“THAT SHORT FAT STUPID BITCH” Kallihne yelled, knowing full well that losing her temper like that was unbecoming of the elven goddess of beauty and art. But when all of your creations and with them your entire existence is threatened by an absolute whore of a dwarven goddess for no other reason than you are the weakest member of your entire family you tend to not care about things like that. Especially when you know that all help from your more martial family members won't arrive in time to save you or your creations. Which was exactly why Kallihne was so pissed of about this entire situation and because she hated that she had to admit that this ugly ass dwarven goddess had her on the ropes, with no other choice than to buy as much time as she could in hopes that reinforcement would arrive in time to save her. However since the invasion force was an armada of dwarven ships, which was undoubtedly led by the champion of said horse faced dwarven goddess of the sea, ships and naval combat it was somewhat unlikely that she could hold out long enough for any help to arrive. Mostly because her army didn't have enough ships to even slow down the armada that was currently heading straight for the religious capital of her realm. Which left Kallihne no choice but to ask other gods for help, but there was just one problem. "Who could I even ask for help? After all, none of the other gods would really gain anything from getting pulled into this conflict, besides the animosity of either the elven or dwarven gods. So why would they help me and who would even know which of the uncounted hundreds of gods would even be willing to help?"

  The words had barely left her lips, before a blinding light filled the room for a short moment and once the light intensity had returned to normal levels Kallihne found that she wasn't alone in her little sanctuary anymore. The intruder had two arms and two legs, which was the only normal thing about it's appearance besides a simple black tophat that hovered just above the outermost of three gold rings whose outside was entirely covered with eyes and that rotated around a burning briolette cut gem. In short it was just as weird and creepy looking as its reputation would have you believe. Said reputation was also the reason why Kallihne wanted it to leave as soon as possible, but before she could even utter a word the creature raised its right hand so that its extended index finger pointed to the ceiling and said " I think I know a guy". Kallihne couldn't help but laugh at that, because it was just too funny not to. This creature really thought that she was both desperate and stupid enough to make a deal with it. But before she could tell it in the most colorful language she could think of to leave, the creature produced a small crystal from somewhere behind it and said "This crystal will lead you directly to the one deity that is both able and willing to help IF you ask her politely for her assistance without any of the typical elven snobbishness that is."

  Usually Kallihne would have simply ignored that last part, because she was honestly just too tired of hearing comments like that to even come up with a retort just like the rest of the elven pantheon and probably all elves in general.

  But today Kallihne was just too angry to ignore even such a slight offense and so she did what every angry deity in her situation would have done, she let out her frustrations at whoever had dared to anger her. "ALRIGHT CREATURE I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU! YOU MAY THINK THAT I'M EITHER TOO STUPID OR DESPERATE TO SEE THAT YOU ARE JUST TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME. BUT I AM NEITHER, SO TAKE YOUR DEAL SHUFF IT FIGURATIVELY UP YOUR NONEXISTENT ARSE AND THEN GET OUT OF MY SIGHT."she yelled, increasing her height after every word for further emphasis until she menacingly towered over the creature her beautiful features contorted into a vicious snarl.

  Normally such an outburst from any deity, even one as relatively young as Kallihne, would have cowed beings like the creature before her. However all the creature did in response to her outburst was roll its eyes, raise it hand and then said " I swear upon all the belief that I have accumulated over the centuries that I'm not helping you because I want to, as you put it, take advantage of you but simply because I don't want to lose such good customers as your creations."

  Kallihne simply stared open mouthed at the creature both because she couldn't belief that the creature had sworn on its believe and that it had not ceased to exist, since that meant it had said the truth and nothing but the truth or else the oath would have been broken causing every mortal that ever knew of it to forget it ever existed. Which was why none of the gods really used it, except for when they had to go on court for whatever reason.

  So for the creature, a being known far and wide as the biggest schemer and liar in all the known realms, to use it so casually left Kallihne rather dumbfounded, leaving her unable to come up with a response while she shrank back to her original size.

