Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

  Jace and Mika took turns explaining different aspects of the game, the classes, spells, combat and a host of other game related topics. Jace let Mika cover the broad areas and then he filled in the details and the reasons why certain aspects of the game worked the way they did.

  As they did, Diana listened with interest and asked questions about various topics that they were able to answer. They would take breaks occasionally to walk up on the deck and stretch their legs and when they came back, Diana always seemed to have more questions.

  He was just glad she wasn’t complaining any longer. And she did seem to feel better about things once certain game mechanics and reasoning was explained. Jace just hoped it was enough to ease her fears and give her more confidence.

  That was especially true the next morning, when shouting from outside interrupted them and they all ran on deck to see what the excitement was about.

  “Ship on the horizon!” a sailor yelled down from the crow’s nest. “Raider!”

  Colette looked over at him excitedly. “It looks like you’ll get your wish. It’s a raider and it’s heading away from land. Time for us to plunder the plunderers!”

  “Aye,” Jace replied and looked off to the horizon. It was time to see if they really were a match for the raiders.

  Chapter 36

  Despite their spotter announcing the solitary raider longship on the horizon, none of them were able to see it yet from the deck. They were within eyeshot of the coast, and they could see large plumes of dark smoke rising from a spot to the north. Most likely it was the town or village the raiders had come from.

  At his direction, Colette adjusted course to intercept the longship and the distance between them narrowed over the next hour to where they finally spotted it. Unfortunately, that meant the raiders spotted them too.

  Instead of turning away and trying to outrun them, the ship turned towards them. That’s when Jace and the other crew members were in for a surprise. It wasn’t a raider longship the lookout had spotted. It was three.

  “Three ships, captain!” Colette yelled out, her voice shaky. “We can’t fight off that many!”

  Jace wasn’t so sure. Depending on what level they were, he and the girls might be able to fight them off. He had a Defense score well above his tier and combined with his new Disarm ability, he could probably take them on. But that was assuming he could somehow get them to all fight him. And it also counted on all of the grunts being around the same level as the ninjen. That was a lot of if’s.

  Perhaps this was one of those times with discretion was the greater part of valor. He turned to his first mate. “Can we outrun them?”

  A pained expression crossed her face. “No captain. They are lighter and have a shallow draft. They can more than match our speed.”

  Jace frowned. Suddenly, they had gone from being the hunter, to being the hunted. He looked around and saw that the sailors were all looking at him, waiting for his decision. Great. No pressure.

  He used Colette’s spyglass to look out at the raider ships. They definitely looked like the quintessential Viking longship, at least, the pictures of Viking ships he’d seen. They were sleek, narrow ships with a single, rectangular sail. It was too far for him to see, but he knew there would be rowers as well, helping to speed the ship along.

  They were like a pack of agile lions, nipping at the heels of an elephant or rhinoceros. Of course, these leopards had ships full of men who could board his ship. His scowl deepened. Even if there were only 20 or 25 men on each ship, he couldn’t hope to Taunt them all to him. A lot of his crew would die. Maybe all of his crew.

  And if Jace and the girls died, they’d respawn back in Nynymmost, which is where Damian would be headed. Of course, he could use his one charge of teleport to take them elsewhere, but that would just be putting off the inevitable. Even now, Damian had probably received their ears and placed a new contract on them.

  He brought the spyglass down and glanced at Mika and Diana. Mika looked concerned or possibly just anxious for a fight. Diana, no longer putting up a brave front, looked very worried. Then he realized it wasn’t just them. The whole crew looked worried. Even Colette.

  Jace remembered the raiders had a reputation for being fearsome fighters in addition to great seamen. They really were like lions. Only, they were in the ocean. Sea lions? No, that didn’t really fit. It seemed the lions were going to feast well tonight.

  Suddenly something he had thought popped back in his head. Lions going after a rhinoceros. A rhino. Rhinos weren’t exactly helpless. What did a rhino do when it was being attacked? It charged.

