Path of Dragons-Chapter 1Book 9: : Pirates

Cassius Flint gripped the railing bordering the quarterdeck, his eyes narrowing as he studied his prey. The seas were calm – he never would have acted otherwise – though the rate of their pursuit was so high that even the smallest waves sent a spray of saltwater onto the deck.

“You got it?” he demanded of the man beside him. He didn’t even need to look to know that Vernon was squinting, his rat-like face contorted in concentration.

“Not yet,” said the wind mage.

“Get it done,” Cassius growled, his hand tightening.

“You try working with two flows at once,” Vernon spat. “It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“Just –”

“Get it done. I know. Just give me a minute, damn.”

Cassius resisted the urge to behead the insubordinate man then and there. With a flex of his will, he restrained himself, and not just because he needed Vernon’s spells pushing his ship forward. Without the wind mage, the Sea Serpent would never close on her prey. Mostly, that was due to her sails being filled by Vernon’s efforts, but it was also due to the mage’s ability to rob the wind from their target.

Still, Cassius was more than tempted.

To distract himself, he studied the other ship in the distance. It was a four-masted galleon with high sides and a deep draft. Manned by more than a hundred sailors, it was a true beast of a ship, which meant two things. First, it would have plenty of cargo. And second, they wouldn’t give it up without a fight.

Both were just fine by Cassius.

He hadn’t really set out to be a pirate. Indeed, he would have preferred it if the world had stayed the way it was, so he could continue his mostly safe and incredibly lucrative life as a smuggler. Back then, he’d worked the Gulf of Mexico, hauling drugs to Miami via speedboat or, on a couple of occasions, submarine. He was well-paid for his efforts, and he enjoyed the idea of thumbing his nose at the law.

After all, nobody in his family had ever had a good relationship with societal rules. Outlaws, smugglers, and thieves, the lot of them. Like his brothers and most of his cousins, he’d spent half his life in one form of incarceration or another, and that life had given him a distinct advantage when the world had changed.

While other people whined and tried to band together, Cassius had recognized the truth. A world without laws was just begging for someone like him to take advantage. All he needed was a little power. So, that was what he did, killing more than a few people on his way to getting his class.

Did it matter that he’d taken the Tactician archetype? Not that early, it didn’t. He didn’t need fancy skills or stats to murder a man in his sleep, after all. Their experience counted all the same, though it wasn’t long before that tactic grew far more difficult. Thankfully, that’s when he gained his class.

Pirate Warden.

It really did have a nice ring to it. Alone, he wasn’t really much, but because of his class, he could empower his ship and crew to heights they could never have achieved otherwise. That was why Vernon could harness the wind so effectively, and it was definitely the reason the Sea Serpent had become such a deadly menace.

The ship itself had been built by a Shipwright far to the north. That man made a killing supplying half the pirates in Bloodrock Bay. Or at least he had until Cassius made him disappear. Now, no other ships on the sea would rival the Sea Serpent.

It was a three-masted galley, much smaller than the galleon they chased. However, what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in speed and lethality. Cassius didn’t have a speedometer handy, but he suspected that it was capable of skipping across the ocean at speeds exceeding that of some of the speedboats he’d once used in his previous job.

“Get out the oars,” he ordered when he saw the galleon flounder. “Ramming speed.”

His first mate – a bearded bear of a man named Boris – shouted, “Ramming speed!”

Some of the crew scattered belowdecks, and soon enough, a series of oars erupted from the sides of the ship. The second they dipped into the water, he activated Beat of the Ocean, ensuring that his rowers remained in unison and normalized their attributes. The effect was immediate, and the pirate ship practically flew across the ocean, closing on the floundering galleon in the space of only a few dozen seconds.

Then, with a great crash, the bow ram – constructed of some fancy, magical bronze and formed to resemble the head of a cobra – smashed into the galleon, ripping a sizable hole into the dark wood of her hull. In seconds, a torrent of water rushed into the gap, but the enemy captain stopped it after only a couple of seconds.

That was the entire point of ripping a hole in the ship.

Cassius had a similar ability – Captain’s Defiance – that would keep the Sea Serpent afloat even if half her hull was destroyed. However, doing so would cost an enormous amount of ethera. He was counting on the enemy captain’s ability to be similarly taxing – to the point where he couldn’t rightly cast anything else. ℞а𝐍ȪꞖĘS

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Even as that thought crashed through Cassius mind, his crew stormed the merchant vessel. The sound of ringing steel filled the air as ethera swirled around. In a straight fight, his crew would have been at a disadvantage, but he’d picked his men carefully. They were, one and all, ruthless murderers who’d slit their own grandmother’s throat if they thought it would get them a few ethereum.

And they had Cassius on their side, which made even more difference.

He used Buccaneer’s Resolve, which enhanced his crew’s Constitution by nearly half. It was a short duration buff, but it would last until they subdued the other crew. In addition, he used Blade in the Dark. The second it settled onto the three targeted crewmen, they disappeared from all senses.

Cassius could still feel them – or rather, he could feel his ethera encircling them – but he knew that no one else could. Those three assassins dashed from where they’d been hidden belowdecks and leaped onto the enemy ship’s deck. Less than a second later, they had already downed five sailors.

None of them even knew what was coming. One second, they were alive and fighting, and the next, their throats were slit. Blade in the Dark only lasted about ten seconds, but that was enough to turn the tide of battle.

