CHAPTER 476: WAR OF IRON - PART 6 - LANDFALL

Valera piloted the Queen of Iron herself for the delicate task of entering a city while under fire. Jonn the Lashist stood at the foremast, using his whip to secure himself as he shielded their approach.

Being at the front of the formation, the Queen of Iron was taking more than her fair share of artillery spells as she approached. And when they were less than a hundred measures from shore...

"Mercs at the ready!" Valera shouted, and the front wave of attackers all gathered on the right side of the ship. "Docking crew at the ready!" Behind them gathered Valera’s people, whose only job was to secure the ship to the dock and deploy the gangplanks.

At the last moment, a stray fireball caught the crow’s nest, and Valera watched in mild horror as her lookout fell to his death. The topsail beneath it began to burn greedily, and automatically her crew moved to address the fires, one of them putting out the corpse before launching a stream of water at the mainsail with magic.

We still have enough wind to get to shore, she reassured herself.

Arrive they did, with the Queen of Iron scraping her ironoak hull against the wooden dock as the crew dropped all the sails at once.

As she descended from the pilot deck, Valera tapped one of the mercenary mages on the shoulder and told her to replace Jonn to protect the ship.

The latter had already leaped onto the shore, wielding his whips with a wicked grin on his face as a group of Chainsfreers charged out of a side street, rushing the dock as more defenders suddenly appeared in the windows further back, laying into the vanguard with spells and arrows.

One defender at the front, a dwarf with a massive pair of shields strapped to her arms, charged the defenders, pouring on speed as she slammed her shields together with a resonant clang.

Jonn the Lashist flicked his whip, scoring a hit on her around her shield and opening a bleeding gash in her leather armor, but the next moment she impacted him mid-dodge, the spikes on her shields holding him in the air as she carved a line through the defenders, ignoring their blows even as she bashed into those too slow or shocked to dodged.

Every impact hit Jonn first, and Valera even smiled when she heard the man’s leg snap. Truly, her minder had to be the epitome of mediocre human mages...

At the end of the docks, the first thing the dwarf did was pull her shields apart, and Jonn along with them.

"Who wants some, you slaver bastards!?" she roared a challenge that had every nearby mercenary flinching away.

Guess it’s time I make my debut. Valera sighed. She’d rather cut and run, but she had mercenaries still to deliver and some of her crew were down there. So she leaped with a pirrhouette, landing softly on her feet as she flicked out her dueling cutlass. The only thing that marred her perfect landing was the loss of her captain’s hat, an expensive tricorn with a feather that she rather liked.

"Well, well... you must be the Bloody Razor," the dwarf sneered. "What a good bit of fortune. You killed my father."

"I’ve killed a lot of people," Valera replied, the mercs behind her finally getting back to work. "But mostly they killed themselves. Suicides are sadly common in my line of work." She gestured at the dead top half of Jonn. "After all, that’s what taking me on is..." Something finally clicked, and Valera realized who she was about to fight. "... Mayvel Van Xuport."

A memory surfaced. A dwarf who took out a Syndicate loan with his family as collateral, only when he failed to pay it back, he had resisted the moment she’d arrived to collect. A distasteful click sounded from Val’s tongue against her teeth, did this dwarf even know? Valera said, "I think I remember why your father died. He bargained with your mother and you as collateral, and refused to pay up."

"Liar!" Mayvel shouted, bursting forward as she tried to pinch Valera between her shields. "Prepare to die!" she added as she slammed one outward towards Valera’s dodge.

So she’s definitely an enhancer like me. But not as fast. Valera’s concentrations were in strength and speed. And in the former, she had more than enough, she thought.

Valera dodged the secondary attack with ease, leaping over the dwarf with a cut that struck her shoulder. The moment she landed, Mayvel nearly hit her as the arm holding the shoulder twisted about to slam the shield into the dock, rattling the whole thing as Mayvel used the leverage of the first shield to spin into an attack with the next, coming at Valera from above.

The mercenaries gave them a wide berth as Valera hopped backward, before slipping around Mayvel to keep her towards the end of the dock instead of in the fray.

"Graaah!" the woman shouted as she pursued Valera with single-minded fury, one plank of wood from the docks stuck on the front of her shield. The next few moments blurred as Valera gave her all to dodging the thick iron shields, not wanting to shatter her blade against them.

I’ll tire her out soon. After all, I can keep up my magic all day.

Valera’s magic might not have been the strongest, but she could do something most mages couldn’t, and that was to continuously enhance herself, for days on end if she avoided sleep. This meant that battles of attrition favored her, and she fully intended to make this fight last as long as possible if the mercs managed to hold back the Chainsfreers.

By the look of it, which she snatched while midair into a dodge, it was pretty much even. Mayvel was their elite, and Valera was keeping her pinned down. Which means I am making an important contribution to the battle and preserving the Syndicate assets and- Shit!

Compiling her report in her head had cost her precious focus, such that she’d failed to notice that the next shield coming for her was not on Mayvel’s arm. It was airborne. And behind it, Mayvel was holding her remaining shield in a two-handed grip, ready to swat Valera no matter what direction she picked.

With her only choices to avoid the first shield being to fall into the water, which would be embarrassing, roll, which would leave her open to Mayvel, or jump, which would do the same as rolling, instinct made the decision for her.

Dropping her sword, she raised her left hand and punched the cursedly heavy shield, her enhanced strength managing to land quite the solid blow, even as her arm dislocated in its socket as the shield continued past her into the bay, skipping thrice before sinking. The pain that flared after made her cry out, and she sensed her arm might be broken.

Mayvel grinned, "It’s over," she declared, eyes locking onto Valera’s injury. "I’ll make it quick, unlike what you did to my father." The dwarf stepped forward, shield raised as she prepared to bring it down upon Valera.

At the last possible second, Valera rolled into her reach, grabbing her sword with her uninjured hand and stabbing Mayvel through the left shoulder and causing her second shield to clang onto the dock.

Mayvel gasped, as if disbelieving of her loss.

"Sorry to tell you this, but I’m not left-handed." She kicked, sending Mayvel into the water as she grimaced in pain.

The dwarf sank out of sight, but a moment later reappeared, having swum further away.

Shit. Missed her heart.

Just as she readied a spell to try and finish her, a second ship closed with the dock and mercenaries leaped onto it, war cries shouted and weapons glinting as they joined the attack. They began deploying gangplanks even before the crew could secure the ropes, and more than one mercenary fell into the water because of it.

Fucking amateurs, Valera scowled, angry at having her kill blocked. Leaping back onto the Queen of Iron, she sought out the ship’s healer and readied herself for the pain that was sure to follow.

"Are you sure you want to go back out there?" Lusci, a gazellekin woman with a mayven’s gift for healing asked as she ran her hands over Valera’s shoulder, forcing the bone back into place with a surge of mana and pain. Valera also felt a bunch of minor injuries growing shut, little flashes of pain to add to the total. "I could write up a report..."

"If the Syndicate catches wind that I didn’t contribute, it’ll be my head and possibly all of yours," Valera grumbled crankily. "So just stay here and do your duties."

"I know you care about us more than you let on. Are you sure you don’t want all of us on shore?"

"No, I don’t. So stay here and do your fucking jobs."

Lusci frowned. "As you say, Captain. Something feels different about this whole business, though."

"You mean the angels getting their hands bloody for once?" Val shot back as she donned her shirt and a light vest, noting her favorite jacket was ruined. "I’m not shedding any tears for someone else dying instead of us."

She finished with her vest and stomped up the stairs, back to the battle.