Chapter 63: Book 1: Chapter 23 (Part 5 of 6)

Shana and Jackson were to stay near the steps of the school and use their ranged weapons from there. Unfortunately, we had to be a few steps away from the school itself. The protection field, as useful as it had been, being a Framework default as opposed to something procured or built did have some restrictions.

Primarily, you couldn’t attack those outside the field from inside it and maintain the integrity of the shield. Otherwise, Shana would have played merry hell with their numbers over the last day and this battle would be something of a walkover.

Speaking of Shana and Jackson, an arrow zipped past my ear and embedded itself in the flaccid torso of the lead Fomorian.

Shana has inflicted 140 damage on Lesser Fomorian, it has a maximum of 60 Hit Points remaining.

Not an outright kill-shot, but enough to make it stagger and lose momentum. We’d been talking over the notifications that Quixbix flashed to us, and he had changed it up to maximise relevant information. As the imp had access to the starting Hit Points of the mob, as well as knowing the damage Shana, Anastasia or I dealt he could give us the theoretical maximum the mob had left. Sadly, he didn’t have access to Jackson’s logs in the same way and we agreed it would be best not to guess what he contributed.

Meanwhile, a ball of green flame surged past me on the other side engulfing another of the sea creatures’ heads.

The gunfire continued behind me, while Shana and Jackson got another arrow and flaming ball off before the Lesser Fomorians met me in melee.

Shana dropped one with a head shot and Jackson hit the same target as the first time, killing his too.

I barrelled through the centre of the Fomorian group which surprised them, but four of them managed to jab me as I bashed them from my path.

-40 Hit Points. (530/570)

A few more steps brought me to within range of the podium square and I witnessed it raise a smidge. I could hear the confused Fomorians had turned and followed after me.

<The counter has been reset> Quixbix confirmed for me.

Following our formulated plan, I ducked and rolled to my right as Jackson had sprinted after us when I was through the enemies ranks and they had turned to pursue. He unleashed a wave of green flame into their backs while Shana covered him with her arrow fire. The mannequins approaching from the bay had kept the Fomorians further south of our position distracted or occupied.

Finishing my roll, I returned to my feet adroitly as the nine living Fomorians from the shoal screamed as they were licked by Jackson’s green flames. The first Fomorian Shana had shot, died in the blaze, but the others remained standing. Most of them turned to the new threat of Jackson who was already retreating back to Shana’s side, so I was able to run into their midst almost unopposed, hacking and slashing various body parts as I went.

You have inflicted 58 damage on Lesser Fomorian, it has a maximum of 142 Hit Points remaining.

You have inflicted 58 damage on Lesser Fomorian, it has a maximum of 142 Hit Points remaining.

You have inflicted 116 damage on Lesser Fomorian. Lesser Fomorian is slain.

You have inflicted 232 damage on Lesser Fomorian. Lesser Fomorian is slain.

There were five down from this shoal of twelve and they were thoroughly confused as to where they should focus their response.

As often happens to groups lacking a defined leader, they all pulled in different directions. Three continued to hare off in pursuit of Jackson and only four tried to keep me at bay with their bone spears.

I fended off and parried a few spear thrusts when I heard the gurgled cry of another Fomorian fall.

Having suffered 50% casualties, this Lesser Fomorian subgroup must undergo a morale check.

Lesser Fomorian morale check failed! Mental and Social attributes suffer a fifty percent debuff until the combat is complete, a subsequent check is passed, or they join up with another unaffected larger sub-group.

Music to my ears, almost immediately their attacks were less coordinated and one of them broke from the group and fled past me deeper into the island.

With that, I was able to swiftly slay two more and then cut down the third when it turned its back to me and ran. I looked past the island side of the school and there was another large shoal of Lesser Fomorians who had been at the far end patrolling that corner. They seemed torn between running to the action on the unsighted opposite corner where Anastasia was or maintaining their current position. Sadly, their dithering afforded them the opportunity to spot me by the podium.

