The Steel Tiger limps back into port to the sound of booing and mocking. The fire that was once spreading across its hull and sails has been put out, and they are down from seven to four crewmembers remaining.

“Should we do it now?” one of the crewmembers asks.

“No. We’ll repair first and wait for the others to get back,” Alexander answers.

Meanwhile, The Shoebill keeps just enough distance from the longship for them to easily hit it with cannons while being too far away for their thrown weapons to accurately hit them.

The serpent is still latched onto the bottom of its hull to keep it in place as an easy target for The Shoebill.

“Two shots should be enough. One to make them bring out that summon to put it out, another to reignite them as soon as it’s gone,” Fenrir tells Serra.

She already has her fingers on the trigger of the ballista just waiting for the order to fire.

Despite them being in the final round of the tournament and facing opponents who want to mercilessly kill them, the crew of The Shoebill is relaxed. Their enemy can’t attack them and is being teamed up on by a fully crewed ship and a serpent.

“This is way easier than I thought it would be,” Fenrir says. “It’s actually kind of anticlimactic. I mean, we could just sail past the tower on the other side and win. We don’t even really have to take these guys out.”

“But I want to,” Serra says.

“And we will. Fire.”

Serra grins and fires the first shot. Just as planned, it pierces through the side of the longship’s hull and explodes sending flammable shrapnel throughout the ship!

“My assistant told me I just got a new rebirth counter,” Serra says.

“Oh, yeah. You must’ve killed somebody, and I remember being told you can get them from killing other players who are a way higher level, basically, than you. Sweet,” Fenrir says and gives her a few congratulatory pats atop her hatted head.

Between the raging flames and sustained cannon fire, the captain of the longship summons the water sprite before long to douse the flames and then turn into a mighty wave to crash into The Shoebill. However, as Oleander was expecting this, he easily turns the ship into the wave to ride it without issue.

“I got a better idea than lighting it on fire again,” Fenrir says. “Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine. Hey, Bone, you up for something brutal?”

“Da,” Bonekraka answers with the largest smile that he’s shown in a while.

Fenrir gathers everybody, tells them the plan, and then get ready at the sides of the ship.

“Ya sure that serpent will know the plan?” Tabitha asks.

“I hope it gets an idea of it,” Fenrir answers. “Alright. Olly! Full speed ahead!”

While The Shoebill sails towards its target at its maximum speed, the serpent does exactly as Fenrir was hoping it would by tilting the longship partially onto its side with its deck facing The Shoebill. The longship’s crew have to hold onto the side lifted above the water to not fall overboard, but when they see what’s about to happen, some of them go ahead and jump anyways.

The Shoebill rams right through the center of the longship! The longship is torn almost in half from the impact, and the serpent finishes the job by pulling on its bow to fully break the longship into two halves.

A few of its crew are in the water trying to climb onto The Shoebill, but Bonekraka is ready with his axes to chop away at anybody trying to scale the ship. While he protects the port side, Tabitha uses her hammer to swing at anybody trying to climb up the starboard side.

The serpent triumphantly raises the front half of the longship into the air, revealing its body to the crowds, and swings it into the city’s tower! It doesn’t do much damage aside from cracking one of the walls, but it makes Fenrir cringe nonetheless and has him hoping that he won’t have to pay to repair that.

“This isn’t satisfying,” Serra says.

“It might not seem like it, but think of it this way: these assholes were – well, huge assholes, and if this were some sort of anime, there would probably be a huge and epic final battle with a bunch of monologuing and taking a bunch of time to kill them. That’s how it always is, and I bet they’d like that. Instead, they get rammed and then smashed away like some bugs that are just a pain to deal with,” Fenrir explains. “It might not be as cool or as satisfying as the traditional way of taking out the bad guys, but it’s going to piss them off way more, and the more pissed off they are – the more we win. Isn’t it satisfying when you think of it that way?”

Serra takes a few moments to think it over before shaking her head. “I want cool deaths,” she says.

“Small girl not so bad,” Bonekraka says. “Always prefer cool bloody deaths too.”

“I could do without the bloody parts, but I agree I’d rather make more of a show out of it,” Cassiel says. “They deserve to have everybody see them die in a big show of it, not just being so… overkilled.”

Fenrir expected Serra’s answers, but to hear that logic coming from Cassiel is a surprise. Maybe he should have made more of a spectacle out of it for his girlfriends’ sake?

Then, as if understanding his predicament, the serpent grabs one of the overboard longship crewmembers to flip him into the air with her flared tail and then catch him in her mouth! The last everybody sees of the crewmember are his legs sticking out from her mouth before getting pulled in.

Serra, Cassiel, and Bonekraka all look pleased with the display.

He never thought that Bonekraka would find something in common with them, but okay. This is just how it is apparently. His girlfriends are both far more bloodthirsty than he thought.

Part of him wonders if they were always like this without him realizing it, or if being around him has somehow corrupted them into being how they are now.

Regardless, with the longship’s halves sinking into the depths and The Shoebill’s only other opponent having retreated to dock, the battle is over and the tournament is won.

The serpent sails alongside the ship past the tower and to the dock. Everybody waits to see what Fenrir and his crew will do with the serpent, but when Fenrir raises his arms as if to ask what they’re waiting for, the announcer declares the tournament’s results.

“The Shoebill, captained by Fenrir and crewed by Oleander, Corwin Hale, Bonekraka, Serra, Cassiel, and Tabitha Strism, is the winner! They have successfully… returned to the city with the serpent, and they have no opponents left to challenge them! The Shoebill wins!”

Fenrir looks overboard at the serpent with immense gratitude. He may not be the best at showing it, and he doubts that she could understand him if he tries speaking it, but he knows that she can feel just how grateful he is.

The serpent feels not only his gratitude but Nell’s as well. Even if Nell has no idea what’s happening, she knows that Fenrir is in a positive and grateful mood, so she feels so as well.

With the tournament won, the serpent dives once more and swims to safer waters. Fenrir can no longer sense her after just a minute of her swimming away.

Serra and Cassiel excitedly hug Fenrir, and Corwin and Oleander mimic them. Bonekraka and Tabitha shake hands, and then one forgotten about crewmember makes a return.

Wobbling around and whining, Rock plops down next to Fenrir’s feet with her tongue out and tail down.

As horrible as he feels, he completely forgot about her during the final round. With how much was going on, how fast the ship was sailing, and the maneuvers that it was making, it is no wonder that Rock looks so exhausted! Whereas everybody else knew what was happening, knew when to brace or hold onto something, and so on, Rock was left without direction and being slid around the ship for most of the final round.

Fenrir breaks free of his girlfriends, both of them understanding, and picks up Rock to spoil her with some affection.

She gets all of the headpats and belly rubs that she requires and then some.

“What do we get again for winning?” Cassiel asks.

“Oh, I completely forgot. I just wanted to beat those bastards and didn’t really care about any other reward, but now that you mention it, I think we get some other rewards as well,” Fenrir answers while petting Rock.

It is then that he sees Alexander and his crew get off from their ship and disappear into the crowd. Alexander’s and Fenrir’s eyes meet for just a quick moment before the former vanishes, and the look that Fenrir gets in exchange is one that gives him reason for concern.

Alexander’s eyes were not the eyes of a defeated man. They were the eyes of somebody confident in their plan.

“It’s not over yet,” Fenrir says.