image [https://i.imgur.com/WqTF1CP.jpg]

Orcs approached Hawkhurst from land, sea, and air. While a dreadnought sailed downstream, the twin siege towers rolled forward—slowly at first, but they soon picked up speed. The zeppelin’s height had already risen to thirty stories. Dangling lines grew taut, tethered to four carts pulled by teams of torodons. The carts lurched forward, pulling the balloon, reminding me of those corny Thanksgiving Day parades New York City used to host.

The appearance of the dreadnought seemed wrong. Orcs weren’t an ocean-faring people. How had they built such a thing in a matter of weeks? They were famous field engineers, but vessels like a dreadnought belonged in a blue-water navy.

The answer appeared in the group chat.

Uproar Hey Apache—how do you like my magic ship?

Item

Great Sea Dreadnought

Rarity

Rare (yellow)

Description

Level 38 assault vehicle

Item use—When wet, the dreadnought expands into a life-sized warship for 24 hours. Anyone aboard the vessel during its expiration will be crushed. Activating the dreadnought consumes the item.

Uproar It reminded me of one of those sponge toys. Getting it wet grows it to full size. Stupid boats like this were the only magic items left in Susa. I purchased it as an escape mechanic, but summoning it for a battle is much more satisfying—don’t you agree?

Duchess I love it! Just add water! What does it look like? Does it have cannons?

Uproar Unfortunately, no. It’s supposed to ram other ships. Since Apache hasn’t much of a fleet, we’re just using it for delivery.

I ignored Uproar’s taunts and closed the interface. Engaging with him would only play into his hand. The chat feature didn’t freeze the world, and I didn’t have time to trade insults.

Besides, knowing the ship’s origin didn’t solve the problem it presented. Unless I wanted to fight orc pirates blind and burned from chemicals, I must first deal with the balloon.

Hawkhurst’s offshore winds worked in our favor. The balloon could only go where the torodons pulled it. At best, they could park against our wall, but anything they released from the zeppelin’s basket would drift north, away from us.

Yula explained how they Inscribed Runes into clay pots—activating them only after reaching altitude. The runes triggered Compression Spheres if they came within 30 yards of the ground. Grenade deliveries freed bombardiers from the fortune of wind currents. They could park the balloon next to us and land quicklime with precise strikes.

But Yula’s description didn’t dampen my spirits. If anything, it encouraged my next move. The siege towers and balloon moved slower than the dreadnought that had almost cleared the mouth of the Orga River. It maintained a course beyond the range of the barbican’s ballistas. The ballista crew attempted a couple of shots, but the wooden stakes fell short of the ship and bobbed harmlessly on the water.

The chants grew louder when the orcs pushed the siege towers within 300 yards of the castle. Our trick of using gongs to direct sunlight on the siege towers didn’t work. The mobile towers prevented us from focusing heat, avoiding the trebuchets’ fate.

Captain Jourdain raised his voice. “Pitch the gongs and reassemble the hoardings!”

Everyone’s heart sank as the crews callously pushed Fin’s bronze mirrors off the castle walls. The falling bronze mirrors shattered their frames, crashing to the ground with mournful rings. As gongs, the only sound they made were their own death knells.

The crews fetched hammers, pegs, and wood components and hastily returned the hoardings to their original form.

I opened my inventory and opened the bundle Fabulosa had hidden beneath her floorboards. It contained a quiver of arrows. They weren’t magical, but their gravitational orientation worked unlike anything else in Miros. I tightly gripped the missiles, for if I dropped one, it would fly in the direction labeled on the wrapping—N for north.

Fabulosa must have removed them from her inventory before righting her orientation in the gravity well in the magician vault. She hadn’t found a use for them and kept them up her sleeve in case we met in the final two.

The game’s targeting interface showed my bow range stretching over Hawkhurst Meadow. It disappeared into the forest.

It wouldn’t have done any good, but I could have positioned myself on the wall and shot the emperor watching outside his tent. With my Eagle Eyes, I might have made that shot.

