“Where is Ull right now?” Nell asks one of her two controlled guards.

“At the manor with his harem,” the guard answers.

“Do you know the tournament results?”

“Yes. Our champions, The Steel Tiger, and The Shoebill have made it into the final round of the tournament.”

Nell smiles and looks up. Fenrir is still fighting on, so she must fight as well.

Unfortunately, there are many guards and sailors between her and freedom. Escaping Ull’s flagship will be much harder than escaping that manor from before, but she has an idea. “Go and retrieve a large, empty crate as well as a heavy robe,” she orders.

The guards do exactly as she requests and bring her a wooden crate emptied of all contents save for a robe.

Nell wraps her tail around her legs, pulls her fin-like wings in against her back, and curls herself up inside of the crate. Next, she covers herself up with the robe so that anybody who looks into the crate will not see her. “Now, take me to the pier that The Shoebill is docked at.”

…

“What are you thinking, Tabs?” Fenrir asks.

“I’m thinkin’ that we have no way to get the parts in time to build a new engine, but this new wood we installed is comin’ pretty in handy right now,” Tabitha says as she watches the hull patch itself up before her eyes. It may not heal as quickly as the longship’s hull does, but it still repairs the gashes and holes left in The Shoebill from the earlier fight.

“It’s going to save us a lot of money and work not having to repair her ourselves.”

“We sound like some cheap and lazy bastards when ya put it that way.”

“Well, it isn’t wrong.”

Cassiel comes down from above deck and says, “Fen, somebody is… here to see you.”

“Keep up the good work,” he tells Tabitha before going above deck with Cassiel.

The Lightning Witch stands on The Shoebill’s deck with most of her body hidden by a black cloak. “Captain Wolf,” she says.

“Why can’t anybody just call me by my name?” Fenrir asks.

“We’re pirates here. Pirates use nicknames.”

“I wouldn’t quite say that we’re pirates. We’re just friendly fishers.”

“Is that why you not only engaged in multiple battles but stole one of the Northern Wardens’ prized Yggdrasil’s branches, and even commandeered one of our city’s defensive cannons?” she asks.

Everybody listening to her goes white when she brings up the cannon.

“Don’t try denying it. The scholars were able to trace the debris of that golem back to the Orange-Haired Siren, and I know that she is a member of your crew,” the Lightning Witch explains.

“What now?” Fenrir asks.

“What? What indeed. Let me tell you this: you are incredibly fortunate that you have saved Morven, are friends with Jax, and have even had a certain dark elf tell Blackstache about your ideal to save NPCs. It just so happens that you have a habit of befriending those that Blackstache considers to be his closest friends, and you have even won over the hearts of many of the citizens here. I would never have thought that my old guild leader would end up becoming such a goody-two-shoes, however.”

“What?” Fenrir asks.

“Does Crimson Lancer ring any bells?” she asks.

Fenrir and Bonekraka both look shocked, but Oleander leaps at her and wraps his arms around her!

“Ray-Ray! What happened? Have you been okay? You just left and never logged back on!” Oleander asks.

“I had a feeling you were Spencer. But, to answer your question, life happened. We finally got married, moved, and then there was just no time for gaming. I’m even pregnant now, which I know you were harassing me about,” Rachel tells Oleander.

“Wait,” Fenrir says, “then that means…”

Back in one of the fantasy MMORPGs that Fenrir and the Divine Brigade played in, there were two members of his old guild. The Crimson Lancer was one of them, and she was renown for riding atop a skeletal steed with a mighty lance that eternally dripped with the blood of all the enemies it has slain. She also had a boyfriend at the time. He wasn’t anywhere near as great of a player as her, but he was always incredibly lucky and had the largest, blackest mustache in the game.

“I haven’t told him yet, and you know how slow he can be to pick up on these sorts of matters,” Rachel says.

“Holy – so this is what you two have been up to?”

