Hell Sea

Before the sun could rise on the distant horizon, we prepared our vessels to be in position. Our armed ships were displayed in the double line formation we had already discussed, while the fire ships formed the third line in front of the warships, ready to sail as soon as our enemies entered in our sight.

I was aboard one of them, waiting patiently for the battle to begin, together with the brave soldiers that decided to form the boarding squad with me. So far, it has been a restless long night, under the tense silence, in anticipation of the battle that will happen anytime soon.

"I know we are supposed to prepare ourselves for them first... But didn't we prepare way too far ahead? They didn't show up yet...", one of the knights said, lazily laying down, bored and tired.

"Yeah... But we didn't know for sure when they were coming, it was better to keep ourselves alerted from the beginning. Our plan would fail miserably if we were caught off guard..." I answered him, scanning our surroundings for the incoming enemies.

"Either way... I will just take an extra nap before they come", he said and closed his eyes while the others of the small squad looked embarrassed.

"Don't mind him, Everblade... He's lazy, but he compensates with his skill, at least", one of the knights spoke, while the rest of the group only nodded in agreement

"By the way, Dagger...", a third knight started to speak. "I wanted to personally thank you... Many people wouldn't join our hopeless cause against the criminals, but you did... I guess you must have changed since you raped the princess, your recent doings prove that"

I remained in silence at first. It was a nice compliment, but I was just too surprised with it that I hesitated a little, but I eventually smiled sympathetically at him and replied:

"Well... Thank you... Let's just get this job done and protect the Waterkill people, okay?"

"Yes, let's do it!", the squad all said in chorus, but the one taking a nap.

"Alright, everyone in your positions! Enemies have been sighted!", the small crew of the ship we were aboard shouted and the agitation started, with the crew moving closer to the escaping boats, ready to escape the fire they will see on their own ships while the fireship started to sail towards the enemies.

Ready for the action, I and my squad looked ahead, at the enemy force. In the darkness of the night, it was hard to see, but the enemy toches revealed their approaching formation.

It didn't take long for the trebuchets of the warships behind us to start firing over us, sending fireballs across the sky, cutting through the air... Eventually, the battle began, with most of the trebuchets missing their targets, except for two that hit in the same ship, on different spots, setting it on fire.

The lack of an answer made it quite clear that the criminals did indeed lack long-range weapons, they only have their short-ranged gunpowder cannons... It was good to know that our intel wasn't mistaken.

I could only wait quietly, waiting for our moment to act while the trebuchets fired again, hitting more enemies than before, but still missing quite a few. Soon, I stopped paying attention to that, however, as our fire ships got very close to the enemy formation... Dangerously close.

In our formation, the now unarmed warships were leading, shielding us from any incoming fire and it did work, with them taking the very first cannon hits. The damage those weapons caused was quite strong, but the warships were still standing and could sustain a few more of those.

The escape boats of the warships soon were dropped on the sea and the crew hopefully escaped while their own ship started to be consumed with the fire, in course of collision with the enemy.

The enemy attempted to stop the warships, but it was no use, they were rammed and the fire spread across their own warship. The enemies behind the leading ships started to do evasive maneuvers, avoiding the fire wrecks of the ships. The other fire ships did the same but aiming to ram after dodging the wrecks.

"Alright, it's our turn to work", I said quietly to my squad and we dropped on the sea, sneakily sailing towards the enemy warships. As soon as we got close to one of them, we prepared our grappling hooks and climbed aboard the warship.

"What the-... Intruders!", one of the criminals shouted, putting the ship on high alert while one of the knights of the squad swiftly sliced through the enemy's throat.

"Come on, focus on getting to the wheel!", I said to my squad and made a run for the wheel, a part of the knights going with me, the other staying close to the area we hopped aboard.

"Right, we will defend the boat while you do that!", the lazy knight said as he fought some of the criminals that started approaching with swords. The enemy, however, soon noticed our plan and moved to block our way to the wheel, two against me.

"Hey... A woman fighting... Aren't you Dagger Everblade? The boss will be happy to know we killed you here", one of them said, smiling smugly, but I stayed in silence, dodging the attacks of one of them, and defending the others with my sword. I wasn't used to fighting while the ship shook with the waves, so I was hit a few times, on the upper arm and stomach.

"How about you give up?", he asked me, but he was too careless paying attention only to me, one of the knights of my squad managed to break through and get to the men on the wheel, taking him out.

"You lost already, actually", I answered him, smiling. They were confused at first, but soon realized when the ship abruptly moved to the right and my knight stuck the wheel in place, using his sword. While they were angry and distracted, attempting to make a run for the wheel, I swept kicked them, and ran back to the boat, ready to retreat while this ship moved in a collision course with one of their own.

There were quite a few bodies close to the boat, it seemed like this squad was really well chosen to fight, but it was still sad we had apparently lost one of our knights already...

There was no time to lose about that, however, we just hooped back to the boat, the last knights to board getting the torches and setting the warship on fire. When we were a bit distant, we saw the warships collide with another, setting it on fire and forcing the ships behind to evasively maneuver the wrecks, again.

We managed to do this again a few more times, destroying eight ships in total, but boarding only four. By then, we were too wounded to continue... So we just headed back. It was a shame, but some of us were so severely wounded that died before we could even start sailing back...

"Good-... Goodbye...", the last knight of the squad said, letting the waters of the seas take the body of that lazy knight. He seemed on the verge of crying, he was probably a very good friend of the lazy guy... I, however, couldn't share the same feeling. I didn't get to know them enough to feel anything for them in particular... But I could at least understand his pain and put my hand on his shoulder, reassuring him, hopefully.

Suddenly, however, we were interrupted by a hand holding on our boat. Quickly, I and he drew our swords out and prepared to fight... It was definitely one of the criminals, he looked desperate.

"Wait! Let me stay, I can help you!", he said, begging for his life. The knight was so blinded with rage, however, that he was ready to attack the criminal, but I stopped him...

"How... How do you think you can help us to begin with?", I asked, being a bit skeptical. The criminal first took a moment to breathe... It seemed like he had swum quite a bit to reach here.

"Well... This... This is not all our fleet... There are about 15 ships that-"

"Are flanking our traps and formation?", the knight asked, and then laughed, but I looked behind, just to be sure.

"Uh... Exactly that... Our leader suspected your trap and sent them around...", he explained... But those flanking ships were nowhere in sight.

"He might just be creating a motive for us to help him", the knight said.

"However", I said interrupted him. "We didn't count the enemies. We might have faced indeed less than the hundred ships we expected. Well, get this criminal aboard and watch him, I will try to get to our warships and alert them".

It was already too late, however...