by DB King
The guns thundered again. Marcus and his friends sprinted away to their left, dodging the heavy cannonballs.
“What should we do?” Anja asked, wide-eyed and obviously scared by the deadly roar of the cannons.
“Seems to me we have a choice,” Marcus said. “We can grab one of those little boats and try to row out there and take the ship, or we can try to assault the stockade. My guess is that the guns will stop firing at us if we get next to the walls, for fear of killing their allies.”
“But we can’t assault the stockade like this, just the three of us and with no ladders or anything to get over the walls,” Dirk objected.
The cannons boomed again, and they dashed to the right this time as the rain of iron hit the sand where they’d been standing only a moment ago.
“You’re right,” Marcus agreed. “And there’s another thing. We need to clear the dungeon before we can leave. I think the chances are that we have to destroy or at least disable the ship before the dungeon will count as cleared. How fast can you row?”
“Really, really fast!” Anja said with a shaky laugh. “I vote we take the ship!”
Marcus slipped into the augmentation view. He would have to use a lot of magic here, he thought, and boost his companions’ strength and speed significantly if they were to make it to the ship and avoid the barrage of cannon fire. There still remained the problem of how they would actually get up the side of the ship, but Marcus felt confident they would find a way.
He applied Fleetfoot and Hero’s Might to his friends. He dropped out of the augmentation view and cast them both on himself as well. As one, they sprinted straight for the nearest of the little boats that was pulled up on the sand and as they did so, the spell progress flashed up in front of him. He noticed in passing that the spells seemed to level up less when applied to others.
Spell: Hero’s Might Level 2
Level increase: 7%
Progress to next level: 52%
Spell: Fleetfoot Level 2
Level increase: 7%
Progress to next level: 42%
The lower level ups didn’t affect the power of the spell, however. With the boosts in place, they were a blur, dashing like the wind across the firm sand. They grabbed the nearest boat and ran it out into the surf. As it bobbed up in the water, they vaulted in. Dirk and Anja grabbed the oars and rowed.
The little boat’s prow cut through the waves as they closed the distance, but they could see the crew of the boat reloading the cannons. They were a sitting target here, and one lucky shot could prove fatal.
Boom! The cannons sounded again. The cannonballs sent jets of water flying up around their little boat. One grazed just past the prow of the boat, and the force of it made the boat lurch to the right. Another smashed into Anja’s oar, shattering it to splinters.
She cursed and grabbed the spare oar from the bottom of the boat. They now had another short gap in which they could close the distance while the cannons reloaded, but Marcus didn’t want to be directly under the guns when they were loaded. They could try to row around the ship and get away from the barrage or…
A sudden happy thought struck him, and he laughed aloud. Yes, it should work, there was no reason why not.
“Lift your oars out of the water!” he shouted to the others, and they looked at him strangely. “Do it!”
As they obeyed his command, Marcus scrambled to the back of the boat and leaned out over the water. He summoned all his magical strength, and felt a sudden boost flood through him as he did so. Of course! He’d forgotten about the stimulant seeds that had been part of this dungeon’s ingredients. It had evolved into a speed boost in the previous version—now it seemed to be boosting his very ability to cast magic!
Marcus held his hands out over the sea and summoned Elemental Water. He focused all his attention on creating the most focused, high-pressure water jets possible, and aimed them into the sea.
It worked. The force of the water jet propelled the boat, slowly at first, then faster and faster as it gained momentum. Anja and Dirk whooped and yelled in exhilaration as the little boat gained speed, carving a wake of churning foam through the clear water. The wind whipped over them. Marcus laughed as the next cannon blast fired, so loud it seemed to split the air around them.
The cannonballs sailed over their heads, missing them by yards.
Marcus glanced over his shoulder. They were close to the ship. He changed course, tilting his jets to drive the boat around the stern of the larger vessel. As he had hoped, he found his way in. The anchor.