  Once she had stopped shrinking the creature simply floated over, pulled her hand up and then put the crystal in it. Then it said "Look I know how hard it is to trust me, but I'm really just doing this because your creations are just so much more willing to make deals with me than those stubborn ass dwarfs. So just go to the location the crystal leads you to and once you're there just wait there, because it won't take long until she notices your presents. When she has she will come to you to ask you who you are and what you want. Which you will politely answer by stating your name and that you are here to ask for help in saving your children from getting slaughtered or enslaved by the dwarfs. Also never refer to the elves as your creations call them your children instead it will make this entire thing go way smoother if you do. Then just take whatever troops she gives you even if it's just one man, believe me it will be enough, thank her for her help and then just place them where she told you to place them, they will do the rest. You got all that?" Kallihne simply nodded, somewhat caught off guard by how different the creature was acting, from what she had been told. Which seemed to please the creature making it let go of her hand before it floated back and said "Well time for me to go then. Remember reality is an illusion, reality is a hologram, buy gold bbbbyyyyyyeeee." as it vanished in the same flash of blinding light it had arrived in, leaving a rather confused Kallihne behind.

  She simply stared at the crystal for a moment then at the armada of dwarven ship still heading towards her centre of worship and sighed knowing that she had no choice, even if she didn't trust the creature one bit this was the only way she could at the very least buy some time for reinforcement to arrive. So she closed her eyes and focused on the crystal in her hand to pull up the information it held, then simply teleported herself there. When she opened her eyes she found that she was now in space, maybe a few hundred thousand kilometres away from a blue and green planet with a seemingly single moon. It was the most ordinary looking planet Kallihne had ever seen, because usually the gods added at least something like a ring or striking coloration to their planets to make them stand out, but this one had none of that. But that honestly made it genuinely unique in Kallihne eyes, because it was a world like none she had ever seen before. But soon her attention was pulled away from the planet, because the void and stars behind it started to move. Kallihne watched in horror as something truly titanic that was curled around the planet in the fetal position turned its full attention towards her, before rising to its full height with the planet held protectively against its stomach. It then said "What do you want?" in a tone of voice that at best could be described as hostile and annoyed, but at the same time it was one of the most beautiful voices Kallihne had ever heard. So Kallihne quickly bowed and said "I am truly sorry to disturb you mylady. I am here to ask you to help me save my children from the dwarves." hoping that she hadn't done anything yet to anger this absolut behemoth of a goddess, at least she sounded like a goddess to her. But since she was still bowing she couldn't really see her reaction, not that she could have seen her face even if she had looked straight at it thanks to the goddess skin seemingly mimicking the void and stars behind her, making it really hard to tell what she even looked like much less see her facial expression. So all Kallihne could do was wait for her answer to judge her mood.

  Thankfully she didn't sound angry when she then said "And let me guess I am the only one that can realistically help in time?" Kallihne in response only looked up, put on her best puppy eyes and simply nodded, causing the goddess to sigh rather loudly before saying "Alright what are you up against?". Kallihne had to stop herself from jumping for joy when she said that and quickly created a gigantic mirror in front of the goddess through which she could see the approaching dwarven armada. The goddess looked at it for a moment and then just asked "Is that it?" confusing Kallihne so much that she said "Pardon?" without thinking, causing the goddess to answer "Is that all the enemy got?" in such a disappointed way that Kallihne just kinda stood there completely stunned for a moment as she realised that this armada, that could conquer entire worlds by itself when used right, was nothing to this goddess. "I'll take that as a yes and you really can't stop them?" the goddess said after a while Kallihnes silence seemingly telling her all she needed to know, but the question at the end surprised Kallihne making her answer once more without really thinking "Yes I wouldn't be here if I could stop them. After all I am a goddess of art and they struck right when all of my martial cousins were too busy to send help in time. So yes you are my only hope." causing the goddess to once more sigh, before she turned her attention to the planet and then picked up something from its surface. She then inspected it for a moment before holding out her hand towards Kallihne. Who had to walk onto her hand to find what the goddess had wanted to show her. Which turned out to be a mortal that looked like a bigger, broader build version of an elf with round ears instead of pointy ears and once Kallihne had found him the goddess said "Just put him into the water in front of the fleet he will handle the rest." Kallihne wanted to say something along the lines of 'There is no way one mortal can defeat an entire armada by himself', but then she remembered what the creature had told her to do when the goddess gave her troops, even if it was only one. So she bit her tongue and instead bowed again, before she said "Thank you very much for your assistance mylady. Without your help both me and my children would have been doomed. I truly don't know how to thank you." as genuinely as she could.

