Callindra sprang into action without hesitation, sweeping Shadowsliver in a vicious arc that hacked the last two paces of the tentacle in front of her completely off.  It fell thrashing to the deck, nearly knocking her off her feet when she didn’t skip out of the way fast enough.

Connor took a piece of parchment out of a pouch and began furiously scribbling arcane symbols on it.  Reed scrambled into the rigging, frantically trying to shove the book back into his haversack. Vilhylm cut with the point of his spear, opening a gash in one of the other tentacles that threatened the ship.  Kain gestured with his holy symbol and a light golden nimbus surrounded him. Holt strung his bow and began firing arrows into one of the tentacles, pinning it to the deck and forcing it to further damage itself to withdraw the limb.

The massive monster ignored their attacks, instead wrapping its huge sucker covered arms around their small craft and squeezing.  The timbers creaked in protest as its terrible strength was brought to bear.  

“I’m going for the body!”  Callindra shouted, “Try to cut these loose!”  Before anyone could stop her, she ran and vaulted over the rail, summoning the winds to bear her aloft before she struck the water.  Beneath her, the voluminous body of the monster stretched out nearly twice the length of their craft. Running along a breeze as though it was solid ground, she began to search out the thing’s head.

Behind her on the ship, the others began to hack at the tentacles with whatever was at hand except for Connor who still wrote so fast that his quill tore the parchment in places.  The ship groaned and the railing shattered as the huge squid kept the pressure on.

Callindra realized that the thing’s head was actually right next to the ship itself, not at the end of the long undulating body.  With a cry, she dove downwards with Shadowsliver held in front of her like a lance. She took a deep breath and dove into the water at a speed that made the impact feel like being slapped by a giant.  

The speed of her dive drove the twin points of her sword into the creature with such force that she was buried in its soft flesh up to the elbow.  It began to thrash wildly and one of its hideously powerful arms let go of the ship to wrap around Callindra’s waist. She was torn from the water, and her blade was pulled free of the monster’s flesh so abruptly that her fingers lost hold of his hilt.

Black spots filled her vision as the tentacle wrapped about her tighter and the air rushed from her lungs.  Her small stature in comparison with the beast was all that kept it from crushing her in a single ripple of its muscles.  She desperately clawed at it with her free left hand, but her efforts only seemed to make it grip tighter. With superhuman effort she managed to shove her right wrist up and out between two of its huge grasping suckers.

Using the last of her strength, Callindra grabbed Shadowsliver’s chain and began to pull him up.  The indestructible Mithril chain cut into the squid and its grip slackened very slightly. When the razor sharp edge of the sword came into contact with the creature a convulsive shudder ran through it, driving the blade to cut into it even deeper.  

Callindra would have cried out in pain if she’d had the breath.  The tentacle was crushing her body, but worse was that Shadowsliver was double edged.  She welcomed his razor’s caress if it would free her from the monster though. The squid released her abruptly, blood flowing from the sliced limb and she fell toward the waves.

Jerking Shadowsliver back to her left hand with a flick of her right wrist, she screamed out another spell, drawing the Weave and the Winds to her bidding.  Even as she fell, a thousand razors of wind exploded from her blade’s twin tips and shredded two of the tentacles clutching the ship into bloody meat. She felt her heart sink her as she realized her trajectory was taking her towards the unyielding deck of the ship instead of the waves.

Connor laughed in triumph and threw the paper he’d been writing on overboard.  The ocean around the ship began to boil, superheated steam rising with a rush so sudden that it slowed Callindra’s fall.  She crashed to the deck of the ship, rolling with the fall but feeling shooting pains going up both her legs.

The squid released the ship, thrashing in the waves in agony.  Callindra forced herself to her feet and threaded a spell through Shadowsliver, calling up the winds to blow them into the harbor.  The pain from her legs and the exhaustion from the spellcasting made her head spin, but she forced herself to stand and grab onto a safety line as the ship heeled into the wind and lurched forward.

Kain dropped the ax he’d been using to hack at the monster and ran up to her.  “Callindra, your leg!” He said, even as her right leg buckled underneath her. She looked down and saw her leg bending at the shin.  

“Oh.  God’s balls.”  She said, crumpling to the deck.