Each of Kodria’s and Captain Pegleg’s ships was abuzz with activity as the sailors, both demon race and skeletons, were scrambling all over the ship tossing water on the sails and other important parts to try and make it harder for them to catch fire.
“We can’t use the previous tactics since there are too many of them and are far more prepared than the ragged ships we have come across so far. Wait for us to engage them in battle, then you can hit them hard from the rear and underneath,” said Akira, shouting down to the two princesses who were waiting below the ship in a blind spot to block their war chariots from being seen by the demigods.
“If that’s what you want then we will do it!” said Shaarla waving to Akira before disappearing into a wave.
With the stormy dark clouds above them, the water had become rough with waves that were larger than normal, but there was nothing too deadly and was perfect for the chaotic battle that would be flaring up.
Kodria’s lead ship had already stopped sailing north and had turned east with the other ships following suit and creating a battle line where they were able to fully present their full broadside to the fast-approaching ships. The distance between the allied ships had also closed up so that they could provide support to the other nearby ships if needed.
The first battle line was made with the three men-o-war taking up the center and with two frigates on either side. A second battle line was formed behind Kodria’s ships consisting of Captain Pegleg’s ships which did not have any form of long-range attacks like the ballista on Kodria’s ships.
The majority of the skeleton sailors held swords, shields, and spears with a few using arrows. They were more used to boarding the enemy’s ship and taking them over.
“Aim properly!” shouted Captain Walcot who was standing at a large wooden steering wheel.
Each captain of the ships was also in command of giving orders to the ballista men, but in hectic battles they had the second in command take over for the captain as they focused on steering the ship.
The ballista men went about loading and aiming the large bolt toward the approaching ships, while another sailor scooped out some tar and slathered it on the sharp metal bolt, then stood to the side with torches ready to light the fire.
Everyone watched with great anticipation as the large demigod ships sailed even closer now allowing everyone to see the occupants on each of their ships.
“Light!” commanded the Captains. The men with torches stepped forward and lit the tar on fire.
“Fire!” shouted the captains from many of the ships.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Over 90 large burning spear-like projectiles arced through the air as each ship launched a full broadside.
Akira used his collapsible telescope to judge the success of the attack and although the majority of them splashed into the sea next to the ships there were still several that managed to find their target.
The bolts that did hit their targets, embedded themselves deep into the wooden hull of the ships starting small fires or tore through the sails leaving behind a few burnt holes where the tar had rubbed off. These fires were easily taken care of by the demigods who used ice or water skills but in doing so they also damaged the hull and sails more.
The Allied ship attacks were not aimed directly at the demigods standing on the ship and were just shooting at the ship’s hull and sails to try and disable them. Among the attacks, there were a few lucky hits that sent bright fragments of light into the dark stormy sky lighting up the ships in the area for several seconds.
“Independent fire! Make them count!” shouted Captain Walcot as he focused more on sailing his ship and offering good angles for the ballistas to shoot at the enemy ships.
They managed to fire off one more full broadside before the demigods sailed into the range of their ships and started launching their attacks.
With the rough waves causing the ships from each side of the fight to bob up and down, it was hard to properly aim their ranged attacks. Because of this most of them tended to fly high over the ships or land in the sea just short of the ship.
But the attacks from the demigods that did hit caused massive problems! Ropes holding the sails taunt were snapped, fires were started, and both sailors and marines on the exposed top deck were wounded by the direct attacks that managed to hit them.
Unlike the Demigods, they had no special skills to deal with fires so easily.
The sailors, with the help of the marines, used buckets of water to put out any fire that they could and for the larger fires, they chopped or sliced off the parts that were burning and tossed them into the sea to stop the spread.
“Do you want us to launch our attacks now?” asked Crowbahr.
“Wait a little bit more, we need them to get closer so that we can catch them off guard and cause the most damage!” growled Akira as he watched the approaching ships.
Unlike the allied ships, the demigods were in no particular formation. Some of them were well ahead of others, not regulating their speed to stay with the slower ships that were still far behind them.
The lead demigod ships bore the brunt of the attacks and were now filled with burnt holes that had been frozen over to block the rough sea water from entering the lower decks. But with each wave slamming into the hull the ice was melting away slowly. Their sails were now full of burnt holes and many of the rigging ropes had been snapped causing the ship’s speed to slow down considerably as the wind just blew through the sail’s large holes.
Although most of the ballista men changed their targets to the lesser damaged ships behind them that did not mean that the slow and damaged ships were harmless since they were still filled with demigods who continued to launch attacks in their direction.
Akira watched the hectic scenes all around him as sailors ran around with buckets and axes chopping and splashing water to take care of the fires.
As Kodria’s first battle line turned around to face the enemy ships again they were now at the range where the marines’ cross-bolts could reach the enemy ships. From each ship, there were loud thunks as the cross-bolts from the marines shot at the exposed demigods on the top decks of their ships.
As Kodria’s ships passed by the first demigods’ ships Akira could hear several curses being hurled at them by the demigods as they launched skill attacks at the ships and the sailors.
While passing a second demigod ship, they were so close that the demigods tried throwing grappling hooks on their ship!
Only a few managed to snag the rails of the ship with a few of them, the rest fell into the sea. The few that did catch caused the ship to groan and lean slightly to the side going off course slightly as it struggled against the heavy weight of the ship that was now attached to it.
