Chapter 118: Book 2: Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 

Progress was agonisingly slow.

There was heavy resistance, and the sheer volume of gunfire was wearing out the durability of our makeshift hidebound shields. Our diversionary tactic to draw in members of the Lion’s Claw had perhaps been too successful. We only made it a few hundred metres into the northern quadrants before we had to halt and take better cover as the shields began to fall apart.

Then a dozen flares lit up the sky ahead of us and signalled the start of the attack by the Muskegon Collective from across the bridge and river.

There was a brief cessation of activity as all parties glanced at the sky. “That’s the signal,” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, sure to be heard by my adversaries in that pocket of relative quiet. “Back to the ship!”

We abandoned the blatant frontal assault, split into prearranged smaller squads, and melted away into the surrounding urban area. Most of the squads were to follow my preordained orders to cause as much chaos as possible across the southern half of the town.

This left the Lion’s Claw fighters with a choice to make. Chase after us to the ship, run back to their positions by the river, or try and retake the quadrant already under our control.

My cried order was a lie designed to try and confuse them. None of us were heading back to the ship.

Besides, Marena’s Mercy was not where we had come ashore. We’d been listening in to their communications with the looted walkies. I knew they were aware of where we had come ashore, based on the silence from the sentries at the beach. They also knew what parts of the town had been attacked. But none of the chatter mentioned that the ship had moved. They’d find out it had very soon.

Anastasia had remained aboard Marena’s Mercy to sail her and give aid to the Collective’s attack. There was a marina on the north side of the river the collective controlled at the river mouth. Anastasia would dart the ship in quickly, and allow fifty of their fighters to board her, using the sails to shield them. Then take them over the river to open an unexpected third front in the northwest quadrant.

The final part of Anastasia’s contribution was to sail the ship further upriver about halfway between the two Muskegon Collective attacks and dock at one of the many jetties on the Lions’ Claw side of the river. Leaving her and the ship open and vulnerable.

We knew that Luca wanted my ship. His men who we had captured admitted as much before we executed them in the dungeon. So, why not set a honey trap and lure a few of them in.

Anastasia couldn’t deal with them in precisely the same way she had dealt with the fomorians that boarded Marena’s Mercy in Stormblade Harbour, though.

However, she could seal the doors to rooms we didn’t want them to get into. Fang Mei would be safe and sound in my upper deck cabin. Anastasia added a few new doors on the lower deck that led directly into the cells in the Brig. A few plush decorations, some velvet drapes covering the bars, and a handful of comfort items quickly disguised the true nature of the cells until a proper examination was performed from the inside.

By then it would be too late.

Once they walked in, Anastasia could close the door remotely provided no one was standing in the threshold and activate the cell functions which stripped them of their equipped gear and inventories. They would be contained just where we wanted them.

The risk to the ship was extremely low and Anastasia was aboard in Navigation and under orders from her captain which gave her a great deal more leeway to act should the need arise. At the very least it ought to supply a further distraction even if the honey attracted no flies.

I risked doubling back to the site of our recent fight on the main road alone, while Shana watched my back from further back. I hid near the Lion’s Claw people and used Quixbix to spy on them. They were paralysed with indecision, unsure of what the best action to take was.

My reputation helped with that. Which was definitely an ego boost.

They all knew that Marco and his crew never returned once they jumped onto my ship and how many of them had been picked off by Shana and my other ranged attack experts during the couple of times we’d sailed through Grand Rapids.

Ultimately, they chose to split up. Half retreated towards the river to assist in holding off the Collective. The other half decided to try and retake the territory we had seized. Fight their way to the barracks. Hoping we hadn’t murdered them all and they could boost their numbers.

None of them seemed interested in chasing after us directly.

It was a poor plan, not that they had many good ones available to them.

After they departed in different directions leaving a small team to hold the road, I raised my hand and signalled the large squad that stayed with me to re-join the fray.

Shana started to pepper the fifteen people left behind with arrows and the rest of us charged their position. With so few defenders, shields weren’t needed now.

I vaulted over the bonnet of a red sedan and landed amidst them.

 

*** -20 Hit Points. (1,880/2,470) ***

*** -20 Hit Points. (1,860/2,470) ***

*** -20 Hit Points. (1,840/2,470) ***

 

The notifications popped up as a few bullets connected were swiftly dismissed and my scimitars flashed out, slicing and dicing at the foolish shooters. They should have run.

