“You heard ‘er!” Jimbo’s shout spurred the men into action, “If any o’ you idiots die, I’ll kill you myself!”
He had the most clever look on his face as everyone rushed the weapons, pulling pistols and makeshift rifles out of the sacks—some didn’t look safe to use. Cira turned to the chuckling co-captain and nudged her head toward the barricade. “Why don’t you go see why they’re being so quiet, smarty pants?”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re comin’.” Wick’s men had been firing nonstop between their volleys with intermediate arrows making arcs into the floor around her crew as they scrambled around to avoid them. Now armed, some of them had climbed to the top of the barricade where the ballista was fixed. They had run out of the ridiculously large javelins in fired and positioned themselves to start sniping the royals away. Jimbo poked his head out from the side of the barricade and his hat was blown off instantly.
“Amateur.” Cira caught it out of the air as Jimbo stumbled back, noticing the bullet hole through both sides before putting it on her own head.
“How the hell would you do it?” He pat his head with a deep frown. “They have us pinned down.”
“Well, I probably wouldn’t. That wasn’t a very smart move, after all.” Cira put a hand to her chin and thought about the best way out of this situation. “There’s a lot of dead men out there, but is this everybody?”
“Don’t think so. Tom, get over here!” The man was up on the barricade and pulled the trigger when he heard Jimbo’s order right as a bullet whizzed past his face. There was a pained scream from the other side of the cove and Tom quickly ducked down and approached Jimbo to see what he wanted. “You’ve been keeping an eye on the place. This don’t look like everyone.”
“Daniel’s got thirty men with him on a treasure hunt with the Far Shore Pirates. That’s what James left his ship for yesterday.” Tom finished powdering his musket and packed another round down the barrel. “Took our good guns too. We’d be dead if you two hadn’t showed up, but what are we supposed to do now?”
He looked at Cira expectantly, and she sighed, “I’m not sure if it’s good or bad luck that some of our guys aren’t with us for this slaughter. I’ve got a couple ideas, but I don’t want to be too destructive. Do any of those caves lead back behind Wick’s crew?”
“Hold on, if you got a way to solve this quickly with excessive violence, let me hear it.” Jimbo squinted his eyes at her, “I don’t want any more of my men dyin’.”
“Our men, Jimbo. We could sever the docks and burn their side down, but I want their boats.” Cira could see their masts above the barricade. They were fine vessels and would make excellent additions to her fleet. “We need to get our men out of here before they realize Wicks men back in town raid failed. I’m sure they have plenty of reinforcements waiting for word—hopefully the kill crew is still wasting their time trying to get into Breeze Haven.”
“Why don’t we take my ship? It will fit everyone here.” It was one dock down and Cira was surprised they hadn’t torched it already. They must have been trying to maximize what they could steal. “Maybe I’m wrong, but your ship looks slow. It doesn’t have a lot of weapons on it either. What the hell did Don do with all that money?”
“It’s still on the ship… Yeah, it’s slow.” Jimbo made a frustrated face, “I knew I shoulda moved it… Dammit.”
“It still looks slow, but don’t worry, the plan’s better this way.” She vaguely reassured him. Just like idle hands, it’s great to have spare tools around. When she didn’t think about it, there was nothing wrong with that comparison. In this context, the royal battleship would become a tool to help them escape on the other two and Jimbo’s. I better not get ahead of myself. “Now we don’t have all day. Can we get behind them or not—”
“C-Captains!” A scrawny young pirate lad with curly chin hairs approached them, and Cira noticed there were a great many idle hands holding guns behind him. Only a handful could safely peek out from the barricade and the others were understandably frightened to go out in the open. “What do we do?!”
Cira intensified her glare towards Jimbo and Tom, the latter answering, “We can, but it’s not a short path. Five or ten minutes. They’d figure out something’s up unless we leave behind enough people to keep them back somehow. That’s our biggest problem.”
“So, we need a ruse… I need to get a look at them really quick, hold on.” There was a ledge that let her crouch down just below the top of the barricade and Cira crept onto it. Their bullets had started to come erratically, and she couldn’t hear any orders from the other side from this far. With a pistol at the ready, she set her new hat to the side and peaked through a notch in the wall, lining up the sights.
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I’m going to be the proud owner of so many guns after this. Why do they have so many? A sorcerer doesn’t need all that. A majority of them had rifles or heavy muskets, but behind the front line there were nine groups of archers and pistol wielders taking potshots at cracks and bindings in the barricade. It held strong as there was another layer on her side, but it wouldn’t hold up forever. Meanwhile, her crew was making headway when they poked their heads up a couple seconds at a time. There were casualties on the royals’ side now too and some of their line was getting thinned out, but when someone fell, another from the back would replace them and pick up their rifle.
