The Battle That Would Forever Change A Player's Fate!

"Victory and defeat."

"It is amazing how two simple words can exponentially change a player's fate."

"For in both victory and defeat, there is an opportunity if one has the ability to seize it."

"And that day I did in the swallowing darkness of despair."

"When I thought all was lost and I would need to restart Dynasties Online from scratch."

"An opportunity was given to me."

"One that would allow me to rise high."

"One that I would take and be forever thankful for."

Jørgen Lund, Creator of House Braxel in Dynasties Online and, goes by the player name Plunderer Outlaw.

….

Crash!

The first volley of ballista bolts was not scattered as Braxel expected them to be. Instead, they all focused on one ship, aiming to destroy or immobilise his ships one by one as ten ballista bolts were far harder to avoid than 2 or 3 and allowed for a much higher margin of error for his enemy's more inexperienced crew. The large steel bolts sailed through the air like bullets before cutting through its unfortunate seaborne victim like a knife through butter, with one ballista bolt being lucky enough to slice through the stout oak mast, which splintered and cracked as it crashed into the sea, eliciting a tidal wave which rocked the now immobile ship, making one of the pirate players' ten ships useless.

'At least it doesn't seem to be sinking, so I can retrieve it afterwards.'

Braxel thought, audibly sighing. He cringed slightly when he saw the large amount of damage it had taken and the collapsed mast—damage that would take months to repair as water rushed into the deck. This made Braxel fear that it may not be as salvageable as he first thought, as water rushed into the sinking ship, slowly drowning it while its crew desperately tried to use buckets to dispose of the seawater that continued to seep into the hole-ridden vessel.

Each ship and man lost hurt the pirate players' heart, as these men were friends—not pieces of code or disposable pawns but friends who he had laughed with and learned the ways of the sea together. Each dead pirate was one less experienced sailor under his command, but such was the cost of battle, and the cargo these galleons held must have been valuable for them to invest in such defences.

The cargo better be very valuable indeed, far more valuable than one or two ships, for it to be worth all this trouble, as Braxel could always buy or 'borrow' more if he needed them as there were many merchant fleets that were far less well armed than the one that sailed towards him.

Even when one is old and has lost many comrades in arms in battle, the death of a friend still hurts.

In fact, it can hurt more.

'Seems their commander is rather new to naval combat as five shots would be more than enough for one ship.'

Braxel thought and was subconsciously relieved that his experience at sea and as a naval commander was far superior to his opponents as he witnessed what he saw as his enemy's first mistake. He was happy to know that they were indeed dealing with an inexperienced enemy, giving his confidence a much-needed boost to take down this rich fleet and drown in its gold-laden holds.

The pirate player was both right and wrong in his assumptions. While these ships were equipped so well to defend the cargo of the lord of House Aurellion, they were also built for another much more surprising and dark reason.

War.

As Braxel had correctly inferred, these ships were indeed warships and powerful ones at that which, despite their small numbers currently, Railius did not doubt that this number would vastly increase within a few years and after some successful trading expeditions being able to form a powerful navy if needed, a potential threat to him and any other corsair that sail the seas.

Just like how Railius secretly prepared his Pelican Guard and a powerful private army from behind the scenes in the form of Sigismond Security Solutions and the other men he had scattered around the Kingdom of Nathia, he also began preparing his power at sea as the young player did not forget how vital a navy was even in a medieval world, as it could be used to ship supplies using the many rivers and seas in the world.

The fact that he could also use these warships for trade in times of peace and that many ships conscripted in the real medieval world for war came from merchants anyway only helped to allow him to build his navy in secret disguised as merchant ships, but he then could then conscript or have them volunteer to serve his house or an allied house in times of war and were needed to defend their overseas trade from pirates.

All that it would take was moving them to the right port before or during a war that he controlled, and in an instant, he would have a well-trained and battle-hardened navy at his disposal.

Unlike in the modern world, it was easy to find excuses in the medieval world to secretly cultivate power as long as one was willing to get creative and managed to gain the support of a few highly influential figures to help you hide through one means or another. Setting up a trading company was only the most convenient one, especially one travelling across the sea to participate in international trade because, in the medieval era, such seafaring expeditions required extensive defences.

By now, Railius was more than familiar with using these tactics to make fronts while hiding his true objectives. By the time House Aurellion's true power and objectives were revealed to the world, it would be far too late to stop them. It also helped that the crown prince of Nathia was supporting him behind the scenes, allowing Railius to use him as cover, though the fact that this also brought House Aurellion closer to this immensely influential figure in Nathia was not lost on the young university student.

Not that Railius had any complaints about this anyway. He always planned on joining a kingdom anyway, and so making inroads with the future centre of power in Nathia would only help, not hinder, his future ambitions as he would need to use the resources of the prosperous kingdom to build up his power quicker; otherwise, it would take far too many generations for him to become a king or have the power to decide the fate of nations.

