Man The Cannons

/??? POV/

.

.

I walked across the ship as the captain was calling for me. Whatever it is that earned me a visit to the Captain's Quarters was either foolish, or a plan that she may need for me.

"Captain!"

I gave her a quick salute as she waved me down to sit on one of the chairs that she had in the quarters.

"Messir Jives, I assume that you've found our quarry already?"

"Forgive me Captain, but, quarry? We're on a hunt?"

She stood from the table that was gifted to her by one of the older Raytharian noble families that needed a favor done from us. I almost remember the creatures that tore the old ship in three and turned three into but a fine mist.

"Aye, we do indeed. We're hunting something, different this time round."

The Captain's speaking differently, oh boy, that's a bad sign.

"Is it, something like the Raytharian incident, marm?"

"Nay messir Jives, this, this be a different kind of beast that we've gotten used to huntin'. This be an order from the [Mage] Hero, Arthis himself. A hunt for someone that the world's quite acquainted with."

'No no no no, she can't be serious.'

"That be a fine jest captain! I almost thought ye were-"

Oh no. The Captain's giving me the stare again. This is real.

"Captain! This is madness! Suicide! We can't do thi-"

"More than two million golden notes Jives. Two. Million. Do ye get the stakes here?"

"Captain with all due respect, two million notes mean nothing if we'll never be allowed in any bloody port again for the Blight of the For'eign! Not even the Green Marina will accept someone who's lost the light of the System!"

"And that's why I called ye here Messir Jives. We have all the right and wrong reasons to go do this. Not only that, we're not the only crew that's been given the order.

All other privateers have been given the same missive. I called ye here to ask of ye, tis a parley with the other crews a wise decision?"

"Of course Captain! The notes may be less, but less still means a good couple barrels of the decent slop that the Marina has! I'd rather be paid less, than dead or not being paid at all."

The captain closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

'I need to make sure that if the Captain does choose this, the lads need to be prepared. We don't another one of those sorts of bounties occurring again.'

"Captain-"

"Tell the men Jives. The next time we make port, they can choose whether to stay or not. I'm taking this order well Jives."

"Why in the world is the First Demon Lord off in the waters Captain? There isn't any lack for land when it comes to how much they've razed down, and how many they've sentenced to the end."

"I don't know Jives. That's the worst part. If this is a new ploy, then it'll might end up being a brand new For'eign Calamity. We don't want a repeat of, you know."

Aye, I did know. The Dostervon Village. The first ones to have made contact with the For'eign and the For'eigner himself. And the first one to be made an example of.

"Tell the men to double our speed, we need to make it quick to meet with the other crews for planning."

"Aye Captain."

"And Jives?"

"Captain?"

"Thank ye, for being me first hand and me second pair o eyes."

".....I do what I can, marm. Good day Captain."

I walked out of her quarters carefully, making sure to close the door quietly enough so it wouldn't disturb her. This wasn't going to end well. But I've been sailing with her ever since she was but a wee sea pup in her da's arms.

"Lads! Come around, this be orders from a Hero themselves!"

"Ah what do ye want Jives? One o' those otherworldly whelps trying to poach us again for some bloody "adventure"? Count us out on that!"

"Nay Snagglefoot, it ain't one o' those youngbloods. It be a missive, from the Mage hisself, Arthis."

"By the light of the System Jives! The Mage himself? Giving us an order! Slap me arse and call me a wench! That be a fine jest!"

"Our orders are in regards to the For'eign."

That one sentence went and made the whole crew go silent.

"By the ones who guide us Jives. Prithee, tell the order."

I took a deep breath and relaxed before I steeled myself. I'm certain that some of them would go off to try and throw themselves overboard if they heard it.

"The For'eigner, enemy to man itself, the gods, and the System, has been travelling the waters. The Hero Arthis is requesting us to do our best to hunt the foul Demon Lord down, the prize to the crew that takes his head is two million golden notes.