  But the goddess simply gave her a dismissive wave and said "Yeah yeah just bring him back when he is done and then we are even, just make sure to tell him where you are taking him or he might beat you up." confusing Kallihne even more, but she just smiled and thanked the goddess once more and grabbed the mortal, before she teleported herself a few kilometres in front of the armada. Then she placed the mortal in the water and then teleported herself back into her sanctuary right in front of the mirror that showed the approaching armada that was still on its way towards her center of worship, but now a thick wall of fog, exactly where she had placed the mortal stood in their way.

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Hugstari stared at the point where the elven goddess had appeared just moments before the thick fog had rolled in, making it rather clear that she had caused it to appear. The question was just why?After all they were still on the open sea and since the fog had just started to appear it was nowhere near bad nor big enough to hide a armada that could rival his. Besides, if she could teleport in a armada like that she would have probably dropped them right on top of his to catch them unprepared, not in a small wall of fog a few kilometres away from them. Which made it rather likely that there was some sort of trap inside the fog. But even if that was the case all Hugstari had to do was tell his armada to avoid the spot where his goddess had told him the elven goddess had uses some of her belief and they should be fine, since his goddess would have told him if the belief was used on more than that spot. So the fog wouldn't even really slow them down enough for elven reinforcement to arrive, making it pretty much useless. Which once more made him question why the elven goddess had wasted some of her belief on it. Sure it could have just been a desperate move by a desperate goddess, but if she really was that desperate she could have used the belief she had gather to spawn a big whirlpool in the middle of his armada, which would have been way more effective in slowing them down than the fog ever could be.

  However Hugstari knew that he wouldn't get the answer as to why the elven goddess had caused the fog to appear so thinking about it was useless and so he was about to give the order to change course, when he noticed something big moving in the fog. Causing him to yell "Battle stations!" as loudly as he could to no one in particular, knowing full well that this was all he had to do so that his crew would spread his orders not only across the ship but, thanks to some signal flags, across the entire armada. Giving him enough time to pull out his spyglass and stare at the spot where he could have sworn he had seen something big move inside the fog and just a few seconds later he was proven right when something big emerged from the fog. It took Hugstari a few moments to comprehend what he was seeing, because it was just too ridiculous to believe to the point that he thought for a second that his eyes must be playing tricks on him. But he quickly dismissed that, knowing full well that Ráni had made sure that her champion's eyes were more than good enough to see things from kilometres away, without the aid of a spyglass. So there was no way he was seeing things. But still a ship entirely made out of metal was just too ridiculous to believe, especially one of that gigantic size.

