If that’s what you wish to believe, then I won’t argue. I pity you and what I must do to break you, but break you must. I suggest saving your precious crew while you still can. I have spared them from my creatures, but I won’t save them from the coming tide.
The sorrow emanating from her lingered in my chest, even after I felt her consciousness peel away from mine. My heart was already heavy from Newport’s devastation. Her added weight made my knees buckle. And her words… I took a deep breath and focused my concentration on the wave. I pressed my will against the front of it, imagining my arms were long enough to block the whole thing, and I pushed against it, trying to catch it, cradle it, hold it still—anything but reach land. Between the excruciating pain from the battle of wills and my multitude of injuries, tears fell down my snout. My vision blurred as I pushed against the tsunami with everything I had.
The wave barreled towards shore without variation. I could hear it rumbling. It sounded like the roar of a waterfall and the chug of a train. The wave gained height and the leading edge spilled over into a frothing breaker, turning brown with sand. I pushed against the leading edge, sending it up like high winds blow whitecaps away, but more water kept rolling in. I pushed up from the bottom, willing the entire wave to go up, instead of towards land. For some crazy reason it started working on the patch of wave directly in front of me. I spread my will outwards and pushed more of the tsunami into the air, and soon I had a mile-wide dome reaching for the fog. It cast a shadow over me. The tsunami rose high overhead, roaring away, but the higher it rose, the heavier it weighed on my will. If I could just hang in there and keep forcing it to go up, until it lost all forward momentum, I might just be able to win this fight.
Never assume defeat.
I began to teeter backwards as the battle of wills physically pushed on my body, but I somehow managed to maintain concentration as I staggered and regained balance. I spread my will farther, trying to catch the entire width of the wave, but I couldn’t reach it all. The father I reached, the harder it was to keep hold of what was already under some control, and the worse my head hurt. My entire body began to throb. I didn’t want to know how badly I was bleeding.
The tidal wave spread into a semicircle as the edge farthest to my left made landfall. I wanted to catch it but I’d lose my hold on everything if I stretched my will any farther. The washing away of Newport began.
I detached myself from the heartache that cropped up. I couldn’t let the sight break my concentration. My spine felt like it was going to snap, and my arms felt like two cement blocks with insufficient blood pumping to my muscles. They began to tingle and my whole body began to shake. Panic began to creep in. The tsunami wasn’t anywhere near done rolling in.
My will began to crack. The truth of the matter began to sink in. I began to concede that I stood no chance against the force of a tsunami. The series of waves were piling up, driving the water higher and higher. Next thing I knew, I was on my knees with shaking hands level with my head. The wall of water I’d created dwarfed me. Even though it was morning, it looked dark enough to be evening.
I got one foot back under me and couldn’t move without losing concentration. I was fighting a losing battle but I didn’t want to believe I couldn’t protect my home. It couldn’t be possible for me to fail at this. The wall of water began to crest, and the edges spread inland. I pushed against it, but the mass in front of me slowly crept forward, and when it brushed up against my knee, I made the mistake of stretching my will to push it back. The sheer size and strength of the tsunami crushed me all at once. My will broke and I couldn’t hold my arms up anymore. I toppled backwards, my body getting driven into the sand, and my mind saying “no” over and over. This couldn’t be happening. I gasped for breath and let blood flow back into my aching arms as my brain refused to believe what it was seeing. Gravity pulled the water back to the ocean floor and the tsunami’s momentum heaved it inland.
This just couldn’t be. I raised my hands and threw my will at the water but one push on it and my head spun. Bile rose in my throat and my vision swam. I gave up and pushed to my feet, and just stared, taking in the impossible scenario my mind and heart didn’t want to accept.
As the base of the wave began washing over my feet, I shifted to my aquatic form and rolled forward onto my belly, then charged up the crashing wave like a surfer, then plowed through the crest. I turned around midair and sped down the wave, using my command over water to propel myself forward and carry a chunk of water with me. I had no choice but to make good on my promise to Jessie.
I threw water ahead of me and the tsunami, and used it like one massive feeler to locate my scattered crew. I poured water into one rubble pile after another, feeling for familiar faces and bodies. I found Jacobi huddled inside a demolished home. He panicked and cried out when water enveloped them. I pulled it away and scooped them into my arms.
Jacobi swung his sword at my arm but stopped in time. “Captain!”
“Where are the others?” I said urgently.
“I don’t know. We got scattered the minute that guy started attacking.”
I rode water to Sam’s home next, filling up a rubble pile and finding him, Scully, a wife, and two kids. All of them were beat up. I added them to my armload and bolted for the Pertinacious on a cushion of water. I didn’t see any other humans scrambling for cover; just monsters fleeing the incoming water. I grabbed the smaller creatures with water hands, yanked them into the roiling water, and ignored the bigger ones as I made my way to the wharf. I also used my command over water to tote all living local I came across in attempt to save as many lives as possible. I deposited my three crew members and Sam’s family on the bow, along with the locals, then assessed their physical state real quick. They were all conscious and in one piece, but all of them were dinged up, covered in dirt, and soaked. Jacobi was coated in my blood.
“Stay here.” I swam off for more as the tsunami began to swallow the southern end of town. I found Ed, Ted, Mido, and Jessie, and dozens of survivors where the hospital used to be. I grabbed my crew and as many strangers as I could carry, despite their screams, and delivered them to my ship as well. I’d left behind more people than I wanted to put a number to. Guilt weighed me down as I swam off to find my last four crew members. As much as I wanted to keep the whole town alive, the safety of my crew took precedence over theirs. It was nothing personal. O’Toole was still alive and hiding in the cargo hold. I’d managed to not flush him out earlier.
The tsunami steadily swallowed Newport, filling the gaps between debris piles and slowly washing over them as it clawed inland. Thousands of people were about die or have their lives changed forever. I collected many more strangers who were fortunate to be close to my crew when I found them, but other than that, I couldn’t play the real hero. I had to return to my ship to keep it afloat, otherwise the tsunami would capsize it, hole in the hull or not.
I found Cancer, Sam, and Rammus together in the northeast. They were near where monsters were seeking shelter from the water thundering inland. I picked up a few dozen more survivors, then finally found Sauna way the hell north. He’d somehow climbed onto the wall guarding the naval base. I scooped him up and bolted for my ship, which wasn’t where I’d left it. The water was pushing it deeper into the harbor, along with every other vessel that’d been tied down. The entire wharf was underwater.
I added the rest of the crew and more locals to the deck, then shifted back to having legs and crouched over the bow, one hand held out to help me command water. “Everyone hang on!” I guided water out of the hold and rode out the tsunami as we continued to get sucked inland. I was dead tired, hurting all over, and having a hard time holding my arm up. Willing such a small amount of water to do my bidding made my head hurt anew. Still, I helped the ship stay afloat as Jessie, Ed, and Ted held Mido down, and Cancer limped from person to person in need of medical attention. Sam, Rammus, and Scully helped Cancer as they could, holding people down, tearing off chunks of shirt to create makeshift tourniquets, and speaking soothing words to frightened landies.