With a visible target, they proved more capable of decisiveness and the group of thirty or so started to run towards our corner.

Having dealt with the dozen near us, and with more on the way we retreated and linked up with Anastasia. She had lost two mannequin golems in the initial fight but had cleared the bay-side corner nearest the school entrance.

The golems were busy swapping out magazines on their rifles for the next threat.

We now had the force of thirty sea demons I’d seen on the island side coming for us and a similar sized group coming from the far corner of the school on the bay side of the school. That fourth and final group had held back until the gunfire had ceased and then made their move to attack, but the firing would resume soon enough.

“Captain,” Anastasia winked at me and waved her hand, mentally ordering her golems to open fire on the attackers we could clearly see.

You are reading story Corsairs & Cataclysms at novel35.com

The four men she had on leashes looked thoroughly browbeaten and there was the unmistakable stripe of whip marks on some of their backs, Marco’s in particular.

“We have thirty more coming from the other side of the school in seconds, we need to…” I started to bark at the group.

Anastasia just grinned impishly at me.

Then she released her grip on the four leashes and dropped them to the floor. She cracked the bullwhip loudly near the naked rear ends of the four prisoners.

“Mush,” she yelled. “Run, run now, that way,” and she pointed up to where I had just come from. The podium square that had the obelisk slowly emerging from the ground.

Everybody looked at her in shocked silence including me and then she swung the whip with another almighty crack and the four prisoners took off in the direction she indicated.

“Ana, what are you doing?” I asked her, stunned.

“Watch,” she chuckled and put away the whip and summoned the seventh and final assault rifle we had procured into her hands.

For a moment I thought she meant to gun them down as they ran away from us, but she started to walk to join her four-golem gunline who along with Shana and Jackson were busy mowing down the second large group.

The prisoner’s flight from Anastasia had them reach the edge of the school at the same time as the second large group of Fomorians who had reacted to me reached the corner. The four men saw the sea demons and jinked right in fright into the wooded area, busting a gut to get away from both threats.

The Lesser Fomorians checked their advance in surprise and their fish-eyes swivelled between us and the fleeing goons.

 It took them less than a second to make a decision, go after the heavily armed and armoured group down by the bay spewing death and destruction or pursue the naked, frightened, and vulnerable men deeper into the island away from said death and destruction.

They chose the latter.

“They make great distractions, don’t you think,” Anastasia laughed as she opened fire on the fourth group.

I couldn’t help but laugh in return. I would have to reward Ana for this.

Moments later, the under-fire creatures failed a morale check and were faced with continuing their attack or fleeing for the safety of the bay. They chose life and fled, not that we let many of them actually make it that far.

<Congratulations> Quixbix extolled. <I can confirm you are out of combat and there are no surviving Lesser Fomorians within the town limits. My advice is to claim the settlement as quickly as you can. It will make defending it from those that ran inwards and the big one still in the bay that much easier.>

I couldn’t agree more. The battle had gone far better than I could have hoped for. I sprinted up to the podium. When I stood upon the square the obelisk began to rise much quicker. After only a few moments it had fully appeared, and the touchpads became active

There was already a question prompt on the screen.

This settlement is currently unoccupied. Would you like to claim this settlement?

I swiftly picked the yes option.

Your town claim is being contested.

<Balls> Quixbix swore.

Before I could ask, a loud gurgled roar emanated from the direction of the bay where the Fomorians had been coming and going.

<As you may have guessed the Greater Fomorian and his little friends managed to get onto the beach before you hit yes> the imp informed me.

It was only about one hundred and fifty metres from here to the beach. We ran around to the side of the school that faced the bay and observed the group charging up the short road, the enraged Greater Fomorian leading the way.

A quick analysis revealed the sea demon had one hundred and ten of his little buddies in tow. The analysis did reveal some reassuring news, though. Their air-breathing ability had not renewed, they would only have a few minutes before they began to suffocate.

We hadn’t anticipated them taking such a risk.

In the space of a couple of breaths a plan formed in my mind.

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