SB: Chapter 225 – Neutrality Unraveled

AN: Delete me

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I looked staired at the smoking ruins of the port town. The elven corpses were scattered everywhere. I felt sick, but I refused to look away. Fighting in the dungeon was against monsters and those who put their lives on the line.

Most of the corpses were civilians. Who had no place to run to. The dwarven ships, crews, and marines had cut down all the elves without mercy or hesitation.

“A beautiful sight,” Garth said. My hands clenched into fists as I tried to suppress my rage. He gave me a pat on the back. “You should be proud, escaping the treacherous elves was a great accomplishment. I will have a painting made of this epic battle.”

It wasn’t an epic battle. They were peasants, the elderly, the young, that had been pressganged to stop us. Their deaths I could understand. If you held a weapon or used a spell skill in combat, you weren’t a civilian.

But the children, the women, didn’t deserve this fate. The smell reminded me of cooking meat and made me sick to my stomach. I had enough self control to not throw up, but that didn’t mean anything.

The dwarves had brought back everything of value to their ships and now the port down was completely engulfed in flames as we set sail.

“Two elven warships! Bearing down at five o’clock!” the dwarf on watch up on the mast cried out. I looked in that direction and spotted the hint of sails on the horizon. The Captain came over and pulled out a telescope.

“Two, mithril warships. A battlefleet,” the Captain said with despair. My heart sank with despair as well.

“What’s the problem, our weapons are far superior,” Garth said.

“Elven warships carry elite mages. At least ten each. The moment our weapons can reach them, they will blow us out of the water with their spell skills,” the Captain said. He was right. Elven battleships always carried an elite force. While it might seem excessive, the elves had a strong presence at sea. One of the strategies to preserve their civilization after the war with the Eldarin Empire.

They took over many islands around the continent that no one else was using or wanted. Those islands were the true elven citadels and bastions of their society. If we had just left when we could have, then we would have been fine.

But now elven warships had probably seen all the burning smoke from the settlement and were now pursuing us.

“Also their metal hulls are superior to our wood ones and they can sail against the wind. We still haven’t switched over to a completely metal based fleet due to the costs,” the Captain said.

“I know all about the costs. Get everything ready! We fight if we must,” Garth declared.

“We can break away from the coast. The waves are rougher, but metal ships are less able to cope with rougher waters,” the Captain said.

“Do what you think is best,” Garth waved him off. The dwarven captain began shouting orders and altering the course of our small fleet of three ships.

The waves began to get rougher as our wooden ships went up and down. I began to feel queasy. Garth had excused himself inside the ship. Lanner and Wild Tail were there as well, but I stayed outside.

I wouldn’t die, sick in a bed as danger came ever closer. If death came for me, I would die with a sword in my hand. I didn’t like these dwarves, but at least these elves weren’t civilians. Merchants and corporations now had a special place of dislike in my heart just above demons, for killing my mother.

Gripping the railing tightly, the waves got worse. That was when I noticed a female elf on the leading ship’s bow pull out a metal rod. She began tracing it in the air, forming runes. An elite runic caster!

There was no way I could use runic circles with the ship going up and down this much and with how tired I was. I didn’t have the focus needed at the moment. I could vaguely make out the elven runes that were being used. A standard elemental combination. Short, focused, and powerful, which had its uses, but I preferred long, spread out, and powerful.

“Ozy!”

My pet was ready. The runic circle completed, a beam of fire lanced forwards. Ward! My spell skill held for a moment until the flames were cut off by a thick sheet of ice shooting out of the water.

The large chunk of ice held for another four seconds, before the concentrated beam of fire stopped. Their aim had been incredibly on point, even with the waves.

“Cannons, move into position!” the Captain shouted. A bunch of dwarves pushed up wheeled platforms with cannons, quickly lashing them to the rear rails of the ship.

“Ward!”

I intercepted a Lightning Beam from an elven mage.

“Fire!” The Captain roared and three cannons fired off the rear of the ship. Three much bigger lances of lightning boomed back at the enemy ship. Much more powerful shield spells appeared at the bow blocking the spells.

“Mines! Ten seconds!” Four dwarves rushed up to the rear of the ship, each holding a torso sized barrel. They slapped paper tags on the barrels and charged them with Mana. The barrels went over the side.

“Fire!” The Captain roared out again. Light and noise filled the space between their lead ship and us, who was at the rear of our formation.

“AHHH!” One of the dwarves manning the cannons had half his face felted. A Fire Bolt most likely.

“Cure.”