Marcus pulled his power back from the Elemental Water jets and the boat slowed and bobbed in the water. They were out of reach of the cannons now, and from the shouting on board the ship, Marcus suspected that the crew had lost sight of them.
As the Elemental Water spell ended, Marcus saw the level increase again. It was slow, but it was creeping up slowly but surely.
Elemental Ability: Water
Current Mastery Level: Apprentice
Level increase: 5%
Progress to Journeyman level: 25%
The ship’s anchor hung down from the deck through a gap in the rail on a heavy chain. The links of the chain stretched from the deck down to the water and disappeared under the surface.
“That’s our way in, friends,” Marcus said with a grin. There was a rope coiled in the front of their little boat, and Anja fastened it to the chain. Once that was done, Marcus clambered out of the little boat and scrambled up the anchor chain. Anja and Dirk came up close behind.
When he reached the rail, Marcus peered over. There were several silver men on the deck, dressed like sailors in bandanas, cut-off trousers and loose shirts. Their bodies were made of gleaming liquid silver, but they moved like men, looking down over the other rail and shouting to each other in strange, watery voices.
“Let’s go!” Marcus hissed to his friends, and leaped up, vaulting the rail and landing lightly on the deck. He darted forward, sword in one hand and dagger in the other. He chose to leave his mace in his belt because it was a little slower and required more room to swing than his other weapons. For fast fighting in close quarters, sword and dagger were better.
Anja and Dirk were behind him, their katanas in their hands. The first silver man died as he was turning to face Marcus, and the second was still drawing his sword when Marcus’s blade passed through his chest. A cry went up from the other sailors, and there was a thudding of feet as more silver men appeared from below decks.
They were armed with cutlasses, like pirates. They attacked in a disordered swarm, roaring watery battle cries in their strange voices. Their undisciplined charge was no match for Anja and Dirk’s swordsmanship though, and now Marcus got to see Dirk’s new training in action.
Anja had not exaggerated when she had said that Dirk was ready for combat. The small man moved with speed and deadly accuracy through his cuts, not waiting for the enemy to come to him, but closing the distance with all the speed of a striking snake and cutting his enemies down with a single blow.
Unlike the showier fighting style of the Kraken City fighters, who generally traded blows and danced around each other, Marcus saw how Dirk’s goal was to kill each enemy with a single blow as quickly as possible.
Anja was at Dirk’s side, armed with the katana that Kairn had made for her. It was not as fine a piece of work as Dirk’s blade, but it got the job done. Marcus stepped back, surveying the deck of the ship as his companions carved their way through the enemies.
The silver pirates didn’t stand a chance.
As each one died, their silver bodies disintegrated, spilling out onto the deck as if the men were containers filled with quicksilver. The stuff was thick, but it flowed heavy, like cooling liquid metal. Soon Marcus’s boots were coated with it, and he left a trail of silver prints as he moved across the deck.
The last silver man fell before Dirk’s blade, and a deep silence fell across the ship. From the shore, there was a loud yelling, and Marcus coul
d see that the palisade wall of the stockade was thronged with figures.
He turned to his friends. “Time to break the walls of the stockade,” he said.
Chapter 18
“Be careful,” Marcus warned as he and his friends approached the hatchway leading below decks. “Don’t forget—this is no ordinary ship. It’s a dungeon, and there could be traps still. This stairway down is the ideal opportunity for a trap to spring.”
Marcus peered down into the dimness below the decks. He couldn’t see much except for the shafts of bright sunlight that shone in through the cannon hatches. The cannons themselves were dark hulks in the dim space. There was no sign of the crew—evidently everyone aboard had come up to fight off the boarding party.
Marcus raised a hand to stop his companions. He cast Ward Detect. He’d hoped to detect any traps that awaited them below, but the result came back negative. Since the spell had no effect, there was no level up to be had.
“Nothing so far,” Marcus said. “But I don’t want to rely too much on that.”
