Khikall grumbled as the captain left him to fly the ship and man the weapons. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it but he knew it wouldn’t be as effective. Especially with the captain telling him not to use the new weapon unless he absolutely had to. What good was having a weapon if you couldn’t use it?

To make matters worse, the ship trailing them was a warship from one of the pirate kings, which ship specifically, he didn’t know. Khikall only knew the fleet belonged to the Enforcer because of the flags they flew. He had avoided those bloody bastards like the plague when he hunted in these skies. The pirate kings weren’t known to be forgiving to anyone that crossed them. And yet here they were about to go toe to toe with them.

Muttering dark thoughts, Khikall jerked the ship down to avoid the oncoming fire from the ship ahead of them. It probably wasn’t necessary but he got no small amount of joy when he saw the captain lose his footing and sail into the air, only to be saved by Barcos. Said man glared in annoyance through the ship directly at Khikall when the captain turned his head. Khikall chuffed in amusement, “two fer one.” Annoying Barcos was always a plus in his eyes.

The moment of fun aside, Khikall accelerated toward the turning vessel and fired. The enemy ship was rocked as all of the shots impacted their shield. The enemy shield remained up but now they had the enemy's attention as a flurry of fighters flew from their deck to try and board the Retribution. Khikall did his best to blast them from the air but he wasn’t as fast as the captain was with the weapons targeting.

He couldn’t wholly concentrate on the ship in front of them either, the trailing vessel would be within weapons range in less than a minute. Already Khikall could see fighters preparing on their deck, some on the guns, others ready to cross the distance and do battle aboard our ship. Khikall needed to convince the captain to take on more crew, especially if he wanted to fight in more encounters like this.

They were highly outnumbered and unlike that ambush they prepared, these men they fought had either nothing to lose or were hardened lifelong cutthroats, used to being top dogs. And not some two-bit hacks calling themselves pirates.

Khikall all but ignored the battle on the deck as he weaved behind the turning vessel and blasted it from behind. This time the enemy ship's shield faltered and a quarter of his fire hit the enemy ship directly. But now came the dangerous part, he wanted to use their ship as a fire break against the other ship, but that meant placing the Retribution in clear broadside to the first ship. With their ship's higher maneuverability and speed, he felt it was worth the risk.

To make it even better, he raked another volley along the side of the ship facing them. The enemy shields faltered again, not having recovered enough to protect against even one turret. Blasts of mana and scorching beams raked the enemy vessel. The enemy was prepared though and most of the gun crews had retracted their cannons behind the armored panels. Most, but not all. Khikall managed to destroy three exposed cannons but missed another four. Already the enemy was redeploying their guns and Khikall started jerking the ship in an unpredictable pattern to try and throw them off.

It helped a little but really all it did was slow them down. The enemy fired and a quarter of their shots went wide, exploding away from the protective shield. The rest barely made the Retribution's impressive defensive shield flicker. The ship did rock against the incoming barrage but it wasn’t a concentrated fire so the impact was negligible and spread over a longer time.

That worked out in Khikall’s favor as he fired back, this time specifically aiming for the enemy’s cannons. He didn’t want to crash their ship, just take it out of the fighting. Going by the explosions on the other side of the vessel, that probably wouldn’t last long. The third ship had arrived and they were pounding the piss out of the ship between them. And there was nothing the ship could do about it. Both the Retribution and the other ship were faster and better armed.

Without warning, the enemy ship dropped. Khikall cursed and violently wrenched the Retribution down as well but it was too late to avoid the barrage of incoming fire from the now exposed warship and the former slave pirate ship. A cunning move by the enemy captain. The Retribution rocked violently and the shield collapsed under the enormous strain. Khikall fired back at the middle ship but noticed a glaring red warning on the viewer that said shield emitter malfunction.

The warship seemed content to blast away at the other ship until it truly fell from the sky this time. Then it turned its attention toward the Retribution. Khikall turned face-on toward the enemy ship as enemy fighters and incoming rounds impacted the weapons aboard the Retribution. He needed to get closer to activate the captain’s new weapon. He hoped the boss and those above could handle fighting off two crews.

***

Barcos matched dagger with scimitar as he clashed with the famous pirate enforcer. The man was skilled and it only made Barcos smile all the more. The two clashed again and Barcos used the opportunity to stealthily throw two daggers at the man. The pirate knocked one aside with his wide blade and the other with a small buckler.

Barcos danced aside as a wave of red energy tore a verticle slash through the deck. Barcos hadn’t had an interesting fight like this in eleven years. Not since he took down the Darmis twins that plagued the eastern side of the Protectorate. Now there were some skilled fighters and beautiful to boot. Too bad he had to kill them. He still remembered their lithe movements, born of a dancer's background.

