Chapter 47 - Pirates

Normally ships out at sea would give a wide berth to avoid collisions, and it was expected even moreso here in the lawless waters where criminals were in abundance. If this other ship had meant them no harm, they would have swayed out to their left to avoid confrontation… but instead, a series of large metal hooks were extending out from the ship’s hull and getting ready to latch on with a brushby boarding tactic Trey had already seen once before. They’d also likely have modified harpoons in case the brushby didn’t work, so that they could pull the smaller ship in close with crank mechanisms.

“PIRATES! GET YOUR ASSES READY BOYS - THEY’RE HERE TO FUCK US GOOD!” Brae whirled to grab the ship’s helm and turned the wheel to the left as sailors scrambled to get their weapons across the deck.

Their cog lurched as it caught one of the larger waves and leaned with the turn. Unsurprisingly, the enemy galley matched their path and turned with them.

Trey’s heartbeat began to pick up as he screamed at Izumi to get below deck. Jason tossed the girl his satchel of herbs as she went and got his longbow to ready himself, checking to make sure his small mace was also at his side while giving Trey a meaningful look.

Ashe tried to get herself back in the game too but was having a hard time with the motion sickness, and her frustration was beyond obvious as she gurgled another belch.

Trey shook his head in irritation, but understood that she’d be unable to fight well in her current state. That really did suck though, as she was in the top three killers on board second only to him and one of the swordsmen Brae had hired. He’d been amazed at how skilled she was with those crossbows and wondered how in the hells she’d been so proficient using them. He then decided he’d have to ask her about it sometime.

“Get below deck sickie, we’ve got this. Only come out if they board us.”

Ashe shot him a glare in response, her beautiful features wrinkled in distaste for the situation, but after another wave rocked the boat and her face began to pale even further she nodded and clambered down to get below deck.

The larger boat was gaining on them, and it got worse when oars from either side of the galley pushed out to speed it up even more. On top of this the cog they sailed in only had one mast, while the galley pursuing them had three. Aside from the long metal hooks out to either side of the galley - Trey now confirmed that the harpoons he’d expected were being set on the port side, and just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse he noticed the plating along the sides of the pursuing ship. Green runes of power were carved into thin metal plates along the hull.

Fuck.

Of the warships he’d seen since getting here four months ago, he’d laid eyes on many with runes like the ones before him now. They were deflection runes, meant to stop magic casters from tearing the boat apart upon whim. These pirates were professionals and likely wouldn’t go down easy.

He began to summon his most powerful demon, Atharost, from the nether realms first. It would take thirty seconds to channel the magic and call his minion back to his world, and another thirty seconds for every other minion. And as he channeled the summoning, the enemy ship was still gaining. They were only twenty yards away and he could see the faces of the would-be killers on board with loaded crossbows readying themselves just as the first and second harpoons launched.

The projectiles collided and sunk into the wood of the backside of the cog, knocking him off-balance in a shower of wood just as Atharost came into existence. Then the ropes attached to the harpoons began to tighten and pull the cog in while wheels on the harpoon mechanism were cranked enthusiastically.

The pirates began to chant some kind of hymn over the rush of the wind and waves in anticipation of the killing to come, and the suspense mounted.

Brae pointed back at the hooting, howling pirates and screamed out: “FIRE AT WILL!”

Arrows and bolts from both parties whistled back and forth through the air. Jason, Brae and many other sailors on the cog had pushed up barrels and crates for cover and hunkered down behind them inbetween firing off their own projectiles. One of the men on Brae’s side fell into death with a scream and an arrow protruding from his neck. Another took one to the chest and fell backwards over the rail, and into the sea.

Meanwhile, Atharost’s insanely hot flames had roared to life to turn any arrows coming his way into ashes. Occasionally one of the arrowheads would get through, but most of them dropped off when their shafts disintegrated or took the brunt of the deterring flames. The ifrit hovered just slightly above deck to not catch the wood on fire, and while putting himself inbetween his master and the new enemies without asking questions - he lifted a hand towards the pirate galley.