I helped to dwarf to recover. There was a loud boom as the four barrels exploded. Two had veered away from the enemy ship. One had blown up on the side of the enemy ship, coating it with burning tar.

The last barrel had exploded on the front of their ship, setting it ablaze and disrupting their casters.

“Hang on the waves are going to get rough! Fire at will take out those pointy ears!” the Captain roared. It wasn’t rough already. As the ship began to crest another wave the cannons fired again. One blast hit the ocean water, sending up a spray of droplets and steam. Another missed, while the third grazed the enemy’s hull.

As the ship went down over the other side of the wave, I began to panic as my feet began to lift off the deck. Ozy quickly activated Flight, forcing me back down. This was no ships sailed that far from the continent, the insane waves of the Great Ocean.

“Ward!”

A barrage of Fire Bolts came flying at us as our two ships formed a ‘V’ formation between waves. We were both looking up at each other. “Brace! Brace! Brace! Hard to port!”

What side was port again? I had learned about some nautical terms, but right now I was struggling to remember if it was left or right. Regardless, I grabbed onto the railing like the other dwarves as the entire ship turned sideways while going up a wave.

We were going to flip! Dwarves were all insane drivers, it didn’t matter if it were ships or cars. They pushed everything to the limit.

“Fire!” the Captain roared out with the insanely loud voice of his. It was only now that I realized Garth had fled below decks. I might have noticed it earlier, but with how tired I was, everything felt like it was blurring.

The enemy ship might be able to block three oversized Lightning Beams, but blocking eight, was a bit too much, even with spell casters. They weren’t excepting dwarven sea fearing madness.

I saw one elf got hit, lose their footing, and go flying off their ship into the Great Ocean. No one spared them a glance. The one I did remember about naval combat, it was all about the ship. Anyone who went overboard was considered dead.

Two more attacks struck the enemy’s ship deck. The burst of lightning Mana stunned three nearby elves. They lost their footing and screamed as they went flying off into the Great Ocean to their deaths.

I didn’t even have time to mentally celebrate as our ship crested the wave and the entire ship quickly began to tilt rapidly in the other direction, over correcting, threating to send us flipping over as we crashed down the backside of the wave.

“ALL SHIPS REVERSE! CAPTAINS HELM!” the Dwarven Captain roared so loudly, I felt my brain shaking and my Sonic Resistance activating. There was a surge of Mana. The entire ship resumed turning, so we began to down the wave backwards. “Drop sails!”

The wind caught us as our ship stalled on the backside of the wave. The elven ship crested the top, directly bearing down on us. I came sliding down the wave as we hung on the backside.

This was it. I was going to die by insane dwarving driving. I said an apology to Healer Melon for ever doubting him about dwarves and their driving. Our ship juked to the side while the elven ship did the same at the last moment.

The two ships scraped together for a couple of seconds. Looking back, trying not to be sick, I saw the elven ship collide with one of the other dwarven ships. The dwarven ship made of wood was crushed, by the magical metal elven ship. But then there was a massive explosion, consuming both ships.

One the dwarves who had set up and managed the rear cannons whooped in glee. Despite fellow dwarves dying, I could sense their was excitement as the elven ship lost control and capsized due to the explosion.

Just as I thought the nightmare was over, several spell skills flew over our ship from the side as we passed the other eleven ship chasing us. Glancing back, I saw the remaining dwarven ship in our fleet sail past this ship as well, right behind us.

Spells and cannon fire were exchanged, most of it missing and a couple of dwarves and elves flying off their respective ships on either side. Once they hit the water that was it, there was no saving them.

“The elves might have spells, but they don’t have Dwarven Courage!” the Captain roared out loudly, shaking the air to the cheers of the crew. The ship cruised down a huge wave into a trench of water and then sailed up the next wave. Near the top the ship cut into the water, slashing the front of the ship as we repeated over and over again.

The more the ship moved up and down the more ill I felt. While I could handle movement, this was a bit too much. I could already feel some kind of skill trying to latch onto my soul. I also wanted to sleep. As the ship crested another wave, I let go of the railing and quickly rushed for the lower decks.

I had to brace myself against the walls, so I didn’t go tumbling away, but I made it and reached the crew sleeping area, where my team and myself had been assigned by the Captain.

I knew I needed to get my heavy armor off the way the ship kept moving. It was a nightmare, getting the pieces off and stuffing them into one of my spatial storages. Once I was done, I made sure both tucked under my clothing and crawled onto the hammock. Ozy adjusted himself so he landed on top of me.

Finally able to close my eyes, I was grateful that sleep claimed me from the nightmare I had to endure the last couple of days.