JaceVAmor
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Chapter 158: Safe Harbor
🕑 Added 2023-11-15 16:11:00 +0000 UTCSea Burial continued to accelerate through the deep, dark ocean, skipping across the choppy waves as they raced for the reef. The massive siege ships loomed ahead of them, blocking their perspective of the fort, though they all knew exactly where it was. They aimed for the space between the bulky ships of the Sapphire Armada. They didn’t have time to slow down and reassess their strategy knowing that the pyramid ships were chasing their flank, even if the pursuers were much slower than the pirate ship. They would be hemmed in if they hesitated.
Coop held his breath as they drew closer, anticipating being forced into another fight. He was planning on boarding the larger vessels if it came to a battle, but they shot through the void between the massive ships, unnoticed. Their enemies were oblivious to their flank, trusting the swarm of pyramid ships to prevent anything from approaching along with the discouragement factor of their bulk to intimidate anyone else. They were fixated on the fort in front of them. Luckily, even if the assimilation had pushed them into focusing on their navy, they weren’t actually experienced sailors yet. Two months wasn’t enough time to turn a regular population into proper seafarers. A lifetime of experience at sea meant that Ghost Reef’s navy still held some advantage.
On the other side of the blockade, the crew of pirates were greeted with the sight of a massive naval bombardment. The battleships were so large, they had screened them from the actual battle until they were suddenly in the thick of it.
Three deep thumps cascaded from the nearest battleship, one after the other, as mortars launched a barrage high into the sky from the tubes in the top of the ship. Waves broke against the reef, generated by the bobbing of the enormous structure. If it wasn’t for the projectiles streaking blue flames through the air, Coop’s eyes wouldn’t have been able to follow them. They flew high enough to be mistaken for shooting stars before crashing back down toward the fort.
The air was thick with black smoke, and massive projectiles were being flung back and forth while smaller missiles whistled through the night. Most of the largest munitions exploded in huge airbursts like blooming flowers before colliding with either the fort or the ships, sending shell fragments in all directions that splashed into the shallow waters, or bounced harmlessly against defensive structures, but the ones that did reach their targets were deflected by what were becoming familiar energy shields.
The battleships had a series of multiple pyramid shaped protective shields that lit up whenever they caught arcing cannon fire or spells that were cast from the fort’s walls. The fort, on the other hand, had a single shield that seemed to be embedded into the stone, causing the structure itself to light up with waves of energy whenever one of the mortars connected. Above the wall, a transparent, ghostly green shell-shaped mana shield extended over the courtyard. Whenever the shield was struck by a mortar, an individual scute would light up an even brighter green before fading back to transparency after taking the hit, leaving the subtle outline floating in above. It looked like a massive ethereal sea turtle shell was sitting on top of the fort’s walls with the head facing the main entrance to the south and the edges protectively covering the walls.
Along the edge of the shallows, three of the enormous battleships were under varying degrees of distress. The worst off was toward the south, offshore where the coast was consumed by the mangrove forest. The battleship had a gaping hole in its hull that split its scorched bulk into two halves. It only remained connected due to drifting into the water that was shallow enough for it to rest on the bottom, otherwise, it was a complete loss. The other two maintained their buoyancy, but one was listing hard enough that every third wave was able to splash water over the rim above its main deck, slowly filling the deep tub with water. Neither seemed to have the ability to move on their own. It was only a matter of time before they joined the first ship in being a total loss. The Armada was taking heavy losses in their siege of the fort, already contributing to the reef’s collection of shipwrecks.
The cannon portals in the fort were firing at will, launching their payloads in high arcing shots that could only barely reach the ships that were mortaring the walls. During the siege, none of the cannons had such a range, but the progression of the phantom cannoneers gave them just enough distance to counter-attack. It was easily double the previous maximum range they had displayed against the Primal Constructs. However, it wasn’t the cannons that were causing most of the Sapphire Armada’s distress, but rather the individual spells that were also crossing the air.
Glowing beams of energy were being fired like railguns where archers employed advanced abilities to snipe at the ships whenever their shields appeared to be weakening. Otherwise, magma balls, frostbolts, and chaos orbs were revealing ranges that were impossible in the months previous. Ghost Reef’s residents hadn’t been progressing thoughtlessly. Their builds had been molded by their experiences during the siege event, and now they combined stamina with range, incorporating Ghost Reef itself into their tactics. Coop had believed the Sapphire Armada had made a mistake in targeting their settlement, but he had actually underestimated the difficulties they would face. He had thought it was simply a matter of levels and experience that would give them trouble, but it was also a mismatch in tactics.
