A phenomenom, which is is seen all over the world, is the high tide and low tide for water influenced by the position of the moon to the earth. When the moon is directly over a sea, the gravitational force of the moon rises the water. When the moon is on the other side of the world, the gravitational forces of the moon let the water flow low, which means that the tide is lowered.
The most serious difference can be seen in the North Sea, where every 6 hours whole ports full of ships will be without water, the ships aground.
This was the time Giselle was waiting for. As they were making their picknick, the water was already flowing out of the harbor. The meintioned 2 hours later, the yacht transporter was aground. During this time, the group had come up with an idea to enter the ship and had made a makeshift grappling iron out of some metal chunks from a crane and a rope.
As they now stood at the ground of the harbor in front of the ship, Arn asked who had the highest strength stat. Without surprise, it was Leon, who had 37 points in it. So he had the honour to throw the iron. The first two tries misfired until the hook was stable. First the guys climbed up, than they pulled Giselle with the rope up.
When Arn watch over the cargo, he was astonished. In front of him were several yachts in different sizzes and with different sails. They were neatly stacked one after another on this bigger ship and secured with big steel cables. The brigde of this over 100 m long ship was situated at the row, while at the rear was a big ramp with a gate. To get a yacht back into the water, one had first to open it, loosen the steel cables, than let the yacht slide down a ramp.
“Do you know how to steer such a sailboat ?” wanted Arn to know from Giselle
“I think Yes. But I doubt it will come that far. We can just use the normal engine of one of the yachts that seem to be fit for us. Let me find out which would be suitable for us.”
“Ok , then we will inspect the ship.” Said Leon and pointed at Nils and him.
“yeah, so Sebastian and I will either help you or guard”
As everyone went their way, Arn positioned himself at the rear with a clear view over the deck and down the left side of the ship. With his new acquired weapon in hand, he walked up and down the side. As he had nothing better to do, he opened his status
Name : Arn Tschiller
Level : 8
Profession : N/A
Alignment : N/A
Age : 22
Experience 89 %
Health : 100%
Mana : N/A
Strenght : 21
Agility : 26
Intelligence : 11
Wisdom : 12
Vitality : 12
Endurance : 13
Luck : 8
Not allocated status points : 10
Skills
Spear combat : novice lvl 3 + 6 % damage and handling spears
Fencing : novice lvl 2 5,5% more penetration against enemy armor
small arms mastery novice lvl 1
5% more accuracy when aiming,
2.5% more accuracy when shooting from the hip
Title(s)
Shark Killer
Entertaining One
Killer of the own kind
He allocated his stat points by 5 into agility, 3 into vitality and 2 in endurance. His reasoning was simple : now that he had a ranged weapon, he wanted to be able to use it as good as possible. Vitality, was his guess, influenced how resistant to bacteria and other diseases he was as well as his healing rate. Endurance on the other side was associated by him with his stamina eg. for running, climbing etc.
When a ranger’s weapon malfunctions, the only way to survive would be to run away. And Arn wanted to stay alive.
Arn had been guarding around half an hour, when he saw the first waves of the returning water, indicating that the high tide was steadily coming.
“Have you guys found something ? Also,, Giselle, do we already have a suitable vessel?” asked Arn slightly urgent.
“The tide already changed and if we don’t find a ship we should retreat or we have to stay another 6 more hours on this wreck.”
“The crew is not on board” reported Leon. “But we have found some detailed maps, which we can use instead of our phone batteries if necessary, a compass and canned food in the kitchen.”
“Nothing on my side. I only wonder where the sharks are.Haven’t seen one since before the pick-nick” said Sebastian
“That’s something to be thankfull today. Don’t want to see this freaking monsters again.” Participated Giselle. “In my opinion, they can just die out.About the yachts, I think I found one, and it is also close to the gate.We only have to push down one other yacht to get ours free. As it seems, this one has no leeks, the engine looks stable and the sails don’t have too much holes.”
“Do you need help with anything?” asked Arn
“Well, the yacht is already ready to depart. We now only have to wait until the tide is back and push the yachts out.”
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So the group waited another 5 hours on the transporter. In the middle of the time, Leon and Nils came back and showed their loot. Also , some other humans could be seen in the distance at the outskirts of town, but nobody came near the ship. The only living things were many seagulls flying around the harbor.
