Project Empress 027

 [Cahpter 6 continued]

As Cara rushed forward, she turned towards Elisa shouting, “And remember: no killing!”

“Survive first, preach later”, came the answer from Elisa who was moving away from Cara, looking for a good position to start combat. 

Cara had already decided for a spot to initiate combat. She was running towards the trap door that she had seen moving earlier. She was pretty sure that the pirates were going to use it to ambush her and Elisa. As she was getting closer, she saw the trap door door rising. But that wasn’t all bad, she was already close to it and she had chosen her line of approach so that the side with the hinges was facing her. 

She let the bag with the weapons slip from her shoulders and let her body fall forwards pushing everything she had into a sprint. The hatch was already a third open when she jumped. It reached the half way point when she reached it with her feet, landing on it slamming it shut again. She could hear screams and falling bodies below her. She stood up, the hatch below her now her pedestal. She extended her sword to one pirate who was rushing her with a hatched and a knife in his hands, who suddenly came to a skidding halt. 

‘Yeah, cower before the sword empress`, Cara thought. 

This was also the moment when she heard a crossbow bolt fly past her head, only just missing her ear. She instantly collapsed back into a crouch, looking around her but she could not spot whoever shot her. Probably marksmen positioned on the decks of the surrounding ships. 

It reminded her of something that Walter had told her during their long training session. “Sometimes you will need to sting like a bee and scuttle away like a cockroach. Never let your pride stand in the way of your life.”

She got that lesson know. She felt an angry bump against the trap door below her. Before she scuttled, she pulled the hatch open, cowering behind it. There was a triumphant cry from below. It was cut short by another crossbow bolt, this one hammering against the metal of the open trapdoor. 

“Stop firing, you asshole! We are on the same side”, a voice screamed from below. Cara took a quick peek around her cover and saw that a head had appeared, this pirate was shaking his fist angrily. She followed where the man was looking and spotted the marksman on top of a cargo container on the ship from which her and Elisa had fled from. The marksman shrugged his shoulders while reloading his weapon. 

Cara slammed the hatch closed again. There was another muffled thump and crash. She locked the hatch to buy her some more time before the next pirate tried to climb up through there. Then she scuttled as fast as she could towards the next tree. 

As she moved, she spotted a pirate with an iron capped club who had been sneaking up on her from the back. She changed her scuttling to running. The Pirate with the hatched and knife had now regained his wits and was charging her again. He had chosen a slight detour to reach her that would keep him out of the line of fire of the allied ‘snipers’. 

By now Cara’s panic was starting to catch up to her. Too much was happening all around her. The trees that had appeared massive for something growing on a small flat ship, now looked far too thin and reedy to be of any help. More like bushes with high aspirations, rather than proper trees. Also, the direction she was running towards held a third pirate who was still at the side lines, watching and armed with a sabre. He was watching her with the patience of a hunter, waiting for her to be in range and distracted to calmly strike her down. That all the people around her were armed with black weapons only didn’t help her calm down in the least. 

Behind her she could hear a pirate scream. A quick look showed her that Elisa was winning her first duel. Her first opponent had been disarmed. Both his weapon and a good part of the arm that had carried said weapon lay on the floor. 

“No killing!”, Cara screamed. 

“He will live”, Elisa screamed back, turning around, pushing her strange glaive towards her next opponent, who fell over backwards to avoid running into its approaching point.

Cara had meant her appeal to reach  everyone involved. Because as far as she could tell, as much as these pirates were carrying non-lethal weapons, they were certainly using them with a very lethal mindset. ‘All of these people are insane…’, Cara thought. 

But there wasn’t much time for thinking. The pirate with the club had abandoned all pretences of stealth and had openly rushed Cara. He had stopped just outside the reach of her sword. The moment Cara had focused on Elisa, he pushed forward, club held high to strike down Cara. 

“Wrong approach”, Cara said, shifting away from the attack. Positioning her back towards the next tree, to force the pirate with the hatched and the knife to move around it. 

She shot the Point of her sword forward. “My reach is much grater than yours”. she said as she caught her attacker in the solar plexus. The moment she had made contact, she pushed her entire centre of gravity into the attack by moving half a step forward. 

The pirate in front of her doubled over, all of his breath leaving him with a wheeze. As his arms crossed over his stomach, Cara pulled her sword back, throwing a strike out of a movement of her wrists against the the arm that held the club. She felt her sword pushing through the muscle, hitting bone. The pirate made a strange croak, letting his weapon fall to the floor.

Cara didn’t even wait for the club to hit the floor when she turned around again. 

The pirate with the hatched and knife was moving around the tree to attack her from the right. While the hunter pirate with the sabre had been calmly approaching her from her left. The moment Cara spotted him he stopped his his approach. He shot her a sly smile, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Cara filed that man away under ‘dangerous’. Turning her attention towards the man with hatchet and knife, she never let the hunter out of her field of vision. 

This opponent too, knew very well up to which distance he was safe. The moment he got close to Cara he stopped his advance. He glanced around. His eyes stopping at the hunter. At something above the hunter on the decks of another ship and at something right behind Cara.

