Chapter 52: Stranded

"There's a fire on the deck!!"

There were only less than a dozen flaming arrows that managed to hit the deck and the sail, but the fire spread too quickly for the sailors to handle.

Noticing that the situation would turn even more grave if it kept going, the captain shouted, "Put down the fire!! Quick!"

Unfortunately, he only had 5 crew helping on the ship, and one of them even got shot by an arrow, effectively removing him from the list. The rest were occupied with setting their burning sail in order to let the ship turn around. Hence, the flames were left free, making their journey to burn the ship's wooden floor to ashes.

Tristan stared at the east direction far to the ocean, and saw the large ships were getting closer with every passing second. The bow of the massive ship was taken by a large statue of some kind of animal bearing its sharp-looking fangs, evidently giving it an intimidating look to those who lay eyes on it.

Anyway, whoever those people were, they definitely did not come with peaceful intentions. Well, it should be the case as the first thing they did the moment they spotted Tristan's ship was sending a rain of flaming arrows.

Tristan returned his attention back to the ship deck, where the sailors were currently trying their best to extinguish the flames that were raging there.

One of the seamen, who accidentally looked over to the other ship, was horrified as he shouted, "They are gaining on us! Captain, they are gaining on us!"

Tristan saw all this unfold before his eyes, and tried to think of a way to save them from the current precarious situation. Turning his head to his side, where the voluptuous Herrera was, Tristan asked, "Herrera, do you have a spell that can put down fire?"

Herrera was speechless, "... Sir, I am a fire magician.. What do you think, sir? … If I take action, it will only burn the ship down faster.."

Tristan inwardly smacked his head for asking such a stupid question. He then tried to think of another method.

When the other ship got close enough for Tristan to observe its deck, he could see the people on that ship were all wearing heavy armor. Most had helmets with many ornaments on top of it.

Realizing that, an idea flashed through Tristan's mind as he suddenly said to Herrera, "What about burning the enemy ship? How about that? Can you do it?"

"Of course! That, I definitely can!" answered Herrera full of vigor as she immediately cast a spell.

[Fire Ball - Tier 3 Fire Spell]

A sphere of flame was slowly materializing on top of Herrera's hand while showing the world its scorching temperature.

The moment the spell completely took effect, Herrera immediately threw it across, to the other ship.

BOOM!

The spell did an arc as it landed on the deck, blasting those that were around the area of impact. Immediately after, the enemy ship also caught fire. The spell was so effective that the flame splashed over the ship's sail and quickly burned the enemy ship's entire upper deck.

"Yes! Nice job, Herrera!"

Tristan was so happy with the result that he hugged Herrera, causing the said woman to blush in happiness.

There were still dozens of flaming arrows that landed on the deck, but the ship crew quickly put them down before they could spread further. On the other hand, the enemy ship seemed to have slowed down as they had to take care of their now burning ship.

As a result, the distance between the two ships was getting further apart, until the enemy ship disappeared from the horizon and Tristan was unable to see it anymore.

Unfortunately, when Tristan thought they would be able to continue on with their journey, the ship captain said something that broke that thought, "Sir, we cannot sail for long. We need to port up and fix the ship. As you can see, the sail is pretty ruined from the fire and the lower deck has water leaks."

Tristan nodded his head, "Do what you must do."

The ship immediately turned the bow, chose the closest route to reach the river, as it had no capability to remain on the ocean any longer. With each hour passed, Tristan could clearly feel that the ship speed became even slower. When he walked around the ship to see the degree of destruction, he saw the lower deck nearly drowned by water.

Fortunately, after another hour of sailing through the river, they finally found a settlement near the bank. Actually, the place looked more like a fort than a settlement.

"This is Fort Redstone." said Barry.

Noticing the strange expression on his face, Tristan asked, "Why? Is it dangerous?"

Barry subtly nodded, "Fort Redstone used to be the Kingdom's southernmost defense point, but it was taken over by the orcs years ago."

Looking at the pitiful state of the ship they were in, Tristan said with a helpless smile, "I guess we have no choice, do we? Anyone have any other bright ideas?"

The panicked Seth said they should just abandon the ship on the other side of the river and just run back north on foot.

"That could work actually, but there are half a dozen orc settlements between this fort and Erantell" said Barry.

The closer the ship came to the fort, the clearer Tristan could see what lay within it. There were at least a few dozen familiar green creatures, all standing across the fort walls with their weapons brandished.

Tristan saw the impressive amount of orcs stationed on the walls, and thought there might be a few dozen more around.

"How bad is our situation, Barry?"

"Pretty bad sir, we are afterall quiet far from the kingdom border"

"Well, let's hope those rugrats will be a free pass ticket for us."

The ship finally docked at the side of the fort, on the shore where there were a few dozen orcs already waiting. Tristan could see a few of them were as big as the Orc Champion he once fought. Hence, he assumed they must be the same kind.

Tristan stood at the bow of the ship and beckoned the 8 rugrats to stand next to him, "We come in peace. We are here to deliver these young orcs home."

"Chiiwikkk!! Chriiwikll!!"

He could only hear a ruckus among all the orcs on the shore. The orcs seemed to be discussing the rugrats as Tristan could see fingers pointed at them. The rowdy commotion continued until one tall but slender orc walked through them.

A female orc with long red hair holding huge glaives.