‘Stay with me, Jack,’ said Tatsumaki pointedly. ‘The safest place for you is in the belly of the dragon.’
Fifty pirate ships in all left the lagoon and entered the straits. The Koketsu was at the head of the fleet. No longer a secret weapon, it was now the flagship of the Wind Demons in a battle that would ultimately decide who ruled the Seto Sea.
Jack looked out of the front porthole with Tatsumaki and Li Ling. He gasped at what he saw. It seemed as if the pirates’ fate was already sealed. Stretching from east to west was a formidable armada of over a hundred warships. A deadly combination of swift kobaya, warrior-bearing seki-bune and heavily gunned atake-bune were closing in on Pirate Island. The Wind Demons’ ships were outnumbered two to one. But if the Pirate Queen was unnerved by the samurai’s display of force, then she didn’t show it.
‘We know these waters,’ she said. ‘We have the advantage.’
‘I must be seeing things,’ said Li Ling, pointing to a structure in the middle of the Sea Samurai fleet. ‘That looks like a … castle?’
‘That’s the Nihon Maru,’ replied Tatsumaki darkly. ‘Daimyo Mori’s command ship.’
Jack stared with Li Ling in disbelief at the massive floating fortress. Dwarfing even the biggest atake-bune, the immense vessel looked like a replica of daimyo Mori’s Mizujiro castle that stood watch over the Kurushima Straits. Its wooden sides were raised into defensive battlements and there were two open fighting towers, one in the bow and one in the stern. An entire army appeared to line the ramparts and cannon thrust out of every porthole. It even boasted a three-storey keep in the centre, complete with whitewashed walls and graceful curved roofs of green tile, on top of which sat a large golden shell. With its three massive sails dominating the skyline, the command ship was like a leviathan of the deep: colossal, terrifying and invincible.
‘How will we ever defeat that?’ whispered Li Ling to Jack.
Jack had no idea. He just prayed Tatsumaki did. Otherwise they were all destined for a watery grave.
52
Fire Ships
The stretch of water between the two opposing fleets glistened brightly in the morning sun. A lone albatross dived into a wave and snatched a fish from the sea. In the distance, the low resonating tone of a horagai trumpet sounded. A moment later, the water exploded in a plume of white foam, the idyllic scene shattered by the concussion of cannon fire from the Nihon Maru and its fleet. Then trails of smoke scorched the sky as daejon fire arrows rained down in retaliation.
Jack steadied himself against a beam as the Koketsu was rocked by a blast landing off their port bow. Sea spray shot through the open portholes, drenching and chilling the gun crews.
‘They missed!’ cried Li Ling in delight.
‘First one’s always short, remember?’ said Jack, and Li Ling’s grin vanished.
Tatsumaki shouted commands and the oarsmen strained to the fevered beat of the drummer. The Koketsu spun on its axis, its broadside pivoting towards the approaching enemy ships.
‘FIRE!’ she yelled.
The deck shook with cannon bursts, ten in quick succession. Gun carriages recoiled and the crews immediately set to work reloading. As the sulphurous smoke cleared, Jack saw the iron shot and daejon arrows bombard the samurai fleet. Many fell short into the sea, but a few struck their targets first time. The starboard side of a seki-bune was ripped asunder by a daejon fire arrow, while a kobaya of samurai troops was holed and rapidly sank beneath the waves.
The Wind Demons cheered, then Jack’s ears rang again as they unleashed a second round of shots. A retaliating barrage from the Sea Samurai followed and there was a deafening thunk as a cannonball bounced off the armoured roof.
‘That must have left some dent!’ cried Li Ling, who’d clapped her hands to her ears against the noise.
Grateful to be shielded within the Koketsu, Jack saw that the other pirate ships didn’t benefit from such protection. A pirate galley had been caught by a vicious strafing of grapeshot and had lost half its oarsmen. Another ship was fast taking on water, having been hulled by a cannonball. Captain Wanizame’s Great White had suffered a direct hit to its main mast and the sail now burnt fiercely. Her crew was fighting to hurl the flaming canvas overboard before it engulfed the entire ship.
If the Wind Demons continued to suffer losses at this rate, Jack realized they wouldn’t survive long. Daimyo Mori was going to tear their ships apart.
