Stay on the Wing

by Michael Atamanov

"Bastards! I'll kill them! I'll tear them up with my bare hands!!! Their taking my Lil_Timbo!" cried the ogre fortifier, his paws serving as a megaphone. He then shouted out a few unprintable sentences as the ship sped away.

  Was it just me, or did I hear a barely audible bellow of anger from the moose a few seconds later? No, I was not wrong — the wood nymph confirmed that the huge moose had broken free of its restraint, jumped overboard and was swimming to us. And at that, with the moose, there was another blue marker for another of our NPC allies. I didn't see anything, but didn't doubt my sister's words either — the Cartographer specialization not only increased the mavka's viewing distance, but also allowed her to detect and track markers on the mini-map from much farther away.

  My goblin was not capable of yelling as loud as the titan, but that wasn't necessary. Instead, I opened the Gray Pack control menu and gave the wolves and wargs an order: "Return to master immediately!!!" I supposed that all the wolves knew how to swim, and probably quite well at that. Also, I figured Darius and Darina would be able to turn into predators and jump off the galley. And there, look, the goblins Irek, Yunna and Taisha are also figuring out how to jump overboard and swim away, clutching the animals’ backs. One of them managed (I hoped greatly that it was Taisha), and the others tried following their example.

  Nevertheless, my hopes were not to be — Valerianna Quickfoot declared that she could already see and identify the swimmer: the goblin girl Yunna had grabbed onto the moose Lil_Timbo, and beyond these two NPCs, none of our other companions managed to make it off the galley. I cried out in despair and rage, filling the surroundings with my voice. And the words that followed contained at least as many curses as what the ogre had shouted at the retreating ship a few minutes earlier.

  Wet as a drowned rat, Yunna crawled up on shore, jumping off the moose when they were in the shallows. She spent some time on shore trying to cough up all the water in her lungs and catch her breath. She had drunk a lot of sea water and was scared to death. Finally, the girl squeezed out some foamy words:

  "They... attacked us! They attacked and tied up... Irek and... all the others! As soon as all the undying... left the ship, the captain ordered the drummer to pick up the pace, saying not to stop no matter what. And when the lookout... shouted that the Brotherhood of the Coast ship had run aground, the skipper ordered 'all non-crew on deck' bound and thrown in the hold. Irek stood to my defense, but he was quickly caught and stunned. I escaped their grubby mitts, dodged and jumped overboard! I would have died, but the moose plopped into the water next to me, and I grabbed onto him. Then... when I was in the water, I heard the captain order the hold locked, because 'the wolves went rabid for some reason.'"

  It all became abundantly clear — we had made a huge error in allowing the treacherous skipper to get the upper hand and sail away. In fact, what were we even thinking when we all left the galley at the same time so rashly?! Were we relying on the good nature of that rapscallion? In the morning, the skipper had agreed to take us on board with all our beasts at a very fair price. It now all seemed far too easy. He’d asked for just two hundred twenty coins each for three days underway! And also, the shameless eyes of the experienced trader had been undressing my beautiful Taisha, looking at the two matching daggers on her belt with particular greed. Now, after everything that happened, I thought the skipper must have been up to no good, even then. If it weren't for our haste during the pirate attack, the captain would have simply taken advantage of another opportunity at one of the many stops or any other convenient chance to get rid of the undying and take possession of my companion's bejeweled weaponry.

  I was shaken from my thinking by the decisive voice of my sister:

  "Have you all rested up and restored your Endurance? Let's go over to the pirates, then!"

  "What for?!" tore itself simultaneously from several mouths, not excluding my own.

  "Because they have the only ship for three hundred kilometers around here, even if it is a bit damaged. And when they fix it and sail away, we risk being left here on uninhabitable islands for an indefinite length of time. Well, to be more accurate, the players searching for Amra will find us fairly quickly, but I doubt that will be a pleasurable encounter."

