Chapter 16 - Revenge

Morning came, and a feeling of pain, something I hadn't expected. Demonstrating how foolish, and reckless we were. Demonstrating how much our arrogance can cost, and how catastrophic the results of our actions can be for those we command.

That taught me a valuable lesson, something I'll never forget, I won't let myself feel arrogant just for being a wizard.

However, I will have my revenge, in two days we will sail towards the central island, and the mermaids will burn, fire and blood. That's what I'm going to show them, I'm going to teach them the meaning of a wizard's wrath.

Twenty-seven of my men were lost yesterday, twenty-five during the battle, two died a few hours later, although the rest of the crew are injured to varying degrees, but they will survive.

We spent the morning gathering, and giving a decent burial to the fallen, Loki was willing to get rid of the mermaids, and since none of us wanted to go near them, we gladly handed the task over to him.

Loki can be very kind sometimes, I need to find another gift he likes.

After everything was organized we returned to the camp, creating some basic defensive positions and organizing watch shifts, we rested.

Night came, and after we gathered in a tent we started to discuss methods for attacking the central island, where we believe to be the mermaids' nest, the attack would be coordinated in three parts, Gandalf with a team of twenty-five fighters would attack frontally from the south of the island. Meanwhile, I, Loki, along with ten other fighters would turn around silently and attack the mermaids from the flank, of course counting that they would be on land, which might not happen.

Although from what we've studied on their bodies they seem to have to come to the surface to sneeze, so they probably spend a good part of their days in the purple or the sand.

Considering they attacked us at night and since we never see them during the day, they are probably nocturnal creatures. So an attack right after lunch should be the most effective. With the plans defined, it's time to wait and regain our strength.

P.O.V. of Loki

My human is so good, so many little fish, and he gave me them all, and the day after tomorrow he will take me fishing again.

Such a good human.

End of P.O.V. of Loki

Two days passed quickly, back to full strength we set off towards the island just as the day became clear enough to navigate through the deadly labyrinth of rocks and ships. Today we do not have a safe route, we are sailing as much of the way as possible, and when we can no longer go by ship, we will use the rowboats for the end of the journey.

Anne and Abigail stayed on the ship with the last fifteen available crew, if we don't return by nightfall the ship will belong to Anne, and she can depart for Braavos, although the look she gave me made my spine go cold.

It was as if I had cursed all seven generations of her family and then spit in their graves, a good woman, Anne.

Not wanting to see her waste her life, it took me an hour to convince her that if we died, considering the power demonstrated by me and Gandalf in our last fight, she wouldn't stand a chance.

So with the last nail in place, I finally convinced her, even though she pouted whenever she looked at me, amazing how crazy a woman can look and kind of cute at the same time.

It's close to noon, our ship is moored in the shadows of two huge galleons that totally block the view of the beach in the distance, yet the breeze that sometimes blows allows us to hear a beautiful song brought to our ears.

Getting into our rowboats, we head towards the beach, it's time for our revenge, fire and blood.

Loki has a huge smile on his face, and I can't help but mirror that smile. Although I will deny anyone who asks, I will not lie to myself. I want revenge. Yet at the same time I want to fight again, the battle that night broke something inside me. Or maybe it had been broken since I was born, but I didn't realize it until now.

I look at Gandalf who is about three hundred meters from the beach, suddenly some mermaids that seem to be watching finally notice Gandalf in the sea, widening their eyes as if they didn't expect an attack from the sea they start to scream loudly awakening more of their mates.

Gandalf, taking this as a signal to initiate the attack, raises his staff, and from the white crystal tip a frightening fireball begins to light up, growing alarmingly as the fireball floats and soon assumes a volume thirty meters in diameter. And then Gandalf throws it.

Launching such an attack panics the mermaids on the beach, trying to escape as fast as possible they crawl away, but for many of them.

The flaming ball touches the beach and creates an explosion creating a crater five meters deep and fifteen meters in radius plus the shock wave and heat spreads even further and in a radius of almost one hundred and fifty meters everything is burned, the lucky ones where the ball exploded have been vaporized, but the ones near the edges of the attack area seem to have been boiled alive, some are still screaming.

I can't help but look at Gandalf, he can be scary at times, raising his staff once more Gandalf conjures thousands of fire arrows and hurls them towards the beach causing a second wave of destruction.

Gandalf's crew as they watch him attack, not standing still, paddling at full speed they finally reach water shallow enough to land and run for the attack, and jumping from their boats is what they do running and stabbing every mermaid in front of them, a new round of death begins.

My group finally arrives at the beach, but something bothers me, looking at the mermaids I see that most of them try to flee to the sea, or turn towards their attackers in an attempt of revenge.

None of them headed into the forest at their back, in fact it's almost as if the lookouts before you were protecting them from something coming from the forest. Since Gandalf practically entered their houses before they noticed him.

Something is not right, which would make thousands of mortal creatures fear this far. I hope I don't have to find out so soon. With these thoughts scattered, I continue to run towards my enemies.

Getting into proper attack distance, I begin conjuring fire arrows with my left hand, my right hand swinging left and right wielding my sword as I stab and slash any mermaid that gets too close.

For nearly an hour we fight, men and mermaids are scattered on the beach, me and Gandalf, we are sitting side by side as we retrieve our spent spells.

Of the thirty-five crew that accompanied us, only fifteen remain. But there is no regret in his eyes, there is pain, after all it was his friends, brothers-in-arms, and people who fought at his side. But everyone knew there would be deaths, yet everyone committed to revenge, and that's what we got.

With our revenge completed, we buried our boats and returned to the ship, tomorrow we will explore the island.

Today, however, we will celebrate our revenge and in honor of our fallen.

A few hundred mermaids managed to escape, after all it was impossible to keep them all contained, yet our attack left several hundred of them scattered on the beach and that's enough for me.

Though if they return, I won't mind burning a few more.

Loki disappeared right after the battle, I don't know where he is, but I'm not worried either, his combat skill is so frightening that he would probably rip Gandalf's head off before he raises his staff to conjure a shield.

Tomorrow we'll explore this island, I just hope that whatever the mermaids feared isn't too powerful for our crew.