Pre-Chapter A/N:Another chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
Sending a message to Uncle Vaemond on the other ship was a problem in and of itself. The Velaryon fleet was the most advanced in the world. We had flags that could be hoisted to mean all manner of things and horns that could be blown in all sorts of ways to signal every possibly foreseeable event that would need to be reacted to at sea. But how did one tell another ship that there were unnatural creatures that would probably try to kill them upon landing at their destination?
You couldn't. The distances between both ships were too great to just scream the message across, and thanks to the plague suits they wore, there was little chance that they would be heard even if they existed at a much closer distance.
So in the end, I had chosen to signal for him to stop and let me take the lead once we reached what I deemed to be a critical distance from the shore. We had arrived here last night and had signalled the other ship to stop as well. So, we had waited the night out in silence. Landing at night would be foolish considering I actually did not know how many of those things there were, so we had to prepare for the worst. Every man was armed with a repeating crossbow, spear, and sword, and dressed in a plague suit as we prepared to make our landing.
There was a chance that the creatures would rush us once we did so, but I doubted it. The buildings closest to the shore had been completely levelled, so there was no shade for miles and miles out. Something told me we wouldn't have to worry about the creatures until we entered the city proper and the shade that its buildings offered.
And so the men of my chosen ship—I was yet to give her a name as it was the tradition to only name the ships used for voyages after the first voyage was completed with them, and so both ships sat unnamed for the time being—prepared themselves for combat. We had weapons aplenty, and I saw to it that each man was armed to the nines.
First were swords. Each man wielded one at his waist. Riptide sat at mine, waiting for the chance to draw blood—ideally, that opportunity would never come. On every man's back sat a shield and a spear. Those creatures could be most dangerous up close, so the goal remained to fight them from a distance. The spears provided that option at melee range, and then the final bit of the loadout was the repeating crossbow that we all held in our grips.
Each one had six rounds and could be reloaded all at once to ensure that the rate of fire was something to behold. I had seen them tested back on Bloodstone and knew that one of these bolts could punch through chainmail at a distance, and if close enough, it could puncture even plate. So whatever those things were, I hoped their skin was not sturdier than chainmail. If it was, then we'd be fucked.
I was willing to gamble otherwise though. One had been able to bite through the other in what I'd seen. Unless their jaws possessed as much crushing force as a fucking dragon, there was no way that was the case. Of course, thinking it now made it all the more likely that something in that vein would happen. If it did, I'd left a will and also letters to both Mother and Laena. The knowledge I had would be left to House Velaryon and they would do great things with it.
Well, not like I'd care one way or the other—I'd be dead. Too dead to give a fuck, and all because my wandering arse just couldn't stay at home. I silently decided it here and now. This was my last voyage. Because this shit would never happen again. I'd kill some creepy fucking creatures, get a shit ton of gold and Valyrian steel, and fuck off back to the Stepstones with everything I needed.
I pulled on the connection between Igneel and me as we got closer and closer to the island. I did it more to feel some reassurance from his presence than to draw on his power. The distance was too great for that. Or at least that is what I had expected. Instead of the narrow opening that usually represented our bond, there was a wide tunnel now. It felt like I had him right next to me even. Was this what proximity to Valyria did? Did it do it only because I was Valyrian or did it have that effect with all magic? If it was the former, then what would being here do to Igneel himself?
Part of me wanted to find out. The rest of me knew not to tempt fate like that.
So I pulled on his power still. I felt my strength rise as I stood just a bit straighter under the weight of my armour. Wearing it over the plague suit was overkill, but Ser Ben insisted and I had no good reason to refuse him. Not when I also worried about the chance of dying here. If those things caught me, though, I doubted the armour would do much to stop me from biting the dust, but every little bit would help.
I checked over my loadout one last time before making my way out on the deck. Outside, my entire crew waited, kitted out for a battle. Our ship moved and beached smoothly, and with a rope ladder, we lowered ourselves to the ground and became the first men to set foot on Valyria since the doom. Or at least the first to do so that would return to civilisation afterwards.
We arranged ourselves in a bow at the shore, watching every inland direction for approaching creatures with our crossbows ready. The goal was to fill any approaching creature with metal. The open space between our landing point and the city meant we had good chances of spotting anything that approached some distance away.
