Fallen Angels

Chapter Fifteen

(Ok, so I'm going to take a page from Renoe_K and try adding some music in here for your listening enjoyment, if you would like to hear it. When you see this: (M), come back and start the video, then continue reading. I would embed it where it's supposed to go, but mobile won't let you play one of those while you read, so... yeah. Longer a/n at the end. Enjoy!)

"Defend this ship! She is your home! Her cargo is your livelihood! Her crewmen are your brothers! Defend her with your lives, for she is your life! There is no reason to live if she is not yours! So die, rather than let her be taken from you!"

The Heron's crew erupted into a cacophony of bellows and war cries as their captain's speech from the railing above came to a close. He raised his fists and roared,

"HERON!"

Below, the crew echoed the call and continued to cheer, raising their adrenaline levels as high as they could for the fight ahead. The captain watched them for a moment more, confident and proud, then stepped back and let the mask drop, showing how little of a chance he thought his crew had of leaving this engagement with their lives. Thorne had been watching from a spot off to the side from the rest of the crew, and he was the only one to notice the look on the captain's face. He frowned. If the captain had so little faith in his men to win this fight, his own chances of surviving were not looking very good at all. He decided he had one hope that might save his life, should the rest of the crew fall. With his plan set, he moved to the rail and looked out towards the Lightning. Or rather, he tried to.

When he peered outward, he realized that the other ship was starting to become ever so slightly hazy. He rubbed at his eyes, wondering if they were just not focusing for some reason. He looked again, and this time the Lightning was distinctly becoming harder to see, even as it came closer to them. He elbowed the man closest to him and turned him around to see.

"Hey, look!"

The man turned around and did the same thing Thorne had done just moments before, looking, rubbing his eyes, and looking again, before grabbing someone else and getting them to look as well. Within a minute, all the men were squinting out into what seemed to be a thick fog bank that had appeared from nowhere. At the same time, the wind fluttered and died, leaving the Heron floating dead in the water. Now, with no way to see their attacker, they were robbed of their only advantage: their cannons. While the Lightning undoubtably had cannons, and more of them, they couldn't use them for fear of destroying the cargo. The tension on the ship suddenly became almost physical as the crew moved anxiously to the rails, hoping to find some sign of where the other ship would appear.

Pausing for a moment, Thorne noticed music in the background, which startled him. He hadn't realized that the game would be able to take a situation and find an appropriate song to play, which was what he assumed was happening, unless the system was composing as it went, which seemed even more fantastically unlikely. Unlikely though it seemed, one of those two was clearly happening, as the music played quietly, though forcefully, in the background of his mind.

(M)

There seemed to be shifting shadows within the fog, resembling a ghostly armada of ships coming from all directions. Suddenly, a sinister cackle echoed around the Heron, and her crewmen shivered and seemed to shrink away from the rails. Thorne frowned and concentrated for a moment, activating <Adventurer's Sight>,a base skill given to all players that allowed them to see health bars, status effects and other such things. His eyes widened as he saw that the entire crew had been inflicted with the status effects "Minor Confusion" and "Minor Terror". He checked his own health bar and was relieved to see no negative effects sitting above it. Interestingly, there was instead an unexpected buff, which he selected, curious to know how he had gotten it.