Kaba watched the smoke from her pistol clear up and tried to assess the situation, rapidly coming to the conclusion she had no idea what was going on. Her Haga slaves had somehow broken free from the hold and in the bottom of the stairwell a handful of her crew were either dead or dying. Four Haga, well, three now, were not enough to start a slave revolt and they seemed to prefer avoiding than attacking her. Suddenly, Kaba spot the instrument of their escape. A woman, armed with one of the black blades and the arrogant airs common to the nation’s warrior class. She lightly went up the stairs and locked eyes with Kaba.

Kaba responded by aiming her weapon at the woman and shouting for her to stop.

Nana frowned at the shouting black woman, ignoring the gentle stream of sluggish Haga that struggled towards the door. She arched a brow at the pistol and came to two conclusions. One, she had nothing to hide behind and Two, there was nowhere to dodge to. She looked at her blade, bringing it up as if she were to defend herself against the gunshot with it. She thought she saw some doubt color her opponent’s face.

Kaba frowned when the blade went up. She had of course heard of the martial monks that dwelled in the empire, who were rumored to have incredible physical abilities, but they didn’t tend to be from the Giya class. … or were they?

As she tightened her grip on the trigger, she saw an image in her mind of of the woman not only backhanding the bullet back to her, but splitting it in two. The thought was ridiculous, but in the end she still emptied the weapon into the wall and put her gun back in the pocket holster.

She brought up a hand and gestured for the stranger to come at her.

Nana suppressed a smug smile and offered Kaba a mocking bow in greeting, then started up the stairs towards her opponent. Kaba didn’t passively wait for her to close however. She raised her own sword and headed down the stairs, feinting at Nana, who dodged the attack. This is what Kaba was hoping for. With the woman off balance, she placed her boot against Nana’s chest and kicked hard, sending her spilling down the stairway.

The only thing saving Nana from hitting her head on the heavy metal floors was the last of the Haga, which was still lazily crawling up towards the deck. She used the improvised cushion to spring back to her feet and was just in time to block the scimitar that was coming straight for her heart.

With a quick one handed swing, she smacked it away, surprising her with its weight, then used her free hand to grab Kaba’s wrist and pull her over the prone Haga. Kaba stumbled and Nana saw her chance to run up the stairs.

Kaba had quickly regained her balance, turned around and chased after her, her heavy boots stomping up the stairs after Nana.

Nana grabbed the door frame, used it to swing herself into the hallway and looked around, trying to remember what direction she had come from. It all looked the same to her.

The second of hesitation was all Kaba needed to catch up with her, swinging the sword at her head as soon as she rushed into the hallway.

Nana ducked just in time to feel the sword sweep over her head. As she rose, she brought her elbow forcefully into Kaba’s gut. Kaba groaned and stepped back, just in time to catch Nana’s short sword on her scimitar, ringing through the hallway with a dull echo.

Kaba smiled at her enemy and the flurry of blows continued, each of the women trying to find an opening in the opponent’s expert defense.

Nana waited for a lunge, pinned the sword down and used the moment of reprieve to slam her forehead into Kaba’s nose, after which both women stepped back.

They pointed the tips of their swords at each other as a warning to keep the distance. Kaba wiped the blood from her nose with her sleeve and grinned. Nana kept her face expressionless, blankly looking at Kaba, before realizing she could feel the wind.

She looked over her shoulder, then nodded a goodbye to Kaba before running towards freedom.

Snarling a challenge, Kaba set off in pursuit.

Nana ran out onto the deck and, much to her dismay, found she had fled in the wrong direction. She stood looking at a group of sailors that was reloading rifles, while others were aiming them at the oncoming native boarders.

Only one of the sailors noticed her. He shouted a warning to his comrades and a handful of rifles turned on her. They were stopped by a shout from their captain, who came storming out and immediately continued her whirlwind of strikes and cuts at Nana. Nana cursed as she was pushed onto the defensive.

