Limitless Seas 2, Chapter 12.

Chapter 12.

“All hail Cassia, Hammer of the Seas, reborn as Cassia, the Sea Venom. All hail Captain Larson, master of this vessel, and my bonded mage. Welcome, my crew, I shall be your home at sea, and you shall serve aboard me with honor and diligence. Together, our foes will weep in terror and our friends will shout in joy at our approach. The seas are ours, reach out and take them!” The voice of Cassia shouted over the entire ship.

“Well, at least that voice wasn’t just going to be in my head,” Larson muttered as the ship calmed itself, the danger of tearing itself apart was gone with Cassia’s announcement.

“Captain, is this some djinn that seeks to control us, what are your orders?” Ibn asked as most of the crew rushed on deck, armed and ready for trouble.

“Stand down, I think it's over,” Larson ordered.

“What’s over, what’s going on? You didn’t mention no haunted ship when we made our deal,” Wrend grumbled, his men forming up on deck, fully armed and armored.

“It’s the ram we mounted on the ship, she was an artifact that bonded with me and the ship. I don’t think she means us any harm, just the opposite, she’ll work to make the ship more powerful and will try to protect the crew aboard her,” Larson told the assembled officers and crew.

“Look at that, sir, she be turning the ship into a monster!” The old, crippled gunner, Dredge said, a look of shock plastered on his face as he pointed toward the bow.

Where functional and sturdy wood had once been, the rearing face of a great serpent was forming. Red gems for the eyes gleamed as if in bright sunlight, and the green scales on the body of the figurehead rippled as the ship moved, the colors shifting from blue to green and every shade in between. In his mind, Cassia sent the image of her ram, the shark-like design had been replaced with that of a fanged serpent to match the figurehead. It was an amazing change for a being that was only 1% bonded to the ship. What would she do when she was fully integrated? He could worry about it later, for now, his crew needed to be reassured.

“All hands, listen up!” Larson roared. “What you see here is the work of Cassia, a being that has joined with me and the Sea Venom. She means you no harm and only wants to help make the Sea Venom the best she can be since she’s now a part of it. Just like any other officer or member of the crew, you’ll treat her with respect,” Larson ordered.

“Aye, captain, it’s just a bit disturbing, it is, but I’m sure we’ll get along just fine,” Dredge said, reaching out hesitantly to pat the ship's railing next to him. In response the red eyes of the figurehead flashed a bit, causing Dredge to grin.

“We’ve got a new member of the crew, an unusual one at that, but it’s no reason to slack off, get back to your duties,” Larson ordered, the crew followed his command, but he couldn’t help but notice the occasional glances toward the figurehead as the night watch made their rounds.

Larson watched his mana pool drop until it was down to 10%. A test revealed he had enough power to imbue his weapon once, and that the mana regenerated at a much slower pace than before. Thankfully, it seemed that his shield bash ability was hardwired into him somehow and not mana dependent. He wouldn’t be able to do much to speed the ship using Command the Currents, but it looked like Cassia would take over those duties for him.

By the time the eastern horizon began to glow with the coming sunrise, Cassia’s integration with the ship had risen to 2%. Looking at the figurehead, he could see the colorful scales were spreading out to encompass the bow of the ship. A quick trip belowdecks confirmed that her integration was throughout the entire structure of the ship, not just the exterior portions. While not covered in scales, the wood of the interior of the ship felt different and more solid to the touch. Cassia sensed his interest and confirmed his suspicions.

“Captain, my influence will encompass the entire ship, we will become more powerful as I improve, but even now, the scales you see offer more protection than the wooden structure could have ever provided on its own,” Cassia advised.

“Thanks for the heads up, though it is still a bit strange that you can read my thoughts,” Larson admitted, not liking that part of the deal very much.

“Only those thoughts on the surface, and only those you choose not to keep from me. I, on the other hand, will allow you complete access,” Cassia said.

“Thank you for not intruding, I will grant you the same courtesy if you like,” Larson offered.

“I would appreciate that, you are my captain and mage, so I cannot hide anything from you, but even though my memory is currently limited, I feel there will be memories and experiences of a more personal nature that I wish to keep to myself, at least for now,” Cassia replied.