The Captain says that if ye don't want to take this on, you're free to leave the ship once we make port. We have about three days, maybe four if we take it slow to get there.

Those who go will not be branded as traitors, and will even be given enough coin to make a trip to wherever they'd want to throw themselves to. That, or drink yourselves to oblivion to try and forget about the rest o your mates here."

I took a moment for them to digest what I gave them.This might have been one of the biggest decisions that they could ever make on this ship. There wasn't anything else that could've matched up to the level that we were going to have to work with here.

Twas either abandonment to what made us a crew, or the possibility that we'd never be allowed anywhere again, from the fear of people contracting the Blight of the For'eign.

I didn't want to give them the idea that we were damning them, but that was the same thing that went through my mind when I heard it.

"Bah, damn it all! If I'm going to be given the chance ta stick a saber in the head of that abomination, then who cares if we contract the Blight from the source itself! Chances are, the gods themselves would reward those who fought hard in the battle, if there is one to come for us!"

"Yer damn right about that matey! We're not going anywhere Jives! We've stuck to the ship for who knows how long, and we don't intend to try and go off into the country, herding cattle and sheep, sleeping in those namby-pamby downy feathery beds!

The seas be where we belong, since birth, til death. Tis the way it's been, tis the way it shall be."

I looked to the rest of the crew that were following along with the ones who spoke up first. Ole Mangemouth and Skulldrawler were laughing while drinking whatever bootleg hooch they managed to get.

"Aye, it would've right for a Captain to be without a crew. We're not scared of dying, Messir Jives. We're scared o dying not on our ships. We're "privateers" as the crown stated."

I couldn't help but huff at the words. They were right, we've been on these waters for our entire lives. Wouldn't exactly be right to deny ourselves a good bloody scrap against one of the greatest threats this world has ever seen.

"Very well lads. I see that all of us are in favor of hunting down the For'eigner himself. I can't help but smile at the sheer amount of dullards we be for thinking we have a shot, but a shot is just what we could need to get rid of that monster once and for all."

I looked off into the horizon, seeing the lights of the nearest port slowly begin to form. And that's when I realized something was wrong. We were three or four days from port, why were we seeing the lanterns now?

'Wait a damned moment. Those lights, no, they're too white.'

"LADS, MAN THE BATTLE STATIONS!"

'THERE'S STILL DAYLIGHT. IT CAN'T BE!'

The men took my words as seriously as they could as they began to arm up all of the cannons and weapons we had on hand, making sure that we could fire them in as quick succession as we could.

"JIVES! WHAT IN THE BLEEDING WARRIOR ARE YOU DOING, YOU DULLARD?!"

"CAPTAIN! THE HORIZON! IT'S FILLED WITH LIGHTS!"

"AND SO? WE'RE HEADED TO PORT, OF COURSE IT'S- Jives, is that what-"

"-ya think it is Captain? I pray to the ones above that it ain't. But if it is, we might as well pray for a quick death."

Please tell me that I was wrong.

"Captain! Another missive from yer quarters!"

"And what were ye doin there ya filthy mutt?"

"It was urgent captain! The Hero Arthis was sending some o his scholars over, but they've been captured by the For'eigner. They were able to send some more information bout what we're up against!"

"Well damn it man, say what the Hero told ye!"

"He said that it wasn't any ordinary wooden ship that we were going to be looking fer."

"...System on earth, and gods above. You can't be saying that-"

"Another automaton made by that monster."

Please tell me that I was wrong.

"For something to be able to traverse the waters themselves, it must be a behemoth of a foul creation."

Gods please, a sign. A sign of me simply being foolish.

"The Hero, Captain! The Hero said something different! It was- IT WAS A-"

*DEEP FOG HORN SOUND BELLOWS FROM AFAR*

".....a bleeding ship made by that monster. May the Bloodied Warrior give us strength. We need to retreat."

Why have you forsaken us, oh gods?

