Then Max shouted, “Barrier break.” The diamond shot from his hand, and the warlock’s shield cracked and began to fall apart. Just as it did, though, he finished his spell. Jackson activated both his wind shield from the Air Core and his earth ring’s ability to add fifty to his damage resistance.

  A wave of sheer force shaped into jagged cutting shards launched out from the froglok’s hands in a wide cone. They shredded Jackson’s air shield, and he yelped in pain as even with skin as tough as stone, he still felt like he was being stabbed by a thousand needles all at once. With his boosted resistance, quick math said he should have been able to resist nearly 200 points of damage, and that was after the 200 that it took to destroy his wind shield. Even with that he was knocked back down below 25% health again.

  Max, Aremay and the final golem were all down from the attack. The froglok wasn’t looking much better though. Max’s attack had burnt a hole into the front of his robe, and the seared frog flesh underneath smelled like grilled chicken. Jackson knew that this caster could probably still end them all. There was only one thing left to do.

  He had to bluff, but bluff aggressively. So he rushed at the froglok, slicing with his axe. Small magical shields came into existence to deflect most of the blows, but Jackson was attacking so furiously that some were bound to get through. After a cut to the face and another to his left leg, which hobbled the caster, he looked scared. Well, at least what Jackson imagined a scared frog would look like.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is just another enemy.”—Quote found upon the tombstone of a fallen king.

  Rostock—Jackson Nelson

  Apparently the froglok bought the attack. He jumped back and quick-cast a spell, but instead of it being aimed at Jackson, it was aimed behind him. A bright line appeared, and then just as a pair of perfectly crafted pocket doors were opened, there was suddenly a doorway in the air. On the other side of the doorway were the docks. The smell of sea air was strong all over Rostock, but a buffet of wind through the newly opened door brought a strong scent of fish and salt to Jackson.

  On the docks Jackson could make out dark-skinned pirates covered in exactly what he would have imagined for pirates. They had colorful sashes and a mishmash of clothing. Each wielded wicked weapons ranging from a spiked round ball that must have replaced a severed hand to wicked-looking cutlasses.

  As Jackson watched, the froglok stepped through the doorway and then was standing upon the docks. Both pirates and soldiers fell into disarray at his sudden arrival. He looked back at Jackson and shouted, “You will regret not accepting the Master’s offer. I went easy on you this time. Next time, I shall slowly boil you till you are…”

  Jackson cut him off, “Yeah, yeah, everyone knows if you boil a frog slowly enough, it won’t even realize it’s being boiled. Hey, wait a minute. What do you guys dissect in biology class?”

  “Arghh,” the froglok screeched in rage. “You keep speaking gibberish. Just know, I will be back for you. I will kill you and everyone you care about.”

  Something in Jackson snapped into place. Whether it be his mother’s desire to right wrongs or his father’s nature to protect, the result was the same. He shouted, “Why wait?” and then surged forward faster than any Earthborn human could have imagined possible.

  The froglok moved to close the doorway through space, but it was already too late. Jackson burst through onto the docks. The situation there was even more chaotic than what he had been able to see from the other side. His arrival was the stimulus for even more action.

  The enemy pirates gathered around and carried the froglok onto one of the three ships they’d landed with. The pirate ships were what Jackson recognized from history as sloops. This had always been one of his favorite eras. It seemed lively and fun, and that was even without considering the movie pirates named after birds. The ships were not huge but rather built for speed and had a low profile to allow them to cut through the waves quickly.

  Jackson would have chased after them immediately, but many of the men rallied around him. They seemed to want to protect him, but shortly after, it became clear what was going on. They had freed the rest of the villagers, but no one wanted to accept responsibility for letting the enemy escape or for chasing them. He was recognized as a noble, so they were trying to defer to him.

  It was just another bit of the insanity that was Eloria. It made no sense to him that over a hundred grown men wanted to defer to a fourteen-year-old boy, but he was too motivated at the moment. If it allowed him to destroy the enemy now and not have him come back another day, then Jackson would be whatever they needed him to be.

