Naval warfare

Sven sat half naked on the side of the boat as they sailed through a tropical sea, the sun was beginning to surface and he was enjoying the sunrise spilling over the desert horizon, they were close to land now, and Port Vassir was an incredible town full of gold, perfumes, spices and exotic flowers, it was a favored spot for most roleplayers to hang out in, not that Sven had any first hand experience with that kind of thing.

"I can't wait to get back to the inn, hanging around all these little missys has gotten this old man riled up." One of the sailors said as he stretched his aching joints beside his seated friend who was enjoying a mug full of his breakfast grog.

"Aint you the lucky one, I gotta get back to the wife or she'll chase me through the streets for delaying like she did last time!" The seated sailor chuckled warmly. "I heard there's that **** trader in town, scary stuff huh? It's alright for those rich bastards to buy all the hot girls, but where does it leave the common man? Married to old bug eyed, crooked nosed witches like me!" The two shared another jolly chuckle.

"**** trading is legal in Vassir?" Sven asked the two sailors, they shared a look before the first responded.

"It sure is mister, say you have some fine looking women in your party, if you're smart you'll buy them some cloths to cover their form. Plenty of men willing to die for the chance to sleep with beauties like that, and plenty more men willing to steal them and then sell them to others." The sailor warned, Sven frowned at that, after hearing about Alice's case he knew not all of the worlds kingdoms had outlawed slavery yet.

"It aint as lawless as my friend might be implying, but shit like that does happen. Better to be safe than sorry you know?" Came the other, Sven nodded his understanding. Maybe a change of cloths might be a good idea, after all there's no telling who might be waiting for them at the port, and without a flail Sven was pretty much useless as a fighter.

"Mmmm what are you doing up so early, master?" Ignis asked as she stretched herself awake, yawning cutely as she joined Sven in enjoying the rising sun.

"Just thinking about things, what to do next, what to do if the minister shows up again, where I might buy a flail in a town like this." Ignis raised a brow at that last bit.

"Why does master want a flail? Don't you already have a really good sword?" In truth, the sword was starting to get out leveled by some of the other weapons available at his level, although the Slyvian blade's unique passive has admittedly been insanely useful in so many different situations, it will be sad to part with it but an upgrade is inevitable.

"My class change has made flails far more efficient for my performance than any other weapon, I'll miss the Slyvian blade but it's time I get an upgrade." Sven watched as Alice was the next to greet the morning air, bending over she gave Sven a show as she arched her back at him like a cat would on all fours, shaking her ass ever so slightly as she stood upright.

"I caught some of the conversation, isn't a flail just a mace with a dangly bit?" Alice asked, skipping over to join by the side of the boat, embracing his exposed chest with a warm fuzzy hug, Sven could swear he could hear her purr.

"Pretty much yeah, they're not the easiest weapons to use but I've got a little experience with them already, you could say." Sven rubbed his nose, in truth he had decades worth of experience with them - and while they were notoriously hard to master, they were exceptionally rewarding once you had mastered them. They can fit almost every battle scenario, they can be used for much more than just raw damage as they can be used in a fairly numerous amount of utilitarian purposes.

"I don't mean to ruin the pleasure cruise, but I think you all ought to get dressed and geared up, it looks like we came at a rather unfortunate time." The captain called from the bowsprit, rushing over to join him Sven looked at the ships in the distance, Sven couldn't hear the cannon fire from this distance but he could see ships wreathed in flames and smoke clouding the sky above the naval battle that was currently raging on.

"We have **** but to dock, there isn't enough provisions on board to wait out this battle so it is best to just dock and hope our number isn't called. Those of you not yet awake should be clued in to the plans before we sail much closer." Sven nodded as he and his party went towards the cabins to get dressed and wake Elise up.

When Sven entered the cabin he saw Elise finishing getting dressed, she had a glow about her that he hadn't seen before. She gave him a shy smile as he watched her appreciatively.

"Ready for round two, daddy?" She asked with a giggle, Sven smirked but shook his head.

"If only I could little girl, but now isn't the time for sex." Sven said as he rushed to get dressed, all these straps on his armor were really tiresome to get prepared in a hurry. Elise gave him a confused look in return. "There's a naval battle outside the port, the captain's going to sail right into it and hope either side don't see us as a threat. We're gonna fly the white flag to let them know we're a civilian ship, but they might get paranoid and shoot anyway so get equipped and prepare for the worst." Sven took this time while equipping himself to examine Elise's character sheet.