Especially if he could be instrumental in Kodjis Kendari's rise to power because if the Nathian court and the makeup of the various factions within it revealed anything, it was that a civil war for the throne was inevitably going to erupt the moment the current king died, with the king's eldest son, the crown prince, and the second prince fighting each other for the throne.

An opportunity that Railius was not to let slip by finding out all about the internal issues within the Kingdom of Nathia during his 3-month journey around it, accompanying QQGs (Quinten's Quality Goods) caravan while it traded and providing it the security it needed to trade unimpeded by helping to cut down the few audacious bandits filled more with thoughts of greed and the clinking of gold coins than of living for another day.

Not that Railius had any complaints about this. In fact, he welcomed these bandits as they were the perfect opponents for his young green Pelican Guard recruits to kill to get better and gain experience, with many managing to get to the peak of the adept rank when it came to fighting prowess, making them as good if not better than most soldiers many minor lords had in their armies. 

In 3 months, the young lord of House Aurellion felt that he would need to find better opponents as by then, his men would be able to cut through these bandits they once struggled with as if they were paper.

Railius used a mercenary company as a front to build an army loyal only to him and used a merchant company and trade between the north and south of the large continent he was on as a front to build up his navy in secret with only the most talented and insightful politicians like the genius Crown Prince of Nathia Kodjis Kendari realising the true potential of these projects or noticing just how capable the young now 19-year-old Railius was.

The fact that both of these fronts made money from their various ventures and provided jobs and livelihoods for his loyal subordinates who followed him into exile was an added bonus, giving him the funds to work on more projects and covertly expand his influence and power through yet more fronts.

To be honest, Railius started to feel like he was the leader of a criminal cartel more than a noble due to how many fronts he had and how secretive he had to be.

While, for now, these ships would be used for trading, they could very easily be converted into warships if needed. Their three large masts of snow-white canvas allowed them to travel faster than most other seafaring craft of a similar size, though even in the great age of the sail, it still took time to get from one place to another, especially when that place was on the other side of the continent.

While Nathia was the nation that Railius planned on joining in the future, his experience during the dynasty history system and witnessing the near destruction of his noble house made it clear that he needed to expand his power base covertly. This would allow him to raise and pay for an army, whether he was a noble with a territory or an exile whose father was falsely accused of treason.

Compared to Braxel ships, its moveability was like that of a turtle slowly lumbering across the waves, unable to turn as fast as his smaller vessels; however, its speed matched that of any of the pirate's own vessels if not exceeded it.

After another volley of ballistic fire, which nearly wrecked one but never the less incapacitated another two of Braxels ships, the pirates finally got close enough to ram and attempt to board the merchant ships as the ballistas, for all the power they had, took a very long time to load so Railius only managed to get two volleys off before the pirates managed to close the gap and make the huge long-range Aurellion weapons useless.

Seeing that the pirates were closer for the second volley and so much easier to hit, Railius decided to attack two ships instead of one, allowing him to take down 3 of the 10 ships within Braxels' fleet. The first vessel hit in the initial stages of the battle sank to the bottom of the ocean, its deck ripped open by the steel ballista bolts as men latched on to splintered pieces of wood to survive, shouting for their comrades to save them before the ever starving sea consumed them. 

Crash!

Braxel, after skilfully manoeuvring around his enemy's monstrous flagship opening, ordered his only other master-level captain to ram the small flotilla's flagship alongside himself, hitting it from two sides and pinning it in place for a short time. The other of his two master-level captains had his ship disabled in the second volley, making the Larantine player curse aloud as he would now be useless in the crucial battle to come.

The wooden hull of Railius' ship creaked and cracked but managed to hold together due to its great lumbering size and the quality of the wood used to construct it. After all, if a ship costing 50,000 gold could be destroyed so easily, then no nation, no matter how wealthy, would be able to afford a large fleet, let alone the hundreds of ships the seaborne nations in Dynasties Online had at their beck and call.

It also helped that Braxel's ships were designed to incapacitate, not destroy ships; otherwise, if two ships with powerful rams both hit the side of a boat at the same time, there was a good chance that it would break apart a manoeuvre used many times in ancient naval engagements in history the reason these rams were designed this way was because a destroyed ship gave far less loot than one that remained intact and was surrendered.

The sudden lurch made many, even the most experienced sailors amongst them, stumble, with many falling to the ground. Seeing the result of his efforts and that the flagship with the most valuable cargo was not destroyed, the Braxel smiled as now he could capture this large ship for his own use. Using his extensive experience as a pirate over the last nine or so months in-game, the Larantine player managed to stop the giant beast of a ship in its tracks with relative ease.

