The deck of the ship is alight with activity as the crew runs about following the orders of a half dressed slime covered captain.

Looking out over the sea, the pirate vessel is now much closer, nearly within firing range, according to the call outs the crew was giving to prep the cannons.

“I’ve never seen pirates before.” Casper notes casually, looking at the large black flag fluttering in the wind on the enemy ship.

The flag itself was a little tacky, Casper thought. It featured a crudely drawn dragon's skull with a sword being driven through his head and out its mouth, though now drawn with any level of skill.

“Shit, we might be in trouble.” Peter curses as he runs up beside Casper to join him in his observations.

“Really?”

“That flag, it belongs to one of the single most dangerous pirates to ever sail the Crimson Sea.” He speaks the words with such profound reverence and fear, it almost has Casper worried.

Almost.

“Is he and his crew human?”

“She, and no, they are a group of devils, literally. Emerged straight from the hells.” Peter explains.

“Devils on the ocean, curious.” Casper holds back a snicker as he looks over to Laihal who has been helping with a lot of the heavy lifting.

“It may sound strange, but trust me Casper, they are a force of nature…” Peter presses.

“Watch yourself!” a voice cries out moments before a massive explosion sounds from the other ship.

With a streak of gray, a cannon ball rips through the air across the deck of their ship, nearly taking off the railing as it passes by to crash into the water behind them.

Peter narrows his eyes, and Casper's smile widens.

“Well, they picked the wrong ship to try and steal from.” He notes, watching Rathiel, Janus, Dorain, Szostes and Thodhan emerge onto the deck to join them all.

The captain continues to scream orders at the men, interrupted by another blast, and streak of gray across the deck, a streak that doesn’t last very long, as Thodhan steps into the path of the projectile, and drives his head directly into it.

With a sound equal to that of the initial explosion, Thodhan headbutts the cannonball so hard it shatters into a dozen pieces, pieces that are caught in Szostes’s barriers.

“Show off.” Janus teases.

Thodhan smiles wide and rubs the faint red spot on his head.

Casper casts a glance back to Peter, who is equal parts relieved, equal parts terrified after that display.

“Let's bring the ship in, I'm curious what they want.” Casper calls out to the captain.

“Are you fuckin’ mad? That's Captain Sirra’s ship! You’ll get us all killed boy!”

Casper exchanges a look to Rathiel, who moves to speak to the captain next. “We will be safe, I assure you.” Rathiel confirms the statement with much more confidence and authority than Casper could ever possibly muster, accentuated by the man unfolding his brilliant wings to their full length.

“I should have asked for double.” The captain mutters before shouting out new orders.

The ships edge closer and closer, until eventually the pirates vessel rides alongside their own.

Shouts and jeers come across the tops of the decks, as a collection of reddish tanned skinned fiends wave around their weapons.

A large board is dropped, connecting the decks to one another, while a group of devils tie the ships together with large ropes, while more spill from the lower decks.

Rathiel moves to stand beside Casper sighing gently.

“Oh come on, this could be fun.” Casper reasons, watching as the rest of their respective parties begin to move behind them, while both he and Rathiel are joined by Peter and the captain.

“We could just kill them, get them off the waters?” Peter asks.

Rathiel shakes his head. “If only it were that easy. True devils can only be killed in the hells. Otherwise they will just keep coming back.”

“Still, it’s not like they will pose a threat to us, right?” Casper tests.

Rathiel frowns slightly. “They shouldn’t, but you never know.”

“Celestials and Fiends, always fightin’” The captain grumbles as he adjusts his belt.

A much taller figure emerges from the captain's quarters on the pirate vessel, and a rather impressive figure it is. Built somewhere between Laihal and Annabelle, the seven foot tall fiend captain saunters across the deck in only a few strides.

She was easily the largest woman Casper had ever seen in his life, if he didn’t know any better he would have mistaken her for a half giant.

Massive leathery wings drape across her back like a cape, pierced with golden hoops attaching golden chains to the rest of her, so that as her wings spread open to an impressive 30 foot wingspan, the interconnected gold creates an image of a dragon's skull.

“Quite the show.” Rathiel spits. Evidently not nearly as impressed as Casper was, because Casper thought it was pretty hot.

“Kneel, and I may consider letting some of you live.” Captain Sirra commands, her voice like a hammer striking red hot steel.

“Leave our ship, and I will ensure your death is a swift one.” Rathiel counters coolly.

“Feisty little celestial.” Sirra smirks, crossing her arms under her mountainous bust. “Make sure to let this one live, I want to have fun with him.”