‘Behind me?’, cold dread grabbed hold of Cara. She tried to swallow down her rising fear, but her mouth was dry while her throat was constricting with panic. ‘No, I just looked in that direction there is nothing there apart from the pirate I just beat.’ She could still hear that one wheezing and trying to get back enough air into his lungs to scream.

Her panic however was not that easily convinced. ‘Are you sure?’, it asked. ‘Haven’t you overlooked anything?’, it said, adding: ‘Those wheezes are so loud they could easily mask light footsteps…”. Her stomach had to this point felt like it was filled with boiling acid, now the acid had turned into lava that was now liquefying her innards. 

‘I am sure…’, Cara thought. ‘And even if I’m wrong. The greatest threat is right in front of me.’

This time it was a lesson from Natalie that she remembered. “There is only the Path”, she had said, “there is no need for fear on the Path, because the art will protect you. With the art you will move through all your opponents, always forward on the Path.”

“Easy for you to say”, Cara said, confusing the pirate in front of her, but not nearly enough to gain any advantage from it. 

‘Forward it is’, Cara thought, raising her long-sword high above her head taking advantage of her longer reach to hit the head of her opponent, who easily swiped away her attack with his knife, following through with his hatched targeting Cara’s arms. Just as Cara had expected. The moment her sword had made contact she had stared to pull her blade back, together with the foot she had pushed forward. Her head was held high and close to her head the point of her blade was still pointing towards the pirate, when his hatchet clashed against her sword. Cara took the energy of the strike to swing her sword around her head, now striking a counter attack against the arms of the pirate. Following through with a step. She did hit the arms of the pirate, blocking them. The pirate whinced as the point of Cara’s sword flashed towards his head. Seeing this he pushed Cara’s sword away to the side. Normally he would have cut open his arms with this. But with a black sword this wasn’t a problem. 

But Cara wasn’t done. The moment the pirate pushed against her blade she pushed the pommel of her sword under her striking arm, her blade turning over from straight towards his face to pointing away from him. Cara pushed her sword forward, as the pirate was still moving his arms. Now, instead of moving Cara’s sword away from his face this now smashed it right into his mouth. Again, had Cara’s sword been sharp this would have cut his face open from ear to ear. It was still enough, especially as Cara was following her strike through with her own force and movement, to smash into his cheek and the teeth behind it with enough force to throw his face around. A splash of blood erupting from it. 

Instead of being a good little pirate and stopping his attack, he just shook his head, focusing on Cara again. 

She had stopped her attack, thinking that she had won. She had moved slightly to get a quick look at what was happening behind her. There was only the pirate with the club still writhing on the floor. No one else. Her panic shrugged her shoulders and went looking for something else to torment Cara about. The hunter was still moving towards her, his head tilting this way and that way, trying to gauge the best way to approach Cara. 

Cara was pulled back into the current situation when a hatchet followed by the point of a knife came flying towards her. She moved out of the way, only to now be confronted by a knife point followed by the hatchet. Another step back to get her out of harms way. 

This time the crossbow bolt actually grazed her face leaving a burning mark on her cheek. Her panic sprang up again to tell Cara of all the exiting ways she would now be murdered. Cara told her panic to please fuck off, at least until she was done fighting. With sweat damp hands she shifted her grip on her sword, focusing for now only on the man in front of her. His attacks where good. She could not block both weapons at once, the pirate had also changed his approach in such a way that she could not repeat her trick from before. However, his technique was weak and if he had a style it was primitive. He fought with the cunning of an angry man. 

“There is no anger”, Cara quoted Walter, as she held her sword in front of her and as the pirate´s weapons came clashing down on it, she pulled it back, instantly pushing forward again as both of them had passed. “There is only the path.”, she continued, pushing her sword forward, it´s point accelerating into the throat of her enemy. The hit was strong enough that he man fell over backwards, the weapons cluttering out of his hands. 

Cara turned back towards the tree that she had used as cover and rushed towards it. Just in time, as she heard another bolt ricocheting from the deck behind her. With one hand she wiped away the warm sweat on her face not noticing that it was blood. 

Moving forward she saw the hunter, waiting for her, but she also noticed that the pirate with the club was slowly getting up. Wheezing, using the club to steady himself, he now held the weapon in his off hand. The moment her attention shifted the hunter moved forward. He was still far enough away, yet one or two quick steps would bring him in range. 

“You are going to retreat now, right?”, Cara asked the pirate with the club. As he got up still gasping for air, he turned towards her, strange flames blazing in his eyes. 

Instead of retreating he raised his club moving towards Cara again.

“Strong”, the hunter said, nodding at his comrade. 

Cara exhaled. “What did I not kill you for?”, she asked the pirate with the club. She didn’t wait for his answer, rushing point first towards him. Her opponent, not going to fall for the same trick twice, turned sideways, letting Cara’s sword pass him while still closing the distance to her.