  “Are there any ships left that we can chase them in?”

  One of the knights answered, “Only the pirate ships. From what we have learned, the rest of the ships that were in port have been burnt.”

  “Well, do we have anyone here who can sail?”

  Two of the knights started to confer when another voice from the rear sounded out, “Begging your pardon, Your Grace, or whatever it is I’m supposed to be calling you. If you are wanting to pursue thems that did this to me home and burnt me ship, then I’m the man who can get you there. ’Twould be up to you to deal with them scoundrels and that froggie when we got there.”

  “Just call me Jackson. Take whatever men you need to get that ship ready. I want to pursue it as quickly as possible.”

  “On me word, Lord Jackson, we will have it ready in two shakes of a stick.” With that, the heavyset man, who clearly had drank far too much, far too many times, started bellowing out names, and men answered, running for the nearest ship. They had the look of fishermen and sailors. Few had shoes of any sort, and most were in clothing that was just as eclectic as the pirates’ attire had been, if less colorful.

  The first knight then looked at him and said, “What are your orders for the rest of us, Lord Jackson?”

  “I suppose we have to see how many of us can fit on the ship, but I want to take the best fighting men. High levels matter, but focus on anyone with ranged skills. Close-quarters fighting experience, high Agility or balance, as well as the ability to swim would all be useful skills.”

  “Yes, Lord Jackson.”

  As the knight turned to confer with the others, Jackson called out, adding, “Oh, and heavy armor probably isn’t a good idea.” Then he ignored them and sat down. He started casting healing spells on himself and worked on processing what he had learned about the froglok so far.

  The creature was obviously a powerful caster. Jackson worried that he was likely fourth tier. Just as clear were the creature’s flaws. He was stupid, for lack of a better word, stupid and arrogant. Oh, and also a coward. Jackson found himself hating the vile creature for all the harm that he had caused rather than fearing him. Perhaps it was anger that was shielding him, but for the moment all he could think about was ending the threat.

  To Jackson’s mind, the biggest threat was some spell that would damage his ship before they could close the distance. The next biggest would be an AoE like that poison attack from his walking stick or the weird thing that his bracer did. Jackson tried to focus and meditate. He hoped that the voice would have some insight or strategy of how to make this work.

  When nothing was forthcoming, he stood up and decided the burden was on him. If that was to be the case, then he would do his best. Never let it be said that he choked at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.

  Good to his word, the heavyset sailor who promised to have the ship ready for him sent a shoeless young man running down the dock to Jackson. The boy couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than Jackson but lacked the dense muscle that Jackson’s levels had provided. The young man had that wiry kind of build that Jackson associated with wrestlers.

  “Lord Jackson, Captain Sieg sent me to tell you that the ship is ready. He said to tell you that if you crammed stem to stern, maybe seventy-five soldiers could fit on board, but that it would leave little room for moving. He recommends closer to fifty but will defer to you, of course.”

  Jackson smiled as he stood and started moving towards the ship. He called out to the lead knight, whose name he couldn’t remember, and said, “Bring the best sixty men. The rest will have to stay here.”

  The knight looked like he wanted to argue but quickly stopped as Jackson kept moving past him toward the ship, and said, “Yes, Lord Jackson.”

  A few minutes later they were all on board. Jackson certainly appreciated the celerity with which they made everything happen. When he got on board the ship, he pulled the sailor turned captain and knight together. “So, I understand you are Captain Anton Sieg, but I don’t know your name, sir?”

  The knight answered, “Sir Belmont, m’lord.”

  “Okay, well, I suppose it’s too much to get you all to call me Jackson, so this will have to do. Is there anything that I need to know?”

  Sir Belmont said, “Just that I and the men here are ready to fight to the death to protect Albia.”

  “Screw that,” Anton spat out, quite literally as a disgusting black substance came out from his mouth and over the railing of the ship as he said it with a spitting motion.

