Chapter 54: Book 1: Chapter 21 (Part 2 of 3)

“Fuck! They’re shielded,” I heard a voice up on the bridge cry out as time sped back up.

Then there was a loud wolf whistle, and I could see more enemies start running onto the footbridge from where they had been secreted. Two groups of ten or so charged onto the bridge from opposite sides. Luckily, we’d been sailing dead centre down the river, and it would take them several seconds to get into position.

“Over the railings,” the same voice, that I assumed was Marco, called out as the Marena’s Mercy reached the bridge and was about to start going underneath.

“Prepare to repel boarders,” I shouted. “Ana, speed us up I want to clear the far side before their reinforcements have a chance to join in.”

Anastasia nodded her head, and we felt the ship lurch gently as the pace picked up. At the same time the first of our uninvited guests clattered on to the deck as the prow edged under the bridge.

The first assailants were four of the Fighter types clad in a collection of mail armour. Dropping in four at a time was all they could manage with the narrow width of the ship at the prow.

It was a three metre drop from the bridge, and not being the most agile of classes, two of them bungled the landing and fell to the deck. Shana was quick to take advantage and fired an arrow from her new Lesser Assassin’s bow catching one of the fallers under the chin in his unarmoured throat.

Shana has inflicted 200 piercing damage and 80 points of dark damage. Target has lost more than half their Hit Points.

Two hundred and eighty damage and he hadn’t been killed, but with six levels of Fighter and armour then they would have around five hundred Hit Points. Jackson threw one of his green balls of flame at the other fallen Fighter a heartbeat after Shana’s arrow connected.

Anastasia ran back through the open cabin door and sprinted for the stairwell down to the lower deck. I had no idea what she was up to, but I got no hint of panic or treachery via our bond and didn’t have time to question her.

The two who hadn’t fallen over were armed with assault rifles and got down on one knee and sprayed our group with bullets.

-20 Hit Points. (550/570)

-20 Hit Points. (530/570)

I was hit by two of the bullets before the forward motion of the ship came to our aid and the second wave of attackers, made up of leather clad Thieves, landed adroitly on the deck.

However, the goons with assault rifles hadn’t anticipated that as the ship was moving forward their allies would land between us and them and the second half of their bullet spray was intercepted by the backs of the freshly arrived Thieves.

The ship was half under the bridge now and the mast and sail bent backwards, which blocked the remaining four up on the bridge from joining their brethren.

The unexpected bullets in the back forced the Thieves to stumble and I took advantage of the confusion and charged into the fray.

“Watch out for the last few, they might land behind us,” I called out, and crossed the few metres between me and the enemy.

The Thieves tried to use short bows to slow me down. But whether it was a lack of familiarity or panic they weren’t very successful, and I was hit in the leg by a single arrow.

-15 Hit Points. (515/570)

Shana and Jackson remained back by the cabin and continued to fire arrows and balls of green flame at opportune targets.

When I reached the Thieves, I shoulder barged the leftmost and sent him tumbling over the taffrail and he splashed into the Grand River. We wouldn’t get any XP for him, but it was one less to worry about. And then set about them with my Ice Scimitars.

The Fighters abandoned using their guns and drew an assortment of clubs and swords before they charged into the fight.

It was unfortunate that they had their melee weapons stored in scabbards on their hips or backs and not in their inventories where they wouldn’t be able to access them due to the Dungeon Ship’s suppression field.

From the corner of my eye, I detected two more splashes in the Grand River as two of those on the bridge had jumped onto the crystalline sail, perhaps expecting it to give way, and had slid smoothly off and over the side.

I battled two of the thieves who had drawn short-bladed weapons and one of the Fighters while the other four went by me, intent on getting to the two vulnerable ranged attackers.

I was clearly the better swordsman and kept all three at bay for the most part and lost a further hundred Hit Points before I killed one of the Thieves with a slash to his throat.

On the other side, Jackson unleashed a wave of flame that engulfed the four men who charged at them. The Fighter who had one of Shana’s arrows still embedded in his neck dropped dead and then Shana killed the Thief in the group with a head shot before the remaining two crisped Fighters engaged them in melee.

At the same time, the ship now appeared on the other side of the bridge and two figures landed on the roof of the cabin, Marco and the elf Mage. They must have run over to the other side of the bridge, leapt blindly, and got lucky.