  * * *

  Our arrival was noticed at a good distance — it was hard not to notice the huge moose swimming through the channel with a titan and pair of goblins saddling it, the naiad with a trident swimming next to them, and the wood nymph walking on water like dry land (my sister was using a spell to walk on water from her water-magic arsenal). The pirates abandoned their work and huddled around their broken ship, exchanging hesitant glances.

  I had plenty of time to see them in detail. I have to admit, it was quite the diverse bunch. Almost all the pirates were orcs — classically wild, tusked and fearsome. Although I also noticed a few goblins, one mountain troll and one member of a race very rare in Boundless Realm, the dog-headed rougarou — a human-dog hybrid covered in black fur that walked upright.

  Above all else, I was interested in the levels of our potential enemies. I looked for deadly black skulls, meaning the player surpassed me by fifty levels, but there were none. There were some red skulls, but I could count them all on one hand. Chief among them was the captain, the Merciless Aarsch — a huge level-56 Orc with giant tusks and coarse red fur. He was sitting right in the scorching sun wearing a leather vest and worn pair of pants, showing a shaman-healer his broken left arm, which was hanging motionless. Then, there was the healer. He was a level-fifty Orc Shaman, unexpectedly young and muscular. I was anticipating a hunch-backed gray haired old man in his profession. The first mate was also showing as a red skull for me — a level-50 Orc Bodyguard bound in a heavy armor suit, he was holding a huge two-handed poleax. As a matter of fact, only he was wearing armor.

  The other pirates were barefoot, and most of them were wearing no clothing other than a loincloth. I didn't even see weapons on all of them, and those who were armed mostly had just clubs or primitive spears. Many of the pirates were also wounded — their life bars were not full, and some of them were even hovering down in the red.

  It was obvious that the Merciless Aarsch kept his crew "in the doghouse." Either that, or luck had been passing the dreaded captain by for some time, as the equipment of his pirates didn't merely leave something to be desired, it was more suited to the very poor, the kind one sees digging through garbage bins for bones. That changed my plans sharply. Earlier, I was preparing to prove my worth and ask to join their crew or, in the worst-case scenario, offer the captain money to bring us to the continent but, now, I had another idea. Just after coming ashore, I cast my gaze on the pitiful troops and started laughing with purposeful mockery:

  "To this very day, I have only known one captain of the Brotherhood of the Coast to be this unlucky — the Merciless Aarsch. It is said that he is so bad at being a pirate that he cannot even provide his crew with grub, booze or even decent garb! I figured it would be simply impossible for someone to do worse than the worthless Aarsch, a complete loser, who brings shame on the Brotherhood of the Coast! But now I see there is an even worse captain, and he's blind to boot. This loser couldn't see the breakers in the channel between islands, so he didn’t realize that it was shallow!"

  I was speaking in a normal language this time, not warping my words. I was afraid that, otherwise, my sarcasm would go over the pirates' heads, and have no effect. Even still they heard me, but didn't understand. Based on their hanging jaws, the impudence of the little big-eared goblin came as a shock to the pirates. In the silence that came over, the hoarse voice of one of the pirates standing nearby emerged:

  "Hey, this ship belongs to the Merciless Aarsch. You can see his flag on the mast: a white shark on a black flag!"

  I put my hands on my hips and laughed once again:

  "Well of course! How could I have been such a fool?! Only Aarsch could be this freakishly stupid! You'll never find a more worthless pirate than that idiot! Well, where is our 'hero,'
then? Ah! There he is, sitting behind a bush. He broke his little bitty paw, the poor cripple..."

  A private message came in from Valerianna Quickfoot:

  "Amra, what are you doing?! Why are you provoking the captain? He's not gonna take us with him now!"

  "Don't get in the way, I know what I'm doing."

  Seeing my approach, the huge orc pulled off the bandage being placed on his arm by the healer and stood up, sticking out his yellow tusks:

  "Before I kill you for your insolence, I want to know: who are you?"

  "My name is right above my head. But if you can't read, wretched soul... Alright, I'll tell you. It says that I am your future master. I'll even allow you to clean the latrines, if you behave yourself."

  The orc growled in rage and grabbed the handle of his wide curved blade with his good hand. But the captain was stopped by the shaman, who placed a hand on his shoulder and stepped out in front.