  The two men looked ready to argue, but Jackson said, “My father always says it is easy for a man to say he will die for a cause or person, but the true test of devotion is if you will live for them. So let’s focus on ending the threat while keeping our own men alive.”

  “I knew I liked you, lad.”

  “You would do well to remember that you are addressing Lord Jackson, heir to House Nelson,” Sir Belmont said in response to Anton.

  “I’m sure he is a good lad, and what he says makes sense, but at sea, I’m the captain, and even if the king were on board, he would take his orders from me. At least he would if he wanted to make it to his destination. So here is how I see this. They have a good head start on us, but the ship they took is also laden with the booty they stole from Rostock. We can catch them, but it may take a few hours to do so.”

  “That is fine. I trust you to catch up to them, or I wouldn’t have gotten on board. When the fighting begins, though, I’m in command or Sir Belmont is. Fair enough?”

  “I figure that is square,” Anton replied.

  “Truthfully, Sir Belmont, you will be responsible for commanding the soldiers. My main task is going to be ending that froglok.”

  “And pardon me, but you can do that, m’lord?” Sir Belmont asked, showing the first signs of his uncertainty about following Jackson.

  “Unless some of you are Tier 3, I think I’m the best chance we have. I killed those ghosts, his apprentices, and ended one of the golems.”

  Both men looked at each other with wide eyes. Anton was the first to speak. “You wouldn’t be pulling our legs there, lad, or Lord Jackson? That be a mighty big fish you’re claiming to have caught.”

  “Believe me or don’t. It doesn’t change what needs to happen.”

  “Good enough, Lord Jackson. I will git you there as fast as this ship can move.”

  “And I shall have the men at the ready, Lord Jackson.”

  He nodded and then sat down to meditate again, but before he closed his eyes, he chuckled. This really was becoming a habit. If he kept it up, he really would be a monk.

  Not half an hour later, the same young man was sent to get Jackson again. “The captain says there is some strange business ahead, and you need to put eyes on it for yerself.”

  Jackson hopped to his feet in one smooth motion and followed the boy or man, he wasn’t sure what to call him, to the bow of the ship. There he saw that the sloop they were chasing was barely visible, surrounded by a thick mist, which was being lit up by repeated flickers of light both in white and orange.

  “What do you make of that, Lord Jackson?” Anton asked him. The form of the question and the way he was looking at Jackson made him feel like he was being tested.

  “I don’t have your experience at sea, but if I were guessing, I would say that there is a magical battle going on up ahead of us.”

  “That is what I make of it as well. I’m of a mind to avoid it, but on the other hand, it might be the best opportunity for us to catch the scum.”

  “You told me you would catch them. I think that is what we do, but you tell me the best way to go about it, Captain,” Jackson said.

  Anton nodded as if satisfied with Jackson’s answer. “We will go around the side and get a sense of who he is fighting before we engage.”

  “Make it so, then,” Jackson said, knowing the reference would be lost on them.

  He paid close attention as the ship entered the mist. Anton had said the water here was deep enough that rocks and shoals were not a concern. Not far into the mist they finally discovered what the froglok was fighting. His sloop had been trapped between two large galleons. Normally, Jackson might have been content to let the three ships duke it out. Both the large ships clearly had at least one caster on them, because spells were being fired back and forth.

  The froglok was attacking more effectively though, as his spells had one of the galleons trapped in ice, and the other had a large hole in its side at the water level. Jackson was far from an expert on sailing, but he imagined that it was taking on a huge amount of water. Then he saw the thing that made this all the more troubling. The galleons were flying the flag of Faelora. If either side won this battle, it was a loss for Albia.

  With that in mind, a quick plan formed, and Jackson determined not to let either side win. “Bring us in as fast as you can straight at the sloop. Sir Belmont, have the archers ready to cover us. We will be boarding the sloop as soon as we can.” Then he looked at Anton and asked, “Do you use grappling hooks or what to connect to another boat?”