Flames burst into life along the enemy’s anterior bow in a blinding wall of heat that sent some of them screaming back to clutch at their faces and bodies, but the flames didn’t catch the wood. The green runes along the galley’s hull glowed, reacting to the ifrit’s magic and nullifying the attack so that it only lasted for a short time.

Trey couldn’t see just how many enemies there were. The galley’s height advantage made it hard to determine, but he didn’t have much of a choice at this point. In order to use magic effectively, he’d have to be on the enemy ship so that it didn’t recognize him as an outside source.

The oars of the galley gave one final heave, and then were retracted as the pirates braced for impact with roars of eager approval amidst the continued chants of others. Trey in turn grimaced, and gripped the backside railing in anticipation of the fight to come. If he died here… there was no coming back. Not since the All Spirit’s protective cycle was turned OFF, and he’d already seen one other Earthborn he’d been acquainted with die in the Lawless Lands never to return.

That made this fight all the more real.

*BOOM*

The impact came hard and fast with a crash.

Trey lurched and screamed to his ifrit friend over the grating impact of metal hooks on wood just as the galley sideswiped the cog to carry it forward, impaling the smaller ship in multiple places and effectively attaching the two ships at the hip. “I’M GOING IN, FOLLOW WHEN YOU CAN!”

Just as pirates began to re-emerge to look out over the side with ropes, cutlasses and crossbows, Trey shadowstepped overhead. He was ten feet up looking down at the unaware antagonists, the would-be killers were unaware of where he’d gone and were too focused on the remaining men on board. In their eyes, Trey’s crew was less than half their size and ready for death’s door.

With one hand finishing his second summon mid-air Trey used the other hand to unleash a chaos ball on the most densely packed group of enemies he saw. The chaos mana ripped into them, tearing their poorly armored bodies apart with screams of agony and scrambled guts.

“You have gained XP.”

He landed into a roll on deck and grinned as Big Cow Daddy emerged from a crimson pentagram that appeared on the wood of the pirate ship. All ten feet of the huge muscular minotaur stepped into view, iron armor making him look even more bulky as he roared out a beastial challenge to literally toss the closest screaming man overboard with a single swing of his arm.

“GET THE WARLOCK!” screamed one of the ship’s officers who quickly threw a dagger that painfully lodged itself in Trey’s shoulder.

It was a common mistake. Most people assumed Trey was a warlock immediately after seeing one of his summons.

Warlocks were generally considered very dangerous and were a rarity in themselves. Contracting with demons was a dangerous task that led to early deaths of many would-be practitioners of the black magics, culling the numbers of their profession down at the get-go. Summoners were even rarer though, which was the first reason he was often confused for a warlock. Trey wasn’t sure why this was the case, but in his time here exploring Ornthas or Teretog he’d only encountered a handful of warlocks and only two other infernal summoners. Summoners usually sat in the backlines and focused on staying protected behind their small legions of demons, having the advantage of binding numerous demons to their cause instead of the single demon warlocks got. Warlocks on the other hand usually had a distinct one-on-one advantage over summoners in terms of sheer firepower when compared to a summoner at similar level, which is the second reason he was often confused for a warlock. Trey’s firepower was far beyond what a normal summoner could pitch out themselves without their demons doing it for them, and Sithis had always attributed this to the essence Trey’d bonded to.

That, and chaos magic was apparently very, very rare. Even for black magic practitioners. It’s primary and almost singular use was simple: utter destruction. When comparing damage output of a simple firebolt to a chaos ball at similar level, Trey found that the chaos magic did many times more damage per casting and took more mana than a firebolt did. Finding a skill trainer for chaos spells to add to his repertoire was proving very hard to do.

It was only those who took the time to identify him that realized he was actually a summoner. Or if his enemies were smart enough, they’d realized that these other summons were actually his and not another warlock’s before they inevitably met death. In the heat of battle though, just as this pirate officer had done, his occupation was usually mistaken.

Yanking out the dagger and swearing profusely at the dumb fuck who’d dared attack him, Trey’s body shifted into shadowform with Sithis’ prompting to avoid a crossbow bolt meant for the back of his head. The symbiote had been delegated to protective measures concerning the use of Trey’s shadowform, and Sithis had gotten very good at it in the last month.

