Monster Girl Islands 16 Chapter 2

As we headed toward the fleet of orc ships and saw just how many there were, I started to second-guess myself. They were already in a defensive position, with six of the seven vessels facing to the side with their cannons at the ready, and the middle ship faced forward. I’d never seen such a formation before, which made me wonder if previous orc fleets hadn’t taken us as seriously as they should have.

One thing was for sure, though. After what we’d just pulled off, there was no way the Grand Gar was ever going to underestimate us again.

My heart hammered in my chest as we approached our enemies, until we eventually got within a few hundred feet of their fleet. Neither of us had attacked yet, almost as if we were both veteran samurai duelists waiting for our opponent to make the first move.

“Did the bitch king finally come to surrender?” the captain of the fleet snarled across the way. “We promise we’ll make yer death quick and painful if ya give us our shadow dragon back.”

“You fucking wish,” I shot back. “Abusive assholes like you don’t deserve to have a goldfish, let alone a majestic creature like a shadow dragon.”

The entire orc fleet burst out into roarous laughter, though I didn’t see what was so damn funny.

“Look at the Dragon King getting all mushy,” the captain laughed. “I guess being around all those women all the time’s made his dick fall off, eh boys?”

The orcs roared with laughter again, but I just smirked and shook my head.

“Yet I’m still going to demolish your fleet and turn you all into fish food,” I answered. “What’s that make you guys then, huh?”

“Enough of this jerkin’ off,” the captain spat. “You gonna surrender? Or do we gotta do this the fun way?”

I wasn’t even going to dignify that with a response.

“Ethala?” I asked the squadron of dragons telepathically. “Tell Cartram to prepare his protective breath. The rest of you? Well… You know what to do.”

I continued to stare down the orc fleet as I dared them to attack. Little did they know, they were in for a world of fucking hurt.

Suddenly, Tirian took a deep breath and rocketed toward the nearest ship, and as he flew, the silver dragon blasted a huge shot of fire straight in the direction of the ship’s deck. His flames overtook a bunch of the orcs, who screamed in pain as their bodies were engulfed in the white-hot flames. The surviving orcs instantly retaliated with a hailstorm of arrows, but Swaer was way ahead of them.

The tiny wind dragon shot over to the attacking ship, sucked in air, and then let loose a shot of hurricane-level winds from his mouth. The incoming arrows were caught in the gust and knocked harmlessly away out over the side of the ship and into the ocean.

Which also meant Tirian and Jemma got another free shot at the orc bastards. Jemma fired arrows from her bow with the speed of Legolas, and several of the orcs on the deck went down. Then, seconds later, Tirian released another shot of red and orange flames straight at one of the ship’s masts.

The mast caught fire in an instant, and there was a loud cracking noise as it finally fell over and smashed into the ocean with a giant splash.

The ship had been completely crippled.

“Go!” I commanded my crew, and they instantly unfurled the sails again.

“Blow ‘em outta the water!” the orc captain screamed, and then my worst fear came true.

The entire orc crew fired their cannons, right toward us.

There were dozens of blasts of black smoke accompanied by booming sounds that echoed across the landscape, and a bunch of large metal spheres were launched into the air. There were more than enough cannonballs to turn The Dragon Queen and The Valtras into swiss cheese, and there was no way we were going to be able to outrun the damn things.

Thankfully, Cartram had our backs.

The shadow dragon’s mouth began to glow with a translucent sparkle as he opened his maw and let out a hum, and as he did so, his protective magic cascaded down from the sky and formed a massive ethereal shield in front of The Valtras. Cartram quickly flew through the sky as he held his protective spell, and the wall of magic trailed behind him like fairy dust in a freaking Disney movie. The giant black dragon created a protective shield in front of both of our ships, and we watched in awe as the orc cannonballs slammed into them with a loud crash and then harmlessly fell into the sea.

I could practically hear the orcs’ panic through the eerie silence that overtook their fleet, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Now, it was our turn.

“R-Reload!” the orc captain screamed as he began to stomp across his ship. “Now, ya bloody fuckers!”

“Fire at will!” I commanded the crewmates down below.