The good news was that we had outsailed the reinforcements, a couple of them leapt over the railings trying to join Marco but were too late and plunged into the river instead.

That was the only good news, the outlook for this fight seemed grim.

Shana and Jackson were not melee warriors and struggled to do anything more than evade enough of the attacks by the two Fighters to not be slaughtered.

I was holding my own against the Thief and Fighter on my side of the ship and would have killed them eventually, but now they had back up.

-50 Hit Points. (365/570)

I was struck by a magical dart of energy by the Mage.

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-30 Hit Points. (335/570)

And then by an arrow fired by the Ranger, Marco. The prognosis did not look good. I couldn’t avoid their attacks from the poop deck and competently fence with two melee opponents.

Which is when Anastasia re-entered the fracas.

She had gone down to the lower deck, run to the other end, and emerged out of the hatch at the prow behind our attackers. She skipped up to the Fighter with a beatific smile on her face, jumped on to his back like a spider monkey and started to drain his lifeforce.

Without the distraction of two foes, I hacked and slashed at the Thief with wild abandon and dropped him quickly. By which point I was down another hundred hit points from a combination of the Mage’s second magic missile, Marco’s arrow, and a lucky slice from the dagger of the dying Thief.

I was just under half my Hit Points but was filled with confidence. “Ana, help Shana and Jackson,” I ordered as the Fighter she clung to collapsed onto the black deck and then I raced to the set of steps which led up to the poop deck atop the cabin.

The elf Mage, seeing the tide of the battle turn, and a very irate Acheronian Corsair closing in on him, took two steps, and leapt over the taffrail of the poop deck and into the Grand River.

“You fucking coward,” Marco screamed at him and loosed a third arrow in my direction, which I swatted away with my scimitar.

I vaulted up the steps, three at a time, which gave Marco just enough time to drop his bow and draw a backsword. He adopted a fencing pose with his backsword extended.

However, now that we had overcome the deadly threat my plan changed.

I wanted information, and Marco seemed like the best source of it. I ran at him, and rather than stopping, bashed his sword out of the way and barrelled into him.

We crashed into the deck with a thud, and I dropped my blades and wrapped my arms around his chest, trapping his arms and forcing him to drop his own sword.

“What the fuck?” Marco growled in surprise. “Ya wanna’ kiss me, do you,” he sneered.

I headbutted his leonic face hard, to shut him up.

We scuffled on the deck for a few moments until I heard feet on the steps and sensed Shana and Anastasia join me.

“Great minds think alike,” Anastasia quipped cheekily.

She skipped over to us and put her hand on Marco’s exposed throat and started to drain him.

“Don’t kill him,” I ordered.

“Don’t worry, sir, I won’t. I’m going to drain him down to a couple of Health points, which should force him to lose consciousness. Just like I did with the others,” Anastasia assured me.

“Others?” I asked.

“Yeah, they guy I jumped and the two that were trying to kill Shana and Jackson,” she said.

By the time her explanation was complete Marco’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he became paler and seemed thinner.

“This is so much quicker when they can’t resist,” Anastasia chirped.

I released the limp form of Marco and got to my feet. “Is everyone okay?” I asked Shana.

“Yes, Jackson and I are fine,” she replied. “We lost a few hundred Hit Points each and would have been in trouble if it had gone on much longer. Jackson is checking the sides of the ship, making sure we don’t have any clingers.”

“Good thinking,” I complimented her.

“It was Jackson’s idea,” Shana corrected me.

I nodded in acknowledgment and then looked back over the river. There were seven, maybe eight, of Marco’s people in the water. They didn’t seem to be drowning, even those in armour, but it was making getting back to the riverbank difficult and I had Machiavellian thought.

Deny my enemy his resources.

“Shana, are the swimmers in range of your bow?” I inquired.

Shana joined me at the rail and scanned the river before she answered. “Yes, Torin, they are.”

“Excellent. Now that they’ve supplied us with a plenty of spare arrows take out as many of them as you can,” I ordered and turned to Anastasia. “Ana, slow the ship a touch to allow Shana enough time to get as many of them as possible, afterward speed back up. I want to clear Grand Rapids before whoever is in charge has a chance to set up anymore ambushes at the remaining bridges.”

With that, I picked up the unconscious Marco and carried him down the steps to the main deck.

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