Accidental Champion Boxed Set

by Jamie Davis

  “We’re not soldiers or experienced fighters like you are, Captain Dix.”

  “No, you’re better than soldiers. You’re desperate people fighting to save your families and keep them from the slave pens in some Sultanate compound. Failure is not an option.”

  The fisherman’s lips pressed together in a grim smile. He nodded and took the keys from her.

  “Unlock as many of the others as you can. Focus on those who will fight beside me. Then hand off the keys to another to free the rest of the slaves down here while you bring the potential fighters over to me at the end of the aisle. Got it?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good, then get to work.”

  Cari turned and padded back down the aisle to the hatch and ladder. No one else had come down to check on them yet, but she had to think someone would soon.

  She crouched down and waited for her new fighters to be freed and come to her. She hoped Helen, Rodrigo, and Stefan had the crew of the Vengeance whipped into a fury. There were a lot of slavers on this ship when it came time to board her.

  The sudden boom of cannon fire sounded from above. The fired broadside from the slavers’ cannons shook the whole ship.

  The battle to rescue Cari and the others from the slaver’s ship was underway.

  Chapter 30

  Rodrigo Dumont bounced on the balls of his feet, trying to bring the two ships closer faster by sheer force of will. His hand maintained a white-knuckled grip on the hilt of the sword sheathed at his waist.

  They had to get Cari back.

  He shook his head. He and Stefan should never have let her go down into that village alone.

  Helen had been furious. The usually calm first mate seethed with rage all of which she focused on the two lieutenants.

  Rodrigo had taken it without complaint. He and Stefan both deserved the woman’s wrath.

  She’d recovered herself fast enough. The captain had passed on orders for them all and carrying them out was the only way they could ever hope to have her back in command of the Vengeance again.

  It had taken nearly two days after Helen retrieved the shore party for them to track down the slow-moving slaver ship as it traveled along the coast. Now they closed on the Sultanate ship fast.

  “I’m turning her so you can launch another broadside, Mr. Claridge,” Helen called from the quarterdeck. “Be ready to fire as she bears.”

  “Aye, ma’am.” Stefan bent low over the barrel of the first cannon in the port broadside, sighting along it.

  All of the barrels had an extra wooden wedge placed under the barrels, lifting them up so they’d fire higher than normal. The last thing any of them wanted to was to breach the lower hull on the slave ship. Their captain was down there.

  By firing high and aiming at taking out a mast or sections of the ship’s rigging, they decreased their chances of a hit and the running battle had gone on longer than it might have otherwise.

  The deck tilted beneath Rodrigo’s feet as Helen had Katie at the helm bring the ship to starboard to allow the cannons to bear on the ship they chased.

  The turn tilted the deck upward slightly and Stefan cursed and held up his hand to signal his gun crews. He had to wait until the ship leveled out or the cannons would fire too high and miss entirely.

  Stefan’s hand slashed downward. “Fire!”

  The cannons’ thunderous blasts sounded as one and thick gray smoke temporarily shrouded the other ship from view.

  A shout and a ragged cheer sounded from the crew perched in the rigging above.

  Rodrigo strained to see what the cheering was about through the cannon smoke, his nervous energy bouncing him back and forth from side to side.

  “Yes,” Helen called out from the quarterdeck as she peered through the spyglass at the slave ship. “Bring us to port, Katie. We’re coming alongside. Boarding parties, prepare for action to port.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” Rodrigo called out while he peered through the slowly clearing smoke.

  Then he saw what the others had seen. The slaver’s foremast was down, lying across the starboard bow and dragging a sail in the water like an anchor. The crew aboard the Sultanate ship worked in a frenzy to clear the mast and tangled lines.

  Stefan shook his head. They’d never get it cut away and cleared before the Vengeance pulled alongside.

  He looked left and then right. His nervous energy had infected his boarding party. They all leaned forward, bouncing like on coiled springs in anticipation for the order to leap over the rail and onto the other ship.

  “Be ready, ladies and gentlemen. It’s about to be our turn to join this fight.”

  Rodrigo returned his attention to the angle of the two ships. It looked like they were going to crash together but he had faith in the first mate and especially Katie at the helm. They’d turn at the last instant, bringing the two ships together but not hard enough to do any significant damage to either hull.

  Sure enough, Helen barked another order and Katie spun the wheel, heeling the ship around to starboard. A grinding squeal sounded as the two hulls rubbed against each other.

  “Go get her back, Mr. Dumont,” Helen ordered.

  “Let’s go get the Captain back!”

  Rodrigo’s shout was followed by a massed cheer from the boarding party. The line of boarders charged forward, the fastest among them outpacing their leader. Those leaders reached the side first and launched themselves off the top of the Vengeance’s rail and across to the slaver’s ship.

  A few were hit by a ragged musket volley and fell down into the gap between the ships. A few others were cut down by the slavers as they landed on the other vessel.

