599 IT'S A TRAP!

Reima dissipated the initial huge black tentacle and formed another, slamming it against a scout ship and dragging it against its deck, burning as well as knocking off everyone hit by it into the water.

The Nilfgaardian mages attempt to fire counterspells at the flame but they do literally nothing due to it not being comprised of any Formulae, instead, being directly controlled by Reima himself. The turn their spells to Reima and fire shards of ice, bolts of lightning and magic arrows at him. Another black tentacle forms and easily blocks all of them, Reima throwing the Staff of Manus at the boat with the most mages. The staff screaming "SOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLSSSSSSSSSS" as he throws it.

The staff lands on the ship, the axe head sticking from the floorboards as the red eye darts around looking at the people onboard. The mages give it a wide berth the a few Nilfgaardian soldiers don't think anything of it, walking up and trying to lift it out and throw it overboard due to the ominous feeling it was giving off.

However, as soon as one lays a hand on the staff a voice calls out from it, "YOU WILL BE A FINE ADDITION MORTAL!" it exclaims as black tendrils wrap around their hand, digging into their wrist and moving through their bloodstream. The others watch, shocked still as black veins begin to form under the man's skin as he screams and writhes around in agony, eventually dropping to the ground and spasming as if he were struck by lightning.

"What black magic is this!" A mage shouts in terror as the unfortunate Nilfgaardian soldier begins to mutate, their black armour gaining accents similar to those of the Dark Wraiths of Lordran. A few more seconds of bone being cracks, displaced and mended by something stronger leaves the presumably dead soldier on the ground still, looking completely different to his original form.

The monster shudders, causing his old friends to shout his name, but the creature clambers up and glares at them, black ooze dripping from its body and seeming to crawl towards everyone else.

"MONSTER!" the mages shout and begin to fire spells at the abyssal servent, eventually bringing it down with numerous gouts of fire and other powerful magic...

Manus red eye glares at those who'd deny him, and the shadow beneath the staff expands with a huge clawed hand reaching out of it... Even the surrounding ships take notice as three demonic-looking giant seem to materialise aboard one of their Frigates, the creatures look around with one glowing red light on their faces.... Without warning, they begin to stamp, claw, crush and punch everything nearby. Two leap aboard other vessels and begin tearing them apart as one stays aboard and eats alive the Mages that'd killed the previous abyssal creature.

With its job complete the Staff of Manus melts into ooze, returning back to the shadow realm that lives within Reima's shadow.

Reima had been enjoying himself while playing around with his new flames, he'd occasionally grab a Nilfgaardian soldier from the water and throw him at the black fleet just to pummel the "Fear of God" into them even more. Their burned and mangled corpses being used as ammunition certainly did the trick as if they were able to flee the battle they would have already, though Reima had already crippled their ships in preparation for this.

By now the Skellige warriors weren't even trying to fight anymore, with the Nilfgaardians aiming all their weaponry at Reima the weren't at risk of being attacked any longer, plus the horrific devastation caused by him made them rethink their warrior lifestyles. Thus the only people still attacking the Nilfgarrdian fleet were a few brave Skillige warriors, Solaire, Priscilla, Quelana and Ciri, who occasionally hopped aboard a ship and set it aflame with her pyromancy.

Destroying the fleet wasn't the end game however, those from Ichor had already discussed what they should do...

Reima forms a huge black flame tentacle and swipes it across the middle of the ocean, causing steam to explode forth and block everyone's view.

One this was done Dusk shouts for everyone to get ready and raises the banishing catalyst Reima had given her so long ago and casts her newly designed spell. The light around them morphs, causing those looking at it to see it distort and disappear... Even the water the boat was previously in looked natural, if slightly fuzzy.

With the ship now invisible and the steam clearing the boat begins to move around the Nilfgaardian fleet to the back of it. The most skillful Prospects were aboard the ship and were preparing to capture the Admiral of this fleet, Skellige would likely find many uses for such a person.

Getting to the Frigate was the hard part however due to the large amount of ships surrounding it. The scout ships on the outskirts of the battle were rather easy to bypass but with Corvettes and other Frigates sitting nearby their target, getting close enough to get aboard without notice was incredibly difficult.

Eventually though, with some rough and skillful maneuvers by the Skellige helmsman they managed to stop tens of meters away from the Frigate, seemingly without their notice. Dusk quickly cast Reima's combination of Hidden body and hidden weapon on the Prospects, though due to her lack of practice with the inefficient spell the Prospects were transparent instead of completely invisible.

Kuretz "This is fucking weird... I can see through myself!"

Risryn "Just keep your mouth shut, just because we are see-through doesn't mean they are deaf." she states seriously.

Kuretz "You're no fun, you've gotta lighten up or you'll sink when we start swimming." he jokes.

Risryn shakes her head, "I'll "Lighten up" when we've captured the Admiral.

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