"The swarm proceeds to the back left flank!" The announcement rattled through the pipes came out to the lower deck's restaurant section.
A young adult who read a book on one of the tables looked up from his book, with an interesting cover for a book. A map of the continent and its nearby straits, seas and oceans.
The young adult asked a passing crewmember, "Will I have to move to my room?"
Crewmember didn't stop to reply. He hollered back a quick response, "No, sir!"
Young adult boy dove back in the words that were hidden behind that specific cover. Under a breath he murmured to himself, "that boy could have talked nicely for wanting to read the book."
A light shimmer of a shockwave passed through the metal framework of the ferry. The swarm's attack was as brutal as it could make.
Ferry's makers would be proud of their work surviving so many swarm attacks. This one in particular had chosen the same area as the last two swarms.
Naph's current position to the ruckus that had begun around the ferry had kept him oblivious. The swarm of caestre's initial level been addressed to be below requiring the passengers to perform some safety protocols.
He kept climbing to the second, also called as middle deck of the ferry. The ship he was on had four major decks and two towers of minor decks.
He was still in the major deck area heading towards the library on board.
Every crewmember sped past him, same as before. He considered it a normal routine for them since the boat needed attention at all times.
Naph stayed completely oblivious to the urgency that carried within every crewmember.
'They sure are fast. Should I talk to a few about the ferry?' Naph contemplated while walking the interior.
A crewmember that had sped past him a minute ago, was now at the back end of the ferry. The crewmember, a healthy young man of thirty years or so, drew from the spears bucket supplied by another crewmate.
Two on the process of handing out spears of wood and ceramic, while a group of twenty crewmembers aimed the spears down at the swarm of caestre.
The swarm was filled with tentacles with no suction pores like the octopi, it made the job of hunting them tricky but with a definite ending.
Either the ship will outrun them or all the tentacles will get slaughtered soon enough.
"Why are weird caestre choosing us today!" A crewmember in a blue vest spun his spear down piercing three tentacles at once.
"I don't know! Maybe the ginger smell did them a weird tickle!" A joke by another blue vested crewmember.
"Lads, focus! Talk of the ginger smell later with Chef Gusti! Kill these first!" This one had a stripe on each shoulder and also wore the same blue vested uniform.
The current spears of the group ran out. Ones responsible for the spears handling ran back to the nearby storage unit, dragging out two more buckets.
While the tentacles slammed onto the side of the white metal, trying to either rub off the paint or climb aboard the vessel.
Several more announcements arrived all indicating that the swarm of caestre that had attacked the ship has redirected itself more towards the back left flank.
The why eluded many from the crewmates. Maybe a few in the passengers realized the possibility.
Whomsoever did realize still did not choose to act upon it. For a rumour of a ghost had spread among the well-informed.
Bulwark and her bounty hunter is aboard. A simple rumour to keep people in check.
Naph's want to reach the library intensified for his mind kept tossing the same words over and over, "Cross the ocean. Ocean. And treat it as another caestre."
The library was exactly where it was. But Naph hadn't asked anyone yet where it was. He had only walked according to the signs he recognized.
Sometimes he took a left, other times he went upwards. Every moment that went by he passed in front of another door of the library.
For the library was also the lounge area, thus its most doors had the name 'Lounge area' written on it.
Obliviousness acted as a friend to Naph due to the structure of announcement delivery system in the ferry, and the labeling of areas as well.
This confused him, making Naph take detours according to the signs hanging above.
A new stronger shockwave rattled through the ship.
Within the captain's quarters, the captain, a man in their fifties with hair still red and black as it was since his teens, did not look up from the sea route map of the strait laid in front.
He contemplated the decision to raise the level by twice demanding volunteers from the passengers. This was a decision he had arrived at but couldn't bring himself to say it.
'The ferry had not crossed any of the dangerous routes or zones of the strait where a caestre hunted.' A thought crossed his under duress mind.
This current predicament of theirs was an oddity.
But so was he aware of the rumour aboard the ship.
"Could that be why? Could both of them have enough of it to attract a larger swarm?" He considered if Bulwark was truly on aboard even if as a dead, he had only heard of her cata.
Naph meanwhile finally found the only door that has the tag 'Library' written on it.
"Finally! Those so many lounge rooms are just idiotic! Why have so many! Uhh!" He complained to the wind as he walked through the doors opening them.
A slight realization snuggled into his mind when he glanced around the hall. 'Eh? So, you are telling me that the lounge room is the library!' He grunted through his teeth not voicing.
Massaging his face, he began taking a look at the shelves that held the books.
"I should have just entered the first door." He murmured under his breath.
Spears had been launched flying into the swarm of caestre of tentacles.
From the lower deck to the upper deck, every single crewmember that was close enough to that spot had been doing the same action as any other.
Tentacle blood mixed in with the sea water, an inky blue spread in the foam that surrounded the ship.
They were winning against the swarm.
"Uh! Uh! At least start dying by yourself now!" A crewmember on the middle deck cursed the swarm.
Could the swarm curse back to him? He believed so that it couldn't.
The spears held stronger against the mass of the swarm. Every bit of the framework of ceramic and wood bit or sliced into one of the swarm's tentacles. The caestre's blood spat and frothed into the waters.
But the captain hadn't raised the level of urgency to any of the upper levels.
"What is the captain thinking?" A different brown haired crewmember questioned, settled down on the floor.
His question was answered by his superior in a blue vest with a stripe on each shoulder, "He has to consider how much of a threat have been brought to the ship's route. If it could be proven this attack has not jeopardized the route it will be better for other ships as well."
The superior pulled on his junior, "So, get up and help him decide how good this route is because now this is not just about survival of one ship."
Brown haired crewmember got up as he looked down at his hands. Red and spotted due to constantly throwing spears with no prior training, it was his second trip on this ferry's route.
And for the first time he was required to kill things indiscriminately.
"What even are caestre!" Slapping himself awake, he picked up another wood and ceramic spear and stabbed down onto the dying swarm.
The lounge area in the meanwhile was among as silent as it was before the swarm attack. Here it did not even feel to the passengers that they were probably on a ship.
Lounge area had many distracting artworks and crafts made to make the people in the lounge area visualize that they are not on a moving vessel. Every single craft readjusted itself slightly to the movement of the ship.
Naph noticed it too. "That is quite helpful in forgetting your seasickness I guess." His voice a whisper, he did feel a few gazes landing on him as his whisper shook the silence the room held.
He still saw after every shelf he went to, the doors he passed by. 'How foolish I must have looked!' The boy wanted to slap his forehead.
Alas, it did not happen. His quench for knowledge was met with books on the strait on a few shelves; he liked a few of them. Their covers and back page review told of the content.
"Not what I am looking for, I need knowledge on the continents." He put the books back.
Searching through the library section of the Lounge Area, he witnessed many shelves containing religious tomes.
There were ones about 'the lords of the seas', 'the sky's beholder', 'the one who walked', etc. None interested him, he didn't seek the sanctuary of the religious heads.
'Not what I need now, some other day. Some other time.' His eyes scanning the rows more thoroughly.
"What I need now is knowledge of places that can actively right now change and save Sevenren." His eyes wandered and spotted the newspapers. He was well furnished on the current news, but his dwindling hope on an article of any trade to other continents ignited.
"Maybe, just maybe," he went to the row of newspapers. Picking one up and flipping through them. His eyes learning of events that did not matter, but also picked of a few that could be related partially.