Guardians of Terraria

Episode 9.1 - Walking The Plank

"Pirates," Sid said after flying up for a better look and landing back down again. "We're being invaded by pirates."

"That doesn't make any sense," Meg said. "We're nowhere near the ocean."

Sid shrugged. "That doesn't mean they didn't come from there."

William grit his teeth and flew up onto the wall. In rebuilding and expanding the Forest Village, the original wall had been completely torn down and rebuilt to be taller and contain more space for the whole village inside. Down below were a motley mob of tanned pirates dressed in red-and-white striped tops, blue pantaloons, and holding giant cutlasses.

"I'll keep them at bay. Get the citizens who are able to fight over here!" William shouted.

He leapt down and into the fray, Night's Edge swinging. The first few pirates in his path quickly fell, but several of the Pirate Corsairs with cutlasses all leapt at him at once. He was forced to swing out his Sunfury at them to knock them all back, which set them all ablaze. Yet even his powerful, Underworld-born weapon didn't deal too much damage to them – the pirates had between 600 and 900 life each. Way more than William's 400.

Fortunately a spray of bullets, explosives and fireballs started peppering them. He glanced up to see Meg and Sid on the wall, the Arms Dealer and Demolitionist by their sides. Zop'a the Witch Doctor and Merlyn the Wizard were also up there, the latter casting bouncing fireballs from his hands similar to the ones from Meg's Flower of Fire.

The pirates had plenty of firepower of their own, however. Flaming arrows and bullets flew up from the back of the crowd. William heard Durim cry out as a bullet struck him in the shoulder, while a few of the flaming arrows narrowly missed Meg. Some parrots began flying forward, their feathers an ocean blue and crests red. One tried to grab at Tony's hair with its talons while another tried to pull at Nissa the Dryad's vine-coverings with its beak.

"Hey, that's rude!" Sid shouted as he turned his Minishark against the bird, soon blasting it to feathers.

William sliced and parried, cutting a couple of cutlass-wielding corsairs to pieces, then felt the familiar rush of picking up an item. One of the pirates had dropped their Cutlass.

"58 melee damage," he muttered. He wondered how a random blade from a pirate could deal more damage than his Night's Edge, a mythical sword of darkness that had been forged from four other very powerful blades.

Still, he wasn't complaining. He found the Cutlass not only dealt more damage but also felt lighter and swung more easily and swiftly. But despite the weapon upgrade, the pirates were relentless. He instinctively reached for his Night's Edge and put it into his other hand, and before too long realised he was now wielding both swords at once – something he'd somehow never thought of trying before, but the heat of battle and all the adrenaline had pushed him into doing it.

He tore through pirate after pirate, making it to the back-line of gunners and crossbowers. He took a bullet to the stomach from a pirate with an eyepatch, which dealt 85 damage, but charged forward, swords swinging like a whirlwind, and vanquished the buccaneer.

That was when he laid eyes on the captain.

It was a pirate with a red beard (which William almost rolled his eyes at), a tricorner hat, and a fancy black outfit with gold trimming.

And holding a massive gun.

It didn't fire just one shot at a time like most other ranged enemies, it was shot after shot after shot! William could only sandstorm-jump upwards and fly backwards towards the wall to avoid the deluge, but ran out of juice in his Lightning Boots, causing him to fall short of the wall. The Pirate Captain raised his gun, revealing a literal cannon mounted underneath the barrel, and fired. William sandstorm-jumped again, and the cannonball exploded on the grass beneath his feet.