Phasing into a black mass of shadows just as the bolt passed through him, he materialized again in the same spot he’d been in. The move hadn’t taken any mana, despite it being very similar to shadowstep in place, but there was a limit on how many times or how long he could do it. Grinning at the asshole thug who’d shot at him as Trey’s minotaur bulldozed over the screaming man to crush his skull with an armored hoof, Trey turned back to the officer.

To Trey’s left he had two enemies brandishing short swords running his way. Further left - a mass of wounded pirates were getting up from his earlier attack, tripping over their dead friends’ corpses, or trying to board the smaller ship below as Jason and the other members of the crew shot arrows at them. To Trey’s front, Big Cow Daddy was fighting three more men with ease. To Trey’s right stood the officer and another thirty or so pirates who were scrambling to get hooks, ropes and other means of boarding the smaller ship before coming his way.

There were too many of them… and there was no way Trey would win by himself, so as the first five men lunged at him with spears and cutlasses he was thankful to see them go down in a torrent of Atharost’s flames as the ifrit made short work of the inferior mortals beneath his hovering visage.

“Hehe! Bitches.”

A blade came for him in the form of a downwards slash as the first shirtless pirate made contact. Trey pivoted right to avoid the first of the two men on his left side then dropped to the deck to kick out the man’s legs, sending him onto his back as Trey spun up off the ground in a roundhouse kick to the second man’s face.

Teeth flew in all directions as the man’s jaw crunched under the impact, causing him to black out instantly and stagger before toppling to the deck in a heap. The sword dropped with a clanging sound and Trey grinned down at the pirate he’d undercut who was still looking at Trey in shock. The vagabond hadn’t expected a caster of all people to know how to fight up close, and his gaping mouth showed off just how badly he realized his decision had been to engage.

*Crack*

Trey’s knee snapped up into the gaping man’s face, imploding his nose as Trey’s tail whipped around and lacerated another passerby’s throat in a spray of blood when the unfortunate criminal had gotten too close for comfort.

Summoning Talsh’Noc’Un from shadowform Trey abruptly spun it around and jammed it through the downed pirate’s broken face, killing him instantly.

“You have gained XP. Your hand to hand combat has grown by 1 level.”

The sword’s thirst for blood expanded upon the whispers Sithis was already pouring into Trey’s mind. His vision became red as his more demonic features overtook him with a wide-set predatory grin. A man set on fire ran past screaming in agony before jumping off the ship’s railing into the sea below, and more flames exploded off near the ship’s backside in a roaring inferno that was quickly tearing through the clumped groups of men who had nowhere to go. A minotaur’s axe split open one man’s skull just before three more were trampled to great injury or death in a horns-first barreling charge. Pandemonium had quickly spread amongst the aggressors on deck, and Trey was getting off to it wholeheartedly.

The next few minutes were all a blur for him after that as his greatsword’s ability ‘Berserk’ activated. His aggressive tendencies quadrupled, his buffs activated, and he lost himself to insanity.

2 - Berserk: Tremendously increases aggression. Vast but temporary increase to strength, speed, dexterity, intelligence, and faith. +180 to full body physical and magic resistance. Immune to all debuffs (this does not include physically inflicted statuses like 'bleeding'). Lasts until out of combat. Cooldown: Long.

He split open a screaming man’s chest with a loud cackle and drove Talsh’Noc’Un out the other end to fling the man twenty feet skywards. Chucking three chaos balls haphazardly at passing victims to obliterate them where they stood, he shadowstepped over to the first mast where a man was climbing it to get away from the carnage. Laughing like a madman his hand gripped the fleeing pirate’s ankle and threw him back to the deck before stomping on the man’s windpipe repeatedly until he heard something snap.

An arrow bounced off Trey’s buffed skin, and then another followed to bounce harmlessly away, but a third that followed up in quick succession managed to pierce him.

Trey saw his HP bar drop as he felt something painful thud into his back and chest a couple times, but he didn’t stop. It wasn’t enough to drop him, and he was having too much fun to give it up now.

Sithis took control of Trey’s body for a split second to whirl on his heel and bring up his sword. Talsh’Noc’Un slammed into an oncoming cutlass, sending the pirate’s sword spinning off into another direction while Trey’s foot collided with the man’s crotch to drop him.