Ice smashed into the mortars, high in the air, sending sparkling snowflakes in all directions as some of the spellcasters concentrated on defensive contributions. A coordinated volley of dozens of spells were launched together from the north. Some of the preliminary attacks blasted through the air, exploding after flying in line drives across the shallow sea where they once fought Gaol the Unveiled Blade, but most arced through the black smokey clouds with trajectories that pushed their range to the absolute maximum. A blood red meteor, easily the size of a house, joined them from almost directly above, as if it was falling directly from outer space. Coop gaped when the cascade of spells smashed into one of the battleships, directly north of the fort, revealing its pyramid shaped shields as they were overwhelmed by the barrage. The ship erupted when the meteor landed, flashing with searing blue light as it was destroyed by the cooperative attacks. The battleship broke into multiple pieces with all but the pointed bow sinking into the depths. The lone monument to what was a huge ship propped itself up against the edge of the shallow reef, adding another ornamental wreck.
On the other side, the troops of the Sapphire Armada couldn’t do anything but spectate the battle, manning what siege weapons were available on the battleships. None of them had abilities that could turn their bows into railguns or their projectile spells into trebuchet shots. They needed to be much closer before they could offer even their simplest individual attacks.
“Brace! Brace!” A pirate lieutenant shouted, and the passengers of Sea Burial gripped ropes, railings, and each other as the ship crashed through sheets of debris after a car-sized projectile airburst in front of them.
Missiles crashed into the water all across the ocean, but Sea Burial didn’t have time to be cautious. If they lingered, they could become the perfect target for the Armada’s sailors: exposed and close. They continued their rush across the shallows, utilizing the spectral properties of the ship to guarantee they weren’t followed. Attacks flew through the air, but they were almost universally aimed with higher arcs, covering the distance of the reef with higher trajectories than the occupants needed to worry about. Instead, shrapnel and falling debris were the danger they braced for. It only took seconds before they were out of range of the individual sailors, but that didn’t put them in the clear. As they went, Coop heard distinct cracks as the nearest battleship employed smaller cannons. To his ear, they sounded like semi-automatic rifles, but the projectiles that chased them were clearly visible with much lower velocity than actual bullets.
Kayla was the first to apply her abilities in order to prevent them from being struck directly. Purple tentacles climbed from the reef in the ship’s wake, and slapped at the baseball-sized cannonballs. Each tentacle that struck a projectile was destroyed, but they accomplished their task, taking the projectile with them, back into the water. The rest of the pirate casters sent their own barriers toward their rear until the projectiles stopped being fired.
One near miss resulted in a counter attack when Gabby wielded her miniature baseball bat, swinging with only her uninjured arm to return the projectile. In the moment, Coop was reminded of Camila’s perfect counters and he was surprised by the similarity. The counter pierced through the shield of the nearest battleship, but it didn’t result in a cascading explosion. Instead, the missile smashed into the hull of the ship, physically collapsing the exterior skin and rocking the enormous ship like it had been struck by a battering ram. The battleship didn’t fire anything else directly at the ghost ship.
It was a tense few minutes where they traversed what had become a true no man’s land between the sieging battleships and the old stone fort. Residents of Ghost Reef waved them forward from the tops of the walls, unconcerned with the massive projectiles crashing into the turtle shell mana dome that protected them. When Sea Burial splashed both sides of the canal, cutting across the moat, through the calm water, and entering the courtyard, the sounds of battle somehow felt distant.
The atmosphere within the fort was in complete contrast to the chaotic siege that was taking place outside. The first incongruity that Coop noticed was the music. Derek was sitting in the middle of the bridge as Sea Burial plowed through the calm water of the canal, utilizing the pirates on the oars to slow to a stop before they collided with any of the other ships that had sheltered in the safety of the fort.
The Virtuoso was strumming away, surrounded by a handful of phantoms while he applied his boons to the entire fort at once. Coop received three small buffs: one that increased his ability resource efficiency by a flat amount, another that increased his resource recovery by a single digit percentage, and a third that boosted magic power for thirty seconds at a time, all on top of the Purified Buff that was present at all times within Lighthouse territory. The other buffs were being repeatedly refreshed while Derek played his songs. It wasn’t so long ago that his range was only the size of the main room of the Clumsy Shark, but even he had focused his build’s evolution to benefit Ghost Reef. Derek was pretty self-interested at best, but even he sought to protect his home.
Coop was the first to leap off the side of the ship, dragging a rope along with him to help slow the boat down. Most of the Tempest Fleet was present on one side of the bridge or the other. The Fearless was half submerged, braced with ropes and chains affixed to cleats that were embedded into the stone walkway. A crew of pirates were using buckets to bail water from the deck while others dove into the canal with tools held in their teeth and materials in their arms as they patched the damage with quick, temporary repairs. The Eye of the Storm sat perpendicular to the opposite entrance of the canal, where the pigs normally swam, firing volley after volley of cannons to the point that a steady stream of hot gray smoke was emanating from the cannon vents.