Now, all there was left was the matter of boarding, a boarding that should be relatively easy with the help of his master fighter captain as Braxel looked forward to the fall of this flagship so that he could add it to his growing navy of pirate ships.

His men then used grappling hooks both to fully immobilise the new ship and act as a means to board it, as his ships were far smaller than the ones he fought, which looked like they came from the pirate era or the mid-18th century compared to the cogs and other ships that were in Braxels own fleet as pirates would never have access to the latest and greatest technology unless they were able to steal it or already had it because they deserted from a nation's navy and went rouge seeking out freedom and fortune without the constraints of governments or their laws.

Braxels men charged up as the prospective pirate king used his golden-hilted cutlass to cut down an enemy sailor after climbing onto the deck. His steel sword sliced through the unfortunate man's stomach as he fell to the ground, his bloody entrails being revealed to the world just one of the many men who would meet their end that day, though this was long after his men had already established a foothold. This is because, except for the few combat geniuses who managed to survive, most of the players who recklessly charged at the front of their men had already died and were either playing their successor or had their dynasty destroyed or abandoned unless they were careful or had a powerful set of personal guards like Railius.

Don't think Railius is stupid, arrogant and reckless for fighting alongside his Pelican Guards through the bloody battlefield or risking himself while accepting a one-on-one duel with a player when he had the absolute advantage. If it weren't for the Pelican Guards being designed to protect him in battle or Aldorus, who watched over the duel and would able to intercede and save his ass if things went poorly, then Railius would have been even more careful than he already was in fights. Just like he was in this naval battle, never straying far from his loyal bodyguards. Each mail-clad soldier would be willing to sacrifice their life for his swiftly and skillfully cutting down any man who wished to harm their beloved lord. The young fallen noble was doing his best to survive because if Railius died, House Aurellion would end, and Reginald would need to create a new house without the benefits of the Dynasty History System to give him a leg up.

After 10 or 20 years had passed in-game, this situation for players would be much different as dynasties would start to have grown-up successors, making the death of a dynasty leader have less impact, especially if they could use this time to become nobles and increase their power and influence and spend time ensuring a stable succession. But losing a Dynasties first and arguably most crucial character within its first few in-game years was nothing less than devastating as most Dynasties heirs, if they even had one, would be children, forcing the dynasty to enter a regency for nobles or local powers within the game. The situation was even bleaker for player commoners as they would spend their time in an orphanage or other establishment until they came of age.

If their dynasty had a family friend in a game, they could care for them, which is better than going to the streets or orphanages but no different from a regency that a noble would have to deal with in practicality.

In some cases, these unfortunate players could find their characters by passing slavers who had no qualms about adding them to their miserable 'merchandise.'

Either way, losing out on the first crucial few years of dynasty development would be devastating for any player, to the point that they may even decide to abandon their dynasty and wait three months in real-time or one and a half years of in-game time to create a new one due to how devastating a blow it was for them. 

Dynasties Online was not a game for the faint of heart. It was as dark, cold, and ruthless as a real-life medieval world could be, where success was built upon the bodies of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people, and blood ran like rivers through the world.

However, the fight that raged on deck was far different from what he envisioned.

Far too different.

Instead of seeing his crew skilfully putting down sailors as they had countless times in past, it was his men who were ruthlessly slaughtered by the mailed soldiers, their swords and spears cutting down his men left and right like wheat before a scythe.

Braxel expected the mailed guards to be good, but not this good!

These men were meant to be a bunch of green boys and gruff old men, not an effective fighting force far better than his own and the men he could bring to bear against them.

The pirate player could only watch as House Aurellions' elite Pelican Guards ruthlessly killed the crew he had meticulously trained over the last nine months. Not that any of the pirates knew they were facing such a strong, renowned military force that if they claimed to be the second best, then no one would dare claim first.

It also surprised him how these mailed soldiers, who looked more like regular infantry than anything else, could fight so well on a ship as there was a good reason, especially in a cold weapons era, that the Navy and Army were two separate entities.

Fighting on a ship was different from fighting on land, as soldiers had to deal with the unpredictability of the sea and the rocking of the vessel, making navel combat far different than it was on land, which was stable and did not sway as ships do on the tide.

However, the Pelican Guards already had more than a month to get used to the sea, each having found their sea legs over that time, even if their lord had not. They routinely practised on the large Galleons to ensure that they could fight just as strong on land as they could on the water. This is because an experienced sailor could easily find a way to deal with a landlubber who was not used to fighting on the seas.

They even practised at night or when the ship was caught in a storm or rain to ensure that, no matter what circumstances they found themselves in, the Pelican Guards could fight and protect their lord effectively, being amongst the most diligent protectors in the world.

Because of this relentless training, they had spent the last few months at sea and were more than used to fighting on the ever-unpredictable ocean.