“Fair enough, we’ll stay out of each other’s personal business and share anything that might help our ship and crew, deal?” Larson asked.

“It is a deal,” Cassia confirmed, her presence leaving his mind.

Cassia left him alone as the ships pressed on toward their destination. It was just over a four-day journey to reach the island that might hold a portal to the Hypogean realm, and Larson made the most out of that time that he could. The crew ran drills constantly, the new recruits slowly acclimating and fitting in with the existing crew, not that any of them had been aboard for all that long, save for the few that had been prisoners on the ship before Larson took control of it from the pirates.

With the gear given to them from Stratwall Harbor’s armory, every crewman had some kind of weapon to fight with, but armor was still in short supply. Shada and Ibn saw to handing out the weapons and limited armor to those that could do the most with it. The number of marines had grown to ten as Ibn selected the best fighters among the crew to join his Fangs of the Serpent.

Theo Buxton turned out to be a surprisingly good student. Apparently, the lordlings of Stratwall Harbor were given fencing instruction as part of their education. Under the less than gentle instructions of Ibn and Wrend, he quickly learned that there were no rules in combat. Once he got over his indignation from someone not fighting the way he expected, Theo started to pick up some of the dirty tricks that had been used on him, incorporating them into his fighting style. He preferred a rapier, but there were none aboard so Theo made do with a longsword in one hand and a long dagger in the other.

The marines drilled heavily with the Imperium soldiers, and Wrend was more than happy to help since he insisted on keeping his men busy and was interested in letting them learn new shipboard skills. Larson believed him when Wrend said that idle soldiers were problems waiting to happen when cooped up aboard a ship. Given that this unit seemed to be entirely recruited from criminals, Larson felt it best they didn’t decide on causing problems. Other than a few scuffles, the soldiers didn’t cause any issues, and Shada made it a point to keep as far away from the soldiers of Ignominia as she could. On the morning of their fifth day at sea, a small island was sighted in the distance.

“Land ho! Island two points to starboard,” Quix called down from his position in the crow's nest. Larson and the rest of the crew waited for the island to draw closer. When the island hove into view, Larson pulled his spyglass from inventory. Having pilfered it from Fontaine’s cabin, the telescoping spyglass was delicate but finely crafted, giving him a distortion-free view of the island in the distance. A sandy beach gave way to a barren, rocky interior with a small hill dominating the center of the island. The entire place was only a few square miles of space, and the storms must have kept it swept free of any plant life, giving the place an otherworldly appearance that was at odds with the other islands he had visited on this world.

“See anything interesting, Captain?” Wrend asked.

“Take a look for yourself, not exactly a vacation spot, but the small size of the place should make it easy enough for us to find anything resembling a portal there,” Larson replied, handing over the spyglass for Wrend to use.

“That’s the place, you can put us ashore anywhere you think is best. If there’s anything there, we’ll find it. This looking glass is right handy, where did you get it? I don’t suppose you have another one of these lying around you’d be willing to part with?” Wrend asked, handing the spyglass back to Larson.

“I’m not giving up this one, but you should be able to find something similar when we get back to town. This one was taken off a pirate captain, he didn’t need it anymore,” Larson replied. Purchasing more of these for his lookouts was another item on his agenda that was put on hold given their rapid departure.

Nothing was resembling a harbor or even a sheltered anchorage on this unnamed island, forcing them to anchor offshore and ferry the soldiers over via the ship’s boats. It was too much of a haul since the depth was such that they could pull both ships within fifty yards of the shoreline. In addition to the twenty soldiers and their leader, Wrend, Larson had a small detail come ashore to help look for the portal. Ibn and five marines joined Larson and Shada on the rocky beach.

To their surprise, Bug Bartholomew rowed himself over, his weight nearly swamping the ship’s boat. The two-headed ogre looked ridiculous in his makeshift life preserver, but if it gave him the confidence he needed to overcome his fear of the water and join them ashore. Having the powerful ogre at his side would be quite the deterrent if any of the strange Hypogean creatures showed up.

