Kairos 74: War of the Pirate Kings

The Unconquered chased the Foresight across the ocean.

A harsh wind blew behind its sails, fueled by two tornado-shaped wind elementals. Its hundred oars pushed it against the treacherous currents, while a flock of sirens sung above them. Their sweet voice echoed across the waves, soothing Kairos’ wrath and telling him to fall into the ocean. Many sailors had fallen prey to this doomsday call, crashing their ship against rocky shores to escape the song’s maddening influence.

But Kairos had heard better musicians.

[Siren Song] negated by [Leadership 3].

“Rook?” Kairos called his friend. His griffin had a weakness for songs, and once fell under Orpheus’ influence in Achlys.

“I’m alright!” Rook replied while bravely shrugging off the sirens’ song. “I won’t disappoint you again!”

“You never did.” Kairos directed his griffin towards the enemy flock. The veil of [Invisibility] hid their approach. “Let’s show them that they messed with the wrong birds.”

Hundreds of meters separated the two ships, but the Unconquered moved faster than its rival thanks to the elementals’ backing. The Foresight turned to the left, its crew dropping floating mines in the sea. The Unconquered continued its chase, heedless of the danger ahead.

When the waves carried the mines closer to the Unconquered, tentacles of water rose from the sea and pushed the traps aside. The devices exploded in blasts of flames and poison, but too far from the Unconquered to do any damage.

Water elementals, Kairos thought. Their presence explained why the Unconquered ignored the strong currents. Teuta probably brought them to counter Nausicaa and Andromache, and they fulfilled their roles admirably. From above, Kairos witnessed his paramour’s tentacles rising above the water surface and clashing with liquid arms.

Knowing Andromache could handle the elementals on her own, Kairos closed the gap with the siren flock enough to see them. Up close, the creatures resembled vile birds of prey with women’s heads. They sang to themselves far above both ships, safe from arrow fire.

Agron’s own music drowned out the sirens’ song and protected the crew from its vile influence, but Kairos couldn’t risk him being incapacitated. Rhadamanthe’s death in Achlys had left the crew at the mercy of an undead attack, and the Foresight’s captain had learned his lesson.

Kairos’ planned to remove the Unconquered’s summoning support one foe at a time, as the ship couldn’t hope to defy the Foresight without assistance. It would force the unseen Teuta to show her hand.

She was the only one who mattered.

Having moved in the flock’s midst under the cover of invisibility, Kairos took a deep breath. “[Stygian Curse]!” he cast while revealing his presence, his breath turning into a cloud of purple poison.

The noxious fumes spread in the middle of the siren flock, and their beautiful song was drowned by shrieks of horror. Some of the birds choked to death as they inhaled the poison, while the rest dispersed.

Kairos’ actions didn’t go unnoticed though. The two tornados pushing the Unconquered forward rose to the skies and dissipated the noxious miasma. The air condensed into black clouds shaped like eyes, the howling wind forming swirling hands.

Undisturbed, Kairos raised his [Anemoi Spear] and pointed it at the two wind elementals. The [Hero] had whipped an undersea hurricane into shape, and these two smaller storms were nothing to him. The howling winds that made up the elementals bent to his will, and dissipated harmlessly.

Was that the best Teuta could do?

“Kairos, above!” Rook shouted a warning.

Kairos quickly raised his eyes as a black shape fell down on him like an eagle on a smaller bird. The [Hero] opened a wind tunnel to help Rook move faster, but though his griffin dodged the incoming attacker, their foe unleashed a wave of blue light while in close proximity.

Kairos winced as a magical force lifted the invisibility veil protecting him and his partner. His hand became visible, and the winds swirling around his spear dissipated. Even the power within his hydra crown weakened.

All your [Hero]-Rank magical buffs and below were dispelled by [Antimagic Wave].

I spoke too soon, Kairos thought as he glared at the responsible party.

“I knew you would use the invisibility trick.” Teuta’s black griffin snapped its beak at Rook, and her black axe radiated with magic. A steel helmet covered the pirate queen’s face, and Kairos detected protective spells on its surface. “How predictable. Now that I have lured you—”

Kairos answered by spitting a poisonous cloud into her face.

Teuta’s ebon griffin swiftly flapped his wings to dissipate the miasma, but Rook used his surprise to charge at him. Kairos’ spear lunged for his rival’s head, and Teuta barely managed to lower her head to avoid a fatal strike.

Her axe clashed against Kairos’ spear, while the pirate queen muttered familiar words of power. The Foresight’s captain and Rook hastily pulled back as bolts of lightning erupted from her axe. Kairos immediately attempted to use his [Warg] Skill to possess the distracted enemy griffin while his own mount dodged the magical barrage, only for his mind to hit an invisible wall. A warding spell protected Teuta and her beast from mental influence.

Zama had given his ally a detailed report about the Foresight’s crew and its abilities.

Teuta chased after her foes, confident in her victory… only to freeze as Rook swiftly turned around and Kairos struck her again from the left.

The surprised pirate queen raised her axe too high, and Kairos lowered his weapon to strike her in the chest. The [Anemoi Spear] smashed her armor with enough strength to crack the steel, and Teuta had to tighten her hold on her griffin’s reins to avoid falling off.

