The humming of the Red Behemoth's hull was almost drowned out by the excited chatter of the pirates leering at their next prey. All the hatches at the bottom of the venerable red airship were open and the guys holding bombs, guns, or ropes were only held back by the lack of a command from the Second Mate who was in charge of the action this time. At least for now he was simply observing the situation even if it was clear there would be no fight this time.
Floating in the larger hull's shadow was a small mercantile airship that was not winning any prizes in the competition for the fastest surrender. It was mostly due to the trembling captain in a fancy white uniform failing to give the order to hoist the white flag onto the mast that was almost scraping the pirate ship above that had plunged down through the unnaturally thick clouds only minutes ago. He was staring with pure terror at how eight massive demonic wings were seemingly the only things stopping the other ship from crashing down and turning him into an organic paste.
Just seeing the civilian sailors stumbling around on the deck below was enough to get the pirates laughing hard enough to panic the sailors even more. Though at least the lads above were trying to help the captain below to decide faster, the pirates were dropping down rocks that had papers wrapped around them, and on them read promises of humane treatment if the transfer of cargo happened without the need for bloodshed. Though most also had vivid descriptions of what would happen without a clean surrender from the start.
"Niki, when we go down, feel free to use me as cover, just be sure to send your knives flying if someone resists," one of the pirates with a green tint to his skin exclaimed through the rising cheeriness of the pirates. His shout was aimed at an olive-skinned female with pointed elf ears who was crouching near one of the open hatches. Her posture alone was drawing some glances in her direction as her loosely fitted black pants were aligning with her ass to hint about her shapes and the firmness of her long legs.
"Call me Third Mate and I might consider it, you definitely look sturdy enough to even stop smaller bullets," the slender and clearly athletic woman wearing a red leather coat exclaimed back. None of her clothing pieces seemed to fit together but in the crew of men sharing a similar fashion sense, if not for the lack of orcish green on her skin, she would have almost blended in at the first glance.
"Just try not to damage anything valuable this time or the captain might complain about it again, Most Exalted Third Mate on her second week," a brute of a man grunted from next to Niki. He wore short gray pants and an open vest made of brown leather that left little of his green muscular body for imagination. His chosen weapon was a shotgun-ax strapped on his back
"Well, Second Mate Sadler, the old captain never complains to me about it," Niki voiced while her fingers slid to adjust her black tricorn hat that had golden trimmings. With the tone she used with his title, those who did not know might have guessed she somehow outranked him despite her only being the Third Mate.
"The captain never complains to you, but the lads might pressure him to demote you if you can't at least serve as an example," Sadler said and Niki lowered her free hand to hold one of the six mismatched handles on her sturdy belt like as some veiled threat. The conversation between the two was fast-paced and nobody nearby even tried to be part of it. In fact, most of them suddenly looked very busy making sure the mechanisms of the rope droppers were operational.
"When did you start to care? Did he push the job of watching over me to you this time or something?" Niki shrugged and she pressed her hat tightly against her slightly curly neck-length hair. Sadler tried to reach for her when her golden eyes gained a mischievous glimmer, then she seemingly jumped off the hatch without anything to slow her fall. Though almost immediately one of the knives on her belt flew out and she grabbed its handle to float down toward the deck below.
"By the seven cursed bitches, treat them as surrendered, boarding time," Sadler flared and an echoing cheer filled the ship. Then he rolled a nearby rope around his wrist before dropping down from the hatch. He fell only for a short distance before the mechanism on the other end of the rope began to slowly lower him down.
Niki gave only one glance behind her to make sure a mass of men had begun their descent from the hatches behind her before she accelerated her fall toward the other ship. The sight of over a hundred pirates hanging down from the red ship that had an unnatural demonic surface tint to it was more than enough to motivate every sailor below to rise their hands or in other ways to indicate immediate surrender.
The slightly over-fed-looking captain in a white uniform tried to collect himself but the best he could do was to keep standing and staring up. Niki was heading straight at him with an excited smile on her beautifully symmetric face that had a bit of a sharp jaw. Though even then he still kept focusing on the eight massive wings of the demonic airship to make it clear what was frightening him the most.
"Where did you hide the good stuff, the demon weapons," Niki shouted even before her feet hit the deck next to the captain. She pointed the knife she had used to float down to threaten the integrity of the captain's neck while the remaining five bolted out of their scabbards to form a circle around her like invisible ghosts were protecting her.
