Akira had to pay even more money to Fiman in order to get the tools and material that Fiman suggested that they would need if they wanted to properly fix the ship.
As a free service, Fiman gave them a quick run through on how to properly use the ships sail and rudder to steer the ship.
It took them the rest of the morning to plug all the leaky cracks and bail out the remaining salty water that was pooled at the bottom of the ship.
Fiman was currently inspecting the hasty repairs after Akira had asked him to make sure there were no problems.
“Hmm… Your handiwork is not bad at all. The repairs look decent enough to take her back out on the sea,” said Fiman, ignoring what he had said earlier before Akira had purchased the ship. Something about the ship being able to sail even without any repairs.
“Do you guys need any supplies for the trip across the ocean?” asked Fiman.
Akira looked inside his bag and saw that there was still a decent amount of food and water. But after thinking about sailing on the unfamiliar ocean waters it might not be enough if they got lost or a storm hindered their progress. It would be best to be prepared with a bit more food and water just in case.
“If you could gather a two weeks worth of food and water for four people that should be enough,” said Akira.
Fiman left the ship and went to gather the requested items. It didn’t take long for him to gather everything. When he returned he brought multiple young men to help carry four large sacks full of food and two large barrels full of fresh water.
Akira wanted to cry as he watched even more of his gold disappear into Fiman’s hands this had turned out to be an extremely expensive day.
“Here take this as a free gift for helping us. One of the old fishers wanted me to give it to you,” said Fiman handing Akira a fishing pole with a long line and hook and some extra string and hooks in case the line broke.
“If you would please thank him for the gift,” said Akira.
“Do you know how to use a fishing pole?” asked Fiman.
“A little I used to play around at a creak when I was younger,” said Akira.
“Just use some food as bait and the smaller fish should bite. You can then use some of the fish you catch as bait for the larger fish who have more meat to eat,” said Fiman before jumping back onto the dock and helping them untie the ropes connecting the ship to the dock.
With unpracticed hands, Akira and Varbu unfurled the large sail.
Varbu who had decided he wanted to steer the ship took hold of the large rudder stick in the rear no one fought for the job since it required a large amount of strength to keep the rudder pointed in the right direction especially if there was a storm.
With the wind catching the sail the ship started to move forward slowly picking up speed.
The few people that were still on the small fishing towns docks waved them goodbye.
‘Hopefully when we reach our next destination we’ll be able to find Yuki and Grand, otherwise, I have no clue what to do,’ thought Akira as he waved goodbye to the Fishermen.
Ding!
|
Quest Escape Caidia complete! Reward: You are not dead |
***
Several hours later long after Akira and his companions had left the small town a large group of chariots stopped outside of the town.
“Is this the town?” asked Number 6 who was wearing a dark robe with a hood that covered her face.
“According to the scout that we intercepted this should be the place where they saw an Orc, two Nyantails, and a human,” said Tibia.
“Let’s go see if they’re still here. Hopefully, we can get to them before the magic guild stooges do,” said Number 6 stepping down from her chariot.
Before they could walk away from their chariots and enter the town a man ran out to greet them.
“Honored guest if you wait for a second the village chief will come and greet you,” said the man.
“What’s with the strong scent of blood around here?” asked Number 6.
“Oh that, we had a little problem with the seamen exploding out of the water and attacking our town. Luckily we had help in stopping the seamen from entering. If they had gotten past our defenses then that would be around 9 months of work to clean up the mess,” said the man cheerfully.
“What type of seamen are you talking about?” asked tibia confused.
Before he could answer the village chief had arrived.
“Welcome, I am Oledud, the chief of this small fishing town. How may we help you?”
“Where is the group that had a human, Orc, and two Nyantails? Are they still here?” asked Number 6.
“Oh, you mean the nice people that helped fight off the seamen? They left several hours ago after they bought some food and water from us. Since they left on a ship I’m not sure where they are or where they were going,” said Oledud.
Number 6’s mood changed immediately turning into a furious storm of anger. They had missed the prey only by a few hours.
She calmed down a second later and turned to the soldiers still standing it the chariots.
“Burn the town down and kill everyone,” said Number 6 calmly as if she was ordering food at a local restaurant.
“Wh.. what is the meaning of this?!” asked Oledud.
“Village chief warn the others!” said Fiman pulling out his own sword to stall the enemy.
“Foolish,” said number 6 immediately throwing out two specially made daggers. The daggers started to glow white as they flew through the air and passed right through the man’s heart and head as if they were cutting through paper.
Blood, guts, and brain matter flew out everywhere from the large exit wounds.
“Why are you doing this!” asked Oledud who had fallen to the ground in shock after getting covered in the blood of Fiman.
Number 6 stood over the old man with a kind smile on her face.
“You helped my prey escape so it is only fair that I give you a proper reward for angering me,” said Number 6.
“We didn’t kn…guahhh!”
Number six didn’t let him finish his sentence as her daggers pierced the old man’s heart, killing him.
“What are you waiting for? Burn the pace down and make sure no one is left alive,” commanded Number six.
The rising smoke from the burning town could be seen many miles away.
***
Akira hummed a happy tune the weather was perfect for sailing, the sun shining brightly, a good calm ocean breeze to keep cool and push the ship towards their destination.
Since the ocean was calm there was little for Akira to do. So after getting bored of looking at the endless horizon full of water he had decided to catch some fish.
Fishing in the large open ocean with no land in sight was quite peaceful. There was only one problem souring his mood, every time he felt a nibble on the hook and yanked on the line to try and catch the fish was in vain all he received was an empty hook the food he had used as bait was always gone.
“If you’re just going to feed the fish, why don’t you just throw the food into the water,” said Mileena teasing Akira for his bad luck.
“It’s harder than it looks,” said Akira putting more food on the empty hook.
