Lex grit his teeth as he saw the front line of ponies falter at the sight of the creature ahead of them. Its appearance was enough that, even with Sonata’s song bolstering their morale, they couldn’t help but be intimidated. Twenty feet long and almost seven feet tall, the giant fish’s three eyes moved independently, looking them over as its tentacles waved in the air threateningly.
“Keep moving!” Lex roared. Even the act of yelling caused his body to ache in protest, but he forced himself to do so. “Go through that thing if you have to, but KEEP MOVING!” The sahuagin and their attendant monsters were rapidly forming up on either side of them, gathering in from where they’d been spread out along the wharf. In his estimation they had a minute, maybe two, before their full forces would be on them.
If that happened, they were doomed. Although everypony was making sure to form a circle around himself, Sonata, Aria, and the few others that he’d kept at their center, Lex knew that their formation wouldn’t hold out for long against a concerted attack. Already, the ponies on either side of them were fighting with everything they had, barely holding their own. None of them were trained in how to wear armor or wield weapons, and it was only due to Sonata and Aria’s magic that they were able to fight effectively even with the advantage of surprise. They needed to end this quickly, or it would quickly be the end of them.
Luckily, his shout seemed to rouse the rest of the ponies around him, and they threw themselves forward, giving a loud cry as they did so. They ran towards the monster…only to skid to a halt as a large stone wall suddenly appeared directly in front of them, blocking the tentacle-fish from sight. The unexpected sight caused Lex to gape, his eyes staring at the sudden barrier in horror, trying to figure out what magic it had used and what to do about it.
The wall wasn’t very long, barely ten feet wide and just as tall, but with the greater numbers of enemies assaulting their flanks, moving their entire group around it would prove extremely difficult…and that was assuming that it couldn’t create more. Even having the pegasi fly over it would prove almost impossible in this wind.
With just one spell that thing had pinned them down, and lowered their chances of victory to almost nil.
Aisle gave a cry as one of the scuttling lobster-eels sank a claw into his foreleg.
For a moment, he couldn’t help but try to kick the disgusting thing away from him, but it only sank its claw tighter into his flesh, refusing to be dislodged. Fighting back the urge to keep trying, he instead brought his axe down on the thing, the weapon making a deep gash in its exoskeleton. Next to him, Drafty brought her heavy pick down on it as well, punching through the opening that Aisle had created in its natural armor and impaling the thing.
Although she’d skewered it right through its center, the creature seemed to be enraged rather than injured, and it flailed its claws wildly at her. Both bounced off of her armor, however, and a moment later it shuddered and went limp. Withdrawing her pick from its corpse, Drafty risked a glance over at Aisle. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” he nodded. But he barely had time to get the words out before another monster was upon them. Whereas the one Drafty had killed had been the size of a foal, this one was as big as a pony, and instead of an eel’s head on a lobster’s body, this one was a lobster with a scorpion-like tail. Gulping, Aisle braced himself, hefting his axe in preparation as the thing stopped a few feet from them, giving a low hiss. He risked a look left and right to see if there was anypony else who could help them, but other than Drafty they were all dealing with opponents of their own.
“C’mon!” taunted Drafty, pointing her pick towards their latest enemy. “I’ll pin you just like that other bug!”
Her show of bravado brought a shaky grin to Aisle’s face. “You still buzzing from Cloudbank’s kiss?” Part of him couldn’t believe that he was bantering in the middle of a fight like this, but he chalked it up to Sonata’s song having revved him up.
Drafty grinned widely. “What can I say? She really-, whoa!” Cutting herself off as her enemy charged forward, Drafty barely managed to dodge the initial swipe of its claw. She swung her pick in response, but her frantic attempt to avoid being hit left her off-balance, and the strike didn’t have enough power behind it to pierce the thing’s shell. Aisle darted in to try and help, but the thing skittered to the side as he swung his axe, dodging the blow.
Cursing, Drafty moved after it, trying a second time to bring her pick down on the thing, but as she moved its tail darted out. Tilting her head instinctively, Drafty only barely managed to avoid the sharp point of its stinger piercing her eye, instead drawing a cut along her cheek. Gritting her teeth, she accepted the hit and swung her pick again, and again the thing managed to quickly dodge out of the way…right towards Aisle.
Grunting with effort as he brandished his axe, Aisle buried it in the beast’s side, causing it to emit a high-pitched shriek that made him wince. Even so, he struggled to tear the axe free from where it was caught in the creature’s body. He paid for that a moment later as its claw struck his chest just above his armor, hitting him right along his collarbone and making him open his mouth in a silent cry of pain.
