by Han Yang
The trip out of the harbor left me nervous, but I was committed at this point. The extra power from the current pushing at the top of the water and pulling the water out at the bottom sped us out to sea.
I had to leave my body a few times and dive back in so I could hone in on the battleship’s anchor line. The Whispering Willow is what the high elva called the ship, and while I thought that was not very original, I wasn’t shocked.
I named my city after our tribe after all.
“How’s it going?” Bell asked.
“You bored?”
She scoffed. “Yeah, a bit. Mags is sleeping in my arms with the biggest smile. I just figured you’d be done by now.”
“We just found the chain. I am having waroni climb up the metal until they’re just short of the water line. Once high enough, they’ll take a leap of faith and latch onto the hull. Their claws are sharp enough and with so many of them they find grip easily.
“I figured if they could climb walls, they could climb a wooden ship. It’s working so far. This wouldn’t have worked with the centaurs. So far, no one has noticed us weighing down the ship. That might change soon, once we start to add more numbers to the hull,” I said.
“You picked the ship. Thank you.”
“I didn’t do it for you, Bell, but I concede that I don’t want to be the bad guy. Keeping you alive means I have to do bad things at times -like hitting the enemy who thinks they're safe.”
“I’m just surprised you picked the ship. You don’t even know how to sail,” Bell poked.
I snickered. “Yeah. How hard can it be? Drop the sails, raise the anchor, and steer the rudder thingy.”
“And if the wind is going the wrong way?”
“Uh… The wind was blowing north towards home, so we got lucky there, I guess. At least it was fifteen minutes ago.”
“Are you clinging to the ship?” Bell asked. You could hear the fascination in her voice. “What’s it like to have claws?”
“Like sharp fingers, and no. I’m scaling the chain right now. I’m afraid I need to focus, but I promise to reveal everything to you soon,” I said in a reassuring tone.
“Good luck, Damien.”
I scaled the thick chain with ease. The tight coil helped me predict where each rung would be, and I reached the point where the murky water brightened. The underside of the hull swarmed with waroni who spread out.
I glanced at the gap, dreading the distance. The thought of plummeting for a few hundred feet bothered me even in a skeletal body.
The constant wash from the waves threatened to rip me free of my holding, and I grew nervous.
I ascended a few more links before taking the leap. When I jumped, the water made it feel like I’d never make it. I laid out ten claws and even readied my teeth so I would latch onto the hull.
Numerous indentations from previous landings helped my claws embed in the hardwood.
The waroni behind me landed lower, quickly shifting to the left to make room for the next minion. I claw walked sideways, heading for the back of the boat.
The process left me nervous that I might dislodge. It didn’t help that the ocean created a slight down tug with the bob of the ship.
A question kept running through my mind. Would the ship feel different to the crew? How have they not noticed?
A glance up showed I couldn’t see more than the waterline, and I was the highest minion. If I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me, and I doubted the extra weight would ring a warning bell or anything.
I left the waroni in place and ejected from his body.
When my mind’s eye breached the surface, I saw a series of rowboats heading toward the ship. They casually rowed and the front of the convoy was just leaving the gates at the port.
I hurried back into the body and signaled for an ascent even if only three quarters of my force was attached. It was time to act.
I scampered up the wide stern with a hundred other waroni. The minions besides me howled into the water, and we shot up the boat with startling speed.
The moment I breached the water, a sloshing wave broke the grip on my feet. The claws on my fingers scraped down until I dug my feet in. A waroni nearby caught the rough part of a wave. The skeleton tried to cling on only to be ripped free.
I didn’t watch the minion vanish into the depths for fear I would join them. With a firm determination, I focused on racing higher.
My ascent eased without fighting the waves. We must have been quite the sight.
The bright sunlight reflected against my army of waroni rushing to any opening they could find.
A whizzing arrow deflected off a waroni’s helmet with a loud clang. The stunned skeleton paused for only a fleeting second before continuing to climb.
A warhorn belted out a distress call. The long roaring sound received multiple replies from the port.
I risked a peek over my shoulder, seeing crews raising chains.
Snap!
The portcullis entered a freefall.
Splash!
The metallic gate sunk down and a resound thud. In mere seconds, the port was sealed. Only half of the regiment who rowed for the ship made it across in time. Those on this side intensely stroked their oars to aid their brethren.
A big cooking cauldron zipped by, smashing a nearby waroni. The skeleton broke apart, and an orb appeared.
I grinned at the ingenuity of the enemy. If arrows aren't working, drop whatever you can.
Clang! Clash! Screaming!
Waroni entered the ship, and the fighting escalated. I finally reached the back banister and hesitated.
Three waroni passed me. Each of them flew off the ship with arrows cracking their skulls. Two more fell from the next group, but three landed on the decking. I made my move and hustled over the railing.
I saw a half-dozen panicked elva trying to stave off the waroni who closed into melee range. The second my feet hit the decking, I ripped out my sword.
“To the bridge!” an elva shouted. “The demons invade!”
This had to be an officer of some sort. His white and golden armor shined brighter than the average crewmember. He carried a fine sword and backpedaled to stay out of the fighting.