  “How should I know? You think I’m a pirate or something? I’ve caught fish for forty years but never caught any booty,” Captain Sieg said.

  Jackson shrugged. “I thought you probably knew more than I did about it.”

  “Fer sure, that makes sense. I guess we can throw some planks across. What do you want to do though if one of those galleons sends boarders onto our ship?”

  “That is why Sir Belmont and half the men are going to stay here until we see what the galleons do.”

  Just at that moment all eyes were drawn to the pirate sloop as the froglok soared up into the sky. He flew till he was two hundred feet above the galleons. Then all the mist and clouds swirled into a funnel cone around him. In the span of fifteen seconds, a tornado formed right there and then began to not only suck up water from the sea, spraying it like a massive hose onto the closer galleon, but also to move into the Faeloran ships. The casters upon those ships didn’t seem to be able to counter this spell.

  Jackson watched as one of the galleons was ripped apart by the tornado. The wood cracked and split. Huge splinters were thrown in all directions, slaughtering many of the sailors and soldiers on board. They were so deadly that they rained down on the pirate ship, and some even launched over to the captured pirate sloop. The sailor who had been holding the wheel was launched from his post and pinned to the cabin at the rear of the sloop by a five-foot-long spear of split wood.

  Amidst the creaking of wood and the moaning of the winds, Jackson almost couldn’t hear the screams of the Faeloran soldiers and sailors as they broke apart just as easily as the ship, flung into the sea or pierced by dozens of foot-long splinters. It all came together to create a horrifying cacophony.

  “You can’t possibly hope to defeat that?” Anton asked as all of them sought any shelter they could find.

  It was hard to make himself heard over the wind, but Jackson yelled back, “He is killing his own men just as much as the others. My hope is that he will be worn out after this display and vulnerable. Either way, we can’t let a monster like that escape.”

  Both the captain and the knight nodded, but neither looked happy. In less than a minute, the first galleon was split in half by the froglok’s spell, and the second ship already had its side ripped open. It was going to sink no matter what. The mage on its deck finally got off another spell, which sent a harpoon piercing through the wind to ram into the froglok.

  The wind broke up and the storm stopped, leaving an eerie silence as soon as the froglok’s concentration was broken. His flight spell allowed him to make it to his own ship before he completely lost control.

  Jackson stood up. “Now, get us to that ship.”

  Even after the tornado broke apart, the water remained choppy. The two massive galleons began to sink, and the water was filled with drowned or drowning men. Anton shouted, and their ship began moving forward as the natural winds took hold again.

  As soon as they touched the pirate ship, Jackson leapt over to it. He didn’t wait until boards and hooks were thrown across. As he landed on the ship, he began moving amongst the few pirates who were still alive. He kicked and punched his way through them like a one-man wrecking crew. Most of them were so battered that they couldn’t put up any resistance.

  When one swung a cutlass at him, Jackson dodged by bending backwards supernaturally. His enhanced pliability came into play. He shot his left foot forward into the attacker’s groin and then bounced up. One hand grabbed the wrist below the cutlass, and the elbow of his other arm slammed into the side of the pirate’s jaw. As he went down, Jackson lifted his foot and stomped the exposed throat and then moved past him.

  He only had one target, and all his focus was on getting to the froglok before his opportunity was gone. Jackson saw him. He was bleeding green blood all over the deck, which was already covered with the broken remains of the pirates. Jackson shook his head. This monster really was an idiot. He had power but lashed out with it indiscriminately. He killed his friends and foes alike.

  Worse, he gave a weapon like the flaming sword to a mindless creature like the golem. He simply couldn’t see the consequences of his actions. Jackson thought that was crazy. It was contrary to anything that he had been taught by his parents, at school, or even at the Royal Academy. Not even in a violent world like Eloria did people act so recklessly. The froglok was a rabid dog and had to be put down.