43 Ashan 708 | Ulric | The Orm'del Sea
The truth was irrelevant thought because Corvus saw this danger as an opportunity to enhance the Lightbringer's reputation. So Corvus boasted quite boldly, for a few too many nights before their voyage, that the Lightbringers going to the sea assured that The Vengeance would never surface. He called the mysterious captain of the ship a coward, a liar, and many other names intended to diminish his reputation and to bolster the Lightbringers.
Unbeknownst to Ulric, Corvus, Marian, Arthur, and Alexios, a member of that fowl captain's crew was in one of the taverns. He reported back to Captain Franz and the Lightbringers were marked for death. From the moment they left port it had been assured that Vengeance would come for them... and three nights into the voyage that threat became a reality.
Ulric awoke to the sound of screaming from above deck. The Vengeance had gotten close to them in the night and trapped their ships together with hooks and boarding planks. He rolled out of the hammock that Corvus had designated as Ulric's and stood quickly, his longsword already in hand (albeit sheathed) because he had been sleeping with it across his body. Alexios had performed a similar maneuver beside Ulric but hit the floor with a louder thud. He'd also drank more than Ulric had the prior night. Alexios stood, swaying slightly and picked his war-axe up from the floor. "Pirates?" Ulric said loudly to Alexios who had already begun moving towards the stairway to the main deck.
"Pirates!" Alexios roared as he ascended the steps. Ulric tied his sword's scabbard to his belt and looked around for Marian but when he couldn't find her and the clashing of metal from above filled his ears, Ulric ran to the stairs as well. He ascended quickly and drew his longsword at the peak of the steps. From a quick glance, Ulric spotted six pirates aboard their ship already and two of them were being repelled by Alexios' wild axe swings. Another two were engaged with Corvus who's longsword gave him a better range than their cutlasses gave them. Ulric ran to engage the last two who were angling in on Corvus from the right. Ulric ran without a war cry because he didn't want to be heard.
And he wasn't.
Ulric slipped his longsword through the back of the first pirate, giving the man no chance to fight for his life. Then Ulric pushed the pirate's body forward, pulling his longsword out of him and dropping into an inside right guard to combat the second of the pair who couldn't seem to decide between flanking Corvus and fighting Ulric. So Ulric decided for him and lunged forward, thrusting his blade towards the pirate's stomach. The pirate parried and began backing away so Ulric advanced forward, nearly bouncing to the left and right as he shifted his guard to confuse the pirate who ultimately lifted his sword high into the air to try and slash at Ulric- exposing his midsection to the superior swordsman (Ulric) who drove his blade through the pirate's chest.
This time Ulric's sword seemed to get caught in the pirate's rib cage, making it harder to pull from the pirate's body. It cost him valuable time that Captain Franz's crew had used to board and when Ulric looked around again there were six more pirates aboard. Fortunately Alexios had already cleaved through the two he was fighting and when Ulric looked to Corvus, he was kicking the last of his attackers over the edge of the ship. Alexios, Corvus, and Ulric fell back to the starboard side of the ship, getting closer together as the six pirates descended on them.
Ulric assumed a mid-guard, leveling his longsword with the cutlasses of the pirates while Corvus adopted a low guard, inviting the pirates to try and strike at him. Ulric didn't quite know what guard Alexios was using but it certainly seemed to involve a lot of wild swings at the pirates who got too close to him. Ulric parried a strike to the right only for his leg to be slashed by another blade he hadn't seen coming. Ulric winced and turned, cleaving down with his longsword into the pirate's shoulder. The pirate had moved in too close to cut his leg and didn't get far enough away to avoid the longsword's blade. It sliced down through his collarbone and lung, then Ulric pulled his sword back into his middle guard to block another strike.
"Where's Marian!" Ulric shouted as he blocked one pirate's sword, locking with it for a moment before pushing the man backwards into another pirate.
"Where's Arthur?" Alexios shouted from beside them as a pirate narrowly avoided his swing. Corvus blocked a strike with his shield and then thrust his blade into the pirate who's strike he'd blocked.