  However that was seemingly exactly what was heading straight for them, although it could also just be an illusion designed to scare them off. Which would make more sense than the fog, but not by much, somewhat proven when the beast of a ship fired one of its absolutely massive front facing cannons as if it had heard his thoughts, clearly to scare him after all there was no cannon that had a range of multiple kilometres, not even ones as massive as these. But then he heard a strange whistling sound that he had never heard before and he wasn't the only one, because all across the deck he could see dvergr stop what they were doing to listen to the strange sound as it got ever louder the closer it seemed to get to them, causing ever more of his mean to hear it as well. Then when it sounded like it was right among them one of the lead ships exploded, causing everyone to just gawk at its burning carcass for a few moments, before the sound of the Beasts second cannon firing got them moving again. "Signal the armada to advance with all speed and to spread out so the beast doesn't have any easy targets!" Hugstari told his signals officer just before the second ship got hit, reducing it to another burning wreck, that just drifted dead in the water thanks to its mast being utterly destroyed causing him to add "And tell the boarding parties to get ready while you are at it". That was really the only strategy that had even a chance of succeeding, because Hugstari knew there was no way that any of their cannons could pierce the Beasts hide. So they couldn't really sink it, not that he really wanted to destroy it if he could help it after all a vessel like this was far too powerful to simply destroy, and his goddess couldn't really help them since the treaties allowed the gods to only use a certain amount of their gathered belief in armed conflicts to prevent them from just blowing up entire world, like they had done in the past. Additionally the Beast was clearly something that the elves couldn't create so that meant there was another god or goddess involved that could simply counter any help Ráni could send him, by simply using a bit more belief than she had, which was why most of the gods preferred to spend their belief on boons for their champions or powerful weapons instead of interfering in battles.

  However there was no way that the enemy didn't know this as well and since he had the clear range advantage he could just keep his distance to kill them one at a time. Sure he probably didn't have enough ammunition to kill them all, but enough to destroy their will to fight or even cripple the armada. So all he could do was make his ships spread out, so that the Beast couldn't hit two of them at the same time and so that some of the stealthier ships among the armada could get close enough to board it. If they were lucky the captain of the Beast was so confident in his ship that he believed it to be invincible and would thusly take the chance to sail straight into the armada, giving them a better chance to board it.

  But Hugstari knew better than to rely on his luck in battle, so he dismissed that thought and deactivated his skill, making him perceive time normally again. It was a gift from Ráni that allowed him to perceive the passage of time way slower than the people around him, alongside his new name. Thanks to this skill he was able to adapt his strategies on the fly and became known as the invincible admiral. However now all he could do was wait and see how his opponent reacted.

  Somewhat surprisingly his opponent didn't change course at all and just continued to head straight for them. Hugstari couldn't believe his luck at first, but after a while of just staring at the Beast heading straight at them he noticed that it was moving too fast for a giant ship entirely made out of metal. He had expected it to be a bit slower or as fast as the galleons in the armada, but instead it seemed to move faster than any of his ships. How he had no idea, after all it had neither mast nor sails and did not only carry those massive cannons, but also what looked like entire buildings made entirely out of metal on its back. But judging by the massive plumes of smoke coming out of two giant chimneys it had something to do with fire, or at least that was his guess. This of course somewhat complicated things, but thankfully it didn't look like it was that much faster than them so his plan was still viable. Not like they had any other choice really than to sail straight at it and give this plan a good old try, while the Beast just continued to kill them one at a time.

  Thankfully the cannons were still manned by mortals so some of the Beasts shot missed or didn't quite manage to destroy their target with one shot. That still didn't make their approach any less nerve wrecking, since not even Hugstari could tell what ship the Beast was even aiming at, causing his heart to nearly jump out of his chest everytime the Beast's cannons pointed in the direction of the ship he was on. But despite that none of his men let fear get a hold of them and just sailed straight at the Beast, or to their deaths in many cases, knowing full well that this was the only real way they could defeat the Beast with the resources they had. And so they endured barrage after barrage from the Beast, until they were finally just a few hundred meters away from it. They had taken a beating, but thankfully not to the point where it had broken his mens will to fight and there were still more than enough of them to take on the probably more than 1000 men strong crew of the Beast. But they had to get on the Beast first to do that and thankfully their chances seemed rather good so far, because the Beast hadn't changed course or its speed at all. Sure that meant that it was still as fast as the fastest ships in the armada, which of course wasn't good. But as long as it didn't move any faster than this then a good amount of his ship should be able to stick long enough to the Beast for their boarding parties to get on it, even though the Beast had some cannons on its sides. Which Hugstari had only noticed after the Beast had gotten a lot closer, since he had been more focused on the four main cannons. But even though the Beast had quite a lot of side cannons a good amount of them were aimed at the sky, meaning that their purpose was more to fight off air raids. So the danger was still there but it was small enough that Hugstari didn't see a need to change his plans.