However, Cara had played another trick this time. As the man had moved, he stood now in front of the entire length of Cara’s sword. With a yell, she turned her entire momentum around pushing her body while she was turning close to the hilt of her sword, to move forward with it with her full weight and momentum behind it. Her sword moved horizontally  into her attacker, catching him right in the stomach. Then it rose as Cara moved from a low into a high stance, moving all the inner organs of the man up into his diaphragm and sending him flying again. She followed the flying man, turning her sword around. She aimed the pommel of her sword at the falling man’s hand that was still holding onto the club. When he landed so did Cara’s strike. With a crunch it crushed the club into the hand which went limp. Cara swatted away the club with one hand.

“And please stay down, hurting you… hurts you more than me… but it´s not fun at all.”

The man was flopping around in answer. Cara turned her sight towards the hunter. He wasn’t where she remembered him to be. Instead there was now a shadow accelerating towards her head in the corner of her eye. With a mighty “Miiieeep” Cara jumped over the man in front of her, diving out of the attack´s way just in time, so that it didn’t hit her head splitting it open, but instead hit the calf of her right leg as she crash tumbled out of the way. Her opponents sabre transferred all of the remaining energy into the chest of the pirate lying on the floor.

“Sorry mate”, the the pirate with the sabre murmured as he lifted his sabre and moved around his now motionless comrade. 

Cara by now had found all her feet again, put them below her, sorted her hands into what she thought had to be left and right and was pushing herself up again. Her left leg was pounding with diffuse pain. If this had been a training session she would have tapped out and sat on the bench for a while. This was the type of pain that held back until you rested, to then tell you how bad it was. Usually leading to worse injuries because one kept pushing the damaged body part. But now Cara was glad for it, because right now she needed to go on and pay the pain tax later if she wanted to survive. 

“Best out of three?”, Cara asked.

“Heh”, was the only answer she got, before the hunter showered her with a wave of attacks. 

The panic was back. It had nothing helpful to say, only that there was now only pain and death left for Cara. 

Cara had stopped breathing, being pushed back by the hail of attacks raining down on her. Step by step she lost ground. The hunter came ever closer while behind her one of the aspirational trees that had been supposed to be her advantage cut of her escape route. 

Now it was only a matter of time until one of the attacks struck her hand or her arms.

Behind her she could feel the tree as she bumped with her back against it. 

Cara had lost.

Only that she hadn’t. 

The strong of her blade was protecting her. Despite her panic. Despite her mind drifting to how she would be beaten. Jeanne D`Arc and her art had protected her. She breathed in, pushing her panic out of her body. As she breathed out, she moved the point of her sword, that had been pointing towards the sky, back to where it belonged into the face of her opponent. Striking him in his right temple. The hunter staggered.

“One”, said Cara.

The hunter was still in the flow of his attack though, trying to hit her back on the other side. Again, Cara’s strong blocked. The point of her sword accelerated into the left temple of the hunter. 

“Two”, said Cara.

The hunter was now staggering back. But he did not stop his attacks. Turning his sword around he now made a rising slash against Cara’s sword. The sabre clashed against Cara’s sword sending her point flying back up towards the Sky. 

Cara moved forward, flying down into a low crouch, pulling her sword back close to her chest. From down here her opponent was wide open. 

“You lose”, Cara said, attacking the hunter with a rising thrust that caught him under the chin sending him flying backwards. 

“Three”, she said. “And because you are more stubborn than wise…”, she followed the flying man and struck him with a descending strike, where again she moved her body with her sword, sent the man crashing back on the floor. He bounced off the floor once before he came to rest before Cara. His sabre rolling out of his hands. 

She took the sabre and threw it overboard, to not encourage further stupidity. 

She then hobbled towards where Elisa was. The forge walker had been pushed towards the railing of the orchard ship, but where her enemies had thought her cornered, she had taken care of all of them. As Cara was moving towards her, she could see how Elisa was using the blunt side of her glaive to throw a last attacker rushing her overboard in a high arc. 

Elisa saw Cara and said: “Don’t worry little ingot, they will all live”, she looked across the deck of the Orchard ship. “As long as they quickly seek medical attention…”

“Now”, the voice of commander Aurei von Brecksbach echoed over the PA, “You ignored my generous offer to surrender and then you massacred my precious fighters. I’m afraid, that I have to take care of you myself”, he said. He now stood tall, illuminated from below on the highest point of the ship Cara and Elisa had fled from. 

“First of all, no more snipers. If I catch one of your ‘precision’ bolts one more time, so help me god…”, he glowered to his left and right. Some quiet murmurs could be heard from around the orchard ship. 

“I will have to dispose of you both myself”, he said. He opened the clasp holding his cape, with a dramatic swirl he cast it away. He then crouched down and to Cara’s amazement he jumped high into the air toward the Orchard ship. Instead of crashing into the deck below, he descended slowly down towards the ground while holding a pose, his arms held wide one of his legs pulled up slightly. 

When he had almost reached the ground he punched the big iron brooch he had on the right breast of his uniform, this released the harness that had been holding him aloft. 

He used the fall to land in a dramatic crouch.

“Lights!”, he demanded. To Cara’s surprise several lights came on, bathing the commander in the limelight. He stood up and with a giant grin on his face he said to Cara and Elisa: 

“It’s show time!”