  Then the rest of the boarding party crossed over in an unbroken line and they hit the crew assembled to repel boarders like a wave crashing over a line of pitiful sand castles on the beach.

  The Vengeance’s boarding party fought with an intensity Rodrigo hadn’t seen in them before, despite all the fights they’d been in.

  Even the wounded somehow got back to their feet, picking up weapons from the fallen and jumping back into the fray.

  Rodrigo drew his second pistol and fired it into the chest of a slaver standing over one of his boarding party readying a killing blow. He fell backward and Rodrigo leaned over and pulled his crewmate to her feet.

  The woman, a stout and able seaman named Hilda hefted her cutlass and nodded a thank you at Rodrigo before charging at a pair of slavers who attacked a lone comrade.

  Rodrigo turned and jumped to the defense of another crewman as the slaver crew’s counter assault started to press them back against the rail. The tide of the initial attack had turned as reinforcements arrived from below decks.

  As he parried a slashing scimitar aimed at his head, he wondered if Cari had managed to put the rest of her plan in place.

  ———

  Cari listened to the clash of steel filtering down from above and turned to the twenty-three fishermen and women assembled behind her at the foot of the ladder.

  “That’s the boarding party from my ship fighting up above. Now’s our chance to lend a hand and try and tip the odds in our favor.”

  “But we don’t have any weapons, miss,” a dark-haired woman said.

  “Let me lead the way to take on the first slavers we encounter. Pick up any loose weapons lying about as you see them. You won’t be unarmed for long.”

  She scanned the group one last time for any questions. When no one said anything else, she smiled to reassure them.

  “Follow me. It’s time to win our freedom.”

  Cari climbed up through the hatch to the deck above them. She figured they were two levels below the main deck and open air.

  Most of the slavers should be up there by now, trying to repel the boarding party.

  She was correct, but there were still armed stragglers roaming the lower decks. The first slaver she encountered seemed puzzled by the nearly naked slaves charging up out of the hatchway at him.

  He backpedaled, reach
ing for the scimitar at his waist.

  Cari jumped forward, launching a perfect snapping front kick to his chin. The ball of her bare foot impacted, wrenching his head around. She felt his neck snap resonating up her leg.

  She didn’t know why but killing someone that way seemed more personal than stabbing them with a knife or sword. A twinge of nausea roiled in her gut.

  2,500 experience

  Merk scooped up the slaver’s scimitar and followed her along the narrow passageways and storage rooms of the deck they were on until they reached the next set of steps upward.

  Along the way, Cari knocked down two more slavers skulking down here rather than heading up to join the fighting above.

  Her escaped slaves made short work of them, appropriating their weapons, too.

  Before she headed up to the final sub-deck beneath the main deck, Cari turned and reassured her team.

  “We’ll run into more on the next deck up. It’ll be more open, too, so be ready. Just pair up and help each other out. Come on.”

  She started up the steps and as soon as she cleared the hatch to the next level, a slaver ran over to engage her.

  Cari blocked the first slash with her smaller knife, catching the descending scimitar blade on the narrow guard above her hilt.

  She punched twice hard into the man’s throat as they pressed their weapons between them. The slaver’s eye’s widened as his windpipe spasmed and he suddenly couldn’t breathe.

  He dropped his scimitar and clutched his throat with both hands. Cari stabbed forward with her long belt knife three times until the slaver collapsed at her feet.

  2,500 experience

  The rest of the escaped slaves in her group boiled up from below, passing around her to either side, racing forward to engage the ten remaining slaver crew members in sight.

  Cari winced as a few of her team were cut down immediately, but then they swarmed over the slavers and killed them in short order.

  She knelt down and picked up the scimitar at her feet, opting for the longer reach of the unfamiliar weapon over the more familiar but smaller knife. She still held the knife in her off hand, with the scimitar in her left.

  “Get their weapons and come on. We have to get on deck. They’ll need our help. When we get up there, head straight for the officers on the quarterdeck. If we can get to the captain and take command of the ship, we will win the day.”

  Cari checked her status menu and in particular her power-up bar. It was half full, and she was counting on it filling completely in time for her to use it against the captain and his officers on the quarterdeck.

  She led the group towards the stern, looking for an access to the main deck. They reached the steep set of stairs leading upwards and Cari had to jump back. A slaver stood there, and he shouted a warning up through the hatch before turning to face her and the others.

  She admired him for holding his position and remaining at his post against impossible odds. Even with her unfamiliarity with the scimitar, Cari still managed to finish him after crossing blades with him only a few times.

  2,500 experience

  She didn’t finish him off quickly enough, unfortunately. A line of slavers descended and came at her group. Cari started to join the fight when a massive figure climbed down the stairs. It was the orc she’d fought at the village.

  He took one look at Cari, her face and hands bruised from her fighting and escape, and he grinned, showing his tusks in a fierce display meant to demoralize his opponents.

  Cari had to admit it worked, at least in part.

  She was going to have to power up and activate her burst of speed sooner than she’d wanted. There was no help for it, though.