“You can have fun with me all you like.” The captain of Casper's ship chuckles

“You?” Sirra narrows her eyes. “I’ll feed you to the hounds.”

“If the hounds are anything like the rest of your crew, I welcome it.”

“By the fates…” Peter sighs.

“I am Captain Sirra of the Hellforge, my pretty little vessel with its cannons ready to sink you if you cause me any trouble, and here are my demands.” Sirra starts, her red eyes flicking over the gathered members of the crew.

“Everything you have on board, including…” She pauses for a moment, her wings shivering slightly. “Oh what a treat, so many pretty faces aboard, I think I'll have my fill.”

Sirra points a long finger at Annabelle, Elisayra, Nephinae, Laihal, Janus, Dorain, Micha, Peter, and Casper.

“You all, mommy’s hunger and it looks like you all could satisfy me.” She purrs the words.

“Ya sure you don’t want me?” The captain asks.

“I’m sure.” Sirra smirks.

“Damn…”

“You’ll make Pounce sad, she's attached you know.” Celeste reprimands, patting the head of a slouching slime girl beside her.

“Counter offer.” Rathiel cuts in, pulling his sword from its sheath. “I kill you instead, pirate scum.”

“Hold on now, maybe we can indulge her offer?” Janus asks with open arms.

Rathiel rolls his eyes, and dashes out towards the massive woman.

A streak of gold through the air, he passes through the space Sirra occupies and lands on the enemy deck, surrounded.

Sirra laughs, touching a finger to a thin cut at her ribs that heals almost instantly. “Poor little angel, don’t you know that the ocean is full of fish? You aren’t always going to be the biggest one.”

Rathiel's eyes narrow, as hungry fiends lick their lips and tighten their circle around him.

“Damn you all!” The captain cries out, pulling his sword from its sheath as well.

Casper finds himself smiling as Peter poises to strike beside him.

“Let's see what we can do.” Casper begins to channel the mark, focusing almost exclusively on durability and speed. It would be harder to spot him doing the impossible in a pitched frenzy if what he was doing was mostly defense.

Casper launches himself at the fiend, triggering everyone else behind him to begin their attacks as well.

Dashing between the big woman's legs, Casper finds himself feeling for the captain. After all, he wouldn’t mind spending a little extra time with this fiend, but alas it was safer to dispatch her here. Sure she wouldn’t be dead forever but maybe one day she would come back with a vengeance and give him another opportunity.

Peter draws two brutal looking short swords from their spot at his side, and carves through the fiends calves as he passes by.

Hot blood spatters out, soaking the deck of the ship, though it doesn’t last long as she begins to heal instantly.

Szostes erects a barrier moments before the fiends own blade comes down on Annabelle, who dashes under the strike and drives up with her own, sinking her greatsword into the woman's arms.

Winds rush all around Casper, as fiends begin to throw themselves from the pirates ship and onto his own.

Thodhan tears the wings off one with his bare hands, and uses the tail of another to bat away several. Janus and Dorain dance together near the decks center a synchronized ballet of death, sending fountains of blood cascading through the air.

Sirra’s wings beat hard, throwing Casper to the ground along with the others nearby as she launches herself high into the sky, only to turn and with an extended end, launch a single spark that ignites into a massive fireball as it nears the deck.

The air vibrates, as Szostes conjures another barrier, containing the entire fireball moments before it makes contact. The roaring power of the flame deafening anyone nearby as Szostes struggles to contain the massive amount of energy.

More explosions sound, as the enemy looses a volley of cannon fire into their ship at point blank range.

Casper finds himself bracing, waiting for the lurch of their ship, only to hear the shattering and splintering of wood elsewhere.

Turning his head, a rip in space generated by Celeste acts as a window to the cannons, as she seems to have created a portal that in turn sends the enemies cannonballs directly into their own masks.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Wood splinters, and the massive sails flutter violently through the air as the masts collapse down onto the deck of their ship.

A single dagger streaks through the air, sinking into the head of a fiend that had managed to get near Casper. Following the line of the throw, Casper gives a nod to Elisayra, who yelps as Micha has to tackle a fiend that had nearly gotten too close to her.

A pillar of radiant light pierces the sky, as Rathiel turns the surrounding fiends into dust, only to be stopped from killing any more by Sirra who throws whips of fire towards the half celestial, entangling his wings as she drags him closer.

Casper rushes forward to draw the attention away from Rathiel, making sure to channel enough of the mark to grab the fiends attention, buying time for Zesstra, who sinks a blade into the giant fiend’s neck..