  "Tell me, for what reason do you seek death, little goblin? Our captain does not appreciate jokes at his expense, and is renowned for his short temper."

  "Look around, shaman, your crew is half naked and poor. Many of the sailors are also hungry. That's why I came over to your pitiful crew — to challenge your loser captain to a duel, take his place and give you all what a bunch of fearless strong pirates deserves: glory, good weapons and nice clothes, so you won't be ashamed to show yourselves in port pubs! And money, lots of money for you to spend on drink and women."

  Successful check for Orc Pirate's opinion

  Experience received: 120 Exp.

  Successful check for Troll Enforcer's opinion

  Experience received: 120 Exp.

  Trading Skill increased to level 13!

  Just in time! I sensed that my words were hitting their mark in the hearts of the pirate crew, and the Charisma boost was very timely, allowing me to speak even more convincingly.

  "You must be hopelessly stupid, if you've never heard of the famous corsair Amra!" I was planning to keep speaking for some time, but an orc interrupted me with a menacing roar:

  "I know you! You aren't worthy of an honest fight!" The Merciless Aarsch let out a roar, brandishing his weapon. "You're no captain, you aren't even a pirate. I'm going to kill you and feed you to the sharks!"

  "Not so fast, Aarsch. You can always kill him later," the shaman stopped the captain again. "As strange as it may sound, I do know the name Amra, and it really is the name of a pirate captain."

  Mission received: The Right to a Duel

  Mission class: Unusual, personal

  Description: Successfully confirm your identity as a pirate captain by answering the question on the life of a corsair by the name of Amra (external library activated)

  Reward: 8000 Exp., +5 to relationship with members of Brotherhood of the Coast

  Quite an unexpected turn of events. I even froze in surprise for a bit with my mouth open and my lashes batting. I mean, it wasn't like the computer system really knew the names of every player, and found where they were from, right? This case was fairly complex and tracking down the info would have been hard! I had chosen the name "Amra" back when trying to play Boundless Realm for the first time as a human barbarian. I took the name from a book by Robert Howard, where it had been used by the very famous literary character Conan the Barbarian when he was a pirate. Was the game system seriously asking about that episode?

  That all said, the orc shaman didn't waste any time, asking me his first question:

  "Tell us, what was the name of your ship, Amra?"

  "Val, I need your help! Open a second search window. I need information about Conan the Barbarian as a pirate!"

  "I already figured that out, I'll take a look. Give me a few seconds. Answer: the galley Tigress, the captain was a woman by the name of Bêlit, then after her death, Amra became captain."

  "That's correct!" The orc shaman's marker on the mini-map changed to a neutral yellow color. What was more, I could now see the previously hidden name of the NPC character:

  Ghuu-Ghel All-Knowing

  Level-50 Orc Shaman

  A few more questions followed, and I was able to answer them with Val's help. Then the shaman issued his verdict:

  "Aarsch, this really is Amra, the famous corsair captain! According to the laws of the Brotherhood of the Coast, he has the full right to challenge you to a duel and fight for the role of leader."

  Mission completed: The Right to a Duel

  Experience received: 8000 Exp.

  +5 to relationship with members of Brotherhood of the Coast

  A number of NPC pirate markers instantly changed color from red to yellow. I even saw a few green ones.

  "All the worse for him!" the ghoulish orc crowed out. But in his cry, I caught notes of uncertainty. "I have only one good hand, but even like this, I'll tear this tiny goblin to shreds!"

  "Captain, as the party accepting the duel, you have the right to choose the battle conditions. You can allow the participants to choose a helper for the battle, or even put another duelist in their place," suggested shaman Ghuu.

  "I won't allow anyone to deprive me of the joy of killing this little whelp! But I will take a helper..."

  The orc leader turned to his crew, choosing a partner. I was certain he would take the armor-bound first mate, or the huge muscular troll, but Aarsch pointed his good hand at the rougarou:

  "You're with me, dog-face! You're the fastest and most agile in my crew, so you'll easily be able to catch that goblin if he tries to dodge my cutlass!"

