Tornas was as ever drilling with his staff on deck. The days of becalmed inactivity had dried up any interest in sparing among the crew. Erika was nearby balancing in a handstand attempting to bring and hold her feet down in front of her face.

“Erika what are you doing.” Tor asked.

“Learning new skills” she responded “While you are there practicing the same thing over and over again, I am going to learn how to shoot a with my feet. Now be a dear and pass me a bow.”

“You can't shoot a bow with your hands” Tornas countered spinning his staff with one hand over his shoulder and catching it in the same.

“Minor details little boy” She replied.

At that instant Lark came charging up from below deck to where they were nearly knocking both of them over.

“What the hells Lark?” Erika asked barely keeping upright on her hands.

“Dimitri, Etheldred, Mutiny” Lark panted.

Erika shared a quick glance with Tornas and then her gaze shot up to her husband at the helm and then up to the crow's nest where a ranger was taking aim at him.

“RUBEN!” she yelled. Then with one fluid motion walked over forward took the dagger at her calf and threw it directly into the shoulder of the archer and watched him fall to deck and land with the sick cracking thud of death. Ruben immediately abandoned the helm, picked up his own bow put an arrow to the string and began scanning the rigging of the ship for any other enemies.

Tornas turned to Lark, “ go get Sezjeck and Seanathan, and remember what I told you, stay sneaky”

“get stabby” Lark finished.

“good, Go!” he ordered.

As Lark ran away Dimitri walked smugly up flanked by six others. Erika and Tornas set themselves for a fight.

“I guess secret is out” Dimitri said drawing his rapier and dagger. “Is shame I love surprises.” he said and lunged at Erika the others falling in on Tornas and Erika behind him.

Tornas used his staff to create space and push the mutineers back. There was a thud as another sniper fell from the rigging to the deck taken down by Ruben's arrow. Tor continued to block the knives and swords of the mutineers with his staff when suddenly two dropped dead in front of him each with a dagger between his eyes. Esmerelda stood in front of her quarters and whistled loudly to call the daggers back to her. She sheathed them and continued down from the raised deck of the stern to the main drawing her rapiers.

Dimitri disengaged from Erika letting the four others step in and closed with Tornas. Tor used his staff to block the seeking thrusts and slashes of Dimitri's rapier and kept ever moving to avoid the bite of his knife.

“What does Petra think of all this Dimitri.” Tornas asked as he struck Dimitri's knife out of his hand.

“Not much, now that she is dead.” Dimitri answered smugly.

“What?” Tor could not believe what he had heard, he let his guard down for just a moment.

“I killed her, she would have been in my way.” Dimitri said as he attacked. Tornas felt the lick of pain as Dimitri's rapier sliced into his arm. He snapped back to focus and went on the attack.

Esmerelda stepped in to the fight with Erika drawing the attention of two of the mutineers.

Erika was close by Tornas fighting the two remaining pirates that had come up with Dimitri. She beat them with her batons and expertly spun and stepped through there blows evading and avoiding, fighting both of them and remaining untouched. As she eluded the pair of them an arrow off of Ruben's bow found one and sunk in his chest, he collapsed to the deck. Erika made eye contact with her husband for just a moment.

“I love you Erika!” he called to her

“I love you Ruben” she called back and with a crushing force cracked the skull of her remaining attacker. There was for her a small moment of triumph and bliss and then Erika felt her blood run cold and a scream escape her lips as she saw the gold ring on her finger turned to lead. She looked across the deck to where her husband now fell dead to his knees struck down with an arrow through his neck. She ran over to him and sobbed holding his head in her arms. Another arrow grazed her arm and stuck in the deck. She looked up behind her to the archer in the upper rigging of the ship. She saw his arrow come charging down for her. She focused her energy and caught it in front of her face. She spun it around nimbly in her fingers, focused again and sent it sailing to sink in the eye of her enemy. He fell from the rigging and landed with cracking of bones on the deck. She dropped back down to her husband and wept over his body.

Sezjeck emerged from the balista shelf below with Seanathan and Lark. Sezjeck looked to Seanathan and Lark and to the scene on deck, roared with rage and charged into battle. “Try not to get killed kid.” Seanathan said to Lark and charged in after Sezjeck unsheathing his longsword from his back. Lark felt utterly paralyzed by fear but refused to let it take hold. He crouched down and crept along staying hidden, waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Etheldred emerged from where he had been lurking on the forecastle the element of surprise which he had been so counting on had been lost and he now needed to face the captain in a fair fight. He sneered to Jimothy, Kerek and Ryan, “well go get on with it, no use sulking about now.” Etheldred stood back and watched as his men joined the fight. Erika was weeping over her husband, Tornas was fighting Dimitri, Seanathan was fighting two of his and Esmerelda and Sezjeck were now closed with Jimothy, Kerek, and Ryan. He looked up to the rigging and fighting top and saw only one of his men left. He stepped slowly towards the battle but halted at the sharp bite of a knife in his side. He turned to see Lark looking up at him terrified.

“How have you even survived this long?” Etheldred asked removing the small knife and dropping it to the deck. Then he fell toppling over as suddenly the ship rocked sharply and stuck at a sideways tilt. The ship began moving at it's off kilter angle through the water. Etheldred righted himself and leaned over the gunwale to look in the water. There just beneath the sea's surface he could see the jagged mountainous body of a reef turtle. “This complicates things” he said aloud “but not for you” he said intending to put his own knife in Lark. But Lark was gone creeping away to the battle hoping to help his friends. Etheldred did not dwell on it, he could deal with the boy later.