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  He hated that of course. No sane dvergr loved sending his kin to their death. But he had learned over the years that winning a battle without losing a single man was kind of impossible, even when the odds are heavily in your favour, because war was far too dangerous and unpredictable a thing for that to happen. So instead he tried his best to keep the casualties as low as he possibly could. Of course that wasn't easy either, especially since what even counted as low casualties was rather suggestive. But he still had to at least try and with how things were going right now he had a rather good chance of achieving that goal.

  Sadly the Beast wasn't so gracious as to make things that easy for him, because as soon as it was only a few hundred metres away from the armada it began to speed up, quickly reaching more than twice the speed of the fastest ship in the armada. This of course caught all of them off guard, since none of them could believe that a ship of that size and entirely made of metal could reach such speeds. This gave the Beast more than enough of an opening to get past them, without them getting a chance to board it and once it was past them it fired all of its cannons, even the now visible four back facing main cannons destroying and crippling multiple ships. This gave it another opening to push deeper into the heart of the armada, its cannons never tiring in a somewhat classic shock and awe approach.

  A strategy that fit the Beast in Hugstari's eyes because he couldn't shake the feeling that it was a vessel intended to deal with weaker opponents, like merchant vessels, though he didn't doubt that it could put up quite a fight against ships of its own size. So it was rather effective against his armada, because the Beast had not only the speed but also the firepower to carve a bloody path through them and if one of Hugstari's ships was foolish enough to block its path the Beast had more than enough mass to simply tackle them aside or in the case of a rather unfortunate vessel, that the Beast had rammed in the side, to cut them in two. This was obviously a rather bad situation and the only thing he could really do was order his ships to form a thick wall around the Beast so that they could swarm it. But that plan was rather unlikely to succeed, because the Beast had more than enough speed and firepower to get through. And even if they somehow managed to pull that plan off, the damage the Beast was rather likely to cause to the armada was not only way too high for Hugstari's liking. But also would rather likely weaken the armada so much that they would be unable to finish their mission.

  That left Hugstari rather unwilling to give that order especially since all of that was ultimately just to kill ONE enemy and also because he couldn't shake the feeling that the Beast was searching for something. It was of course not hard to guess what it was searching for, that being the leader of the armada or in other words him. Which made sense after all no matter how much more powerful the Beast was than any of his vessels it was at the end of the day just one ship. So it had to stack the deck in its favor at least somewhat and what better way to do that than cutting a bloody path through the armada to kill its commander, dealing a heavy physical blow as well as a psychological one to its enemies.

  Which only further convinced Hugstari that this was a battle they could not win. After all, if he wanted to finish his mission he had to deal with the Beast. But he couldn't destroy or capture it nor could he outrun it and he had no idea how it was even moving so he couldn't slow it down either, much less stop it. This only left retreat as the only viable course of action. But a retreat under these circumstances would be way too costly for Hugstari's liking. So he needed a distraction and thankfully he had a plan that, with a little luck, would buy the armada enough time to escape.

  After making that decision Hugstari informed all of his staff of his plan and then ordered his helmsman to head straight for the Beast. Thankfully the Beast didn't pay any attention to them, because there were just so many ships around, until they were only a few hundred metres away from it and Hugstari gave the order to signal a full retreat then the Beast's cannons started to turn to face them. But Hugstari had expected this so he activated the rune stone to open a gate, back to where they had come from, right in front of the armada, before he took a deep breath and then yelled, with the help of some magic, so loud that the master of the Beast could hear him " I HUGSTARI SEASWORN CHALLENGE THE MASTER OF THAT METAL MONSTROSITY OF A SHIP TO A DUEL AS DICTATED BY THE RULES OF WAR!"