“HAHAAAAA!!!!”

A sickening wrenching sound loudly tore through the air as his claws ripped off the stunned man’s jaw in another bloody spray. Trey screamed with gleeful delight after watching the agony cross through the man’s remaining face in gurgling, spluttering cries of anguish and tore through the man’s torso with his greatsword. It split the pirate down the side to his spine before yanking the weapon out as the corpse dropped as deadweight.

Trey’s happiness was ended quickly though - as an explosion tore into his backside with a violent crack of power. He was sent sprawling head over heels and slammed against a series of wooden crates piled up next to the mast. White flames were still searing through his skin and the pain was so great it nearly put him into shock. Writhing on the ground until the flames died out, Trey’s berserk ability died down at Sithis’ command.

“You are bleeding, this is a damage over time effect. You are burned, this is a damage over time effect.”

‘We’ve got a problem.’ Sithis snarled as he focused Trey’s vision onto a heavily tattooed and shirtless shaman with a mohawk, about his age, waving a glowing white charm out in front of him while uttering incantations.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “FOR THE MASTER!” roared Big Cow Daddy just as the minotaur tore through a wall of spears to get at the shaman. The pirates had formed a defensive line in front of their solitary caster and clenched their assholes as the much bigger demon dove into their ranks.

Trey’s minion took a spear to the throat, a spear to its left thigh, and another spear to the crevice between breastplate and pauldron, but the huge brute kept going despite his injuries and lunged forward head-first to impale and crush the shaman in a ruthless crunching of bones. The shaman’s mangled body had its breath knocked out of it, and the man couldn’t yell out or resist. The smaller human simply gave way under the brutal assault - and after being annihilated to slam into the deck underneath the huge minotaur, was flung up off the horn impaling him and tossed as a limp wreckage into the crowd of vagabonds who were supposed to be protecting him.

Trey watched in shock while his minotaur was viciously hacked and speared to death not but a little ways away. His vision was fading, he was bleeding out on the deck from the bolts sticking out of his front and back while enormous burns covered his posterior from head to thigh. He had been careless and overconfident, and here he was about to join his minotaur in the afterlife. In the thoughts flickering about his fading mind, Trey couldn’t help but think about how truly stupid he’d been for going up and berserking like he had.

But had he really had a choice? The ship with his friends on it would have died if he hadn’t acted to distract the enemy force with vastly superior numbers. Their cog would have been overwhelmed..

No. He hadn’t been stupid. He’d known what he was doing… and to chastise himself for trying to keep the people he cared about alive - now that was foolish. No - he would hold no regrets if he died here, especially if it meant his friends would live. He just hoped they could manage it without him somehow.

His breathing was becoming ever more shallow and he was losing touch with reality even as the battle raged on about him. Figures of the two fighting sides went in and out of darkness as the world became cold, and although he couldn’t tell who was who... he at the very least hoped that the cog’s captain Brae could dislodge his ship to escape somehow.

“Your minion Big Cow Daddy has died.”

The All Spirit’s voice confirmed his minotaur’s death.

Great… just… great. Trey even felt bad that the moronic demon had died trying to save him. Big Cow Daddy had just been minionized not even a month ago and he’d already been killed off in an attempt to keep Trey from dying himself. Without Trey’s permanence it would mean a forever death for Big Cow Daddy. A futile attempt, but nonetheless appreciated in Trey’s own dying moments.

“You stupid stupid.”

Ah, he wished he’d been able to summon his other two minions in time to help him fight. Napoleon’s little imp voice came from the beyond to mock him, giving him a little bit of amusement in the last moments of his life to calm him from what was an ever-expanding dread of the unknown. He’d always come back from death, and he was truly afraid of actually dying. He didn’t want to die… not yet. Not permanently. Frankly this was horse shit. He’d never asked to come to this world and this wasn’t the way he’d wanted to go out. If he DID have to go out, he’d wanted it to be in the arms of some hot babe stroking her fingers through his hair. Not… bleeding out to death on a pirate ship that smelled like monkey piss.

Another explosion of fire and screams briefly brought Trey back from death’s door, but only for an instant.

