Free Web NovelChapter 106: Deep Ocean Pivot
Down inside the fjord shadows, forty obsidian galleons caught the incoming swell, surging outward with terrifying speed.
Out on the open surf, Menual sailors stood paralyzed beside their loaded pitch-catapults, watching an unburnable, pitch-black wall rise out of the fog to cut off their escape route.
"What... is that?"
"SAIL BACK!"
Frantic screams replaced their military order.
Winches spun wildly as mercenary captains desperately tried to crank their rusted iron anchors back up.
They were far too late. freeweɓnøvel.com
Splintering pine shrieked across the bay.
The lead Milfheim galleon drove its brass prow straight through the midsection of the Menual flagship, lifting the smaller vessel several feet out of the water before snapping its keel like a dry twig.
Standing on the high bow of his command ship, Kane didn’t check for boarding planks.
’Why walk when you can fly?’ he grinned savagely.
[Skill Activated: Minor Vigor]
[Stamina Cost: Negligible]
Coiling his leg muscles, he launched himself across the twenty-foot gap of churning saltwater.
Swoosh.
He hit the enemy deckboards dead center, the impact cracking the salted planks beneath his boots.
[Skill Activated: Berserker Rage Lv2]
[Effect: Pain Nullified. Output Increased by 40%]
A red blur amidst the stinging sea spray, Kane didn’t bother parrying the sloppy spear thrusts aimed at his ribs.
He stepped right through them, swinging Mjoldr in a brutal upward arc that bypassed the screaming mercenaries entirely, catching the primary tension ropes of the ship’s central deck catapult.
SNAP.
Severing the braided hemp triggered a catastrophic misfire.
The loaded catapult arm whipped forward erratically, driving its own ignited pitch-boulder straight down through the Menual ship’s lower deckboards.
Wood exploded outward.
A geyser of orange flame and screaming sailors erupted from the cargo hold.
Silver steel flashed to his immediate left.
Seraphine cleared the ocean gap a heartbeat behind him, her paladin broadsword singing as she severed a mercenary’s extended wrist before the man could drop a weighted net over Kane’s blind spot.
’She moves like a dancer,’ Kane gathered, watching her spin low to kick a second soldier backward into the open rigging.
Her white cape was already ruined, stained with soot and wet sea salt, but her posture had entirely shed its rigid, holy training.
She fought with a feral, loose-limbed fluidity.
Stepping backward until her shoulder blades pressed firmly against Kane’s spine, she let out a breathless laugh amidst the ringing steel.
"Your left flank is sloppy!" she called out, parrying a desperate overhead broadsword strike.
"I figure you wanted something to do!" Kane rumbled back, catching a charging officer by the throat and hurling him sideways into the burning catapult wreckage.
Clearing a ten-pace circle of deckboards left a momentary pocket of air inside the slaughter.
Kane didn’t waste it on scanning the horizon.
Reaching behind him, his fingers caught the leather collar of Seraphine’s harness, hauling her backward against his chest.
Before she could process the grip, he hooked his arm securely around her waist, lifting her onto her tiptoes as his mouth captured hers.
It was a filthy exchange born straight out of the carnage.
Tasting of sea salt, copper, and survival adrenaline, Seraphine didn’t stiffen.
She didn’t remind him of the Goddess.
Instead, a whimper of need tore out of her throat as her tongue pushed frantically into his mouth, matching his dominant, bruising pace stroke for stroke.
Her gauntleted fingers dug into his bare shoulders, anchoring herself against the dizzying high of his bloodlust aura while the ship tilted beneath their boots.
Breaking the kiss with a gasp, Kane bit down playfully on her lower lip, his thumb pressing hard into the dip of her waist.
"Keep your eyes open," he growled against her skin, his chest heaving.
"We aren’t finished."
Her silver irises swam in a dilated haze before snapping back into lethal focus.
"Shut up and watch your right."
Across the tilted deck, the surviving Menual Vanguard Captain was desperately trying to untie a small escape skiff from the stern railing.
Crossing the slick boards in two long strides, Kane caught the officer by the brass gorget at his throat.
With a single, effortless heave, he hoisted the man up and pinned his spine backward over the splintered railing, suspending him directly above the shark-filled surf below.
The captain thrashed wildly, his boots kicking empty air.
"Morvak sent twelve garbage scows to test my patience," Kane snarled, wiping a streak of black pitch from his own jaw as he leaned over the terrified man.
"Where is the Iron Duke’s real fleet?"
Coughing up a mixture of red foam and saltwater, the Menual captain looked down at the unburnable black galleons systematically turning his vanguard into driftwood.
A hysterical laugh bubbled out of his throat.
"You stupid barbarian," the captain wheezed, his fingers clawing uselessly at Kane’s grip.
"You painted the wrong door."
’Huh?’
Kane narrowed his eyes, applying just enough pressure to make the brass gorget bite into the man’s windpipe.
"Speak plainly."
"Morvak didn’t build those catapults to take your rocky little pass," the captain spat, his teeth stained pink.
"The Iron Duke sailed out of the southern deltas four days ago. A hundred plated ironclads... sailing straight through the deep waters..."
’A hundred ships,’ Kane calculated, his blood instantly turning to ice as the strategic reality assembled inside his mind.
’Bypassing the coastline entirely.’
"...sailing straight for your pretty Elven Queen’s vulnerable royal harbor," the captain finished, grinning like a madman as the burning Menual ship suddenly gave a catastrophic structural lurch.
Before Kane could interrogate him further, a blinding magic circle flared directly beneath the captain’s breastplate.
’A suicide rune,’ Kane realized a fraction of a second too late.
"See you in the Abyss, Border Lord!" the captain shrieked.
The brass armor cracked open, leaking a high-pitched, unstable whine that promised to blow the entire stern section of the ship into splinters within the next three seconds.
’Fuck.’
Spinning on his foot, he lunged across the tilted deckboards and scooped Seraphine into his arms, tucking her head beneath his broad chin.
She let out a gasp, her fingers instinctively tangling into his open shirt.
"Jump!" Kane roared.
Coiling his legs, he launched them entirely over the ruined railing just as the rune detonated.