“Why not?” Dirk asked. “Surely your spell is reliably effective?”
“Yes,” Marcus said, “but remember the sinking pit? There was no sign of that. This dungeon is unique in that it creates traps as needed, rather than having them in place beforehand. Let’s just be really careful, ok? I’ll take the lead.”
Marcus headed down into the gloomy, cramped space below the decks. Down here he could hear the whole ship as it moved around, tossed gently by the light waves. The timbers creaked and the waves slapped hollowly against the wooden sides of the ship. A thought struck Marcus.
What would happen, he wondered, if I were to unfurl the sails of this ship, raise the anchor, and sail off out of the bay? Where would I end up? Would I come up against a barrier of some kind? Would the dungeon destroy or consume me?
He smiled, shaking his head. Eyes on the prize, he said to himself. He had told the others to be careful and keep their minds on the job at hand. It was important that he did the same.
There was no sign of the ship producing a trap to attack them here in the empty ship, so they approached the cannons. Marcus leaned down and looked out of the hatches. They had a clear view of the stockade off on the shore.
Marcus slapped the cold iron of the nearest cannon. It was a big, clumsy thing, black cast iron fixed on a wooden block. The block had wheels and was fixed in rails, giving the gun room to move and disperse the force of the kickback.
“Anyone know how to work one of these things?” Marcus asked. He was joking. He didn’t expect either of his companions to have fired a cannon before, but he figured it couldn’t be too difficult to work out.
To his surprise, Anja stepped forward. “Actually, I do,” she said. Marcus and Dirk turned to her in surprise and she smiled. “I was shown how to use them once back on the Sun Isles, on a seaside fortress where there is still a battery of cannons. They are fired now and again for ceremonial occasions, though we never have to use them for defense. I was… well, let’s just say I was in the right place at the right time, and was shown how to use them.”
“Perfect,” Marcus said with a smile. “That’ll do for our purposes. Show us what to do!”
Anja glanced around. “There’s the ammunition,” she said, pointing to wooden hoppers containing heavy black cannonballs that sat near each gun. “Over there is a powder barrel, there’s the rammers and the powder horns. Yes, everything we need is here. Let’s start by rolling the guns back…”
Anja took them through the loading procedure, and they quickly found that it was easy enough to do. They dropped a cloth bag filled with powder down the end of a gun and rammed it into place with a long pole.
After this, they shoved a wad of rags down the cannon, followed by the ball, and both of these were rammed down, too. The wad filled the extra space in the gun, Anja explained, and ensured that the cannonball—not a perfect fit for the gun by any means—would npt rattle around inside the barrel and so would leave the cannon at maximum velocity.
Marcus and Dirk were impressed as Anja took them through this. She glanced around and found what she was looking for—a thin awl with a sharp point. She jammed it down the firing hole at the base of the cannon. She ran down the line of cannons, repeating the process. “It punctures the powder bag, and makes sure that the powder will ignite when you put the slow match down…” She glanced around. “Ah, here it is.”
In the corner, sitting in a wooden stand there was a set of three poles, each about as long as Marcus’s arm, and each with a dangling piece of thick cord on the end. As Anja brought them over, Marcus saw that the thick cords were smoldering slowly.
“Ingenious design,” Marcus said.
Anja smiled. “Yes, it’s good, isn’t it? I never thought I’d have the opportunity to use this skill set again, but here we are!”
They had loaded all six guns. Now, they adjusted them in their mounts so that they would have the best chance of hitting the stockade walls.
“Ready?” Anja said. She had taken on the role of gun crew captain, since she knew how the firing sequence worked.
“Ready!” Marcus and Dirk both said as they waited beside their guns. Anja dropped the slowly smoldering cord into the firing hole, and the gun fired. Marcus and Dirk did the same. The noise was incredible, and the guns snapped back against their mounts with monstrous force.
They dashed to the next guns in line and fired them as well.