The pirates started disembarking as well, following Coop with ropes, jumping onto the northern market avenue. Once the ship was secured, they followed Admiral Kayla as she marched toward The Eye of the Storm, obviously intent on having her first mate bring her up to speed so that she could take command. Charon silently nodded to Coop as he joined the crew moving to the flagship. Only a handful of pirates stayed on Sea Burial, assessing the damage from their run through the battle and starting repairs to prepare for more.
The rest of the fort was just as bewildering as the atmosphere. Coop secured his line and looked around. Other than the walls and the canal, where individuals were engaged in battle, it was like nothing special was going on outside. There were even groups of residents sitting on benches, drinking coffee as they casually discussed the invasion with a handful of the refugees that arrived on the cruise ship. The newcomers had completed the onboarding processes, but it was too soon for them to have found their places within the settlement.
“What the hell is this?” Carlos spoke up as he glanced between the informal settlement and the battlefield outside the canal after climbing off the ship himself. “I expected to be greeted like liberating heroes, but they didn’t need us here at all?” He asked Gabby as he helped her onto shore, who in contrast to her expected stoicism, also looked confused. They flinched when a series of six mortars were deflected by the top of the shield’s mana dome, exposing three of the turtle shield’s scutes, but Ghost Reef’s residents didn’t even acknowledge the attack.
The interior of the fort’s walls had been redecorated with the Cleary brothers’ fairy lights, casting gentle light on the perimeter road and all the open portals like they were having an informal backyard party. The entire perimeter was lined with the Beach Bash picnic tables, mirroring the new apartment buildings and smaller service buildings that fully encompassed both halves of the courtyard. Most of the tables were occupied by phantoms, but there were a larger portion of human residents than expected scattered among them, snacking on food as they also discussed shift changes with the refugees. The newcomers almost seemed like interns or trainees as they were mentored by those who had been in Ghost Reef for longer. They were reassured by the general calm of the previous residents.
Hanging from the side of The Clumsy Shark was a massive new ornament, braced by dozens of ropes and partially obstructing the merchant road. The hollowed out stone crab claw had been suspended against the sturdy building, like a prized catch. It seemed like the passengers of Sea Burial had missed the second feast, but at least the newest refugees appeared to have had their welcome party before the Armada’s siege began. The enormous trophy was so out of proportion, Coop would have believed it to be fake if he hadn’t seen the original crab with his own eyes.
The bells tolled while Coop observed the situation, and most of the phantom soldiers hopped up from the picnic tables, entering the fort’s walls with stern looks of determination. They gave off an air of professionalism that could only come from a combination of confidence and experience. After most of the tables had cleared out, slightly tired seeming phantoms exited the stone walls, refilling the gaps. Many of them sat on the picnic tables to relax, but others headed further into the settlement toward the crafting services or the tavern. A few even remained on the top of the walls, moving to the interior edge to let their replacements takeover while they watched, pointing out perceived weaknesses and offering suggestions while promoting continuity in their counter-assaults.
Shane was among those who were shifting off the walls and Coop hustled to get caught up with his advisor once he spotted him on the main road. Coop was feeling both confused but satisfied with the state of the fort. He had never really doubted that Ghost Reef would be comfortable resisting another siege, but even he hadn’t expected them to be quite this relaxed. Should regular people really be able to evolve into professional soldiers in just a few months or had it been due to the circumstances applied to Ghost Reef? The phantoms provided experience, the assimilation added necessity, and the fort supplied the opportunity.
When the rest of the passengers of the newly arrived corvette disembarked, Coop asked Camila and Charlie to take responsibility for getting all of the injured to the medical center and convincing Madison to heal them up. Camila’s family had lingering debuffs from injuries that were preventing them from recovering fully, but there were also the three victims of the blood curse that would need the Sage’s attention. After they were set up, Charlie would be taking a prominent role in the defense, as she had during the siege event.
“Welcome back.” Shane tilted his head slightly as Marcus joined them as the girls headed for the medical center with Camila’s family. Coop watched over Shane’s shoulder as a pair of bullet-shaped flaming stones were launched by the Admiralty’s trebuchets. They streaked across the night sky, creating wide streaks of light in the smoky air. Coop couldn’t see where they would land, but judging by their arcs, they were launched at a greater distance than anything else he had seen around the battlefield.
“Guess we’re a bit late.” Coop conceded, finally convinced that Ghost Reef had fully stabilized itself in the face of another invasion.
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Samuel Lévesque
"You know that place that survived a siege a thousand times worse than ours? Let's siege them!"
