Velus's grin vanished as the crew of The Scarlet Bitch ignored the massive sleep spell and kept coming across the bow of their ship toward her. The mage must have warned them about the spell, but for such a large group, she found it odd that none of them even stumbled. It then occurred to her that the dust on the women and mage didn't glow as it should have.
That meant they knew about the spell and the ambush. Only two explanations occurred to Velus. Either the mage was a Diviner, or The Gazelle was no longer under Darrow's command. She knew which was more likely.
"The Gazelle has been taken!" Velus shouted as the male magic-user stepped onto The Bitch's foredeck. Instead of readying a spell, he picked up the cat next to him and launched her toward The Dauntless's mainmast with inhuman strength. The rest of the crew continued across the foredeck, bearing down on her with murder in their eyes.
Velus jumped backward onto The Dauntless's slanted deck and slid down to the starboard deckrail. Over on the maindeck, men screamed as the cat stood on the mast and rained daggers down onto the mercenaries. Velus noted the cat-girl wasn't aiming for the men directly but instead cut the ropes looped around the soldier's waists tied to the port deckrail. The men knew that falling into the water meant death and that knowledge came through in their terrified screams as they tumbled down the listing ship. The lucky ones hit the starboard-side rail and stopped, but their uncontrolled fall often left them with injuries. Those who missed the rail or tumbled over it barely got time to call for help before getting dragged underwater.
The mage shivered as she remembered the Dauntless's crew warning her away from the deckrails as they entered The Spine and told her about the sharks and other large fish swimming alongside the ship hoping for an easy meal.
Velus glared up at the women staring down at her from The Scarlet Bitch's bow with weapons at the ready. With the failure of the sleep spell they had the Dauntless at a disadvantage, but the crew seemed to be waiting for something.
"Kashka!" yelled a small voice from the top of the mainmast.
The cat sent one of her daggers spinning toward the water where it impacted a falling bottle. The resulting loud pop made Velus wince as the air surrounding the potion instantly filled with a dark purple gas. The cloud swirled for a moment before the wind swept it away. In its wake, the mercenary's leader hung limp from the rope securing him to the mainmast while a few of The Dauntless's crew lay slumped against the starboard deckrail where they chose to ride out the impact. Archers among the mercenaries used the cat's momentary distraction to brandish bows and chase her into the crow's nest.
Velus gritted her teeth. The bitches tried to do the same thing Darrow wanted her to do, but whoever dropped the potion from the top of the mast didn't take the ship's lean into account and nearly dropped it into the water instead. If it had landed on the deck this fight would already be over.
The Dauntless slowly righted itself as The Scarlet Bitch shoved it out of the way, bringing the decks of the two ships together. As soon as they regained their footing, the soldiers tugged the ropes' ends and unraveled the knots holding them in place.
A large cow-woman picked up a pale white monster girl and launched her onto The Dauntless. Her body unraveled as she flew through the air, carrying her over the mercenaries' heads. She looked like she was about to sail completely over the boat when a few tentacles shot down and grabbed the far deckrail as more launched backwards, extending to an impossible length before slapping into the backs of two men. Like a loosed slingshot, the tentacles retracted violently, lifting both mercenaries into the air, over the squid-girl's head, and off the ship. More soldiers ran forward with weapons drawn but the woman squeezed through the tiny gaps in the railing and disappeared over the side.
Women on The Scarlet Bitch's maindeck tossed a host of grappling hooks onto The Dauntless then looped their ropes around the anchor's capstan, locking the two vessels together.
Velus stared in amazement as the crew of monster girls prepared to board her ship. This was not at all how this was supposed to happen.
By the aft wheel, her employer screamed at the men on the maindeck. Many of the mercenaries stood ready to repel the attack, but a significant portion appeared to be waiting for orders from their now-unconscious leader. A shout from one of The Dauntless's crew informed them of their commander's condition. Just as quickly, a mercenary called out that their second-in-command's rope had been cut and he fell into the water. One of the men shouted toward the stairs belowdecks as the first women leapt across the gap.
