《Lure O' War (The Old Realms)》11. Clash at Krakentrap Straits (2/2)
Advertisement
The crew of the Marquette was around twenty five strong, but not all of them were fighters. Good, that is. There comes a point though, when you have to fight.
Whether you can, or not.
“Listen up,” Captain Aron Gray said, looking at them with sad eyes. “Not everyone is going to make it. Let’s get this out of the way. But we ain’t losing this ship. Cut down anyone that jumps aboard, any way ye can. Keep this in mind though, pirates don’t take prisoners.”
That’s a bunch of crap, Jinx thought busy dipping her arrows into a freshly opened bottle of poison. A mixture of her own, made out of red frogs spit and rat droppings, with a bit of cayon massed leaves added in. Mostly a paralytic; though it did the job, just not as well her mainstay, a yellow-green mix she produced from the bark of the Upas tree. Rare to find, and lasting not as long, when bottled. Ten times as deadly though.
So there was that.
“They take prisoners,” She murmured seeing Dante, warming up his muscles, sword in hand. Soren right next to him, was munching on something, with pieces of puke still stuck in his red beard. “If they’re valuable, or pretty.” Soren laughed hard at that, so Jinx showed him her mid finger in response.
“Fear not, Pretty,” Dante said, a merchant’s smile on his face. “This is but a nuisance. We’ve faced much worse. Right?”
“When?” Soren asked.
“That wolf’s pack was nasty.” A rare comment from Pale.
“Basically they were mountain dogs, a bit well fed, I think,” Jinx noted unsure, the incident a couple of years in the past already, in the woods near Midlanor.
Cessara and Kirk were still alive then.
“Bah, not even close!” Dante responded theatrically, sword cutting an eight in the air.
“Go on a journey, he says,” Zola whined across from him, arming her crossbow. Her stare acerbic. “Do nothing for a month and get paid,” Dante gave her a hurt look, which pissed the Issirian even more. “Cut this shit out, else I'll shoot you in the fuckin' face.”
It worked like a charm.
“Okay, myself, mister Victor Hook and the Captain will hold this gangway, Glen and the big guy will stay back, block anyone that pushes through. You Ladies, find a good position and keep those arrows away from me.” That was Sir Emerson Lennox, their employer for the trip. Dante’s easy contract.
“Don’t worry,” Jinx said with a grin, “I’m a good shot.”
The knight frowned.
“I’ll worry, just the same.”
“What about the sailors?” Asked Glen, green in the face. Either from another case of seasickness, or a heavy case of the jitters.
Jinx would bet good coin on the latter.
“They’ll fight it out on the upper deck. Pray they hold firm, or we’ll sleep wit ‘em fishes. Same way they’ll pray we do well and they don’t get flanked.” Replied the knight casually, explaining everything, which was fuckin’ impressive. He was clad in his armor and pulled an oiled chainmail coif over his head, to complete the look.
Advertisement
And that was that.
The first pirate that landed on the rails, Jinx shot in the shoulder. He staggered, then yanked it out angry. Eyes mad, over a heavy beard laden with jewelry, the man raised his cutlass and let rip a garish bellow of defiance. Sir Emerson’s blade cut away his hand turning it into a cry of pain, before Soren’s axe split his head in two, dousing everyone near in blood, brains and pieces of bone and put a stop to that too.
“STAND BACK!” The Knight yelled at the Northman, pushing him away, just as another two landed between them.
Four more, right after that.
Everything turning to chaos.
Zola’s bolt punched through a Cofol’s chest clean through, killing the one standing behind him as well, striking him below the jaw. Dante dodged a hairy Northman into Pale’s blade and ducked under an axe swing to cut a Lorian, wearing a fancy plate on his chest, above the knee.
The Pirate cursed his late mother and got him with his axe, as he tried to jump away; axe’s blade badly set, unwittingly turning at the last the deathly cut, to a hard whack on his shoulder. Down their captain went just as well, with a cry of pain matching that of his opponent’s.
