GAAAAAA! @.@ i can't belive i forgot the post date! i even put it on my calander so i would avoid more procrastination (mind you my calander is in my cell phone) and i warn you: this is a long one
Chapter 7: dangerous waters
Dusk came and with it the beauty of a bright orange sun just off the horizon, the short storm before had provided good winds and the boat was quick to leave port. As time passed night fell and a glittering silver moon bathed the night sky in light, Marco was wandering the main deck, staying ready in case of a sudden attack. He could hear the captain’s voice as he yelled orders to various crew members and how it was repeated by them until its intended destination was reached.
Marco gazed upon the horizon, just off to the north, north east (Marco’s current heading being north) was the silhouette of an island in the distance, he could not recognize it but something seemed strange to him. He concentrated on it for a minute but after failing to under stand what troubled him he put it out of his mind.
Hours passed as the night lazily went on, the silhouette of the island growing ever larger as they passed by, again Marco had a suspicion that something as not as it was; and no sooner did the thought cross his mind when a crew member cried out
“look! By the island! A ship!”
Just about everyone on deck ran towards the edge to try and make out the other ship, and there it was, slowly differentiating itself from the silhouette of the island was another ship.
“Blast…” the captain had suddenly made his way out from his cabin when he heard the commotion
“we were almost there…” only Marco was paying attention to what the captain was saying. Again came a cry from another crewmate
“look! Above the ship!” Marco once again concentrated on the distant ship, he squinted his eyes for a moment and soon was able to make out black dots rising from the ship
“pirates” it was all too obvious now to him now, they were under attack. The captain let out a flurry of orders to the crew, they scrambled to their positions like a bunch of panicking mice. The ship turned hard to starboard and began to pick up speed
“I’ll be damned if I let them get a hold of are cargo!” the captain yelled Marco fought the urge to ask him what he meant and braced himself for a hard fight. As the dots got bigger and bigger he began to make out their race and force size, it was not looking good.
“Dragorns…. About ten… this is bad… I have a hard enough time taking two or three on even WITH Tusaki … and I doubt this ship’s crew can handle them…”
Marco quickly surveyed the crew, there were twenty of them on deck, probably another ten below at most, and they were of all mixed races, Marco knew they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Marco cleared his mind, took a deep breath, and concentrated on the battle ahead; once again Tusaki answered his call, the aura and second blade appeared; he was now prepared for battle.
The dragorn leading the charge noticed Marco and went at him at full speed with an axe held high, landing, the dragorn swung heavily with all the might of gravity at Marco but he dodged it and the axe landed harmlessly in the deck.
Marco struck the dragorns axe hand with the blunt side of one Tusaki breaking a number of fingers, the dragorn cried out in pain and Marco pierced it’s gapping maw with the other one; the dragorn slumped to the ground as Marco retrieved his blade and prepared for more.
“Good… the quicker the better… no need to get caught in a drawn out battle”
Two more dragorns rushed towards Marco, flanking him on both sides. The dragorn on Marco’s right was lightly armoured and wielded a war hammer with a head that looked as though it was once part of a mountain. The armoured dragorn brought the mighty hammer upwards and then down again in an attempt to crush Marco in one strike, he dodged and planned on stabbing at its unprotected ribs at the side of the armour but was forced to continue evading when the other dragorn began his attack against Marco.
It was un-armoured and wielded a long sword, (which actually seemed much smaller when wielded by those of the dragorn or drago races) it was moving much faster than the other dragorn and was holding Marco back as the other prepared for more attacks.
“so much for quick… guh” Marco grunted and he blocked another blow from the un-armoured dragorn, he had to keep moving but his muscles were already screaming for him to stop but he didn’t listen, he just kept moving, he kept trying to look for an opening. As the twentieth minute passed the final invading dragorn landed and entered the melee, the entire deck was ablaze with combat, and crewmen were being struck down one after another, the situation as Marco predicted, was wildly spinning out of control and he was too busy protecting his life to do anything about it.
As Marco continued to defend himself he was once again put in between his two assailants; once again the un-armoured dragorn began a furious series of strikes as it pushed Marco closer, and closer to the armoured one. It was then the Marco was forced to parry the final strike and roll to the left but much to his surprise the armoured dragorn was already in mid swing when Marco rolled and it’s war hammer only found purchase on its ally which was too close. The dragorn was hit with a crushing blow to the head and dropped to the ground ceasing to move… forever…
“Well... better then nothing” Marco quipped as he stood once more, ready to fight, the armoured dragorn disregarded its fallen ally and re-trained its focus on Marco. Now that it was unprotected buy its more nimble friend Marco would be able to defeat it, they charged at each other as fast as they could, the dragorn tried to knock Marco down with a horizontal sweep but he slid under the weapon, got up and used
Tusaki to stab the dragorns back, though the blade didn’t go far due to the dragorns naturally thick hide.