Marcus was impressed with the sheer raw power of the machines. The smell of powder filled the little space, and the noise was like being inside a thunderclap. He dashed around to be ready to fire the last gun in the line.
They fired off all six guns at the stockade on the shore. As soon as they were done, with their firing drill, Anja grabbed a bucket of water that sat next to her gun and swabbed out the cannon barrel with a cloth on the end of a pole. There were other buckets and other poles too, so Marcus and Dirk copied her.
“You need to wash the guns out to be sure it fires properly next time,” she explained. “It doesn’t have to be spotless, but just give it a quick once over. Did we hit the stockade?”
Marcus peered through the hatch nearest him. To his delight, he saw that the cannon volley had indeed hit the stockade. The balls had smashed holes through the wall at a number of points, and the enemies were running around inside like panicked insects.
“Looks like we scored a couple of direct hits,” he said, “but let’s give them another taste. Firing these cannons is great, I don’t want to stop just yet.”
The others chuckled at his enthusiasm, but they both agreed. Marcus’s little group ran up and down the line of guns quickly, swabbing out, reloading, and firing a second volley at the stockade.
When they fired the third volley, the cannonballs smashed into the stockade wall and a section collapsed completely. Some of the cannonballs passed over the wall, hitting the structure behind. Dead bodies were scattered around the gaps in the walls, and the living seemed to have retreated from the breach.
“I think that’s our signal to go over there and deal with the stockade in person,” Marcus said. “But I have an idea. Let’s grab this barrel of powder and bring it with us, and grab that roll of slow-burning cord as well. I feel like we could have some fun with it once we get over there.”
Dirk picked up the roll of cord. It was replacement cord for the slow matches that were used to light the cannons.
“The powder barrel’s a bit heavy,” Anja said, looking meaningfully at Marcus. She was right. The barrel was big and awkward, and it was half full.
“Hero’s Might!” Marcus cast the spell and picked the barrel up, hoisting it onto his shoulder as if it had been no bigger than an ale cask.
Spell: Hero’s Might Level 2
Level increase: 1%
Progress to next level: 53%
Marcus chuckled as he saw the meager upgrade to his spell’s level. The increases changed in line with how much impact it had on the situa
tion. Apparently using a spell to lift a powder barrel didn’t merit much of an upgrade.
They made their way back on deck and down into their little boat. Even with his magically augmented strength, maneuvering the barrel down into the boat was awkward, but Marcus managed it in the end.
“What about the ship?” Dirk asked. “Shouldn’t we set fire to it or scuttle it or something?”
Marcus shook his head. “No, I've got an idea for the ship. We may need to sink it later, but I don’t think so. We’ve killed the enemies, so that should be enough. Come on, let’s row.”
Using his Elemental Water to move the little boat had been useful, but it had used a lot of his strength, and Marcus wanted to keep his magical casting strength for the coming battle. Instead of using it to power them forward, they used the more traditional method of rowing.
They hit the sand and hopped out, running the little boat up the tideline directly in front of the stockade. They could hear shouting and yelling in strange voices from inside the stockade. Marcus grabbed the barrel of powder and dragged it up the sand as they approached.
Now that they were closer, they could clearly see the damage the cannons had done. The cannonballs had slammed through the wooden palisade like fists through thin boards. Marcus had never seen anything like it. Even a large catapult or a ballista would not do damage like this. Seeing the damage that the cannons had wrought, it crossed his mind that it was probably a good thing for the world and everyone in it that the use of these big guns had dropped out of favor.
As they approached the biggest breach in the stockade, Marcus tipped the barrel of powder bags out onto the sand. There were around thirty bags, each one the size of Marcus’s two clenched fists. They were wrapped in dry cloth and tied at the tops.
“Dirk, take an armful of the powder packs,” Marcus said. “I’m going to cast a stealth spell over us all now, and if we’re attacked at the breach, I want you to sneak past while Anja and I hold the breach.”