Jinx had nailed him through the wrist. Forced the man to drop the weapon and dance around howling obscenities. The Gish rolled on the hardwood floor of the forecastle, catching out the corner of her eye, Lith kill a man with Zestari’s short blade, use him as a shield right after, to approach the next one.
The pirate, a sturdy Issirian, with an impressive white mustache, dangling in fury, hacked away at his dead colleague ardently, pieces of him falling off. A hand here, piece of skull there. A couple of bloody fingers landing near Jinx. Blood splattering the deck, until Lith let go of the mutilated corpse stepping aside and pushed the entire length of her blade into his eye.
Ouch, Jinx thought.
Down the man went, just as five raiders, well armoured with leather and some metal pieces, mainly on their chests, broke through Gray’s crew and moved to flank them.
“GLEN!” The knight, busy fighting two wild eyed pirates, bellowed at the dumbfounded young man standing to the side. “STOP ’EM LAD, OR WE’RE DEAD!”
Glen parried the first cutlass away and almost got skewered by a nasty steel hook sharpened at the edges, the man coming after him had, instead of a hand. Jinx flying over them saw everything, just before she let go of the line, she’d cut and used to jump over the forecastle’s rails. Could've used it to swing over the whole upper deck and escape the worse, but she didn't.
Most people get killed attempting something flamboyant.
Jinx raised her knees slightly, bowstring drawn, to aim at the man flanking Glen, in the seconds her insane drop lasted. She fired, then tossed her bow down, drawing a long dagger in the same breath. Blade out, just as she landed on the hardwood deck. Blood spurted out her nostrils, force of the impact too great, knees hurting, but holding.
Advertisement
The Gish had rolled forward anyway to ride the momentum, ending up between the legs of the man with the wicked hook. The pirate, stared at the pink haired girl sprouting out from underneath him, lips split showing her bloody teeth, in astonishment. It lasted not even a second, hook raised to gauge her eyes out, but Jinx beat him to it, punching the dagger into his jewels.
“Fuck,” A disgusted Glen cried, as the man let out a groan of immense agony and doubled over, maimed for life.
As much of it, as he’s left in the tank anyway, thought Jinx, wiping the blade and going for her bow, a sharp pain in her spine almost sending her down as well. The cost of her acrobatics, more than she’d initially thought.
“WATCH OUT!” Glen cried out, scaring the piss out of her, pointing at a large raider, instead of giving her a fuckin’ hand. He was one of the five that had broken through. The big man run towards her, nasty axe in hand, his eyes mad with bloodlust and rage that oozed out of him in waves.
Probably the hook’s fuckbuddy, Jinx thought, moaning something fierce, as she rolled out of the mini orc’s way. The Northman went for Glen next, instead of turning, which was a blessing from Luthos himself; but left her facing a dangerous blond-haired, leather clad woman. Her blue eyes painted black with ink, just as her mouth, seeming skilled as fuck, which was vile Abrakas, giving Jinx the middle finger. She’d a cutlass and a dagger in hand and watched her frantically hobbling for her bow, before dashing forward and kicking her hard in the back.
The same back, she’d hurt in her mad drop.
Seemed a right stupid idea now.
“Oomph..” Jinx groaned and went down like a sack laden with rocks. Having no control on her body, she smacked her head on a barrel twice her size, the cut bleeding down her face, alike her nostrils. A stunned Jinx, turned and sat on her arse, to watch the pirate woman approach her, all sassy on her slightly heeled boots, but still angry as all hells.
“The fuck are ye?” She snapped, square jaw clenching, seeing her more clear now. “What manner of bloody freak…”
Jinx tried to spit on the woman's tall fancy boots; too dazed, she fumbled the whole thing and most of the bloody spittle landed on her own leather vest.
There it is then, Pretty thought. No fancy ending for ye, girl.
“A fuckin’ cunt.” She said miserably, running out of options.
