Chapter 554: The Swim
It is hard to explain why a person who has just starved for days is able to be so robust in energy again.
But of course, this power came with a price, not long after the whole surviving crew sunk themselves into the winter Mediterranean, the chilling cold water immediately made them realise that puny state of their body. They are only pushing themselves on and on fuelled by the desire to survive and return to their Caesar, while the human’s natural instinct to survive can provide them with a sudden strength, but that too can only last for a short while, and when this energy is depleted too, it shall be a bit of trouble for them.
Like now.
There were some miscalculations by Abraham and his team, the distance between that flag and the island is not half a mile, it is in fact one mile, and the previous Venetian assault squads have destroyed all of their lifeboats before they left the island leaving them stranded here. Leaving them with no choice to swim all the way to freedom, the Venetians is definitely not that kind to provide them with a few boats, lacking a suitable channel of communication, Abraham cannot communicate with their reinforcements on what they are about to do, and thus definitely unable to acquire any form of feasible support.
The sea water is cold, even colder than what Abraham has expected.
One might feel like he is getting more and more used to the water temperature as time goes by, but in fact the longer he stays in the water, the quicker heat is lost from his body to the surrounding water without him even realising it, until the point of time when his fingers and toes are numb, indicating a dangerous sign that this person might drown in any time sooner.
This is exactly what happened to the captain who had some conflict with Abraham the other day, apparently he is an experienced sailor who followed Antonius all the way since the days in Genoa since a decade plus years ago, he swam the fastest among all the other people, and then immediately he stared to drown after a distance after feeling a cramp in his feet, eventually sinking himself into the bottom of the ocean so fast that no one behind him could possibly reach him to lay a helping hand.
The Venetians too stopped fishing at this point of time as well as their signaller managed to catch the sight of what is going on in the shores opposite them, and immediately the alarms were rang and the Venetian patrol ships started getting back to their actions summoning their main fleet, because at their height all the way at the top of the mast, they can see a lot of stuff that Abraham and his men cannot see, that is it is not just a few flags that are erected there on the shores, there is an entire army that spreads all the way from the city to here.
And without doubt, these thirty plus heads bobbing up and down on caught the attention of the Venetians as well. Of course, it can’t be a bunch of dolphins rushing to the shores to lay their eggs, it must be the stranded Romans.
"Archers! Prepare yourself!"
"Steer to the left! Full sails! Full sails!"
"Intercept these Romans! We must not let them live!"
"Sink them to the bottom of the seas! Send them into the bellies of the fishes!"
Two Venetian scout ships steadily maneuverer themselves against the tides and came towards Abraham at a crashing speed, unleashing waves after waves of bolts and arrows onto the heads in the waters. These people’s intentions are crystal clear: fine, if you really do not want to surrender yourselves to us, then we shall wait you no more and sink you into the bottom of the oceans.
There is already no way to head back for Abraham and his crew, for they have already came so far to this place with only less than roughly three hundred meters from their destination, and what they do not know is that their military master, Antonius De’Ricci is right there standing on the shores, he too noticed the peck of men heading towards his directions.
"Cover those men!" Antonius cried out. "We must not let the Venetians lay a finger on them!"
"Aye my lord!"
"Where are our artilleries! Where are our big guns! Why do I not hear them!"
"We don’t have any artilleries with us sir!" Cried one of the Varangians.
"Why! Why! Where are those artilleries when I need them the most!" Antonius threw his whip in the direction of his lieutenant, staring at him with rage.
"My lord, you ordered our men to leave the artilleries behind because they are dragging down the speed of the entire force."
"Good lord!" Antonius cried out towards the sky. "Where are our archers then, I want to see our men in the water getting all the support that they need! And send some of our men who are proficient in swimming down there to help them!"
The Roman archers on the beach struggled to pull their strings as hard as possible to make their arrows travel a little bit further than intended but considering the effective range of the bows these days, even God himself cannot tell where these arrows would land.
The Venetian scout ships managed to catch up with these Romans on the run and began pouring down their arrows and bolts onto their heads as well as if they are casually having an archery practise session, while some other smaller Venetian ships sailed even closer to the shores trapping the Romans behind their hulk, creating a barricade in between the rescuing team and Abraham while again taking down one after another Romans on the seas. The moment when the hulk of the Venetian ships blocked the flag of the Romans from the view of the survivors, all energy that is used to power them all the way here started to drain away.
The flag that gave them the hope to fuel them on this long swim has disappeared from their eyes, and together with it goes their last grip of strength as the numbness, coldness, and starvation finally creeped onto them, making their limbs becoming heavier and heavier, and with that eventually coming to a full stop.
By now, some of the survivors have drowned, some are shot dead by Venetian bolts, while there are still persisting on their trip, although they too have no idea which way, they are swimming due to the never stopping waves. Abraham saw one after another pal getting pinned down by the Venetians, he could almost see the faces of these Venetian archers pulling their bow strings – they are laughing, just like the faces of those hunters back on the plains in his hometown hunting for preys. He has lost sight of his rescuers by now, with his entire vision covered with the oak wooden plans mounted on the Venetian hulks covered in moss and barnacles.
The Venetians noticed Abraham as well, it is hard to not see a man that stands out so much from the rest of the people because of obvious reasons. And they have done their pre war evaluations and there are specific instructions from the dead admiral himself that they need to capture this man and make sure that he stays alive in order to achieve the maximum political value that can be of use later when rebuilding diplomatic ties with the Greeks again.
Although the Venetians yet have no idea how would an African be of great help to the serene republic, but since it is a direct order through the chain of command, they must comply with it.
Two smaller boats are dispatched from a distance away to intercept Abraham, with the rest of the people continuing to pinpoint on the rest of the swimming survivors for nothing but fun – their admiral ordered them to capture one man, why would they care about the others?
Abraham has pretty much lost consciousness by now gulping in mouthful after mouthful of water with his limbs and head already numb from the cold, but he still has not given up yet, for that young man, Alexei, is still in front of him swinging his arms.
But just as Abraham is concentrating on Alexei, a bolt came flying through the air and landed right onto the back of Alexei almost splitting the fragile young man into half, instantly dying the sea water red. Abraham tilted his head to observe the direction of the bolt, and it is no surprise that these Venetian boats are already behind him just now, with one man holding a crossbow, one person holding what it seems to be a fishing net and another person holding a rope eyeing at Abraham.
What they intend to do is pretty much obvious.