I’d been a bit blasé so far. I had an impressively deep hit point pool and had been in the thick of the action quite a lot. I would have to watch that if I neared dropping down to a thousand hit points remaining. For the first time in a while, I didn’t have Anastasia lurking around to bail me out if things got hairy.

Still, it was better that I soaked up the damage than my crew who weren’t nearly as durable.

My damage output was less impressive. I had a base of fifty-eight points of damage before mitigation. Forty-six piercing and twelve cold. However, my long blade skill was high and getting higher, which helped me place my strikes for maximum effect. This usually guaranteed that the fifty-eight was doubled or trebled. More than enough to put your average goon down with half a dozen well-placed cuts.

The fight lasted less than a minute. We secured the few survivors with special shackles that blocked usage of their inventories once they were locked in place. The Slave Market came with several dozen chests filled with the things, so it wasn’t something I had to go out and buy.

My squad spent the next couple of minutes contacting a few of the other squads to keep them in the loop and then we moved to strike at those who went after Brant.

Due to Quixbix’s spying activity, we knew they were heading for the barracks and that is where we found them engaged with Brant’s militia.

The fighting was vicious, but Brant and his people were in the ascendancy. I don’t think the Lion’s Claw members expected to find as many of them here as they did.

There shouldn’t be much for us to do.

As we closed the distance, I saw Amber rush from cover and launch herself at three Claw goons. A leonid, an orc, and a human. Amber was armed with a short sword and buckler shield having taken the Swashbuckler class. Her lips were pulled back in a berserk fury, and she was screaming unintelligibly as she closed the distance with unnatural rapidity.

The fierceness of her attack assisted her at first, the trio were unnerved by the wild young woman rushing at them. But when it became clear she had broken from the ranks in an act of ill-discipline their scowls turned to evil smirks.

She made contact, slashing the human on the arm with her sword. He swung back with a mace that crunched into her shoulder and she stumbled forward. The other two joined the fray and slashed at her back with their own melee weapons and the blows forced her to the ground.

Amber may have been in over her head, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Even as she collided with the ground, she stabbed the leonid man deeply in the groin, a potentially fatal blow, and smashed her buckler edge first into the knee of the orc forcing him to stagger and back away, probably saving her life.

You are reading story Corsairs & Cataclysms at novel35.com

The human managed to slam his mace into the back of her head once before one of Shana’s arrows slammed home into his eye and he slammed into the ground quite dead.

The leonid warrior wailed like a child as he bled out. Amber’s blade had severed the femoral artery. He’d dropped his weapons and his hands were soaked in crimson blood as he weakly tried to stem the flow.

Belatedly, he must have recalled he needed magical healing. He retrieved a health potion from his inventory, but his blood-slicked fingers made it difficult to unstopper the vial and he dropped it at the first attempt, dooming himself. He really should have bought a pellet, they were more expensive, but it would literally have been a life-saving purchase.

The orc crawled over to Amber, rolled her over and saw she was still alive. She’d been wearing a helmet and that had saved her. She was groggy and likely heavily debuffed from the mace blow but alive. He pulled his arm back, ready to stab his drawn dagger into her unprotected throat.

That was as close as he got as my sword stroke lopped his head off.

I looked down at Amber. Her eyes were wide with fear from her near-death experience but then they saw my grinning face and the disapproving scowl returned just before she winced with pain as she tried to get up.

The fight here was over. Once the Lion’s Claw understood we had doubled back to hit them from behind they either surrendered or made a run for it. The runners wouldn’t get far. Shana and a few other ranged classes were taking them down as I loomed over Amber.

Disabling shots where possible. Levelling the dungeon was a priority.

I let Amber struggle, trying to get to her feet a few times. Dizziness prevented her from being successful. When I thought she had been suitably humbled I put my hand out to help her up. Wordlessly she accepted and I pulled her onto her feet and then had to steady her as she almost fell over again.

“Take it easy, Amber,” I ordered. “You took a mighty whack on the back of the head, but the concussion debuff should clear in a few minutes. Provided you give it a chance.”

“Thank you…sir,” the honorific came reluctantly from her lips.

That undercurrent of angry defiance was undiminished.

We stood there in awkward silence for a few minutes. Me supporting the surly young woman who was unsteady on her feet as Brant organised the looting and acquisition activity around us.

Rather than call over another party member to care for Amber I decided to impart some advice. “Amber, the duellist charge ability you get for being a Swashbuckler is very useful, but you do know it is supposed to initiate a duel. One-on-one, not one-on-three.

