“Jules—He’s pushing us back!” Rukia spun the helm’s wheel around to break free.
“Men,” Jones said. “Pillage and plunder, plunder and pillage! Sow chaos, and we shall succeed yet again!” The Pirate crew roared their battle cries. Jules could only see a few, but from the sound, there must have been hundreds of men aboard.
“Aye, now Wrath. Take me men ashore. They’ll cause a scene for you to slip on by.” Jones winked one of his blue eyes.
“Jules, don’t trust this guy,” Katarina said. “This is the third wrench he’s thrown in.”
“We’ve got no choice,” Cyrus said. “He’s an Alter. He’d rip our ship to driftwood in an instant.”
“Cy’s right, Kat.” Jules addressed the Alter Pirate. “Fine, send who you can spare. We sail for the cliffs.”
Men swung from ropes and toppled onto each other aboard their new ship. The grimy and rough Pirates eyed Jules' Party like meat or game, and Katarina in a totally different way.
“Aye, laddie. I think it’d be better for you to land on the beaches by the docks, that I do.”
Jules gritted his teeth. “Best for who?”
“Best for whom, Wrath. Best for whom.”
The Flying Dutchman shifted starboard and accelerated towards the cliffs.
"What a dick!"
The riptide reversed and pushed Jules’ ship straight toward the docks. The siege resumed and Jones protected only his ship from assault.
“Oi,” Jones yelled through the chaos, “I think ye’ll find me men have a mind of their own! Har har har—Fight well!”
“To the docks!” Jones’ crew banged their weapons on the ship’s rails.
“We have our own mission,” Jules warned them.
The Pirates repeated their battle cries, and the tide thrust them further from the cliffs. They dispersed and shot arrows at shore. They climbed the ropes and sails for better vantage points. Jules and Cyrus tried to stop them without effect. Katarina sighed and sat down. One of the men grabbed her arm. She quickly locked up his arm, gave it a new joint, and threw him overboard. None of them fucked with her after that.
Instead, they focused on commandeering the ship. They damaged the rudder and the hull. The sails were filled with holes now—well, even more after Coralhaven—and the hull with leaks. Even Rukia abandoned her post to fight some of the men, so they commandeered the wheel.
Both groups interfered with the other, directing and redirecting the ship, until they were set on a clear crash-course with one of the many rocky beaches. A sudden deceleration thrust everyone to the ground. Jules and his friends rose up quickly to avoid the fiery arrows that rained down on them. Heavy javelins pierced through multiple floors of the ship.
Jones’ voice echoed through all of Marina Veridia. “Nowhere left to run now, men! If yer lucky, we all succeed tonight. Burn the boats behind ye!”
The Pirates cheered their captain and abandoned the ship for the beach. The fires spread across the deck. Cyrus stomped out a smaller one. “Jules, Kat, help me stop the flames!” Jules could intake all the fire in a few seconds, but…
“No, Cy. It’s beyond saving.” The main sail crashed down from its mast. “New plan until we reach the Shrine: adapt and survive.”
[Shrine Hunting — Quest Objective ADDED: Adapt and survive to Capture the Shrine of Marina Veridia.]
Jules leapt down onto the beach, and his friends followed his lead. He addressed them and the Pirates. “There’s nothing left behind us anymore, only forward. Now, men—Charge!” He thrust his wooden sword into the sky toward the inner city. The Pirates, and the rest of his Party, just stared at him. “Well, it was worth a shot…Let’s just go.”
The motley crew ran toward stairs and bridges. A Hydromage platoon rushed from the opposite end to meet them. Another approached them on the beach and reached them first.
They fought in the sand. Blades and shields and blunt weapons collided. In the confusion of battle, Jules soon lost his sense of direction and which way the sea was. He fell one Hydromage who wielded ice axes, another who shot lightning bolts at him. A defective group of Pirates attacked Jules and Cyrus from behind.
“Nice Vessels you got there. Afraid we’ll have to take them.”
Cyrus disposed of them all with his curved sword. His Vessel still clung to his back in its sheath.
“Hey, those Sins are attacking our men!” a Pirate shouted.
Jules sighed. This is going to be a long night. Now it was three teams all against each other, instead of two-on-one. “We need to get off this beach.” He and his friends pushed through the crowd of Pirates ascending the stairs. “Where to?”
