Haro's warriors chanted mantras as they dragged long logs with slits in them across the deck, to the astonished looks of the Webians.
"I wonder why those monkeys need logs, we're not a fortress, are we?" The soldier blurted out, reloading his rifle.
"They're ladders, you stupid moron!" Shouted Maser, he did not need to explain for such tricks, in his homeland there were no high walls from rowing. And they were spinning as best they could.
At the same time, several Kimo warriors ran along the deck of their ships, deftly squeezing through the crowd of their own with large balls on ropes, properly swung, they synchronously untwisted and threw the cast-iron projectiles, as if they had practised it all their lives.
As big as footballs, they flew over the side of the frigate and landed with a clang on the deck, rolling in different directions.
- What the hell was that? - The sailor asked in surprise, looking at the metal ball that rolled up to his leg. Only there was no answer, Maser and not only him rushed towards the balls, swinging his sabre as he went. 'Fucking bitch!' yelled Maser to himself. He saw the flight of the strange projectiles, and noticed a small rope of smoke that left a barely visible trail of smoke behind it.
A swift blow with his sabre came within a millimetre of the balloon, and Maser breathed a sigh of relief, a cut fuse was lying on the deck, desperately clinging to life, emitting a light smoke.
The other brave men, who had realised the danger of the situation in time, did not fail and got there in time, everyone did as they knew how, some like their captain cut the fuse, others threw the bombs overboard, the cleverest of them back to their senders.
Bam, Bam, Bam, Two balls exploded behind the deck, scything the attackers with hundreds of sharp splinters. Dozens of painful screams echoed across the decks, akin to the howls of sirens. The fervour of the attackers had faded, but they had nowhere to go, the commanders did not even think of stopping, the very existence of the kingdom was at stake, and more importantly the honour of the clan.
And the crowd of warriors, driven by the angry shouts of their leaders, went to the assault. The most skilful and dexterous climbed directly on the rope, armour and rocking were no obstacle for them and with enviable agility they climbed among the first, the rest preferred to use improvised ladders.
They tried to shoot them on the approach, and at first they succeeded, but with the arrival of the new ships the preponderance of guns swayed in favour of the Kimarians, and soon it was impossible to go overboard for a shot, the soldiers realised this clearly when another gunner went overboard and immediately received three arrows in the head. He fell over the side and into the water.
Climbing over the planking like monkeys the first warriors climbed onto the deck, the carnage began. Haro's warriors fell in an endless stream of men, pressurising the mass.
The first ones were killed quickly, many of them fell into the water, and a whole host of angry armed men began to climb onto the deck from every crevice.
Maser smiled and lunged at the first warrior, who was clad in lamellar armour and armed with a long sword without a hilt. The blades clashed, throwing up pillars of sparks. His opponent was skilled, but Maser was not a amateur, and at the right moment he slammed his shoulder into the warrior and threw him overboard.
The warrior yelled, falling into the water, while Maser switched to his new opponent. 'A spear is not the most comfortable weapon on board, haven't they told you that, you stupid fuck.' The captain cursed in his mind, while dodging his opponent's swift thrusts. The warrior tried to pull the spear back out, but unfortunately it was stuck in the ropes.
Maser cut from the shoulder, the sharp blade of the sabre passing over the throat of the unfortunate, separating the head from the body, as easily and effortlessly as if Maser were chopping butter, not a man. But the fight didn't stop, having slaughtered a couple more insolent men, the man's attention was drawn to him - a big, no, huge, just a huge man, swinging a two-metre club in the thick of the battle.
"Come to Daddy, fatso!" The captain shouted, moving closer to the big man with each passing moment, and he did not ignore his intentions. Sending another sailor into a colourful flight accompanied by a crunching orchestra made up of his own bones. He stood opposite Maser and smirked cynically.
The big man swung for a horizontal strike, which was fast for his size, and the club, tearing the air into shreds and making a small arc, flew towards Maser.
He managed to dodge and get back into a stance, but his opponent didn't give him a chance, he struck again, it was pure madness to block it, and Maser just shifted to the side, missing the spiked wood near his nose.
The Haro warrior was in a real rage, and with each new attack it became thicker and thicker, this vile barbarian was just playing with him, playfully evading his attacks without taking any retaliatory action, which made the powerful warrior even angrier.
