The Way of the Clan 8

by Dem Mikhaylov

  “Triple intelligence forward!” A clear order sounded, and a collective moan hung over the bridge. As if at one time two dozen officers were cured of chronic constipation. But the order necessary. And any naval commander who saw something on the horizon would do the same.

  And what will happen if the BB suddenly disappeared? Would the military machine fall apart?

  “Three intelligence units sent in five minutes,“ continued the Baroness. “Dragons with the top five of our best sentinels. Send them to the clouds with fireflies! But let them not go ahead, and look not only forward, but also sideways. Send our best optics with them. Include the sapphire telescope with Dumga's eye-heart artefact. And God forbid they screw this up! Increase the level of general anxiety to yellow. Submarine fleet — send forward forty jellyfish, connect them to a trapping electro-poison-net and activate it immediately. The voltage to not fall! Do not spare the supplies. Twenty sharks and electric rays behind the jellyfish. Repeat all this thrice! Dinosaurs to hold on! A short report from each source — every two minutes. Full report – welcome at any time, if you notice something special or unusual.”

  “Done.”

  "Wow," I thought to myself.

  The Baroness had shaken off her sleepiness and reached her working capacity very quick.

  One more “Wow” when she mentioned “eye-heart of Dumga”. The Sleepless Clan was a bit crazy about eyeballs - that is for sure. It was their damn totem! I did not know about the eye, but according to the name… That is, Dumga’s eye was the internal organ of a giant mushroom that could walk in the swampy terrain and live in the heart of the swamp of Rommal. It was harmless — if you did not touch it. It had the ability to find its way through any swamp, never being mistaken. Dozens of large snails with orange shells covered with black spots lived on its shell. The whole company of them was scampering the swamps of Rommal in time immemorial. If you wanted to survive in a terrible swamp, you would walk along the wide orange path of slime. It would lead you out. Smart players did this, rejoicing at meeting with Dumga. And then Dumga disappeared without a trace ... the clan of the Dark Sopranos, possessing those lands, searched in rage for the disappeared Dumga, and then for those who could have seen or offended him. But no one found anything. For a long time, there were bright posters in cities and villages on almost every wall — big money was promised for any reliable information about the unique creature. But they did not find Dumga... Of course, it turned out that it was the Sleepless ... those vile eye-poppers, those damn eye fetishists.

  “We continue attack. Keeping our eyes peeled,“ Goldie reported, and I involuntarily shuddered.

  The phrase was harmless, but now, if the speech of the Sleepless had the words “eye" in them, I'd be on the alert. After all, only one eye had remained on the Dumga. And what happened with his snails?…

  “Ready for first visual coverage and preliminary info,“ someone bellowed.

  “Go! We are listening!” BB landed on the bridge without a single sound, although she fell from a considerable height.

  Above our heads opened an arc-shaped high screen — the voice of a player sounded, somewhat incoherent and unfamiliar to me.

  “A chaotic conglomeration of algae ahead.”

  “What does "conglomeration" mean? It is algae. They float on the water. Or grow on the bottom. Or all together. But they do not pile up.”

  "But here they are piled up," the fearless player replied. "Very much so. Some reach a height of up to three meters. The water itself is completely covered with a thick carpet of vegetation. Something is running around the carpet ...”

  “I really do not like the words "something" and "someone" in reports.”

  “Livestock is not recognized. We are waiting for a picture with more detail. Scouts are already on the road.”

  “Go on.”

  “The plot with algae is no less than one hundred miles in diameter. Maybe more, we are still waiting for new data. Underwater intelligence reports the following – there are no obstacles ahead. Algae only on the surface of the ocean, and below it, but the visibility is fine, the water is clear. The depth reaches three hundred meters.”

  “More.”

  “The sky is clear. Not a single cloud. The wind is favorable. We go forward using the drift of the algae. That's all for now.”

  "Sparse," the Baron concluded, and hurried down to the deck. To prepare for upcoming problems. So, the Baron did not believe in the apparent harmlessness of our obstacle.

