EVERNA Ring of Fire

RATAUKA Part 3

As everyone's attention was on Nirya and Arumi, Sthira took advantage of the opportunity by beating Golok Gharma remotely. From the blade of the machete darted a beam of the Crescent of the Thunder Moon. The energy scythe split and pierced through the body of one soldier who was blocking, continuously speeding towards Arumi.

Realizing the threat, Arumi quickly changed the direction of her shot towards the lightning scythe. The fire arrows were flashed, collided with the scythe and exploded in the air. The collision of the two brutal forces left everyone on board including Arumi, Nirya and Sthira themselves slammed or pushed back.

Nirya was among those who slammed, she fell on the floor of the deck of the ship. The girl groaned, took off the unbearable pain, then slowly tried to get up on her feet. Although still vacillating, the girl with long hair was the first one standing on this ship.

Then Arumi and Sthira stood up. Arumi prepared a kris in his left hand and a sharp blade-tipped bow in his right. While Sthira prepares again to advance with his machete.

Arumi snapped, “Quite you to procrastinate! Whole team, arrow..”.

Suddenly the senopati woman was flabbergasted. Nirya and Sthira are also surprised to see the change in Arumi's attitude. Nirya turned to the direction that Arumi was looking at and shouted, “That's Sabailuha! Wh-what is he going to do? Don't-don't..!”

As Sabailuha saw, the giant dragon-man was back on the surface of the water. This time, the position is very close to the beach and slopes of Mount Ratauka. Both of his upper hands were raised high, two in the middle were stretched to the left-right, and the bottom two were directed down his waist. His body was full of wounds and arrows were stuck.

Right in the middle of Sabailuha's chest, there appeared a bluish-lustered occult. It was a combination of characters depicting the surface of the water and the islands above it.

“Crazy, Sabailuha will pop Mount Ratauka! Did he forget we're still near here?” exclaimed Nirya while continuing to look to the right-left.

Sthira replied, “Entahlah! Arumi, please take this ship away from Ratauka!”

But Arumi remained stunned. “K-our ship is too close to the mountain! No more changing course, let alone turning around!” Not only the sailing ship that was boarded Nirya-Sthira, almost the entire fleet is now passing also not far from the mountains.

“Hahaha! You know this is my territory! If you want to pass must be with my permission!” sabailuha exclaimed, her voice somewhat choked by the blood pooling in her mouth. “But you guys are desperate to pass by, even hurt me to the point of dying! Forced me, Sabailuha unlocked Mount Ratauka, sentenced the Mahesa to you all!”

Keeping up with his threat, the caretaker emitted a blue ray of holy scripture on his chest. The beam climbed the slope to the top, then plunged into the mouth of the crater. Panic cries echoed from all the ships of the Jayandra Fleet, especially from Admiral Begarwana. “Play bow! Spread as far as Ratauka!”

However, the situation of the fleet has been chaotic. Several large-small ships turned around, resulting in collisions between two or more ships. Some ships turned the bow too fast and sharp, until three ships were ogling and capsizing hit the surface of the strait.

Along with that too, Mount Ratauka which has been holding “bouk” erupted already. As lava rapidly flooded the mountainside, and flames gushed so high and so much into the sky, it constantly seemed like it would never stop. Then, the accumulated flames stopped in the air and plunged down, showering everything beneath. Burn all creatures and things, not knowing friends or opponents. However, of course some “anak arrow” rain fire was splashed and extinguished in sea water.

Turbulous and panicked cries instantly filled the air. Nirya, Sthira and Arumi dodged, brandishing their weapons and dispelling every fire arrow they could not escape. Although using a bow and long sword with a threaded blade called a keris, two fire arrows stuck in the thigh and grazed Arumi's chest protected by iron armor. No wonder, senopati the young girl groaned in pain.

Not stopping there, Mount Ratauka was now spewing fiery rocks as big as cannonballs into the air, countless. Countless fireballs hit Jayandra's ships. Most large and small ships were damaged, even sunk. Jayandra's fleet is now surrounded and attacked by another fleet much larger than her, from the air as well. Total destruction is inevitable, except...

“Monduur! All ships scatter and evade! We're back to Jayandra!” Repeatedly Admiral Begarwana shouted the message, which was forwarded to other ships also through shouting, and whenever possible, the signal.

If Jayandra's fleet could escape this onslaught, they would not have enough troops to face the resistance of Swarnara's army and people. Raising the wrath of Sabailuha, Ratauka's waiter was indeed a fatal mistake.

Realizing this too, Arumi took the initiative to shout out the command, “Nahkoda! Turn around and avoid! Save yourself!”

But before the order was carried out, at least five fireballs had plunged, leading right into the ship that Arumi was on. The face of the young girl was pale for a moment, serious injuries on her thighs made it difficult to avoid or even desperate to plunge into the sea.

