“That’s the sign, open fire on the ships that don’t have any prisoners on them!” Breakwater shouted as loud as he could to the flotilla of lizard boats he was leading in the fog.
It was the only okay they needed. A salvo of cannon blasts opened up from inside the fog bank—dispersing the fog entirely—and the heavy balls of iron were shot at the protective Junks on the outside of the fleet’s formation. Wood splintered and broke apart across six different Junks as they all took heavy damage to their sides facing the lizards. Some unlucky ones had holes open up where the water from the ocean could easily lap up and get inside the hull.
Chaos erupted just as much as the cannon fire did. The Bosche were confused, disoriented, it took them a moment before they realized where the attack had come from and by then the lizards were already coming right for them across the water. Another salvo of cannonballs were shot at the defensive ships, damaging them further and making it far more difficult for them to respond to the attack. A lot of the soldiers onboard were busy keeping the ships afloat or in line and couldn’t man the ballistas to fire back. The surprise attack was going off without a hitch so far.
The lizards on their boats were either paddling or using their magic to push the boats along the currents towards the main body of the Bosche fleet now. They needed to get through the outer line to reach the prisoner ships in the middle—something that shouldn’t be too difficult now with those Junks badly damaged and some even falling apart. Already the fleet’s formation was beginning to come apart as the damaged ships lagged and drifted off a bit while the rearguard started to come up around to offer some more protection.
“Careful of the approaching vessels!” Breakwater said, pointing at the three from the rearguard coming at them. “If they don’t have any prisoners on them then open fire!”
In a minute the air became filled with cannonballs and the large arrows fired by the ballistas aboard the Bosche Junks. Most just went straight into the water, shooting up huge spouts, thanks to the lizards trying to fire while moving fast and aiming at the narrow front of the Junks and the ballistas not having the range or accuracy of cannons to begin with. Some of the lizard boats broke off from the group to intercept and stall them now so the others could continue on to the Junks housing the slaves.
Breakwater and Senax watched them go with concern. Neither of them even had to order it—the lizards had acted on their own to protect their comrades. Even though they were putting themselves directly into danger, practically sacrificing themselves for the sake of the others.
“Don’t look, Senax, you need to focus on helping us save the prisoners,” Breakwater said to her.
“I know,” Senax nodded. Though she still couldn’t look away.
She was an important part of the rescue. It was her presence, her word, that would be used to keep the more savage lizards from the city under control. To get them to calm down and not fight with their rescuers but instead join together to fight the Bosche soldiers and take the Junks. As a Child of Ponyseidon—who only had to speak his name to awaken something deep in the bodies of the lizards—only she could do this. She would be there to show the lizards that things were alright, to reassure them, to let them know they were truly being rescued and she hadn’t abandoned them or lied.
It was something Senax needed to do for her own peace of mind just as much.
Their boat, along with the other ones in the group who hadn’t broken off, skimmed right past the former defensive perimeter of the Bosche fleet and now made its way to the prisoner ships in the middle. While there were quite a few soldiers and officers who noticed what they were doing, they were far too busy keeping their ships from sinking and themselves from drowning to do anything. No one on these defensive Junks even got close to their own ballistas. Because of that, over two dozen much smaller boats carrying next to a hundred lizards had made it to the heart of the fleet.
The danger was that the prisoner ships were undamaged and thus were still able to defend themselves while the lizards couldn’t fire back. There were 18 of them in total making up the middle of the fleet where the prize Bosche had won today was being carried. Thankfully, most of them didn’t have a clear line of sight of their attackers. There were only a few that could actually aim their ballistas at the approaching assault.
It didn’t help to remove the sinking feeling of fear and concern from Senax and Breakwater.
That feeling turned out to be correct when a barrage of large arrows were shot from the over-sized crossbows into the lizard boats. Most went straight into the water, the smaller boats being a difficult target for the cumbersome weapons, but a few landed true and tore right through the skimmers. Some were outright rent to pieces while others had holes plowed through them that quickly cause the boats to fill up with water and begin sinking.
One arrow landed right off from their boat and drenched them with seawater.
Senax grabbed her head with her hooves and tried to stay focused—tried to avoid the cries and shouts she heard all around her. “This isn’t right…”
“We’re almost there, Senax. Stay cool,” Breakwater told her. “We can jump aboard the first boat soon.”
He looked to the front of the fleet, where one of the ships was still burning and collapsing into the water. So far the others around it hadn’t reacted to the attack being carried out—Rainbow Dash and the others must be occupying them. Breakwater gulped and tried to calm his own nerves. Their boat and three others were about to pull up to the first Junk and board it. Fighting the soldiers on it wasn’t the plan, they just needed to get past them and free the lizards below, then they’d have the numbers to overrun any opposition. If they could get control of one Junk at a time like that it would make things easier.
Just as he was thinking that, one of the ballistas on the Junk they were racing towards swiveled to face them.
“Uh oh,” Breakwater grimaced.