Not even his master fighter could make a breakthrough as he heard something that made him shudder and instantly regret his decision to take the gold of his mysterious contact.

After all, not even the promise of a lucrative payday would be enough for Braxel to take on a flotilla of 5 ships so well-armed.

No, for Brexel to make this daring attack, a third party would need to pay him in advance; otherwise, he would not even consider taking on the seafaring monstrosities he was currently attacking.

And oh boy, was he paid most handsomely at that.

50,000 gold had been his price for making this move, and his contact, who had been connected to him through a mutual friend, had already paid this exorbitant price, equivalent to the cost of one of the newest vessels Railius had recently bought in Rinada.

"Grandmaster level tactics! True Master Suppression!"

A voice called out the words, chilling Braxel to the bones and making him falter for a second because of how shocking they were.

'Grandmaster level tactics?'

The surprised Larantine player questioned in his mind, so surprised was he that he stood still in shock, taking a moment for it to sink in fully and just how screwed he was.

'They have grandmaster-level fucking tactics!'

'Doesn't that mean they have a grandmaster strategist amongst them?'

'If that is the case, then we are truly fucked!'

Braxel thought, fear finally filling him as he tried to rally himself despite being locked in a spiral of despair. His mind desperately raced to find a way out of the predicament he found himself in.

'Was this it?'

'Was there any point of resisting?'

'Would it be better to surrender or try to offer terms?'

 'Could he even surrender?'

No, Braxel could not surrender, for he knew the gallows were the only destination for a captured pirate. Those who had accomplished it were more than happy to increase their payday by gaining the bounty on their heads.

There was no trial, or if there was one, there was only one outcome.

Guilty, followed by a death sentence!

Usually, a death by hanging, but death nonetheless.

So many brave pirates believed it was better to die on your feet than your knees!

While Braxel remained locked in his own thoughts, the battle on deck quickly turned from a battle into a one-sided slaughter of the pirate corsairs as pirate after pirate fell to the swords of the protectors of Aurellion. The pirates only had a chance against the newer recruits of the Pelican Guards who had not fought in a war and had only fought against bandits like them; however, thanks to their disciplined training since childhood, the martial foundation between them and the pirates who only took up fighting when they became adults was far too wide. It led to the young Pelican Guards having an advantage over their vagrant foes, with the talented ones such as Norfaelor, Jordis and Vegrif relishing the chance to test themselves against these elite pirates, having long gotten bored of facing more unskilled adversaries.

Norfalor used two hands to swing his large Morningstar, sending one of the pirates flying, who screamed in pain as he sailed through the air and into the sea, every rib of his broken by the colossal half-elf's overwhelming strength, his giant man-sized heavy board shield long since discarded in the thrill of battle.

Jordis and Vegrif were far more skilful than their friend and brother by choice and took far less risk as they took one pirate down after the other. Their weapons had long turned a crimson red from the blood they had split.

After pulling himself together, Braxels eyes narrowed, scanning the battlefield for his way out.

He scanned it for just one way to save himself from death. Finding nothing for the first few seconds while out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his loyal master-level captain, Captain Ryman, fighting fiercely with a mysterious man who, despite supposedly being on the same level as his friend, was far more skilled easily dodging and parrying every strike of the two-handed battleaxe that threatened to cut him in two if only Captain Ryman could land a blow.

Around the unfortunate captain, 50 men circled him, preventing his escape and attacking now and then as the lion Beastmen clutched at a bloodied wound at his side that his main opponent's sword had made.

It was evident to anyone that Captain Ryman could neither win nor escape from the fight. He found himself in the last flicker of hope held by the pirate player almost extinguished, but just as Braxel was about to resign himself to his grisly fate, he finally found it.

His only way to save himself.

Amongst the chaotic battlefield, a young, well-dressed girl fought alongside a few mail-clad demons that were slaughtering the rest of his crew, their steel swords easily cutting through the cloth or leather his men wore like it was paper.

However, unlike her mail-clad guardians, whose every strike and parry seemed embedded in their muscle memory due to their intense training from when they were young or from their lengthy stay on the battlefield, the girl's strikes were sloppy evidence of someone who had only recently started training her martial skills needing being barely able to defend herself.

The girl was obviously someone important, perhaps even the leader of this expedition. Though he doubted it, she seemed important nonetheless. So, if he could capture them, he may have a chance to live and a way to bargain for his own life and that of his men.

With this in mind, Braxel charged towards the girl, calling on 3 of his most skilled and trusted men, not engaged with a troublesome enemy to his side. Each man was an experienced expert fighter who had been with him since the beginning of the game.

"Wyl! Hul! Ralf! To me!"

Braxel cried, slashing a sailor across his chest as his bloodied body crumpled to the planked deck.