Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Six - There is Only Open Fire and Reload

The fight between the Beaver and the Red Whale continued on, and with every passing moment, it became a tougher struggle.

“Watch your eyes!” Amaryllis warned before she levelled her wand at the ship again.

There was another powerful crack of thunder. This time, I only covered my eyes a little, so I got to see her spell strike at the bigger airship.

It collided with a shield a few metres away from the Red Whale, but Amaryllis’ magic was so strong that the shield bowed and the spell went on to burn an arcing line across the ship’s bow. Bits of the ship’s canvas were torn open now, letting us peek into the gasbags within.

“Damn,” Amaryllis muttered.

“That was still a good hit,” I said as I blinked the spots away. Aimed as best I could at the other ship and fired off a brace of little fireballs. None of them slipped into the opening Amaryllis had cut, but if I kept firing, eventually one would, and then there would be damage within the ship.

“I was aiming for their ballista,” she groused.

There was another distant thwang and then a hard crack as something struck the Beaver.

I ran up and leaned over the side to see what had been hit. There was half of a metre-long bolt sticking out of the side, just about where the sleeping quarters for the crew were. One of the planks there was smashed in by the bolt.

“Oh no,” I said. They were actually hitting us now, and we didn’t have the sort of fancy magic needed to really block their attacks.

“Captain!” Clive called from the helm. “Hard turn to starboard!”

“Got it!” I shouted back.

The Red Whale had been slowing down for a little bit, and now we were practically within shouting distance of each other.

The other two pirate ships, the Red Scourge and the Firestrike were still coming in hot, but they were further back and trying to turn towards us.

The Beaver banked into a turn, putting us nearly on a collision course with the Red Whale as they angled toward us as well.

Clive gunned the engine.

Before the pirates could get their forward ballista reloaded, we were outside it's firing arc, hurtling past them, parallel to one another, nearly close enough to touch.

If we both kept up our turns, we'd trace out a fall circle in the sky and approach head-on again. It would give us breathing room once we were past them.

But we weren't past them yet, and the side of the Red Whale's gondola opened up and the pirates within started to arm up a smaller ballista.

“Full broadside!” I shouted.

Caprica, Amaryllis, and I flung spells at the larger airship as fast as we could form them, recklessly burning through or mana reserves. The shield sparked and flashed under our bombardment, then half of it shattered and our bolts of light started hitting home.

Calamity added to our barrage, specifically targeting the pirates manning the ballista and forcing them to take cover. Half his arrows glittered with spell-threads that exploded, or ignored armor, or set exposed wood on fire.

Then Awen joined in.

So far she’d kept her big rapid-firing crossbow turret in reserve, but on my order she opened up.

It was clear within a second that she’d improved the design a whole lot lately. The turret had four large repeating crossbows. They fired in sequence, one every half-second like clockwork, four shots, then a second’s long pause as the first bow finished reloading, then four more shots.

Each bolt she fired was as long as my arm span, a long piece of magically-crafted glass that glinted in the morning sunlight as it zipped across the space between our ships. Some of them exploded.

I wasn’t sure how many of them, but maybe one in four had some sort of incendiary glass tip, and when they struck the Red Whale they’d burst apart with a tiny bang, sending fire and glass shards all over.

The Red Whale’s side was peppered with small bursts of fire, bolts, and arrows. I could see the crew running around through the many porthole windows along its bottom gondola.

“Awen! Target those engines! The rest of you too! Split fire with the gondola, we don’t want them firing back!” Amaryllis shouted.

I nodded and aimed my next brace of fireballs a little lower. It was a lot easier to aim when they were this close, so only a few of them zipped past under the ship, and most of them flew into the openings on the side of the ship’s gondola where the pirates were still prepping their ballista. They mostly just struck the floors and maybe hit some random tools, but it seemed to work well enough to spook the pirates.

Awen, meanwhile, walked her shots across the surface of the ship until she reached the engines. Her glass bolts punched through the thin metal sides of the engine cowlings. I had no idea what broke underneath, but she must have nicked a fuel line because the frontmost engine burst into flames.

The Beaver and the Red Whale continued to fly past each other. Soon enough the pirates got things in order and started to fire back. Some opened portholes and flung spells out at us, and I winced every time a fireball or an unfamiliar spell struck us. Then their ballista opened up, and long lines were drawn between our ships.

“They’ve got grapples!” Caprica shouted.

“Calamity, can you cut them?” I asked.

“Aye capt’n!” he said before aiming more carefully.

The ropes went taut, and the Beaver shook. It looked like there were some pirates ready to use them as ziplines to get across, but Calamity was a darned good archer and he managed to slice the first two lines apart with a quick shot each.

“Clive, give us some distance!” I called back. Over the twang of lines snapping apart.

“Aye aye!”

The Beaver and the Red Whale parted a little. Awen kept firing and one of her shots planted itself firmly in one of the ship’s rearmost engines which made it stutter to a stop.