The second Cartram’s barrier dissipated, The Dragon Queen fired its cannons, and I felt the rumble underneath my feet as the gunpowder exploded and launched the deadly cannonballs straight toward the orc ship we were passing by. Bits of wood splintered into the air as the projectiles hit their mark, and I heard the scream of several orcs as they were launched into the air from the impact.

“You heard the man!” Olga’s bellowing voice added from afar. “Blast ‘em!”

The Valtras’ cannons fired, and the poor enemy ship didn’t stand a fucking chance. More orcs were thrown from their feet as cannonballs turned their vessel into swiss cheese, and I watched as masts were splintered in half and as the ship’s wheel was completely obliterated.

One of the orcs frantically ran over to the spot where the wheel had been, but it was no use. They had completely lost control.

That’s when I got an idea.

“Swaer?” I commanded the wind dragon telepathically. “Give this ship over here a little boost.”

A boost? Swaer asked. But won’t that-- Ohhhhhh!

A blur of red and yellow trailed across the sky as Swaer zipped over so he was behind the one remaining mast of the orc ship. Then he took a deep breath, jerked back his head, and blasted a shot of air right into the sail, and the orc ship lurched forward.

Straight into the back of the flaming ship in front of it.

Several orcs jumped overboard as the hull collided with the stern, and there was a loud wooden crash as the vessels collided. It didn’t take very long for the fire on the first ship to overtake the second, and within seconds, all that remained were the sinking husks of two warships.

Two down, five to go.

“Fire!” the orc captain screamed, but at this point we were on the edge of their range.

“Hold tight, everyone,” Mira declared as she spun the ship’s wheel as hard as she could.

The Dragon Queen began to twist to the port side, and we all had to brace ourselves to stay on our feet. As we turned in the water, several more blasts of cannonfire rang out.

Cannonballs hit the water behind us and sent several salty sprays up into the air, but none of them came even close to hitting their mark.

And now, the orcs were all sitting ducks once again.

Jemma let out a whistle, and Tirian swooped down at another one of the orc ships. Arrows fired up into the air at the squadron above but, just like before, they were all knocked away.

Several of the arrows were engulfed in the flames that Tirian shot down onto the deck of the ship, while others were blown off course by Swaer’s windy attack. The rest were knocked away by the protective blast of magic that Cartram sprayed around himself and Ethala, and the broken projectiles plummeted back down onto the ships without much fanfare.

Then the dragons attacked.

All hell broke loose as Ethala rocketed down so she was at the same level as the deck of the orc ships, and then she banked around and shot herself forward at literal breakneck speeds. Ethala pulled her wings up against her body as she held the crown of her head forward, which turned her body into a tiny, deadly battering ram. An orc’s skull exploded into a mess of blood and gore as she slammed into it, but then the sparrow dragon continued her momentum and smashed through another green fucker’s chest.

Meanwhile, Swaer used his wind breath to its full advantage. The wind dragon let out a mighty gust right at the bottom of a stack of wooden crates, which launched them skyward at an angle. Several of the orcs tried to flee from the falling crates, but most of them weren’t successful. I watched as a bunch of the jolly green bastards were smashed underneath the weight of the crates, while others were blown completely off their ships by Swaer’s wind breath.

“Cannon crew?” I called over the side of the ship. “How we looking?”

“Loaded and ready to fire again, Draco Rex!” Jonas shouted back. “Just give the command.”

We’d taken the long way out around the two destroyed orc vessels, but now we were quickly rounding the corner and were about to come back into range of the orcs’ cannons.

Thankfully, our dragons kinda had them preoccupied for the moment.

“Ready the cannons,” I said to the crew down below. “We’re going to try and do a hit and run while they’re distracted. Nadir and Batari? Drop those sails as far as they can go.”

The Cero and Coonag women unfurled the white sails of The Dragon Queen, which caused our little schooner to cut through the water even faster, and I took a deep breath as we passed by the ship currently being swarmed by the dragons. We could have easily put the final nail in its coffin, but I figured Jemma and the rest of the squadron had it handled, and I wanted to save my ammo for a ship that was still in pristine condition.

More particularly, the orc captain’s ship.

If we sunk that one, the rest of the fleet would fall like dominoes.