“Your minion Atharost has gained 1 overall level.”

Then he heard the little imp’s voice again. “Watch master, I go kill kill!”

Trey’s vision cleared and the cold feeling went away. He connected back to reality with a gasp and lurched a little bit as the beautiful visage of Rivia pulled out another bolt from his chest while muttering a rejuvenation miracle. She’d dragged him into a crevice between two of the large wooden crates for cover and he could barely make out Napoleon streak across the deck from around the edge of the first crate.

The little demon could seriously pack a punch ever since ascending from oblivion imp to primal imp, and for something so small it was actually ridiculous how easily it was able to kill humans six times its size. Like a little ball of hatred, Napoleon would cast burden and fear curses on his targets before ripping out their throats with his claws, horn and venomous teeth. Firebolts were flung out at will as he went and he was far too fast to be hit by any of the pirates here who scrambled to catch the small cackling creature in a panic.

Trey turned his attention back to the gorgeous priestess holding him in her arms. She’d pulled out all five of the bolts locked into his body and was casting a second healing miracle now, keeping her Dagger of Sacrifice close to her in case of someone deciding to turn their attention on her or Trey.

He remembered when he’d given her that dagger after claiming the loot from the battle with cultists in Vork. She’d been quite excited to get it, and had since used it on numerous victims - some of which she’d actually used in her new ritual ‘Absorbant Soul Sacrifice’ to give him more stat points while growing closer to Alkir’s favor. With the XP bonus she got from the dagger, it was a seriously useful weapon.

Trey coughed, sputtering blood onto his chest and onto the black silk robes she so often wore. She needed a new outfit, and although she washed hers regularly it was becoming tattered.

“How’d you get here?” Trey asked between coughs just as she cast an ‘Immortal’s Infernal Blessing’ on Atharost to save him from an incoming harpoon that had been launched at him from the opposite side of the ship. The harpoon bounced off harmlessly to the loud cursing of the pirates and the continued maniacal laughing of the bloodthirsty ifrit before they too were incinerated in a burning fiery death.

Rivia smirked down at her master and helped him to sit up. Brushing him off and watching the final burns along his back disappear, she nodded in satisfaction. “Sithis summoned us while you were dying. If I had been even a minute longer, you’d certainly be dead.”

Talsh’Noc’Un had been laying across Trey’s lap and in an instant the huge weapon whipped forward as if it had been thrown on its own volition, savagely impaling a large muscular pirate passing by and sending him reeling over the deck before the greatsword withdrew itself and flew back to lay on Trey’s lap again.

“You have gained XP.”

Trey’s eyebrow raised and his lips curled at the edges into a dumbfounded smile. He hadn’t even touched the sword, but apparently that attack had registered as his kill anyways.

But back to bigger, better things: Sithis had actually saved his life without Trey knowing it. Well… Sithis had summoned Rivia who’d then saved his life. So he owed them both a great deal.

He nodded in gratitude to the demoness and propped himself up. “Thank you, Rivia. Thank you, Sithis.”

The demoness smiled in acknowledgement. She didn’t say anything though, and knew such acts were expected of her. The more obedient she’d become, the better her life had also become. He’d been a lot more kind to her over the last couple months, thus her attitude towards him had drastically changed. She still didn’t necessarily like him, but she definitely didn’t hate him anymore. Sometimes she even found herself smiling and laughing when they engaged in conversation… which was rather odd to her whenever she thought about it.

Then again, at this point she also had to consider her own selfish reasons for helping him. If she’d let him die here, she’d be absolutely stranded without a group to protect her in a foreign land. It certainly wouldn’t have been the most ideal situation.

Sithis on the other hand just sighed internally. Trey could tell his symbiote was not pleased with the near death experience and that Sithis was pretty damn shaken after almost being deleted from existence along with his master. ‘That was close… too close. Get on with the killing, we still have a ways to go.’

“Your minion Napoleon’s ability Fear has increased by 1 level.” The words spoken by the All Spirit caused Trey to look in the imp’s direction as the blindingly fast creature villainously cackled and wreaked havoc amongst two fleeing victims many times his size. The imp easily caught the first one before Trey looked away, rending at the man’s cervical spine with sharp little venomous teeth and taking him to the deck after jumping on his back before blowing away another guy with three consecutive firebolts.