Name: Elise Vaulder
Title: None
Main Class: Elemental ranger
Sub Class: None
Proficiency: Cooking
Guild: None
Level: 30
Experience: 3145 / 3240

That was strange, she had obtained a class but it said she had no guild? To Sven's working understanding of how classes are obtained in this version of AxioM, you had to join a guild that owned the rights to caves and dungeons that had class shrines before you could obtain a class. Had she joined a guild, obtained a class and then abandoned her guild perhaps? Something seemed off about it all.

"So I never did ask, where did you run off to that night at the... Botany Fields inn." Sven's thoughts went back to the inn and how everyone there was probably dead now after Igrasil had burnt it to the ground. She paused for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to tell him something before she answered.

"I had to get stronger so I could face you and Ignis properly, so I traveled around for a while. I must have gotten stupidly lucky because I stumbled across a small cave with some easy monsters inside, when the cave was cleared I found a class shrine inside. That's crazy right? Well what's even crazier was the class was a ranged class, just like I wanted. An elemental ranger, I heard from others than the class is pretty rare!" She tried her best to sound convincing but Sven knew she was lying, some how. Why wasn't she telling him the truth? Would it be rude to demand she come clean? Should he let her keep her own entitlement to her own secrets?

"Wow that's really lucky, of all the classes you could of had, the exact one you wanted." It was Sven's turn to sound convincing, he wasn't sure if he pulled it off but Elise seemed to agree with somewhat of a relieves sigh under her breath, so many his doubts had gone unnoticed, for now at least. Strapping himself up properly now, Sven opened the door and stepped out onto the deck, keeping the door open with one hand and offering her his other to help her onto the deck like a true gentleman. She blushed but hit him as she climbed the stairs herself.

"I had enough of that fake courtesy from all the chocolate nosed governors and counts at my fathers castle, I'm my own woman now dad- I uhh, I mean Sven!" She blushed at her mistake as she stepped out into the burning sun, luckily she had a hood to cover her milky pale skin that would simply burst into flames in this weather.

"All men on deck! Try not to look too imposing, the last thing we want is any of these sea dogs to think us a part of the enemies fleet." The captain shouted down from his wheel, men came running out of the cabins with loosely worn clothing, half of the men were dazed and confused from the night before's merry making, the other half being sleep deprived from all the noises coming from Elise's quarters long into the night.

"Who's fighting? Can you see? All I can see are red sails and blue sails." Alice asked the captain as she squinted off into the distance, the captain tried his best to hide the nervousness in his chuckle.

"You've got good eye sight Mrs cat woman, the red sails are the Terran Foci alliance, namely the human faction, and the blue sails are the Triadom, an orc based faction that are currently defending their port vs the Terran Foci." The captain took a swig of whatever alcoholic substance was in his flask before swiftly pocketing it in a hidden compartment on the inside of his ragged longcoat. "Lets just hope the orcs don't bare any grudges against us human civilians passing through." Practically every one on board was a human, from Sven to all of the boats crew members including the captain, those that weren't human; Elise, Ignis and Alice, still meant there wasn't any Orcs on board the vessel. If the Triadom were salty after the recent battle they might find it therapeutic to let loose some of their frustrations on the human civilian vessel. If that happens, well at least now Alice could appreciate the captains nervousness.

"If it comes to that, then we must fight." Sven said confidently as he walked heavy footed towards the front of the boat, raising one leg up onto the bowsprit and gazing at the battle ahead with a spy glass he had acquired from one of the drawers in Elise's room.

"Fight? Young man I don't mean to shit on your bravado, but we're merely sailors. Pirates we can deal with for the most part, trained soldiers and veterans with class upgrades are completely out of our league however. Best you just swim to shore if they begin attacking the ship, it would spare us all a lot of bullshit when the guards capture us and ask 'why was a white haired passanger on your ship attacking Vassir guards?'. Do you think they will simply let us go if we just explain that it was in self defense?" The captain took another healthy swig of his drink before wiping a sheen of moisture from his lips. Sven frowned at that, he hadn't considered the danger he would be putting others through if he was to retaliate, but how could he just flee if they mean to kill him and his party? There was no way he was going to sit back and hope that a stray cannonball doesn't kill one of his loved ones as he escapes.

"If that happens I'll kill the guards detaining you too, make sure to run into the crowds and hide among the people, the guards will be so focused one me than they won't even bother to deal with you." Sven said nonchalantly as he continued to inspect the naval battle. From what he was seeing, things were getting fierce out there and they might just be able to squeeze past without issue if all of their focus remained on the main battle and not on the dinky hired passenger boat full of civilians. The captain merely shook his head.

"I'm getting too old for this shit, I never should of hired the boat out to adventurers. When will I learn." The captain continued to grumble complaints under his breath as he steered.