"We only have rice, you can take it all," the captain uttered while Niki's eyes traveled to examine his belt. Though it took only seconds for her to decide that her golden buckle was way more expensive than what he had.
"Don't try, we know you have some extra goods, I'm either taking those or what's below," Niki grinned charmingly while the knife in her hand traveled down to point at the man's belt. Though as the fear almost tilted his eyes, he was clearly thinking something else than the buckle.
"There are some boxes among the rice, I don't know what's in them," the captain stuttered and Niki gave just one last glance down before sighing in disappointment from getting first to the captain for no reason. As she turned around to head for the ladder leading below deck, she did not pay attention to the fact that a slight bulge had grown in the captain's crotch even as he was almost trembling from fear.
Sadler shouted for a few of the pirates to go after Niki before he began directing the operation on the deck. Not that the casually marching elf paid much attention to anything else than what was between her and the rice storage. Once she was in the large cargo space filled with gray sacks, she immediately proceeded to sink her knife into one of them.
"Cut them up, the old captain said there's some really good stuff hidden in here, might even be demon weapons," Niki ordered the two greenish brutes who had followed her. They hesitated only for a moment before they began grabbing up the stacks and shaking them to find out if they hid anything but rice. Niki looked at them with a tilted head before shrugging.
"Captain also said, we taking half the rice," one of the pirates muttered. Niki sighed and she lifted a sack to feel it up. With the way the rice was evenly balanced in them, it would be relatively easy to spot if anything heavy like a weapon was hidden inside one of them. Though the main issue was the fact that there were hundreds of sacks stacked in the cargo bay almost to the roof.
"We never finding anything at this rate," Niki pouted as she dropped the sack. The six mismatched knives that were floating around her began pointing their tips at the rice and soon after all of them lunged through the air to rip and tear at the sacks. The two orcs jolted with mild panic but as a great flood of rice was flowing down the side of the pile only in seconds, they backed away towards the doorway with such speed that it was clear they already gave up on stopping Niki and only focused on leaving the scene to not be blamed.
"Third Mate, stop that," Sadler exclaimed from the doorway with slight sweat on his forehead. He had run down to the cargo bay the moment the situation on the deck had allowed it. The two pirates who were tasked to follow Niki were trying to press against the side of the hull like they were trying to hide and slip away from the bay the moment the path was clear.
"Stop what?" Niki asked with a tilt of her head while her knives kept going at the sacks with rotating thrusts. Though then one of them caused a sharp screech from metal hitting metal. It sent her eyes to immediately lock into a chest that was revealed by the outflowing rice.
"Careful, you might damage what's inside," Sadler flared. His relief from the knives stopping their movements became short-lived when the chest with unknown contents was pulled down with a hard crash into the wooden floor. It had been near the top of the pile so it almost fell down the height of the woman manhandling it.
"If the weapon breaks this easily, it's not worth my time," Niki grinned as she sent her knives to stab into the wood on top of the chest. Despite looking like a very crude way to open locks, it let her use the magic from the knives to fiddle with the mechanism.
"It could be fragile gems, with trapped demons in them," Sadler muttered while he readied his shotgun-ax's muzzle to shoot if anything began to grow out of nothing in the room. Meanwhile, Niki managed to get the chest's lid open. Her greedy hands dug into the contents and began throwing out old fragile-looking papers.
"Be careful damn it, the captain will want to see those," Sadler exclaimed as he holstered his shotgun on his back and rushed to collect the papers even as Niki kept unleashing more of them until the chest was completely empty.
"Cursed bastards, these papers better have instructions on how to bind some very cool demon weapons," Niki flared while she stared at one of the papers that had complex red symbols imprinted on it. Though as her fingers were almost digging through it, Sadler grabbed it from her and she let it go as she admitted with a sigh how useless it was to her.
"The captain wants to see you, something about a new weapon," Sadler voiced as he glanced at the rice sacks that were still mostly intact despite the floor being completely flooded with a white layer. Niki just stretched a bit before making her knives enter her belt scabbards. Then she headed towards the stairs with fast steps.
Once on the deck, Niki was greeted with a hand wave from a few pirates. The merchant ship's crew was neatly herded to the bow of the ship while the occupiers were having some kind of a meeting around the main mast.