A small detail of sailors would stay behind to watch over the ship’s boats, covered by the ballista aboard Sea Venom and the catapult now mounted on the quarterdeck of the Lost Soul. Their ogre engineer had been able to cobble together the machine and after testing it at sea, they found it outranged the ballista by a good fifty yards but was slow to operate and they hadn’t had the foresight to bring much in the way of ammunition. Part of the shore detail’s responsibility would be to ferry over rocks that would make appropriate ammunition for the catapult. Since the barren landscape was covered stones the correct size for their catapult, Larson was sure they would be kept busy while he was gone.

“Sergeant, where do you think we should start?” Larson asked.

“Well, it’s a barren island with that mound in the middle, let’s start there. I’ll send a couple of pairs of soldiers to sweep the rest of the island just to make sure there aren’t any surprises waiting for us out there. Are you going to join us?” Wrend said.

“I’ll be joining you, along with Ibn, Shada, and the marines. The rest of the shore party will stay here and keep a watch on things,” Larson replied.

“Good, my boys will lead the way, keep close and keep your eyes peeled, this place doesn’t feel right,” Wrend said. Larson agreed with the salty sergeant, this island had a feeling of wrongness he couldn’t quite shake, and the hill at its center seemed to be the focal point of his unease. Two pairs of soldiers flanked their group, scouring the rest of the small island as they approached the rocky hill. Everyone else must have felt it, as their short trip lacked the normal banter that both soldiers and sailors seemed fond of.

“Get it off me!” One of the sailors back at the beach shouted. Larson turned and began to slither toward what looked like a giant spider, feeding greedily on one of the sailors gathering ammunition for the catapult. Where it had come from, he had no idea.

“Hold up, captain, that reeks of bait to me. Look, your crew has things under control,” Wrend said, grabbing Larson’s armor and pulling him back toward the soldiers who were even now forming into a circle, keeping a lookout in every direction while Larson and his crew had been focused on and distracted by the attack. The distant clack of the ballista sounded, the bolt sailing true to pierce the abdomen of the giant spider that was enjoying the meal it had just caught.

The creature stumbled and let out a loud screech as the bolt hit home, the other four soldiers gathering ammo moved to protect the ship’s boats, dropping any rocks they were carrying and drawing weapons. Larson almost struck out at Wrend for holding him back, but the shouts of warning from the circled soldiers drew his attention. Standing up from where they had hidden among the rocks, more of the giant spiders appeared, their armored exoskeletons blending almost perfectly with the terrain around them.

“One javelin, then prepare to receive the charge, Larson, get your folks inside the circle, you can deal with anything that makes it past us,” Wrend ordered. Even though it grated at him to take orders from the sergeant, Larson was wise enough to realize the man knew what he was talking about. The sixteen soldiers along with Wrend took aim and hurled one of the javelins they had strapped to their backs, after throwing they raised their shield and drew the deadly shortswords that they had used to such good effect against his crew during training.

In the distance, one of the pairs of soldiers on their flanks was battling a single creature while the other pair was running to join the main fight. Back on the beach, his sailors seemed to have things well in hand. The spider attacking them was sluggish and likely already dying given the amount of gore streaming from the hole punched through it by the ballista. Just as he thought that, another pair of clacks rang out, and a second bolt from the dual-armed ballista downed the spider near the beach. Dredge and his assistant gunners were already working frantically to reload the siege engine. The second clack had come from the compact ballista mounted to Bug Bartholomew’s arm. While not as powerful as the larger shipboard weapon, it had little trouble punching through the hardened carapace of the horse-sized spiders charging toward the ring of soldiers.

Larson drew his spear and shield, holding off on imbuing his weapon with water mana. Now that he only had enough mana for a single cast, he had to wait until he really needed it. While his mana would regenerate, it was too slow to refill before this battle was likely to be decided. The wave of javelin’s struck to good effect, the Imperium soldiers knew their business and most of the weapons struck true, piercing into the armored monsters as easily as the ballista bolts had done. One of the beasts went down after being targeted by five javelins, and all the others were wounded from multiple strikes. Bug Bartholomew’s target was seriously wounded, dragging itself slowly toward their group, the ballista strike hitting something vital and partially paralyzing the monster before a javelin from one of the soldiers finished it off.

