Written by Isabel Harrison and translated by Malekith Rebirth (Nathan Dimitrov).

Naieth, the Wood Elf Prophetess who led her people through the tunnels of the world roots for weeks to escape the wrath of the Dwarfs, woke up after yet another nightmare and walked over to the window of her tower in her lavish silk nightgown to take in the view of the surrounding landscapes. Despite the horrifying living standards for the poorer classes, she could not deny that Bordeleaux and all its neighbouring lands were beautiful. Tall and polished castle walls, great lakes which overlooked statues of their mythical lady and fantastic forests were dotted along the lands, not to mention the far-reaching seas which bordered the city on the other side. The Duke had been so kind to her and her people, granting them all safe haven in his castle, isolating an area of his own gardens so Adanhu and the tree kin would have somewhere to dwell unencombered by human fascination and the prophetesses had shared their own gifts of foresight with her, resulting in her feeling as close to someone as she had since her mentor died. But that was the problem; Ariel is dead, her home is gone and her own gift now worked against her by constantly reminding her that she would never see the Forests of Athel Loren again. In daytime she attended banquets and balls with knights and ladies of the realm. At night, her mind turned to the horrors she had witnessed, to the deaths of her companions and the never-ceasing screams of the innocent who burnt. Realising the sun would soon rise, Naieth returned to bed, conscious of the fact she would be expected to slap a smile back on her face as soon as she awoke, probably to an expensive set of jewellery or another empty gesture from an unmarried knight with too much time and ego on his hands, as if he wasn’t a child by her standards of age.

Hours later she woke once more, as a beam of sunlight entered the room through the window. She walked over to the window in her nightgown to take another view only to see something new, the Bordeleaux navy was sailing into port! She heard a knock on her bedchamber wall and after she unlocked the door, Duke Alberic came inside, informing her that the fleet was coming into port. Today was the day he would begin to fulfil his oath of chivalry by transporting the Asrai to Ulthuan, where the Kingdom of Avelorn had already agreed to offer the wood elves refuge.

After the ships docked, the elven refugees began boarding them. In total Naieth counted 18 ships, 5 of which were full-on Galleons, virtually castles in size and armed with cannons & trebuchets, while the other 13 were smaller but more manoeuvrable “Sloops” as Alberic called them. As she boarded Alberic’s flagship, one of the 5 Galleons whose name was written on the bow in gold italic in in the native language of Bretonnia which Naieth could not read (though apparently when translated the name referenced the human god of the sea, Mannan), Alberic followed closely behind followed by 5 peasants who were struggling to carry all the cases of shoes, clothing and jewelry that had been gifted to Naieth during her stay, not that she would ever need to wear any of them once she reached Ulthuan though she didn’t wish to offend the knights chivalrous intentions. As they escalated the stairs, one of the peasants lost balance and dropped a gold-studded heeled shoe into the water below. Before Naieth knew what was happening, Alberic had turned around and thrown the peasant into the sea water to retrieve the shoe, only to then smile back at Naieth as if nothing had happened seconds later. Alberic explained that though Bretonnian knights despised gunpowder weapons, these ships were mostly crewed by peasants and yeomans who lacked that spirited aversion to the weapons of cowards. After they had boarded, Naieth looked into port to see the rest of her people boarding the various ships. She watched on as a group of peasant children ran into the port to catch a glimpse at the massive tree ancient, Adanhu, who plucked some mushrooms from his beard of vines and twigs to give to them, before he went onto the sloop that had been specially hollowed out inside to grant enough space for the forest spirits to live inside. When all ships were filled to the brim, Alberic provided an offering to Manaan by hurling a block of rough silver into the sea, before ordering the ships to set sail.

The ships sailed through the night for several days and Alberic confided in Naieth that they would arrive in Elven waters in a matter of hours. However, it was at this moment that a yeoman sitting above in the crow’s nest called out “Ships ahead!” Alberic walked up to the bow and was passed a telescope which he proceeded to look through and saw a ship passing out of the fog up ahead. Naieth maintained her gaze as she saw the colour in his face drain away. “Pirates.” Alberic stated matter of factly as he approached the back of the ship while talking to her “I recognise their sails too. It is the symbol of the Dreadfleet. I fear that may be the Bloody Reaver, home to Count Nyklaus von Carstein, or Noctilus as he has come to be known.” Alberic made his way to the back of the ship and commanded the peasants to send smoke signals, letting the pirates know this was a refugee convoy rather than somewhere to steal treasure. As the signals were sent, more ships emerged from the distant fog, revealing 9 more heavily armed pirate ships.

