Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

30. Pirate Raid, The Captain's Tricks

Cal may have looked like he had everything under control but the truth of the matter was that he was in a frantic panic. His instincts kicked in, but the fluidity he had when he was fighting the Sylvan knights was gone. He thought he had prepped better, but the training wheels were a godsend that had been taken away.

Luckily, the majority of the crew were fodder. They were low enough levels that they did no damage and disappeared with a single strike. The problem was that the high-level pirates were sometimes more difficult to distinguish and snuck in between the cracks.

He had to treat every sword like it was lethal. As he ducked one swipe that barely missed his neck, he swung at the ghost that didn't go away after one strike. It took three more to bring it down, and in the meantime he had to evade a dozen other pirates shooting from mist of their still dispelling friends.

A whirlwind from Kadoka battered the ships and pushed back the fog back a ways, but the number of ships continued to grow.

"At this rate I'm going to go mad before they are gone." Cal checked his life bar it was holding steady at 75% health as his natural regeneration counteracted the assaulting crew. But the deeper he cut into the ghost pirates the more dangerous it was becoming.

He was a poor fit for attacking numerous enemies and only his stats from his other classes even kept him alive this long. Both the Dread Pirate class and the Red Blade class were aimed at larger and more powerful enemies. They didn't have any skills for groups this numerous.

If he had been in this situation before he joined the North Wind then he might just be waiting for his end as a death of a thousand cuts. But he was more now, much much more.

[Sins at Dusk] A Skill of the dread pirate that turns Hp into Mp or Sp. It increases the attack power of any attack cast with this ability and adds curse damage.

[Wind Slash]  

Cal whipped his wrist and lines drawn by the tips of his blades were sent flying at the ghosts cutting paths through them.

He sucked in as much air as he could and looked down.

[Dragon's Breath]

Cal breathed black fire down into the ship he was currently on sinking it into the ocean and simultaneously sent him flying into the air.

"What in blazes was that!" Lamphere shouted from the safety of his own ship as he commanded the assault.

"You're not the only one who has a few tricks of his sleeve, Lamphere!" Cal shouted.

[Blizzard]

Cal summoned a flurry of black ice that condensed into large black pillars until the came crashing down onto the ships.

The icicles destroyed the lower level ships and only damaged parts of the higher level ones but that was good. He was starting to remember every ship. There were a few new ones that must have been from the last few centuries. But if he could eliminate the lower level ships he could eliminate the high level pirates on them.

[Dragons Breath]

The fire breath sent him higher into the sky. Then he took careful aim.

[Blizzard]

Fifteen ships sunk with one attack. But now he got a better picture and started forming a plan.

Cal landed on the mast of a ship in the midst of the lower and mid-tier ones.

[Dragon's breath]

Instead of blowing him away, he blew it around him the surrounding ships either sunk or caught fire and began to sink. The shouts of the burning ghosts was more in anger than in pain.

From his inventory he pulled out a handful of pellets and shoved them in his mouth. They were healing items infused with both magic and herbs. He wasn't a blacksmith so he couldn't make combat weapons, in truth his specialty was creating giant war devices for the City of Perils, and small stat boosting trinkets. But in order to rank up to that point he had to do a lot of experimenting. These pellets were just one of many happy accidents.

There were so many enemies that he would have to pull out all the stops.

Perhaps he could fudge the rules and fix one of his weapons to one of his ships. It was worth a try. 

He had created a series of cannons at one point for the city, but one was too small to be practical because all his past models exploded. That would be a problem in city he was trying to defend. But on a ghost ship that was his enemy and would regenerate with time it would be perfect.

Cal opened his City Development menu...

Yes, it worked. He placed it on the deck of a ship he cleared with a few well placed Wind slashes.

He aimed it at a line of ships, and grabbed a rope and swung to the next ship. With his free hand he pressed the fire button on his menu. The cannon glowed and fired a bright beam of light that erased everything in its path. The ship it was on rocked. It caused the ship to capsize before it exploded.

"Whooeee!" Cal said swinging between ships. "That was bigger than the last one!"

Cal tried not to think about how cheat-like his gamer abilities were. No way any normal person in this world could pull a giant cannon out of his pants. That's something only a god could do. But he tried not to think about that.

Too bad he didn't have any more that he could use like that. Most constructs he had fired arrows, spikes, spears they were traps in nature rather than offensive weapons. But now the fog had more or less dispersed. He was able to almost count the ships now, even though they were still in the hundreds.

Cal buckled up for the long haul, he still had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve. Lamphere was going to ghost piss his ghost pants.