"I ordered them to get the crew to safety!" Corvus shouted back. Ulric opened his mouth to reply but his attention was stolen by an incoming cutlass swing that he dipped backwards to dodge. Then Ulric stepped back to the line, noticing that the pirates menace was slowly pushing them closer to the railing.
"We need them to fight!" Ulric shouted back once he had a moment to.
"Yes! Arm the crew!" Alexios chimed in before one of the pirates slashed him across the chest. Alexios bellowed and brought the blunt end of his axe down on the man's head. A loud crack rang out at the impact and a moment later, Alexios turned his axe to the sharp end and dug it into the pirate's head at eye level.
"That's not what I meant!" Ulric shouted, parrying another strike.
"They paid us to defend them. We're the line! We hold it!" Corvus shouted back but it didn't change the reality of the situation.
Things were going well but the tide was turning on the Lightbringers. Corvus was fast with his sword but he was being overwhelmed and for every pirate that Alexios frightened away with a scream and a swing, another pirate seemed to land a small cut on the screaming warrior. By now nearly all of the men Franz could expend had boarded the Lightbringer ship, a pitiful two dozen and more than half were already dead. But the trio currently fighting them didn't know that and the five seemed to be gaining an edge.
Then the rest of the Lightbringers arrived. Marian and Arthur emerged from below deck accompanied by a few of the braver members of the crew who had weapons to fight back with. They flanked Franz's pirates from the side, crashing into the cutting through many of the surprised pirates before they realized what was happening. Chaos overtook the deck of the merchant ship as a storm of swords created a deafening symphony of metallic banging.
Yet to Ulric it wasn't chaos, it was simply a wall of bodies to wade through on his path to Marian. He had to deflect a strike here and there but otherwise crossed the deck with ease to find Marian engaged in combat with one of the pirates. She was backpedaling, deflecting his swings to the sides with her staff as she moved slowly up the stairs to the helm. Ulric arrived and slashed the back of the pirate's calf because it was the easiest thing to reach and when the pirate dropped his defense, Marian whacked him across the face with the end of her staff. The pirate fell backwards onto Ulric's sword and after Ulric pushed him off that, down the stairs to the helm.
"Are you alright?" Ulric shouted over the song of swords around them.
"You're limping!" Marian shouted back, his wounds drawing her attention more than his words.
"I'll be fine!" Ulric insisted with a slight glance down at where he'd been cut. It could have been much worse.
"We need to knock the boarding planks loose." Marian suggested as they moved back down the steps into the fray. Ulric limped slightly as he followed Marian. She did a good job of deflecting the strikes coming their way as they moved towards the port side of the ship but Ulric had to help occasionally. When they reached the first plank Marian jabbed it with the butt of her staff. The plank wobbled, as did the pirate in the middle of it, and then Marian hit it again, dislodging it. The chunk of wood and the pirate fell into the sea and Ulric moved with Marian to the next one where Alexios was waiting for them, hacking away at pirates as they tried to cross from The Vengeance to the merchant ship.
"Get off the plank! We need to disengage!" Ulric shouted to Alexios.
"We need to kill their captain!" Alexios shouted back as he advance forward across the boarding plank. Ulric shouted after him but Alexios wasn't listening anymore and when Ulric saw that Corvus was already aboard The Vengeance, he sighed and stepped onto the plank. Marian grabbed his hand.
"Where are you going?"
"Corvus is on the ship, we can't leave him there!" Ulric said the words but he didn't know if he really believed them anymore. In the heat of the moment it was enough to remember his duty to Corvus. Marian let Ulric slip loose from her grip and nodded to him.
"Arthur and I will help the crew with the rest of the pirates." She said. Ulric nodded to her and turned to board The Vengeance. The ship was in a similar state of chaos as the merchant ship bad been bits ago but that was only because the chaos had moved from one deck to the other. The crew of the pirate ship was being punished by the vengeful crew member Corvus had rallied and soon they'd be punished by Ulric as well.