Armageddon: The Broken Man - ACT 1

Chapter 10 - Caught In The Fray

Chapter 10 - Caught in the Fray

>WILLOW__ARCHER

//SEQUENCES//PLAY//LEGENDARY__BATTLE//

Cannon fire blasted my eardrums, over and over again. Leonara tied her mess of hair up with a red scrap of cloth, and caught a musket, tossed by Sanret. With a - rather heroic - battle cry, she charged forth, leading a handful of crew members to the ropes.

She wrapped a rope around her forearm and jumped, swinging over to the Kingfisher's first gunboat. Half a dozen sailors followed her, all screaming and generally making my ears protest even harder.

"Oracle, where is your armor?"

I barely heard Kanris over the crashing of waves. Her voice rose out of the captain's quarters along with her, powerful, like a tsunami rocking the ocean.

She had abandoned her red and white dress attire, and instead wore a set of armor. The gold and white of her hardened steel plates drew the sun away from her surroundings, giving her the glow of a goddess. Deep crimson cloth was packed underneath the metal, peeking through most spots and splitting around her waist. A long, sun-bleached strip of fabric flowed from there onto the floor.

The clanking of her footsteps is what snapped me out of it, just in time.

The gunboat's puckle guns fired back at us, desperate to retaliate. A shell headed straight for my chest, and I was lucky to remember how to freeze objects without having to review my entire teachings.

The shell dropped into my hand. I tossed it over my shoulder after Kanris shouted something, and armor solidified around my form.

It's essentially the same as hers, except with gray replacing red, and with much more elegant designs. I was given a gauntlet around my right forearm and a silver chain looping around the crown of my head, draping a cold jewel over the center of my forehead.

The consecrated sword found its way to my hand. It was much more evenly balanced than what I remember, and even more power hums throughout the runes.

I set the blade in its scabbard.

"Feel free to use the stone."

Just like that, without even a single movement, the waves calm. The stone - the diamond, actually - catches the sunlight and bounces it around, stealing the heat and pressing it against my skin. Leonara calls something across the water, drowning out the terrified wails of the gunboat's crew. They know what's coming, and they're aware of their inevitable possibilities of death.

The spell forms in my head as the Red Raven's crew jumps ship, and Kanris' magic catches them long before they hit the water below.

It's dead silent for a second before the tsunami rises out of the calm, with foam like white horses, stampeding onto the gunboat's deck, trampling all in their way. The water that follows drags the ship down, ripping apart its hull and crushing its crew. The sheer force of the wave sends the puny gunboat straight to Davy Jones' Locker.

Cheers erupt on board the Raven, with Sanret's voice rising above the rest, pointing out the approach of the Kingfisher's other escorts.

Kanris waves him off, and the crew cheers as she snaps an apple-sized chunk of red metal off of the front of her boot. The opacity fades in an instant, and the metal only tints her hand deep red instead of blocking the light.

She tosses it high into the air before catching it; her slight smirk widens across her face, and she mutters something before chucking the stone a decent hundred yards, straight onto an approaching brig.

The captain orders his crew to brace and attempts to swat it away, but ends up missing in his desperate frenzy.

The red stone glows brighter when it bounces against the deck once, and even brighter the second time. Once it bounces for a third time, it explodes in bright light, sparking flame hot enough to feel despite the distance.

Kanris tosses another stone, just like it, to Sanret, ordering for him to throw it all the way to the farthest ship, another brig. He nods and slings it overhead, sending it flying through several hundred yards of atmosphere. The stone soars in an arc, blurring itself in its speed.

When the stone falls, it falls hard, straight through the brig's upper deck. Explosions of fear echo across the water, knocking me off center for a split second. When my balance returns, the brig's already a floating bonfire.

The crew cheers, all celebrating a small victory, but still aware the Kingfisher remains, and quickly approaching. Leonara runs along the ship's railing, and leaps overhead, to a nearby mast. There, she hangs by a single hand's grip, gazing towards the Kingfisher in utter horror.

"Excuse me, Cap." Leonara blurts, pointing towards the Kingfisher, slicing through the waves.

Kanris ignores her and readies a musket for herself.

"C-Captain Tandir, you might want to look." Leonara stutters a little, and raises her arm again, towards the ship.

"What is it, Steelgrist?" Kanris sighs, turning towards her with cleaning equipment in hand.

"That's not the Kingfisher." Sanret answers instead of Leonara, announcing the fact loud enough for the entire crew to hear.

"Then I must be blind." Kanris barks, halfway rolling her eyes. "What do you see, oh graceful elves?"

"It's Chaos' Man of War. The Muertrier."

Just like that, the ship's upon us, and showing its true form.

Three rows of cannons, each row with 15 or more, point directly at me, staring into me with the dark shafts, hiding a massive steel shell of 110 pounds, exact. Bright yellow paint reflects the light from the sun, and the deck, far above our heads, blocks out the rest of it.

"Hey, Archer!" Chaos peeks out of a cannon's window, just in front of my face, and 3 feet away. "Whaddaya say, you wanna have some fun? I just patched up the ship, after, you know, you sent War to rip it to pieces, and I'm itching to use my new dismounted puckler."

//CHALLENGE//MUERTRIER01//

Her gray eyes glow with delight, and her smile only widens when she catches sight of Kanris.

"Oh, hey Tandir! How're those scars heal-"

"Alright, Chaos, I'll play your little game. Just a warning, I don't play fair."

//CHALLENGE//MUERTRIER01//ACCEPTED//

"Oh, that's fine. I don't play fair either, big surprise."

I don't know why I didn't expect a cannonball to blast me into the water.