  “Send forward one dragon with five attack planes,” the Baroness gave the order. “At full speed. The priority is to check the "piles" on the surface of the Sargasso.”

  “Sargasso?”

  "You must call this plant chaos something, right?"

  “Yes. We assign the code name "Sargasso" to the obstacle. A Scout was sent. A scarlet dragon with five attackers.”

  "Let them check up on as many of those “piles" as they can!”

  “OK!”

  Soon I watched the scarlet dragon flying forward. Five brave pioneers pressed to his back. They would be the first to touch the "Sargasso". Would I have liked to go? Perhaps… what excitement, what pressure...?

  "Will the ship be able to cut through there? Should we expect C.A.P.S. there?" Someone decided to clarify.

  “It is hard to call this territory a State,“ the BB shrugged her shoulders. “It is an obstacle lying in our way, and clearly not accidental. We can get around it. We will lose a few hours, of course, but if it is necessary, I will give the order to change our course.”

  “Let the battle bridge about the possibility of a sharp change in direction?”

  “He already knows it already,“ the girl shook her head, and I immediately agreed.

  If she was talking about my father, he thought about possible change of course as soon as he saw something on the horizon. Thoughts directly related to the actions and counteractions in any situation flashed though his seaworthy head. Honestly, I bet that now my father was in the seventh heaven of sailor’s happiness. He was in nirvana.

  After only five minutes, we witnessed a real reality show — with five brave daredevils in the lead roles. Just like in the movies about glorious paratroopers.

  A scarlet dragon waved its wings for a moment, hovering over a trembling green field of intertwined green and yellow algae. A graceful archer slipped from his neck, and gently landed, frozen in anticipation. Nothing bad happened – no one attacked, and the interlacing of aquatic plants withstood her weight. The girl signaled to the rest. One by one, they moved down the side of the dragon to the bottom, and then the dragon steeply went up, taking an observant position in the heavens. At the bottom, the reconnaissance spies quickly took battle formation, bristling with a variety of weapons, threw a canopy of protective magic over themselves, activated a bunch of artifacts, and moved cautiously toward the nearest swelling, which looked extremely peaceful and personally reminded me of the scruffy barrel of hay.

  Many of the hillocks looked like haystacks. Lean against one such hillock with a pitchfork with a long handle, put next to it a worker in simple clothes and it is ready – a pastoral picture of village life in the rays of the setting sun.

  But the scouts thought differently. Judging by their tense faces, they saw in the algal hill something terrible, and maybe even horrible or nightmarish. However, almost certainly, they were right – something was there, hiding under a carpet of dead plants. It was no wonder that a floating lawn had appeared on our way.

  "It is still clean under the water. The fish are familiar. Commercial ones — and excellent quality. There are no large predators, there are no hints of a possible collective attack of fish yet, but we monitor the situation constantly.”

  “Go on.”

  “It seems that everything is quiet,“ one of the people standing at the table muttered.

  I cringed internally – usually after such words something bad happens. For example, the algae would now scatter to all sides, and a five-armed devil, so
me fanged unknown monster, would rush at the ship, instantly chopping them with a dozen blades, burning us with fiery breath and covering us with acid rain from spitting tubes located on both sides of the head.

  ...

  And, nothing…

  The huge armada crossed tens of meters, scouts continue to sneak forward, the algae remains immovable.

  "And there's some local inhabitants too ... many legs ... spiders? Beetles? Crabs? I see shells ...” a voice came from the scarlet dragon. No, he did not speak himself, but a boy sprawled on the long neck of the winged serpent, who was looking down, was narrating. “Many of them. They are doing something. Eating algae ... oh, no, combing the algae...”

  “What are they doing?!”

  “Combing ... or scratching ... interlacing? Fuck knows! See for yourself!” The picture was transmitted. But they were not eating the seaweed, unless their mouths were on their feet. There was the impression that these ugly creatures were making braids of the algae.

  “Stop!” Interfered Malice. “What do you mean weaving ropes of algae? Take a closer picture!”

