The Battle of Watchtower Berth

Amaruq panicked. Total, absolute terror at the sight of the rushing monsters, their long tongues hanging from their mouths as unquenchable hunger for human meat spurred them.

For one heartbeat, maybe two, Amaruq let the old gibbering fear win. The hindbrain, the animal deep inside, the atavistic dread of not just dying, but being killed for food, a scaly monster tearing chunks from you as you screamed…

"Shit your trews if you must, then get on with it." As always, it was the rasping, thickly accented voice of Admiral Laine, the famed One Handed Bitch, that Amaruq heard in her mind.

The first lizardkin were 10 paces away, both holding short swords and wearing bits of mismatched armor. The captain found her voice and bellowed, “Cut the lines!” even as she pulled her sword out, a slightly smaller version of the typical naval cutlass called a hanger. The boat’s sails were furled, but the steady current would have them drift away in short order and even lizardkin would struggle to climb onto the boat from the river without the element of surprise.

Docked to the old jetty on the eastern shore facing south, the Nawyet’s port side had two heavy lines tied to sturdy stone columns at the bow and stern. Alexandra had tied the bow line and was still closest and being a former marine instantly understood the captain’s order. Pulling her saber she jumped to the rail, bringing the edge down on the rope with a purpose.

As she did, Ipellie at the stern grabbed up a hatchet that was kept in a toolbox by the anchor roller and followed her lead, ignoring the sight of the rushing attackers to hack at the rope, putting her shoulder into the overhead stroke to ensure she cut through the line on the first attempt.

The hatchet struck the hemp rope and simply stopped, bouncing off instead of biting into the wood of the railing as she expected. Her heart pounding, Ipellie gave an even stronger swing but again it was like hitting some sort of hard rubber, and in disbelief Ipellie stared at the small notch in the rope, the only evidence she had hit it with a sharp blade at all.

“Deep hells!” Amaruq swore, looking from Alexandra at the fore anchoring line futilely trying to saw at the rope with her cutlass. Even as the sound of heavy bodies slamming into the hull she spared a quick look at the shore, seeing the lizardkin thaumaturge holding out both arms toward the boat with a short piece of rope in each hand, and even a few dozen paces away she could see the creature’s mouth moving. A good trick, looking at the dock lines and using primal magic to make them stiffen enough to repel the blades for a handful of minutes perhaps. Long enough for the lizardkin waiting next to the jetty to get on board.

“Leave it!” Amaruq bellowed as she ran up to Ipellie, grabbing the girl back from the railing as she focused single mindedly on cutting the rope. “No time, the magic will fade, repel boarders!”

The older mates were moving toward the railing against the jetty, leaving enough space to avoid a stab at their feet but close enough to contest the lizardkin as they gathered, pausing to ensure it was not just one attacker appearing over the side at a time.

Her eyes were wide, but Hitty felt an icy calm descend. After the events of the night, she had been exhausted and sick with worry for Noah, but now all she felt was an almost clinical sense of outrage that this was happening now, after everything else. Amidships, the Kuniq lass had a cuttoe, essentially a long hunting knife, to replace the harpoon she had lost to the river witch. On full watch, the crew kept a yew short bow next to the mainmast with a quiver of old but serviceable arrows, and Hitty strung the bow in a moment, even as she scanned the railing.

She had only seen lizardkin bones, and a pickled head kept as a centerpiece at a sailor’s bar on the island of Panoag. She knew, as everyone did, that most of the lizards who fought were called juveniles. The scholars said there were male and female lizardkin, but while males were a bit larger people couldn’t usually tell them apart. They were about the same height as an average woman, but that was due to their hunched posture. They were broad and strong, with arms that seemed too long for their bodies and thick but short tails. Their scaled bodies ranged in colour from a dull red to yellow and green, but most were shades of grey and brown.

Three thick fingers, ending in wicked claws, wrapped around the gap at the bottom of a rail near the center of the boat. With a quick heave, the first lizardkin pulled itself up onto the rail, letting lose a short roar as it swung a thick saber in an arc to give itself space.

Lisa had put herself amidships, her round wood and iron shield on her left arm and her hand-and-half greatsword casually resting on her shoulder. With a well-timed cry, she took a long step toward the invader and swung in a flat arc, her lunge bringing her lower so her blade caught the lizardkin on his extended knee, cutting deep and causing the boarder to buckle to the deck with a hiss of pain, out of the fight before it even started.

Five other lizards pulled themselves onto the deck simultaneously, with more behind them. Two had the misfortune to have picked the railing closest to Amaruq and Hannah, and the captain moved on the reddish one on the right side, her hanger sword banging a sloppy guard away and flicking into its neck a few inches with a riposte that left the biter to **** to **** on its own blood, one leg over the railing.