The two had run him around in circles for a full ten minutes before he managed to injure one of the sisters with one of his daggers. After that it was not much of a challenge, the other sister flew into a rage and abandoned all reason to try and end his life. But Barcos persevered. Although, persevered is probably a generous description. Killing those two women led him down a dark path to try and recover from what he felt – at the time – was lost honor, leading him to be termed a mad dog and ending with his exile.

He supposed he owed those two women thanks because if it wasn’t for their sacrifice, he wouldn’t have learned to let go, instead of chasing victory and glory just for the sake of it.

A blinding flash of light came from the pirate’s shield and Barcos flinched back. Already he could hear the Lionoide roaring in victory as he charged his ‘blinded’ opponent.

Barcos sighed internally. So not the fight he hoped. Feeling the large man’s oncoming steps in the vibrations of the deck plating, Barcos waited until the last moment and teleported behind his target. The pirate was in full swing and couldn’t pull back while Barcos’s blade slashed across his side, only catching a small bit of flesh as the overgrown cat rolled into his swing and away from the surprise attack.

Ok, so maybe this fight wasn’t a waste. Blinking away the lingering spots, Barcos smiled as he saw his opponent checking his wound with his offhand. The hand came back bloody but the Lionoide snarled and grinned at Barcos.

The two clashed again as they moved across the deck, killing anyone dumb enough to get in their way.

***

Em’ah stabbed her unwary opponent in the back and through a kidney with her bone blade. The man arched his back and tried to frantically slash at her with his blade but she twisted it sideways, causing the man to drop his weapon, then she wrenched her blade out the side of his torso, throwing the man to the ground and vanishing into the melee for another target.

She didn’t miss ship-to-ship fighting, it was too chaotic, too unpredictable for her. Give her a designated target for assassination and she would be able to carry that out without issue… but here, most of her skills were rendered useless. Eventually, someone always figured out how to counter her, just don’t let anyone get within striking range of them. Already half the first ship's survivors were doing just this. Although with the third party joining the battle, it actually made them easier to single out and kill.

She didn’t need to be the one that killed them, just the one that made it possible for them to be killed.

She moved like an unseen wraith, putting her obfuscation skills to great use as she slipped unseen into the new enemy forces. She saw the mage targeting the captain but she was on the wrong side of the fight to do anything about it. She figured he could deal with one mage. As for Barcos, he and the Enforcer were tearing up the deck as they raced about trying to take advantage of one another. She made a mental note to keep an eye on their fight and stay far away from where they may appear.

She bumped into one of her ‘companions’ eliciting a scathing response, “watch it, you idi-,” it took the new pirate a moment to realize he was speaking to his doppelganger, not that it mattered. Em’ah slipped her bone blade through the side of his neck and throat.

The man fell to the deck and bled out before he could fumble a health potion from his ring. Em’ah grabbed the potion and sucked it down, storing it in an internal pouch within her body for emergency use. She looked around but nobody had noticed the pirate die so she moved position and went to find another target.

***

The mage cast a spell and tried to fly free of the deck as I approached, but I slammed my staff down on his shield, which seemed to be connected to him. The blow caused the man to crash back to the deck and stumble. This is why connected shields were not all that great. The same thing happened to ships, they shook when the shield took blows.

The mage glared at me before whipping his hand in my direction. A bolt of lightning flew from his fingertips. I turned sideways, letting the bolt impact the shoulder with my good hand. I barely felt the pain thanks to my armor and elemental resistances. I didn’t have any way to stop him from casting inside his shield so I knew this was going to turn into a slugfest, his shield versus my strength.

He readied yet another spell as I cast Time Shudder, then I activated Area of Denial and cast Flurry of Blows since I was outside the area of his silence spell. My strikes impacted the mage’s shield in rapid staccato, causing the man to flinch and fail his newest attack. As each strike hammered home, the man stumbled and I could see sweat beading on his forehead. As my last strike impacted his shield, the man reeled but he was still protected. Not for long though. I Multicast and Overcharged Flurry before the man recovered and each strike rang like a bell as his shield buckled and warped under the press of my assault.

I paid no mind to the attacks bouncing off my own barrier. The only thing that could get through Area of Denial were people with tier two stats. And I would know by the shield cracking.

Sort of like how this mage knew his end was close as his shield began to crack under my onslaught.

On the second to last blow of my skill, his shield shattered and turned into motes of light. The mage collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from his nose. I strode over, well aware the man had burned all of his mana to keep his shield up to no avail. I whipped out A stunning gust behind me in a crescent slash, knocking the feeble attackers away from my back as the pirate mage looked at me with disdain.

“The boss will kill you for this affront!” the man spit, blood landing on my armor and dripping down.

“Good, he can get in line,” I wound up my staff and put my entire body into the blow. The man’s head deformed like a rotten melon as his body flew across the deck. I flicked the brain matter from my staff and turned back to my other tormentors.

I cracked my neck and grinned behind my mask as I stalked forward, I could practically feel the fear emanating from my opponents.