KA-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Another round of cannon fire confirmed Charles’ worst fear. All around him, spars and sailcloth began to tumble into the sea, ripped to shreds by long sections of chain that had iron balls welded to each end. Several of his sharpshooting compatriots were torn from the rigging without having fired a single shot. Tonglong's vessel was likely within pistol range by now, but the combined smoke from both ships’ cannons left Charles nearly blind.
“On my mark …,” Captain Rutger bellowed from below. “FIRE!”
The roar of the schooner's cannons was answered by the roar of soldiers’ voices aboard Tonglong's ship. They were not cries of agony but cries of war. Most of the schooner cannons must have missed their mark.
Charles felt a sudden powerful jolt as Tonglong's vessel slammed into Captain Rutger's moored schooner.
“Prepare to be boarded!” Captain Rutger shouted, and netting dropped from the ratlines, covering the sides of the ship like a curtain.
Charles peered down through the thick smoke and could just make out Chinese soldiers slashing through the schooner's boarding nets with wicked-looking broadswords. Other soldiers followed immediately behind with boarding axes, sinking them deep into the schooner's thick wooden hull to gain purchase before leaping over the schooner's starboard rail, onto the deck.
Charles took aim at a boarding soldier, then paused. His pistols were only single-shot devices, and he possessed just two. If he used them up now, he would never get off the ship. Loading would be impossible with all this activity. He slipped them back into the holsters across his chest and climbed down into the melee.
Soldiers and sailors were fighting everywhere in solo battles, members of both sides getting hung up on dangling ropes and broken spars or tripping over the bodies of their fallen comrades. The Dutch sailors had abandoned the cannons in favor of pistols and cutlasses, while the Chinese soldiers carried large broadswords and boarding axes, plus pistols of their own.
Charles backed up to the ship's far rail, away from the action, and realized that he was shaking. They were losing the battle, and still, the enemy came. They didn't appear to be highly skilled, but they were capable and there were so very many of them.
A sailor cried out from the topmast, and Charles looked up to see flames. A sharpshooter's musket blast must have ignited one of the canvas topsails. Sharp shooters all along the mizzen tops were shouting at one another, jumping down into the sea.
“Charles!” someone growled in Chinese. “Over here!”
Charles ran to the bow and found Fu hauling two people out of the water, one in each hand. The first was a small boy, and the second was an older man. Charles stepped closer and realized that he knew the man. It was LoBak. Perhaps the boy was ShaoShu.
“Fu, Malao, Hok!” Charles scolded. “You must take cover. If you stay exposed like this, you're bound to get—”
Malao suddenly shrieked and leaped clear over Charles’ head. Charles turned to see him land a perfect sidekick to the temple of a soldier wielding a broadsword. The man dropped in a heap, and Malao tossed the sword to Fu.
Malao turned to Charles. “You were saying?”
Charles opened his mouth to reply, but Captain Rutger cried out, “Charles! Come, quick!”
Charles raced toward the captain's voice and found him leaning against the schooner's starboard rail, a wide stream of blood pouring from his scalp.
“Tell the men to abandon ship,” Captain Rutger gasped. “They won't want to do it, but they must preserve themselves. I would tell them myself, but I don't have the strength.”
Charles looked about to see how best to begin the evacuation, when he sensed someone staring at him. He looked across to Tonglong's ship and saw a man with a ridiculous number of pistols crisscrossing his chest. The man pulled one from its holster and aimed it at Charles.
Quick as a flash, Charles twisted away from Captain Rutger and pulled out a pistol of his own. He raised his arm in the man's direction and to his surprise heard the man's pistol discharge.
Charles felt nothing. He glanced down and verified that he was untouched. He looked over at Captain Rutger and saw a neat hole in the captain's forehead.
“No!” Charles cried, and he fired at the spot where the man had stood. But he was already gone.
Charles stood and began to shout at the top of his lungs in Dutch, “Captain Rutger is dead! He ordered us to abandon ship! Repeat! Captain Rutger is dead! Abandon ship!”
“Never!” came the cries from fore and aft. The sailors began to fight with increased vigor.
Charles threw his arms into the air in frustration. At a loss about what to do, he ran back over to his friends. Hok, LoBak, and the boy were in the middle of a heated discussion. Fu and Malao were keeping the soldiers at bay with a variety of weapons they'd picked up.