I rushed forward, spun around the elva who tried to fight me, and lunged for the officer.
He shrieked in shock.
His blade raced up to clang against mine. I diverted the tip of his fine sword and did something no mortal foe would do. I let him crack my ribs, driving his weapons right into where my heart would be.
The blade became caught, and he jostled the hilt to free his weapon.
A vicious head-butt split his nose. He stumbled, blood pouring down his face.
The faintest sound of feet nearing from behind caused me to duck on instinct.
An elva blade scored a glancing blow off the back of my skull. The swing continued, and the officer died to his own soldier slicing into his neck.
I spun and rammed my rusty blade into the stunned attacker’s guts. The elva fought me over the grip, letting his own blade go.
Instead of getting in a tugging war, I released my blade as well. With a deft maneuver, I plucked the fancy blade off the deck.
By the time I turned to finish off the gutted sailor, another waroni had already tore his throat out.
A constant clang and a drifting ship told me we had secured two of the three main objectives. The steering wheel clacked as it spun clockwise in a turn. A minion controlled the ship for now.
The clanking of a tightening chain rising told me the anchor room was in our control. On the main deck, a hundred elva fought three hundred waroni.
The elva moved with grace and poise while the waroni rushed into melee to constrain the enemy. Even with our superior numbers, we were barely winning.
My troops clogged the ramps up, fighting back the elva desperate to recapture the steering wheel and to secure the sails. Waroni sliced emergency deploying ropes, and the sails dropped with loud bangs and int
ense snaps.
A brisk breeze billowed the large cloth squares with willow trees engraved on them. An instant later, the ship lurched into motion. I stayed guarding the steering wheel, waiting for an opening or a way to react.
Always a fan of loot, I scooped up the fancy sword from the officer and stole his armor too. The fine metal with lavish engravings would surely impress Famo, and it would help protect this skeletal frame.
The dwindling clangs, grunts, and screams of the dying caught my attention. The deck fighting shifted with clumps of elva diving into the water instead of dying to overwhelming odds. At first, I thought this was good. The sails were secured and the steering wheel firmly in our grasp.
The clash of metal told me that the fighting below deck intensified. I ordered my troops to cleanse the ship from top to bottom in the hopes to aid my lower deck fighters.
I walked to the steering wheel, gripping the handles firmly. The wind pushed hard to the northwest, so I adjusted the rudder to get maximum speed.
I could feel the death toll adding up. We might win the fight or we might lose, therefore I decided to take a slight win no matter what. A waroni replaced me on the wheel, and I gazed out the back of the ship.
The rowboat struggled to add speed, and we outpaced them quickly with the sails catching the most they could.
Disaster struck right as we achieved full speed. I think the enemy had the same idea I did - if I can’t or might not win, don’t let the enemy win.
The fight at the anchor room stopped, and my tingling notification came to a halt. I knew that the anchor room was always a confined space with limited waroni to defend it. That was how it fell to us in the first place.
The anchor splashed into the water, and we weren’t too far from the shore. It wouldn’t take long for the hooked metal to catch the bottom.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
Snap!
The chain tightened.
The ship lurched, spun, and the loudest crack I ever heard erupted.
The bolts and anchor housing burst free of the ship in a massive explosion of splinters.
All the forces rocketed me off the decking. I soared in the air for at least a dozen seconds before splashing down a hundred feet away from the ship.
I left this body and shot into one of the minions who fought below the decks to reestablish the anchor room.
Additional groans from the ship reverberated through the hull. The enemy rushed to flee before becoming trapped. A second loud crack ripped the ship vertically as the wooden behemoth greedily drank the ocean.
The world turned upside down, and for a second, I thought the ship had capsized.
Wrong.
I had been watching the fighting, and an enemy sliced my spine in half. A javelin caught the elva in the back, and he smacked onto the deck face first.
I crawled on top of him and ate the side of his neck. Savage, but it got the job done. I was pretty sure he was dead when the water engulfed me.
A final shockwave of power boomed through the area, and the ship split in two. I left the broken body with orders for it to secure its legs.
When my mind’s eye hovered over the sinking battlefield, I saw I had lost at least three hundred waroni. The rest had sunk to the bottom of the ocean and awaited orders.
I condensed a powerful spell, adding in a whole lot of domination, then unleashed. The time crawled by with my magic demanding I return. I caved to the overpowering commands and soared back to my body.
My spell washed over me about halfway with the magic already weak. A champion wasn’t meant to command a battlefield three days away. I felt my notification arrive right after I returned to my body.
You have connected to 173 fish. Would you like to Consume, Claim, or Drop. - Consume selected.
You have selected to consume 13.991 Zorta. Confirm (YES) - (No) - Yes selected.
I grunted unhappily. I hadn’t been scouring the ocean for freebies and I should have. I also didn’t reach the battle, leaving me with limited options.
I mentally sent a command to my minions: tie up every dead elva and run them north.
“How did it go?” Bell asked in a chipper voice.
I could tell she was trying to be positive, so I gave her a fake smile.