"What kind of civilian would hire out a boat for the kind of funds I offered? You knew that such high reward would also mean a heightened risk, but you took the deal anyway. So quit your bitchin' and get us to Vassir!" Elise quipped back as she went to join Sven at the front of the boat.

"Damn adventurers, always causing drama for me. You know I got mouths to feed damn you." The captain continued to grumble as he steered and drink from his flask, he drank so much it was a wonder he wasn't drunk yet, because whatever was inside certainly wasn't watered down ale the sailors drank, it was definitely a high concentrated spirit of some kind or another. He would be needing as much liquid courage as he could spare if he was going to pull this off properly, courage and a whole lot of luck.

Half an hour had passed and the ship was close enough to the battle now that the crew could practically taste the gun powder in the air, the sounds of battle cries, explosions and roaring flames filled the air like a natural orchestra of war. The ship had sailed past many a sinking vessel by now, ships littered with cannon fire that had taken on too much water to be salvaged, ships that had burnt down into a crisp so that no sails remain, drifting into the sea like a pyre to mark the loss of the dead. Now that they were so close to the battle, Sven had been on high alert for any manner of dangers that might present themselves as he paced down the side of the ship, looking out for soldiers on either side looking to board their ship bombard them with cannon fire.

Sailing past a particularly big vessel, Sven watched and waited tensely as the Orc crew members on board in turn returned his stares silently, they could see he was wearing armor but also noticed the rest of the crew were civilian sailors, brandishing their caps as a sign that they meant no harm and simply wished to dock at the port. Sven let out a sigh of relief as they passed the flagship without incident, but wasn't foolish enough to let down his guard as there were plenty more ships to pass before they were all clear sailings and free waters.

"Thank the lord." The captain had a visible sheen of sweat forming across his brow as he sighed out his gratitude, wiping his forehead with the sleeves of his longcoat he continued to sail towards the port. It wasn't long until they had to pass another vessel, this time the ship was a little smaller and a little more in-line with the same class of boat the captain was steering. Another tense moment occurred when crew members from the Orc vessel were shouting warnings to the captain that a human vessel was flanking them.

Sven's shield arm twitched as he prepared for the worst, but the captain of the Triadom vessel paid him no mind. Clearly there was more pressing matters at hand even if he had wanted to seek his **** on a civilian human ship. The waters were beginning to get more and more turbulent as they sailed on by, crates and barrels containing various goods leaked out of bombarded hulls and crashed into Sven's ship, each bump sent miniature vibrations up through the boat and along his legs and arms, every sensation heightening his awareness of the surroundings.

They passed boat after boat with little incident, each ship they floated on by relieved the tension fractionally until some of the sailors felt safe enough to stop waving their caps, that was until they sailed past a Triadom ship of the same class as theirs, it was on fire and and the crew looked startled. The hairs on Sven's neck prickled all at once as he watched them notice his vessel with panicked looks, then out of no where they took a cannonball directly to their mid section from the other side. The crew in their panic must have thought Sven's ship to be the assaulting party, so in their dazed confusion the Orcs ran towards their cannons and set their charges ablaze.

"Take cover!" Sven Shouted as he readied his shield, making sure his party members were standing directly behind him Sven raised his shield arm towards the cannonfire, in an explosion of chemistry, 5 balls of iron flew through the sky, all of them on target to impact the ship. Sven waited until the last moment before he cast his Tower Shield spell, an astral projection quickly appeared around the ship in a wide circumference, but it wasn't wide enough to cover the entire ship. 3 cannon balls colided with the shield and bounced harmlessly into the sea, taking 90% damage reduction on 3 cannonballs, Sven almost felt like it tickled him, but 2 of the cannonballs connected with both the front and the back of the ship.

Looking to the captain, Sven watched as the cannonball destroyed the captains wheel, the **** of the blast had sent the old sea dog into the waters below, while the cannonball at the front had blown the bowsprit clean off. The ship was now uncontrollable and without its captain, but at least it wasn't taking on water. Yet.

Sven watched as the Orcs were rearming their cannons and wished he had his flail, even at such range he could hit them with his classes main weapon. Looking to Ignis and then to Elise, Sven gave them the affirmative. It was either fight or flee, and without a steering wheel they had no chance of fleeing a pursuing ship.

"Focus fire the middle cannons, if they take our sails away then we're doomed!" Sven commanded, Ignis ran towards the side and began to channel her fireball spell, Elise meanwhile let loose a volley of fire arrows that connected with the enemy ships sails, burning their means of chasing all at once. Now it was Ignis's turn, her fire ball soared through the sky and exploded into the side of the ship just as the enemy fired their cannons. Ignis's fireball rocked the enemy ship onto its side, causing the cannons to fire aimlessly into the sky where they dropped uselessly into the ocean.

