River monster prodding duty!
“So,” he said conversationally as the crowd kept whaling away at the neversinker, “are we trying to kill it, or just drive it off?” The monster did a sudden lunge, possibly because he was talking; Morgan smacked it in the face with his shield, hoping to break some of its teeth but getting no luck. The impact did shove it back a bit, which let one axeman get a few good hits in and actually draw some blood.
That pushed it back some more; and from how the neversinkers swayed, the monsters appeared to be a little unbalanced on land. A few ‘real’ soldiers had been coming up, carrying what appeared to be long, blunt-tipped poles; at the sight of the flailing monster, they broke into a run and charged through the crowd, which obligingly made room for them. Well, except for one idiot, but a vampire yanked him out of the way (Morgan noted with some interest the display of above-human speed and strength).
The militia clearly trained for this: both poles smacked right into the neversinker’s center of mass, which only unbalanced the beast further. As it plopped back into the river with a highly indignant bellow one tentacle-arm tried vainly to take at least one person with it — only to meet the tip of Morgan’s blade. It didn’t draw blood, either, but Morgan hoped it would at least smart the beast a little.
The splash from beyond the parapet was fairly impressive, although if there was a plume of water it didn’t reach the top of the walls. One of the pole-bearers wheezed as he leaned on it, “Thanks for the help, buddy,” he said after a second or two. “New in town?”
“Just came in for pizza and a cold beer,” Morgan said agreeably. “How could you tell?”
“That had to be your first neversinker,” replied the guardsman. “After a while you kinda get used to them.”