Suddenly, Sthira lunged at Arumi and pushed him until both of them slammed from the deck of the ship and splashed into the sea. Seeing this, Nirya's chest felt tight for an instant. But his determination to survive drove him into the water. Sure enough, the five fireballs struck the sailing ship mercilessly and were burning and ravaging. If Nirya is still on the deck of the ship, almost certainly he will languish at the bottom of the Pariung Strait with the late captain and the entire crew.

Arumi was surprised to see the fate of the ship. His face flushed instantly as he knew that Sthira was holding him while swimming. But a moment later Arumi realized something, and she squirmed and stomped. “Let go of me, spy!”

“I told you I'm not a spy. Where are the manners of Jayandra's widely known people? If your feet don't hurt, I'll just push you.”

“T-but why did you save me?”

“I have no interest in listening to any offers from you.”

“Then I must silence you by drowning you here,” threatens Sthira. “If you refuse my offer, we are also forced to eliminate you.”

Swimming not far from Sthira and Arumi, Nirya looked at the two while clucking in annoyance. He didn't hear a loud conversation between the man and the woman, so he just assumed Sthira was doing “approach” to Arumi.

 No time to notice the feeling. Nirya had to fight hard, swim and dive for her life. During this time, the “mountain girl” has never swam in the choppy sea. Forced he had to occasionally dive as he often did in the lake near Mount Barkajang.

This does not mean that Nirya is out of danger. He had to swim meandering, avoiding the fragments of ships that sank here and there. One large stone that was still burning had hit Nirya's back. Fortunately the movement of the stone was slow, but Nirya became aware and quickly rose to sea level.

Not far away, Sthira, which is very close to Arumi, continues to hold on to a floating wooden beam, which is a fragment of the pole of one of the ships. Nirya put on a sour face and then swam towards them.

The rain of flint has subsided, Mount Ratauka is still reflecting very thick smoke in the distance. I don't know what else he's gonna spit out. Everywhere that appears only fragments of wood that are not clear and intact shape. The bodies of the soldiers seemed to be floating here and there, it was very sad.

When Nirya was close to Sthira, then the condition of Arumi was clear. The girl's face looked very pale with wide eyes. His whole body was trembling.

“They... left me..” Arumi's voice vibrated, stammered. “laksamana... Everyone is running away... No one cares about what's left here.”.

“Not so, Arumi..” Nirya would interrupt her enemy, but Sthira whispered instead, “Sssst..”.

Nirya. He just realized, Arumi who is actually the enemy is not fighting at all. The Jayandra officer just held on to the wooden block and continued to fumble like crazy.

“Come, Nirya! We must go all the way before Sabailuha sees us!” exclaim Sthira while swimming and pushing “safewood that” at once Arumi with all her strength.

Nirya helped push the wood from the same side as her colleagues. At a glance, the giant dragon-man appeared out of the water in the distance, looking back and forth as if looking for something. With her heart pounding, Nirya chose to stay hidden and continued to push her beams.

“Last my history here..” Arumi kept on messing around.

Forced Sthira to yell at Arumi, “Shut up! You want that demon to hear us?!”

But Arumi doesn't care. “Begarwana, you son of a bitch! You know I surpassed you, and replaced your position as admiral, then you got rid of me! Watch you! My spirit will definitely hunt you!”

Before Arumi could speak again, Nirya's kerambit had already threatened her neck. “One more word from your mouth, I'll make sure you're fish food.”

“Huh, whatever! I'm not afraid to die, what about you?” challenge Arumi.

“We don't want to die now, because there is a very big mission that we have to complete,” said Sthira. “Rather than being a spirit here, wouldn't you rather come with us?”

Arumi's voice tone is getting tighter. “Oh, so that's ‘offer’ for me? Turns out you guys are really spies..!”

“Not! Don't get me wrong, we just..” Nirya could not finish her rebuttal. The giant figure of Sabailuha suddenly appeared before the three.

Sabailuha's tone now resembles that of his human form, Minata. “You are here apparently. Thankfully, it turns out you guys are really tough, can survive from ‘amukanku’ earlier.”

Tukas Sthira, “Not to bother, Sabailuha. I know you want to get rid of us anyway.  From the beginning you were willing to help us because you did not want Mount Ratauka to erupt. You also don't want to be reviled by the other caretakers, and you might betray us. So all this time you've always been looking for a way to eliminate us, either with the help of the Nurbaiti warriors or Jayandra's Fleet. You just pretended to defend us, and when your own life was threatened then you were forced to unlock Mount Ratauka.”

“Hey, hey, don't get me wrong, man. That last thing is true, but I really support your plan. The sooner the war ends, my life will return to peace and peace. I'd be freer to travel wherever I want, as Minata. I don't care if the other locksmiths are going to be hostile towards me. It's up to you to believe it or not, but from now on I'll come with you.”

Image caption: The specific vessel Arumi used in the Jayandra Fleet was the Pinissi Ship.