“There he is!” I heard the orc captain yell as we came around. “Blast him outta the water!”

“You heard the captain,” I said with a shit-eating grin. “Fire at will!”

The wooden frame of The Dragon Queen trembled as its entire port side erupted in smoke and let out three booming blasts. All three cannonballs slammed into the main orc ship at different levels, and the entire stern was blown to bits. Giant splinters of wood flew into the sky as orc bodies were tossed overboard into the ocean, but as damaged as it was, the captain’s ship was still afloat.

And we were headed right into the line of fire for the remaining three ships.

“Uhhhh, Dad?” Arrick gulped. “That didn’t work.”

“I know, Arrick!” I said as I felt the color drain from my face. “B-Brace for impact.”

“Brace!” Arrick called out as he began to rush around the deck of our ship. “We’re about to get pummelled.”

There was nothing we could do at this point. The orc ships hadn’t fired the cannons on this side yet, so I was sure they were locked, loaded, and ready to go. Even if we tried to turn away and evade the attack at this point, we wouldn’t be able to get out of the way before The Dragon Queen was riddled with holes. No matter what we did, we were in the direct line of fire.

That’s when the light bulb turned on in my head.

Maybe we couldn’t dodge the cannonfire of our enemies, but neither could they.

“Ethala,” I said telepathically. “I need Cartram, now! We’re about to get blasted down here.”

I’ll tell him to surround your ship, Ethala responded.

“No, no.” I shook my head. “Tell him to put it around the first parallel ship on the right.”

Around their ship? the sparrow dragon gasped.

“Just have him do it,” I repeated. “On my command.”

Okay, Ethala said, and then she let out a series of grunts and chuffs in the direction of Cartram.

The black dragon instantly whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes in the direction of the orc vessel in question.

I held up my hand above my head with an open palm and silently began to whisper to myself.

“Steady…” I said to nobody in particular. “Steady…”

“Fire!” the orc captain bellowed.

The second the words left his foul mouth, I closed my fist.

“Now,” I said to Ethala.

Cartram opened up his mouth and blasted out a shot of his protective, translucent breath as his shadow passed over the orc’s ship. The wall of magic cascaded down to the enemy ship and blanketed their entire starboard side in its ethereal embrace.

Right as their cannons went off.

I heard the panicked screams of dozens of orcs as their own cannonballs smashed into the magical barrier at point-blank range and then ricocheted right back into their ship. There was a loud crash as hunks of the ship’s frame splintered away violently, and I even saw one of the cannons slide forward and then fall out into the ocean with a massive splash.

The ship wasn’t completely destroyed, but at least its starboard cannons were fucking toast.

We weren’t out of the woods yet, though. There were still two more ships to get past, and they were both still loaded and ready to fire.

I ran back to the hull of The Dragon Queen, cupped my hands around my mouth, and then yelled back to the crew of The Valtras.

“I need some Aviars!” I said to the bird women onboard. “We need somebody to get down into the bottom of that ship and take out the men on the cannon, or else we’re all screwed.”

“Sure thing, Draco Rex!” Teeka answered, and then she and Maca took to the sky under the power of their vibrantly-colored wings.

I watched with bated breath as the two bird women soared high above The Dragon Queen and then dodged a bunch of arrows that were fired in their direction. Then the two Aviars flew down to the starboard side of the second orc ship and landed directly onto the ends of the cannons.

The next thing I knew, the blue and red-haired bird woman tossed out her left set of talons, and an orc screamed as his eyeball was plucked from his head.

Then Teeka’s body spun around as she held out her talons like a freaking kickboxer, and I heard another orc let out a yelp of pain.

“Come on… Come on…” I muttered as my heart jumped into my throat.

“Cannons loaded, Draco Rex!” Kehlaan’s voice announced.

I let out a sharp whistle, and the two bird women instantly flew upward and out of the line of fire.

“Now!” I spat, and then The Dragon Queen’s cannons rang out in unison.

Three giant holes appeared in our enemy’s ship as the giant metal projectiles slammed into the side of their vessel, and several of the orcs roared angrily as we passed by.

However, we’d successfully avoided the second set of cannons.

Which just left one more.

