"How the hell did you lose a dead dragon?", Moach shouted at the commander of the task force.

"I don't know admiral", Ahil quivered in his boots, "even the eels can't find it"

"You hit it with a full charge of the Targenator?" repeating the report.

"Yes sir", came the prompt answer, "we have it recorded", then added the other part of the report "but it slid off it after only a few seconds"

"Nothing can remove that stuff short of death", Moach shouted, "nothing!"

"It looks like the lizards found a way sir", trying to look better than he fealt since the attack six hours earlier.

"You cant continue the conquest of Thenara with only one barge", the admiral concluded, "whichever approach you take the defenders can choke and fend you off", sighing deeply, "I have to call off the blockade", looking around "we have outreached ourselves and now the enemy knows we are here"

"We can still do it Admiral", Ahil tried to save his first major command, "if we use the small craft on one front".

"No", the Admiral cut him short, "even if you can manage it we are too late", another sigh, "we will need your ships in Harish next week", another look around "can't pin them down here for that long and without the other barge you can't take any loot".

Ahil wanted to protest but at least he was still in command of his task force, "yes admiral", he finally said and moved to begin breaking up the siege.

Tallying up his forces painted a grim picture after losing two of the ships in a single day and though the Tempest was late it still had significant firepower now lost to the whole fleet.

Assigning the men from the lost war barge Calamity was a headache he left to his lieutenants, but the strange coloring effect on the crew returning from Tempest made the stand out like sore thumbs among the others and nobody wanted clowns when it came to real action.

Any effect staying after respawn was a cause for consideration, that was the main reason why the Admiral came in person to such a remote position in the front.

Building ships cost a lot of money, but worse, it took time, both in gathering all the rare resources required for special features and upgrades and to actually build them in the docks, so losing two ships in a single suicide assault was very cost efficient, the fleet needed to look out for dragons diving out of the sun, though the specific creature was dead for sure Ahil knew the lizards had more of them.

"Ner" crying for his artilery captain made him turn, "I want a crew with eyes on the sky at all times", to which the small wiry man replied with a nod and turned to do his duty, there was a reason why he liked him, if they didn't lose the barge Ner was a good candidate for the next captaincy but now he had to assign the coming frigate to Resh and it irked Ahil to reward a man that lost a ship in a single attack.

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Shadows enlongating on the deck of his flagship Indiana as afternoon turned to dusk, it will soon be time to change shifts and when they were at their greatest danger from the city flotilla trying to break the blockade, the game mechanics limited store supplies inside a besieged town unless they could send a ship out to a certain point and back, the dragon attack may have bolstered the defenders resolve to try and gain an advantage in arms and armament against the attacking fleet that caught them flatfooted through speed and gile.

If they could create a beachead so far from the southern front it would let them spawn armies of Players behind enemy lines and possibly even divide the empire and create a wedge to hold off their northern allies in the free guilds.

"I want all our ships to advance by fifty meters on each of the next three hours", he messaged his prearranged group of communications officers.

"Acknowleged", the head comunnicator replied and Ahil trusted his officers to execute the maneuver in perfect precision.

Using the game illusion of dusk was a tricky disposition, but if his gambled payed off the defenders wouldn't be able to notice the gradual advance before it was too late, he needed a victory here or morale in the Player ranks would drop to a very dangerous low, but if he got caught and the shore battlements reacted in time they could do a lot more damage than a single dragon would ever be able to.

"You are my cover", he messaged the captain of the second barge Mistle directly, "I need you to start pulling away very slow to create an illusion of motion among our ships".

The following three hours were nerve wrecking to Ahil, "NOW" he finally gave the command and all the cannons on every vessel under his command fired at once, catching the defenders in surprise on the shift change and firing on middle range for the powerful weapons they easily targeted the sea wall with perfect aim and pounded the bottom third to dust, the upper parts of the wall dropped to the water following the barrage carrying with them the great defensive engines of destruction, cramming the small vessels in his command to carry every possible trooper he launched the attack even before the crumbling wall settled.

Maneuvering the small craft to make a bridge from the enclosed blockade all the way out to the barge let the Players run unhindered to all the way to town, with most defending Players still offline or spawning for a last stand the Pirates could push for a fast looting assault and return before larger armies could reinforce the inner forts, whatever they could steal in an hour would have to be enough to pay back for the suicidal destruction of the ships, at any sign of trouble his men had orders to regroup and flee, shaken NPCs had lists of loot with carrying weight being the only coin, since they weren't going for a conquest it was easy enough to just grab and go.

Trouble started when he heard the cavalry trumpets, they were set up, or the defenders caught on to his tricks, it didn't matter, twenty minutes into the raid his men were being slaughtered on the streets, giving them cover fire from the ship allowed two thirds to run back aboard with whatever they could carry, remembering his younger days as a grunt Ahil wanted to give them as much time as possible.

Being in charge of the whole task group made him concious of the price he will pay if they didn't pull out in time, calling the retreat and then fleeing the town on board their ships there will be celebrations tonight, under cover of darkness the whole group slipped back north and by morning they were back with their fleet sharing loot and tales with those less daring than them.