“That’s right. With his luck, we got into the closed alpha testing of the game, and things just sort of snowballed from there. Now, here are we. He leads a faction of pirates, and I’m known as the Lightning Witch of the High Seas. Now, what I am here to say is this: because of you getting onto Blackstache’s good side, some old relations, and pissing off that creep – as far as I am concerned, the scholars were not able to tell who commandeered that cannon.”

Now Fenrir knows why he felt an instant connection to Blackstache when he first saw him getting bossed around by Rachel. They are not only in arms in having to deal with tsunderes, but they used to be good friends!

“How long have you known?” Fenrir asks.

“Since I first saw you up close. Anybody who has spent enough time around you would be able to recognize you right away. Only John would never be able to recognize you, and I am fairly sure that he will not even recognize our child when I give birth to her,” Rachel explains.

“It’s going to be a girl?” Oleander asks.

Rachel nods which makes Oleander squeal.

“To think that John was threatening to string me up – I bet he’ll get a kick out of that once he figures out who I am,” Fenrir says. “I’ll have to scold him for threatening his old leader.”

“He cannot discover who you are until after the tournament is over. If he learns it beforehand, I am not sure that I would be able to keep him from acting too biased in your favor around Ull. He has already helped you as much as he can,” Rachel explains, pointing at the three crates on the pier.

“Is this really alright? Isn’t it unfair to be supplying us with—”

“Ull is doing the same for his champions and those traitors on The Steel Tiger. This is evening the playing field if anything, and even then, they are receiving more than you are.”

“Got it.”

“Ryouta, bring out the Divine Brigade leader in you to kick their asses. I know that you still have it in you or else you never would have pulled off that maneuver to save Morven. Nobody, including John and I, wants to see either of those crews win.”

“We’ll win, don’t worry. Then, after we win, we need to grab some drinks together.”

Bonekraka steps up. “You helped us before, but not forget I beat you in all our duels,” he says.

Rachel looks the orc over. “I knew you were going to be Viktor. After the tournament is over, I would be happy to duel you again to prove which of us is stronger,” she says while tapping on the handle of her rapier beneath her cloak.

Bonekraka steps back.

“I must go back now,” Rachel says. “One last thing,” she looks at Serra and Cassiel, “try not to get too jealous if a bunch of girls start following him. He always had a habit of making girls fall in love with him without even meaning to, but he’d always end up dating the girls who just wanted to use him instead of his fangirls.”

Serra gives a thumbs-up, and Cassiel has been speechless with blushing cheeks this entire time.

“I’ll see you sometime after the tournament,” Rachel says.

“Thanks for the help, and I’m happy to hear that you and John are doing good. I’ve still got to yell at you sometime for abandoning us without saying anything, though,” Fenrir says.

“We’ll see.” With that, Rachel hides her face with the cloak and leaves The Shoebill.

“Come on, let’s get these crates onboard.”

Taking the three crates below deck, Tabitha looks through them with excited eyes.

“I can make a new engine! And we’ve got a new, even better hook for the ballista!” Tabitha explains.

“So, you’ll be able to get us in proper fighting conditions for tomorrow?” Fenrir asks.

“We’ll be in even better condition! Also, I was thinkin’… it’s probably too risky to take our girl here out right now, but if somebody wants to go rent a rowboat or kayak to go grab some debris out there, I might be able to get us another upgrade that’ll really help.”

“What debris would help?”

“Steel oak. Some of it was blown off from that explosion, so I’m thinkin’ that we could salvage some of it and get it installed on here. If I fuse it with the Yiggy branch, I might be able to make it so that this baby replaces the current hull with a steel oak one.”

“Yeah, we’re definitely doing that.”

“We’ll go!” Oleander says, grabbing onto Corwin’s arm. “A nice, nighttime cruise underneath the stars with the two of us in a private rowboat! Come on, doesn’t that sound nice?” he asks Corwin.

Corwin nods, but Tabitha looks suspicious.

“Don’t be gettin’ any fluids other than water on it, ya hear?” Tabitha orders them.

“No promises!” Oleander happily says before leading Corwin above deck to go and find a rentable rowboat. He shouts back down to them, “There’s another crate up here, by the way!”