We then signalled for Vaemond's own ship to make their own landing. We remained in our stances, and nothing happened. Or at least nothing happened for the longest time until I heard a thwack—the sound of a bow releasing. I snapped into attention instantly. I scanned the entire area, but couldn't see anything. I scanned twice before I turned to the man that had fired.
"Sorry, Captain. I thought I saw something," he said. Ben scoffed from his position next to me. I sighed.
"It's fine. Just be careful and stay—"
"Something's moving!" another voice shouted. I prepared to tell him off before I did look ahead and spot the black figure approaching. It had just climbed through a hole in the city's walls and was approaching at a rapid pace.
Someone fired, but their bolt did not make it far enough. Several more followed and they stopped short as well, not making it far enough.
"Hold for it to get closer. Don't waste bolts!" I screamed at them. The firing ceased.
I took a breath and judged the distance.
"Hold," I said, voice carrying.
"Hold." The creature was coming, getting closer and closer. I could hear its screeching loud and clear now.
"Hold." I was barely breathing now. Almost. I could see it clearly now. Black leathery skin and teeth that looked like they belonged on a shark and not a human.
"Fire!" I screamed once I could clearly make out the yellow orbs it had for eyes. I released the trigger on my crossbow and got it right in the neck. The mechanism reloaded and I fired again, hitting it in the chest. In that time, several other bolts had buried themselves into it.
It took five of them before it stopped running and fell to the ground. It was dead. Dead. Good. They could die. We could kill them. The men began to cheer and celebrate their kill. I allowed a smile to form on my face although no one could see it. The relief that flooded my body was something else.
"Another one!" a voice shouted, and we turned to see another approaching creature.
"Hold now, men. We just have to do the same thing," I said this time.
Of course, Fate had to make a liar of me. Because this time there was another screech off from the distance. From a different part of the wall came another creature. There were two of them approaching now. Another shot through the walls a second later. Three now, I amended silently a second later as I spotted another one jump from the top of the walls and land closer to us than the rest of them before beginning to run at us.
"Calm yourselves!" I shouted, as much for my benefit as it was for theirs.
"We can kill them at a distance. We saw from the first one that we only need about three or so bolts to put them down. Just divide yourselves. Aim at the one closest to you. Trust in the men by your side to do their duties. The man next to you is the man who will save your life. We save each other's lives here. If you miss, fire again. Do not despair. We do not have the time for it. The man who kills the most of those things, I will give their weight in gold."
"So we feast after this then," one said, and we all laughed as one. It was not a good joke, but this was not the time for good jokes.
"Hold your fire until I say so," I said, judging the distances. With Igneel's power running through me, I had the best reactions of anyone here, and so I watched the farthest ahead of them—the one that had jumped from the wall.
When I judged him to be in distance, I fired first. One in an eye, a second in the neck, and the third in the chest. It fell to the ground dead.
"Fire!" I screamed when the rest were close enough. I shot the one in my direct line of sight in the skull. The bolt punctured through the leathery skin but broke against the skull. Luckily, Ser Ben managed to get it right in the screaming mouth, the bolt flying straight through the roof of said mouth and into the creature's brain—or whatever it had that passed for one.
I reloaded my bolts as I watched the rest of the men fill the rest of them with bolts. All except one who kept coming even as it took one bolt to the crotch and another to the gut. The two men it approached missed both their last shots, and I heard the clicking of their bows as they attempted to fire again, not having had the good sense to keep count of their ammunition. I hastened my reload, and spun. Right as the creature landed on one of them, pushing him to the ground, I fired straight into the side of its head.
The bolt broke against the skull, but my second went through its neck and it slumped against its target, dead. I breathed out a sigh of relief.
"What in the seven hells is that?" I heard Vaemond's voice from behind me. I turned to see that his ship had finished its landing and he was staring at the dead creature.
"We don't know yet. Arm and armour yourselves. There are more where that came from," I said to him, before I turned back to my men.
"Reload. Remember you have six bolts. Count as you fire and reload once you run out. Now look alive. More could be on their way," I said, lifting my crossbow again.
"Go direct them on the proper arming," I told Ben as I kept my crossbow pointed towards the distance.
"My Lord? More could be coming as you said."