  Bringing the spyglass back to his eye, he took another look at the raiders. Those ships couldn’t be more than eight or nine feet wide. The Wyvern’s Tail was almost three times that width. It made them faster, and her slower. It also made her heavier. Much heavier.

  Still looking at the ships, he grinned. “Colette, what would happen if we rammed one of those raider ships?”

  “Rammed, captain?” the first mate repeated.

  He handed the spyglass back to Colette and grinned wider. “Yes. What would happen if a great big ship like the Wyvern’s Tail hit one of those raider ships?”

  Colette glanced towards the dots on the horizon. When she turned back around, she was smiling too. “We split them in half, like gutting a fish.”

  “And if we take one out of the fight,” he asked, “can we take two ships?”

  The first mate rubbed her chin but nodded cautiously. “I think that would be a much fairer fight than three against one. With you fighting, we could take them but we’ll take some casualties.”

  Jace nodded. “Full speed ahead.”

  “Aye, captain!” Colette smiled broadly and began shouting orders. The sailors, who appeared to get confidence from the fact that their captain and first mate were both smiling, leaped into action.

  “We’re going to ram them?” Diana asked, now looking slightly less worried than before.

  “We have mass, they have speed,” he replied. “If we can hit one of them, we’ll take it out of commission.”

  “Just one?” Mika asked.

  “My guess is, they’re more maneuverable than we are,” he told them. “Once they see what we’re up to, they won’t let us catch them like that again.”

  “At least we can take one of them out,” Mika said.

  Jace nodded but he was already formulating a plan to take out and possibly cripple the other two ships. He just needed to work out the fine points. He turned to Colette. “How long before we intercept them?”

  “It be hard to say from here,” she replied. “They probably have a few knots on us when it comes to speed and once all the sails are up, we’ll hit about eight knots. Given that we’re headed straight towards each other, maybe a half hour or so.”

  “Stay on course,” he told the first mate. “I’m going to see if I can figure out a way to take out another ship.”

  “If you manage that,” the first mate laughed, “they’ll be talkin’ about this fight all over Haddare Reef!”

  Jace chuckled and turned to the girls. “Find what we have that’s flammable. I’m thinking of Molotov cocktails. We’ll need rags, bottles and something flammable.”

  Mika looked confused. “What are Molotov cocktails?”

  Jace was about to answer when Diana spoke up. “It’s a bottle filled with flammable liquid. You stick a flaming rag into it and throw it. When it hits something, the bottle breaks, the liquid scatters and the flame ignites it.”

  “Oh, kaebin,” Mika nodded. “Fire bottles.”

  Jace and Diana looked at each other and shrugged. Diana smiled. “Fire bottles.”

  “I don’t think lamp oil will work,” he told them. “At least, not by itself. We need something very flammable.”

  “Spirits?” Diana raised an eyebrow.

  “Do we have some?”

  “Didn’t you notice the liquor cabinet in the cabin?”

  Jace looked sheepish. He hadn�
�t noticed it. Or he’d forgotten about it. “I didn’t. Check it. The higher the proof the better. Test it somewhere safe to make sure it burns.”

  “Aye, aye, captain,” Diana said and Mika giggled and then saluted him before the two girls went back into their cabin.

  With the girls gone, Jace was left alone to wander the ship. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for but he hoped he’d get some additional ideas.

  At the moment, he thought he might be able to cripple at least one of the ships with a combination of Flame Bolt spells to the sail and Molotov cocktails into the deck of the ships. If he remembered correctly, there were just a bunch of niches for rowing on the deck. Nothing they could really use to hide from the flames if they rained down a dozen or so cocktails on them.

  If he could ram one, take out the sails and the rowers on another, that might cripple the longship long enough for them to finish fighting the sailors of the remaining ship before the second ship joined in.