An arrow embedded itself in the wood next to his foot, causing him to draw back further into the crevice between crates and thanking his lucky stars the one who’d shot at him had been of poor aim. “I’ma get that fuckass…”

Trey peered around the second crate and saw the guy who’d fired at him. He was notching another arrow to his longbow and pulling back, his elvish features apparent and strikingly strange given the large pirate tattoos across his chest. Trey quickly summoned a chaos chain from behind the man and watched as it homed in from behind, never giving him a chance as it struck home and ripped through the man’s body.

The man dropped his bow and the arrow fell with it, a look of shock evident as he watched the sparking chain wrap around his body after lurching out the center of his chest. Within seconds he’d died, falling limp to the chain before Trey gave the solidified mana construct a new target. The chain whipped about and impaled a second and then a third pirate before it was finally destroyed by two men with warhammers that slammed it repeatedly until it shattered.

Now the tides of the battle had turned. The proximal end of the ship still had a couple dozen pirates left that were battling Atharost with whatever they could. They launched spears, bolts and harpoons at him - even seriously injuring the ifrit with one of the harpoons through the shoulder before the rope holding it was cut away and Atharost launched up overhead for a temporary retreat. The cheers of the buccaneers along with their advance across the ship were halted however when a thick wall of flames raced across the midpoint, setting one of the masts aflame entirely while Trey’s flying demon friend came around to the back.

From Brae’s cog, Jason and many of the other sailors were boarding the galley and killing the very last of the pirates at the distal end of the ship. The wall of flames was building on the time Atharost had given them and their spirits were lifted now that victory was a definite possibility. Big Cow Daddy and Trey had been very helpful clearing the area too, and Napoleon was amazingly making quick work of the buccaneer remnants on this side of the flame wall almost by himself. The little imp was a god damn nightmare become reality and was so flippin quick that Trey was doubtful even he’d be able to kill the little shithead if they’d gotten into it. He realized right then and there that he’d seriously underestimated Napoleon’s ability to fight groups of people all by himself ever since the ascension. Then again... the pirates had come seriously unprepared, and checking out one of their levels Trey was suddenly less impressed.

Name: Pirate

Race: Human

Class: Pirate

Level: 5

HP: 114/114

MP: 100/100

SP: 106/106

DP: 1/1

Well… they’d still almost killed him with numbers despite the level difference hadn’t they? Trey didn’t want to get cocky again and knocked some sense into his brain with a couple self-abusing jabs to his forehead.

Brae’s scarred head came into view just as Trey pulled himself out of the crevice between crates. The captain threw out his hands to either side in bewilderment. “YOU’RE A MADMAN!”

Brae clasped hands with Trey and laughed at the crazy stunt Trey’d pulled just a few minutes ago. He snorted and called out to the others to press forward to move the large number of crates into a wall formation for a place to hold as the galley’s runic enchantments began to put out the flames.

Anxiety-filled cries were heard from below deck right underneath their feet, and at that moment Trey realized there were still people down there. Someone had to have rowed the oars of the ship, right? But why hadn’t they come up to fight? Weren’t they going to help out these other assholes on deck? Where was the entrance to the lower levels?

“Slaves.” Brae clarified as he watched Trey’s confused expression. “We’ll worry about them after we win this fight. Prepare yourself, the ship’s enchantments are keeping it afloat and the flames will be gone soon.

Arrows continued to fire in both directions down the ship’s length as either crew gained visibility. Letting off two chaos balls blindly through the dying flames he heard someone scream and knew he’d hit someone when the prompt appeared.

“You have gained XP.”

An arrow sliced across his hand and he flinched involuntarily, putting his back to one of the crates his side had lined up. Behind him on the deck of the cog, two sailors under Brae’s command lay dead. Another three lay injured on deck nearby but Rivia was already tending to their wounds with half of her DP already spent.

To his surprise, Trey also saw Ashe firing off bolts next to Jason from her main crossbow with deadly accuracy. She always had one backup crossbow loaded in case she needed a quick shot. Getting back to the point though: Even seasick, the blonde rogue had come up to fight and landed one, two and then three headshots with glorious accuracy.

