Vampirates: Tide of Terror Read Online Free

maneuvers. It was her preferred mode of attack on a medium-sized craft, such as the current target, and involved sixty pirates, divided into three teams, which then further subdivided into 4–8–8. Each pirate in the second team of eight was paired with one in the first — the second acting as a backup to the more experienced and accomplished fighter. Today, Connor would act as Jez’s backup. They’d been working as a pair during every attack for the past eight weeks and Connor was learning a lot from his good friend and mentor.
    “Second eights!”
    The head of Connor’s team made the cry and now the teams of second eights flew across the wishes to join the battle. Connor was the last of his team. Again he thought back to his first attack, when Cheng Li had nudged him forward. Now, Cheng Li was gone and there was just his own will to push him on. Taking a deep breath, Connor leaped onto the wish and ran into the fray. Now it was all about instinct and timing and precision. Now Connor Tempest inhabited not just the clothes of a pirate but a pirate’s skin and soul. As he let out a cry and drew his rapier from its sheath, he felt the blood pumping through his veins. He felt truly alive.
    As Connor raced through the melee aboard the containership, he saw that Jez was running rings around two of the opposing ship’s crew. They were dressed head to toe in black and brandishing curved swords with sharp outer edges, which Connor recognized as scimitars. To be brandishing such weapons, he realized that the cargo of the containership must be precious indeed. The stakes of today’s battle would be high.
    “Welcome aboard!” Jez greeted Connor, with a laid-back smile. “Come and meet my new friends!”
    At the sight of Connor — charging forward, rapier in hand — the two crew members promptly surrendered, dropping their scimitars to the deck.
    “An excellent decision, my friends,” Jez said, beaming. “Connor, keep them under guard here. I’ll be back in a flash.”
    “No problem,” Connor said, standing in the ready position with his rapier covering both men. This was not the end of the battle. He’d been caught out before and he knew that one slip mid-combat could result in a very different result at the end of the fight.
    He did, however, allow himself a quick glance across the deck. The attack seemed to be going in their favor. Although the defending crew were well-armed, they seemed to be insufficiently skilled at fighting techniques, and the pirates of The Diablo had them on the defensive with Jez’s maneuver repeated all over the deck. The containership’s crew was brought to the center of the deck, their scimitars dropping like pine needles onto the boards. Connor felt flushed with pride. The Diablo , under the instruction of its new deputy captain, Cate, was truly an elite fighting machine.
    Connor looked into the eyes of his captives. “Always watch your opponent’s eyes,” Bart had once told him. “The sword can lie, but the eyes don’t.” During past attacks, he’d grown used to reading the fear in his prisoners’ eyes. This was the part of the operation he found the hardest to deal with. Bart and Jez had told him that this would change in time.
    “There’s nothing wrong in it,” Jez had told him. “It’s good to remember that your prisoner is just another guy — just like me or you — another guy with mates and family and dreams of glory. It only becomes a problem if you let your guard slip for an instant and allow him back into the fight.” Connor was already an experienced enough pirate to know that that wasn’t going to happen here.
    Careful not to let his captives out of his sight, he again cast his eyes swiftly around the deck. It looked like the battle was coming to a close. He could see Cate and Captain Wrathe circling the core of prisoners, all clustered around the mast at the ship’s center. Farther in the distance, Connor saw Bart and his team of broadsworders, guarding