I glanced around, lowering my casting arm and taking a deep breath. My mana had run... not low, exactly, but I’d used up way more than half of it. But that was a small problem compared to everything else. A look up revealed a couple of holes punched into the starboard side of our balloon, and some of the spells fired at us left big scorch marks on the Beaver’s flanks.

“Scallywags!” I shouted. They were supposed to be below deck, taking care of things down there. “We need some holes patched, quick!”

The trio came running up and took in the situation at a glance. Joe already had a toolbox with him that had a bunch of tarp and glue and the materials we’d need to plug those holes before we lost too much gas.

“Awen, can you give everything a look, see if everything’s still functional.”

I spun around and looked into the skies around us. The Red Scourge couldn’t turn as tightly as we could, but it was coming around.

I swallowed. The Firestrike had turned hard and was now flying straight towards us.

The Beaver now had the Red Whale behind it to the right, and the Firestrike was cutting in ahead of us.

If we turned to port, we might be able to temporarily fly away from the other ships, but they were all faster and would soon catch up. Or... maybe the Red Whale would be left behind, but the other two would definitely be able to catch up, and it looked like they were both a lot scarier.

If I had to guess, the Red Whale was more of a transport ship than one designed for fighting. It had some weapons, but the overall design wasn’t great, with terrible arcs of fire and it wasn’t a very manoeuvrable ship.

The Firestrike seemed like it was built as a warship from the ground up, and the Red Scourge was just so massive that it didn’t matter how unmaneuverable it might be, the thing was covered in turreted ballista and could probably carry hundreds of pirates.

“This isn’t going to be fun,” I said. “We can’t outrun them, and we can’t outfight the other ships.” They weren’t turning away either. I’d harboured a bit of hope that if we gave the Red Whale a few bruises the pirates would decide to turn around and leave us alone.

“We need a little luck,” Caprica said. “And some time to escape.” She was glaring at the pirate ships, her gaze steely and determined and more than a little scary. If the pirates could see that look they’d definitely turn tail.

“Luck is something that we’re in short supply of, right now,” Amaryllis said.

Suddenly, there was a loud, high pitched whistle. We all turned to look at where the sound was coming from. It was The Shady Lady. Abraham’s ship was charging out of the thinner clouds above, a streak that was only gaining speed as it dropped.

Its target was obvious, the Firestrike.

The pirate ship opened fire, and ballista bolts streaked through the air to intercept it, but they were essentially shooting from the hip and the shots all went wide as the Lady dove in.

I picked out the tiny, distant form of Abraham, standing at the very front of the Shady Lady with his body twisted around and an arm cocked by his side. “HAAA!”

Then he threw.

It was impossible to see what he flung, but I imagined it was just a few pebbles or something small like that. “Hah!” his shout washed over us from afar, followed a split second later by the echoing boom of several projectiles crashing into the Firestrike with meteor-like strength.

The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the sky, and we could feel the reverberations even on the Beaver.

The Firestrike faltered in its trajectory, a plume of black smoke trailing behind it as it began to list to one side. The pirate crew scrambled, desperately trying to regain control, but it was clear the ship was severely damaged.

The Shady Lady flew past it, then started back upwards in a gentle arc, the entire ship tilting a little as they started to turn back in our direction.

“How hurt is the Firestrike?” I asked. The ship was distant enough that I couldn’t make out too much of the damage. It looked like Abraham’s throw had punched a few holes clear through the ship, and something was on fire, but the airship was still hovering along.

Amaryllis squinted at the ship. “They're not out of the fight, but they're definitely hindered. Their mobility and speed have taken a significant hit," she said. "We need to move, now!”

“We should try to make distance while we can,” I said. I turned to Clive. “Full speed ahead!”

“Are we just going to run?” Caprica asked, her hands tightening on the hilt of her sword.

“It’s a tactical relocation,” Amaryllis said.

“Huh? I thought it was definitely running away,” I said. “That’s how a smart person should fight. At least, that’s what my parents always told me.”

The Firestrike was trailing smoke but it was slowly righting itself. The Red Scourge, meanwhile, was turning to give chase, but it was slow and ponderous, taking its time. Behind us, the Red Whale was limping but its crew was still working hard to repair the damage and get back in the fight.

Despite the damage we had inflicted, and Abraham's powerful strike on the Firestrike, it was clear that we were still outmatched. The Shady Lady was now heading our way but was still too far to provide immediate aid.

My heart pounded in my chest as I looked at the ever-encroaching ship. The sheer size of the Red Scourge was terrifying. Its array of ballista, primed and ready to fire, seemed like a promise of doom. And yet, despite the terror, a feeling of determination filled me. We weren't going down without a fight.

“We need a miracle...” I muttered under my breath.

Just then, a strange shadow loomed in the distance. It was still far, but growing bigger with every passing second. It was the unmistakable silhouette of a dragon in flight.

Our miracle had just arrived.

***