Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (read ebook pdf .TXT) 📕

Nestor: Tao?

Tao: Quiet! No, stop. It’s not for us. Let’s keep waiting.

Chapter 2

I WAS STRETCHING THE TRUTH, of course, but only a little. I really didn’t know which one of the five alliances at odds with the Pandas would answer the letters I had sent their leaders. Maybe one, maybe all five if they followed the events at Atrocity. They must have been surveilling the battle.

I handed Weldy a Teleportation Scroll.

“Take it and go to Eyre. It might get dangerous now.”

“So it wasn’t before?” Borland yelled, throwing the skiff aside to dodge yet another attack. The small mobile ship could easily evade the shots from the pursuing vessels, but as soon as they locked us in, their crossfire would finish us off.

“No! I won’t leave without you!” Weldy pushed my hand with the scroll away. Really, was it the best time to show off her character?

“There are signals!” Ellaria announced triumphally as if listening in. “They’re closing in! Many, many signals!”

Rainbow swirls of Astral Portals lit up around us: dozens, if not hundreds. They bloomed like exotic flowers, and thousands of flying ships, big and small, emerged from them. All of them had black-and-yellow striped sails, golden eagles on their black banners. The fleet of the NAVY alliance came to attack Atrocity.

They met the pursuing Pandas head-on, immediately raining down fire from their cannons, ballistae, and ray guns, showering the enemy with magic and steel. And we—we finally felt safe, even if caught in the middle of a raging battle. After all, who would care about a tiny boat with an enemy fleet right under their noses?

In a graceful pirouette, Borland took the skiff out of a dangerous gap between the two armadas. We found ourselves hovering above them, watching the show as if onscreen.

More US ships kept coming from the portals, surrounded by groups of mounted fliers. I wouldn’t dare to estimate their numbers, but there were at least several dozen ships and no less than a thousand players. They clashed with the Pandorum fleet, and beams of many colors crossed each other like the rapiers of giant fencers. My understanding was that the “Eagles” had an advantage. The Pandas’ ships had to turn around as they left Atrocity, and the Americans moved in a single column formation. The groups of Eagles fired at the enemy clusters, changing formations in confusing maneuvers. Several Pandorum ships caught fire, and the advance parties of flying cavalry had already locked horns.

“Where to, Cat?”

Without a word, I pointed up at the five juggernauts circling the giant fountain of fire pulsating out of Atrocity. It wasn’t a fountain anymore, though, but rather a cloud of fire and darkness transforming right before our eyes into a fiery black dragon that I had already seen as the Colossus. So Ananizarte had managed to regain one of her forms?

“There?” The Octopus was appalled. “Are you sure? I’d rather go in the opposite direction!”

“Can you bring the skiff right above the juggernauts? At a safe distance?”

“Which one of them?”

“Preferably the one with the smallest crew,” I said.

“The second on the right, then,” Ellaria said. “The dark green one there. Just forty signals.”

In the shape of a dragon, Ananizarte was almost as large as Pandorum’s flagships. She breathed out a stream of fire and clutched at the protective dome around one of the juggernauts, rocking it. I saw players fall from the deck, tumbling in the air, and wondered—could the ultra-strong shields of those vessels hold back a god?

The Pandas, however, didn’t want to surrender. The four remaining juggernauts kept slashing the goddess with the rays of their Pikes. Something resembling a spider web flew toward her, slowing down her movements and chaining her to the dome. Dozens of giant spectral swords started hacking at her. Apparently, that was painful, as the scream of the wounded goddess made us get down and cover our ears.

Weldy grabbed my hand, pointing down. The spectacle raging there was just as impressive.

Pandorum had seemingly realized that the time for jokes was over and activated the full extent of their power. Watchtowers spit out fire, sending lines of glowing orbs at the NAVY fleet. The sky of the Astral Plane turned black as a myriad of dragon riders soared above the walls, preparing for an attack. The area in front of the fortress was teeming with sails. Battleships left the gates under the cover of their fleet: large steep-sided galleons, carracks, frigates...

NAVY kept maneuvering, stretched out into two columns. Some of the ships boarded the Pandas and were caught in a melee. More than a dozen ships were ablaze, burning like giant torches. A plethora of odd green lights lit up the walls of Atrocity, and I saw glowing spectral figures thrice as tall as a human. They were drawing large bows.

“Spectral Archers!” Keith gasped next to me. “Dammit, that is a legendary spell!”

The Spectral Archers, as Keith had called those strange beings, released the bowstring, firing a cloud of green arrows at the Eagles’ fleet. It covered several ships at once, breaking their formation. I saw a gold-black frigate rapidly lose speed, caught in a shower of smoke and sparks.

The element of surprise was lost. The Pandas were coming back. I had to act quickly. The skiff gained altitude, moving around Atrocity in a wide arc and trying to stay away from the fortress and the battling fleets. Ellaria yelled, warning us that several dragon riders were flying to intercept us, enticed by easy pickings. As if things weren’t bad enough! I had only three charges of Bolide left in my blade—the same as the number of our enemies. Well, here goes nothing!

They easily dodged the first Bolide sent from a considerable distance and immediately split, attacking us from different sides while spinning around.