Cassius wasn’t finished putting his thumb on the scale, though. Instead, he used a wide variety of abilities – all short term – meant to enhance his men’s fighting prowess. The enemy captain assuredly had similar abilities – if he was worth his salt – but he was too busy trying to keep the ship afloat.

Finally, a shout rang out, “Enough! We surrender! Lay down your arms!”

Cassius grinned. His prey’s capitulation was music to his ears. Glancing at his rat-faced wind mage, he said, “Keep the wind down. Not sure what sort of abilities he might have.”

Indeed, Cassius had once made the mistake of accepting a captain’s surrender and thinking the battle was finished. The enemy had surprised him by putting on a burst of wind and tearing an even larger hole in his ship. They’d limped away, which forced Cassius and his crew to chase them down.

It wasn’t such an onerous thing. More the principle of it all. He’d slaughtered them to the man, just for inconveniencing him. Such a pity that he didn’t get all that experience himself. Instead, because of the nature of his abilities, every bit of progression earned by his crew was put into a pool. Everyone took an equal share. Even him.

Probably fair, but if he could have changed things to better benefit him, he definitely would have.

No matter, though. There was enough to go around. His level of one-ten was enough evidence of that. Of course, they hadn’t only preyed on traders. They’d fought monsters too.

Cassius knew which one he preferred.

People were reasonable. Easier to deal with. The beasts of the sea were ruthless, powerful, and never knew when to quit.

Still, his success meant that he and his crew were the highest level around, and because they shared experience, nobody had been left behind. If there was a better fighting force on the sea, he’d yet to find them.

He glanced at Boris, who hadn’t taken part in the fight. The man looked offended at that. “Casualties?”

“Pitt got a cut on his eye. Nobody else was hurt, cap’n.”

“What an idiot,” Cassius muttered with a shake of his head.

Then, he descended from the quarterdeck and soon enough, had leaped onto the galleon’s deck. By that point, his men had corralled the enemy crew into a large group. The ones that had survived, anyway.

Maybe half the original number, by the number of bodies Cassius had to step over.

He rested his hand on the hilt of his cutlass. It was the prototypical sword of a pirate, and the second he’d decided on his path, he’d commissioned one. He’d bought a tricorn hat as well, but he’d lost it in the wind after only a couple of days out to sea. Deciding it was bad luck, he chose not to replace the cursed headwear.

“Which one of you is the captain?” Cassius demanded, eyeing the crew. They were a motley bunch comprised of as many non-humans as humans. freeweɓnovel.cøm

A dwarf stepped forward. “Aye, that’s me. I demand safe passage for me’n my crew.”

Cassius stared at the short, broad man for a second before he burst into laughter. The rest of his men laughed alongside him. “What makes you think you get to demand anything? You’re my property now, just like this ship.”

“You know where this ship came from?” the dwarf asked, not even remotely cowed by Cassius display.

“Not really.”

“Ironshore. Best crafters in the world, there. You know what that means?”

Cassius very much did.

“Money.”

“Right. You want to maximize yer profits, you ransom us back. Just makes good business sense,” the enemy captain said.

Cassius scratched his chin. There was a hint of stubble there, but only a day’s worth. He took his appearance quite seriously, after all.

“You know. You have a point,” Cassius said. He’d heard plenty about Ironshore. It was far to the south, but their trade network stretched in every direction. He’d even heard stories about their alliance with the strongest man in the world, though he’d also heard that Elijah Hart was a fraud, that he’d found some loophole to level quickly. Similar rumors circled about the rest of the names on that list, but for whatever reason, the ones about Hart seemed to stick a little more than the others.

He sighed, adding, “It’s a really good point, actually. How much do you think I could get? How much are you worth to your city?”

“As much as –”

Cassius cutlass whipped out, faster than could be tracked by an unenhanced eye. A second later, the dwarf’s head rolled free. Before anyone could even react, the Pirate Warden snatched control of the captured ship and enacted Captain’s Defiance. Because he’d taken the ship fair-and-square, his ability kept it afloat. However, he felt the ethera draining out of him extremely rapidly.

Thankfully, his men were well-versed in their duties. The second he’d decapitated the enemy, they’d fallen upon the prisoners with characteristic ruthlessness. Of course, the other sailors tried to resist, but even armed, they’d been no match for his men. Now, they were just fodder.

They died quickly.

“Get their cargo aboard the Sea Serpent,” he ordered. His ship was fast and durable, but where it really shined was the spatial enchantment. It constantly drained his ethera, but being able to store twice as much as normal was an enormous boon. Hopefully, it would be enough to house all their loot. Whatever the case, they’d need to head back to Bloodrock Bay to fence their goods.

“Cap’n.”

“What is it, Boris?” he asked without looking up from his slain counterpart.

“You want to talk about that thing?”

Cassius sighed, then turned to face the big first mate. “What is it? If this is another tip about buried treasure, I swear to God I’ll –”

“Nothing like that, cap’n. This is a real tip. There’s this elf as wants a job done. From what I heard, it’s exactly the sorta thing we’re good at,” Boris said. “He’s paying platinum, cap’n.”

“Hmm,” Cassius said. “I like the sound of that. I’ll think about it. In the meantime, supervise the offloading, and then ensure the ship sinks. We don’t want any evidence of what happened here to reach the wrong people.”

“Aye, cap’n.”

With that, Cassius returned to the Sea Serpent, then mounted the quarterdeck. It was a good day, but as he glanced at the horizon, he was already thinking of the next conquest.

Maybe this elf would point them in the right direction.