Over on the Bloody Reaver, Noctilus stood on deck and chuckled at the sight of the smoke signals, taking it more as an invitation to an easy victory than a request for mercy. Noctilus beckoned his first-mate over who handed him his trusty halberd. Noctilus banged his weapon against the floorboards below 3 times and the deckhands below instinctively began to turn the ship about to fire off a broadside. As the zombies below did as they were ordered, Noctilus gave an additional order. “Prepare the harpoon, we shall sink their flagship in a single shot.” as the first-mate unveiled the immense harpoon launcher stationed atop the ship’s bow.

Seeing the enemy flagship, followed by the other 9 ships, turning into their combat stances Alberic commanded his navy to do the same. “My lady, stay below decks and keep your people safe. I shall take care of this matter.” Alberic told Naieth only for her to attempt to retort. “I will not have refugee women fight my battles for me!” Alberic yelled as Naieth took the message and headed bellow decks. “Chevaliers de Bordeleaux, écoutez-moi!” Alberic called as his regiment of 24 household pegasus knights came to his side.

“Nous avons combattu de nombreuses batailles ensembles mais ces pirates nous prennent toujours pour des sauvages, tout comme chaque monstrueuse race de monde. Ils se moquent de nos armes, de nos marins, de nos idéaux. Mais c’était la dernière fois. A partir de maintenant, les Chevaliers de Bordeleaux riposteront, et nous allons le leur montrer. Nous allons montrer à ces pirates du Cimetière ce que nous pouvons faire. Maintenant, pour la Bretonnie, pour la Damme, en avant!”

– Love React: Alberic mounted his Hippogryph named Tempete and his knights followed suite on their pegasi. The knights of Bordeleaux flew towards the pirate ships in formation and the enemy ships proceeded to open fire upon them. However, as they did this, Alberic channelled the Trident of Manaan which caused an immense tidal wave, so thick it could halt cannonballs in mid-air, to spring up before the flying knights, thereby shielding them from attacks. Noctilus commanded a wave of fel bats to intercept the knights only to have those bats swallowed up by waves as they neared. Once the knights came into close range, they all veered off as 2-3 knights flew off towards each ship. Alberic landed on the Bloody Reaver and leapt into combat with the Von Carstein admiral while his two accompanying knights ran through the decks below, slaying the zombie crew while Alberic’s hippogryph fought off the first-mate and anyone else who attempted to reach the harpoon. Alberic raised his shield as Noctilus swung his halberd only for the blow to wack Alberic back across the deck, dropping his shield in the process. Alberic wearily stood up and tugged on his Braid of Bordeleaux, a string of sea shells and kelp bound by the dark hairs of believed to have been shed by Manaan himself, which rejuvenated his energy. Noctilus attempted to strike again except this time Alberic caught the halberd in between the prongs of his trident and proceeded to struggle against the vampires strength. Alberic delivered two blows from his trident against the vampire, each one striking him with the force of a wave as it crashed onto rocks. Finally, Alberic shoved his trident through Noctilus’ chest, tearing the vampire asunder. As this happened, the Bretonnian vessels surrounded the pirate ships and since Alberic’s knights had sufficiently disarmed the crews below, the Bretonnian ships were able to bombard the pirates without remorse while Alberic and his knights flew back to their own vessels.

– Laugh react: Alberic mounted his Hippogryph named Tempete and his knights followed suite on their pegasi. The knights of Bordeleaux flew towards the pirate ships in formation and the enemy ships proceeded to open fire upon them. Hails of bullets flew through the air like a blizzard as the pegasi mounts were shot and their knight riders fell to their deaths crashing into the waves, unable to hold themselves aloft in their heavy suits of armour with the sea currents pulling them down. Alberic attempted to channel a wave with his trident but was too slow in doing so, resulting in Alberic being struck by the cannonball of a carronade. With the knights dealt with, Noctilus unveiled his fangs and hissed the attack call. The pirate ships unleashed broadside after broadside onto the Bretonnian ships, targeting the enemies’ cannon and trebuchet teams in particular. Naieth watched through a hole in the hull of the flagship as the sloop carrying the treekin was blown to pieces by cannon-fire. The desperate Adanhu attempted to patch up the holes in the vessel with his tree-limbs but could not hold on as Adanhu and the last of his treekin sank beneath the waves. Noctilus took control of the Star Metal Harpoon launcher and fired it into Naieth’s ship. Naieth and her flagship drowned, the 3 other galleons were blown to pieces and the sloops were unable to sail away as Noctilus ordered the rest of his hordes of bats to piece their sails, allowing the pirate ships to take them down too. The Knights of Bretonnia died, Naieth and the refugees were killed, the forest spirits sank and the peasants were obliterated. In short, everyone dies.