Tossing a couple smoke bombs over the wall and taking cover behind the makeshift wooden wall, she caught Trey’s gaze and gave him a thumbs up - grin combo. “Are you ok?”

Atharost came up from behind and slumped down next to Brae, looking over Trey’s healed wounds with satisfaction and pulling out a spearhead that was lodged in his chest. Now that the ifrit’s flames were gone, it was evident that Atharost had taken a real beating. He’d been able to vaporize many of the projectiles shot at him, but there’d been a couple that had gotten through the inferno to do some serious damage. Most of the wounds were sealed shut with flame but there were at least eight deep gashes from projectiles and sword strikes if not more.

Name: Atharost

HP: 98/360

MP: 29/402

SP: 75/100

DP: 1/1

Trey chuckled at seeing the HP and MP bars for his ifrit. “Doing better than you are right now! You did good work out there, thanks.”

Atharost was obviously exhausted. He’d also grown a level while going at it, but the assignment of skill and stat points would have to wait until later. The ifrit called out to Rivia to come heal him when she was done bringing the injured sailors back from the brink of death and panted to catch his breath.

Then the ifrit pointed to the minotaur corpse. It was surrounded by numerous other smaller corpses of the pirates that had attacked them, with spears still sticking out of the big bull neck. “I see Big Cow Daddy died…”

Trey shifted uncomfortably, feeling a twinge of remorse shoot through him. “Yeah. He did a good job…”

Atharost snorted. “Couldn’t even last a month, it isn’t something to become upset about.”

This earned the ifrit a frown and a serious look of disappointment from Trey. Nothing else needed to be said, and Atharost immediately regretted the words with his arrogance simmering down into shame.

Big Cow Daddy may have been forced into minionhood, and he may have been incredibly stupid like most of the other minotaur Trey had encountered, but he’d literally saved Trey’s life in a moment that could have cost Trey the big one. He deserved some fucking respect.

Shoving aside the lecture he was tempted to rail onto Atharost and still hunkering down behind the crates as the two sides exchanged fire, Trey waited for his mana to recharge. He didn’t get to wait too long though, because two minutes after Atharost’s insensitive comments about the minotaur - a warcry sounded from the mustering buccaneers. Peeking over the wooden barrier, Trey saw the flames had finally died down with the entire remaining crew of the galley sprinting towards them.

They knew they outnumbered the cog’s numbers by at least 2 to 1 still, despite their astronomical losses. It wasn’t a bad move and in a few more seconds Trey’s friends were about to be overrun. His mana still wasn’t done recharging and Atharost was in poor condition. With neither Napoleon nor Rivia having any area of effect spells, it was looking pretty bleak.

Trey’s body moved on its own as Sithis took control. In a move that Trey himself considered rather hazardous and stupid, Sithis had vaulted him over the crate wall and heaved Talsh’Noc’Un over his head to prepare a forward throwing motion - but didn’t let go just yet. The wall of somewhere between 30 and 40 buccaneers barrelled on ahead towards him, invigorated by their bearded dark-skinned captain at the front of the pack.

“YOU FUCKING MORON!”

Trey screamed the words out of fear more than anything else. Everyone around him thought he was talking to one of the oncoming pirates, little did they know he was talking to Sithis as the symbiote cackled internally before activating Talsh’Noc’Un’s obliterate ability. The sword hummed and then thrashed with power billowing out from its form - and in the next second, Sithis threw it. It spun around in an arc to slam into a grouped up crowd of unsuspecting dipshits. Dipshit guts flew in multiple directions as their charge was abruptly halted along with their warcries, with many of them being tossed to the deck or overboard with major wounds. The explosion was intense, and a wave of power rippled across the deck with splinters of wood shattering as boxes and barrels on the other side of the charge were torn asunder.

“You have gained XP. Your blades skill has increased by 1 level. You have gained 1 overall level.”