"I have eleven men here. We'll be fine. Go get us more men so we can march on the city sooner rather than later. We need to be out of here before the sun goes down," I ordered, tone firmer this time. He nodded and then was on his way. In the time it took him to get Uncle Vaemond and his crew up to speed and properly armed, none of them had come out of the city.
When Uncle Vaemond's crew came to join our vigil, I was able to assign people to pick up the bolts that had missed their targets. Considering there was no blacksmith to replenish our stores with, it was better to salvage what we could. I walked over to the body of the one that I had killed while it was on top of another man and knelt next to it as I began to examine it.
"Laenor," Uncle Vaemond's voice hissed in warning.
"It's dead. Come look at this thing, Uncle," I said.
I began to note what I saw mentally. The teeth were sharp and shark-like, like I'd seen from a distance. What I hadn't been able to see, however, was the lack of lips. It had strips of its leathery skin where lips ought to have been, but no pronounced lips to speak of. Its fingers were webbed like a fish's, and each one ended with claws that looked sharp enough to rend a man to pieces.
And then there was the skin—or what passed for skin. Hide would probably be a better word. I was wrong though. From a distance the skin had looked leathery, but now that I was closer, I could see it was made of tiny scales.
I reached for the bolt I'd shot through the side of its neck and I dragged it out. It took more force than I'd expected, resisting my first two attempts before coming loose on the third. The point of the bolt was mangled. As if it had been shoved into something too thick for it to travel through.
So the creature's innards were hard as well.
"What is this thing, Laenor?"
"I know as little as you do," I said to Uncle's question while I kept examining the body.
"Is it time to turn around?" he asked.
"When we find ourselves already here? You would have us leave empty-handed? We just killed quite a few of them and lost no men," I said.
"With miles of space between you and them. You had time to plan each shot and yet one of your men almost died. There are who knows how many left in there. And if we enter the city, then we will be in a cramped urban environment against enemies stronger and faster than we are," he said.
"I was wrong. I do know more than you do, clearly," I said.
"Oh really? Educate me then," he said. I pointed at the creature's midsection. Its ribs were visible. I lifted its hand next. Bone and scale, little in the way of flesh.
"They're starving. The sun burns them but yet they braved it once they caught our scent or whatever. They did that because there isn't much in the way of food in there. From my ship I spotted one eat another. If they've turned to cannibalism then I doubt their numbers are anything to write home about," I started.
"If these ones had co-ordinated their approach, we would be dead. But they'd all clearly come from different areas. They're separated—probably out of fear of being eaten by each other. We have all the advantages here. We are better armed and armoured. We have weapons that can hurt them from a distance, while they need to reach us to do damage, and then we have the benefit of strategy, planning, and human ingenuity, while they are starving creatures who can only think of food," I said.
"It would be stupid of us to abandon this now. Not when the opposition in our way is so weak," I said.
With the plague mask, I couldn't see his face, but I could tell well enough from his body language that he was far from convinced.
"Trust me on this, Uncle," I said.
"I will do my duty, Laenor," he said, rising, and that seemed to be the best I could get. Once we had all taken turns to eat and drink, we moved into the city proper. We moved in a sort of hedgehog formation. The outer shell was made up of twelve men arranged like a clock. Every fifteen minutes, we rotated to ensure sharpness and alertness with those on the edge.
We kept the formation until we had gotten close enough to the walls that we could choose an entry point. I picked one where two men would pass through abreast at a time, but no more. Ben and I were the first men through the breach. Vaemond had his objections, but I wouldn't be much of a Lord if I asked others to do what I could not—to risk their lives where I could not.
So we looked through to be sure nothing approached and then passed through. I panned my bow over to the side the second I crossed in case one waited there, and that decision saved my life. There was one climbing the wall. It had been coming for us, and the second I crossed into the city, it swung its head around. Perhaps it heard my boots crunch against the ground. He dove down. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before pulling the trigger twice.
One bolt to its yellowy orb, the other right in center mass. It fell to the ground, missing me by a few inches. I kicked the body away before turning to Ben. He nodded at me, and then we stepped further in, taking guard positions as the others began to stream in.
A/N: If I've gotten anything disastrously wrong about how repeating crossbows work, please forgive me. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.