Suddenly though the Junk lurched forward and the soldier lost his grip on the ballista, falling to the deck. Breakwater blinked before he noticed a few other Junks moving erratically and seemingly against the wind in the air. It took him just a second to look over and see the lizards in the boats around them concentrating hard and putting their magic to good use. Though they couldn’t have the Junks crash into each other with the prisoners onboard, causing them to move unexpectedly thanks to shifting currents was the next best thing. It kept the Boschese onboard occupied and gave them trouble when it came to aiming their ballistas.
“That’ll help,” Breakwater said as their boat finally reached the first Junk. Thanks to their low swung nature, it was fairly easy for the main deck of the Junk to be climbed onto from the side of the ship like this.
Breakwater, Senax, and a team of a dozen lizards helped themselves from their boats onto the Junk. The soldiers and Boschese sailors were surprised, not ready to fight directly like this. It didn’t help that their ship was listing and many of them had been preparing to go help the Junks that were sinking and on fire. Despite the Bosche soldiers normally being well-known for their stoic demeanor and listening to orders unquestioningly, they couldn’t keep the panic completely from their faces.
Part of that was because the superior officers that were supposed to be giving them orders were just as panicked and had their attention being drawn this way and that. The captain of the very Junk they had just boarded was in fact shouting at the Junk directly behind him instead of doing anything about the ones on his vessel.
Breakwater was going to call this good luck.
“Get them—and find the prisoners!” He shouted.
The lizards that came with them immediately went for the soldiers, the magical potions in their veins giving them the strength and endurance to match the normally stronger ponies for the moment. He had to admit the potion gave him a similar feeling. It felt like he could run a marathon and then swim another marathon right after and still have energy. Either way a complete melee was erupting on the deck of the Junk, just what they needed to keep the soldiers occupied. Breakwater looked to his side—saw Senax standing right next to him—and nodded at her.
Senax nodded back. Time to go below and free the other lizards.
One of the officers on the stern saw them as they attempted to run for the way down below deck but before he could shout he was tackled by a lizard. The two tussled until they both fell overboard—probably an advantage for the lizard when all was said and done. A few other lizards on the ship had grabbed up some of the soldiers’ own weapons and were using them against them. The quality of Bosche polearms was well above the personal weapons from their own islands. Only the cannons and powders kegs were above what Bosche could produce. The armor, the steel blades, it was all better than what the lizards had at their disposal to start the fight with.
Breakwater and Senax rushed around a fight between several lizards and Bosche soldiers, seeing the door on the back of the Junk’s main deck that would lead to both the officer’s quarters and stairs going down to the hold where slaves were normally kept. In this case it was for the newly captured slaves. Breakwater had to imagine the whole hold was converted into holding cells to carry them all.
The two of them entered the insides of the Junk and came face to face with a startled servant—Breakwater spared no time in checking him into the wall and knocking the poor servant out cold. Soldier or not, this was no time to hesitate. There was the sound of more voices and running about coming from elsewhere in the Junk but they paid no mind as long as it wasn’t directly in front of them. Shortly they found the stairs and started to head down.
“I hope they’re happy to see me,” Senax said.
“I think they’ll be happier to see you than anyone else at the least,” Breakwater said.
The two reached the bottom of the stairs and ended up in front of a door that had barred windows and a wooden beam lying across the middle to keep it from being opened by force from the inside. Together they lifted the beam off its resting spot and pulled the doors open to find themselves in the vast hold at the bottom of the Junk. It ran nearly the entire length of the vessel and was filled to the brim with metal cages that were overcrowded with chained up lizards.
They were already all hissing and yelling nonstop. Who could blame them? They had no idea what was going on up above, the rocking of the vessel, the sounds of cannonfire, they were probably worried about being sunk with the Junk.
That changed slightly when they saw Senax and Breakwater enter.
Of course the noise didn’t drop at all, but they changed their random panic to shouting towards Senax and banging on the cages containing them.
“This might be a little more difficult to deal with than I thought,” Breakwater frowned.
“Oh dear… they really need to calm down,” Senax gulped.
“Before or after we free them? Cause I think you really need to tell them what’s going on first,” Breakwater said.
“Where are the keys for opening their cells and unlocking their chains anyways?” Senax said as she looked around. Turning, she saw a ring of several different keys on the wall behind them, next to the door. She nodded. “Okay… now to keep them from rioting and making more trouble instead of helping.”
“Good luck...”
Senax cleared her throat and took a deep breath, with purpose she walked down the rows of cells until she reached the middle of the large hold. She didn’t let herself get distracted by them yet. She wanted to be right there in the middle of them all before she spoke or even turned her eyes to really look at any of them. They had to see that she was calm, that she was in control. For a moment she just stood there while standing up straight and looking ahead. Her face was a stone mask that didn’t betray the inner turmoil or self doubt inside her at all.
With a few seconds of that, most of the louder yelling and banging had been replaced with quieter murmurs and expectant looks.
They wanted to know what the merpony who had only so much earlier blessed their city was going to say. Why was she here? Why had they been abducted? What was going on?
And deep inside they still felt the pull towards Senax and the blood of Ponyseidon.
Senax finally looked from side to side at the cells and the lizards inside all staring back at you. “Lizards of the Lost Isle, lizards of the ancient city, I have something important to tell you.”