I arched the first arrow vertically. My highest shot reached the balloon’s altitude but fell wide of my target. It zipped across Hawkhurst Meadow and into the forest—likely striking a foothill in the Bluepeaks many miles away. I moved eastward along the parapet and shot another directly upward. It came closer but missed and disappeared into the sky.

Yula watched me with rapt attention. She cast Detect Magic to see if I used special arrows. My shots disappeared in the zeppelin’s direction. Shooting the bow in such a way felt weird. For the arrows, down was north, and the balloon was so big that aiming wasn’t important. I only needed only to align myself along the wall and shoot hard enough for the arrow to fall northward and strike the zeppelin.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

My fifth arrow struck its target. Before the battle, I hastened Rory and Fin to fashion light and oversized arrow tips made from tin we found in the arc weaver’s den. The missile tore a sizable hole into the balloon. Once I had a bead on the zeppelin, I followed with a dozen more hits—the bulk of Fabulosa’s leavings.

Each arrow tore small holes in its skin. The balloon listed sideways and faltered as the weight of the balloon expelled hot air from its insides. As the vehicle dropped, its lines slackened, causing it to spin out of control. Tethers anchored to the torodon carts fell and got tangled in the harness.

The emperor’s design called for zeppelins to burn us with quicklime moments before the siege towers struck. It wasn’t entirely luck that the spiraling dirigible swept over one of their siege towers when the altitude change triggered the runes.

Plumes of white powder blossomed like fireworks, each accompanied by the bang of a Compression Sphere. The chanting turned to shrieks as the orcs pushing one tower broke their formation and scattered.

The deflating balloon fell onto the tower as white power exploded and drifted onto the orcs pushing the structure. Hundreds of orcs dropped their weapons, balled their fists, and covered their eyes. They ran blindly, tripping over one another and running into buildings. It was no honorable way to win a battle, but I reminded myself they intended the same fate for us.

Cheers from our parapets drowned out the screams while drums urged the other tower forward.

The noise from all three sources made it necessary for me to shout. “Corporal Turan. Alpha Company is yours. You guys still have a tower to repel. I’ve got eight Boulder Bullets. Take half of them and try to destroy the tower before it arrives.”

I’d grown each to about a 2-inch diameter. If Corporal Turan could get two seconds of hang time in the air, the lead spheres would grow four feet across.

Corporal Turan held the two bullets in her palm and nodded. “I’ll put my best shot on it.”

As I backed away, I finished my instructions. “Keep a lookout on the lake to monitor my progress. Tell Yula to send Charlie and Delta down to meet the enemy if I can’t repel the dreadnought.”

Turan saluted her head and issued new orders.

I quaffed an agility potion and dove off the parapets. After Slipstreaming to the ground, I sprinted toward the lake.

Lloyd returned to the manor’s doorway, billhook in hand in case the five centuries of orc raiders dared to attack the manor. He waved good luck as I dove into the water. His words were the last thing I heard before splashing into the lake. “Go get ‘em, Cap’n! Show those yellow-bellies what an Amphibious assault really looks like!”

When I surfaced, I propelled myself toward the watercraft. From the low vantage, I couldn’t see the deck, but orcs hanging onto the mast worked to unfurl its sails.

The vessel enjoyed the downstream current before catching Otter Lake’s stiff winds. They pushed hard enough to overcome the swirling currents. They planned to crash the dreadnought into Hawkhurst Rock—dumping the entire cohort inside the castle grounds.

Amphibious propelled me through the water toward the oncoming ship. I reached it a few hundred yards from Hawkhurst Rock. But the vessel sat so high above the waterline I couldn’t trigger the mandate’s jump ability and reach the deck.

Instead, I caught a handhold of nets hanging from the prow and pulled myself up. Beneath the dreadnought’s bow, none of the orcs knew I came aboard. I equipped my trident and plunged it into the hull. The weapon inflicted structural damage, but I abandoned the idea when a progress bar displayed 794/800 hull points. I wouldn’t inflict 100 points of structural damage before it broadsided Hawkhurst Rock.