Tatsumaki read his thoughts. ‘The Sea Samurai’s cannon are no match for our Korean guns,’ she declared. ‘Just watch what we can do to them.’
She pointed in the direction of Captain Kujira’s Killer Whale. An enemy boat strayed into the ship’s line of fire and moments later disintegrated like matchwood as Captain Kujira targeted it with devastating accuracy. The Killer Whale boomed repeatedly with its Heaven and Earth cannon and another samurai ship was crippled. Every so often the pounding blasts were punctuated by the thunderous detonation of Captain Kujira’s ‘pride and joy’. Each time Jack heard Crouching Tiger roar, a samurai ship would heel to one side, mortally wounded by the mammoth gun.
Yet the Sea Samurai continued to bear down on the Wind Demons, daimyo Mori’s command ship, at the heart of the armada, invulnerable to the pirates’ relentless barrage. Archers on-board the samurai boats unleashed volley after volley of arrows that flew through the air like swarms of deadly bees. It was as if the sky was raining death. Pirates screamed as steel tips pierced their bodies and they dropped to the deck, writhing in agony.
‘Send in the fire ships!’ snarled Tatsumaki. ‘Before these samurai get close enough to board us.’
Li Ling raced off to raise the signal flag that would relay Tatsumaki’s command to the other pirate captains. Shortly after, six small boats piled high with rice straw and gunpowder charges pulled ahead of the Wind Demons’ ships. Jack was stunned to see a skeleton crew on-board each boat – their mission being suicidal.
The Sea Samurai bombarded the boats as they approached. But the targets were too small for accurate cannon fire and the crews were shielded from arrows and musket shot by the straw bales. The pirates rowed ever closer to the samurai fleet, then at the last possible moment they ignited the straw, set their boats on a collision course and leapt over the sides.
Havoc reigned among the Sea Samurai ships as they sought to avoid the floating bombs. The fleet had to break formation, the ships opening themselves up to the lethal cannon attacks of the Wind Demons. Most of the kobaya and seki-bune vessels proved manoeuvrable enough, but the atake-bune were slower and more cumbersome. One found itself too close as the first fire ship exploded. A whole section of its starboard side was set ablaze. Flames fanned out, spreading over oars, up rigging and across sails until the whole ship was an inferno.
The Wind Demons gave a mighty cheer at the initial devastating success of Tatsumaki’s tactic. The next fire ship detonated, taking out a kobaya lost in the smoke and confusion. But the three following bombs were too far from their targets to cause any serious damage. The last fire ship, however, was on a direct course for the Nihon Maru.
Jack and the Wind Demons watched with bated breath as the burning boat edged ever nearer the daimyo’s command ship.
Then, at the last moment, a kobaya surged out of nowhere, its crew rowing furiously. They collided with the fire ship, knocking it off course. They continued to propel the blazing explosives away from the Nihon Maru. Just as they reached a safe distance, a ball of flame engulfed the kobaya and its crew.
This time, no one on-board the Koketsu cheered; the Wind Demons honourable enough to recognize the samurai crew’s extraordinary courage and sacrifice to save their lord.
Then the pounding of the cannon resumed. By the time the Sea Samurai had managed to regroup into their attack formations, at least ten of their ships had been crippled or sunk.
But their advance was ultimately unstoppable and the Sea Samurai fleet ploughed into the Wind Demons like a tidal wave.
53
Smoke
Bombs
Jack braced himself as the Koketsu rammed an atake-bune. The impact was like a charging bull hitting a brick wall. There was a horrendous crunch of wood and the Koketsu shuddered to a bone-jarring halt. Jack had barely found his feet, when Tatsumaki gave the order to ‘retreat and turn’. The oarsmen, well versed in hit-and-run assaults, leant upon their oars and wrenched the Koketsu’s battering ram free.
Watching the seawater rush into the atake-bune’s hull, Jack recalled the terrifying escape he and his friends had been forced to make from Captain Arashi’s bilge prison. He now wondered how they’d ever survived.
As the Koketsu withdrew, the Sea Samurai blasted away with muskets, the shot clattering like hail upon the armoured roof, but otherwise doing little damage. As soon as they were in position, the Wind Demon gunners unleashed a broadside volley of cannonballs. The already weakened hull of the atake-bune crumbled under the blistering barrage. The ship heeled violently before sinking beneath the waves.
