Cira took a step off the front of the Salty Songstress before landing on the ground silently, holding her blade at the ready.
“You think you can take out Big Don, you dumb wench?!” The man that approached yelling had scratches along his arms and legs. The bruising on his face stopped one of his eyes from looking at her, “You’ll have to take me out first!”
He jumped at her with a rusty sword, snarling through busted lips. Cira lazily held her own up and his went right through it—no, that was just an optical illusion. Cira’s cheater blade rent the pirate’s in two on contact, separating the two halves with zero resistance.
As his eyes bulged out of his head further than the bruising made them, she sidestepped. His sharpened stub approached Cira’s soft underbelly and she kneed him in the gut. The poor first mate was first down. More pirates started flooding out from the myriad of doorways and the miners tending the deritium all dispersed. Cira lost count as more pirates amassed. She reckoned there were over a hundred.
Half that at best were ready to fight. Many stumbled around still trying to figure out how to put their shorts on, still drunk and half asleep. Gaggles of hardly clothed women also dispersed from various doorways, but Cira noticed a particular three who looked very upset with her.
The men onboard had left the ship at this point, save for the two sleepers and a concerned looking Delilah with a crossbow, coated in her own personal barrier. Another, liquid barrier formed around the Salty Songstress like perpetually crashing waves to keep it safe and on theme. Cirina’s crew all had their swords drawn, but only Jimbo brought his glass. Cira clanked hers against it and they shared a drink.
“Sure is a lotta them.” Jimbo laughed, “Ya gonna show us some more o’ that pirate magic, right?”
“In due time.” The first of the Black Scourge reached their group, brandishing knives, swords, and crossbows. Cira split a bolt in two and parried the next with her beer before kicking another guy down. He rolled across the ground taking everyone behind him out, causing the pirate army to pause. They didn’t expect such power from the girl, and didn’t know what to make of the radiant water that splashed when she kicked. “Now! Chaaaarge!”
Cira raised her saber high above her head and ran into crowd with a battle cry. This struck fear into the opposition’s hearts and some of their defenses dropped. When her blade made contact with the first man’s face, he was sent flying through the crowd. She had conjured blades with similar effects and distributed them among her crew.
Again, Cira didn’t like murder. She would beat the crap out of a hundred guys, but killing was in poor taste. Of all men, those who let deritium taint this island weren’t high on her list of people to spare though, so realistically she couldn’t do anything if Jimbo tried to stick someone.
Given the sheer number of people guarding Cira’s treasure, unless she wanted to utterly overwhelm them with large-scale magic, it wasn’t worth breaking her back to prevent a random pirate from losing his life. They knew what they signed up for in joining the Black Scourge.
Besides, it worked out better this way. Were Cira to single-handedly decimate the Black Scourge, leaving all alive to tell the horrifying tale, it would create irritating rumors or pervasive issues for her. Ripples that would certainly catch up with the sorcerer sooner or later. And whenever possible, it was good practice to have the locals help take care of their own problem.
James and his pals were huddled in the back on defense, and not many made it that far. It was a slow trickle of pirates as they kept getting blasted away with each swing. Baum and his buddy were taking up the rear and fending off most of the stragglers, while Jimbo was getting overwhelmed, not far behind Cira.
“Gyaah!!!” He had his blade locked with another when a second pirate jumped at him from the side, bringing his cutlass down on Jimbo’s neck. “Nooo!!!!”
Dink.
Like slapping a kitchen knife against a block of steel, the blade deflected off Jimbo’s neck with a flash of light. This was Cira’s secret protection for her crew. His eyes went wide as he stared into his would-be killer’s eyes who made the same expression.
“You bastards!” His peg flew off with a kick and he stuck the man bearing down on him, who went limp and slid to the ground. “Hahhh!” Jimbo swung around, slicing the second man’s hand open with his peg knife, making the sword clatter to the ground. With immaculate balance, he gave a guttural shout and slammed the glass he still held into the man’s face.
It shattered in an explosion of blood and ale as he fell to the ground. Jimbo stood on one leg and flexed his arms out, screaming to the unseen sky. Pieces of glass flew into the air again and clinked against the jagged handle in his hand before becoming an unbroken cup which promptly refilled.
“Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Jimbo refueled, reequipped his peg, and fell right back into the fray.
Cira hadn’t strayed too far from the ship once their enemy’s number had increased to a point, but Baum was starting to get a little too much action. He and his friend had fallen back with James and the extras, holding everyone off. The five-plus of them were accustomed to combat but weren’t masters by any means. They’d have long been wiped out if it weren’t for the infallible glinting of swords against their barriers.
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Their guide wasn’t too keen on being pit against the entire crew he used to run with either, and Cira told him to wait in the boat, but apparently this seemed to him like a situation he wouldn’t survive if he didn’t draw his blade.
“Hold on, is that Chetner?!” One pirate snarled.
Once one man recognized him it was over, “It is him. Hey everyone, old Baum is one of ‘em!”
“Goddamn, Chets, it was you!”
“No, you fools!” Cira stuck her blade deep into the salt and a tidal wave washed her closest opponents away with a powerful ebb, “It was I! Cirina Dreadheart!”
Now she had a clear view of Don again. He stood in the back shaking like a leaf, one woman trying to push a sword into his hands. He froze when they locked eyes.