  "What's in the hillocks?!" Intervened the BB. “Show us, vividly! Break the ranks and jump to the nearest hill! Report to me!”

  The five rushed forward with the chaotic gallop of drunken kangaroos – the vegetation under their feet springing. They shook from side to side, and several warriors fell and then again rose. The first to get to one was the same archer, taking out two long and narrow blades and resolutely slashing the algal side of the hillock.

  “It almost doesn’t cut,“ said someone in surprise. “The algae stands as well as it did before the first blow. And after only second several green stems broke. It is like steel…”

  “Faster!“

  The partners came and joined the cause. Axes and swords acted a little better. And soon the answer to the main question – what was inside the hillocks? — Was received.

  "There's a huge piece of rock!"

  “A hell of a boulder! Settled in there like a nut in a vegetable peel!”

  “Stone ...“ Repeated the BB. “What stone?”

  “The usual, boss! Regular stone — gray and black. Powerful, durable even in appearance. When we hit it, the sword rebounds. There are even sparks. We go to the next hill!”

  “Go.”

  “Attention! The freaks were activated! A crowd of them coming at you! I read their levels ... two hundredth! Two hundredth level!” The rider of the scarlet dragon was clearly in panic. “They raise their front paws – they have long curved blades. Hurry up! Get out of there!”

  “Run to the hill! ” Ordered the Baroness. “And immediately get on the dragon! Do not engage! Dragon — hit them with fire! Now!”

  “Done!”

  Somersaulting in the air, the dragon threw back his neck, opened his mouth and, with a vibrating roar, sent out a jet of red and yellow fire, furiously striking the algae. But there was no effect — except for a long black trail of char. Even the smoke was not really there – the Dragon fire did no harm to the Sargasso. But I clearly saw that the algal hill, for a second, dived – not out of fear of the fire, but as if the field convulsively jerked from the pain.

  The picture transmitted to us showed a whole pack of monsters rushing to the dragon.

  "There's a stone here too! The same huge rock! The size of a truck!”

  “All back! Get away from it! Dragon – try to capture one of the local inhabitants alive. Or the remains of a dead one. But first, evacuate the team. Klest, Malice, Goldie – you are preparing for a massive hit. Exclude fire. Instead, use explosions, and acid. Prepare the scrolls. No less than a hundred pieces.

  “OK…”

  "A toaster wrapped in a tablecloth,” Goldie said the amazing words, thoughtfully tapping her lower lip.

  “Huh?!" Several players expressed themselves in the same way.

  “Wait, what?”

  "Are not you reading King, idiots? I am telling you – a toaster in a tablecloth! Only there are a lot of them! The algae was a rope, a mechanism to make it work, and the rock is the fist.”

  “A sling! Oh, no ... a mace on the chain! An impact weapon ... but what is the goal ...”

  “The ships,“ said Klest. “Damn ... if this is so ...”

  “Jellyfish have come to the edge of the field! They are already under it! They go inside ...“There was another screen that came on. An underwater ocean ... otherworldly luminous jellyfish swam under the edge of the gigantic vegetable field.

  "Call them back! Turn around! Down to the bottom and then back along the vertical arc! Quickly! Quickly! Revert the smaller ships!”

  The order was late by a few seconds.

  I saw everything in two steps– first I noticed how several mounds suddenly fell down, dropping into the water like stones – which they were. And then, on the screen, among the jellyfish, I saw long thick ropes ending in the terrible stone fragment.

  A swing ... a blow ... the jellyfish were smashed to pieces. And the stone did not stop— it went up, higher and higher. A splash, more and more, more and more, a lot of stone fragments tied to algal ropes burst onto the surface. As if the rope was not a rope, but a muscular arm or tentacle. Fragments whistled past the water and crashed into several unhappy ships. Debris and masts flew in all directions, as well as players and animals. In a couple of moments, the revived field of the "Sargasso" destroyed a dozen jellyfish and five powerful warships. And it did not end there – the deadly rocks again dove into the water, rushing to the bottom to finish off the sinking ships.