While the women were trying to end each other’s lives, the handful of sailors that had turned to shoot Nana gaped at the rapid blade work, which was their undoing. It was the opening the boarders needed and the sound of clattering arms quickly drew Kaba’s attention.

She ducked a swing at her head, shouted at her crew that they should be fighting, not staring, but it was too late. With three gaps, the natives swarmed onto the ship.

Noticing Kaba’s distraction, Nana drew her long sword, butting the hill towards Kaba’s stomach as she did. Kaba stepped back just in time to avoid the oncoming damage, which was what Nana had counted on. She now had the room to finish drawing her second blade and, while whirling both weapons aggressively, she forced Kaba back.

Even with two blades coming at her though, Kaba managed to hold her own, blocking and weaving skillfully as she went. She waited for the blades to come from above and caught them on her own. She smiled

Nana gave her a quizzical look as she tried to force her way through the woman’s defense. The captain had a simpler solution to her predicament though. She brought the heel of her boot down on Nana’s bare foot, stomping hard and then twisting in an attempt to crush the bone.

Nana yelped in pain and tried to pull her foot back, only hurting herself more in the process. Kaba’s smiled turned to a grin and she produced the pistol from her jacket. She pointed it at Nana. Nana closed her eyes, then suddenly felt the weight recede.

She opened her eyes to see that one of the attackers had slammed her to the floor and now used his massive arms to keep the woman locked to the floor, his hand gripping her throat tight. He turned his hand and called over to Nana.

“You want to finish her o…” he started, then his face paled.

“Dragonfly!” he called to his comrades, “Dragonfly! There’s a drag….urg.”

The gurgling sound came from the bullet that had found its way through his mouth and out the back into the deck behind him.

Kaba pushed the dead man off her, looked at the Chaos that was once her main deck and was just in time to see Nana rush through the hallway they had existed not moments earlier.

She considered chasing her as she got to her feet, saw the swarming natives and decided that it was probably more sensible to let this one go.

“To me, you dogs!” she screamed, “Defensive line!”

Nana jumped over the corpse of the woman she had killed on her way onto the ship, looked around until she found Rei waiting on the bay’s shore. She put her sword in the air, waving it to and fro, and was relieved to see Rei was ready for her. The two hornets almost immediately took to the air, heading to the ship.

Nana was about to relax when she saw Rei was shouting something, pointing towards the ship and Nana turned just in time to see two of the sailors follow her through the hallway. One dropped to his knee to train his rifle on her, while the other did the same from a standing position.

The bullets flew through the air, one slamming into the railing, but one ricocheted off the wall, and finally firmly embedded itself into Nana’s food.

Nana cursed at the projectile, then prepared for them when she heard them storm through the hallway.

They had their bayonets ready and, if Nana hadn’t been too focused on the burning pain of the gunshot in her foot, she would’ve dispatched them instantaneously, but now found herself on the defensive against the clumsy jabs and strokes.

Neither however had the presence of mind to notice the second threat coming at them. Until Rei’s Hornet connect. Its mandibles tore through the enemy’s leg. First the blood came, then a disgusting squelching sound and finally the crunch of bone being obliterated between its mighty jaws.

The sailor’s comrade looked once, turned a sickly green and dropped his weapon, before fleeing back through the hallway.

Nana gave a pitying look to the now legless man and briefly contemplated putting him out of his misery, when Rei prompted her to get moving.

Nana sheathed her swords, grabbed the reins and let the hornet pull her off the ship before she had even properly mounted.

When they were in the air, they could see the battle flow. It could still be either party’s victory. More to Nana’s interest were the Haga jumping overboard and fleeing into the jungle. She looked at her foot and pulled the round bullet out, put it in her purse, then continued watching

“Good news,” Rei called over, “I know who’s behind this.”

“Who?”

“The lord Kuwagata.”

“That’s odd,” Nana said to herself, “I could’ve sworn they were flying Dekamu colors.”

“So what do we do now?”

Nana considered her options, then came to the conclusion and pushed her legs into her hornet’s sides, “Follow me!”

“Do I have a choice?” Rei sighed and sped after Nana.