  They could also put archers on the fore and aft decks, he thought he remembered hearing them called the forecastle and the quarterdeck. Given how much more above the sealine they were, they towered over the smaller ships. That meant they had the high ground.

  He just needed one or two more tricks up his sleeve, but he was out of ideas. He walked around the deck, looking at the various equipment, sails and layout. He was almost tempted to have his sailors barricade themselves below deck while he and the girls fought the raiders.

  Jace doubted the sailors would agree. And if they did, they’d likely resent him. Pirates liked a good fight almost as much as they liked the plunder. Depriving them of either wouldn’t win him any points.

  Then he came across the anchor. He guessed they were too deep to use an anchor given that the thick rope that it was tied to looked to be at most a hundred or so feet long. Would that really help them anyway? Staying in one place didn’t seem like such a great idea.

  He looked at the anchor again, then tilted his head and looked at it from another angle. An idea was forming in his head but he needed more information to formulate it. If it worked, he just might be able to take out or disable the third ship as well.

  He spun and hurried back to Colette. The woman was at the wheel again, still barking orders for the sailors to adjust the sails.

  “Colette,” he said when he got close enough. “If we were to drop anchor, what would happen?”

  She looked at him like he was crazy. “Here? Nothing. It’s too deep. We’d just be dragging it behind us.”

  He nodded. “But what if we got to more shallow water?”

  She scrunched up her forehead in confusion. “It would be doing what it was meant to do. Slowing us down in a hurry.”

  “How quickly?” he asked.

  “Quickly enough,” she told him, her face a mix between confusion and annoyance.

  “How much would our speed decrease?” he asked, this time putting some steel in his voice.

  The first mate sighed. “We’d drop from say, 8 knots to about 4 knots in a few minutes.”

  He grinned. “And what would happen if we had grappling lines tied to another ship when we suddenly slowed down like that?”

  “They would be…” she stopped as she suddenly realized what he was planning. When she continued, she shared his grin. “If the grappling lines were fixed to something like our main mast, they would pull the other ship around very quickly. Probably capsizing it.”

  “That’s what I was thinking too,” he said. “I can almost hear those pirates in Haddare Reef talking now.”

  Chapter 37

  Under Jace and Colette’s direction, the sailors worked to put Jace’s plan into action. They tied longer grappling lines to the main mast, ready to be thrown at the enemy longship. The sailors also located every bow on the ship and took them to the fore and aft decks, ready to pelt arrows down on the ships as they passed them.

  Diana and Mika had returned with several bottles of rum that was high enough proof to burn quickly. After having the crew retrieve empty bottles - of which there were many - they were able to create 12 Molotov cocktails, mixing the high alcohol rum with some lamp oil. Unfortunately, Jace didn’t know of any way to test the concoctions without setting the deck on fire. They’d just have to pray that they worked.

  “Diana,” he called out to the older woman. “You and I will take the places among the archers and cast as many Flame Bolts as possible at the enemy sails. Our goal is to destroy the sails and force them to use rowers only. That should give us an edge if we need to flee.”

  Although she appeared frightened, Diana nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Just save some mana for healing me,” he smiled.

  “What about me?” Mika asked.

  “You’ve got levels in fighter,” he told her. “So, grab a bow and see how many arrows you can put into the enemy before the board.”

  She gave him a smile and a little salute. “Aye, aye captain!”

  “Just remember to meet me on the main deck once we get bordered,” he reminded them. “We’ll try to take the brunt of the enemies to save as many crew members as possible.” He lowered his voice. “And if it comes down to going down with the ship or escaping, I’ll use the ring.”

  Both girls nodded solemnly.

  Jace walked to the forecastle and looked out at the quickly approaching longships. Now that he was closer, he could see the various raiders sitting at their oar stations, helping to propel their ships towards them.

  “It won’t be long now,” Jace muttered.

  And he was right, five minutes later, the ships were only yards away. Now on the forecastle, Jace could tell by the shouting and movement on the enemy ships that they weren’t quite sure what to make of the Wyvern’s Tail. Most likely, they were used to their prey trying to escape, rather than coming straight towards them.