A leaf rustled in Cira’s peripheral, and she noticed movement up on the hillside. Two stealthy pirates made their way over to them slowly but surely. Bastards. No wonder they weren’t advancing. Just who’s giving these orders? Or are they all acting alone now?
When it doubt, Cira could always look for the tallest hat. None wore those of a captain, but she did notice six men wearing red caps among the crowd, evenly spaced from each other. If only I had all six of my bullets in a single gun.
Cira was getting nervous with her face partially exposed for so long and tried to aim fast. It looked similar to a crossbow from her end, but she wasn’t sure she could hit her mark. Regardless, she knocked her pistol’s barrel on the barricade’s notch and aimed for the closest one, slowly letting out her breath. When she squeezed the trigger there was an ear-piercing bang and it tried to kick back on her much harder than she expected. Cira had aimed for the man’s hip to incapacitate him, but when it jerked up, she watched the bullet hit him square in the chest and her eyes jolted open as she watched blood shoot out.
No way… Did I just—
From the puncture’s location it looked like it barely missed his heart, but it was a wound as grievous as any. She watched the captains she shot get prompt first aid and wrapped in bandages before being carried to the ship, but it was hard to picture this one surviving with how much blood was pouring out. It escaped like a fountain as he fell to his knees, growing visibly paler by the second.
Her own face paled in kind as the man slumped to the ground and a bullet missed her face by an inch, splintering the barricade and sending wood flying. Her hands shook and she felt nails dig into her palm as she remained frozen in place.
He’s really dying. I killed him. I extinguished a life with my own two hands. With… this. Cira turned the gun over in her hand with a disgusted look on her face. What a dreadful instrument. I can’t imagine if it held multiple shots. Those without magic don’t stand a chance—
She felt herself fall backwards right in time to see a bullet trail through the space where her head was. Cira was dazed as she hit the ground, supported by a few pirates holding her up. Her wide eyes turned to Jimbo and she shouted in her face, “The shit are you doing?! Tryin’ to get yourself killed or what?”
“I-I just…” Cira fumbled her words and Jimbo shook her around.
“You got a plan or not?!” His face was red, and it was clear he was angry with her.
Wallow later, you’re great at that. Snap out of it, Cira—No. Cira’s taking a nap. It’s Captain Dreadheart’s day. Not that she could really conjure a split personality at will to take care of the hard work for her, but it helped her focus on the task at hand. She shook her head and brushed the hair out of her face before looking over everyone with a hardened gaze.
“Fifteen of you stay here to hold them down. I have some artifacts that should help. Everyone else follows me and Jimbo.” Cira pulled a knife from her waist and flipped it around in her hand, “Those who stay, try to keep the pressure on them. Focus on the guys in red hats when you can, and don’t forget to keep an eye on the hills.”
She threw her knife into the trees, and it started crackling as it tore through the air with erratic bursts of light. The blade found its home in the ribs of one of the sneaky pirates and the crackles got louder in a bright flash. A bolt of lightning arced from him to his partner and back again, popping like firecrackers as it singed the leaves around them. The light died out and the two men rolled down the hill to settle on the dock with their bodies contorted.
“Holy shit!” Tom watched them fall nervously, “I didn’t even see them!”
“Right. Be careful. Sorry, but I’m leaving you in charge here.” She poured the remaining pouch at her waist onto the ground and a barrel’s worth of weapons fell out. Mostly knives or short swords, but there were a couple hatchets in the mix or other such small weapons. She picked through the pile and threw a few of the more dangerous ones back into a pouch—There was another bomb-type artifact, but it would destroy the dock so it probably wouldn’t see use today. “Hang onto the swords, but everything else works when you throw it. Most of them shouldn’t need any mana at all. I’d like to recover them, so please don’t throw them off the edge, but I understand accidents happen. Only throw them if any of Wick’s men make it past the armory or they’ll probably just throw them right back. Also, those gray orbs are smoke bombs. Throw them into the crowd once you see us hitting them from the other side. You got this, Tom?”
He gulped, looking between her and the weapons, then nodded resolutely, “You can count on me. We’ll pinch the bastards.”
“Damn right, we will. Now I better leave them with a gift to tide them over.” Cira lobbed another polished stone over the barricade, and it flashed black and white through the air. A few seconds after it left her line of sight, she heard the sound like a single loud bang of a ceremonial drum followed by more panicked cries of the wannabe royals.
“What in the world was that…?” Jimbo asked.
“That’s not important. Let’s go.” She nudged him along as he was the one who knew the way.
“Alright, boys, you heard the captain. Follow me!” The enclosure leading back from the barricade met the wall and there was a cave opening just next to it and the two hurriedly entered the dark tunnel with the remainder of their crew following behind. Everyone had heavy hearts for those who were lost today and steeled their resolve to see this fight through to the end.