It was at this point where Sven looked behind the captains steering wheel to noticed the flag ship was beginning to turn on its side, Sven swallowed hard as he realized that they weren't turning to flee from the battle, they were turning to give chase to him and his civilian boat that was currently attacking one of theirs. With no way to steer the ship and with them currently in battle, it would take a miracle to get ashore safely.

Sven was covered in sweat and soot, their group had maybe sunk 5 enemy ships that had given chase so far, Sven had deflected countless cannonballs by now and his shield arm was starting to feel the pain. He'd been chugging what little of his remaining health drafts he had left, saving his remaining 3 for if Alice, Elise or Ignis get hit. His sails had been begun to burn and so the wind wasn't doing as good a job of pushing the ship to land, even though the beaches of port Vassir were so close Sven could almost taste the coconut milk on the sea breeze.

The flagship was gaining on Sven fast, and the main front cannon of the ship was looming over them like an angel of ****. The civilian sailors of the ship had all jumped into the water at this point and were beginning to swim to shore, Sven considered joining them but with his weighted armor, he would simply drown before reaching even the shallows of the beach. The back of the ship was burning to a crisp and the hull at the back was also beginning to take on water. It wouldn't be long before the ship sunk, but would the cannon of the flag ship sink it before it crashes on the beach shore?

Sven looked towards the beach to spot a a battalion of Orc guards lined up ready to receive their perceived enemy. 'Just a little more to go and then we can fight on land' however just as Sven thought this, the main cannon from the flag ship went off, making a gut wrenching soaring sound before it landed inches away from the back of the ship, exploding in the water and causing Sven's boat to rock back and forward, sending even more water into the back of the ship. The ship itself began to tip slowly onto its back, it wouldn't be long until this ship would sink. Sven prayed it was long enough for him to make it to at least the shallows.

"Get to the front of the boat, don't go down with the ship or the water will drag you down with it!" Sven commanded as his party assembled at the broken bowsprit, slowly but surely they were inching closer to the beach every passing second. Another cannon fired from behind, the main cannon of the flag ship had been refilled and wasted not a second in shooting off their second round. The cannonball landed meters behind the sinking ship, causing no damage to the vessel but the ensuing wave helped speed along the soon to be ship wreck on its uncontrollable voyage.

For a time all was silent, the sounds of battle seemed to stop in an instant all around him. Looking towards the naval battle he could see red sails retreating from the battle, the orcs had won the day. Then, through the unusual calmness, the sound of the pursuing flagships main cannon broke the quiet, this time hitting its mark directly in the center of Sven's ship - splitting it in half from either side of the mast.

Having no time to second guess, Sven grabbed a hold of all 3 girls roughly and jumped off the boat with all of his might, trying his best to avoid going down with the ship. For a time he just floated there, gliding through the sky like a dragonfly across a pond, but all things that go up must come back down. Landing in the shallows, Sven released the girls from his grasp and sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor, meters above him was fresh air, but he was weighed down by his armor too much to swim.

Slowly, Sven walked forward one leg at a time, above him he could see the girls swimming to shore, it was ok for them because they were wearing light clothing, but for him? This was the best he could manage. Foot step after footstep he marched forward, inching ever closer to the surface when from his left he detected movement. Swimming right at him was a big brown fish, its teeth extended and needle like, it was big but it was fast as before Sven could begin to hold his arms up, the creature had knocked into his side and had sent him tumbling through the waters, kicking up motes of sand that obscured his vision, the blow itself had dangerously knocked the air out of him. Feeling something coming from his right side, Sven grabbed onto the fishes scaly body to what he assumed was its gills.

With a strong ripping sensation, Sven pulled the gills off of the fish violently before reaching inside to rip out more, digging through its flesh like a hot knife through butter he ripped and tore the fish apart, feeling the fish die in his grip, Sven wasted no time continuing his ascent to the surface.

Finally breaching into the open air, Sven took a **** lung full of life giving oxygen - only to find that around him, his party was doing battle with the Triadom guards that had set out to kill them. Quickly Sven raced towards his party as they bobbed and weaved the Orcs blows, trying their best to return fire when they could. Elise was getting swamped by 3 Orcs at once and was struggling to keep herself on her feet, quickly Sven rushed to her side and bashed his shield directly into one of the Orcs, and in a cascading effect knocked said Orc into the other, and then into the last - all 3 Orcs being knocked out cold on the beach shore with a single blow from Sven's shield.