“Aisle!” Drafty yelled as she lunged forward. The thing’s tail lashed out at her again, but this time she was ready, ducking under the strike and swinging her pick. This time her aim was perfect, and the pointed end of her weapon sank into the creature’s face, piercing it and killing the thing instantly. Yanking her weapon free, she turned her attention to her friend. “Are y-”
She didn’t have a chance to finish as Aisle’s eyes suddenly widened, looking at something behind her in alarm. Drafty had just enough time to start to turn her head before pain suddenly exploded through her body, her back feeling like it was on fire. Barely noticing that she’d fallen to the ground, she looked behind her and saw the needle-toothed grin of a sahuagin, raising its blood-covered spear to finish her off.
Aisle was faster. Grasping the haft of his axe in his teeth, he wrenched it free of the lobster-scorpion’s body in a single tug. Not stopping the motion, he whipped his head around and released the axe, flinging it towards the sahuagin. Despite the desperate nature of his throw, the arc of its trajectory was perfect, and the sahuagin had just enough time to spot the incoming weapon before it buried itself in the creature’s neck, knocking it onto its back as its head was very nearly separated from its body.
Panting, as much from tension as from effort, Aisle paused just for a moment as he realized that his desperate attempt to save his friend had actually worked. Then he recalled that she was still badly injured, and rushed over to her. “Drafty! Hang on!”
“Nngh…’m ‘kay,” she muttered, trying to get her hooves under her. But just talking caused pain to shoot through her, and she couldn’t seem to stand.
“You’re fine,” nodded Aisle, despite the fact that she obviously wasn’t. “You’re going to be fine.” The words tumbled from his lips instinctively, not knowing what else to do. He needed to get her some help, but where could-
White light suddenly radiated out from behind him, where Lex and the others were gathered in the center of their group, and Aisle had just enough time to look up before it washed over him and Drafty, as well as several nearby ponies. As it did, the pain of his wounds faded, and he heard Drafty give a sigh of relief as she clamored to her hooves, also healed.
Pausing just long enough to shoot a grateful look back towards Cozy – the one who had unleashed that healing energy – Aisle quickly ran over and retrieved his axe. There were already more enemies moving towards them, and he knew that he couldn’t count on Cozy’s healing energy lasting indefinitely. Until Lex could bring the rest of his plan to bear, they were going to need to hold out as best they could.
As two more sahuagin rushed towards him and Drafty, Aisle could only hope that their best would be enough.
“I’m only going to be able to do that a few more times,” warned Cozy, looking at Lex. She could see the question on his face, knowing he was wondering what she’d done, and quickly explained. “That wasn’t a spell. Lashtada lets me radiate holy energy a few times each day. It heals the living and harms the undead. You saw me use it back when you first met us.”
“I-”
“I can pick who it affects,” she continued, not giving him a chance to interrupt her, “and I made sure to exclude you. I knew you wouldn’t want it after all that fuss you made when Sonata told me to heal you before.”
“That-”
“I’ll help keep everypony on their hooves, so you just worry about figuring out what to do about that wall!”
“You-”
Before he could say anything else, Aria spoke up. “Why are we still standing here? That wall is an illusion! Just go through it!” she whispered urgently.
“What?!” hissed Lex, his head snapping around to look at her, Cozy’s impertinence immediately forgotten.
“What do you mean ‘what’? That thing is an aboleth,” she explained. “Making illusions is one of their powers.”
Lex looked back at the wall and immediately activated his circlet, letting him see into the magical spectrum. Sure enough, it had a magical aura radiating out from it that was indicative of illusion magic…which didn’t match what Aria had told him earlier about those ‘aboleth’ creatures. “You said they had psychic abilities, not this!”
Aria frowned at him. “Making people see things that aren’t there is psychic!”
“There’s a difference betwee-, nevermind!” Now was not the time to explain to her the difference between illusions that were the product of mental tampering and those that were the product of magically creating external images and sounds. “The wall is an illusion! It’s not real!” he yelled, causing them to look between him and the wall uncertainly.
The closest pony, a unicorn stallion whose name Lex couldn’t remember, gingerly reached out a hoof and touched the barrier…and passed right through. Giving a sigh of relief, he turned to look back at everypony else. “He’s right!” he announced. “It’s not r-” Before he could finish speaking, a tentacle reached through the wall and curled around him, lifting him into the air before immediately slamming him back down with a sickening crunch. Before anypony could do more than gape, three more tentacles followed suit, smashing three more ponies to the ground with bone-breaking force, causing Cozy to immediately run forward, channeling more healing energy.
Cursing, Lex realized that they were out of time. The aboleth clearly knew how to use its illusions to gain a tactical advantage, and fighting a defensive battle while trying to counter its powers would take too long. They had to get past this thing right now.
It was time for a change of plans.