The female pirate, shook her black mane and raised that nasty cutlass to take her head.
Only to stagger back a couple of steps, coughing blood. She’d an arrow right between her breasts. She made to cut it away with the cutlass, wonder on her face, but another struck her almost at the same spot, this one punching through, out her back.
“A cunt…” The woman muttered coughing up a splash of blood that landed on her boots, just before her eyes emptied and she collapsed lifeless on the ship’s deck.
Yeah, Jinx thought, watching Lith casually walking on the thin gangway rail, an image right out of a gypsy’s circus performance. Her back straight, putting one foot in front of the other, without looking, while shooting arrows time after time again, with mechanical precision. Landing more times on people, than she missed. Which was once, sort of. A shot to send a tossed knife into the sea and save Glen, still duking it out against the man with the axe. Less damaged, than her, she thought sourly, a jolt of pain coming out of nowhere, when she tried to move.
Well, her back mainly and her bleeding head.
When did I fuckin’ hurt that?
So Jinx stayed where she was, next to that barrel and watched as Lith put the fear of Uher, into the remaining pirates. Yeah, she thought again, agreeing with the dead pirate lady.
A blue cunt, all right.
“Well, that went well, I suppose,” Dante announced pleased, an hour later. Seeing as he was only slightly maimed himself, it made sense to him. Also the fact, Jinx supposed, the remaining pirates surrendered, when their ship cut and run, seeing their leader fall.
That would be the pirate lady.
Words not well received understandably, by the shock shelled crew of the Marquette.
“We need to fix the ship, but before that, move through the straits,” Aron Gray announced, giving the mercenary a nasty look. “It can’t wait, I’m afraid. We licked ‘em good today, but they may be back with reinforcements on the morrow.”
“What about the men we lost?” One of the surviving crew asked, sounding angry.
Jinx grinding her teeth walked away, her body hurting with every small step, not really interested in the debate that started right after. Ye can’t fix stuff wit fighting, she thought. Either before, or after. All you can do is survive.
Lust after revenge, if you’re a fool, or seek redemption, for things ye did in yer past.
If you’re a bigger fool.
She stopped before the Zilan, silently picking through her used arrows, keeping the better ones or less damaged on a different pile. Lith had a tear on her cape, but that was the extent of her injuries.
“I can mend that,” Jinx offered, her mouth bitter and too tired to make light of their species notorious frugality.
Old jokes, nobody really cared about anymore.
Lith stopped her work, raised a still hooded head and examined her for a moment.
“You should keep it straight. Preferably on a soft bed,” She said, eyes a pale gold.
“Yeah,” Jinx replied, looking about them. “Gratitude, for before. I was probably a gonner.”
The Zilan nodded, going back to her work.
“I owed you, a life.” She whispered softly, when Jinx turned to limp away.
Yeah, the Gish thought, crooking her mouth.
Figured as much.
Advertisement
- In Serial104 Chapters
The 8th Day
One day life is good. The next day it isn't! The boundaries between... well, whatever they're between.. have shattered! Monsters burst out from cracks in the universe, and reality suddenly begins to function similar to a game -- but not a game that anyone knows all the rules about! Magic is suddenly real, but so are monsters and death! Lots of death!And the worst part of it all? I think we did it to ourselves! We invented video games, and personally I think that great Finger-in-the-Sky picked up a console somewhere and started playing them. Since He liked what he saw, he must've declared, """"On the 8th Day, let there be Game!"But what do I know about it all, really. After all, I'm just """"The Witness"""" forced to observe it all.__________________________________________________________________________Author's Note: There's a lot of tales where characters get stuck in a Virtual Reality. """"Sword Art Online"""", """"Log Horizon"""", """"The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor"""". This is a story told with the premise inverted -- instead of a person from reality going into a virtual world, what would happen if the virtual world instead came to reality?I want this tale to speak about the aspects of the game, as it has affected the current reality, but the focus of the story should never be on the """"reality-turned-game"""" itself, but on the characters and their oh-so-human struggles, personalities, and attempt to adjust and live within the bounds of their new existence. Hopefully this won't just be a story of """"reality turned into a game"""", but instead will be something more meaningful such as a story of the strengths, perseverance, and humanity of man-kind as they try to adapt and face the unknown.*** And, most importantly, I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. ***WARNING: RATED MATURE M[18+] FOR GORE, SEX, VIOLENCE. The apocalypse isn't a pretty place to try to survive in, and neither is every scene in a story trying to describe it.
