Chapter 267: There Be Pirates!
It didn’t take long for the enemy vessel to notice us either, its black sails billowing in the wind as they turned right for us and made way across the sea like a hound let off of the leash; even from afar I could see that its crew was prepared for a fight since the glittering of light off of metal was rather noticeable.
"Don’t get cocky, try and stick near the middle of the boat, and please, for the love all that is holy, do NOT attempt to jump across to their boat. You aren’t accustomed to it and unless you know how to swim..."
The Captain rolled out her shoulders and cracked her neck before grabbing her weapons, which were a long scimitar made from some bluish metal and a small buckler that slid easily onto her left arm.
"Plink away at ’em with that bow of yours, but also try not to hit us. And flames are a no go here, got that? Wouldn’t want to burn the ships down, but also the amount of sea spray makes that sort of thing stupid anyways."
Again I nodded, mentally preparing myself to fight without access to my ’main’ element and also wondering how ’piratey’ these pirates were about to be... and that question was answered when they closed the distance between us in a few minutes.
The black sails were adorned with a white ’X’ that was stylized to look like crossed bones, and the amount of red, black and white bandannas that I saw on this crew was honestly rather amusing; that and the three people with trifold hats that really looked like pirates.
Loose vests draped over their swarthy and scarred bodies, scimitars already drawn and held at the ready, arrogant smirks and jeers that spilled from their ’damaged’ lips; everything about them just screamed ’pirate’, though they were definitely more erotic than I was thinking too.
Then again they just looked like they were citizens from the town we came from who came out to sea more often, so I suppose that was why... and I really couldn’t bring myself to fault them too much for it since they were mostly covered.
Some were crazy and others were ’prudish’ in their dress; some were waving their swords and cheering on their helmswoman as their ship lurched for ours, and others were glaring at us from across the water, plotting on how to kill us quickest.
There were even a few smart pirates that had bows in their hands, arrows already resting on bowstrings as they waited to get closer before launching a volley at us, hoping to cut a few of us down before they boarded.
I stepped aside from one only for my Professor to wave a hand and unleash a gale of wind that knocked all of the arrows away, protecting everyone from harm and redirecting the wind to send our arrows zipping for their marks.
My first shot punched right against the sternum of one of the archers, dropping them quickly and causing most of the crew to go from cheering to seriousness as they waited for their ship to ram into ours, which it did not that long after that first archer was dropped.
The heavy metal ram attached to the front of their vessel crashed against the reinforced hull of our ship, cracking the wood and causing the bones to groan as they absorbed the impact, leaving us relatively unharmed.
It was all the pirates needed to shoot out a volley of ropes to anchor our vessels together, and before the first spikes were dug into the planks beneath us there were already pirates leaping onto our side, brandishing their scimitars and unleashing battlecries.
I took aim and plucked a pirate out of the air with a well timed shot, but all that did for me was earn me the ire of one of the pirates with the trifold hats, her dark blue eyes burning with rage as she leapt straight for me.
A burst of wind around her legs and a loud ’woosh’ around the blade in her hand marked her out as an actual threat, so Captain M’Koli Valigeaux moved to intercept her, catching that blade on her buckler and pushing the pirate back a step immediately.
"I’ll have a good fuckin’ time breakin’ you in, coward! Hidin’ behind someone else whilst wieldin’ a bow... what a snivelin’ little shit you are!"
The sheer anger in her voice was rather potent, but with the strong futanari between us I didn’t take her that seriously, turning my attention towards one of the other ’important’ pirates that was currently trying to beat one of our guards down with a mace.
A bloodthirsty grin split her scarred face as she destroyed the shield in that guard’s hands with the third consecutive strike, revealing the mangled arm beneath and allowing her to raise her mace high as she prepared to claim the first life on our side.
My arrow that was aimed for her back was suddenly smacked away as she spun around far too quickly, and with that grin still adorning her face she raised a boot and stomped down on the guard’s ankle, eliciting a shriek of agony that only grew sharper whenever she twisted her heel.
Not even fifteen seconds in and I already had two of the three important pirate’s attention on me, so I figured that - since the Professor was weaving together a few spells to take care of this one - I might as well go three for three.
The final one was already prowling around nearby, so I let an arrow loose and prepared another before the first one even sliced right past her ear, leaving a nick on her flesh that wept a few droplets of blood down onto her bare shoulders.
Pausing and reaching for her ear, she stepped to the side when my second arrow sailed for her head, avoiding it entirely and slowly turning to face me as she raised a brow; her somewhat bored expression as she started walking towards me made me realize I really should have just been comfortable going two for three...
She was definitely a bit too much for me to handle...
