While Tadwick was distracted by trying to tell Kiyui about the other boat, I tried to talk to Phoenix about Damecus.

  Phoenix: “He is a stoic creature, I doubt he wishes to burden us with his problems.”

  Dwynfel: “This just doesn’t seem like him… it’s hit him really hard… I want to help him but I don’t know how… I don’t even know what’s got him feeling so bad.”

  Phoenix: “I understand, Dwyn. But remember, everybody is entitled to their secrets… you know this better than most. Many prefer to deal with their own problems in their own way. Do not pressure him.”

  Dwynfel: “I won’t… I just want him to know that we are here for him.”

  Phoenix kept an eye on Tadwick while I went over to speak to Damecus. As I got close to him, he fixed me with a questioning gaze. He obviously did not wish to discuss anything. But I wasn’t going to let that deter me. I need to say this… he needs to hear it… then I will be done. He will probably think me a prat for saying it… but damn it… we’ve been travelling together for like, a month… I care about the guy… to an extent.

  Dwynfel: “Hello… Damecus.”

  Damecus: “What?”

  Dwynfel: “You don’t need to speak… I just want to say something… so please… just listen… then I’ll leave.”

  Damecus glared at me… but he didn’t say anything to stop me… and he didn’t hit me… so it is going well, so far.

  Dwynfel: “I know that you aren’t one to share your problems with people… that’s fine… I understand that. But there was a time when I had never talked about my past with anybody… it just ate away at me inside… then one night… just before all this teleportation shit… I opened up to someone… I talked to him about the things that hurt me. It didn’t fix things… all that stuff still happened… I still know that it happened… I still remember it… but talking everything through with somebody… it helped… I can’t explain how… but it helped. I’m not saying that you need to talk to me… I’m not saying that you need to talk to somebody this second. But we are all here to help you… whenever you need it. Ok… so… I’m going to go… bye.”

  I think that went well… maybe. I find him hard to read. He’s very expressionless at the moment. But then again… back at the oasis, him and Nomius were the ones saying that expressing emotions is healthy… maybe he will take my advice. That being said, he is still glaring at me… should I smile at him? Will that look weird? Maybe I should just subtly walk away?

  Lookout: “Anubis empire! Dead ahead!”

  Captain Vance: “On your guard! If you can fight, stay on deck! If you can’t, then get down below! We cannot fight properly if we have to concentrate on protecting you. If we fall and you do not wish to become a slave to some ugly rat bastard for the rest of your life, then kill yourselves before they break down the door!”

  Oh great… that’s all we need right now.

  Phoenix: “Help me get Kiyui down below!”

  Dwynfel: “Right.”

  Kiyui: “Leave me… I can help.”

  Dwynfel: “Don’t be ridiculous… you can’t even stand on your own.”

  Phoenix: “Tadwick… bring that bucket and look after him for us!

  Tadwick: “Uh huh!”

  Bless him… he is so keen to help. I hope they’ll be alright down there.

  After we got the two of them down below, I ran to the front of the boat to get a look at the other ship. The captain was already there… as was Damecus. The captain is an interesting woman… she seems physically imposing without being a giant, her hair is long, black, and tightly tied back… in fact… everybody in the Uddin empire seems to have that exact same haircut… except that Bo child for some reason.

  She smells of rum and curried meat… which is an odd but not unpleasant combination. She is a rather reassuring person to have in charge… she exudes confidence… even though the other ship is way bigger than ours. Shit… the other ship is a massive galleon… they have like six sails… we have two. She turned to look at Phoenix.

  Vance: “You… the mage… know any fire spells?”

  Phoenix: “Many.”

  Vance: “Get up to the crow’s nest. When we sail alongside them, try to set their sails on fire… without sails they can’t pursue us… and if the whole damn ship catches fire, all the better. Likely some of them will jump aboard as they pass… no fire spells against them… if our ship catches fire then we’re buggered.”

  She turned around and I got a good look at her for the first time. She has a rapier in her right hand, and on her belt… there is a bizarre looking tube with a handle. I have never seen anything like it before. I wonder what its purpose is. If it is a weapon of some kind, then I am certainly curious as to how it is used. She addressed the crew.

  Vance: “They will not use their cannons, sinking us would simply kill their potential slaves. They will likely intend to ram us. When they get close, steer to the side of them. Our ship is smaller and more manoeuvrable; they shouldn’t be able to adjust in time. This is nothing that we haven’t dealt with before… those rat bastards are overconfident… they underestimate magic and they won’t be expecting lizardmen. With their sails on fire and their boarding party defeated they will likely give up pursuit and bugger off back to the Anubis Empire to lick their wounds!”

  She turned to Nomius.

  Vance: “And you… stay visible as their ship sails past… I want them to see that we have two of you. If we can scare the shit out of them before they even get onboard then it will be an easy victory.”

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  Damecus barged past us and made his way to the other side of the ship holding his club and shield.

  Damecus: “Leave this side to me. I look forward to killing something.”

  Battles at sea certainly don’t seem to move particularly fast. It isn’t like when you are fighting a group of monsters in a cave. It starts in an instant and ends in minutes, if not seconds, normally. It feels like we have been sailing in their direction for an absolute age. At least I am not clinging on halfway up the rigging like half of their men seem to be. That must be tiring.