Maca and Teeka attempted to distract the orc gunmen once more, but these guys were way more prepared. As the Aviar women flew toward the last ship, they were assaulted by a slew of arrows.

“Gah!” Maca hissed as she barrel-rolled out of the way of a few of the deadly projectiles.

“They’re relentless, Draco Rex!” Teeka bellowed before she ducked down and out of the way of another onslaught. “We’re never going to be able to get to cannons in time.”

The Valtras’ cannons rang out behind our ship, and I twisted my head around in time to watch as five more cannonballs smashed into the side of our enemy’s vessel. The orc ship rocked back and forth for a second before water started to splash up into the damaged frame, and then the ocean started to creep up its side.

It was sinking.

I didn’t really have any time to celebrate our victory, though, because the last orc ship was seconds away from opening fire. I had to think, and I had to think fast.

I decided to relieve Mira of her duties, so I ran over to the quarterdeck of The Dragon Queen, stood behind Mira, and then drew her spear from her back. Mira let out a gasp as she turned her head to look at me, but I just held out the weapon for her to take.

“I need somebody who’s a good aim to try and take out those gunmen,” I explained. “I’ll take the wheel for now.”

“Awww.” Mira winked as she grabbed her weapon and spun it around in her hands. “I’m glad to know you think so highly of me, Draco Rex.”

“Just go,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “We don’t have much time.”

Mira let go of the wheel, so I grabbed onto it and steadied our ship. I watched as the beautiful, golden-scaled dragonkin warrior dashed down to the main level of the deck with her spear in her hand, and as she ran, the woman bent down and snatched up one of the long, pointed splinters of wood that had been blown off our enemy ships and hoisted it over her shoulder. Mira cartwheeled over to the front of The Dragon Queen and, as she came up from her movement, she hurled the giant splinter like a javelin. It shot over into the opening of the orc ship’s gunport, and there was a wet splat as it stabbed through some poor sap’s chest.

Without missing a beat, Mira spun around and then launched her spear at the second gunport of the enemy ship, where it stabbed through another orc with ease. This one let out a macabre gurgle as he stumbled forward and then collapsed against the cannon, dead.

But there were still two more left, and Mira was out of spears.

Thankfully, my first mate was quick on her feet.

Mira picked up the end of a nearby harpoon that was laying on the deck and weighed it in her hands. The dragonkin woman then spun around and threw it hard at the third starboard gunport, where it stabbed through another orc with ease.

Damn. I knew Mira was deadly with a spear, but I’d never seen her go into god mode like this before.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get a shot at the fourth gunport, and before any of us could make a move, the cannon went off.

“Fucker of mothers!” Mira spat as she rolled to the left, and a cannonball slammed into the deck of our ship.

Splinters flew through the air as a large part of our deck splintered into a million pieces, but the attack was far from fatal. None of my crew members had been hurt by the projectile, though The Dragon Queen’s hull was now in pretty bad shape.

Still, we were through the initial onslaught, and there were now only three ships remaining.

The momentum was now fully in our favor.

“Cannons reloaded!” Holara said from down below.

“This is it, guys,” I growled. “If we play our cards right, we can end this quickly. Get ready to fire.”

Once the hull was clear of the enemy ships, I spun the wheel of The Dragon Queen to the starboard side and forced the schooner to bank hard to the left. We twisted around the edge of the orc fleet’s formation, until we were lined up perpendicular to the outer ship’s hull.

Now was the perfect time to strike.

I let out another whistle, and our cannons boomed as they launched three more projectiles into our enemy’s boat. The projectiles turned the hull of the ship into a giant wooden pulp, and one of the metal balls smashed the main mast in two. I let out a triumphant laugh as the mast collapsed to the left and slammed into the side of the orc ship’s deck with a loud crash, and the weight of the mast caused the orc ship to rock over to the side until it was parallel to the deep blue sea.

Then the sea promptly swallowed it up.

Water rushed over the sides of the deck and onto the ship as it began to sink, and several orcs began to swim away in a frantic panic.

And then there were two.

“Fire!” Olga’s voice screamed from somewhere behind me, and then a bunch more cannon blasts rang out.

