Book 2: Chapter 34: Patch 6.0: The Second Round

Tabitha comes above deck to check on what’s going on, and what she sees is The Shoebill heading directly toward a potentially even-more-dangerous enemy than the longship’s crew.

“Oi, what happened?” Tabitha asks.

“Those twink pricks betrayed everybody. Took out six other ships already, so only us and Jax’s are left,” Fenrir explains.

“Ya know that ya ain’t goin’ to beat them, right? If they’ve already taken out that many ships on their own, and it looks like they didn’t exactly take any damage durin’ that, then there’s no way that we can take them down ourselves. Ya don’t even have a plan, do ya? And it ain’t like I’ve got any secret inventions that can help out.”

Fenrir’s grip on the handle of his blade tightens. He knows that this is most likely an impossible fight, but he doesn’t want to just run away from it. The Divine Brigade always ran away from or avoided getting into fights that it knew it couldn’t win. Fenrir wants to be different now – he wants to heroically take on almost impossible odds and somehow come out on top and save the day, but he knows that trying to fight is going to almost certainly result in death.

“I just noticed this, but have your ears and tail gotten bigger? Your tail looks like it’s getting pretty bushy,” Tabitha says.

“Maybe? I don’t know, don’t look in a mirror much,” Fenrir answers.

Fenrir looks at The Weeping Tit. The ship is keeping a close distance from The Steel Tiger, but Fenrir doesn’t know what the point is. From what he saw onboard Jax’s ship, it’s poorly armed for combat. It only has four cannons, two for each of its sides, and they’re all smaller and less effective than the ones onboard The Shoebill. The Weeping Tit’s crew is a crew that just wants to enjoy life in this game and go fishing. Fenrir doubts that any of them ever expected to get involved in something like this, even if coming together for this plan was their idea in the first place.

More importantly, Fenrir knows that he and The Shoebill can’t afford to get into a losing fight. Taking on the longship during the first round was already incredibly risky, but they at least had some of those carcass shots that Tabitha prepared. They don’t have any more of those – they were out of money to buy the materials to make more of them. Furthermore, that was taking on a distracted enemy and more of a rescue mission than a mission to eliminate the enemy. Finally, when Fenrir looks behind The Shoebill, he sees the longship still pursuing them.

The Shoebill is between two enemies right now. One of which is primarily dealing with The Weeping Tit but looks ready to change focuses should it need to, and the longship which is likely going to pursue The Shoebill until the round is over.

Another flare is shot into the air from aboard The Weeping Tit. This one uses white powder to signify that the plan is canceled and to, essentially, run away.

“Captain?” Corwin asks.

“If we get sunk out here, we’re done for,” Tabitha says.

“Fen, I know you want to save them and sink those bastards, but—” Cassiel gets interrupted.

“Damn it!” Fenrir slams his fist against the ship’s mast. “Olly! Get us out of here and take us behind the isle to the fishing spot! We just need to focus on winning the round and avoiding them if we can!” he shouts.

…

“Good, he ain’t stupid enough to try and take these backstabbin’ cunts on when he’s already got another enemy chasin’ him,” Jax says as he watches The Shoebill turn away and head for the isle.

“What are we going to do, brother?” Jin asks him.

“We’re goin’ to buy The Shoebill some time. I’m the one who came up with groupin’ up against those long-eared cunts, and I let this bastard over here,” Jax looks over at Alexander onboard his own ship, “trick me, so this is my fault. Let’s just try to help out The Shoebill however we can now.”

“What about the nets? If you want to buy them some time, we could try wrapping them up?”

Jax has a shine in his eye as he looks over the rest of the crew now. “Ya heard him! Prepare the nets! We’ve got ourselves one nasty cunt to catch!”

…

“Why aren’t they trying to escape?” Fenrir asks. Everybody but Bonekraka and Tabitha are at the ship’s stern now watching as The Weeping Tit shoots grapple hooks onto The Steel Tiger. “They shot the flare, so – damn it, they’re sacrificing themselves.”