  Our ship going straight into the meat grinder… how to stop it? We were less than half a kilometer from the stone thrasher...

  While I was thinking about the situation, the fleet managed to cross another fifty meters of free space. The whistling stone blocks destroyed everything that was within their reach.

  And most importantly – if a collision was inevitable, would the ships be able to cut through thick vegetative carpet? I doubt it. Most likely, we would just get stuck in the seaweed and drag it along while it continued to knead us with its killer "fists".

  "Locusts! Send them to the field, do not use predatory birds ... shit!”

  "Oh ..." I gasped, involuntarily grimacing at the spectacle.

  The scarlet dragon had already managed to pick up five scouts, dragging behind them a frantically twitching mesh of sparkling seaweed with live prey. The serpent flew up, went to turn, ... and then he was hit by a horrific blow by a rock, causing the celestial creature to tumble down, scattering the riders in all directions. And soon the whole brigade collapsed into the ocean. A massive scarlet body was rocked in the foamy waters – still alive, but clearly stunned. The riders floundered. The dragon was slammed like an annoying buzzing fly...

  "Unidentified ships from the east!" The report did not add optimism in this situation.

  “Identify them!” Said the Baroness.

  “We're trying.”

  “Received a request for permission to maneuver freely at the discretion of the battle bridge!”

  “Allow it!” Said the Baroness, it seemed, without thinking.

  Just now, in front of everyone, the Baroness had given control of the military armada to an outside specialist. It is as if NASA invested all their money into building a unique space rocket, and then gave the "steering wheel" to a man who was an expert in his field, but had not yet been tested.

  The case was unique.

  Two Grokhotov family members, the elder and the younger, now ruled over a huge army of warships. Only we did not trust the arsenal ... for now....

  But I knew perfectly well the reason for this trust. She cannot fight with the monster and manage hundreds of ships at once. That would be unreal.

  “Management of the superstructures – Storm! Managing the submariners – Black Moray! Air control – Heavenly Moth!” Baroness shouted aloud. “Send a round of hits! Acid and shrapnel! Hit the algae! Try to break them into pieces! Tell me what status the stone shows after st
riking it with a scout sword. Malice! Send the locusts! And scrolls! And send termites, beetles, woodworms and other creatures of able to gorge themselves on plants, and who are not too picky!”

  “Got it!”

  “Done!”

  “Performed!”

  “The "Killer Whale" steeply goes down another course! Beautiful"

  "The ships are sailing! Under the blue sails! Slowing down!”

  “The ship "Gray Punisher" drops the anchor. Why the hell?! Oh, he "caught" a bunch of some algae with the anchor and... they are clearing it! ... Three more ships are preparing to repeat the maneuver. Boss, he is removes all the ships! ... and we continue to go forward ...”

  "Why?” Said the Baroness.

  "There was no order to change the course," he responded nervously, watching the living stone island get closer.

  "There you go! The third and fifth decks ... shoot as well! Go!»

  “Galleons Sturz and Gascon are standing across the wind! They are putting their sides for the five-masted ships! It seems they are in the role of a brake cushion...”

  “Surviving jellyfish and stingrays retreated! Sharks as well! A net was planted under the muzzles of azure whales and dynos. An additional group of jellyfish are already approaching, starting get a second net. Will it ...”

  “All behind us — they are hiding behind us!”

  "Klest?"

  “There was no order to change the course ...”

  “And there will not be,” the Baroness summed up and tensely looked forwards. “Apparently the kind general prepares us for a showdown. Well ... we will try not to disgrace ourselves ... Baron! Do you hear me?!”

  “Yes!”

  “Send Nyusha strikes to the monster! And dragon's divine saliva!”

  “Already on it!”

  Then a volley overtook the animated algal forest, and above it, a cloud of acid smoke and steam swelled. The gigantic monster shuddered, shaking in convulsions, frothing up the water. Another ship was hit by a blow – it started a turn, but the team was too slow. But because the monster was shaking, most of the aimed blows of the rocks went past their targets. But one still hit. Damn it…