‘Three down!’ declared the head gunner, marking the wooden carriage of his cannon with a knife. The carriage’s surface was covered in such score lines, too many to count. Jack didn’t dare contemplate the number of souls lost according to that gunner’s tally. But, as the sea battle raged on, he had no doubt that the number would be equalled by the end of the day.
All around the Koketsu, Sea Samurai and Wind Demons fought for supremacy. The long-distance bombardment had turned to brutal close-quarter fighting. Ships drew alongside one another, exchanging cannon, arrow and musket fire, before grappling hooks were slung across and the decks became floating battlefields. Swords, axes, knives and spears were all put to deadly use.
As samurai and pirates slaughtered one another, it was as if Pirate Island had been plunged into the depths of hell. The Seto Sea ran red with blood. Sharks circled, taking advantage of the bloodbath, so that even survivors found themselves fighting for their lives. Clouds of black smoke from burning ships obscured the blue sky and the morning sun was transformed into a fierce weeping eye.
The Koketsu alone weaved in and out of the battling ships. Capable of sudden bursts of speed, and highly manoeuvrable due to its U-shaped hull, it evaded boarding attempts and wreaked havoc upon the samurai fleet. It charged straight over a kobaya of samurai troops, splitting the vessel in two. When Captain Hebi’s Jade Serpent was trapped in the crossfire of two atake-bune, the Koketsu rushed to her aid, sinking one and leaving the other crippled and at the mercy of Captain Hebi’s cannon.
As Tatsumaki and her crew sought out their next victim, a seki-bune drifted towards them, its crew dead upon the deck.
‘Looks like someone got there before us,’ observed Li Ling.
‘Shall we sink it?’ the head gunner asked Tatsumaki, his knife already primed to add another score mark.
The Pirate Queen shook her head, smiling. ‘Not unless you need more target practice!’
But, as the Koketsu passed the dead ship, Jack noticed something odd. The tiller had been tied fast, keeping the ship on course. He was about to point this out, when the seki-bune’s oars suddenly sprang to life and the ship surged towards them. Its main mast dropped with an almighty crash on to the roof of the Koketsu.
‘IT’S A TRICK!’ shouted Tatsumaki, giving orders to pull away.
But it was too late. The supposedly dead crew leapt to their feet, weapons drawn, and charged over the makeshift gangplank. A round iron projectile flew through one of the Koketsu’s open portholes. The hand bomb rolled across the deck, its fuse burning fiercely. On instinct, Jack pushed Li Ling behind a pile of cannonballs, then dived at Tatsumaki, knocking her to the ground. A moment later, the bomb exploded, iron shards flying in all directions to maim gunners and oarsmen alike.
Protected behind the carriage of a Heaven cannon, Jack and Tatsumaki escaped the worst of it.
‘I guess that makes us even,’ Tatsumaki admitted to Jack, before pulling herself to her feet.
Jack nodded, glad to no longer owe the Pirate Queen a life debt. But they were far from safe as more hand bombs landed on the gun deck. This time the explosives were soft-cased, their contents wrapped in wicker cartons. Jack instantly recognized them as endan – ninja smoke bombs. Having been shown how to make one by Kajiya, the ninja blacksmith, he knew they could also contain lethal fragments of iron or broken pottery.
‘TAKE COVER!’ he warned Li Ling, who’d thought the danger was over. Jack ducked back behind the cannon with Tatsumaki.
A moment later, the endan detonated and clouds of smoke billowed out. So did shards of pottery – they whizzed through the air, embedding themselves in the ship’s wooden beams as well as Wind Demons unable to find cover. Within seconds, the gun deck was plunged into an eye-watering fog. An explosion mid-ship was rapidly followed by a fierce battle cry. The Koketsu had been breached.
‘REPEL BOARDERS!’ cried Tatsumaki, rallying her crew.
Jack heard the pirates draw their weapons and rush to meet the invading Sea Samurai.
‘Stay here!’ Tatsumaki ordered Jack, unsheathing her sword and disappearing into the smoke.
Jack listened as steel clashed against steel and the cries of wounded men and women filled the air. Although this wasn’t his battle, his survival depended on Tatsumaki and her crew prevailing. But there was no guarantee of victory, and in order to protect himself he needed a weapon.
