61. Battle of the Floating Fortress - Part Two
The hideous flock of glowing-eyed rotsuckers descended on the sky galleon, claws spread and snouts dripping. Around me on the deck of the Rainseeker, the sky pirates sprang into action.
A team of burly trogs and flatheads leaped onto the phraxchamber’s scaffolding, swinging large double-edged axes at the rotsuckers, that were landing and attempting to gain a clawhold on the iron struts. The bat-like creatures hissed and spat streams of bile as twenty or so of their number were decapitated and sent spiralling down into the gloom below.
I crouched in fascinated terror as a grim battle unfolded on the foredeck in front of me. A powerful harpooneer in plated body armour had swung his swivel-mounted phraxcannon around and loosed a barbed harpoon at a cluster of black crouching rotsuckers. It pierced six of their number as it swept across the foredeck and disappeared over the side into the darkness. Four more of the hideous creatures fell upon the harpooneer who, despite his armour, was torn apart by their razor-sharp claws.
Suddenly, flashes of light lit up the fore and aft decks as the sky pirates opened up a fusilade of phraxmusket fire. The phraxbullets must have been incendiary, for, as they found their mark, rotsuckers burst into balls of flame. As the flock scattered, the flames spread to the streams of bile that poured from the rotsuckers’ snouts, creating an extraordinary pyrotechnic display in the dark air. The musket-fire had cleared the decks, though at the cost of ten or so sky pirates who lay horribly disfigured in pools of blood.
Danger was far from over. As I got to my feet, the deck shuddered and sent me tumbling. From below came the sound of claws scrabbling and scratching as they embedded themselves in the ship’s hull. The Rainseeker shuddered once more and then began to roll back and forth with increasing momentum.
‘They’re trying to turn us turvy!’ came Captain Skullbaiter’s shouted warning from the helm. ‘Everybody hold fast!’
With that, there came a hissing blast from the phraxchamber, and the funnel belched forth a billowing cascade of smoke. I ventured a look over the side as the sky galleon suddenly put on a burst of speed. Below, I could just see a mass of black shapes dotted with glowing eyes, hanging from the hull of the Rainseeker like monstrous sky-barnacles. Even as the ship gathered speed, more rotsuckers seemed to be landing and clinging on to its underside. A few more, and they would drag us down into the depths of the canyon with disastrous results.
‘Prepare for impact!’ bellowed the captain from the helm, and I crouched down on the deck and gripped the gunwales.
The Rainseeker had now reached its maximum speed and ahead the ramparts of the sumpwood stockade rose up to meet us. There was an ear-splitting crash as the hull timbers of the ship slammed into the sumpwood logs of the stockade. The flock of rotsuckers clinging to the Rainseeker were sloughed from its underside in screaming, twisting shards as the funnel of the phraxchamber enveloped us in steam.
The phrax vapour cleared to reveal the sky galleon embedded in the fort’s facade. I had been considerably shaken up by the collision, as had most of the Rainseeker’s crew. Shakily, I reached for my phraxpistol and rose to my feet. The rotsuckers had been repelled, but now a new danger appeared out of the rising mist to take their place. The tallow-hats - hundreds of them - armed to the teeth and with murder in their eyes.
The Battle for the Floating Fortress had only just begun…
