The sky blackened. Torrent winds flew through the clouds and down onto the ocean. Waves brought the Songha-Lia to its knees as it rode the rough waters. Onboard the ship, tens of men moved to their positions. Some pulled strongly on ropes to reef the sails. Others began to tie down barrels and cargo on the front deck. Water splashed onto the surface as thunder boomed. The scent of seawater brought in a pungent fish-like smell.
“Initiate defensive measures!” Captain Yulduz shouted from the helm while he steered the ship clear of a giant wave. The vessel tossed and turned from right to left. “Prepare the cannons at the top deck and gunports in the Cargo Interior!”
Ayai navigated her way through the hustling men and people. She spotted her own. “Members of Izato! We will help defend this ship! Members of the Kamaong Batikan!”
A group of Buhang with green bandanas rushed to her side before bowing on one knee. “Yes ma’am!”
“Assist the captain’s crew in manning the cannons! They’ll teach you on the job!” Once the gang members filed down the stairwell, Ayai then turned to Izdaha and Tvuj. “Tvuj, you head down into the Cargo Interior with Seung-Hyeok and Karam. Izdaha, you have a choice of whether to stay here or go with them.”
The Azu girl nodded, as Suruj pushed his way through. “Toya!”
“Suruj. You stay up here with me.” Ayai ordered him, while he covered his face from a blast of seawater. The wind howled indefinitely. She stared into the waves to the left and right of her. Behind all the stormy weather, ships of various sizes sailed alongside them in the distance. The Bangkaño pirates. Lightning struck one of the masts of the Songha-Lia, causing a man to jump from the crow’s nest.
The pirate fleet surrounded the Songha-Lia. First were proas, tiny outrigger boats sailing towards the upper hull. Following farther away were garay warships. Ayai could’ve mistaken them for a derelict ship lost at sea. But when she had a good look she spotted roaring oars and rotting masts. She felt something was off once the pirates had arrived.
“How can they climb from the miniscule boats?!” Suruj rushed to portside and stopped himself at the hand railing.
One of the crew stopped, carrying a crate. “Don’t you underestimate Bangkaños! They’re their strongest at sea! It’s their natural habitat!”
Four-hooked metal grapples latched onto the railing. Suruj backed off while Ayai revealed her sword from her blue coat. They heard the sound of cackling. Several of Yulduz’s men hauled a tiny cannon connected by rope towards the edge. Like clockwork they cleaned out the bore and rammed the charge. Gunpowder followed, and a crew member prepared flint. But in a split second a man jumped up from the side of the ship and a hand clasped onto the railing. Ayai unsheated her blade.
She smacked the flint out of the crew’s hand and slashed it. Sparks flew everywhere and the flint fell to the floor. The touch hole’s rope ignited as it burned through into the vent in a flash. The pirate brought himself over the railing. The cannon fired. Blood exploded as the crew holding the cannon jerked back in a flash of yellow. The projectile slung into a ship further away. However more hands clasped onto the handrail from below.
Suruj began to stomp on one of them. “Toya! I’ll handle here for a bit! You should check down below to see if Cargo Interior is having trouble!”
“Request taken.” Ayai sheathed her blade and turned around. Her feet carried her downstairs in a flash. Flying down the creaky steps she saw a row of cannons on each side of the gunports. Men did the routine process of cleaning, setting, and lighting the match.
“Fire!”
One by one an organized cacophony sounded with each cannon. Her vision through the gunport showed several balls plummeting into the other warships afar. Another round of cannonfire sounded; Except it was not from them.
“Get down!”
Smoke filled the air. Dust entered the ship’s interior as Ayai heard coughs throughout. She didn’t want to compromise the Songha-Lia this early into the battle. The soot cleared. Men dressed in ragged uniforms climbed from the ship’s hull. Bangkaños breached the Cargo Interior through the narrow gunports. Everyone froze in shock.
“What are you doing? Engage!” Ayai directed them with a yell while walking forward. The cannoneers hesitated and drew their blades, and the Kamaos did the same. The pirates unsheathed their swords.
They wielded krises. A weapon that featured a wavy blade. Ayai had seen such used during her time in the tournament. And she was aware exactly of what damage they could do. Some of Yulduz’s men took the first swing at one. The pirate stepped to the side and cut him down. Several other men had the same fate. The sea wolves cackled as the others backed off.
“Ya call this a ship with men?” One of them boasted, licking the blood off his kris. “Oh, what a beautiful tall missy-”
“Shut up.”
Ayai came at his throat in a split second. The pirate launched his sword but she was faster. She stole the kris and drove it up the man’s throat. Ayai ripped it out and flung it at the other pirates. Blood spurted from the second one’s head and landed into the third one’s eye. They fell down as if they’d went to sleep.
Ayai stood back up, having almost lost her balance in the constant bouncing of the ship. “Kris swords are forged with poison, and inflict irrepairable damage with every strike. Fight with caution.”
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She left the Kamaos and crew with their mouths agape. Each one of them bowed to her as she returned to the deck.
Sand greeted her eyes as Ayai pried her vision open. Her ponytail fluttered behind her in a fury to the tempest. That garay warship now closed in from the right, rocking in eagerness to the waves. Another one on the left closed in proximity.
“Prepare to engage!” She yelled over the thunderous roar of the tide. Suruj hurried over from the pirate confrontation earlier.
“Toya! When they their ships close enough, I can blast them to pie-“
“Sahar spells won’t work. Haven’t you felt that strange feeling the entire time?” She stabilized him by placing her hands on his shoulders, before looking off into the sea. The majority of Bangkaños, except for the few, were incapable of manifesting the particles. “The pirates have a way to disperse saharic particles. I don’t know how yet, but I’m sure it’s on one of their ships.”