  "Tim, the pirate captain isn't the brainless idiot you imagined. He understands that pure force won't help here, and it's important to not let you get a speed advantage."

  "I don't know, Val. To my eye, Aarsch made a very bad choice. The rougarou is likely to obey the ring of Fenrir and join my side."

  "Maybe you're right, we'll see. In any case, take me as a partner, I have a few interesting ideas for the battle. Also, I've been wanting to try out the racial abilities I got at level 30."

  For appearances, I walked up, looking over my troops and chose a partner. The ogre looked very, very menacing with a huge poleax. The naiad was playing with the trident, demonstrating a willingness to fight. But I pointed at the wood nymph — the skinny green-haired girl in a thin short dress was looking down at her sharp claws with a detached expression. My choice was not to the pirate captain's liking — he screwed up his face and began whispering something to his helper.

  He chose a sandy beach as the duel site. Shaman Ghuu walked around it cantankerously, threw out a few sticks, and was left satisfied. But at the very last moment, when he was just about to declare the beginning of combat, the shaman suddenly stopped.

  "I warn you in advance: this will be an honest battle, so there cannot be any more helpers. I know you, undying — you never fight for yourselves, you just sic others on your enemies, like animals, undead and demons. And no magic!"

  "A rougarou is a magical creature. He's a shapeshifter, capable of transforming and even using magic," I instantly objected. "So, I think we should also be allowed to use magic, to even the playing field. The mavka can't fight any other way. All her attacks are magical."

  Trading Skill increased to level 14!

  Successful check for Orc Shaman reaction

  Experience received: 80 Exp.

  "Alright, I agree. But as for additional helpers, the proscription remains. Just two fighters per side, and no other participants!"

  This extra condition forwarded by the shaman was clearly to the disadvantage of the wood nymph and me. I even saw my sister's swarm of angry wasps hidden in the nearby bushes, and my wyvern circling in the sky. But Valerianna Quickfoot unexpectedly suggested that I not balk, and agree to the conditions.

  "Amra, we can win without pets. They're both close range. They can't strike from distance. We can just fall back on old methods we developed back in Kingdoms of Sword and Magic. You be the tank and fight them close range. You've still got your invincibility, after al
l. I'll be the 'glass cannon,' I'll 'kite,' keeping my distance and shooting the pirates from afar. My damage abilities are already quite leveled, and I've got more than two thousand mana, so I've got more than enough to bring down both pirates."

  Strangely, there was no extra quest for winning this battle. On the other hand, the game system had already given me a lot of experience and reputation for earning the right to duel, so I wasn't too upset. My sister and I were standing at the very brim of the sea on the sand. The waves were rolling up to our feet and washing our boots with foam. Valerianna Quickfoot grabbed onto her magic wand and stood with her eyes closed, concentrating or reciting a spell to herself. I was only armed with a dagger — in close combat, my blowgun would be worthless, and I'd lost my throwing net when the pirate bireme crashed.

  Our enemies were ten steps from us. The muscular orc was baring his tusks and making figure eights in the air with his wide cutlass, warming up his right wrist. On his left, broken hand, Aarsch clipped a round wooden shield. The rougarou stripped nude, not having any obvious weapons, but he grew out huge claws on his front paws and thick black fur over his whole body, protecting him at least as well as a set of armor.

  "Begin!" shouted shaman Ghuu and, at that very moment, the rougarou dashed forward. A few seconds later, he reached Valerianna, flailing his paws and cleaving the air with his terrifying claws. The momentary burst forward was a move not even his partner was expecting!

  However, the wood nymph was no longer there — in a barely visible indistinct shadow, the mavka raced down the shore, immediately reaching a safe distance. It must have been some racial ability, allowing nymphs to instantly dash away from attack. So that's what my sister meant when she talked about new abilities! I ran fifty meters away. Valerianna Quickfoot then did a trick I'd seen before — her body split into two, then each double split another time. The four identical-looking girls ran in different directions. Mirror images, illusion magic!