Leaving the cover of the gun carriage, Jack headed for the Pirate Queen’s cabin. He crouched low, where the smoke was thinner, but it was still disorientating and he had to use all his ninja skill to keep his bearings. Suddenly two men burst out of the fog, hands at each other’s throats. Jack dodged aside as they fought tooth-and-claw to kill one another. Then the smoke enveloped them again, the outcome of their struggle unknown.
Hurrying on, Jack kept his hands out before him, ready to fend off any attackers. His fingers touched a wooden panel and he fumbled along until he found a door. A man screamed close by and Jack caught a glimpse of a bloody katana. Sliding the door open, he dived inside and shut it before anyone could follow.
He was pounced upon from behind, hands clawing at his face.
‘It’s me, Saru!’ reassured Jack, having almost jumped out of his skin.
The terrified monkey stopped screeching and leapt back on to her cage, her fingers anxiously pawing the key round her neck, while her eyes remained fixed on the door for more intruders.
She’s one effective guard! thought Jack as he made his way over to the weapons rack.
A katana rested on the lower shelf. He snatched it up and secured it to his obi just as he heard a girl scream. Disregarding his own safety, Jack flung open the cabin door.
‘LI LING?’ he shouted above the noise of the battle and the groans of the dying.
‘Jack, HELP ME!’
Heading in the direction of her voice, he found her trapped between two cannon. A cruel cut across her arm had forced her to drop her weapon. A samurai twice her size closed in for the kill. He lunged at her with his sword. Li Ling ducked behind a barrel, the steel blade glancing off the iron muzzle. The samurai struck again, but this time Jack intervened. Blocking the thrust with his katana, Jack side-kicked the man over an Earth cannon. The samurai tumbled head over heels and was knocked out cold by a pile of cannonballs.
‘This way!’ said Jack, grabbing Li Ling’s hand and pulling her towards Tatsumaki’s cabin.
But no sooner had they taken two steps than a shrouded face materialized out of the smoke.
Dragon Eye.
54
Spike
The ghostly apparition caused Jack to halt in his tracks. Frozen with shock, his limbs simply refused to respond as the ninja advanced, the blade of Black Cloud dripping red with blood.
Only when he sensed the tug from Li Ling as she dragged him away did the spell break. They fled blindly through the fog, colliding into beams, cannon and bloody brawls. In the confusion of smoke and battle, it was hard to tell who was friend and who was foe. Shadows fought through t
he swirls, every figure threatening to be Dragon Eye.
Jack stumbled over a dead body and lost his grip on Li Ling. A pirate woman grappling with a samurai bowled into him. The three of them staggered across the deck, Li Ling vanishing into the smoke. A knife flashed past Jack’s eyes before burying itself in the samurai’s throat. The pirate woman, seized by bloodlust, turned on Jack to do the same to him. But a flicker of recognition stayed her hand at the last moment.
Then her eyes bulged and she collapsed to the deck, sliced clean through from shoulder to hip. The glistening blade of Black Cloud preceded the ominous silhouette of a shinobi shozoku.
Jack dived away, hoping to lose Dragon Eye amid the smoke. But, everywhere he turned, the ninja seemed to loom towards him. Ducking and weaving between the cannon, Jack made a sudden switch for the other side of the ship. The smoke cleared briefly and he spotted daylight. Above him, an exploded hatch offered a way out. Scrambling up the steps, he emerged on to the Koketsu’s roof.
Coughing and eyes watering, Jack barely had time to register the mayhem of the sea battle before a samurai rushed at him with a sword. The blade cut down to his left. Jack blocked the attack with his katana. The samurai struck again. This time, Jack executed an Autumn Leaf strike. The technique was rushed, but it was enough to disarm his attacker and the sword clattered to the iron deck.
In desperation, the weaponless samurai threw himself at Jack. They both crashed backwards. The impact knocked the breath out of Jack and his katana slipped from his grasp. Pinned beneath the samurai, Jack felt the man’s fingers wrap round his throat. Wrestling to free himself, Jack used his forearm to attack the inside of the samurai’s left elbow, while simultaneously palm-striking him in the jaw. The double-assault broke the samurai’s balance and he collapsed sideways. Jack fought his way on top.
Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind Page 22
