain realized. I can't touch it. If I touch it, the electricity will fry me before I can drain it.
He braced himself for the impact, preparing to unclasp his carabiner and fall rather than be eaten.
BOOM.
A thunderous explosion rocked the air.
A streak of red light shot from the deck of The Rusty Bucket. It slammed into the side of the Eel's head, exploding in a ball of fire and shrapnel.
The beast shrieked, thrashing in the air, its trajectory knocked off course. It missed the chain by inches, its massive body passing beneath Zain with a rush of displaced wind that nearly blew him off into the Abyss.
Zain looked up.
On the bridge of The Rusty Bucket, Captain Silas was standing on the roof, holding a massive, custom-modified Harpoon Cannon. Smoke was pouring from the barrel. His mechanical red eye was glowing brighter than the fog.
"Get your asses on my deck!" Silas roared, reloading the cannon with a mechanical click-clack. "I'm not losing those cores!"
The Eel recovered instantly. It circled back, angry now. The lightning on its fins turned from blue to violet.
"Jump!" Boz yelled. He was at the edge of the ship. He leaped the last ten feet, landing on the deck with a heavy thud.
Zain was next. He was still fifteen feet out.
The Eel shrieked and fired a bolt of lightning from its mouth. It struck the chain between Zain and the ghost ship.
SNAP.
The iron link melted. The chain severed.
Zain fell.
The chain whipped downward, no longer connected to the ghost ship, turning into a pendulum swinging toward the hull of The Rusty Bucket.
"Zain!" Vera screamed.
He was falling toward the metal hull. If he hit the side of the ship at this speed, his bones would shatter.
"Grip!" Nox commanded.
Zain didn't think. He reached out with his Void hand. He didn't aim for the railing. He aimed for the momentum.
As he swung toward the metal hull, he slammed his black palm against the ship's plating.
Absorb.
He didn't absorb energy. He absorbed the kinetic impact.
Instead of a bone-breaking crunch, there was a dull thud. The black seal flared, drinking the force of the collision. Zain gasped as the energy flooded him—sharp, jagged, and painful. It felt like being punched in the gut from the inside out.
He clung to the side of the ship like a spider, his fingers digging into the metal plates.
"Grab him!" Boz leaned over the railing, his massive hand closing around Zain's harness. He hauled him up and over onto the deck like a sack of potatoes.
Vera and Jinx scrambled over the other chain just as Silas fired a second shot, hitting the Eel in the tail.
"Cut the lines!" Silas ordered. "Full power to engines! Get us out of here!"
Boz swung his axe, severing the remaining grapple chains.
The Rusty Bucket lurched forward. Torque pushed the engines to 110%. The ship groaned, vibrated, and then shot forward, leaving the ghost ship—and the screeching Eel—behind in the mist.
Ten minutes later, the ship broke through the fog bank and back into the blue sky.
Zain lay on the deck, staring up at the sun. His chest was heaving. His arm throbbed. Absorbing the impact hadn't been as clean as absorbing the acid or the rat. It hurt.
Vera stood over him, blocking the sun. She looked down, her face unreadable.
"You're weird, Rat," she said. "You should be dead twice today."
Zain managed a weak grin. "Defective seal. Lucky me."
"Captain wants to see you," she said, offering him a hand.
Zain took it. She pulled him up.
"And Zain?" she whispered, leaning close so Jinx couldn't hear. "Good job with the beetle. Just... don't let the Captain know exactly how easy it was for you. Silas doesn't like things he can't kill."
Zain nodded, a cold shiver running down his spine. Noted.
In the Captain's quarters, the mood was celebratory.
The Refined Mana Cores were stacked on the table, glowing with a soft, hypnotic blue light. It was a fortune. Enough to repair the ship, pay the crew, and buy supplies for a year.
Silas sat behind his desk, cleaning his mechanical eye with a cloth.
"Torque says the engine is cleaner than it's been in a decade," Silas said, his human eye fixed on Zain. "Boz says you melted a Class-A Beetle's armor with a touch. And I saw you take a collision impact that should have turned your ribs to powder."
Zain stood straight, though his legs felt like jelly. "I just did my job, Captain."
"You did," Silas admitted. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small leather pouch. He tossed it to Zain.
It clinked heavily.
"Your cut," Silas said. "Standard crew share. Plus a bonus for the hazard pay."
Zain opened the pouch. Fifty Sky-Coins. It was more money than he had seen in his entire life. It wasn't enough for Yamen's full treatment yet, but it was a start. It could buy a week of medicine.
"Thank you, Captain."
"Don't thank me," Silas grunted, slotting his red eye back into his socket. "You earned it. But listen closely, boy."
The Captain leaned forward.
"You're not a stowaway anymore. You're crew. That means your problems are my problems. And that black mark on your arm? It smells like a big problem."
Silas pointed a metal finger at Zain's chest.
"I don't care what kind of curse you have. But if that hunger of yours ever turns toward my crew... I won't use a harpoon. I'll throw you into the engine core and let you burn. Are we clear?"
Zain swallowed hard. He felt Nox stirring in his mind, angry at the threat.
Down, Zain told the entity.
"Crystal clear, Captain," Zain said.
"Good. Now get out. Torque needs you in the engine room again. Apparently, the old man missed you."
Zain walked out onto the deck, clutching the pouch of coins. The wind felt good on his face.
He had survived. He had money. He had a place to sleep.
But as he walked past the stack of Mana Cores still waiting to be locked away, he felt a pull. It was magnetic.
"Look at them," Nox whispered, his voice dripping with desire. "Pure, refined energy. One of those cores would extend my awakening by days. We could be so strong, Zain. We wouldn't have to fear Captains or Eels."
Zain stopped. He looked at the glowing blue cylinders.
It would be so easy. Just one touch. He could drain one dry and claim it was broken.
"Take it," Nox urged. "It is your right. The strong eat the weak."
Zain's hand twitched.
Then, he clenched his fist and turned away.
"Not today," Zain whispered. "Today, we eat stew."
He walked toward the mess hall, leaving the glowing temptation behind.
For now.