“Why?” Serra asks.

“Because they’re men taking responsibility,” Fenrir answers.

As they watch on, The Weeping Tit’s crew tosses heavy and weighted netting over The Steel Tiger. Jax and his crew get nets tangled in The Steel Tiger’s sails, over the bow of the ship, and even traps some of its crew underneath it.

…

“Jin! You’re up!” Jax shouts.

Jin, with net in hand, dives into the water off the stern of The Weeping Tit!

He swims to the underside of The Steel Tiger’s stern and wraps its rudder up in the netting, placing the net in a way that jams it from properly steering, and then he takes what length of it is left to tie it around The Weeping Tit’s rudder.

Jin surfaces to try and climb back aboard The Weeping Tit, but it’s already on fire. Its crew is jumping overboard to try and escape into the water, but the free-of-netting crew of The Steel Tiger either blast the overboard escapees with magic or arrows.

When he looks back at The Steel Tiger, he sees a man with a crossbow aimed directly at his head.

The wielder of the crossbow gets distracted when he sees a large, shirtless, burly man with what little clothes that he is wearing caught on fire as he shouts and tosses a flaming barrel toward The Steel Tiger!

…

The Shoebill is too far to see what exactly happens, but they see a sizeable explosion erupt in the air between The Weeping Tit and The Steel Tiger.

It clearly did more damage to The Weeping Tit as the blast completely destroyed their mast and the side of their ship, but Fenrir sees that The Steel Tiger is on fire in several spots, their sails have been ruined and lit aflame, and there is a sizeable chunk of hull missing on the side of the ship closest to the explosion.

“What – what happened?” Cassiel asks.

“Gunpowder explosion, I’m guessing. They look flashier than they are, but they can still do some damage from the blast and fire if there’s a large enough amount of it,” Fenrir looks back to their own cannons. There is a barrel of gunpowder next to each row of cannons, but they’re low because of how much the cannons have been shot. They haven’t resupplied their cannonballs nor gunpowder once; they are technically still using Coastedge’s supplies.

“Not enough,” Serra says as the smoke clears.

The Steel Tiger is still floating and most of its damage can be easily repaired – no fatal damage.

However, as The Weeping Tit sinks below the waves, it pulls The Steel Tiger with it.

Fenrir desperately wants to turn around to finish the ship off, but the longship has placed itself between The Shoebill and The Steel Tiger.

Rather than recklessly throw himself into danger and make Jax’s sacrifice be in vain, Fenrir stands tall and salutes the sinking vessel.

“Thanks, Jax. We’ll repay you once this is over,” Fenrir says.

…

“How defiant. At least they did something before dying. I still think it would have been more entertaining to not interrupt the plan before it even started. My champions could use a fun fight,” Ull says, watching the aftermath of the explosion on the screen hanging from the tower.

“The Weeping Tit – good crew, good men. Not surprised they were defiant until tha end. Did ya know they were traitors?” Blackstache asks.

“Not good enough, and of course not. I’m simply assuming that they were part of the plan in the first place as they were clearly sailing together in some sort of formation and following my champions.”

“’at so?”

“It is. Now then, it is clear that the final round will be between those traitors and my champions, so let us get on to discussing an alliance. You wish for my help against Indra and Livia, don’t you?”

Blackstache swallows his frustration and nods. If letting this foreign bastard of a king treat this all like a game means securing a powerful alliance that will keep his people and his city safe and free, it is worth it “First, what makes ya think only those two are goin’ ta tha final round?” he asks.

“Well, look. Those at the fishing spot are already fighting amongst one another, and once my champions arrive, I doubt that any of them will survive. The wolf’s ship will be sunk as well. I know that three crews may proceed to the final round, but I doubt three of them will even be left.”

“Why not take out tha traitors too then?”

“Well, there must still be some fun and excitement for the final round. It would be boring if there was only one crew participating in it, no?”