Boom!
The colossal Nautiloid Dreadnought from another realm extended its tentacles downward. Its enormous, writhing biomass made its hostile intentions plain. Sucker-lined tentacles dangled from the air one after another, and the vast ship immediately blotted out the blue sky. Ripples rose across Dragonmere as more than a dozen Mind Flayers descended from above, landing directly on the passenger ship Harvest Moon's deck!
"Rebecca, watch out!" The middle-aged man immediately pulled his daughter into his arms and dropped flat on the deck. The ship shook so violently that no one could keep their footing; everyone grabbed whatever was nearest. Aaron and Eleanor staggered as well. Miss Cleric instinctively moved to protect the people on deck. Steadying Aaron, she raised her Warhammer of the Moon's Hand, and Selûne's moonlight immediately enveloped the deck.
Heroism!
Bless!
Spirit Guardians!
Aaron, meanwhile, faced a Mind Flayer.
It descended from above with the arrogance of a superior race confronting an inferior one, its hands clasped behind its back. Several folds creased the smooth forehead of its octopus-like head, and its deep-set eyes brimmed with interest in Aaron. Its slender frame wore a mage's robe, silver bracers connected to pauldrons, and a dark gray cloak with red lining draped behind it. The moment it spotted Aaron, it fixed him with an intensely interested gaze, and a strange psychic energy shot straight into his mind.
Silver ripples linked Aaron's brain to the octopus-headed creature's, and it spoke a sentence in a language Aaron did not understand at all.
Yet Aaron understood it nonetheless.
"Were you the one calling the fleet? Your brain juices look positively delicious!"
Calling the fleet?
Someone aboard the Harvest Moon was calling a Mind Flayer fleet?!
Who was calling the fleet?
Aaron immediately gleaned a wealth of information from that telepathic message, but