“Targeting three people at once diffused its effectiveness considerably and that left you vulnerable to their counterattacks. You would have been killed if my squad hadn’t followed and attacked this group from behind.”

Initially, Amber bristled and looked up at my tall frame to give me some shit but when she saw only genuine concern in my eyes her shoulders slumped, and the fight went out of her. “I know,” she muttered in defeat. “It was stupid, but I kind of lost it. It won’t happen again.”

The anger and wrath she wreathed herself in would get her killed if she didn’t let it go or learn how to better focus it.

“It better not,” I told her sternly and then softened. “Despite the foolishness of the manoeuvre, you almost pulled it off. I was observing, and that mace blow to your shoulder was a wild swing that got lucky. Without that, you would have stayed on your feet and would probably have been able to take them down on your own.”

She couldn’t help but smile at my positive assessment.

“Not that killing them by yourself would have been necessary if you hadn’t broken rank,” I continued before she grew too proud of herself. “I foresee Brant giving you the hair-dryer treatment for that later and you’ll fully deserve every second of it. Take what he has to say to heart. He has a great deal of experience with this kind of thing. I suspect he was in the army before he joined the prison service.

“I’ll speak to him and make sure you aren’t kicked from the militia.”

The realisation that her folly could have seen her dismissed back to drudgery tasks wiped the smug look from her face.

“But you only get a second chance. There will be no third. I get that you’re angry. We all are. The world changed and we weren’t given a choice about it. If you don’t think you can get control of that fire inside, you’d best ask for reassignment when we get back. That is an order. Fuck up like this again and no one will try and save you. I won’t risk the lives of others for someone who refuses to learn from their mistakes. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” she answered in a chastened voice.

“Good. You have potential, Amber. Don’t waste it. Best get back to your squad now.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, her earlier attitude suppressed. For the time being anyway. She took several steps away from me before she turned around. “Sir, can you not tell LT how badly I screwed up today?”

“We’ll see,” I said and turned away with a wicked smile to regather my squad and head back into the fray.

A bit of leverage never went amiss.

 

***

 

By the time we reached the northern part of the town the Muskegon Collective had already broken through from the other side of the river and the Lion’s Claw forces were in a full rout.

My crew spent most of the next three or four hours scouring the town for any stragglers while the militia escorted our prisoners and salvaged loot to the ship.

A big part of the reason that the Muskegon fighters had such an easy time of it was that our honey trap had been superbly effective. It appeared that once Luca’s local commanders had taken stock of the situation, they figured the best way to appease him after this debacle was to seize my ship and deliver it to him.

That it would have been an effective manner of escape should hey be successful helped with their decision-making.

They and a significant proportion of their force boarded the ship. Many fell into the traps Anastasia laid for them before they clued up as to what was happening. By which point, it was too late to go back, so they stayed on the ship and tried to force their way into Navigation.

Tried and failed.

When we arrived most of them surrendered without a fight. As a last gasp, the remainder who had found the dungeon entrance decided to risk running it. I wasn’t entirely sure what they hoped to achieve, perhaps somewhere in their background reading, they had chanced upon a fragment that mentioned you could only claim a dungeon ship by completing the dungeon within.

But that only counted if I were dead, and Anastasia had no captain.

We never found out what their plan was as none of them made it out. Ana’s dungeon could be quite deadly when she wanted it to be.

Had there been a few more in their party then perhaps they could have made it. Anastasia was bound by the Framework rules to give them a chance. She couldn’t make the dungeon an inescapable death trap. This was why we only supplied undesirables with the minimum basic gear when we shoved them in.

Either way, the raid on Grand Haven had been enormously successful. And we only lost four people in total. One crew member and three members of the militia.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to celebrate. We had another target to strike before nightfall. The township of Holland was fifteen or sixteen miles further south. The chances that the Brotherhood hadn’t got word out of what had happened via some method, including details of our involvement, was very slim. Only an idiot would fail to prepare for our arrival, so we had to give them as little time as possible.

We were on our way by two in the afternoon and arrived for the second battle of the day a little before four.

You can find story with these keywords: Corsairs & Cataclysms, Read Corsairs & Cataclysms, Corsairs & Cataclysms novel, Corsairs & Cataclysms book, Corsairs & Cataclysms story, Corsairs & Cataclysms full, Corsairs & Cataclysms Latest Chapter