– Sad React: Alberic mounted his Hippogryph named Tempete and his knights followed suite on their pegasi. The knights of Bordeleaux flew towards the pirate ships in formation and the enemy ships proceeded to open fire upon them. However, as they did this, Alberic channelled the Trident of Manaan which caused an immense tidal wave, so thick it could halt cannonballs in mid-air, to spring up before the flying knights, thereby shielding them from attacks. Noctilus commanded a wave of fel bats to intercept the knights only to have those bats swallowed up by waves as they neared. Once the knights came into close range, they all veered off as 2-3 knights flew off towards each ship. Alberic landed on the Bloody Reaver and leapt into combat with the Von Carstein admiral. The two fought when something went very wrong, the mechanism on the harpoon launcher was overheating and before either fighter knew what was happening, the launcher exploded. The Bloody Reaver cracked in two and the ship began to sink. Noctilus hit Alberic back whose head collided with some wooden boards while Noctilus fled to an escape boat. Noctilus rowed to one of the other ships and called for a retreat. Minutes later, Alberic woke up to find the waves were pouring in. He knelt and removed his cloak, accepting his death with a final prayer to Manaan when suddenly, Tempete appeared to fly him back to the flagship.

– Angry React: Alberic mounted his Hippogryph named Tempete and his knights followed suite on their pegasi. The knights of Bordeleaux flew towards the pirate ships in formation and Alberic channelled the Trident of Manaan to create a wave to protect them from ranged fire. Once the knights came into close range, they all veered off as 2-3 knights flew off towards each ship. Alberic landed on the Bloody Reaver only to find his surroundings consumed by shadows. He couldn’t see anything around himself but feared for the worse. Was this a bewildering spell? Was it just shadowy fog? Or had he just been blinded upon impact? Alberic couldn’t be sure but knew one thing for certain, he was doomed. Alberic began thrusting his trident in random directions when he heard the sound of gunshots and the dying screams and squawk of his knights and hippogryph, though he couldn’t be sure from which direction the sound came. The furrows of Alberic’s brows twisted as he became visibly tense about his surroundings. Suddenly, the tip of a halberd impaled itself through his back and lifted the knight into the air, causing his body to slide further onto the polearm’s blade. Blood coughed up from Alberic’s mouth as a final basic reflex before Noctilus dropped his body back onto the planks. Following the death of the knights, Noctilus took control of the fleet once more and ordered for the harpoon to be loaded. Naieth sat belwo decks when she suddenly experienced a terrible vision of her ship being sank by a single projectile and quickly headed up to the deck of the flagship to see what was happening. She looked through the telescope at the Bloody Reaver and became incredibly alarmed when she saw the harpoon launcher being aimed, straight at their ship! Naieth ran up to the bridge of the ship and took control of the helm by blasting the yeoman sailor from it. She rotate the helm and turned the ship away, narrowly avoiding the harpoon as it was fired through the air, and proceeded to sail away from the battle. Sadly, the other ships did not have the same foresight and were soon engulfed by cannon fire. As she sailed away, Naieth heard the horrifying roars of Adanhu and the treekin as their ship was sunk beneath the waves. Back on the Bloody Reaver, Noctilus deployed a unit of mournguls to crawl along the seabed and retrieve the harpoon before he personally turned towards Alberic’s corpse and exposed his fangs once more. It was time for a blood kiss…

– Wow React: Alberic mounted his Hippogryph named Tempete and his knights followed suite on their pegasi. The knights of Bordeleaux flew towards the pirate ships in formation and Alberic channelled the Trident of Manaan to create a wave to protect them from ranged fire. Once the knights came into close range, they all veered off as 2-3 knights flew off towards each ship. Alberic landed on the Bloody Reaver and leapt into combat with the Von Carstein admiral. As they fought on the enemy ships, Naieth decided she should do something. Contrary to Alberic’s orders, Naieth walked up onto the deck of Alberic’s flagship galleon and tapped into her power, her eyes lighting up as she embraced the Lore of Heavens. She fixed her concentration and created an immense thunder storm. The sky’s boomed in anger and the waves grew. Ariel’s former apprentice felt the winds of magic coursing through her veins, the anger of her people seeking vengeance and she let loose. Bolts of lightning crackled down from the heavens to blast into the pirate ships and chained between each other, roasting the entire pirate fleet. Realising the battle was won, Alberic gestured for Tempete to fly over and take him home when Tempete was suddenly caught by the arcing strands of lightning as well. Alberic stood in shock when he noticed Noctilus attempting to board a rowing boat. Alberic picked up his trident and threw it through the air. The trident pierced the ropes holding the rowing boat in place and the boat fell into the sea so quickly that it smashed on contact with the water below. Noctilus turned to Alberic “You are a fool Bretonnian. Now neither of us can escape.” Alberic charged at Noctilus, punching the halberd out of his hands and the two struggled in melee. “You will give your life to prevent me from harming your sailors, knight?” Alberic punched Noctilus in the chest before replying “Don’t assume how far I will go to keep them safe, vampire. I’ve already come a long way and unlike you, I don’t expect to survive today.” The vampire admiral and the Bretonnian duke fought to the death until finally, the waves consumed them both.