Smoke hazed the stacks of the lone vessel charging headlong into the cast expanse of the sea. By now the crew knew why we had left the harbor in such a rush, with a tenth of the three hundred strong crew either being left behind or on extended leave during our... hurried departure.
From my position on the starboard bridgewing, the only thing odd about the scenery was the dark column of smoke marring the horizon. It was little more than a black smudge to those who used the few binoculars aboard.
It didn't take long for the cause of the smoke to come into view. A medium cargo freighter, flames roaring from its aft hold. Hoses played water at the raging inferno, but it appeared to be a losing battle.
Smoke billowed from Albion's funnels, streaming to windward. The sea curved away from the straight bow as if it was a hot knife cutting butter.
At first the stricken merchantman was too consumed with fighting the fires to notice the Albion's rapid approach. Her aft deckhouse was scorched with flames and her flags had been burned away, making identification of the vessel a hassle.
"Have the bosun assemble a side party to go over when we draw alongside," I sighed, rather disappointed with the poor way the crew handled themselves.
I'd known in advance that the crew had few members aboard with any real proficiency with magic... might as well have been none. It was surprising that I had the highest stats, not only in magical aptitude, but also in mana manipulation.
I resigned myself and started for the ladder, "I suppose I'll join them," I muttered darkly.
"Did you say something Captain?" Mazin asked.
"You have the deck and conn, I'll be going over myself." That caused some to big of a rustle as I descend the ladder. Furious whispers erupted across the bridge wings as I strode aft, joining the boarding party amidships.
The boarding party consisted of a dozen members and it nearly perfectly reflected the wide range of species serving aboard the Albion. The bosun was a male lizardman, a rather straightforward kinda individual, not really understanding most jokes. A pair of gnolls, brothers I believed, stood somewhat apart from the rest. A hobgoblin, half-dwarf, elf, Foxkin, and a gnome were standing in a loose circle, busily strapping themselves in. It was bemusing watching the gnome trying to fix the straps of the elf's jacket.
The rest were a half-Arachne, a 'tame' harpy, a dragonkin, and a golem (it was sentient, so note, very rare golem).
"What bring captain man down to deck?" The golem rumbled, it sounded something like stones grinding together and was barely intelligible.
"Magic," I replied with a small chuckle. The boarding party glanced at me uncertainly.
"You have the gift Captain?" The dragonkin rumbled.
"Yeah, I'm not the best... but water was... is my specialty." I said confidently, mocking over to the railing and peering at the freighter. She had a bad list to port, her crew scurried about the midships deckhouse, plying house with water on the flames.
The Albion slowed, her damage control parties beginning to add their hoses to the raging inferno on the freighter. As the ship drew alongside we moved along until we found the ladder welded to the freighter's hull. There were perhaps half a dozen feet between the two vessels, both now crawling forward, smoke streaming nearly straight up from the funnels.
The gnome turned to the dragonkin. "Throw me." He said it without hesitation, and to my surprise, the dragonkin, not wasting a second grabbed him and threw him up at the freighters deck. To which he then threw the hobgoblin, dwarf, and attempted to throw the harpy as well.
She squawked indignantly and flapped her wings, leisurely flying over instead. The dragonkin shrugged and with a funk g jump grabbed onto the rungs and scurried up the freighter's side.
I shrugged and did the same, rapidly ace siding to the ship's forward deck. No one challenged us, for they seemed too engrossed in the task of saving their ship. "Val, take charge of here, keep the fire from reaching the main deck." I called out, racing for the hatch that lead deeper inside the vessel.
It didn't take me long to make my way to one of the bridgewings, startling the poor soul still manning the helm. I cleared my mind, focusing on the raging fire, the heat was nearly enough to blister skin. I could tell whatever was in the aft hold was burning fiercely and would rather soon consume the ship. Looks like we'd arrived in time then.
Magically speaking there were two ways to solve this problem. A fire based user would redirect or consume the flames directly, shooting the excess they could not store I to the sea a safe distance away. A water based user would more than likely condense water from the air and drop it directly on the flame(a wasteful method), or...
I summoned my magic too me, the air became charged with a near static like feeling, most beginner mages would need to chant, but I knew these spells well enough that a mere visual action was far more than enough for me to execute a fairly decent attempt at what it should be.
Four spires of water rose from the sea, two on either side of the freighter. Sailors cried out in alarm, phenomenon like this was a rare sight, and often a deadly one. I smiled sadly and with a flick on my hand sent them care I glanced I to the hold. Almost immediately steam began to rush I to the sky, but that was no concern to me, I kept a tight control over my mana reserves, funneling more water into the hold. At this point the ship was beginingto list noticeably by the stern and the crew quickly rushed to begin working on the bilge and water pumps, forcing the water back out of the ship was rapidly becoming a bigger priority than the fire. It dwindled, and I began to cut back on my magic, rather quickly the spouts of water disappeared, leaving a calm ocean and a badly scorched, waterlogged freighter and a old and dilapidated destroyer.