Rise of the Archmage Alister

The first sign that they were after the refugees was that they didn’t fire upon the pirates in earnest, though they were a much more powerful vessel. Rather, they loosed shots with chains between them at the mast of the ship, trying to cripple and capture rather than kill.

The next sign of this was that a small group of the corsairs came below deck almost immediately to attempt to capture the refugees that cowered behind Julieta. They spoke a tongue that Julieta didn’t understand, but their intent was clear when their leader, a short man with black hair, gestured half of them forward. Julieta responded with haste, using telekinesis to toss a hail of barrels and crates from nearby at the approaching three men.

One of them was knocked into a wall mount and bashed his head against it, but the other two, while stunned, were not particularly harmed. However this was just the opening, as Julieta used that time to prepare a longer spell; reshaping the nearby chain into a fierce-looking barbed wire that proceeded to launch itself like a snake at the nearest of the two, wrapping around his neck, twisting, and grinding the hard points into the arteries. As it went flying towards the third assailant, it was met with a hand grabbing it out of the air. While it looked painful, the man didn’t so much as flinch before pinning it to the ground with a boot.

The chain wasn’t long enough to reach anywhere that could cause meaningful harm, and this made Julieta grimace. These weren’t just any pirates, then… she sensed anti-magic weakening her spell when he caught the chain. The same came from his boot as he stomped the spiky chain into the ground. Before long, the impromptu golem stopped moving.

Shit. She didn’t expect them to come equipped with something to counter her magic… they were doubtlessly better warriors, but she drew her dagger all the same. Unfortunately, this was only met by a drawn pistol pointed square at her head. More yelling in a foreign tongue with clear intent; cast again, and she’d be new paint on the wall. Thankfully, she wasn’t out of the fight yet…

She charged forward regardless, the bullet being slowed to a stop by the same shawl that she was using for payment upon arrival. As he blinked in surprise at her not stopping, she slipped the blade between his ribs, stabbing him right in the heart. The remaining three, now clearly irritated at the resiliency of the lot, began to all pull their cutlasses and move at the same time towards the group.

The dagger jerked itself free from the chest of the man it was embedded into, and zipped back into her hand, only to be thrown supernaturally quickly at the nearest of the remaining three. He batted it away all the same with his own blade, starting to dash forward to get her under control… only to have the blade come flying right back and stab into his throat from behind, breaking the vertebra just below his skull. Before the blade could return to her once more, the now dead man, still on his feet from momentum, completed his journey; just far enough to crash into her and knock her onto her back, her light weight pinned beneath him. It didn’t take long for her to throw him off, but that was too long all the same. By the time she freed herself, a blade was inches from her face.

“Don’t. Move,” was said in a heavy accent by the man above her, irritation having become rage, before a cry of pain came from one of the remaining two people. This didn’t sound like it came from the cacophony of violence coming from the upper deck, though. As the man keeping Julieta pinned turned to investigate, a loud gunshot echoed around the room they had all been staying in. A large hole opened in the back of his head, spraying the survivors in viscera. A look at the source of the initial noise showed a man with an axe in his chest, a red hot axe slowly setting the body ablaze. “Fucking… it’s the Mercury Grenadier. One of the most powerful ships that Yfren has at their disposal. If we captured this… we might even get our corsair status back,” he said, eyes alight with excitement. “Let’s go. We have a plan for this kind of case.”

The confused refugees followed after him, with Julieta helping deal with the occasional Yfreni corsair, who also made their way below deck. After passing through a secret hatch in the lower deck, they found themselves in the captain’s quarters. A finely decorated room with a desk covered in maps, with a tall standing globe nearby. It even had rough estimations on the shape and size of the Shrouded Land on it, the whole thing made of cork with gold trimmings marking the lands.

While there were a couple of people in said room, looting, they were no trouble to deal with. They had only sent over a small part of their crew, it seemed…

Despite the implications thereof, the lot of them didn't seem disturbed. The plan became better known when what appeared to be a magic circle appeared on the floor of the ship's spacious Captain's quarters. The crew rushed about, gathering seemingly random objects and placing them on key points of the circle. A candle here, a chair there; it wasn't until Julieta used Manasight that the reasoning became clear. All of these objects were loaded with immense amounts of mana. There were batteries hidden inside them.

The crew of pirates began to chant, pouring more energy into the room-sized circle. One of the burlier members went to the door and barred it with a hefty-looking steel rod. Just in time, too, it seemed; not a minute afterward, banging started. Outside the windows, a dense fog seemed to be forming, spreading across the water only in the direction of the bigger ship.

The banging became shouting before it became silence. The fog began to swell and rise higher and higher, eventually entirely subsuming this vessel, and soon it began to consume the other vessel as well. Like before, there came shouting, then silence. A good thirty minutes passed, with every crew member completely draining their mana reserves as well as the batteries before the captain let out a sigh and wordlessly led them over to the door. The mist had cleared from the porthole-style windows, and when the door opened, it had vacated the deck as well.

There were corpses everywhere. The ones that died from the poison had horrible boils and blisters all over their skin. A glance at one victim’s face told her exactly what it did; inflammation. Sealed up their throat tight so they couldn’t breathe. What a grim way to go… and though she said nothing of it, a few of the members of the friendly crew were among the suffocated.

The remaining members began wordlessly tidying up, rolling corpses into the ocean. A few minutes of concentrated fire on the crewless enemy vessel had it sinking in no time at all; none of this ever happened. The message, though wordless, was clear.

It was a matter of twenty hours after the horrific event that they made landfall by rowing, the storm deterring anyone else who may have been giving chase at some point. The protection of the goddess remained good, and they avoided all hazards on the way. Upon landing, a grim, quiet exchange happened; the dagger and silk were traded over, having well proven their worth.