---
Yalli saw the archers raise their bows toward her and curled into a ball as she soared across the gap between the ships. Arrows bounced off her plates just in time for her to unroll and land on the deck. Mercenaries raised their swords only to be gutted by the armadillo's massive claws designed for digging through hard dirt and clay. Those that did strike discovered their swords were no more effective than the arrows against her armor plates. Bludgeons were worthless against her and the few blades that did get through barely stung and only seemed to enrage the armadillo-girl further. Within seconds of Yalli touching the deck, the soldiers were back on their heels trying to keep the ferocious monster girl at bay.
---
Roka landed in a crouch behind Yalli but turned to make her way around the other side of the mainmast. On one arm she wore a kite shield, while in her other hand she wielded a scimitar as big as most the men in front of her. She usually needed two hands to hold the large blade, but Kal's strength spell made it seem no heavier than the smaller sword she usually practiced with.
Roka saw the archers nocking another arrow and brought up her shield, which looked more like a buckler in her hands. A fraction of a second later both men dropped clutching the elven arrows protruding from their chests. The bovine gave Tavorah a quick salute of thanks before swinging the huge sword in front of her. Wooden shields splintered and swords bent or flew from their wielder's hands as they tried to block the cow-woman's mighty swing.
She felt more than heard more women jump across from The Scarlet Bitch and smiled as she flipped her blade around and wound up for a powerful backswing.
---
More women jumped across the closing gap and took up positions next to their crewmates while the.
It all seemed surreal to Veles as she watched the elf loose a steady stream of deadly accurate arrows and the cat in the crow's nest joined in again with her daggers. These women's sheer ferocity and strength were decimating the men on deck. As the ship continued to level out it brought The Scarlet Bitch's mage back into view. She watched as he cast a strength spell on a silver-furred vixen with murder in her eyes before the monster-girl leapt across the gap and into the fray. The strength spell explained how these women were cutting down a trained fighting force so easily.
But the battle wasn't over. Arrows streaked toward the cat, elf and cow-woman from the stairs belowdecks. The first two women barely moved to the side and let the arrows pass while the bovine stopped the one fired at her with her shield. As the archers stepped aside and nocked another arrow, a flood of men began pouring out from belowdecks to bolster their struggling forces.
Darrow screamed at Veles to help the mercenaries, but The Scarlet Bitch's mage had her complete attention as he cast a few more strength spells then began walking towards her. The Dauntless had fully righted itself and the two ship's main decks were side-by-side but that had pulled the bows away from each other. A small glowing sprite hovering above the mage appeared to be reporting the progress of the main deck's battle as he jumped off the deckrail and floated across the gap to The Dauntless's foredeck.
"Tavorah and Kashka have taken out the archers and she's coming down the mast to help the girls below, Kal. Scarlet's joined in and Ratt just swung over. It looks like the rest of the girls still on board are throwing more grapples or trying to furl the sails," said the sprite. "Those on deck are barely holding their own and our side has taken a few losses.
Velus and the mage both glanced down at the maindeck where a couple of women were stumbling back from the front line clutching wounds and at least one lay unmoving on the deck.
Kal grimaced. "Then we'll have to finish this quickly. Ria, staff."
As the staff appeared in the man's hand, Velus said, "Liru, store my robe." The burgundy robe vanished into a mote of light as she reached up and pulled two curved daggers from a harness on her back.
As the daughter of a noble she was raised with the understanding that she would forever be a target for kidnappers, ruffians, or those just jealous of her wealth. Velus trained extensively with twin daggers growing up and had honed many of those skills since leaving home on her current quest.
But her quest was the problem. She was certain this man was the one she had been looking for. But he needed to prove himself first and with her largest crystal depleted she only had enough mana in her remaining two for some minor spells. It was nowhere near enough to test his proficiency with magic.
