Chapter 4 - Yorik Silverbeard
A couple weeks later, as they were pursuing the Castranold, a call from the Crows nest came down. “Ship spotted. North of North East. It’s the target skipper!”
“Finally!” Yorik said, standing from his charts in his cabin. They really were a slow ship, the information the Broker gave was accurate as always. He goes out onto the deck, getting out his spyglass, and examining the ship from afar. On the back he read the ship’s name: Castronald. “The hunt is on!” He called out, then using a bit of magic, amplified his voice so everybody on the ship would hear him. “To battle stations! Fly my personal flag.”
The sailor on the crows nest grabbed the flag representing the Kingdom of Thatopia, unhooking and carefully folding it, before storing it, he then grabbed Yorik’s flag. He unfolded it, revealing the colors of the privateers flag. It had a red and blue background, which was separated diagonally, and had a pair of crossed scimitars with arcs on the insides of them.
All hands moved to their battle stations preparing for a battle, the cannoneers manned the cannons, the two wind mages were at each mast to help with evasive maneuvers, they were currently filling the masts with wind to achieve max speed. Yorik had already donned his leather jerkin. They made chase.
Two hours later they were nearly upon the ship, and then he heard it, the booming of a mortar shot, followed by 4 more, as the Castronald fired them. “Hard port,” ordered Yorik using his magic again. The helmsman turned the ship’s wheel directing the rudder as the wind mages filled the appropriate sails allowing the ship to turn sharply to the left. Just as it was out of the way enough, the mortar shots splashed into the ocean creating a bit of a wave that caught the brig, turning it even further, as the helmsman started turning the wheel the other way to get the ship under control again.
Another five mortar shots came and once again Yorik ordered for the diversion of the ships course, the shots missed as they began to pursue the Castronald. They were almost within range of the galleon. A minute later, the process repeated, 5 more times this process repeated before they were within range. Finally he ordered them to turn for a broadside towards Castronald’s aft.
“All starboard fire!” Yorik’s order was followed with 15 cannons firing. 4 of them struck the back side of the galleon, tearing up the large wooden letterings across the aft of the big ship. A cheer echoed from his crew as Yorik saw the name crumble, then he ordered them forward to start turning to bring the Summer’s Hope alongside the aft of the Castronald.
Another 15 shots sounded, and because they were now closer to the Castronald, most of them connected This shredded the hull of the aft of the shipa lot of those went low, and the galleon started taking on water. Another cheer.
Just then a fist of wind struck the Summer's Hope's sails, but luckily they weren't sliced. Yorik thanked the stars he was able to get some new enchanted sails before his mission to The Isle of the Sun.
"Kill their rudders!" He ordered before willing for a large amount of wind to slice up the Castronald's sails. The wind Yorik summoned hit the sails, they resisted at first but a few seconds later they were all torn to shreds.
They then passed the aft as the Castronald turned to fire a broadside at Summer’s Hope, but Yorik sprinted to the starboard side of the ship, and used his magic to pull a wave up using his magic, freezing it. The ice was thick enough to stop 4 shots from reaching the ship, the 5th shot penetrated hitting a sailor square in the chest. Nothing was left of him on the deck save for a streak of gore. Yorik released the magic, the ice turning back into water falling back down to the ocean.
They returned fire once more, after the cannoneers reloaded their cannons as quick as they could, prioritizing the rudders, and fired. Most of the cannons hit, destroying the two large rudders, as the brig turned away from the galleon, just as they were about to enter the range of the mortars, he heard them fire. Quickly Yorik ordered his wind mages to fill their sails to outrun the mortar shots, they were almost not quick enough as one of the shots, slowed by the wind magic, grazed the port corner of the aft, tearing loose a lantern that was hung there, destroying part of the railing before embedding in the deck.
They made a hard turn to round about for a second pass. Yorik ordered them to try to disable the cannons along the port broadside of the galleon, and had the swivels loaded with explosive rounds to do so. The swivels fired, taking out 3 of the cannons, then when they were in range for the other two, the wind mages prioritized stopping those shots from leaving the cannons. One of them still left though bouncing off of the hull of the Summer's Hope, but the other cannon exploded taking out a huge part of the ship along with the other good cannon. When the ship passed the large hole on the galleon's hull, he could see that the explosion had blown a hole through the starboard side as well, just not as big.
Yorik ordered for grapeshot to be used on the sailors manning the mortars, and 15 shots rang out to clear the cannons of the regular shot. These were aimed to deal internal damage through the big hole in the hull. Then almost a minute later, they rang out again, though this time multiple hits were heard as a wave of shrapnel bombarded where the aft mortars were, and screams of pain were heard from that location.
As they were passing the forward part of the Galleon, another wave of grapeshot was aimed at the forward mortars. They went out and heard the mortars fire. The wind mages, exhausted from stopping the cannon earlier, couldn't give them a boost this time as two mortar shots hit the decks, piercing through the top deck. Yorik rushed to make sure they didn't pierce the hull, and as he looked down, he saw that both of them landed in and basically destroyed the ammo stores. He swore to himself as he made a decision. He barked out his orders, letting his crew know what he had planned. They continued to fire grapeshot to kill as many of their sailors as possible, making a couple more laps around the ship. They were pleased to know the cannon explosion disabled the other broadside as well.
“Fire the lines!” he ordered as the swivels fired. The harpoons inside were tied with a rope as they shot towards the galleon. The harpoons penetrated the hull, deploying as the sailors on the Summer’s Hope started reeling in the lines, pulling it right along the edge. The galleon’s deck was a couple meters taller so they deployed their rope ladders on grappling hooks to climb onto that deck.