  I have been advised to forego my bow for this fight. Shooting arrows at people on the other boat will do little to benefit us and will simply cause me to lose arrows… and the ones that get on board this ship will be too close for me to use the bow effectively… so back to my daggers it is.

  I have to admit… I’m not particularly confident with my daggers anymore. Despite initially doing well against those lizardmen with them, they did ultimately destroy me… and even that massive spider in that narrow cave was able to dodge me.

  Maybe once they get back to normal, I can ask Damecus or Nomius to spar with me a bit. Nomius would probably be better for that… I can actually parry Nomius’ axe… Damecus has so much raw power that when he swings his club there is literally nothing I can…

  Vance: “Here they come!”

  As the other ship got close, we did exactly as the captain had said… our ship veered to the side and they just missed us. Many of them were able to jump aboard from the rigging however. I wasn’t able to count them all… there was no time.

  Phoenix: “Fire snake!”

  Holy shit… a thread of fire weaved its way through the air… slicing through the sails of the other ship before wrapping itself around the central mast. At least half their sails are on fire… nice. No time to admire it though. The men who jumped aboard are all large rats… I’m confused… I was rather expecting them to look more like jackals… oh well… no time to ponder that now.

  I ran across the deck towards one of them that was fighting one of the deck hands. I sliced the back of his legs; he fell to the ground and I slit his throat. Onto the next one… suddenly a large rat flew past my head and over the side of the ship…

  Dwynfel: “Fuck…”

  I looked over to the centre of the boat where he had come from. Flora had moved from the mast and was now standing in front of the door to the lower decks. She must have moved there to protect the others. Another rat got close to her. She didn’t even move her head to look at him… she simply pierced his chest with one of her tendrils then flung him overboard. She really is not somebody that I would like to be on the bad side of.

  Shit… the captain is surrounded by five of them. I ran across the ship to back her up… although she seems to be fending them off pretty well… not one of them has so much as cut her yet. I slipped between two of them, cutting their sides as I did. At least now it’s two against five… and two of them are injured.

  Vance: “Don’t believe we have been formally introduced, young goblin…”

  Vance lunged forward… smirking at the rats as she cut the cheek of one of them. She then backed up next to me deflecting three blows from three different rats.

  Vance: “Captain Charlie Vance, and you?”

  Vance lunged forward again… at a different one this time. As she did so, one of the rats lunged at me, so I parried it and cut his arm. He backed away.

  Dwynfel: “Is this really the time?”

  Vance: “No time like the present. Switch sides!”

  I had very little time to react to what she said. I turned to face the three that she had been fending off. As I did so she swivelled around my side, kicked the sword away from one rat, slit the throat of the rat next to him before steadying herself and stabbing the unarmed rat in the stomach. The three she had left tried to advance on me. I managed to dodge their blows quite easily… the captain was right… they are overconfident.

  Dwynfel: “Dwynfel Vesidia…”

  The rat to my left lunged at me… I moved to the side and managed to cut the side of his neck open as I did. The one on the right tried to kick me… I stabbed my knife through his boot and right though his foot. He fell to the ground in agony, which just left one. Shit… I shouldn’t have done that… I can’t get the dagger back with this other one advancing on me… fuck. Suddenly I heard a loud bang just above my head and the rat collapsed to the ground with blood erupting from his chest.

  Dwynfel: “What the hell was that!?”

  Fuck… my ears are ringing… I’m struggling to hear anything… that was fucking loud. I turned and looked up. The captain was holding the weird tube thing that she usually had on her belt. There was smoke coming out the end of the tube. She raised it to her lips and blew the smoke away.

  Vance: “Dwynfel did you say? Halfling name, isn’t it? Lovely little halfling fella made this for me. He was a total pervert, but I have to hand it to him, he knew how to use his fingers. Called it a flintlock pistol, only carries one bullet at a time, but handy in a crisis.”

  She walked over, pulled my dagger from the foot of the screaming rat, and handed it to me. Before proceeding to pick the injured rat up off the ground and fling him overboard. She turned to face the rest of the ship. Most of the enemy forces had been killed by now and only one of the sailors on our side had been injured. Damecus had defended the other side of the ship pretty much single handedly. Nomius had remained visible the entire time and still had absolutely no problem decimating any enemy that got near him. Phoenix had knocked several off the ship using a spell called tidal surge… and well… I mentioned Flora earlier.

  The enemy never stood a chance really… the captain was right to be confident.

  Vance: “Any rat that is still on my ship within 10 seconds had better be dead… otherwise it will wish that it was!”

  As the captain finished her announcement the rats that were still fighting looked around. They noticed that nearly all of their allies had fallen and that their shipmates were too busy putting out fires to provide any reinforcements… at that realisation the survivors ran to the edges of the ship and dived overboard. The captain just looked at me, smirked and said.

  Vance: “See… easy.”

  Kiyui should also not be wearing his shawl... since Tadwick is currently wearing it... but when I asked the AI to remove his shawl it kept doing something weird with his arms, so we shall live with it being on in the picture.