In the main battle Tornas was still locked with Dimitri. As he continued to evade Dimitri's blade he pressed him further “how could you kill her? she loved you.”

“With very specially made knife, and yes her love was the point. I needed her to trust me I needed her to love me so that she would join with me. But she chose loyalty and death instead. More is pity she was beautiful creature.”

Sezjeck and Esmerelda had known each other and fought together for decades and their every movement showed it. They moved fluidly around each other relying on each other and the one never losing track of the other. Sezjeck was fierce, brutal, and strong; Esmerelda was quick, finessed, and acrobatic. Sezjeck swung his great axe with his whole body angling down. Their assailant stepped back out of the way, but Esmeralda leaped up and off of Sezjeck's back to drive her rapiers quickly through his throat. Kerrek fell dead and Esmerelda and Sezjeck set in on their next opponent.

[Erika wept angry impassioned tears over Ruben's body as the battle raged on deck. She threw her poison darts made freshly after the kracken attack and saw them each find there marks in the arms and backs of the mutinous pirates.]

Seanathan swung his long sword in wide arcs around himself. The two mutineers trying to fight him could not easily get close enough to land a blow. All the same, they needed to be dispatched. Seanathan swung in one last arc and sliced into one of the mutineers sending him to his knees with his guts spilling out on the deck. The other attempted to run.

A final archer dropped with a dead thud from the rigging and Seanathan looked up and smiled at the shadow of Lark now climbing back down to the deck.

"Dimitri!" Etheldred shouted "the ship is going to sink”

"Yes I noticed," he said airily trying and failing again to land a blow on the constantly moving Tornas.

"So go and get supplies before the hold floods idiot!" Etheldred moved quickly through the chaos of the battle and watched Dimitri disengage from Tornas and head below.

Dimitri scowled. Etheldred was proving to be not worth the effort of putting up with but that would be a problem to be solved once they were back on land. Perhaps with a dispelling dagger. A knife was a knife after all. He bounded down the stairs and splashed into water at the bottom. He could see the spikes of coral jutting through the walls. The boat lurched again as the coral turtle moved and Dimitri fell to the ground with a light splash as more water began to pour in.

From his hands and knees he could see that the sorceress was not where he had left her. This was a slight complication, but what did it matter if she had crawled off somewhere to die?

"Petsha?" He called in a sing song voice standing up. "Petsha where are you" he laughed to himself and got about gathering supplies to abandon the ship.

The hold was noisy with the sound of water rushing in. He puzzled as he started stuffing a bag with needs. The supplies on the shelves seemed much fewer than they should be. And then he felt a great sharp pain in his back bellow his ribs.

"There you are Petsha" he groaned.

"You know something else my babushka told me?" Petra whispered in his ear.

“Oh you're actually going to speak without being asked a direct question?” Dimitri's smirk was cut off by the twisting of the knife.

“When you have wolf in your trap, make sure she's really dead" Petra finished.

"Babushka knows best," he choked out "but you're no wolf, kitten." he spun around to face her.

As he turned to face her Petra yanked out the knife. Dimitri attempted to pin her against the wall of crates behind her but she buried the knife in his throat. Dimitri coughed and spluttered blood. Petra sliced his neck open as she withdrew the blade. He grasped at her as he collapsed onto the floor and she kicked him over and held his face down in the water with her foot until the bubbles stopped floating up and he stopped moving.

"Really dead" she whispered to herself and struggled over his body out of the supply hold. She felt light headed. She looked down at herself. She was covered in blood, both hers and his. She ran her hand across her chest and down to her side. The clay she had used to stop the blood had soaked through and she had started bleeding again. Petra was not sure for how long. The water continued to rush in through the holes in the ship. She needed to get back above. She made it to the stairs and fell catching herself on the steps. She shouldered her bag and forced herself to continue up the stairs.

While Petrianna confronted Dimitri the battle continued on the deck of the sinking ship.

Tor could not worry about where Dimitri was going as he slipped away from him. His eye was now on Etheldred. The half-drow moved silently and effortlessly through the chaos of the fighting. Tornas watched in horror as Etheldred stalked up behind Seanathan and opened his throat. Seanathan collapsed to the deck his life pouring out of him. Etheldred stepped easily over him and walked toward where Erika still wept over her husband.

“Etheldred!” Tornas called him out from across the deck.

The mutinous quarter master stopped and looked back at him. “Well I suppose you can go first.” he said and stepped lightning quick to square with Tornas. Tornas spun his staff around himself and prepared for the fight. Etheldred had a dagger in each hand. Tor easily dodged as Etheldred lashed out with the first but felt the slice as the second one bit into his skin. He whipped his staff around to jab Etheldred hard in the gut. The half-drow stumbled back a step but looked up to say “oh you'll have to do better than that” He stepped inside the circle Tornas had made around himself with his staff and and cut him twice more. Tornas could feel the blood pulsing out of his wounds. He needed to end this. He spun his staff around him, swatting at Etheldred's legs to drive him back, spinning and passing his staff from hand to hand. Then with every ounce of anger and resentment he had inside of him he took one end of his staff in both hands and brought it down hard on Etheldred's skull. The mutinous quartermaster crumbled to the deck his head caved in where Tornas struck him. Tornas panted as he stood over Etheldred's lifeless body and looked to where the captain and Sezjeck had just finished off Jimothy. The lifeless bodies of Kerek, Ryan, and the other mutineers also lay on the deck around them. All the mutineers were dead.