Trey stood aghast just the same as many of the others behind him. “Holy shit…”

His greatsword was just now rising out of the crater it had created in the center of the galley’s deck. Sithis had been aiming for the captain, who’s scattered entrails were riddled along the floor and out into the ocean. Joining the captain were a number of other corpses that were either only partially intact or were so far-gone that Trey had a hard time determining just how many were dead - but if had to guess he’d put that number at about 9. Even more were injured and an additional five or so had been thrown overboard in the blast and wouldn’t be bothering them anymore. Perhaps Trey would even get the credit for their drowning if they didn’t make it to one of the nearby islands in time?

A long, loud creaking noise began to rise as wood cracked and moaned. The central mast, the biggest of the three, had taken a good amount of damage from Trey’s throw. As Talsh’Noc’Un finally rose out of the crater and flew back to Trey’s outstretched right hand, the mast began to topple to his left. Slamming into the deck with a loud crash that caused many of the mortified pirates to retreat even further, a large portion of the wooden railing was destroyed as the mast completely snapped off and fell into the ocean.

Ashe was the first to come to her senses amidst the whole lot of them. A crossbow bolt sailed out and nailed another vagabond through the throat, sending him sputtering and clutching at the spurting wound to topple backwards.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE! KILL THEM ALL!” Ashe screamed before jumping over the crates to join Trey, throwing out three smoke bombs and taking out her extra crossbow to drop another man with yet another clean shot.

God she was good with those crossbows.

With a cry to carry their momentum forward - Brae and his men fired out another round of projectiles before jumping the crates and charging the enemy crew. The ground between them was short considering the pirates had already made the initial charge partway, and with many of them dead or seriously injured it was the final straw for the aggressors. The pirates began to flee in mass backwards to the stern of the ship, looking for anything to use as cover in a final stand.

Napoleon shot past Ashe as she took out a dagger to sink it into an injured man’s spine, the little imp passed through the wall of smoke and collided with one of the slower shirtless buccaneers, tearing into his side with venomous teeth in a gory frenzy. Brae parried a machete with his longsword and ran another man through as a chaos ball flew past to shred another two men across the gaping hole in the deck.

“Your minion Napoleon has gained 1 level in Hand to Hand Combat.”

The remainder of the fight didn’t last more than another two minutes. The morale of the pirates was completely shattered, many of them jumping off to try and swim to one of the small distant islands while archers fired overboard to pick them off. Others tried to stand and fight at the stairway leading up to the stern in a chokepoint before being decimated by the ifrit’s flames again, while others simply begged for their lives and threw down their weapons.

“Please warlock! Please spare me! I’ll tell you- AHG!”

Trey headbutted the pleading vagabond, shattering one eye socket with his horns and then ran him through with his greatsword. The pirate coughed up blood and began to tremble and even cry with Trey’s sneering grin inches away at eye level, then the sword was violently ripped out and the man was thrown overboard.

“Eat shit.” Trey raised a hand to flip the dying man off as he hit the water below, and then Trey turned around to walk back to where Jason was standing at the rail shooting off the last of his arrows at men still trying to swim away.

“You have gained XP.”

He watched as Jason drew back on the longbow three times before finally hitting the asshole he’d been aiming for. The guy who’d been swimming lurched as the arrow pierced his lung and thrashed a couple moments before beginning to sink.

Trey grinned and swatted Jason on the back. “Shark food.”

Jason gave a shaky laugh and nodded. “That was scary for a minute there. I thought we were toast with their numbers so much greater than ours. I thought I was going to die.”

From behind them, Ashe was being saluted and given high fives from many of the others after shot after shot continued to sink more of the retreating pirates still swimming in the ocean. Atharost just stood by watching her, not wanting to take her moment of glory by flying over there to blast them close range. The ifrit was rather enjoying watching anyways and would grin even further every time Ashe hit a moving target. Just as Jason though, she was almost out of projectiles to fire, so after another minute she had to stop.

The deck was riddled with corpses. Dozens of pirates, Trey’s minotaur, and three of Brae’s sailors lay dead. Another of Brae’s sailors was floating in the water nearby, face down. With the two who’d been killed on the cog, that was 6 of 14 sailors who’d met death leaving 8 still alive outside of Brae himself. It was a hard pill to swallow, especially since they’d all miraculously pulled out of Ornthas without any losses, but it could have been much worse. This was the life they’d all signed up for, and the dangers here were very real.