  It was a challenge the master of the Beast could not deny without breaking the rules of war and thusly incurring the wrath of the gods of law. However even though the Beast changed course to head straight at them its cannons didn't stop firing, yet the gods of law didn't interfere. This was absolutely inconceivable, because everyone of the gods had agreed to the rules of war and in this case they stated that if the leader of any armed organized force was challenged to a duel both armies had to cease all hostile actions against one another, at that front anyways. Which is why this was often used to buy time for an army to retreat, as well as other scenarios.

  So the only reason why the gods of law hadn't intervened yet, despite the fact that the Beast was clearly violating the rules of war, was that the creator of its crew had never agreed to them in the first place. Such a situation had never occurred before so Hugstari ordered all of his men to get ready for boarding, because their opponent didn't have to adhere to the rules of a duel so an ambush was to be expected.

  Despite knowing that they sailed on knowing full well that they were sailing to their doom. But dvergr were made from tough stuff so none of them faltered even for a moment and when they were finally next to the Beast they threw their grappling hooks without hesitation and were just about to use some of them to climb onto the Beast, when a metal gangway was lowered onto the deck. The gangway was wide enough for two dvergr to stand shoulder to shoulder with one another, making it just a big chokepoint for the enemy to use to their advantage.

  But they had enough grappling hooks left to somewhat deal with that problem. So Hugstari took the heaviest armored warrior he had and organized them into a spearhead that would head up the gangway, led by him. The rest of his warriors would use whatever they had to get onto the Beast on other points either side of the gangway in an attempt to flank the enemies that were clearly waiting for them. But they didn't really have any other choice, because the Beasts crew clearly had them outnumbered so the longer they waited the more of them would be waiting for them on the other side of the gangway. So as soon as everybody was into position Hugstari took a look at every single man that would charge up the gangway with him and then with a "FOR THE ALLFATHER" they charged with Hugstari taking the lead. The gangway rattled loudly as they did, but their battlecries quickly drowned it out. However Hugstari didn't hear any of this, he was way to focused on running as fast as he could so that he would be the first to reach the top and could then use his ability to locate the weakest point in their formation that he could break through to get into the metal buildings that the master of the of the Beast was most likely to be in. After all, since he didn't have to adhere to the rules of a duel it was rather unlikely that he would be with his warriors?

  Which meant that if Hugstari wanted to kill the master of the Beast he would just have to come to him. So he charged up the gangway as fast as he could and once he reached the other side he immediately activated his ability. He then began to quickly scan the enemy line formation for any weak points and to his surprise he rather quickly found one, because for some reason they had left a hole in their formation just wide enough for a dvergr to fit through. This angered Hugstari quite a bit, because it showed rather clearly how confident their opponent was that they wouldn't make it past their defences. So much in fact that he almost didn't look at the warriors in front of him and when he did a bad feeling in the pit in his stomach emerged, because he now noticed that they didn't have a face. Not because they wore helmets or something, no they had just no facial features at all. He didn't know how he didn't notice that early, because he noticed that they wore black boots, blue pants, white shirts, blue white scarfs and sometimes some weird blue hats as well as that they carried some weird tubes instead of weapons, with one glance but only noticed that they didn't have a face when he looked at them a bit closer.

  However Hugstari quickly dismissed it as a cheap scare tactic, before deactivating his ability to charge straight at the hole in the enemies formation and the door behind it. That's when the noise started.