“A feigned retreat?” Teuta cursed while attempting to go back on the offensive, but Kairos didn’t give her time to breathe. Rook ran circles around Teuta and her mount, allowing his rider to strike swiftly from all angles. His weapon probed the pirate queen’s armor for any sign of weakness, and when it didn’t find any, he struck the enemy griffin's flank instead. The beast screeched as the poisoned tip of the [Anemoi Spear] grazed his feathered chest and drew blood.

Kairos remembered his aerial joust with the Boreads in Achlys. Teuta had good instincts and skills, but she was a novice at this kind of battle.

He wouldn’t let her live long enough to learn.

Teuta managed to throw Kairos off with magical stormbolts, her griffin immediately flying away rather than keep fighting in close-quarters. “Chicken!” Rook mocked them as he chased after them. “Coot coot coot!”

“Shut up!” Teuta’s griffin shouted back as he made circles in the skies in a vain attempt to outpace his pursuer. “It’s a tactical retreat!”

Kairos could recognize despair when he saw it. An antidote inoculated before the fight was probably the only reason his poison hadn’t killed the bird already.

Kairos remembered watching his sister Histria starving. She had perished before her time, the daughter of a captain starving during the great famine.

She died because of people like you, Kairos thought angrily while chasing Teuta. Who cling to the old ways that drive us to poverty and self-destruction. The only freedom you defend is that of the strong, while the weak have to eat your scraps. You’re holding our people back. And that’s why you and your ideas have to die.

Teuta whistled, and the surviving sirens answered her call with a screech.

While the rivals for the throne of Travia jousted in the air, the Unconquered had entered the Foresight’s firing range. The living ship’s archers and ballistae unleashed a rain of arrows and bolts at Teuta’s vessel, only to be repelled by magical shields. The noise of impact drifted through the air, while Agron’s song grew louder and Cassandra barked orders.

When bolts failed, Kairos’ crew moved to the fire rods. Incendiary projectiles surged from the Foresight’s deck, only to crash against the magical wards protecting the Unconquered. [Fire Resistance] wards shielded the wood from the flames, while the sea boiled around the two ships.

To Kairos’ confusion, another volley of fireballs answered his crew’s barrage. The Unconquered’s crew wielded smaller replicas of the fire rods, and soon the sea seemed to erupt in a cataclysmic series of explosions. But the mighty Foresight’s scales didn’t need magic to shrug off flames, and Andromache’s buffs protected the crew from harm.

The Unconquered attempted to ram the Foresight, but an explosion erupted from below its left side. Oars snapped in half, sailors fell overboard, and the course of Teuta’s flagship deviated to the right.

Nausicaa.

She had detonated Andromache’s weapon below the Unconquered, and though the blast didn’t sink it, the loss of its oars turned it into a sitting duck. Maybe the surviving elementals would have helped it swim out of danger, but Andromache had dragged them to their doom underwater.

The more maneuverable Foresight circumvented the enemy ship and opened its fanged maw. The Unconquered’s panicked crew attempted to drive it away with fireballs, but the monstrous ship zigzagged through the barrage and bit Teuta’s flagship in the left flank like a shark. The vessel’s wooden hull cracked under the fangs’ pressure, Teuta’s men scrambling with spears to push back the living ship’s jaws.

“Protect the ram!” Cassandra ordered, with Agron being the first to jump on the Unconquered’s deck. His Songaxe cut through a hoplite’s helmet, his weapon letting out a melody as it drank the blood. The Unconquered’s deck fell into chaos as more warriors jumped to it, covered by Nessus’ arrows.

The ambush was turning into a disaster—for the ambushers.

“They’re coming, Kairos!” Rook warned his rider as the siren flock regrouped around Teuta.

Kairos silently examined his [Anemoi Spear] and sensed its power slowly returning. Teuta’s Skill had a limited duration, and it had failed to affect the [Golden Fleece] too.

Something didn’t add up though. The witches of Achlys in Teuta’s crew were mere [Elites], but her anti-magic wave could disrupt [Hero]-Ranked abilities. Kairos remembered his infiltration of the Unconquered, and the enormous amount of wards protecting it. Some ran deep into the ship’s wood, and would have been applied before Teuta’s alliance with Mithridates. Her axe's bolts were clearly a spell rather than a magical property of the weapon.

Teuta is not a straight [Fighter], Kairos realized, as the siren flock reformed to attack him again with wings and talons. She’s either a brawny [Spellcaster] or a [Fighter] with magical-oriented subclasses.

Keeping that information in mind for later, Kairos skewered the first siren within range with his spear before activating his [Telchine Sorcery] Skill. His eyes oozed malevolence. “Obey!”

Half the siren flock froze as their eyes met with Kairos’ ensorcelled gaze. The Telchine’s magic traveled through the [Hero]’s vision, crushing the monsters’ will.

[Charisma] check successful. [Charm] ailment applied.

While Teuta protected her griffin against mental attacks, the sirens proved less resistant. Kairos suspected that whatever Skill shielded the pirate queen’s mount needed close proximity to work.