“Sure,” said Mileena.
“That reminds me you need to fix that bad sleeping posture of yours. You looked like a dead fish all sprawled over the ground,” said Akira poking back at Mileena.
“Wha…why were you looking at me when I was sleeping you per..pervert!” said Mileena slapping Akira in back of the head.
“What’s with you calling me a pervert all the time now? You really need to not learn any bad habits from your sister, and also how can I ignore it when you’re messily sprawled all over the place while sleeping. It’s like you’re saying ‘Look at me!’,” said Akira rubbing the back of his head.
“Trouble!” shouted Maya from the top of the sail mast where she was sitting.
“There seem to be several heavy Quinqueremes following after us!”
“What?” asked both Akira and Mileena as they stopped their bickering and looked behind the ship.
At least four large Quinquereme ships could be seen fast approaching them their large sails all unfurled. The hundreds of oars sticking out of the sides of the ships made them look like water bugs swimming on top of the ocean.
“What did we do now?” asked Akira worriedly.
He put down his fishing pole and walked over to the sail to make sure it was fully unfurled and catching all of the wind so they could go as fast as possible.
A half hour passed and the Quinqueremes were still gaining on them. An hour passed and the military ships were close enough that they could hear the drum beats used to command the oarsmen with their different tempos. They were beating at a fast pace which the oarsmen were following just as quickly, their oars rising and falling as one in well-practiced motions.
Ten minutes later a tall naval officer standing at the front of one of the ships held a bull horn to his mouth and shouted out to the small ship in front of him.
“By order of King Klego ruler of Cadia, you are hereby ordered to stop your ship and surrender!” shouted the officer his voice travailing over the water and reaching Akira and the others on the Sal.
“Who?” asked Akira shouting back.
“Klego, the king of Cadia!” said the officer trying to shout louder so they could hear him clearly.
“Sorry, I have never heard of that person and don’t know he is. We’re in a hurry to get somewhere so I have to decline your request,” Akira shouted back.
The naval officer nearly fell off his ship in shock at the pure disrespect that being shown to the king.
“We are not asking you! I’m telling you to stop or we will stop you!” shouted the officer after regaining his balance and calm.
“Don’t want to,” shouted Akira defiantly.
“Full battle speed!” shouted the furious officer.
The tempo of the beating drums became even faster forcing the tired oarsmen to row even faster than they had been before.
The naval archers on the ship stepped forward taking the officers position in the raised forward castle of the ship, waiting for the distance to close enough so that they could start shooting their arrows.
The other ships that accompanied them had large Ballistas in their front castle to help take care of problems like this.
As Akira watched the enemy’s hurried movement on their ships three loud delayed thunks could be heard as ballistas large bolts were shot forward aiming at the cog in front of them.
“Take cover,” shouted Akira.
Two of the bolts missed one falling into the ocean to the left and another flying over their heads. The third made a loud thud as it pierced through the side of the upper deck.
Akira’s head popped out of cover to yell at the ships behind them, “Stop shooting at my ship! I paid 10 gold for this!”
He was forced to duck again as another three bolts came hurtling towards the ship.
“Maya, Varbu, can you see if you can force them to stop following us?” asked Akira.
“I can try but you need to take care of the steering,” said Varbu.
“They’re still too far away for me to do anything. But if they get closer I’ll see what I can do,” said Maya.
Varbu pulled out the fire skill gem from his pouch he carried around his neck and aimed it at the nearest ship.
Fwoosh! A large watermelon sized fireball shot out and flew towards the nearest ship. The Quinquereme slowly turned to the right to escape the fireball.
Lucky for them the fireball harmlessly splashed into the water over twenty feet in front of the ship sending a large amount of steam into the air. After the miss Varbu decided it was best to wait until the ships were closer before trying again.
Another ten minutes passed bringing the ships close enough for the archers to start shooting.
The archers lit their arrows on fire using the coals in a metal brazer and drew back their strings waiting for the order.
“Fire!” shouted the officer. The archers released their strings sending a hail of burning arrows toward the small ship in front of them.
Only a few managed to reach the ship the others landed behind or to the side of it splashing into the water.
Mileena quickly stomped out the fire and while Akira tried to steer the ship out the archers firing range.
Varbu started to shoot fireballs and Maya her arrows at the chasing enemy but were doing little to no damage.
The ballistas continued to thud into the side of the ship causing different sized holes to appear letting water seep into the ship.
“This is the last fireball I can shoot,” said Varbu.
Fwoosh! The nearest Quinquereme’s forward castle structure caught on fire causing the nearby ballista men to grab buckets of water and try to put out the fire.
The Old Sal was growing slower and slower as it received more and more holes in its side and rear creating an easier target for the archers.
In the volley of arrows that came this time almost all of them hit the ship catching the sail and various other parts of the ship on fire everyone tried to focus on putting out the fire but even more arrows landed onto the deck, while bolts from the ballistas tore through the hull.
The ship was now dead in the water and quickly sinking. Almost every part of Old Sal was burning which caused a putrid smoke to rise up and choke them.
“Abandon ship!” shouted Akira between coughs.
The four of them jumped into the water to escape the sinking burning wreck.
The archers seeing that their prey had jumped into the water aimed their arrows at the spot they had disappeared into the water and shot another volley.
Due to everyone wearing armor their movement was hindered causing them to sink as they struggled to swim to the surface.
Akira could see the large cog ship sinking above them, they struggled to get out of the way and stop sinking.
To make things even harder they had to dodge several waves of arrows that flew into the water. Akira watched as all but one of the arrows swished past him. The one that he was unable to avoid cut his cheek letting blood leaking out into the water.
Sensing danger Akira looked down and saw several sea monsters were already swimming towards them.
‘Oh crap!’