8 73 - In Serial185 Chapters
The Goblin Nation
They should have fought back. They felt his disdain, but no one wanted to believed - believe that they were never loved. That they can just appease him again. Sacrifice their lives again. Conquered their enemies again. Built wonders for his majesty again. And when they finally accepted the truth, it brought them to their knees as his machines burned down their wonders and reduced them back into animals. But there was still hope. The Stellars told of our survival. Our downfall was just the beginning. Our regression into animals was merely a delay. At the time, our people were split into different tribes. Before the doors to the infinite sea are open. There will be a child born to stand against his machines, born to challenge his majesty. And with a sword in one hand and a scepter on the other, that child - that hero, will lead his kingdom. The kingdom of goblins. Sun, the goblin child born to save all of goblin kind. A former human from an unknown world died and reborn with little memory of his past. Join him as he takes on the world, make new friends, uncover the secret of his past, and lead the goblin kind out from the darkness.
8 251 - In Serial9 Chapters
Real Real Life
Jamie was having a bad day, until he was crushed to death by a beer delivery truck and things became a whole lot worse. Thrown back into the 'Real World', but now with access to his own stats and those of others Jamie must undertake a series of quests in order to level up and advance, and figure out just what in the name of all that is unholy is going on. Which is the real world? Is he in a game? A simulation? And who actually is his online friend Barry. Inspired greatly by the MUDs of the 90s, many of the aspects will be familiar to those who experienced the joys of text adventures, MUSHs, MURPEs, MUDs, modern MMORPGs or just some good old fashioned cybering with a 17/f/Cali who was anything but. This humorous, harem LitRPG story is the first story by experienced author Jamie Haremie under this pen name. Jamie has previously written horror and romance (sometimes together!) as well as tons and tons of riveting TPS reports. (Late 90s cultural reference? CHECK). Any and all comments and suggestions welcome!
8 230 - In Serial12 Chapters
Chillin' in a dungeon
Dungeons & Miscellaneous, a giant company building dungeons for gods, kingdoms and rich privates. After years of honorable service at D&M Stephen decided he was tired of making dungeons for others, so he embezzled enough materials to build his own and ran away when police came knocking on his door. Follow this unlikely Mc as he builds a dungeon to live comfortably. Warning: may contain humor and nonsense
8 89 - In Serial48 Chapters
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1870) (Completed)
In 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest is a giant narwhal. The US government assembles an expedition to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist (and narrator within the story) receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition. As the expedition travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, the crew finds the monster after a long search and then attack it, but the ship is damaged with the three main protagonists thrown into the water. They are quickly captured and then meet the enigmatic Captain Nemo. ~ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne and was originally published in 1870. The novel was originally serialized between March 1869 and June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation. An illustrated edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is regarded as one of the premiere adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Cover done by @sinadan
8 214 - In Serial10 Chapters
The Nightmare's Dream {Morpheus x Reader}
You are Lucifer's younger sibling, which was imprisoned by Lucifer herself for a century. When she learned that Morpheus, or the renowned 'Sandman' has been released from his imprisonment, she frees you, but with one condition, you have to make Morpheus fall in love with you so Lucifer could take over the dream world and the waking world in the process in return for endless freedom for you.Will you complete this request of Lucifer? or face the gruesome consequences?All the characters here aren't mine they are a property of Neil Gaiman, I only own some oc's here and Y/N. (All Rights Reserved)
8 340