“You bitch!” A flash of sandy light Cira was familiar with grew from a man’s fist as it flew towards her. Had he not snarled before attacking it may have caught her off guard. She reinforced her barrier with earth mana and waited for the blow to come. “Think you’re tough—”
The fist was aimed right for her face, but Cira’s eyes were locked on the man’s disapprovingly as jagged rock exploded from his fist on impact, blasting back from her barrier. The blinding mana flooded the room for an instant and revealed a man encased in the reflected stone from his own attack. It fizzled out into light and the would-be mage was left groaning on the ground, coated in bruises and cuts.
“I was wondering when I would find the geomancer.” Cira let the ale in her hand float back into orbit then snapped her fingers. An effulgence of the same hue grew from the Salty Songstress as the staff hidden within activated. Salt rose up from each doorway, sealing everyone inside. “Now give up and offer your full cooperation. I can promise your treatment will be better than if you don’t.”
That wasn’t much of a promise to go on, but the wayward mage gawked, head swiveling around the room. Every single door was sealed up in an instant, from a simple snap of her fingers. This new pirate was more terrifying than she was beautiful, which rang shrill alarm bells in his head. He shivered, cowering up at her from the ground.
This man was but a smuggler who stumbled upon a spell book once. Not an uncommon story among thieves, but he seemed to be worse off than Triton. His magic consisted of concentrating earth mana to his fists and discharging it on impact. It was the equivalent of packing gloves with explosive shrapnel. Cira thought only a child could stumble upon such a thoughtless technique. Luckily, the stone was conjured, or he would have had to rely on Cira to get him out of his self-imposed prison.
Unfortunately, this sequence gave the pirates a chance to rally. Cira could see Don banging his head on a sealed door with his worried maidens at his side. Others had evidently woken up too, increasing the number of enemies between them even further. Now that they felt trapped, they fell in on Cira and her crew.
Fending a couple off, she rushed the quivering mage, “Make a choice, I don’t have time to dawdle.”
He hastily crawled to his knees and slammed his face to the salt, “Please don’t kill me! I’ll help you, I swear! You’re the captain now!”
“Good man.” Chains formed, snaking around the mage before lifting him off the ground. He cried and pleaded while floating off towards the Salty Songstress, growing quieter after noticing that he was behind a barrier. Still bound, he proceeded to nervously watch the rest of the fight.
Cira and Jimbo in front didn’t have much trouble fending off assailants even if they were taking some blows here and there. Baum and the others were struggling to keep up though, and it was only getting worse, while the two extras had been dogpiled at this point. Cira couldn’t see them, but the sound of her barriers was still firing off, so she didn’t feel the need to waste time there yet.
After a few minutes the numbers finally thinned when another man woke up from his sheets laid on the salt. There were still a good few strewn about and it was funny watching their friends trip over them trying to hold Cira off, but there was one in particular she kept her eye on.
He had to be as big as Milty’s doorman, taller even. His face was dirty, covered with stubble, and his striped pants were tattered. Looking around in a daze for a moment, he finally rested his eyes on something. Grabbing it in one massive hand, he held the jug up to his mouth, spilling a dark liquor down his bare chest. Blinking a couple times as if he were seeing the world clearly for the first time, his eyes fell on something else. He got up slowly with a pained grunt and stood at nearly the height of two men, now holding a massive wooden maul in one hand.
There is no reason for that man to be so large. Is that just from deritium exposure? He didn’t look malformed like the miners, and Cira didn’t like the implications there. She was busy mulling it over in her head when Jimbo kicked a guy in front of her, “This is no time to have yer head in the clouds. Here, hold this,” He chucked his beer at her, “I’ll hold him off for now, just think of a way to finish him!”
He bashed a man into rolling out a path through the crowd before running through, swinging his sword left and right to fend off anyone that got too close.
“Wait… seriously?” Cira was left dumbstruck. Clearly, she hadn’t made enough of an impression on Jimbo, but decided to let his valor play out for a time. He got close to the giant and pulled his peg off. Then, ripping half the peg away with his teeth to reveal another knife, he jumped to avoid an attack.
The giant’s muscles bulged as the wooden maul came rippling through the air. Its target was nimble enough to hop right over it. After plunging his leg-knife into its waist-high calves, he stabbed into his side with the other. With a harsh yank, Jimbo pulled himself up and re-stabbed into its ribs. The lumbering man yowled and tried ripping away at him with a free hand, but he couldn’t use the maul like that.
Each time he would grab, Jimbo swung himself around just barely avoiding it and getting another two stabs it. Jimbo sure is a good guy to have on my team… Even Cira was a little concerned at such a ruthless display, but she had her own pirates to fend off, lest her defenders get overrun.
There wasn’t really much at stake on her end, but it wasn’t a good look if her whole crew was at the bottom of a pile of angry pirates. Turning around with a roundhouse kick, she sent three flying. This quickly dispersed the immediate crowd and she managed to regroup with James and the boys, taking a moment to free her nameless goons from their dogpile.
“How’s it going back here?”
“’The hell do you think it is?!” Baum cried, “I can’t even count how many times I’ve died. Yer damn pirate magic ain’t right, why haven’t you just taken care of them all already?!”
“I told you this is a siege, not an extermination.”
“Don’t waste your breath, Baum.” James was exhausted, and the others looked the same. She considered healing them when Jimbo’s frantic cries cut in.
“Dreadhearrrrrrrt!” He was wrapped around the maul, holding on for dear life. The giant swung it around like there was a bug stuck on the end. “Hurry!!!!”