Maser just waited for the moment when his vis-a-vis was tired, and crouching down to dodge another attack, his blade described a long arc, crashed into his knee, and properly sprinkled the deck with fresh blood, the big man fell on his back and the captain quickly ended his suffering with a quick jab in the eye.
The fight continued and the men on both sides chopped at each other like it was the last time. Only here the locals had an advantage, the Vebians didn't wear armour, and they knew about close combat only from the stories of old veterans, they had long ago decided everything on the continent with firearms and artillery.
And foreign savages usually ran away after the first shot from a gun. These were different; they were not afraid of death, and bravely marched forward without regard to casualties, singing eerie monotonous songs.
With every minute the Webyans were being pushed to the opposite side. And panic began to creep into the ranks of the warriors, it could not spread to its full width only because it was a ship, and every idiot, no matter how stupid he was, understood perfectly well that there were no exits from the ship. And it was a fight to the finish.
Maser just fought in the thick of things, hitting savages with his sabre and knuckle. The captain fell a dozen enemy soldiers, there was no living place on him, arrows and crossbow bolts were sticking out of his body, and all his clothes were shredded into rags, his breastplate was wrinkled like a tin can, but he was such a bitch to the surprise of the attackers did not fall.
When he had killed another hero, Maser turned around, the locals were backing away in fear, some of them thinking he was invulnerable. The captain, seeing the confusion in their ranks, shouted like a madman.
"Come on, the Champion of the God of the White Desert, the great Menos, will kill everyone quickly and painlessly!" No one understood him, Haro's warriors only glanced nervously at each other, but no one dared to step forward.
Maser looked around and it began to dawn on him that things were bad, they were almost knocked off the upper deck, he and the rest of the soldiers were pinned against the side, his brain was desperately trying to find a way out of such a delicate situation, but nothing good came to mind.
'Ah fuck it, I'll take as many as I can and then Menos wait for me!' - he shouted to himself, properly fuelled for exploits, and shouted the next one out loud.
"Boys, let's show these savages what the warriors of the Webi Empire can do!" The man emanated a strange aura that set fire to blood and thoughts, screaming like mad the rest of the deck crew rushed to the attack, regardless of logic and numerical superiority of the enemy. Maser with a smile watched the sudden attack of heroism, wiped the blood from his face and shouting pedestrian volleys said.
"If anyone dies with a clean bayonet, I will fuck his corpse!"
Haro's warriors slowly backed away, and the situation turned one hundred and eighty degrees, as the Webbers pressed the locals, who, amazed by Maser and his survivability, were panicking and backing away at a steady acceleration.
Haro's warriors retreated step by step, and as more of Webi's soldiers began to emerge from the hold, their spirits fell. Those who remained on board jumped hurriedly onto the ladder logs, pushing each other down. Finishing off the last of the losers Maser simply collapsed to the wooden floor.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, Alan crawled up to the one lying on the deck, he was covered with blood from head to toe, smiling with all his teeth the guy asked.
"Captain, tell me, will I get the ship?"
"You fucking puppy, Maser forgot his fatigue for a moment and tried to jump up, but his body was in sharp pain, all the man could do was stare angrily at his subordinate."
"Who fired?" Maser asked, scanning the morning sky with his eyes.
"Our small ships came to the rescue in time," Alan grabbed Maser's sleeve trying to bring him to his senses and continued. "Maser, you don't understand, we won! - The kid shouted with joy."
Maser honoured him with a nod of approval and passed out on the deck. On the edge of consciousness, hearing the vague voices of his subordinates and the booming of the cannons, he fell into sleep.
Alan quickly found the healer, and leaving the chief in safe hands, went up to the bridge looking at the setting sun and the fleeing savages, 'We won today, but if the locals are as steadfast, we're fucked'. - said to himself, the lad went to do his job.
The victory was Pyrrhic, luckily for the Webi their technological advantage was decisive. After dealing with the ground-based missile teams with mortars, the small fleet and the remaining frigates caught wind of where the wind was blowing.
They rushed to the rescue of their comrades, led by the 'Warrior', which during the entire battle made only two salvos, the first on the city and the second on the ships of the encirclement. His salvo sank thirteen ships at once.
The right flank of the ambush group of the savage fleet turned in the opposite direction. This marked the first victory of the Webisian trading company.