  Ratatatatatatata

  Hugstari had no idea where exactly it was coming from. But he quickly didn't care when a good dozen impacts rippled across the shield, an amulet his goddess had given him created around him, causing a few cracks to form across its surface. This caused Hugstari to panic a little and to run even faster towards the door, as more projectiles hit his shield, cracking it ever more the closer he got. But by some miracle he managed to get to the door and open it, just before the shield was destroyed. He then practically threw himself through the door and then closed it behind himself, before throwing a fireball spell at where he suspected the lock to be to melt the door shut. Then just stood there for a few seconds trying to catch his breath and then said "This is ridiculous. Why do their warriors have the firepower to crack the shield spell of a goddess so easily?" because to him firepower like that in the hand of, what had looked to him like, rank and file warriors was kinda unheard of. But he should have probably expected something like that seeing how powerful the Beasts cannons were. In the end though he knew that knowing that wouldn't have changed anything he would have still gotten in and his men well they would have still been cut down before they probably even reached the enemy.

  It was a death he hadn't wished on any of his warriors. But he knew that he couldn't change what had already happened, all he could do was make sure that their deaths were not in vain. So he turned around and ran deeper into the building to search for the stairs that would lead him to the highest point of the building, where the master of the Beast was sure to be.

  It took a bit, but Hugstari managed to get there completely unchallenged. Another show of confidence that was quite appreciated by Hugstari, simply because it meant that his opponent was underestimating him, a mistake many had made in the past, only to die at Hugstaris hand days later. So he opened the door and stepped through, expecting to find a metal version of the helm on his ship. However instead he found himself in a bedroom, judging by the bed in one corner of the room, with white walls, a wooden floor, two windows that let in warm light, a closet, a shelf full of what looked like strange books and a wooden desk in another corner. The sole occupant of this room sat in a strange chair with little wheels at the bottom in front of that desk staring into what looked to Hugstari like a weird rectangular mirror. But instead of reflecting the image of whoever sat in front of it the mirror showed the Beast surrounded by a lot of familiar looking wooden ships, causing Hugstari to take a step forward and lean to the right to get a better view.

  Somehow the master of the Beast heard that, even though he wore a weird contraption over his ears and turned towards Hugstari, removing the contraption as he did. At first Hugstari thought he was an elf, but then he noticed that he had round ears instead of pointy ones and two pitch black orbs for eyes. Yet what surprised Hugstari the most was how young he looked, because in dvergr society age was very important so to see a beardling like that in command of a ship like the Beast was just very weird to him, to the point that he kinda just stared at the boy for a few seconds. Until the boy stood up and said "So Hugstari Seasworn I guess you are here for your duel." his voice sounding like multiple people were talking at once, causing a chill to run down Hugstaris spine.

  Yet he stood firm in the face of the enemy and said "Yes, though may I ask who I am speaking to? After all, it would be rather rude of me to kill you without at least knowing your name." The boy just smiled at that as his body began to grow, until his head nearly touched the ceiling, which had been a good arms length away, and more than twice as broad as before. Hugstari just stared open-mouthed at the abomination, completely caught off guard by the transformation and it only got worse when its torse split in half from its lower jaw to its waist to form a giant mouth filled with dagger-like teeth. The abomination laughed out loud seemingly enjoying his reaction and the "Aww what's wrong where did your confidence go? And to answer your question you can call me Ben." causing Hugstari to grind his teeth a little and then charge at it a warcry on his lips. This seemed to please the abomination, because it once more laughed out loud, before it lunged forward so fast that it was just a blur to Hugstari closing the gap between them in just an instance. Hugstari didn't even have get a chance to react, before the abominations gaping chest maw bit down on him ending his life with a loud CRUNCH.

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Kallihne simply stared open mouthed at the scene before her unable to fully process what had just happened. And who could blame her one of the mightiest dwarven champions had just been defeated with the same ease one would crush a bug. Not to mention the fact that one ship had just managed to make an entire armada retreat. All of this was just utterly ridiculous. But Kallihne wasn't complaining in fact once the fact that the dwarves were retreating and that she was saved had fully sunk in she was completely overjoyed, causing her to jump around like an excited kid.