"We can't Captain, it's got us in it's sights! Gods above, we don't even know what sort of weapons the thing has on it."

"Well don't just stand there then! STEEL YOURSELVES MEN. TODAY, WE BLEED A DEMON LORD!"

The cheers of all me mates rang from the deck as I fell on me knees and began to scurry for me knife. There's only two people in this world that were capable of fighting against the First Demon Lord.

The Mage Arthis, and the Bloodied Warrior. And the second was slain by the For'eigner.

"And yet, by his name, and by the blood of one willing to bleed til the end, may bring forth the warrior from the Sanguine Sea itself.

The blood of one's hands that are stained with both innocent and guilty. Mad and sane. Young and old. Wif and wer. With the same blade that coats the blood of all these and more, the ritual requires two final drawings of blood."

I raised it high into the sky, and brought it down onto my very own heart. I felt the blade go through me as the pain shot through me whole body.

The Captain saw me, panicking at first before she realize what I was doing to meself. She ran over and told all of the other men to remove me head once I finished the ritual and shoot me out of one of the cannons.

I twisted it to make sure that my very own heart was destroyed. The blood began ta pool in me shirt as I chanted two lines.

"The blood of the chanter, and the blood of the enemy. [Blood by Birth, Blood by Death, Birthed by Blood, Death by Blood!]"

I felt the cold metal of the Captain's saber near me very own neck as I stared up at her one last time before the weakness overtook me, and brought back something much more different.

Comrade to the Mage Arthis himself, the Bloodied Warrior. The symbol of wrath and honor forged into man itself. Slain by a beast that was once man.

My head was removed from my body, and yet the magic coursing through me still kept me alive, made me feel nothing, as if I was a passenger in my very body.

It wouldn't be enough for someone like me to be used as a sacrifice for the Bloodied Warrior to take my place, all thanks to all the bleeding grog and disgusting slop I had to gorge on to survive, but it would prove to be enough to buy enough time for the Captain and the others to escape for the port.

'Let's see just how much abuse you can handle, abomination!'

I felt the darkness begin to claim me, only for it to be slowly change from pitch black, to a much more familiar crimson. The crimson lakes that the opened up into the realm that was borne from the sacrifice of the Bloodied Warrior himself, the Sanguine Sea.

It was almost beautiful to try and stay within it, so peaceful, breezy, not even having a hint of copper within. Almost like I were wading through fields of flowers.

"I see that once again, the people require the help of someone like me? Is that old man still going around doing some really terrible things?"

A voice spoke behind me as I finally saw a visage of the Bloodied Warrior himself. Twas a figure of pure blood, held together by chain and paper. Someone that fought for us.

"Forgive me, oh Warrior. I had to buy them time! The For'eigner. He was approaching us so quickly."

"Oh nah man, that's fine, I was just wondering why did it take you guys so long to do the spell again. I don't really care if you guys never need to call me again, cuz in my books that sorta means that I get to laze around and rest."

Aye, the tales be true. He speaks as similar to the other heros of his class, albeit he be a bit more wistful, for what it's worth.

"We only make use of the chant and ritual in the direst of situations, oh Great Bloodied Warrior. The enemy is near us, and we needed time for the ship to escape the clutches of the First Demon Lord."

"Honestly man, kinda respectable. Sacrifice takes a lot to do to yourself. Ya don't really need to beat yourself up for it now. You can stay here, as for me?"

The figure of the Warrior started to slowly disappear. "I guess I gotta put the old man in another nursing home. Do me a favor and try not to go a little crazy here? You may now be one of the literal thousands of voices in this realm, but you guys can still affect me if you all scream at once.

I nodded to the Warrior as he brandished his blade once more and whispered the same words that he spoke on three different days. The Battle of the Raytharian Line, the Falling of the Requidential Royal Family, and the day that he had been fallen by the hands of the First Demon Lord himself.

"Du sang pour le dieu du sang."