Ramming Hard

The Kraken felt a strange sharp pain from the arrows, enraging him to quit escaping. A large pointed white head appeared out of the water, two large red eyes stared at the ships in front of it. The Kraken opened its huge round mouth that was full of numerous pointed fangs and roared. 

'That is more like it'. Capt. Darius ordered the ships to spread apart. "Make a place for our little friend, boys."

'Little my ass.' His subordinates gasped as the beast made his way to their ships.

The two quick ships were already approaching the formation, noticing that the ships were spreading apart, a soldier controlling the helm said to his fellow, "TIme to shine."

As the ships spread apart a space large enough for the two ships to pass through was made.

The Kraken dived into the sea only to reappear seconds later under a ship to the left of the Capt. Darius's ship, hauling the ship a few inches in the air. The huge impact heaved the ship in all directions. Everything on board fell off the ship into the sea, becoming victim to the tentacles. The Kraken indiscriminately munched on all things, both living and nonliving. Screams faded inside the largemouth as blood dyed the sea red.

"Damn it!" Capt. Darius was very angry at the outcome. An entire ship was destroyed in mere seconds. "Shoot the damn thing, there is no barely anyone on the ship. Shoot it!" He shouted as he opened fire at the Kraken. 

Seeing another barrage of arrows piercing its tentacles, the Kraken lost all sense of the situation as it fiercely rushed to another ship. 

"Shit! It is breaking out of the formation." Alarmed Sami shouted at Captain Darius.

"No. It is not," responded Capt. Darius. "It is on a destroying spree."

Smashing its pointed head on the hull of the ship, it made a big hole in it. Water gushed in, tilting the ship to the side. Three tentacles smashed the sails and helm into splinters, breaking the ship in the middle.

"Stop shooting, everyone. Make space for us to tangle." Captain Darius stared at the Kraken, "Sami, set sails. let's lure it towards the ramming ships."

"Captain!"

"Just do it!" snapped the Captain.

All the ship stood still, making no movements. The leading ship unfurled its sails and opened fire on the Kraken as it made its way out of the formation. 

"what is captain doing." The soldiers on the two advancing ships were bewildered. "Is he attempting to suicide?"

"Shut up! " their leader snapped. "Captain is luring them out in the open, saving the ships and giving us a more clear target." 

"Got it!"

"Captain!" Sami shouted as the Kraken was meters away from the ship. Both the Captain's ship and Kraken had gone out into the open sea. The Kraken was tailing the ship and approaching at an alarming speed.

"Not now, not now." Capt. Darius waited for the right moment. "Three O'Clock now!" The ship turned to the right, turning in the nick of time as the Kraken missed it by mere inches.

"Three O'Clock, again." In the frantic game of mouse and cat, the ship hurried to the two incoming ships.

The two ships armed with sharp rams at the front entered the formation making their way to the ship in front of it.

As the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, the sails were unfurled the moment it turned another turn, sailing on the momentum it gained previously. The ship began to slow down while the Kraken had already taken a detour approaching fast.

"We won't be able to take a quick turn with just this momentum, boss."

"We don't have to. All we need is to provide them with a good angle," responded Capt. Darius calmly. He waited for a few more seconds, "Turn Nine."

The ship turned to the left.

The Kraken also turned left from a distance, poking its head out of the water, as it made its way in its direction.

"Captain is amazing. We have the target right in front of us."

The two ships whizzed with an extraordinary speed, zipping through the air.

It was at this moment that the Kraken noticed the huge sails on the two ships that were approaching fast in his direction. Sensing something off about the situation, the Kraken tried to get out of the way only to find itself helpless.

With a huge bang the two ships Rammed strongly with the beast, pinning it in the large pointed sharp rams in the front, between the two hulls, piercing straight through its head and body.

Without making any further efforts, the Kraken succumbed to the head injury and fell silent. Silence encapsulated the atmosphere as everyone waited, gasping for air.

"Thirty-two casualties and five ships got destroyed during the confrontation and many are very severely injured. They are sent to recuperate and the replacements are expected to arrive in a few days." Sami reported mechanically from a page in his hand. "Captain," he looked at Darius with concern, "our losses will grow as we move more into the uncertain waters."

"That I know, Sami," sighed heavily Captain Darius. "There is nothing we can do about it. Can we?" They observed each other for a moment in silence until Darius broke it, "Let's rest until then."

The fleet finally reached the fifth interjection marked on the map. Vigilantly the troops disembarked their ships to explore the beach and nearby forest for any danger. 

The sky darkened, and small campfires were lit on the small beach close to the forest. The soldiers were busy with different activities as some cooked others set tents and a few were on guard duties. The rest sat around the fires and talked in hushed whispers.

The moon partially hiding behind the clouds cast dim light over the horizon producing a winter-like haze above this region. 

/////////

Inside the grand palace of Zahrama, in a meeting room that was decorated with the finest arts in the empire, Prince Ibrahim Shah was busy conversing with a few important guests.

There sat several people, representing different trading guilds in the region. The situation is the empire had broken the old trading system, as the four brothers vied for the throne. However, the trade was still carried out, albeit very little, and the situation worsened as the guilds began to monopolize the markets for more profits.

Silverthorn, the leader of the Sunflower trading guild that dominated the region, stood before the audience and spoke to the prince, "Your Highness, the trading community agrees with what you have said so far that we should trade with reasonable prices, but we too have recently found the trading routes very dangerous and unsafe. Recently, The Guild of Lost Arts, The Clockwork Consortium, The Celestial Collectors, and many others have been targeted, suffering huge losses. We are threatened and extorted, leading to chaos and loss of profit. As a result, our King, we are compelled to trade with higher prices."

"I have been informed of this," replied Ibrahim Shah, "we are deploying some troops for your safety."

The recent massacre on the road to the Red Dune City had threatened the safety of these guilds greatly. Despite the deployment of a large number of forces on the routes, the number of incidents kept on rising. There were simply too many routes to protect. The only solution was to eradicate the organization behind all of this.