The three surviving spiders crashed into the soldiers, who, surprisingly, were able to hold off the monstrous arachnids. Squealing in pain and frustration, the spiders snapped their deadly fangs at the defenders, the soldiers’ steel armor absorbing any hits their shields were unable to block. Larson didn’t need an invitation to join the fight, charging toward the nearest monster and readying Shield Bash. The soldiers in front of him saw Larson coming, helpfully stepping to the side as he broke through the protective ring of defenders. His ability activated and the bronze-faced shield hammered home with a dull thump. Chitin cracked and the monster squealed at the fresh wounds, but Larson’s twin pointed spear was less effective, the sharp prongs failing to penetrate the natural armor of the monster.

He didn’t have to worry about the spider’s counterattack as Bug Bartholomew hewed the creature in half with his greataxe. The weapon had been taken by the ogre as his share of the pirate treasure, the axe had been the personal weapon of the captain of the pirates, Furious Fontaine. Holding mild enchantments, the greateaxe sliced through armored spiders with little trouble. It was a weapon that a human would need both hands to wield, but in Bug Bartholomew’s one-handed grip, it looked like a hatchet.

With his other hand, the ogre ripped free a spider leg, crunching into it and chewing happily as he looked for his next target. There didn’t seem to be any of the spiders still standing, the efficient soldiers took down the remaining monsters while Larson and Bug Bartholomew had been dealing with their victim. Only the panting of soldiers trying to catch their wind, and the crunching of the ogre’s meal interrupted the silence as they waited for more attackers to appear.

“I think that’s all they’ve got, though I wouldn’t surprised if we turn up more surprises as we approach that hill,” Wrend said, the soldier quickly making sure all the spiders on the ground were well and truly dead before relaxing.

In the distance, one of the soldiers on their flank cried out in pain as his comrade tried to haul his armor off to get at the wounds caused by the spider’s fangs, which had managed to punch through the stout armor he wore. Shada was already running toward the pair with two of Ibn’s marines covering her. Once she reached the wounded soldier’s side, she began casting, the green glow of her healing magic washing over the wounded man and easing his pain. Two more casts were needed before she stopped, having the two marines with her carry the wounded man toward the ship’s boats.

“He’s not going to die, but whatever venom those things have seems to resist healing magic. Your soldier’s going to be out of it for a while until his body fights off the effects of the venom. I’ve had him sent back to the ship where he can rest,” Shada said as she rejoined the main group.

“Hey! Who told you to pull one of my troops from the battle? We might need that man, wounded or not, you bleeding traitor,” Wrend snapped, his anger at the deserter, Shada, breaking through the discipline of an NCO.

“Hold up there, Wrend, you may not like Shada or what she’s done in the past, but she is my ship’s surgeon and if she says the man can’t fight, you’d better listen,” Larson said, coming to the defense of one of his officers was second nature to the man. For a moment, Larson thought Wrend was going to strike him, but the man was able to regain control of his emotions, wisely waiting before speaking again.

“Fine, just make sure you remember to ask me before you make any decisions about my soldiers. Let’s get moving, we’ve got work to do,” Wrend said, forming up his troops and heading toward the nearby hill. Larson was pretty sure their fight with these Hypogean creatures was just beginning, and once it was done, he hoped there wouldn’t be a fight with Wrend and his soldiers over Shada’s future.

“I take it these spiders are the Hypogean ones you told me about earlier?” Larson asked.

“Yup, they’re the beasties I told you about. Nasty, but not too difficult to handle if you keep your wits about you,” Wrend replied.

“They seemed to move about just fine, I’d have thought subterranean creatures would have difficulty in bright sunlight,” Larson said, curious about any strengths or weaknesses this potential enemy possessed.

“Nah, they’re just fine in the light. From what we heard from a prisoner, the Hypogean realm isn’t all dark, they got some kind of light and heat from various plants and whatnot that grow there. They may not like how bright it is up here, but they can function just fine after a bit of time to adjust. These spiders must have been left here to protect the portal, which we should find before more of these things vomit out of it,” Wrend said, forming up the column to finish the journey toward the nearby hill.