“The docks,” Whiskers said. He carried a rolled up map in his mouth.
“Keep your distance, Whiskers. You’ll be our shot-caller and strategist, so stay out of the combat.”
“With pleasure.” Whiskers pounced away, far away, and scaled buildings and walls.
“Alright, to the docks,” Jules ordered. Nearby Pirates cheered and followed his orders. They rushed ahead of them.
“What the hell is going on!?” Cyrus asked.
The docks were set up like a ravine, so they could easily be attacked from above, on each side. We’re sitting ducks out here…
Jules took cover behind whatever buildings and structures were available. Sometimes he hid behind Pirates and Soldiers, using them as shields from stray arrows and javelins. They progressed forward one sprint-to-cover at a time. Jules ran up to a large group of Pirates hiding behind a wall.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Boss,” one said to him. “An ambush ahead.”
Oh, now I'm your boss!?
Marina Veridia was split into three leveled tiers. They were on the bottom one, and the Shrine was at the top. Jules peeked his head around the corner of the wall. Beyond it, a street led up to the second tier where an entire company of a hundred Soldiers waited for them. Beyond even that, the massive sets of stairs climbed to the highest points of the city.
[Shrine Hunting — 3 Quest Objectives ADDED: Ascend the first tier of Marina Veridia. | Ascend the second tier of Marina Veridia. | Ascend the third tier of Marina Veridia.]
Jules returned to cover and took a deep breath. Katarina and Cyrus steeled themselves too.
“One.” Katarina removed her bow from her back and knocked an arrow.
“Two.” Cyrus rubbed his hand across his curved sword’s blade to clean it. Jules squeezed the wooden Sound.
“Go right—Three!” The trio and Rukia sprinted out of cover. They ran along the street in staggered zigzag lines. Jules dodged an ice spear and a javelin. He deflected a few arrows with the Sound.
“I never knew you Pirates were such cowards,” Cyrus yelled from behind.
[Shrine Hunting — Quest Objective COMPLETED: Ascend the first tier of Marina Veridia.]
No time to look back. Jules sprinted up to the second tier level and continued right. He heard a stampede approach. Cyrus, Katarina, and Rukia maintained Jules’ flank, and they all crashed headfirst into the enemy lines. Pirates spread out across the line and behind them, which pushed Jules and company into the Soldiers.
Jules was unsure where the next strike would come from, in front or back. From foe or—possibly—friend. As long as it doesn’t come from within.
Jules focused his anger and frustration inward and tempered it. Yellow flames erupted at his eyes.
“Cy. Shields up,” he warned.
? ? Ryoku Shield ? ?
Better to let it all out than keep it festering inside.
? Fire ? [?124,500 // ?174,501]
Jules released his inner wrath in an explosion of flames that pushed everyone near him back.
Jules, an entire battalion is approaching from the left. You need to retreat.
Thanks Whiskers. Kinda busy, though.
The surrounding men stared at Jules, frozen with jaws dropped and wide eyes. That’s right, fear me. It’ll make everything easier. Over a dozen people, including Cyrus and Katarina, were stranded on the ground from his explosion. A smoldering Rukia stood grinning on all fours, her eyes widened with bloodlust.
“Back-to-back,” Jules ordered. Katarina and Cyrus got up and took their formation. Jules and Cyrus faced the military, and Katarina and Rukia faced the Pirates. The Soldiers created a shield formation and stabbed between them with spears. Jules and Cyrus’ swords couldn’t penetrate the defense, but Jules fueled the Sound’s edge with his anger, and its heat bought them some distance.
[?94,500 // ?174,501]
“Glad I got that Piercing Damage buff,” Jules said.
“I envy you.” Cyrus sliced a spearhead off of its shaft.
“Watch it.” Jules heard Katarina’s daggers slice through skin. The girls warded off the Pirate’s swords and pikes with ease, but more and more kept defecting from their alliance and joining in on the fight.
Jules grabbed a spear shaft and pulled a man to him. He slammed the bottom of the Sound’s grip into the man’s head and knocked him out.
“Let the bodies hit—"
“No more magic, Cy," Jules ordered. "Save your Ryoku.”
Jules intercepted another spear, but this Soldier was smart enough to let go before Jules yanked it, so Jules returned it to the man—in his chest.
Seems like they’re doing fine back there. Jules’ neck and back kept getting sprayed with blood.
