Vol. 5 - Journey - Chapter 44 (Patreon)

Spells flew through the air and collided repeatedly as the pirate ship attacked and the merchant ship defended. It looked like a fireworks display as various elemental spells hit each other in midair and exploded. They would fade away fast as the mana dissipated only to be replaced by another explosion. The magical battle got more intense as the two ships grew closer together and only stopped when the explosions could potentially damage the two ships and their crews. Pirates or not it wouldn't be good if they damaged their own ship and fighting force. It would be even worse if they accidentally sank the ship they were targeting and lost all their potential loot.

As the ships closed to within twenty meters of each other the pirates began throwing grappling hooks toward the merchant ship. The crew of the merchant ship worked frantically to cut as many of the ropes as they could. Thomas watched for a bit before calmly approaching the side of the ship and aiming his Peace Maker at a random crew member of the pirate ship. With a thunderous roar, the pirate's chest was blown open. The force of the shot sent his body tumbling across the deck of the pirate ship spreading blood and viscera everywhere it went.

For a brief moment there was silence as everyone on both ships froze from the scene they had just witnessed. Everyone showed looks of surprise. However, a few members of the pirate crew also showed looks of recognition as they saw the weapons in Thomas's hands. Thomas noted as many of them as he could as they were most likely players and he didn't have time to check each pirate individually to know if they were a local or player.

As he cocked the hammer on his Peace Maker a pirate shouted, "Watch out for that man! His weapon is deadly! Prepare defenses to protect yourself!"

Thomas immediately picked the shouting pirate as his next target. The man he was aiming at was one of the few to recognize the weapon in his hand. The Peace Maker was modeled after an extremely famous firearm after all so any players would recognize it at a glance. Hell, even if they didn't recognize its specific model it was easy enough to tell it was a revolver and something very out of place in a game like AoG.

Seeing the barrel of the gun pointing in his direction the pirate wasted no time in ducking down to try and hide from his impending doom. Thomas had no idea what the pirate's Endurance attribute was and likewise, the pirate had no idea how much damage the Peace Maker could deal. As the pirate was ducking down, Thomas redirected his aim at a pirate nearby the ducking one. He knew the Peace Maker was powerful, but he wasn't sure if it could punch through the gunwale of the pirate ship and still deal significant damage. It was better to shoot an unprotected target. The Peace Maker roared again and another pirate went tumbling across the deck with a gaping wound in his chest.

The ducking pirate cursed loudly but stayed hidden. Thomas ignored him and started moving down the deck of the merchant ship to get a better angle for his next attack. During his fighting the two ships had closed the distance further, the pirate ship had now pulled itself parallel to the merchant ship and was closing the distance. Soon the pirate ship would be able to drop gangplanks to board the merchant ship. Thomas intended to fuck up the pirate ship as much as he could. He made his way toward the bow and aimed at the foremast with his Spell Cannon.

The foremast was a smaller mast located nearest the bow of the ship and was thinner than the mainmast. The rings on the Spell Cannon were already spun up and emitting a soft glow as he took aim and pulled the trigger. With a soft popping sound that belied the power of the projectile, a raging fire arrow launched out of the Spell Cannon and flew toward the foremast. With a surprised shout, one of the mages on the pirate ship lifted his hand while shouting, "Water wall!"

With the mages shout a thick wall made of rippling blue water appeared in front of the foremast to protect it from the fire arrow. The two spells collided causing an explosion of steam that was deafening. The water wall was pierced and destroyed by the fire arrow but it robbed the fire arrow of much of its energy. When the fire arrow hit the foremast it barely blackened the thick piece of wood. The pirate mage let out a sigh of relief. It was a death sentence for a ship to lose its masts. His relief didn't last long as Thomas pulled the trigger of his Spell Cannon twice more and fired two more of the powerful fire arrow spells in rapid succession.

The pirate mage panicked but managed to get another wall up in time to block the first fire arrow. With the water wall destroyed by the first fire arrow, the second one passed through the air unimpeded and slammed into the foremast. With yet another loud explosion, the fire arrow blew a large hole in the foremast. Loud creaking, cracking, popping, and shouting ensued as the foremast lost its strength and began to collapse onto the deck of the pirate ship. The pirates ran around like headless chickens as they tried to avoid the mast, sails, and all the rigging attached to them. It was pure chaos.

While Thomas had been taking out the foremast, the other pirates and merchants hadn't just stopped to watch the show. When the pirate ship was within a few meters several gangplanks had been dropped between the ships. While the merchant defenders had managed to shove a few off their ship, others hand managed to stay long enough to allow pirates to cross the gap between the ships and engage in melee combat. Pirates and merchant crew were fighting with their lives on the line and both sides were taking casualties.

Thomas holstered his Peace Maker so he could handle the Spell Cannon and swap out its shell. The fire arrow shell had its internal mana drained already. He could still fire it with his own mana, but why do that when he had other shells he could use instead? With an evil grin he pulled out the fire arrow shell and swapped it for the flamethrower shell. Once the rear of the Spell Cannon was closed he swapped it to his left hand again so he could redraw his Peace Maker.