“It went okay. We almost won and both sides lost,” I said.
“A note came. An enemy army is entering the Coorg Woods,” Bell said.
“How did we miss that?” I asked, and Bell shrugged. I turned to my guard. “Signal the cavalry, all of them. Run and have Charlie readied. I sent a note to Tarla to come home, I need her here to command the forces to counter the invaders. I have to ride south as if the devil himself were on my heels.”
“Everything okay?” Bell asked.
I shrugged. “There’s about eight thousand Zorta and some potential new recruits at the bottom of the ocean. I just need to get close enough for my champion claiming or consuming to work. Do you want to ride with us and give Maggie to someone else?” I asked.
Bell shook her head. “Nope. I choose Mags over all else. Can’t help it. Never thought I’d like babies so much, but we’ve bonded.”
“Thanks, Bell. I will be home as soon as I can,” I said sadly.
“Hey, Damien, sorry I gave you a hard time earlier. We all have our roles, and I judged you incorrectly,” Bell said.
“Taking your daughter to work is something I shouldn’t do, but you had a point. I could have invited you both,” I admitted.
A few careful hops later, and I was on the road that ran along the jetties. Picking up a quick pace, I hurried to do the unthinkable - willingly get into Charlie’s saddle.
CHAPTER 7
Yookree Fields
You have connected to 473 elva and 383 minions. Would you like to (Consume) - All (Claim) 77 (Drop) All - Claim selected
Converting 77 elva into minions will cost 833 Zorta. Confirm (YES) - (NO) - Yes selected.
You have connected to 396 elva and 383 minions. Would you like to (Consume) or (Drop) - Consume selected.
Confirm you wish to consume 6751.118 Zorta (YES) - (NO) - Yes selected.
“Damien, we’re running out of time,” Asha said.
The moonlit night darkened on the horizon with a crackling cloud forming. We could barely see the magic of the ghouls. After three attempts, I finally connected to every one of my minions and most of the elva. It was as far as we could go.
“I need a moment,” Cecil grunted.
A rolling pitch-black fog exited his body. The cloud up high crackled and thundered. The accelerating fog joined the atmospheric magic, and I knew Cecil had repaired as many minions as he could without shared mana.
“It’s done,” I said with relief. “Spin the army and line us up so we can retreat home. Order a slow and steady pace. The cool night air should help with the exertion.”
I hated the situation. We were racing south with two armies to contend with. One was a regiment of elva and high elva numbering in the tens of thousands. This army guarded the shoreline to recover any survivors who managed to survive our earlier fight. This army did hold a cavalry unit that mildly concerned me.
After the sinking of the battleship, The Whispering Willow, I had a few minions in the shallows who gored survivors swimming to shore. I kept them beneath the surface because the high elva were superior fighters on solid ground. The killing was minimal, but it did draw some extra units to aid the survivors.
My minions had spent the last ten hours collecting all the best parts of the sunken ship. The wrecked battleship contained all sorts of goodies and most importantly, a whole bunch of rope and cloth to bundle it with.
A few hundred skeleton centaurs entered the water to aid in the intense effort, and I also ordered the new elva undead to help drag the loot north. Salvaging the ship would mean my fleet and city came out ahead.
During the hard ride south, I pondered and concluded it had been a success by all measures. Yes, I hated losing waroni at a five to one trade for e
lva, but I had struck down an enemy battleship - right under the nose of an ally. I had even managed to pilfer all the best parts off the battlefield.
The downside was the elva army sending a cavalry unit of equal size when they saw us riding south. That force was only an hour south, and our horses were tired. When Asha gave me reports that we might get bogged down in a fight, I had to unleash my full minion army via foot to run south for reinforcements.
If we got caught with exhausted horses, we would likely lose, and I couldn’t let that happen.
The other problem was the Podoni Empire marching through our section of the woods. The force was a delegation of three thousand knights with their supplies and camp followers sent to aid the Yookree Council.
Nee sent Ossa to me with updates. Leor handed me the message from the Podoni Empire in reply to my request for trade.
Die.
Nothing else was in the note; I had expected flowery text or a signature. Nope, it was written in blood. Why? Who knows. But it sent a very clear message. We were considered an enemy of the Podoni Empire.
I told Nee to reply with the word: Nuts.
It seemed fitting in the scenario.
The jaded feeling of being scorned because I was automatically presumed as evil left me more than a little angry.
A bugle blare to spin the army pulled me from my thoughts as Charlie nicked angrily. It was as if he had a special battle vision and knew we were leaving a potential fight.
“We can win,” Asha said confidently, keeping his mare at my side.
I raised my voice as the thundering hooves increased in volume. “I know. I don’t want a minor victory. Our horses are tired, and so am I.”
“They will be in the same state if they continue to chase us,” Asha said.
“When did you hunger for blood?” I asked with a snicker.
He shrugged, riding with a lean towards me to keep the shouting down. We had centaurs, undead skeletons atop undead horses, and live horses with a variance of magic casting species. Eight thousands cavalry with a few hundred chariots, being accompanied by a hundred ogres capable of keeping the pace.