"Behind me!" Sven commanded, hearing his words, Ignis and Alice joined Elise as they stood behind Sven. Archers were beginning to set up on sand dunes above, meanwhile the warriors were charging at Sven.

"Elise focus the archers with your volley, Ignis cast fire ball on a group of the warriors, Alice heal me!" Hearing his orders, the party heeded wishes and did just so. Elise set a volley of ice arrows hurtling through the sky, just as the enemy archers were beginning to line up their shots, they were bombarded with a hail of frozen fury upon impact, froze them in place while simultaneously sending shards of ice flying in every direction, cutting the throats and and severing arteries one by one as they landed.

As all this was happening, Ignis had send one of her fireballs into the crowd of soon approaching warriors, the explosion radius sent the guards hurtling backwards in seared pieces of Orc remains, those that didn't outright die from the blast found themselves set ablaze by the violent attack. The attack was gruesome enough to give the onlookers pause for thought, doubt beginning to eat at many of their convictions.

"And again!" Sven shouted as he deflected a lone arrow that was aimed at his chest. Ignis shot another fireball that did the same destruction to another group of warriors. Elise's next volley of fire arrows depleted the remaining number of archers as they all burned from her ****. The warriors numbers were thinning out now, and with Sven and his imposing presence they began to back off, against these 4 they understood they had no chance. Not wanting to die on a forsaken beach such as this, the remaining group tucked their tails and ran.

Sven decided to let them run, they weren't evil men worthy of persecution, they were just doing their job - and it would be a cowardly move to slay such dutiful men who did nothing to him other than follow their higher ups orders. As the Orcs fled, the sound of clapping could be heard from the top of one of the dunes. Sven looked to where this sound was coming from and spotted an Orc commander wearing a blue cape, his armor rugged and well worm just like his face, which was scarred and had no doubt seen many a battle. His left eye was a milky white, having lost sight in it long ago, Sven ascertained.

"Bravo adventurers, you managed to defeat my battalion rather soundly. But don't grow too big a head, they were merely conscripts after all. Former farmers and stone masons, builders and town drunks. Common rabble you see, only fit to die for their country, you understand?" The man walked forward revealing a wooden peg leg, shaking his sandy commodore hat he placed it firmly on his bald head.

"Any man willing to ask for anothers name should be ready to offer his first, in that case you may call me General Burghs, commander of the 15th Triadom land battalion. To whom do I find myself conversing with?" The general stood upright and proud, a military disposition through and through, Sven thought. Well, if they were talking then that means they weren't fighting.

"My name is Sven Gate, these are my companions." Sven waved his hand to each of them as he called out their name. "Ignis, Alice and Elise." He wasn't about to give this general their last names in case of repercussion to their families later on down the line, but he didn't mind giving his own because he didn't have a 'family'.

"I take it you're the leader, Mr Gate?" The Orc questioned.

"That's right." Sven replied confidently.

"Well Sven Gate, I happened to see from my vantage point the little event that transpired quite well, my left eye might be a bit buggered, but I'll have you know that my right eye is splendid given my age." The General smirked. "And what did I see with my one good eye? Well, I saw the foolish lads from my friends fleet attack your ship unprovoked. It's rather unfair that your ship was targeted so aggressively through no fault of your own." The general continued to rattle on, but the smirk he was giving didn't sit quite well with Sven.

"Let me guess; you know that we're guiltless and are willing to testify on behalf of our innocence, but at a price." Sven frowned as the generals smirk widened to bear his sparkly white fangs.

"I can see why you're the one wearing the pants. Yes Mr Gate, you see I'm an ambitious man and if a man as capable as yourself finds himself in my debt, well I would be a fool not to put you to good use." The General began to walk carelessly towards Sven, hands still behind his back in a way that most royal nobles are taught to walk, but seeing it from such a grizzled old war captain makes Sven feel slightly restless. Stopping just shy of a few meters in front of Sven, the captain looked Sven dead in the eye for a few moments before speaking.

"I used to be a naval commander, but due to some 'technicalities' I've found myself demoted to the role of land commander, ordering these useless louts about the beach all day. I'm tired of it, and the man who did all of this to me is the captain of that there flagship." Burghes pointed to the main ship of the fleet who had shot them out of the ocean. "Kill the captain of that boat and I'll let you pass through this town unhindered. Until then, you'll be followed by an elite squadron of my guards around the clock, if you ever attempt to flee Vassir then alarms will be raised and you won't be allowed to leave the desert alive." Sven glared at the smug captain, for a moment he considered just killing him and running, but he soon noticed many more trained archers had circled around their group and were just waiting to let loose their arrows.

"What's it gonna be?"