  Cari ducked under the first swing of the heavy falchion wielded by the Orcish slaver. His swing was somewhat confined by the low-ceilinged deck on which they fought. It gave Cari an advantage.

  Her arm snaked outward and she slashed the scimitar’s blade across his naked chest. Blood welled up in the six-inch gash and he growled at her for drawing first blood.

  Her power-up meter inched higher, but it wasn’t near full yet. She needed a few more successful attacks.

  Unfortunately, her opponent had other ideas.

  He swung the larger weapon down at an angle forcing Cari to leap to the side to avoid the falchion’s heavy blade hacking into her thigh.

  The slaver let the blade sink into the wooden decking next to Cari’s feet and he swung his feet upward while holding onto the hilt executing a twisting double kick at Cari’s head.

  She managed to get a forearm up to block the first kick but the second one connected with her forehead. She stumbled backward, shaking off the stars she saw as a result of the blow.

  Health damage — health -8

  The accumulation of repeated head injuries was starting to take its toll on her. Cari started feeling her thoughts slowing, making her a little groggy.

  She pushed through the fog over her brain in time to dodge the next two attacks before she tried an attack combination allowing her to roll forward and slice into the big slaver’s side.

  Cari saw the white bone of his ribs as she laid open a flap of skin. It was likely a painful wound but not necessarily a debilitating one.

  That observation was proven correct when the orc twisted his torso to an impossible angle for a person so large and heavily muscled. It allowed him to land an attack on Cari’s back that sent her sprawling to the deck.

  Health damage — health -10

  Fiery pain seared her back. It was probably only a glancing blow and not very deep but Cari was already injured from the previous fights and she couldn’t take too many more like it.

  She needed maybe to land one more good attack in order to power up. She still wanted to save it for when she reached the quarterdeck, but Cari realized if she didn’t, she likely wouldn’t survive to make it up there.

  Rolling up to her feet, Cari stomped her feet forward as she executed two lunges at the slaver’s chest. He easily batted them both aside, laughing as he did so.

  The way he found her attacks humorous inflamed Cari’s anger. She finished her triple attack by stomping a third time. This time, though, she switched up her attack, twisting the lunge forward into a slash across the belly.

  The changeup caught the orc by surprise. The tip of her curved scimitar blade slashed a one-inch deep gash across her opponent’s abdomen.

  The orc howled with pain and rage while she shouted with triumph as her power-up bar flashed in the corner of her vision, showing it was full and ready to engage.

  A quick glance at her hard-pressed comrades made the decision for her. She had to use it now, or they’d surely lose.

  Cari activated her burst of speed just as the orc charged at her with his falchion raised for a killing blow.

  Once again, everything slowed around her as the countdown clock of sixty seconds began ticking down. Cari ran at the now slowed orc slashing three times as she went past.

  The first opened his belly up all the way, exposing his innards, the second went high to slice open his throat where blood spurted out in an almost graceful arc. The final blow came around and down on the back of his neck, hacking through his spine and halfway through his neck muscles causing his lower body to become paralyzed.

  His muscles lost all function and the orc dropped straight to the deck. He was dead before he hit the wooden boards at his feet.

  4,500 experience

  Cari didn’t slow her attacks, hacking her way through the slavers crowded around the stairs up to the main deck. Freeing up her beleaguered allies who’d been fighting a losing battle against their attackers.

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  She found herself standing at the bottom of the steps amidst a pile of bodies killed by her and the fighting slaves. Cari raced upward trying to force her way through the press of slavers at the top to get to the quarterdeck before she ra
n out of time and had to cool down.

  More slavers fell to her blades as she ran past them, opening a path to the quarterdeck steps.

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  The clock ticked downward and, with only ten seconds left and six slavers lined up at the bottom of the steps before her, Cari realized she was going to run out of time.

  Her comrades from below had just reached the top of the stairs and spilled out onto the main deck, trying in vain to keep up with her. She’d easily outdistanced them.

  Making the only decision she could and still have a chance of surviving. Cari drove forward into the six slavers at the bottom of the quarterdeck stairs.

  Two fell right away, sliced nearly in half from the combined force of her attack’s speed and the power of her enhanced muscles behind it.

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  She had five seconds left and four opponents.

  Cari dove forward, bounding up and over all four of them, slicing down and across each of their throats as they stood in a line. It was a move she wouldn’t have believed possible if she hadn’t seen it herself.

  Their life’s blood spurting from their laid-open necks, all four fell to the deck as Cari landed on the bottom two steps and the clock ticked to zero.

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  2,500 experience

  At the same instant the final digits of the countdown message faded from view, she collapsed in exhaustion, flopping down like a dropped sack of grain as the power-down period began. Her arms felt like lead weights dragged them towards the deck and she nearly dropped the scimitar.

  All she could do was wait. The cool-down counter read thirty seconds. She heard a burst of laughter over the sound of the fighting all around. It came from above and behind her.