Sirra screeches, and grabs for the weapon, tearing it from her throat. The moment of distraction long enough for Engee to jump off a mast, and drive a kick into the hilt of the blade, slamming it deep enough into fiends body that it can’t easily take it out again.

Casper circles back around, moving in close, and grabs hold of one of the many golden chains adorning her wings, and then pulls it back, sprinting under her arm, behind her back, forcing the wing to bend in on itself.

Using the openings. Laihal follows Casper's lead, grabbing more chains on the other wing and meeting passing him as the two cross to opposite sides.

Sirra arches her back, throwing Casper and Laihal up into the air, only to be caught by Szostes and Thodhan.

With her wings still a tangle, Sirra can’t escape in time as Rathiel plunges his glowing golden sword into the chest of the giant woman, blood fountaining over him, bathing him entirely in red.

It's clear that she tries to heal, the burning, golden radiance erupting from Rathiel prevents the damage from sealing up.

Engee drives a kick into the back of Sirra’s knees, sending her further to the ground. Celeste conjures a portal above the fiend moments before the crew of their own ship launches another volley, sending the cannonballs crunching into her back.

Alex claps, enjoying the show alongside a scared Nephinae, while Casper rolls out his neck and approaches the large woman, bleeding out and panting hard.

Peter runs past Casper, swords carving off Sirra's fingers as they blur past to try and rip apart Rathiel.

She screams as more blood spills from her chest, and her fingers clatter to the ground.

“I.. I will come back for you!” Sirra spits between the blood bubbling from her mouth.

“And you’ll lose then too.” Rathiel notes, igniting the fire on his sword even more, sending radiant light burning through Sirra's eyes, nose, mouth and ears, as she turns to dust from the inside out.

Her screams fade, and with them, the few surviving friends throw themselves into the ocean, desperate to swim away from the wrath of the half celestial.

“If only that burned away the blood too.” Janus notes, looking down at his own soaked through body.

“I can help with this.” Nephinae smiles, and begins to speak the incantations for her cleaning spells, slowly removing the blood from the armor, cloths, and skin of the most saturated members first.

“Well fuck me, you lot actually did it.” The captain shakes his head in disbelief.

“To think you were going to try and sleep with her.” Peter scowls.

“Oi, don’t pretend like I was the only one. Your boy over there was also askin’.” he points to Janus. “And this one was givin’ her the eyes.” he nods to Casper.

“I like dominant women.” Casper shrugs innocently.

“Enough blabbering, let's loot their ship!” Annabelle calls out, having already crossed onto their deck.

“That woman and loot.” Alex laughs, and jumps across to join her.

“Hey, you didn’t help fight! You shouldn’t get first pick!” Elisayra protests, running after the two of them.

Casper shakes his head and chuckles, joining them.

He can hear the sounds of some others following behind him, but he pays them no mind as he follows Annabelle, Alex, and Elisayra to the captains quarters.

“What does a fiend keep in their captains quarters anyyyy-” Casper trails off, as he bumps into Annabelle, who is frozen stiff in the center of the room.

“What… what is all this?” Elisayra asks, her cheeks turning red.

“You know.” Alex approaches one of the objects in question, a rather phallic shaped, slightly floppy facsimile of male genitalia, and places it on her pelvis before wiggling to demonstrate.

“Oh.. oh! Oh…” Elisayra takes a single step out of the room then, as she quickly realizes nearly every inch of the captain's quarters is designed to appeal to her fiendish tastes.

“Look at this one!” Alex coo’s grabbing something far, far too large from a shelf, designed in a distinctly non-human manner.

Alex, giddy with excitement, rushes to place the base of the object near Elisayra’s pelvis, demonstrating just how far up it would go were it inside the poor half elf.

“I would die!” Elisayra protests, pressing her hand to the tip which rested firmly at her collar bone.

“Nephinae has healing spells.” Alex taunts.

“NO!” Elisayra rushes to hide behind Annabelle, who has begun to examine the contents for herself.

“This is bizarre.” Casper notes, walking deeper into the room to examine more of the collection placed on shelves, not all representative of the male sex he realizes with growing interest.

“Fiends are the most perverse of the races” Annabelle adds, holding up a collective of leather restraints affixed to the bed.

“I always thought it was elves.” Alex teases, looking out the door towards a newly arrived Nephinae, who in turn quickly does a full 180 and walks away.

“Ah! This one is moving!” Elisayra shouts suddenly, dropping something to the ground that begins to make a strange vibrating noise.

“Magical sex toys, she must have really been committed.” Casper says, walking over to pick up the device, running his hand along the runes carved into the base to turn it off.

