Raiders of the Middle Sea

a World of Kedra Story

Last time on Raiders…

Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 1

Shoved headlong into an arena, Kayden finds himself surrounded by bloodthirsty savages and grim veterans of gladiatorial combat. The stands are packed with the poor and the mighty and bets are made on his life.
He fights off the first enemy and loses his weapon. Kayden is then alerted to danger and…

Kayden dove out over the sand and dropped his shield as the massive head of a mallet struck the ground where he had just been, snapping the sword that he had reached for. He regained his feet and stared up at the monstrous figure before him.

Bearded and large bellied, but indeed just a man. The man’s brow was low and brutal. As he grinned, showing his few remaining blunted teeth. The gesture didn’t manage to make him much less ugly. A scar crossed over the bridge of his nose that had made a real good mess of it.

Part 2

“Little man quick!” The giant bellowed. “We be friends!” The brute kicked out with a sandaled foot and the remaining straight sword slid to his feet. The giant promptly turned his back on Kayden so he quickly stooped to pick up the weapon.

He considered briefly taking the fight to the giant when he spied the two earless savages picking themselves up from the ground, engaging the brown skinned man. The man’s head was as bald as the creatures but it was more likely shaved than natural baldness.

With no weapons the creatures pressed an attack. The brown skinned man managed to block their rush with a horizontal block of his spear shaft. The one creature was bending down on the tip while the other grabbed out at the man’s head with his claws. Kayden ran over and slashed at the clawing creature, cutting him across the throat. It grabbed its neck, trying in vain to stop the blood flow, but collapsed and twitched on the floor while it bled out.

The other creature had managed to break the spear’s tip right off and drove forward with it in both hands. He did not get far when he was smashed directly from above. The bearded giant had used his maul one handed but the creature’s skull popped like a ripe melon and smashed the rest of the body into the ground. The crowd roared its approval.

The giant grinned at Kayden proclaiming him his temporary ally. “Little white man and brown man are good friends. Rulaf chose to be good friend also. We stay together, we live! Rulaf lives through many games OK?”

The brown skinned man nodded, searching the sandy floor for weapons. He picked up a long wooden stave with a single chained length at the tip.

The clashes and screams had died down a little while Kayden turned his back to his new allies and looked at the other surviving combatants. There were two more of the earless creatures standing near each other, clearly they had been allies and the dead littered the earth beneath them. Further along there was a single man with long thick hair. He had large rippling muscles and though he was not as large as Rulaf, he looked imposing. He was armed with a double bladed hand axe in one hand and a sword in the other.

“Six.” The brown skinned man said.

“Two… uh… Three…” Rulaf was busy counting to himself and stared at his fingers for a moment. The giant’s brow was drawn into a frown as he concentrated.

“Well well well!” The presenter jumped on his podium, making his girth bounce and jiggle. “Six combatants still live and only five may leave! One group of three warriors sided together! Two Jhakarti warriors and a lone Turka! Who will be the first to fall? Who can make it…”

The presenter was interrupted as the larger of the two creatures, who Kayden deduced were Jhakarti, dropped his weapons. It then reached out with both clawed hands to grip the other creature’s head. Twisting violently, the Jhakarti snapped its kinsman’s neck and let the twitching corpse drop to the sand.

“ Awooooooooooo!” The presenter cried while the crowd went mad, cheering and screaming. Kayden felt a bit ill as he watched the large Jhakarti raise its hands in the air, bellowing wordlessly and people in the crowd tossing strips of coloured cloth at him.

“Aww.” Rulaf moaned. “They give favour-cloths to the no-ears beast! Rulaf wanted favour-cloths!” The brute raised his blood spattered maul on to his shoulder and began striding purposefully to the Jhakarti creature.

“Five contestants remain and the match is over!” The presenter cried. “Ladies and Gentlemen, what a show… hey! Hey! Rulaf!” The presenter sounded angry.

Rulaf stopped in his tracks and looked at the presenter, blinking his eyes. “Huh?”

“Fight is over.” The presenter said slowly, waving his hands like he was shooing a goose. “Go back now.”

Rulaf snorted and smacked his lips together, sucking on his teeth and throwing a glare at the remaining Jhakarti who still bellowed in triumph.

Kayden saw the dark haired fighter stoop to strip some armour from a fallen man and turned to see that the brown skinned man was doing the same. “Hey.” Kayden started, realising that his mouth was really dry. “What’s your name?”
The brown man didn’t look up from what he was doing, gaining a pair of leather braces that he strapped on to his arms.

Kayden looked for something that he could use, but he didn’t like the look of any of the armours. He was a sailor and never had learned to fight wearing armour. He did however find a basket hilted sword amongst the dead and took it as well as a sheath and threw down the half broken sword he had wielded before. The weight and balance of the weapon was almost perfect and he flourished it in the air before him. Castle forged… no doubt.

“Shadi.” The brown skinned man said.

“I’m Kayden.” He introduced himself and nodded his greeting to the other man who nodded back.

“I am Rulaf!” The giant strode towards them, smiling as he bellowed his proclamation. Putting his arms into the air, the maul went up with the gesture, an effortless show of might. It was all the more impressive as it was obvious that it was unintentional.

“Yeah, I gathered that when…” Kayden began.

“Tonight we drink and be merry for we live!” Rulaf interrupted and grabbed each of them in his massive arms, lifting them into the air, clutching the maul in the same hand that carried Kayden. The crowed howled and cheered. The giant man strode back towards the gates. “We go drink! We go drink!” The brute sang tunelessly as he strode.

“Let us down!” Kayden tried the shout out under the pressure of the brute’s grip but Rulaf never heard. They passed through the stone archway and into a walled off cage similar to where Kayden had spent the last two nights. This room however had an opening on the other side and Rulaf walked through it and set Kayden and Shadi down.

Kayden winced at the pain the brute had caused in his arms. Kayden came face to face with a half dozen spearheads the moment he had a chance to look up.

“Drop your weapons slaves!” The order was barked. Beyond the spears Kayden was aware of more men armed with crossbows.

To Be Continued

Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 3

Afterword

I am doing my best to keep these parts short and sweet with a pause at a point of suspense. I don't want to post an episode that is too long a read for a quick bit of entertainment.

Please give me your thoughts on this.

This and popular vote would also indicate to me which of the following series to post about next:

• Nations Under Siege Book 1 - Might of the Lands (Epic Fantasy, might be off the table for a while)
• Dreadknight - A dark fantasy stand alone novel
• World of Kedra Chronicles - featuring short stories such as the Saga of Oswald Brewbeard
• Daggers in the Mist - A cloak and dagger fantasy set in Railor City, the largest and greatest City in the known world

I will also be doing a bit of a Explore the World type post to make use of my content that is not story.