Hannah did not have her captain’s perfect fencing form, but she had a heavy navy cutlass and leverage and used both while the other lizardkin was still trying to get space to move. As the screams and yells began from two dozen throats, Hannah pressed the lizard from its off side, getting a slice onto its sword arm that scored through the scales, then brought a second overhead cleave down onto the shoulder that cut through the mismatched bit of armor it wore, cleaving the arm half off.

“Don’t let them group up!” Amaruq yelled, stealing a quick glance up and down the boat. She had seen at least a dozen lizardkin in the water, and already 3 were dead or dying but closer to the bow two lizardkin were pulling themselves over the railing and she could hear a thunking sound of thick talons digging into the wooden hull near the stern.

Down towards the front a larger red scaled lizardkin - as tall as Lisa, so a head above the others - had a simple but effective hide and wood oval shield. With a snarl he feinted towards Alexandra, who took a half step back while the cook Fatima joined her, both former marines falling into line close enough to support the other but not so close as to interfere with any attacks. A sudden flurry of blows from the lizardkin almost broke Alexandra’s guard, and she took a nasty cut to her forearm, but Fatima repaid the strike with a slice to the midsection that cut deep enough in the creatures scaly hide to make it pull back, hissing with pain.

Another lizardkin started to climb over the railing, but Alexandra pivoted and hacked down on the exposed hand, severing two talon-like fingers, and sending the beast howling back down. Fatima gave a hoarse yell and motioned as if in attack again to keep the large, wounded red at bay while her wife was half turned, and the two women paused to plan their next move.

Hannah pointed her cutlass aft, calling out “Cap’n, biters over the stern!” Amaruq looked and saw two lizardkin that had used their claws to climb around to the rear of the boat before clambering over the rail; one was crouched, scanning the growing fight, while the other beast unlimbered a heavy crossbow.

Without pause, Amaruq rushed the 10 paces around the cabin towards the invaders, knowing Hannah would be with her. The green scaled warrior in front had a club in its left hand and a heavy knife in the right. It hissed a challenge while its companion attempted to finish winding the arbalest, an old human crafted weapon but clearly still capable of punching through any armor. With it, an even middling archer would be able to punch holes through any woman on deck.

‘No time!’ As she hurried towards them she focused on the creature in front, yellow and black eyes above the too-wide frog mouth typical to the species. It held the club in front, ready to block a slash, but the captain simply dove to the left side at an angle, snapping into a roll that would have been a credit to a woman 15 years her junior. The beast couldn’t help but turn, feeling drool forming in its mouth as the defenseless woman moved past it a scant few feet away.

Ignoring the dull green warrior, Amaruq used the momentum of her roll to leap up, extending her sword into a textbook advance-lunge. The would be ranged attacker was just bringing the heavy arbalest up to fire as the captain pressed her blade entirely though its chest, right where the lizards large heart lay.

“Fucker!” Hannah yelled out. Amaruq was pulling her hanger sword from the crossbow wielder, throwing a quick glance to her right at the other lizardkin she had ignored. The fact she didn’t already have a blade in her back or a club to her skull gave her a strong hint as to what she would find, but she was still relieved to see the green scale’s eyes rolling up in its head, the first mate’s cutlass half buried in the lizardkin’s neck.

Both women turned back to look at the quickly growing battle. A dozen or more lizardkin were on the boat, several dead or seriously wounded. They had planned to ambush an unaware boat, Amaruq knew. They probably expected the crew to be relaxed and getting ready for breakfast, half still in their bunks, emphatically not fully armed and on deck ready for a fight.

’We just need to keep them off balance, and by the deep blue we can take them all without any serious injuries.’ The captain allowed herself to dream, a foolish thing with the battle still just starting but the woman could see that while the lizardkin had outnumbered her crew they had nothing like the numbers you would need to swarm a ready boat of capable fighters.

Her experienced look showed Hyvin, with her elegant western style flyssa sword, twisting and turning around an outmatched lizard. Macha, never much of a fighter the captain knew, was at least guarding her weak side. The youngsters had been mostly out of the action to start, which Amaruq didn’t mind as it would take a few moments to get over the sudden shock of their first real deadly fight. They were fighting now and looked to be doing quite well on the starboard rail. Ashe was amidships, occasionally thrusting at an attacker but mostly trying to stay out of Lisa’s way as the tall woman was swinging her absurdly large sword around like she was in the middle of a field.

It was as she started to point toward the thick of the fighting that movement from down by the ruined watchtower caught her eye, and she gasped. Hannah followed her gaze, then Amaruq started running towards the attackers, yelling, “At them! Get them off now or all is lost!”