“What is this one used for?” Annabelle asks, holding up what appears to be two of the fake fallacies, connected together, so there is a “head” on both ends.

“For two women I'd presume?” Alex offers, her face turning red as well.

“Oh…” Annabelle sets it back down.

“Not the kind of loot you were hoping for?” Casper asks, examining a more “hole” shaped one, trying to see what the inside looks like.

“Not particularly, though I'm sure there is coin around here somewhere…” Annabelle continues, taking to pulling out even more strange devices from under the bed, in desk drawers and off of shelves.

“They all look clean at least.” Alex notes, examining a collection of positions resting inside a glass cabinet.

“Ah ha! Here we are.” Annabelle rubs her hands together after pulling a chest out from a secret compartment hidden in the wall. “Eli, mind giving me a hand?”

“Umm, no, no I don't mind.” A remarkably flustered Elisayra stops ogling another one of the vibrating toys to pick the lock on the chest.

In a few quick movements, the latch is unlocked, and Annabelle throws open the lid to examine the contents inside.

There was in fact a sizable sum of coin inside the chest, though there were a few other things as well. A few clear potions, a few purple potions, some spell scrolls, and three books also rest among the jewelry, coins and small art pieces.

Annabelle tosses the book's aside, only to have them picked up by Alex who then flips through them.

“It looks like, hell maybe half a million marks split between platinum, gold and silver and all the trinkets.” Annabelle smiles to herself.

“What are those potions?” Casper asks.

“We can ask someone to help us identify them maybe?” Elisayra offers, taking the spell scroll and reading through it.

“We probably should, though I don't think it will end up being anything too useful, given everything else in this room.” Casper notes with a laugh.

Turning around to examine the room again, he notes Alex’s face too has turned red. Despite everything they had seen in here, she was the last one to get embarrassed, and it seemed to be from whatever was inside that book.

“What are you reading?” Casper asks, moving to try and glimpse the pages, but she slams it shut before he can see what it contains.

“Smut!” She proclaims rather suddenly.

Whatever it was, was more than smut, Casper had to guess, given how she so readily offered up that as an excuse.

“Well, I’m going to see if there is anything other than sex related items aboard.” Casper laughs, and makes his way out of the captains quarters, leaving them women to their own devices.

“I guess being a captain is hard work.” Casper says to his own captain as he too joins the crew in the search for treasure.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Casper chuckles to himself.

Working his way to the lower decks, Casper finds himself only half surprised.

“It’s like a damn sex dungeon on water.” Rathiel murmurs to himself as Casper meets him near the center of the crew quarters.

“You should see the captain's quarters.”

“I bet it’s worse than this.”

“Yea, just about.” Casper confirms watching as his crew delicately sifts through leather bondage, chains, sheepskin condoms, potions, and all manner of unique devices he hadn’t even considered placing near a body part.

“Fiends are the most perverse of all the races.” Laihal confirms with a coy smile, unabashedly enjoying how flustered everyone was getting.

“You know, Annabelle just said that.”

“I'm sure she did.” Laihal gives a haughty laugh before moving to help grab some of the only non sex related items, such as rations and clothing to bring to their own ship.

“Good work with Sirra by the way.” Rathiel offers, turning his attention to Casper as the two take to walking around through the deeper levels to search for anything worthwhile.

“Wasn't it too obvious?”

“No, not at all, In fact I barely noticed you used the mark at all.” Rathiel admits in a low whisper.

“To be fair, you were rather distracted. I’ll admit I didn't expect you to get so angry.”

“Ah, I really do apologize, it's ingrained rather deeply into me to hunt fiends.”

“I hope Laihal isn’t an issue?”

“She… was at first, but she is only a half fiend so it’s much easier to suppress the bloodlust.”

“You and I, we aren’t so different” Casper chuckles.

“Oh gods, spare me. I've seen that one too many times in cheesy plays.”

“I’ve heard it one too many times in cheesy books.” Casper winks, throwing open the door to the storage room.

“Your other companions did well too.” Rathiel continues, taking to sifting through several burlap sacks.

“Well, you’ve been helping to train them.”

“They were already fairly good before we started training them.”

“True.” Casper nods, kneeling down to pry open a number of wooden boxes with his fingers, channeling the mark enough to make it easy.

“Sirra really picked a bad ship to try and rob.”

“Couldn’t have picked a worse one really.” Casper laughs, and Rathiel joins him.

“Anything useful?”

“Just some trade goods mostly. Leathers, silks, hides, skins mostly.”

“Lets load them up then, could be worthwhile for the people in the Dukes holdings. The war has been raging on for so long I doubt their wares are in good shape.” Rathiel notes, holding out his hands for Casper to begin stacking boxes.

