Gold's point of view

Ding ding ding! I hear an alarm bell being sound in the comfort of my bed. Rousing me from my slumber. My husband sleeps through it so I have to shake him awake. I yell out to him.

“Wake up. We're under attack.”

In a drowse induced stupor he says.

“Who would be stupid enough to attack us?”

I yell at him again.

“Get up and put your armor on. I need to go see what the situation is.”

I exit my bedroom and enter the main room of my fortress. My father had given me this base but it was so full of weaknesses. Any force could come into the base and ruin the inner workings with a single attack. I reorganized everything so it would be impossible to assault the base thoroughly in one attack. The main entrance to my court room where two guards should be is wide open. I look right at the side door and it is wide open as well... I start to look to my left at the last door but I get interrupted as my view starts to spin around.

Before I even realize what has happened. My head is cleaved form my body… The last thing I hear is someone yell.

“SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!”

I am dead.

Shikki's point of view

We surface and unload on the two ships we are in between. They both sink, I have the black turtle fire another volley. If we can keep this up for another 20 minutes we'll have all the ships sunk. By the time the 3rd and 4th ships are sunk. The next rounds of cannon fire are ready to be shot. We get through 10 ships before we start taking counter fire. Wham! It rocks the ship but the turtle is built with an extreme care. I doubt a hundred attack would break through this hull. I hear master speak through the smile.

“Shikki. If you think you're getting too overwhelmed. Submerge and retreat. Let Trice handle it if you can't.”

Is master doubting his ships? Why, there is no way we can be sunk. 2 more ships down. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Another 4 ships. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! They hull of the ship is starting to show signs of damage. SHIT! We get 4 more ships. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! FUCK! About half of the troops are dead. The entire side of the turtle facing the building is destroyed. We need to destroy another ten ships to finish the mission…

“Turn the ship towards the rest!”

One of my men yell out… “We… We can't, We have no control over this ship any more. It can only go left.”

“THEN GO LEFT!”

We start to move and take another volley of attacks. 60% of my troops are dead. SHIT! I yell out.

“Get us close to more ships then jump into the water. SWIM AS HARD AS YOU CAN ONCE WE'RE IN RANGE!”

I hear master shout in my ear again. “SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!”

It is too late for that… We're in range of another cluster of ships… Shrapnel has struck me in my head… It takes heavy amounts of focus to stay conscious. All of my men have left… I start clustering the remaining canisters together before another volley strikes the ship… I stab myself in the leg to keep myself awake… I finish gathering the rest of the canisters together. I grab the remaining mana crystals master had left me… I yell out… Even without no one around to hear it.

“FOR MASTER!!!”

I force all of the crystals into one mana canister. I don't see the explosion, it is so quick and fast I can only see light… I am dead.

Lance's point of view

I finish sinking the last ship. Our ships have taken some damage but nothing serious. If we weren't outnumbered I doubt that even the small amount of damage we had taken would have happened. I look back towards the island and see a giant explosion. Bigger than any I've ever seen before. The explosion is so big it lights up the night sky for a few moments. I'm far away from the island and I can still see the explosion… WHAT HAPPENED!?

Gobber's point of view

Kline healed me up immediately after I was knocked down. We all escaped back to the beach, only a few of us died in the suicide attacks the pirates had made. I wait for the next wave to come and attack. We've killed at least 500 pirates altogether so far. They have no leader to stand behind. Continuing to rush at us like idiots out of a formation. Our archers pick off a portion and injure a larger portion. By the time they reach us they are in no shape to fight. We'll easily beat them since we're out of range of the mana can-. BOOOOOOM!!!!!

A giant explosion covers up most of what I can see. What the death god was that!?

Trice's point of view

We've sunk our third ship by drilling holes into the ships hull. Shikki's ship is under heavy fire. I've had Kite get a hold of him and tell him to submerge. We'll sink the rest of the ships where they won't be able to attack us… Eventually… Maybe before we run out of air in our helmets…

Our fifth ship is sunk Shikki did not retreat, he remained on the surface. We head towards our sixth ship and now I can see how bad Shikki's ship is doing. An entire portion of this ship is missing. I yell towards Kite again…

“Shikki needs to be told to flee. His ship is falling apart!”

Another 30 seconds go by before I hear Kite yell. “SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!”

Kite's point of view

We're waiting inside the room I think is the main room of the building. For the attack. We've already cleared several rooms leading here of all the men inside and the three groups of guards on each door of this room. I hold my attack against the leader to pair up with the rescue missions. If I invade to early and they are alerted by my presence here. It could throw away our chances of saving the children. I hear a bell ringing as Trice yells into my ear.

“Shikki needs to be told to flee. His ship is falling apart!”

I can't… If I yell now my cover will be blown. A women comes rushing out into the room. Is she the leader? It doesn't matter I have to kill her. She is the only female I've seen inside so she must be important. I rush behind her in mouse form from the corner of the room we were hiding in. Changing back into a human and growing out my heirloom sword to full length before swinging it down on her neck. Her head is cleaved from her shoulders from the attack… If she was the leader this mission is over. I yell into my slime communicator.

“SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!”

I'm ready to retreat as our mission here is done. I need to make sure this is the boss. A fully armored male comes rushing out of the room next and see's the corpse on the ground.

“NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”

As he responds an explosion goes off. It is big enough to shake the entire building to its core. What the fuck just happened!? I lose track of myself thinking of this for a few seconds before I realize I'm still in the middle of the enemies base. I can't worry about that right now.

I go to move towards him but feel the room get colder… With the corpse still in front of me I barely jump back out of pure instinct before I realize that the corpse has started floating mid air with a scythe appearing out of no where. SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!? The man tips over four barrels of blood that spill onto the floor. Weapons form out of the blood, I still don't understand what is happening. I call out to my pets.