The first lizardkin Hitty had a good, unobstructed look at held a heavy iron axe as it looked up and down the boat. For a split second Hitty thought it looked surprised somehow, but not nearly as surprised as when her arrow caught it in the stomach. Lizardkin scales for the average sized juveniles were tougher than human skin, of course, but while they could and did turn a blade Hitty was gratified to see it was less protective than chain mail, just like her mother and aunts had told her was their experience from the wars.

With the biter gripping the shaft with its thick hand, Hitty drew and released, this arrow catching it in the neck. As it slumped to the deck, Hitty took another arrow. Some of the fights were too close for her to be sure she wouldn’t hit a crewmate, but another boarder pulling itself over the railing away from the action got a feathered shaft buried in an eye.

The yells of the lizards and the crew joined with the bang of metal on metal, but at the last moment Hitty heard a grunt and the sound of wood being gouged behind her. Without thinking she ducked and moved to her left, falling to the deck even as the first lizardkin to swim under the Nawyet to climb the starboard side reached out to grab at her.

Hitty got to her feet just in time to scoot back as the boarder hauled itself over the railing, dripping water all over as it looked at the lass. “Kliveck!” it said, mouth open wide as the long tongue moved in anticipation of human flesh.

“Oi! Ugly!” Ipellie yelled, distracting the attacker with a jab of her hunting harpoon for a moment as Kireama slashed it on the arm with her borrowed cutlass. The Kuniq lasses looked scared but resolute as they both slashed and poked at the lizardkin, keeping it off balance while Hitty moved back, unsure if she should pull her blade and attack from the side or back up enough to shoot again.

The sudden arrival of Yutu made it a moot point, his long iron bound staff whistling through the air to crunch into the lizardkin’s head. His sister was beside him, and she yelled a warning as another three lizardkin climbed over from the riverside.

With a few quick looks and words between them, Yutu and Ipellie advanced in the center with staff and harpoon while Kireama and Yura flanked their sides, all four working to keep the suddenly outnumbered attackers on the defensive against the railing. With a tremendous snarl one pulled an old bronze dagger and threw it, an awkward but still dangerous toss that hit Yutu in the chest but one that his leather armor kept from penetrating skin. The middle lizardkin held a long halberd type weapon with the reach to fight effectively against the harpoon and staff, but it had no sooner taken a step toward the young sailors than an arrow whistled between Yutu and Ipellie to bury itself deep in the beast’s thigh.

Hitty’s second arrow caught one of the other lizardkin in the shoulder, making it spin and drop the sword it held, and the small group of youngsters attacked as one, swinging and slashing while the trio of attackers was distracted. Yutu took a heavy blow meant for his sister, the lizardkin club smashing his blocking staff so hard his hands went numb, but his twin took the chance to slam her short war hammer onto the lizard’s head, crunching the rusty helm it wore and killing it instantly. The other two fell soon after, unable to stop the sailors from hacking them down where they stood.

As the third biter fell, Ipellie felt an almost euphoric sense of joy. Quickly smothering her adrenaline fueled relief, she reminded herself that the crew wasn’t out of danger yet. Turning, she could see Lisa and Ashe fighting two lizardkin, a hunting knife was embedded into Lisa’s thick shield but the big woman didn’t seem to notice or care as she whaled on a large lizardkin until it finally wasn’t able to block a heavy blow and she finished it with a cut that damn near bisected it where it stood.

“At them! Get them off now or all is lost!” The captain yelled loudly enough to be heard over the fighting, no mean feat, and Ipellie and her mates at the starboard rail snapped to attention at the alarm in her voice. Ipellie ran with the others across the boat, Kireama taking a moment to stab a lizardkin in the back while it fought Hyvin and Macha.

For the first time Hitty noticed two dead lizardkin near the very front of the boat, Shirisha standing before them with a trench knife and dague in her hands, both blades bloody and both dead lizardkin with similar but reversed single slash wounds to their necks. “These aren’t warriors, this is rabble,” the mountain clanswoman said with disdain, but she followed to the port rail where most of the crew now stood.

A few badly wounded attackers were prone, writhing slowly, but perhaps 15 dead lizardkin now littered the deck with another pair of corpses on the jetty beside the Nawyet. Near the stern anchor line, the captain slashed at the cordage, trying again to cut it but still the thaumaturge’s working prevented the rope from acting like rope.

“Oh, fuck me with a whale’s cock,” Ipellie moaned. Two figures were approaching from the old watchtower, and at first they appeared to be a pair of lizardkin a couple of dozen paces away running with an oddly slow gait toward the boat. But the view was deceptive, and after a moment the lass could tell it was in fact two very large creatures quite a bit further lumbering toward the Nawyet. Lizardkin far too big to hide in the river, so big they had to wait in the watchtower and then run half a mile to the boat when the ambush was sprung.

“Dragonkin,” Lisa said, her heart sinking.