  Rather unbecoming of a goddess like her but Kallihne didn't care since there was nobody here to see it anyways. Even the factor that she would have to soon get the mortal back to his goddess didn't manage to dampen her mood. In fact her mood only increased, because soon after dealing with the dwarven champion the metal ship sank his ship and then turned to chase after the armada sinking ever more vessels as it did, causing Kallihne to laugh out loud as she imagined the expressions of sheer panic on the dwarves faces as the ran for their lives. But sadly all good things have to come to an end. But still Kallihne could also not deny that she was relieved when the last of the dwarven ship sailed through the gate and the gate had closed. With the whole invasion now dealt with Kallihne teleported next to the iron ship and pulled the mortal responsible for all this destruction out of it, placing him in the palm of her hand. He just kinda stood there staring at her hungrily and licked his lips like a predator that had spotted a particularly delicious looking morsel. But before he could do anything else, Kallihne quickly said “Time to go home.” causing him to suddenly get very visibly tired. He struggled for a few seconds to keep his eyes open, but rather quickly lost that fight and then just fell onto his back soundly asleep. Kallihne released the breath she hadn't realised she was holding when he finally fell asleep. She didn't know why, but for some reason she had been afraid of this mortal. Something that rather annoyed her to the point that she thought about punishing this mortal for that. But quickly dismissed the idea when she realised that if she did that his goddess would probably not be pleased and angering a goddess like that was rather unwise.

  So she just teleported herself back to the exact spot where she had last talked to the goddess and then said with her head bowed "Mylady I am back to return your child to you." holding out her hand like a mortal offering something to their deity. She remained like that until the goddess had put the offered mortal back and then waited until the goddess asked "So I assume that you are happy with my son's performance?" Kallihne quickly nodded as enthusiastically as she could and then said "Oh more than happy mylady. You should have seen them run. It was hilarious." The goddess just laughed and said "Oh I saw that it was indeed quite funny." causing Kallihne to tilt her head and ask "You saw that?" rather carefully, because seeing things in another realm from that far away was something that only a select few powerful deities could do. Yet the goddess just dismissively waved her hand and said "Yeah I was just making sure my little boy was safe. Anyways, let's get down to business." causing Kallihne to sweat a little bit, before she asked "What do you mean?" rather nervously. The goddess just again waved dismissively, before she said "Oh relax I just ask you some things and then I'm gonna take your memories of who helped you and their location." This somewhat confused Kallihne, because she couldn't understand why such a powerful goddess would hide like this. But she knew better than to ask questions she knew she wouldn't get the answers to. So instead she just said "Oh ok what do you want to know?", because if that was all she asked for in return for saving Kallihnes life then that was a good deal and also she had a rather good hunch what she was gonna ask her.

  Which was proven right when the goddess asked her "Besides you, who else knows about me or where to find me?" so Kallihne simply said "Besides me the only one that knows about you, as far as I know, is the one that told me about you and gave me this crystal with information about your location inside. It is" but before she could say more the goddess interrupted her by saying "Let me guess a gremlin about this tall with a body made of floating rings and a top hat." holding her index finger and thumb just about the creature's height apart. This surprised Kallihne quite a lot to the point that she asked "You know it?" Without really thinking. The goddess just said " Of course and I guess I got to have a word with him after this." rather annoyed and then looked around like she was looking for something. After that she asked "Anyways you didn't tell anybody about me and my location is only on that crystal correct?" causing Kallihne to quickly nod, before she said "Yes I came here right after the creature gave it to me and as far as I know only this crystal is the only thing holding information of your location." dropping the crystal as she did and then pushed it so that it would float towards the goddess. The goddess then fished it out of the void and smiled, or at least Kallihne thought that she smiled, before she said "Good then all that is left is taking your memories. Don't worry all you have to do is blink and you will be back home." somewhat confusing Kallihne with her choice of words. So Kallihne just kinda stood there for a few seconds waiting for something to happen. But when nothing happened it only confused her even more and thusly she blinked. After which she found herself back in her sanctuary unable to remember where she had been, how she had survived the dwarven invasion or who had helped her.