“Get ready to fight! My attack didn't work! Some of you block the side doors!”

I barely get my sentence out before 30 of the blood weapons fly at myself. A few have also targeted my pets. Blue attempts to charm the floating corpse of a woman now before saying.

“N-no! I can't charm her! She isn't a person any more!”

“Then what is she!?”

“I-I don't know!”

She attacks with the weapons. Swinging several of them with herself. FUCK! My body is weighted down by these corpses I stored in my void storage pouch! I throw the storage pouch off myself just as it is struck with a blood weapon. The explosion isn't bad but at close range I'm almost injured, the explosion would have done some damage if I didn't have my mask down for this fight. The corpses come flying out of the bag when it is destroyed. I get a strange chill that something bad just happened, the floating corpse now smirks. Her skin starts to explode off of her.

“HAHAHA! YOU FOOL! YOU BROUGHT ME MINIONS TO FIGHT YOU!”

The question of what she is has been answered. She is a human formed lich! What!? How is that even possible! A blue vial hangs around her neck… I think I've read about this before, it is a phylactery. Humans can become liches if they have put their soul into a phylactery in which they carry around. I yell out.

“DESTROY THE BLUE VIAL AROUND HER NECK!”

“You won't get the chance!”

The night from the back has made another 50 blood weapons. The ones he had thrown around the room have been splattered into regular blood. I try to take him out of the fight with control blood. He must have an innate ability to control his own blood because he shrugs off my attempt to detain him. The lich starts making the bodies around me rise up to fight. I hear Neko yell out.

“I… I can't control these corpses… Something else is!”

I start to hear the sounds of people beating on the door Sock is holding shut. A second later I start to hear the same sounds on the door Red and Blue are holding shut. Neko rushes over to the door Sock is holding to help keep them shut. I throw out all of my shuriken's, all are soaked up by corpses using themselves as shields. FUCK! I have to take the lich out! She can just continue to keep these corpses up and fighting until they are destroyed. I change into dragon form. The sight of me makes the male shocked as several blood weapons fly towards me. I unleash a powerful breath attack, without enough time to fill my mouth with wind scrolls or explosive liquid.

4 of the 10 corpses she has under her control were cooked by the attack into being rendered useless. Another 2 were hurt but as a corpse it doesn't matter. She only smiles an undead smile as the rest of her flesh falls off her face. She is now 100% lich… The noise of us fighting has drawn the attention of a cluster of pirates. 10 enter the main door.

I just realized how dire our situation is. The longer this fight is drawn on for. The more corpses and blood they'll get to use as ammunition. SHIT! I call out to my pets.

“Someone get the lich's phylactery!”

The pirates don't understand what is going on right now. The only person they recognize is the male in the back room… Maybe the corpses of some of their allies. I switch back into human form and am now ready to fight against these men but they don't come. Only standing at the door blocking our escape as they try to grasp the situation. The man finally yells at them.

“KILL THE INTRUDERS YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!”

With the threat of their pirate leader now against them. They all charge me. I have to pay attention to my sensory map to make sure none of the corpses are trying to sneak up on me. I cleave a person in half with my broadsword sized heirloom weapon. Their armor is paper thin compared to my troops. Even these elite guards go down with no problem. The situation I feared is now upon me. The corpses of the fresh troops start resurrecting… The lich has also started creating skeletons to fight with her… FUCKING FUCK! The blood of each corpse is coming out and now forming armor for the corpses… These two work too well together. I call out to my troops.

“We need to kill them quickly or we will need to retreat!”

I cast turn undead and it has an intense effect… I look at my mana… WHERE DID ALL MY MANA GO!? I'm down to 30% mana some how! Is it the lich's doing!? If it reaches under 10% I'll lose the ability to shape shift into a dragon. The corpses become far more shaking and sporadic in their movements. The blood armor looks to be the only thing holding them up. I turn back towards the lich… The enemies in the room have become numerous but they can't fight evenly against my elite pets. Another 20 pirates enter the room with the same situation as the last group. The doors being held shut by my pets are now being slammed in. Several holes appear on each door as weapons are being swung at them. In a few seconds each door is going to be broken through.

“SHIT!”

I pull out a void bag I wish I didn't need to use, I throw it up above the lich and just before it hits the ceiling, I throw a knife cutting it open. It spews out acid opening a hole right above her. I call out.

“We need to retreat!”

I change into dragon form as my troops all rush towards the lich. Pirates spill into the rooms from the almost destroyed doors now. I grab her with my dragon hands as all of my pets change back into their small versions and we fly through the exit. We're out! Flying up only ten feet out of the hole before Red falls off. Not being able to hold onto anything as we made our escape. I flap my wings backwards, changing my trajectory to fall down. The height at which she would fall for isn't high enough to kill her. But she is falling right into the freshly made hole in the ceiling.

I can't hold on to the lich and her. The lich chooses who I am going to catch by slashing my hands with her skeleton fingers. It isn't enough for me to let go normally but it is when I'm wavering on weather to drop the lich or not. She falls back towards the hole just as I catch Red and slam into the roof trying to catch myself. I hit so hard the roof starts to cave in right where I was. I start to fly away just as I get struck in the belly by the 5-10 well thrown blood weapons. The other 50 thrown completely miss and fly through the air or hit the ceiling near me. I'm hurt… Hurt bad enough to need healing which Pokodo had done to me…

My mission was a failure… This war will continue… Even if I killed the lich… I still don't understand why she was able to turn into a lich in the first place… Shit… FUCKING SHIT! DAMN IT! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN IT! We were so close!