More sailors were rushing up from below deck now. Passengers too. Drawn by the noise.
Some froze the moment they saw it. Others screamed.
"Get back!" one of the sailors shouted, though his voice shook.
As the sailor saw Sonder use her magic, and the creature beat its wings, he knew this was far beyond him.
But no one listened.
The creature noticed. Its head turned, not toward Sonder, but toward the others.
Sonder moved immediately.
She stepped between it and the crowd.
Her staff lifted. Mana gathered within it.
Whatever would come, she'd be a wall, a shield for those behind her.
She wouldn't just let the creature control the battle and do as it pleased.
It lunged again, but not at Sonder.
It arced through the air toward the people behind her.
She raised a barrier, but it struck with immense force and shattered it.
The moment it struck, Sonder knew the barrier wouldn't hold. She raised a second, stronger, curved away from the people.
It slid violently toward the open sea, but caught itself midair, wings spreading wide as they thrashed against the air.
The creature hovered for a moment.
It watched.
"Vampire! It's a vampire!" a passenger shouted, half in panic, half in desperate certainty. "Or- or some demon!"
Sonder had seen a demon before, and this creature didn't seem like one.
Maybe it really was a vampire. Whatever it was, it meant to harm.
The creature moved.
Not diving straight in this time.
It swept sideways, fast, circling the ship.
Sonder didn't rely on sight alone. In the darkness, it could vanish, but she tracked it with her senses as best she could.
Sonder lifted her staff and reached down; beyond the ship, part of the ocean rose.
Thin streams of water pulled themselves up over the railing, drawn into the air in long, flowing arcs.
They hovered for only a moment and then snapped forward.
The creature twisted midair as the first strike came.
A whip of water cracked against its side. It howled in pain.
And another followed. And a third.
Each strike forced it away from the ship, away from the people.
The creature hissed. A broken, almost-voice-like mumbling reverberated through the air.
It flared its wings and surged upward, avoiding the next strike.
The air around it warped.
And Sonder knew that nothing good could come from it.
The shadows beneath it deepened unnaturally, stretching upward like thin fingers, and gathered at its mouth.
The creature opened its mouth, and the shadow seemed to coalesce into a ball.
And then it fired a blast of energy.
If it was magic, then it was crude compared to Sonder's, but it was still powerful.
She reacted instantly. She could have summoned a barrier to block it, but it would drain her energy, and she didn't know how often the creature could create such powerful blasts.
She still needed to protect the ship and the people on it, so letting it hit it was not an option as it would clearly destroy a large part of it.
She lifted her staff and reached out with her other hand.
She would save the ship one way or another.