  From his position at the front of the ship, he could hear the approaching staccato beat of drums that set the rowing pace for the raiders. It was strangely reminiscent of a scene from an old vidstream his dad had enjoyed about a roman slave galleon.

  Beating of the drums aside, the raider captains began to realize that they would pass each other too quickly to use grappling lines and the longships began to turn to give chase. The move was exactly what Jace was hoping for.

  One of the raiders broke to the left side, while the other two broke to the right. He looked back to Colette and grinned. “Ramming speed! Hard to the right… er… starboard!”

  “Aye, captain!” she grinned back and turned the wheel towards the nearest ship.

  The captain of the closest ship to their starboard side, realized his mistake too late. He screamed commands to his men, but they had only enough time to look at the incoming ship in horror before the collision rattled the Wyvern’s Tail and the sounds of snapping timbers and crunching wood filled the air.

  Running to the port side, Jace looked down to see the remains of the longship quickly sinking below the waves. The men who hadn’t been crushed in the collision were in the water, kicking and sputtering as they tried to find pieces of the wreckage to hold onto.

  “Ship to starboard!” the first mate yelled and Jace ran back over to see them narrowly miss the second ship. It would have been nice to have taken two of them out with that maneuver but he’d take what he could get!

  “Archers ready! Grenades ready!” Jace yelled and prepared his own Flame Bolt spell. As they passed the second ship he gave the command. “Unleash hell!”

  Jace cast two Flame Bolts at the sails while arrows and Molotov cocktails rained down on the deck of the second ship. Not all of the Molotov cocktails hit the deck and of the ones that did, not all exploded. But enough did that the deck was soon a burning inferno.

  While men screamed and tried to extinguish the flames, others jumped overboard to extinguish their burning bodies. No one was bothering to put out the flames Jace and Diana’s Flame Bolts had caused on the sail. By time they even noticed, the sail was useless.


  “Ship coming up on our port!” Colette’s voice echoed shouts from the sailors at the stern. “They’re coming after us!”

  “Good,” Jace grinned. There was one ship left and he had one more trick up his sleeve. He just needed them to get into range.

  Colette kept the Wyvern’s Tail on a straight course, forcing the raiders to struggle to catch up with them. Surprisingly, they began gaining ground more quickly that Jace would have expected. Even with the rush of the wind and the sound of the ocean, Jace could hear the drumbeat of the ship behind them, a quick, almost musical beat, that urged the raiders to row faster.

  Moving to the stern, Jace looked over the aftcastle railing to the approaching ship. With their sail and the rowing, they were quickly catching up to them. No doubt, this was exactly the maneuver they were used to performing. Catch up to a fleeing ship, pull alongside and then board them. Only this time, their prey was ready for them.

  It took the ship ten minutes to pull alongside the Wyvern’s Tail. As they did, the raiders closest to them stood up and grabbed grappling lines. Even as they worked to throw lines at his ship, Jace signalled his own men to cast out their own lines.

  Lines from both ships crisscrossed in midair, landing all about the decks of both ships. Once he saw his crew's lines hit the enemy ship, he gave the command. “Clear the deck! Prepare to drop anchor!”

  Crewmen scrambled off the main deck, eager to be away from the lines. Once he saw the last man clear the area, he yelled “Drop anchor! Hold fast to something!”

  Jace and the girls grabbed onto the railing as the clanging of the metal anchor chain could be heard reverberating around the ship. The raiders, who were about to swing across to begin boarding, looking around to see what the noise was.

  Then the anchor must have hit the seafloor and the Wyvern’s Tail began to slow dramatically. It wasn’t like slamming on the brakes, but it was enough that the raider ship quickly outpaced them. Then, as it started to pass them, the grappling lines caught on railings, benches and alcoves in the enemy ship and suddenly the raider ship was spinning around.