Valor

The moment the giant pincer came crashing down, Wan Zhong’s single arm yanked hard on the capstan chain.

His empty left sleeve snapped wildly in the gale, while the veins on his remaining right arm bulged as he wound the chain --- thick as a bowl rim --- around his waist, forcing the tilting hull back half an inch.

“Form the iron-chain formation!” Wan Zhong’s roar shook the deck.

Twenty sturdy soldiers immediately threw themselves forward, hammering the barbed hooks at the chain’s end into the ship’s side posts.

When the giant pincer, carrying the power to shatter mountains, slammed against the chain, Wan Zhong’s knees buckled, his boots plowing two deep grooves into the planks. The metallic tang rising in his throat he forced back down.

“This beast’s pincers can split metal and stone!” Wan Zhong glared at the cracks rapidly spreading along the chain. In a sudden burst of strength, he yanked the chain sideways.

The pincer missed the mast by a hair, smashing a hole more than three meters wide into the deck. Sawdust and seawater sprayed upward, and three soldiers who failed to dodge were instantly dragged beneath the waves.

The giant monstrosity seemed enraged. Its left, spiked pincer swept across in a wide arc.

Wan Zhong’s pupils contracted. He tore open the powder pouch at his waist. “Light it!”

As the fuse hissed to life, he hurled the pouch at the oncoming claw.

The explosion splattered dark green ichor, but only left a few charred streaks on the shell.

Worse yet, the row of barbs tore open the ship’s side, releasing a fishy wind laced with a corrosive white mist. The planks touched by the mist began rotting before the eye.

“Its weak point is in the abdominal shell!” Wan Zhong suddenly spotted something --- at the edge of the monster’s underside, pale pink flesh showed faintly between breaths. “Zhang Biao, take ten men and hook its walking legs with scythe-spears!”

Ten figures leapt for the rail, the curved spearheads flashing as they jabbed at the joints of the creature’s legs.

But the armor there was just as hard. Sparks flew on impact, and the spears were caught fast by the barbs.

The monster jerked its legs violently, flinging the ten soldiers like kites into the sea --- their screams cut short the instant they hit the water.

“Shoot its eyestalks with fire arrows!” Wan Zhong unstrapped the heavy bow from his back, nocking three flaming arrows at once.

The bowstring thrummed, and the arrows streaked toward the bulging compound eyes.

But before they could hit, a giant pincer swept them to ash. The scattering embers ignited the sails on deck, filling the air with blinding smoke.

Then the monster suddenly sank its bulk beneath the surface, leaving only its back shell rolling with the waves. Wan Zhong’s instincts screamed. “Everyone hug the hull! It’s going to flip the ship!”

Before he’d finished speaking, a towering wave rose.

The beast churned the sea with its eight pairs of legs, tossing the Jingtao like a leaf on the crests. The ship’s timbers groaned and splintered beneath.

Even worse, its pincers climbed up the leaning hull, crushing bronze cannons into scrap with ease.

“Fight it to the death!” A soldier with a broken leg clutched a powder keg and hurled himself at a claw.

The moment before he was crushed, he lit the fuse. The explosion tore several barbs from the pincer, but the armor remained intact.

Wan Zhong’s lone arm was numb from the shock. Watching more soldiers fall, his gaze caught the gap near the abdominal shell again --- there, between the plates, soft pink flesh pulsed faintly.

“Give me a piercer!” he bellowed toward the weapons chest.

A guardsman tossed him a foot-long, steel-forged awl, its tip gleaming with a cold blue light.

Biting down on the handle, Wan Zhong gripped a broken mast with his right hand, using the ship’s tilt to launch himself upward.

He twisted midair, narrowly avoiding the sweeping pincer, and landed hard on the beast’s back shell.

Barnacle spines pierced his boots, warm blood spreading beneath him.

“Beast --- take this!” He drew the ring-hilt saber from his waist, binding hilt and blade tight with his arm. Sunlight flashed off the steel in one desperate gleam.

Sensing danger on its back, the monster thrashed violently.

Wan Zhong nearly fell but clawed at the shell’s gaps, ignoring the spikes tearing into his palms.

When the abdominal shell opened with a breath, he rammed the saber into the gap, driving his full weight onto it --- the blade sank half an inch, spraying him with dark green blood.

“Now!” Wan Zhong wrenched out the saber and drove the piercer deep into the pink flesh with every ounce of strength he had left.

The instant the tip sank in, the monster let out an ear-splitting shriek, its massive body rolling wildly atop the waves.

Wan Zhong was flung into the air, smashing into the rail, blood spilling from his mouth across the scar on his chest.

But the piercer remained lodged deep in its underside, sinking further as it thrashed. The pale pink flesh bulged outward, spilling blood no longer green, but crimson with a sweet tang --- the blood of its heart.

The pincers slowed, their sweeping force weakening.

Wan Zhong dragged himself upright, bracing on the broken blade shaft, watching the crab larger than the ship spasm on the sea. Its eyes dulled, its legs slapped weakly at the water, until its body rolled sideways, belly red with blood.

The deck was deathly silent, save for the waves lapping against the hull.

Wan Zhong’s lone arm trembled violently as he stared at the piercer in the monster’s abdomen --- though the wound wasn’t fatal, it was enough to strip most of the invulnerability from this monster.

“General! You’re hurt!” His guardsman rushed forward, seeing at last the deep, bone-revealing gouges torn into Wan Zhong’s back by the pincer barbs, blood dripping from his empty sleeve onto the deck. - Ton

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