The problem was taken care of quickly as the marines chopped the ropes separating them once again. Twenty burning ballistas launched themselves right into the side of the enemy ship as well as the already tattered sails causing more burnt holes to appear while also allowing water to leak into their hull.
With [K.S. Wulfric] being slightly slowed and pulled off course the enemy ship launched even more grappling hooks. Several demigods who were standing on the sail beams high above the deck unfurled long ropes and jumped down and swung through the air high over the sea before letting go of the rope when they reached the correct angle to fly the rest of the way to the ship.
The marines on the fore and aft castle tower opened fire on the Demigods who were flying through the air.
Fluffball joined them by shooting several quick ice attacks at the demigods.
Many of the demigods were pierced with so many holes that they turned to light fragments before they could even land on the deck. One of the demigods had misjudged his jump and splashed into the water well short of his target. No one was paying him any attention and he was quickly left behind by the ships as the waves swept him away and out of sight. Of the many that had jumped only two managed to successfully land but they were heavily wounded.
Even so, they were able to land several killing blows to those who stood near them before being overwhelmed by the marines and cut down.
“Now!” growled Akira.
“On it!” said Crowbahr.
The [Full moon] guild members opened up nearly point blank, targeting the unprepared enemy demigods on the ship sniping them before they knew what had happened. After the first attack, there were only a few wounded demigods alive along with the captain of the ship who gave up engaging in a melee battle with [K.S. Wulfric] and managed to steer the ship far enough away to protect themselves from being boarded… although that was not much help for them as they were taking on water like crazy and were now forced to focus on trying to stay afloat.
It was a fruitless attempt as their ship became dead in the water and started to sink.
The original first battle line had turned to chaos as the ships were engaged in 1v1 and 1v2 battles.
Captain Pegleg’s ships had all sailed in from behind the first battle line and were now all targeting several of the ships as they launched their grappling hooks, climbed the ropes, and swung from one ship to the other. With their light bodies, they were able to have several skeleton pirates swinging on one rope at a time allowing for faster boarding action onto the enemy ships.
The demigods had a hard time targeting the skeletons due to several of the attacks going right through or past their bones leaving them frustrated. Several of the ship battles became melee fights between the boarding undead skeletons and the never-dying demigods.
In a desperate attempt to destroy a skeleton ship that was latched to a demigod ship, one of the more heavily damaged demigod ships aimed its bow right towards the enemy ship and rammed it!
CRACK! The skeleton’s ship received a huge hole in its side, while the ship that had rammed it also received severe damage to its bow where large amounts of water was now rushing in.
No matter how many ice skills were launched at the hole it was still unable to stop the rushing water, all it did was manage to freeze both of the flooding ships together causing an even more troublesome problem as they began to sink.
The skeletons who were on the sinking ship gave up staying there with each skeleton launching themselves onto the demigod ship they were already grappled to.
The demigods on the sinking ship were not as lucky since they were too far away to do something similar. It did not help that their ship was also sinking faster than the skeleton ship which was now being pulled under as the fused mass sank together.
Fwush!
A large burst of water shot up into the air from under the ocean which began to churn crazily.
Akira grew worried about what was going on underwater as the mermaids had been missing in action the entire time and now there seemed to be a large battle underneath one of the ship battles!
A large gray tentacle the width of an adult elephant reached out of the ocean and wrapped around one of the slow demigod ships that was sinking.
Crack!
The tentacle flexed its muscles and snapped the ship in half!
“Sea monster attack!” shouted the lookout alerting everyone to the danger.
The tentacle disappeared once again only to appear high above another sinking demigod ship.
“Is it helping us?” asked Beater.
“I doubt it!” said Akira as he saw another tentacle rise out of the water right in front of them!
“Cut it down!” growled Akira as he transformed and launched a [Sword Slice] attack at the tentacle.
Several other skill attacks shot out from the [Full moon] guild members. The combined attacks caused the tentacle to receive deep wounds and flop back into the sea.
With the new danger of the sea monster appearing, two of the demigods’ ships who had been near the rear and had the least damage turned around and began escaping from the battle leaving the remaining ships and their occupants behind.
Three of those ships were sinking while the fourth was being bordered and the demigods were slowly turning into light fragments as the large number of skeletons who did not die from normal wounds mobbed them.
The battle underwater became even more fierce lasting for over a half hour.
Luckily for the surviving ships no other tentacles shot out to attack them. During this time the skeleton sailors managed to fully take over the remaining floating demigod ship.
When the sea calmed down once again to its normal rough waves Princesses Shaarla and Cora rose out of the water riding in their war chariots with their hair all over the place while also sporting a few bruises and cuts on their scaly tails.
“We managed to take care of that old grumpy Octy. He wouldn’t listen to reason and was rampaging around because his home was lost,” said Cora.
“What are we going to face next? Sharks with freaking light beams?” asked Sweety.
“I have no idea what those are. What happened up here?” asked Shaarla looking at the damaged ships and the several sinking ships.
“Two of the enemy ships managed to escape. They headed over there,” said Akira pointing to a dark blot on the horizon. If one squinted you could see a small island far off in the distance.
“Is that the cause of all our problems so far?” asked Cora.
“It seems so… we need to set sail and check it out. We can’t let the demigods cause too much trouble there before we can tell what is going on.”