Suruj’s eyes widened as ocean water dripped down his face. “So that means…”
“Listen to me. When those warships collide and the pirates begin to board, you and I will cross into the garays and lanongs. Until we find what’s preventing us from using spells then the Songha-Lia is doomed. Got it, Suruj?”
He silently nodded, as they exchanged tight handshakes. She read him pretty well after meeting him at that banquet in 1978. When given a task at hand, he would perform it to the best of his ability like no one else.that was the type of person Suruj was. And Ayai needed to play into everybody’s strengths.
“Confrontation! Weapons out!” Captain Yulduz’s voice warned as the two pirate vessels slammed into the Songha-Lia. The ground below them shuddered like an earthquake. Metal plates screamed; Tiles broke forth and water blasted like a geyser. Everyone seemingly lost their balance to the rupture of the three boats. On the floor, Ayai brushed her soaked bangs covering her eyes. Then she heard the sound of devilish laughter. The fighters of the Songha-Lia rose to the provocation.
The brunt of the ‘Armada Peninsular’. Boards rotated downward from both sides. There came a brief pause. Pirates rushed along the gangways in droves. They unveiled their curvy blades, wearing ragged clothes of seaweed and once-brimmed hats.
Suruj pushed one back into the bubbling ocean. He lifted the board up and threw it over. A man swung from behind.
Ayai bashed her sword’s hilt against the man’s chin. She twirled around and smacked him overboard.
Around the deck the crew clashed with the almost-paramilitary force. Cannons reverberated below and shook everyone’s feet. Sand blanketed the surface. Even in this low-visibility environment they continued to fight.
Ayai ducked and weaved. She made her way onto the gangboard the pirates used to cross over. Down below in the billowing waves, pirates that were thrown overboard crawled up from the hull. The sight confirmed that the sea were the Bangkaño’s home turf. She knew the rough waters were freezing and the current would sweep any person away. Yet Bangkaño climbed upwards.
Ayai crossed into the other ship in no time. She was met with pirates on both sides. Her hands signaled to taunt them. The two ran towards her and Ayai sent one of their swords flying with a kick. She voided the other and gripped his wrist to steal his kris. She drove it up one chin and into the next. Cold blood danced on the wavy sword as she grasped it with a sturdy arm. Ayai breathed sand into her lungs. It tasted salty.
She slammed the kris into another man. He blocked it with his weapon, but Ayai took her other hand and forced the blade down into his skull. The body hit the floor, and the floorboards rumbled. It gave in and Ayai fell down inside.
The body fumbled and flopped limp as it hit the floor. Ayai landed softly into the dark interior, and flicked the blood off the kris. She’d always thought that these pirates deserved what came to them from the start. Then she witnessed the sight before her.
Darkness covered the interior below the deck. Sand flowed from above where the floor collapsed. In this ship’s interior, many women and children sat frightened at Ayai’s presence. Rope bounded their abdomens as their legs were bare and withering. Flies and insects crawled around their faces with jaundice. Ayai covered her nose to the disgusting smell of feces. Her boots stained brown.
The kris began to quiver in her hand. Her face remained the same as she bent down to grab the winding rope. She fixed the blade on it and tightened her grip. However Ayai looked up. The haggard people waved their heads side to side, clenching their teeth and bowing their heads. Then from that reaction and the children watching her in the shadows, she understood and realized. Ayai stuck the kris in the ground and leapt back up into the stormy deck. It was for their own good.
Her massive jump brought her back. But there was no time. Ayai felt her sword at her hip and gently tugged. Her crescent blade burst forward and blocked a swing at her. The attacker stepped back, the gray clouds overcasting the person’s silhouette. Screams of fighting set the ambience around the two, while they kept their swords on guard with each other.
“Huh, you’re not like the others.” She gripped her sword with two hands. Ayai only had one reason to draw her weapon.
“I could say the same to you, lass.” The shadow tipped their hat before returning to aim. The hoarse voice echoed across the loud noises, distinctive even when heard among a hundred men. She could make out a grin from the figure. “Even though yous’ a lady I can tell you command most of the men on that ship. That captain at the helm jus’ control his goons.”
Even when the ship rocked violently, they kept their stance upright. They just waited for the right beat, the right pause, the right amount of silence to strike. To those that understood, fighting was logical to the skilled. Irrational actions was only variables to a situation, and only experience could form a result.
Ayai lifted her sword. They exchanged parry after parry, while she moved with ease. She got a better glimpse of the adept swordsman with a clean shave and fully buttoned uniform. A sword form akin to formal training that had been honed from experience. He brought his weapon back in a brief pause while he let it hover in a poised position. Ayai took the chance and walked into the feint on purpose. She merely stepped backwards as the boy chased her around the deck with a flurry of slashes. They met blade to blade as their weapons bonded at their hilts.
“Where’s your ship’s visa?” He howled, his crazed look matching the sandstorm around them. Ayai simply motioned a nod of her head, and he looked towards the pennant on the Songha-Lia’s mast. “That one’s expired, lass. She gotta have the current one or another attack like this will happen again!”
“Well, that’s a shame.” Ayai shook her headand sighed. The boy’s eyes came with shock. Their swords were still deadlocked. “I assumed you were the type to comply with your demeanor. But I guess not.”
“Huh?”
Ayai already had him on the ground. Her blade neared his throat while he sat on the floor defenseless. His sword was nowhere to be found. The boy breathed heavily as she closed the distance.
“The truth about you and the Armada Peninsular…” Ayai withdrew her crescent blade, as the ship tilted to one side. “You’re just trying to feed your families down below.”