“You—idiot—Pirates—should have—focused—on—the military!”
Rukia chomped loudly on some man who screamed bloody murder. Jules heard her hop from Pirate to Pirate.
“Jules,” Cyrus said. “Look who it is.”
Straight ahead of them, Bootstrapper, the Scholar and Hydromage Recruiter from Coralhaven, approached them with Fin Rivers, the Hydromage Druid they’d witnessed receive his first Tome—the man Jules had fought during the Sack. And the man Cy almost killed in cold blood. The duo gently brushed their comrades out of their way.
I’m sure I killed your families—
Jules pushed away his guilt. Not me. Wrath.
“Are you sure you want to fight us?" Jules asked them "I don’t want to hurt you.”
'Straps looked around at the piling bodies. “Don’t appear that way.”
“Hey,” Cyrus said. “Your guys started it.”
“Corpses follow you, do they not?” The Druid’s eyes lit up.
? ? Aspect of the Beast ? ?
The bear's head the Druid wore as a hood sublimed to mist. His muscles bulged and took on the bear's strength. The Druid ran to Jules, who broke formation to meet him. Jules caught the Druid’s punch and shoved him back into his comrades.
Bootstrapper crafted an ice sword and lunged at Cyrus, who cracked it after a few parries. He slashed at Cyrus with an empty hand. Halfway through the move, he formed another sword.
“Cy!” Jules shouted.
Cyrus twisted around and blocked the strike with the Vessel on his back. Again, the sword shattered. He twirled his curved sword around in his hands and faced the man again. “Alright, 'Straps. You’ve made your stance clear.”
Bootstrapper thrust a third sword at Cyrus, who launched his open palm straight at the sword’s tip. What should have impaled Cyrus shattered to dust. Cyrus didn’t stop moving forward. He snagged Bootstrapper's ear and jerked it to him, then whispered.
? Silence ?
The Recruiter invoked his Script again, but nothing happened. The man couldn’t speak.
“You’re not our targets today, either one of you. Run while you can.” The Hydromage’s comrades grabbed him from behind and shuffled him back through the lines. Though he struggled, the man was soon lost in the sea of people.
The battalion is arriving, Whiskers warned.
“Shit. Time to rout them together,” Jules said. “We need it back to a three-way."
"A what now?" Katarina asked.
"A one-v-one-v-one."
“On it,” Cyrus said.
? ? Ryoku Shield ? ?
The Shield appeared to their right and widened out like a wedge. The force crushed Pirates and Soldiers into their own ranks. The Shield moved right, and the Party chased after it.
The wedge bulldozed people out of their way. Behind them, Jules saw Pirates begin to engage with the military again. They reached the edge of an open plaza. Cyrus repurposed the wedge into Ryoku Shields for them.
Good, not wasting any energy.
“Psst, up here.” Whiskers sat on a wall high above them and draped one of his three tails over the ledge. “The military outnumbers them ten-to-one, but Jones’ men will likely hold their own. Continue this way—Uh, Jules?”
“Look who showed up.” Katarina scowled. A new group split through the military ranks, and then eventually the Pirates’ ranks as well.
Maddie.
******* ****** ***** **** *** ** * ** *** **** ***** ****** *******
88
BONUS CONTENT BELOW
******* ****** ***** **** *** ** * ** *** **** ***** ****** *******
Books of Salvatica
Excerpts from 'The Sins of Wrath' by B.S. Snelliott
The Decimation of Coralhaven
It brings me great sorrow to inform you that Wrath has struck again (and we suspect he shall strike again, so please make sure you subscribe to stay informed!) and thousands have been killed at his hands, back in his hometown of Coralhaven.
We are still waiting to find out more information, but all reports are indicating that Coralhaven proper has been obliterated—leveled to the ground—and there have been no survivors found.
A contingency of Iron Maidens are on their way there now as we speak.
WRATH IS STILL AT LARGE—SUBSCRIBE FOR A MEASLY SUM OF ?1,000 PER MONTH TO RECEIVE AUTOMATIC UPDATES TO THIS VOLUME WHEN NEW INFORMATION ON WRATH COMES TO LIGHT. SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE GOOD FOR A SINGLE VOLUME ONLY, TRACKED BY SERIAL NUMBER, AND NON-TRANSFERRABLE, AND CANCELABLE ONLY AFTER 7 MONTHS.