Petra watched Dimitri walk away shouting and responding to the other sailors and assuming his station for the taking of the merchant ship. The ship's deck had become a buzzing organized cacophony of sailors assuming their positions and giving and following orders. Petra took Dimitri's advice and went below to get ready for any wounded that would come her way. Tornas came running by her table lightly charging to his post above deck.

"Looks like we've finally got some action eh?" Tornas said as he ran past, his staff strapped to his back . Petra smiled in response and he continued on to the deck. The air was crisp, the wind to their advantage, and the sun was high. Today was going to be good. Tor sprinted up to the forecastle and out onto the bowsprit. He poised himself for impact. As the Bonnie bounty rammed into the merchant vessel Tornas leapt through the air and caught expertly in the rigging of the merchant ship.

Now, for the fun. Tornas traversed the netting to where one of the sailors was readying his bow. Tornas held to the net with his hands and kicked at the sailor to send his bow falling to the deck below. He then jumped down to the deck himself, sprung up from his landing and began setting about his work.

Tornas turned at the sound of Erika's ululating cry as she ran down the hull of the Bonnie Bounty across the water and up the side of the merchant ship to leap and landed beside him. She unsheathed the batons from her back.

"Ready to go little boy?" she asked.

"Disarm and alarm" he responded.

"That's the spirt" Erika said and immediately engaged with two of the sailors on deck. Tornas spun his staff around himself and began making his way through the merchant sailors confusing and disarming but not closing with any of them.

Contrary to popular opinion and the stories told on merchant and other private adventuring ships, pirates were rarely and then only secondarily in the business of murder. The primary objective of a pirate ship is indeed not murder but acquisition. Acquisition of valuables, acquisition of gold, and lastly, acquisition of people. For every one pirate that signed up at the beginning of a voyage there would be at least one other that joined up with the pirate crew after their ship was taken. If you could convince your opponent to just stop fighting the job was done. In Tornas' experience the best way to accomplish this goal was to create as much chaos as possible.

More of the Bonnie Bounty's crew were coming over now. Arrows flew from the archers in both ships. The fight was intense. By his guess the crew of this ship were monster hunters and much more martially capable than the typical ship transporting goods and wealth. As he continued to move through the battle Tornas saw as two of his crew mates carried a third back over to the Bonnie Bounty. Tornas kept his staff moving around him as he weaved through the sailors and pirates now crowding the deck. His progress was stopped by a wall of a man wielding a great ax.

"Stop right there pirate"

Tornas smiled, this was going to be fun.

"Sure you don't wanna just give up big guy?" Tornas offered.

The sailor roared and swung his ax. Tornas dodged and the blow and circled the sailor keeping his staff moving around him. The broad shouldered sailor had strength in spades but lacked in any kind of accuracy. He swung slowly and heavily making himself easy to evade and even easier to hit. Tornas swooped out of the way of the ax to turn behind the sailor and bring his staff cracking down on his head.

The sailor turned around and howled as Tornas continued to circle him. Then suddenly Tor was startled by the smashing of a barrel and the whoosh of an erupting flame.

"You'll never take my ship!" The merchant captain called. As he continued to topple barrels and spread fire on his own ship where it had been rammed.

"You still want to side with the guy who just set your ship on fire?" Tor asked the sailor he was fighting.

The sailor bellowed with rage and swung at Tornas with his ax, again. This was getting boring quickly. With honed grace Tornas ducked through and between the sailor's arms and with a practiced spin of his staff sent the great ax clattering across the deck. He gave the sailor a quick jab to the throat with the butt of his staff smoothly disengaged lightly stepping away towards the quickly spreading fire.

This was bad. Tornas could think of nothing to do. The only thing to do would be to abandon the ship before the fire spread to their own. Tornas looked to where Esmerelda was now occupied fighting the merchant captain. The order to retreat was likely not to come and the fire was spreading to the Bonnie Bounty. The fight onboard was still continuing and had grown more desperate and pinched with the spreading fire when Tornas saw Petrianna step up on the side of the Bonnie and stretch out her hands. The flames began to retreat and pull together to a central point. The tendrils of flame reaching for the Bonnie Bounty withered and withdrew back to the central point where the fire started. The roaring fire condensed into a single ball of flame that smothered and shattered itself to dust and dull embers in a small heap on the deck. For a moment there was awed silence and then battle recommenced now much in favor of the bonny bounty's crew. But as the merchant ship surrendered and the battle ended Tornas realized that there was another fight happening on board the Bonnie Bounty.