The dreadnought’s sudden lurch forward meant they’d finished unfurling the sails and caught wind. In moments, it would ram into our back yard. Without time to destroy the hull, I put away the trident and equipped Gladius Cognitus.

I invoked Hot Air and rose above the deck. Hot Air gave a strictly vertical climb, and the ship kept moving beneath me. Hovering 50 feet over the deck, I reached for the foremast as it passed, but it fell beyond my grasp.

My appearance shocked the orcs, but they could clamber up the rigging quickly enough to grapple me. The only sailor near me had just finished releasing the lashings. He clung to the horizontal yardarms holding the sails. When he saw me, he scrambled in my direction with a dagger in his teeth.

“That’s perfect, thank you.” I canceled Hot Air, cast Transpose, and took his position on the yardarm. The orc plummeted and crashed onto the deck, causing untold dental damage.

Casting Compression Sphere by a foremast sail ripped a hole through its canvas, causing it to luff in the wind like a ghost. I pointed my sword and directed a second explosion, tearing apart a sail over the stern. I swept my epic blade through the mainsail, which tore through the material with little resistance.

My position fell beyond the spell range of the hundreds of orcs below. The sailors working the yardarms peppered me with low-rank Scorches and Shocking Reaches, which I wiped away with a single Rejuvenate.

Ignoring their attacks, I sliced Gladius through the billowing canvas, depowering the vessel’s potential to catch the wind on its starboard side.

The enemy sailed foreign waters, but I knew its behavior. I’d weathered Lloyd’s insults and critiques enough to learn how to spin a ship out of control between the river’s eddies and the wind’s northerly current. Disabling only the starboard sails sharpened the dreadnought’s turn.

The orcs knew barely enough to drift down the river, drop sails, and smash into Hawkhurst Rock. They fell well beyond any capacity to navigate a vessel in distress. The ship spun in circles less than a hundred yards offshore. As it turned, the relentless wind slammed hard on the remaining rigging, causing it to list sideways.

And what naval battle would be complete without cannonballs?

I launched my four Boulder Bullets in the same direction I’d shot the zeppelin—straight up. The extra airtime made them larger. Three came down alongside the ship, splashing into the water. I launched the last one gently, but it too veered off. Slings weren’t designed for upward shots.

Meanwhile, orc arrows whistled around me. After activating Avoid Ammo, I climbed the rigging and sliced all the starboard sails. My sabotage preempted a great groaning and cracking of wood as the yardarms twisted in the lopsided strain of flagging sails. The iron ring holding the foremast to the deck twisted under the pressure and collapsed.

Whoever held the wheel overcorrected the rudder, causing the vessel to heel over. The weight of the orcs on and below deck shifted to the side, causing it to list further into the water.

Gladdy’s contrail of light marked my brief voyage. The glowing line made great spirals in the air, recording the ship’s loss of steerage. Like shaking a cosmic Etch A Sketch, I sheathed the weapon, erasing the scribble as if it never happened.

Hanging over the water, I let go of the ship and dove. My ears whistled as I fell, splashing hard enough to make my stomach heave. I equipped my trident and struck at the keel. The ship’s integrity showed only 256/800 hull points as subsequent hits broke through its side. Wood splintered, cracked, and floated to the surface at every impact. Breaching its bilge flooded it. I swam away from the foundering ship. It rolled into a turtle position, with its hull points falling to zero.

Looking upward, hundreds of swimming, thrashing, kicking forms silhouetted the surface. Barrels, lines, and tattered sails orbited the sinking ship.

Orcs were strong swimmers, but they floundered until they removed their heavy armor and dropped their weapons. Others panicked and struggled to no avail, sinking into the dark, muddy depths. Castaways spent every reserve of their energy to reach shore.

We had a long swim ahead of us before we could circumvent Hawkhurst Rock and reach an accessible shore. I couldn’t afford to wait that long.

It did the war effort no good for me to save my cooldowns if I missed all the action.

I miracled myself into Forren’s temple by invoking Holy Smoke.