It howled in anger more so than pain and swung the hammer around to strike him; Marco tried to jump back but the hammer was much longer than was expected and it hit dead center on his left shoulder launching him far from the dragorn.
The pain was overwhelming, it was surely broken, but Marco held onto both blades as best he could, he rose once more to defend himself; with his left arm all but useless he had not a clue as to how he would survive
“this is bad... I can’t move it at all…” Marco tried raising his left arm but it was an effort just to hold the blade. Marco was expecting the attack to continue but he suddenly heard one of the dragorns call out to the others, he couldn’t make out exactly what it said over the din of battle but about five of the eight dragorn remaining on the deck began to hastily made their way to the lower decks, avoiding all the other crewmembers.
Marco looked around the deck and found seven other people on the top deck that were still alive, one of which was the captain, they were under attack by the remaining three dragorn, and they clearly knew they were in a tight spot. Marco began towards them, when the captain saw this he called out
“No! We can handle this! Go and protect the cargo! We cannot let them get to it!” Marco paused for a moment unsure as to whether or not he should comply, after a moments hesitation he nodded and went off across the deck towards the lower levels.
Marco entered the second level, it was the crew quarters he looked around and saw no bodies
“they must be on the lower level securing the cargo” he quickly scanned for the stairs to the next level went on. As Marco climbed down the stairs the sound of battle divided itself from above and below, as he entered the doorway to the cargo hold he found a dead Dragorn with a short sword in its right eye, it seems it was ambushed as it made its way through;
Marco made his way over and entered the hold, just like above it was utter madness, it seems the remaining crew had some luck fighting off the pirates as there were only three remaining, but that’s where their luck ended. It had only been minutes when the fighting started down their by Marco’s count and the cargo crew was already down to half.
Marco was hesitant to continue fighting but he knew that things weren’t going to get any better if he left them to die so he entered the fray anyway. It was a desperate fight but through some divine fortune Marco and the remaining crewmembers pulled off a victory. No lingering will to fight,Marco took rest against one of the cargo bulkheads and spent a moment to observe his surroundings;
it seemed odd why there was even enough room to fight in the cargo room in the first place, but it all made sense when Marco looked upwards. Barrels, many of them, at least forty or fifty all of which were fastened to the cargo roof by nets with nails holding them all in place. One of the crew members saw Marcos confusion.
“it was odd, we suddenly had a request from the capital to transport a dangerous material to the mainland with special orders for it to NEVER come into contact with-“
the crewman was suddenly cut off, not by a person but a sound, a relatively loud thunk and strangely enough not from above but quite the opposite, everyone was quiet, observing the noise. Then the sound began in other areas as well just constantly repeating as if someone was banging on the hull; That’s when one in particularly observant crewman called out
“it’s the librico! We’re under attack by librico!”
The librico were an aggressive bunch, both physically and socially, they were a humanoid species that had features very similar to lobsters; they only cared about their own kind and would attack any others without warning, though it was rare they attacked ships.
“It’s over! We’re doomed for sure now!”
another panicked crewman shouted “jump ship!” the crewman ran but was hit by a claw that finally broke through the hull.
Water was gushing and flowing everywhere now, although slowly several more punctures in the hull supplemented its speed.Marco forced himself to stand once more and yelled: "calm down! if you go above you'll be slaughtered!" this slightly calmed the distressed crewmen
"and what do you expect us to do?! just die here?!" one answered
"no. but i can at least get you up there alive, just follow me" with what seemed like no other choice, they followed.
Marco was already on his way up to the main deck and was already in the crew quarters with the rest of the crew in tow but was confronted by the dragorn that were left behind on the deck. It was easy for Marco to dispatch them since the halls were far too small for a dragorn to move properly and he was soon past them.
Upon entering the deck Marco noticed the island, which was once a small silhouette, now was a huge figure which they were heading directly for; without a second thought the remaining crew had run for the stern of the ship and leapt off
“no! wait!”
Marco tried to stop them but it was too late, in their panic the crew had forgotten the librico were still in the waters beneath. The ship was losing speed and it was unlikely to make it to shore, Marco looked back at the deck entrance seeing to large oddly shaped figures make their way from it, although the librico weren’t known to board ships it was increasingly apparent they could.
“Gotta think fast… ” Marco knew he had not an ounce of fighting spirit left and trying to reach the island by water was not an option either
“crapcrapcrapcrapcrap…”
The two librico were getting closer as more entered the main deck. Marco backed as far as he could away from them as he looked for a tertiary means of escape, the pirate ship which had attacked not too long ago also seemed to be under attack itself and fairing no better.
Suddenly, an overpowering force came forth from the depths of the ship, it cracked like the loudest thunder as the hull of the ship was splintered from stern to bow launching wood in every direction; one by one, but so fast you wouldn’t even notice, the librico were destroyed by the force. Marco took what lead he had and jumped off the bow but upon contact with this force he was immediately rendered unconscious before ever hitting the ground.
*cough* finally... done... gotta.... stop... making... them.... big... *cough,hack*