“Kill each other to the last!” Kairos ordered, and the flock immediately turned on itself. The sirens under his control attacked their sisters loyal to Teuta, scratching eyes with talons and biting feathers with sharp fangs. Those foolish enough to fly in his path, he slew.

Teuta had used the brief window of opportunity to fly upward, her griffin positioning himself above Rook. The pirate queen used the elevation to rain down bolts upon Kairos and his partner, the duo zigzagging among a thunderstorm.

Meanwhile, the Foresight had chewed through a good chunk of the Unconquered’s side. The latter started to slowly sink into the water, while Agron and the other warriors quickly leaped back to their ship.

“You should rename your vessel the Conquered!” Kairos taunted Teuta in an attempt to make her slip up. As his words echoed, the [Anemoi Spear] let out a humming sound, winds swirling around its tip. “A good captain goes down with her ship!”

“I have more than one!” Teuta replied wrathfully.

Kairos’ joy turned to caution, as he noticed sails on the horizon. Fast liburna galley ships emerged from the east, the west, the north, and the south. They formed a closing circle around the Foresight and the Unconquered, a noose tightening on their trapped prey.

All twelve of them bore Teuta’s flag.

“You weren’t confident enough to take us on your own?” Kairos taunted his rival. At least Zama wasn’t among their numbers. The old general must have decided to pick a better moment to fight.

Kairos could have attacked Teuta with a wind blast, but decided against it. Better to deceive her into thinking she had fully suppressed his spear’s power.

“A [Rogue] condemning me for fighting unfairly?” Teuta replied, as the Foresight disengaged from the sinking Unconquered and formed a bubble dome above its deck. The living ship would descend into the abyss as soon as his master landed on it, escaping the encircling ships. “Quantity is a quality of its own.”

Kairos couldn’t help but sneer. So much for caring about the Travian people.

Teuta’s griffin responded by diving down at Rook like a falcon on a smaller bird, his rider raising her axe for a fatal strike. “Like a rat on the pavement!” the black griffin snarled angrily.

“Kairos, buckle up!” Rook replied before flying upward. The two griffin riders charged at one another for a final clash.

But only one of them could outspeed the wind itself.

As they approached the final collision, Kairos unleashed the power of his [Anemoi Spear] to create a wind tunnel, surprising Teuta with their increased speed. She attempted to hit her foes with a thunderbolt, but Rook skillfully dodged. Kairos raised his spear, and thrust.

Like a silver arrow, the [Anemoi Spear] pierced Teuta’s griffin in the gut and kept flying on its way out. The blow’s sheer power snapped the animal in half and forced Teuta to leap from her beast to avoid certain death. For a split second, Kairos saw her furious gaze peering through her helmet.

However, Teuta didn’t admit defeat yet. With a hand on an amulet around her neck, she raised her axe and threw it straight at Kairos’ face in a final act of defiance.

The [Hero] summoned the winds, and tossed the weapon back at the sender with a blast of air.

Teuta teleported away in a flash of light right before her own axe could split her helmet in half. Her weapon continued its course into the sea, to join the Unconquered in its depths.

Now that the skies belonged to him, Kairos glanced down at the ocean. The Foresight had vanished underwater, but Teuta’s fleet continued the fight. Using the same fire rods replicas as the Unconquered’s crew, they fired at the water surface, perhaps hoping that their projectile could shake the abysses below.

“Do we swim away too?” Rook asked, as archers on the ships raised their bows at them.

“Teuta disrupted our buffs, and unlike my items, I’m not sure that their power returned.” Kairos smiled ear to ear. “Besides, why should we run from them?”

Rook laughed, and flew at the nearest ship.

The warriors abroad welcomed them with a volley of arrows and fireballs, but Kairos deflected them all with a mighty blast of wind. The projectiles bounced back to their senders, the deck going down in flames as the fire rods detonated.

Without wasting time, Rook immediately flew towards a second ship and shredded its sails with his talons. Kairos unleashed a cloud of stygian poison at the crew, and ordered the survivors to detonate their fire rods with his [Telchine Sorcery].

Now that she had dealt with the water elementals, Andromache joined the fray as well. The invincible Scylla’s tentacles grabbed a liburna’s ram and smashed the hull, while she rained fire and death with her magical staff. At that moment, she appeared like a goddess of fury, as terrifying as she was beautiful. Arrows bounced off her skin, drowned by the sound of her laughter.

Elsewhere, the Foresight’s jaw snapped out of the water and crushed a fourth ship in half, the living ship devouring the doomed sailors like a shark. Explosions blasted a fifth vessel apart without warning, the shadow of the saboteur Nausicaa slithering among the waves.

By the time half the fleet had gone down in flames, the others stopped firing fireballs and arrows at the Foresight’s crew. Instead, they turned around, their oars frantically turning in the opposite direction.

Rook flapped his wings above the smoking wreck of a liburna, as Kairos watched the remaining ships leave in peace. He had taught them a lesson they would never forget, one they would soon spread across the Sunsea.

Travia only had one king, and he suffered no competition.

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