“I think you can open the gate guys.” Said Giselle. “The water level is high enough to get out”
Lucky as they were, the gate could be open manually with gears. Nevertheless, Sebastian and Leon both had a hard time when each of them attempted to turn the wheels for one wing of the gate.
As the gates where open, water flooded the rear of the ship, covering the end of the ramp in water. Then, the group pushed down the first yacht, which glided down the ramp and floated some meters away.
Suddenly, the water surface warped and several armed shark men entered the rear of the ship as well as jumped on the floating yacht.
“Ambush” shrilled Nils’s scream in Arn’s ears when he stared at the attacking enemy. Nobody had them on the bill, as they all thought the danger gone. As Arn opened his inventory to get out his pistol, he already heard the first shot, fired by Nils. A shark man was hit in the chest and fell back into the sea.
The group was dangerously near the rear, only 5 meters from the seareach. Giselle, Nils and him were on one deck side of the ship, while Leon and Sebastian were on the other deck side, with their choosen yacht on a sledge in between them.
Stumbling back, Arn opened his inventory and brought his automatic pistol out.
*Bang*Bang*Bang* rang out the first series of shots.
Unfortunately, Arn had never shot before with an automatic gun. Instead of hitting all the oncoming creatures one after another like on a shooting range as he had it imageined, the gun slammed against his shoulder and turned up. Only the first shot had grazed the upper skin of a shark man head, the rest of the series was too high.
As a consequence of a unsteady foothold and no experience with a gun, he fell on his behind and loosened his grip of the pistol. He tried immediately to get up, but was stabbed by a spear into his left hand. A shark had covered the distance and had attacked with his spear. Luckily, the stab was amiss as the shark had been scared by the sudden loud noise of his gun.
A second attack wasn’t granted to the shark, as again Nils shot over Arn into the sharks head.
“Get up idiot.” Screamed a frightened Nils. On the other deck side, Leon and Sebastian had also drawn their pistols and started shooting.
The rear was already filled with 8 dead sharks, but they still climbed aboard. Arn got up and grabbeb again his gun. This time he was more careful and shot only single shots. Something had to drive them, but there was no visible leader. After another wave Leon and Sebastian had to switch to melee weapons. Their magazins were empty. The sharks reacted, as they had only waited for this.
Even more jumped out of the sea, but at the ramp for the yacht sledge, a different coloured shark man emerged. Over his head, Arn could identify the words “Hammer Shark man” with his level 11. The shark man itself looked the same as the common shark man, the only difference was his hammer shark head.
The creature showed its big sharp teeth with an evil smile and waved its arms. At the same time, Nils fired another round from his 9 mm. To the groups frightening surprise, the bullet didn’t hit. In front of the common shark facing Arn, a light blue sphere flickered and the bullet flew astray.
The protected shark was as dumbfounded as the shooter, but recovered from its confusion and leapt forward. Only with a big jump backwards was Arn able to dodge the attack. The hammerhead seemed to snicker about his successful magic trick. This clear sign of mockery made Arn upset. But as the foremost man of the three people on his side, he couldn’t do anything. The magician was 15 meters away, while in front of him a shark with new found bravery had his attention.
*Bang Bang Bang*
Nils fired three times in fast succession. The first bullet went astray due to the magic shield as well as the second. In the time between the first shot and the second, the hammerhead had clearly waved his hands again, surely to renew the barrier. But the third shot got the shark, as the protector wasn’t fast enough for a third shield.
“Get this and start shooting” yelled Arn and tossed his automatic pistol over to Giselle.
The Girl had been waiting with a spear behind Arn and Nils to observe the deck behind them in the direction of the bridge. Now she tossed her spear to the ground and catched the machine pistol.
Readying it, she pointed it to the next shark which endangered Arn. At the same time in anticipation of her shots, the mage wave his hands also at the next shark to Atn. To his deadly astonishment, Giselle swifted the barrel into his direction and fired a full volley of at least 6 shots at him.
Honestly, Arn couldn’t count all the shots fired. The result at least was obvious to all involved in the battle : the mage was shredded by the bullets in the abdomen and head. His wretched rests fell like in slow motion to the ground in front of the sledge.