84 Vol 2. pt. 21 Patch 4.0: The First Round (2/2)
A sprite made out of water forms its body out of the water in front of the longship. It is far larger than the ship itself is, and even the fairy-like wings sprouting out from its back are larger than all of The Shoebill.
The water sprite holds its hands out over the ship. Wherever there are flames, water sprays from its hands to drown them.
Any flames on the longship are extinguished within seconds of the sprite's arrival, and once they are out, the ship is able to shed its burned wood and leaves to regrow.
The sprite looks at its summoner as if waiting for its next order.
Its summoner looks out over the remaining ships nearby, points at one group of them that are close to one another, and shouts.
Turning from a sprite into a wave, the wave barrels towards the group of targeted ships and crashes right into them! The first ship is practically torn apart by the force of the wave colliding into it, and the ships behind it either get capsized or carried away on the remnants of the wave.
One of the ships is unfortunate enough to be carried right into the electrical dome. Everybody aboard it jumps off before their ship crashes right into the dome, instantly evaporating it.
Those aboard the longship waste no time lining their ship up to their next victim. The ram at the front of it allows them to tear halfway through another ship's hull before getting stopped, and then the warriors aboard board their enemy and repeat the process of killing and looting.
”Well shit,” Fenrir says.
”Yeah,” Oleander says, unable to think of anything else to sum up what they just saw that Fenrir hasn't already said.
”Bah! Showoffs,” Tabitha grumbles. ”Pointy-eared bastards relyin' on magic and axes. We'll show 'em how it's done!”
”And how are we going to do that?” Cassiel asks.
”I'm workin' on that part. I figure I can probably take down a few of 'em on my own, but I don't know if the rest of you will be much help. No offense.”
”What do you even fight with?” Fenrir asks Tabitha.
”You'll see,” she replies with a confident smirk.
”Tabs, your power level is really high,” Serra says.
”She has better stats than I had before I got wiped, and I had a couple of months behind me, so yeah - really,” Cassiel agrees.
”We could fire her out of a cannon and onto their ship!” Oleander teasingly suggests.
”Ya know, I wouldn't be opposed to that if I could survive that, but I'm not that incredible,” Tabitha says. ”Maybe if—”
”Wait,” Fenrir drops his rod and walks to the ship's bow to get a better look. ”What the hell are they doing out there?”
A ship with a yellow flag featuring a minnow on it is out on the water.
”Get us out there, now!” Fenrir shouts.
”Engine?” Oleander asks.
”Full speed!”
”O-oi, goin' from off to full speed right away – I ain't quite sure that this girl'll be able to handle 'at, and I'm not too sure the engine itself can handle that,” Tabitha interjects.
Oleander is already at the ship's wheel and unfurling the sails.
”What's wrong?” Serra asks.
Everybody but Oleander and Bonekraka are behind Fenrir now looking where he is.
”Oh, is that The Yellow Minnow? I am not surprised to see it out there despite the carnage. Crews such its own have the advantage of not being targeted by adventurers nor each other. Everybody in this city knows to avoid attacking those crews,” Corwin says.
Fenrir remembers hearing Morven say that NPC crews are generally safe from other players and are avoided, and that must be the case for the pacifistic ship to still be out there without any scratches on it so far, but—
”Hurry up!” Fenrir shouts.
The engine kicks on, its furnace erupting loudly enough for all nearby ships to hear as The Shoebill speeds away from the pier.
…
”Ull, yer champs the type to go an' target NPCs?” Blackstache asks.
”Of course. Why wouldn't they? I do not recall hearing any rules being announced to not. It is a free-for-all, isn't it?” Ull answers.
Blackstache lowers the spyglass from his eye. ”Yer right, it ain't an official rule.”
”Besides, it would be impossible to tell which ships belong to NPCs or which crew members may be players or NPCs,” Ull says with a shrug of his shoulders.
”Any vessels with a yellow flag are registered by NPCs, and any flags with a yellow stripe have at least one NPC crewmember,” Rachel explains.
”Ah, so that ship down there belongs to NPCs? I suppose they are about to learn why they are better off running shops and laboring for us than pretending to be alive. A city of pirates is no place for NPCs to pretend that they're human.”
…
”Faster!” Fenrir shouts, looking back to the stern of the ship.
”The engine is already at full power! The wind is against us!” Oleander shouts back.
Fenrir looks up at the sails. Just as Oleander said, they are sailing against the wind rather than into it.
He looks at The Yellow Minnow again.
The longship rams right into its starboard side, causing splintered wood to fly into the air as everybody around hears the crash of the longship's ram splitting the smaller vessel almost in half.
”Faster!”