“Get the fuck outta here!” an orc yelled as the sound of splintering wood echoed across the ocean. “Full speed ahead!”

Sure enough, the second-to-last remaining orc ship began to hoist up its anchor as its sails unfurled from the masts, and even though it was in rough shape, the damn thing started to sail away as fast as it could.

“Aviars,” I said to the two bird women as they swooped over to our ship. “Go tell the orc women to follow that ship and sink the damn thing. We’ll handle the captain.”

Teeka and Maca gave me a nod, and then they flew off to The Valtras.

Soooooo, Tirian’s voice asked via our dragonbond. Do you want me to help out with that last ship?

“Light it up,” I said as we came around. “But leave the captain alive. I wanna have a little talk with that fucker.”

No sooner had the words left my mouth, and there was a spray of red-hot flames from above. Tirian lit up the final ship like it was a Christmas tree, while The Valtras turned away and began to follow the fleeing orc vessel.

I sailed us over to the final ship the silver dragon had just scorched and, by the time we got there, it had pretty much been cleared. Tirian, Swaer, and Ethala all stood on the deck, while Cartram hovered in the sky above.

As we pulled up, I saw Jemma standing behind the orc captain with her bow drawn to the back of his head. The green-skinned fuck simply snarled as he watched my ship approaching, and then he spat onto the deck when I slowed to a crawl.

I had my crewmates halt my vessel and then drop the anchor before I stuck the holder into the wheel and drew my sword. Then I strutted over to the side of our deck, picked up the boarding plank, and proceeded to place it so it connected both our ships. The board creaked under my heavy footfalls as I walked across it, but soon I was on the orc captain’s ship.

“Yer fucked, Dragon King,” the captain growled. “You were already on the Grand Gar’s shit list, but now yer his top priority. You may have bested us today, but you ain’t gonna stand a chance against him.”

“Funny.” I clicked my tongue. “Everybody keeps saying that, yet the bastard’s been too much of a chicken shit to actually come out and face me like a man.”

“You won’t have that problem much longer,” the captain warned. “He’s coming for you, Dragon King. You’d better enjoy these next couple of hours, because they’re gonna be yer last ones.”

“You talk a lot of shit for somebody who just got his ass kicked,” I said with a snort.

Off in the distance, I heard more cannon fire, and when I turned around, I saw the final orc ship starting to sink.

The Valtras had accomplished its mission.

The fleet had been demolished.

“Do you want me to take the shot?” Jemma asked through gritted teeth. “Or should I let one of the dragons take care of him?”

“Ohhhhh,” the captain said with a grin. “This one’s got quite the mouth on her. I bet the Grand Gar will find some very, very good uses for it. Probably when he kills you and then forces her to take his big, girthy--”

Before the orc could finish his taunt, rage overtook my very being. I grabbed onto the hilt of my seaglass sword and, in a singular motion, drew it from its hilt and slashed it across the fucker’s neck.

Blood splashed out onto the ground as it seeped from the second smile on his throat, and he reached up and let out a gurgle as his eyes went wide. The orc captain spat up a mouthful of blood as he collapsed to his knees and then bent forward on all fours, and more of his crimson lifeblood stained the deck as the color drained from his face. Finally, his eyes rolled back in his head, and the orc captain fell onto the deck, dead.

“Somebody, put out that fire,” I said as I sheathed my sword, and then I pointed to the bit of flames behind us on the deck.

Why? Swaer asked. I thought you wanted us to burn all these ships to the ground.

“Not this one.” I shook my head. “This one’s only got some minor cannonball and fire damage, so it could easily be salvaged. It’s coming home with us so we can add it to our own fleet.”

“Another ship?” Jemma asked. “Why would we need another ship when we have Seashuna? We all fit on the two ships we have pretty well when we moved from the dragonkin island…”

“We don’t need another ship for traveling, Jemma,” I explained. “We need it for war, and that’s all we’re going to be focusing on for the next few weeks.”

“War…” Jemma trailed off, and she bit her lip. “I-I’ve never been a part of a war before.”

“Neither have I,” I said. “But that’s what we’re in right now. We’re headed for a full-on conflict with the Grand Gar, whether we’re ready for it or not.”