Thomas moved towards where the fighting between the crews was the most intense and started firing his Peace Maker. With every shot from the Peace Maker a pirate would either be killed or receive a grievous wound. The player pirates noticed the effect that Thomas was having on the fight and started to shout out orders. A wave of pirates made of players and locals charged around the merchant crew and aimed for Thomas. While chuckling to himself, Thomas raised the Spell Cannon and pulled the trigger. A large fan-shaped wave of blue flames roared out of the barrel of his Spell Cannon and washed over the charging pirates.

Screams of agony filled the air as the pirates were bathed in flames. The blue flames were so hot that the air above them rippled with heat waves while the deck of the ship below them was scorched black. When Thomas released the trigger of the Spell Cannon he could see the results of the attack. The injuries of the pirates ranged from becoming charcoal to severe burns. The difference in their Endurance attributes was shown in the degree of their burns. Before Thomas could pull the trigger on his Spell Cannon again to finish off the living pirates a blade of ice came flying from his left and sliced into the survivors cutting some deeply and giving shallow wounds to others.

Snowlily had been skirting the edge of the conflict and only launching surprise attacks at distracted pirates. She was a Lord class ice mage and dealt a fair amount of damage to the pirates while supporting the ship's crew. Now that someone had survived his initial attack, Snowlily had supported him and managed to finish off a couple of the more heavily injured pirates while adding wounds to the survivors. Thomas gave the survivors no time to recover and emptied his Peace Maker into them to finish them off. A group of ten pirate corpses now lay in front of Thomas and Snowlily with varying degrees of burns and additional wounds.

Instead of being intimidated or scared by the wholesale slaughter of nearly a dozen of their comrades, the remaining pirates let out roars and started charging from the pirate ship to the merchant ship in droves. Thomas was honestly shocked as more and more pirates seemed to be popping up out of thin air. Just how many people had crammed themselves onto the pirate ship?! As the number of pirates charing over to the merchant ship increased so did the casualties on both sides. The fighting was pretty even but the pirates clearly had the advantage in numbers. The merchant ship was manned by a crew that could fight but had given up rooms to passengers leaving them with fewer crew members. The pirate ship, on the other hand, was filled to the brim with combat potential. Every pirate could fight.

Thomas holstered his Peace Maker and drew his sword. The blade began to hum as wind whirled around it from his mana being channeled into it. The Spell Cannon returned to his inventory. The deck of the ship was becoming so cluttered with people that there was no guarantee that he wouldn't blast crew members of his own ship. His mana churned violently through his veins as a hazy red aura erupted out of his body and put pressure on the pirates charging up to him. This was his first time using his Mana Pressure ability in combat but he'd experimented with it over the last week and found that it could be used for more than simple intimidation.

As pirates closed in on him, those with a lower Magic or Power attributes visibly slowed as the pressure he emitted acted on their bodies. Thomas moved into melee combat with the debuffed pirates. His slashed with his sword and was barely blocked by a pirate that was sweating profusely under the pressure of facing Thomas. As their swords locked, Snowlily popped out from the side and launched an icicle that was blunted at the tip. Instead of piercing the pirate's leg the mass of the icicle instead smashed into his knee with a loud crack. The pirate screamed in pain for a brief moment before his cries were silenced and his head rolled on the deck of the ship.

Together the pair fought the pirates invading their ship. Snowlily would disable, distract, and harass the opponents that Thomas was fighting to give him an opening for a lethal attack. Despite their teamwork and slaughtering pirates at every turn, things were going from bad to worse for the rest of the crew on the ship. The pirates heavily outnumbered the sailors and they were grinding the sailors down. The player pirates avoided Thomas and used the locals as disposable pawns against him in an attempt to wear him out. Thomas found their tactic to be disgusting. The players should have been the ones to fight him as they could revive after they died. Every local that he killed would never come back. Their deaths were permanent.

Despite knowing that the locals were dying for real, Thomas didn't hesitate. Regardless of whether it was a local or a player, they chose a life of crime. He wasn't so noble as to allow the locals to kill him so that they would live. Regardless of their status, Thomas would fight back and try to kill anyone that wanted to kill him. That was human nature and when it came to fight or flight, he almost always chose fight. His battle continued and though he was continuing to win, the merchant ship was losing overall.

Inevitably, Thomas clashed with his first player opponent among the pirate crew. Their swords clashed loudly as the pirate blocked his attack. The pirate smirked and shoved back with his full strength. Unprepared for the sheer force of his opponents shove, Thomas was forced back several paces. After shoving Thomas the pirate spun around and punched the icicle that Snowlily had launched at him from behind. His fist shattered the ice spell and sent pieces of it everywhere. Thomas charged at the man again and slashed with his sword. Almost casually the pirate parried Thomas's attack and smirked again, "You're not the only one with friends."

Thomas immediately had a bad premonition but before he could try to defend himself something slammed into the back of his head. Thomas felt his whole body become numb as he collapsed onto his knees. His vision wavered and slowly turned black. The last thing he saw before his vision darkened and his head hit the deck of the ship was a group of player pirates surrounding Snowlily.