“Good point, though speaking of, I have to ask.”

“What is it?” Rathiel's voice becomes muffled as three crates block his face.

“This war that's been going on for… seemingly ever, who exactly is winning it?”

“I dare say there are no winners.” Rathiel admits with a heavy sigh. “All the nobles say the Duke and all the people say anyone but the Duke.”

“Anyone but?”

“By order of the king of Getha, the Duke uses his own men, militia forces paired with the house armies of the noblemen under him, and occasionally those noblemen's militia forces. But it’s rarely ever asked, who exactly are they warring with?”

“Getha’s enemies one would presume?”

“Which are?”

“I… can’t say that I know any of their names.”

“Exactly, not many can. Getha is involved in many fronts, always trying to expand its borders and secure power and influence but over who? There are very few nations as strong, and the reason you know none of their names is because there are basically none.”

“What do you mean none?”

“There used to be.” Rathiel explains as the two work their way up the stairs back towards their own ship. “The elves used to be united under a much larger banner, as did the fiends, dwarves, and other races. Getha has been working to shatter them so thoroughly their names are lost to history, and there is a reason for that.”

“To make them seem less like people…”

“Correct.” Rathiel nods. “These are enemies, not nations, these aren’t people, they are the combatants. To give them names and nations and titles is to give them a face. When they have a face it is much, much harder to rally men who want nothing more than to live a peaceful life to fight. No, instead they are made faceless, amorphous. They exist simply as “enemies” and “enemies” must be conquered and killed.”

“But they do have names and faces don’t they?”

“They did… unfortunately many are lost. All that remains are fragments of civilizations struggling to survive. Any identity they posed has been replaced. The histories burned, lost or forever.”

Casper stays quiet for a time as they walk through their own ship to store the items in their own storage deck.

Letting the crates fall, listening to the sounds of the others mull about, Casper takes in the words Rathiel said to him.

“But doesn’t that go entirely against the racial hierarchy? It feels antithetical. The law of the land is based around those old religious texts, as I've learned just a few hours ago. Why undermine its authority by waging war against, and enslaving higher races?”

Rathiel leans against the doorway to the storage deck entrance and works his tongue in his mouth, trying to find the words.

“You know. I thought about that myself for a while. I had much the same thought… It’s possible it’s two different factions within the kingdom of Getha with conflicting ideals. It’s possible the dissonance is important to confuse the masses, or maybe the king and his retinue are just so grossly incompetent they didn’t think that far ahead. Those are my three leading theories.”

“Pretty extreme differences between them.”

Rathiel shrugs. “The closest I have ever gotten to learning anything was a few nights in Duke Regalt’s castle. The king keeps his secrets hidden well, along with the rest of him. For as long as I have been an adventurer he’s been held up in his castle in Getha’s capital. Makes his speeches through proxies, edicts through his family and children through…somewhere. Little princes keep popping out despite the fact that the man would have to be nearly 70 or 80 years old if history is to be believed.”

“Do you believe they are trustworthy?”

“Who’s to say? It's important to know who writes the history books. Which, to my knowledge, are those who hold the king's favor. Independent historians exist of course, though their works don’t often survive long in the wild.”

“Should just kill 'em all and be done with it.” Casper rolls his eyes.

“If only it were that easy.”

It most certainly was, Casper thought, but he didn’t want to make an enemy of his new friend so he kept his mouth shut on the matter.

“I take it then that's why you have a vested interest in helping the people on the front?”

“It is, though I believe I already explained that much.” Rathiel teases.

“Are you two almost done flirting?” Laihal purrs as she appears from the hall just beyond the door Rathiel was resting against.

“Almost.” Casper smiles.

“Good, the girls just finished bringing the last of the loot to the ship.”

“Wonderful.” Casper stretches and heads past Rathiel who remains in the doorway.

“They find anything worthwhile?” Rathiel asks.

“Yes! Quite a number of things in fact.” Laihal winks.

“Why does the tone you used to answer that worry me.”

“Worry you? You should be thrilled, I think what they found will be a lot of fun!”

“See, that’s worrying, any specifics you can give me?”

“Oh, just some tools of the trade is all.” Laihal flicks her tail so that it grazes up his thigh, chest, and ends at his lips.

“I see.” Casper moves her tail slightly, revealing the faint hint of something attached to the very base of her tail, with a piece that continues under to the place between her legs, where he swears he can hear the faintest bit of vibration.

With a heavy groan, Casper moves her tail back to cover her.

“I see…”