As Yorik led the charge, he drew both his cutlasses from his belt as he landed on the Castronald’s deck, and was immediately parrying a sword from one of the sailors that came to attack him. He then counterattacked with his other cutlass, slicing the man across the chest as he fell. More men attacked him, and he cut them down with ease. They weren’t that coordinated while on a ship it seemed. Still, Yorik didn’t drop his guard. He knew he was outnumbered two-to-one going into this, and he didn't know if they were still outnumbered or not, so he ordered his crew to be cautious.
“Where is Neeley!” Yorik shouted, calling out the commodore. He then spotted a man dressed like a captain. “Ah, you must be him! I challenge you to one on one combat you monster!”
Captain Ensil of the Castronald took off his jacket revealing a chainmail shirt underneath it, and revealing his scarred arms. Yorik knew what those scars were, and since they had mostly faded, he knew that he no longer needed his own blood to perform that disgusting magic.
“I am the captain of this ship,” he called back, “but Neely was murdered by a whelp, and I have replaced him. You may call me Ensil, though you won’t be alive for much longer.” He then held out his hand and the blood from the fallen sailors around Yorik started manifesting into a pair of rapiers in Ensil’s Hands. “I gladly accept your challenge.”
“Well time to fight fire with fire” Yorik replied, willing more water up towards his cutlasses from a flask he carried on his belt. The water gave an edge to the blades, turning into a sharp ice blade.
Ensil approached him and Yorik immediately moved in for a defensive strike. Ensil easily sidestepped it following with a swift counterattack that was deflected by Yorik’s blade. They made a few exchanges like this, attacking and dodging, counterattacking and deflecting. “You’re better than the average human, that’s for sure!” Yorik ridiculed.
“And you are just a dirty dwarf like the rest of your kind.” Ensil sneered back, ignoring Yorik’s taunt. Ensil stabbed at him, and Yorik tried to deflect it, but this time Ensil was able to get the upper hand on him, catching one of Yorik’s cutlasses by the hilt, and sending it flying. Yorik backed up a couple steps, but realized he was cornered by the railing of the edge of the ship. Ensil used this advantage to attack Yorik mercilessly, but suddenly felt a sharp pain from his back. He turned and saw no one close enough to attack him, then he was sliced again by the air. Just then Yorik’s cutlass flew back into his hand.
“So you’re a wind mage as well. Impressive for someone inferior.” While Ensil was speaking, Yorik took that opportunity to attack, slicing at one of the blood rapiers. When the two blades made contact, the cutlass sliced through the rapier, and it turned back into normal liquid blood. Ensil took a step back, guarding with his other rapier as he tried to summon more blood to make another rapier with.
“I don’t think so,” Yorik tutted as a massive wave crashed down upon the deck rinsing off all the blood. After they had both recovered their footing, Yorik had the upper hand. He started attacking Ensil carefully, not allowing Ensil an opening, while making sure to not get cut with the rapier of his. Suddenly it was Ensil who was backed up against the opposite railing, and he tried once again to get more blood, but it was obvious that his stamina was almost used up and it barely responded. Yorik rose his cutlasses for one last strike. Ensil tried to block with his rapier, but as the cutlas struck the rapier, it passed through it like butter, and chopped into his head. Ensil fell limp as his life left him.
A cheer surrounded Yorik as he looked up from his fight to see that his crew had overwhelmed the crew of the Castronald. Those Grapeshot apparently killed more than he thought, as he started to feel the burn of magic exhaustion. He willed the water back into his flask and sheathed his cutlasses.
“What shall we do with them?” Berry asked.
“Tie them up for now, loot anything of value, and take some wood to repair our ship with.” Yorik ordered, then whispered for only Berry to hear. “Then burn all these monsters with this ship.” He then jumped down the two meter gap back onto the deck of the Summer’s Hope, and walked back into his cabin.
“Cap’n, you’re going to want to see this.” Berry said with a grim look on his face. Yorik had just sat down at his desk to draft a letter.
“What is it Berry?” He asked with obvious exhaustion in his body. As he looked up, he came face to face with a severed Elven head, atop of which was the crown King Cedric was wearing when Yorik had his audience with him. Jumping to his feat, Yorik swore, “by Sodr’s left eye, this is way worse than I expected. As soon as you burn their ship and send them to the world serpent’s maw, we will be making for Shelarion again.”
“Aye Sir!” Berry turned and left.
“I am such an idiot.” Yorik mumbled under his breath sitting back down, crumpling up the letter he had been writing and started writing another one. He wrote furiously, until he had 6 tightly woven scrolls. All of which said the same thing, to a different country leader.
The Astrans have attacked the Isle of the Sun in the capital city of Shelarion. Please send aid.
Yorik opened a Drawer that contained 8 stone tablets inscribed with runes. He touched a rune on one of them. After a minute, all the runes were alight in various colors, and a light blue Seagull appeared before him. He tied a scroll to its leg, and hung a medal around its neck that bore the seal of his family. “King Ihon,” he stated, the bird taking flight heading to Castle Vint. He sent the other 5 scrolls to other nations as well.
He then stood and walked out onto the deck to observe the burning Castronald, as he watched it descend into the depths.
[author]I want to apologize for missing last week. I got the COVID vaccine and that knocked me on my ass for a few days. My work schedule changed and I wasn't able to get this done by the deadline so I'm publishing it now. I also had major writers block and I hate how little detail there is in the battles. I hope to do better in the future.[/author]
