Devil's Luck Pirates

The battle rages on aboard the Navy ship and the Yogi Pooh.

Ragnar and Duros keep battling against the Marines while being assisted by Verona from atop the crow's nest. He already took care of the Marine atop their crow's nest after a couple of missed shots.

Duros is still trying to get used to fighting without his armor. Many hits that would have been ineffective against his steel shell now leave cuts and bruises all over his body. Nevertheless, his trusty shield still does its job of blocking sword strikes and bullets to a T.

A Marine tries to hit Duros from the left, but he adeptly blocks it with his shield and counter attacks with his mace. However, this leaves his right side open, and a Marine decides to take advantage of this. Duros only notices the man when it's too late, but the intrepid Marine suddenly falls to the ground after a bullet pierces his head.

Duros looks up and sees Verona reloading his rifle, Little Timmy. They both share a nod and get back to the fight.

Verona scans the enemy ship in search of an easy target but is taken aback when he sees a row of three Marines pointing their guns at him. The firing squad unleashes its barrage of shots simultaneously. Verona was able to duck down right in time as the bullets hit the side of the crow's nest.

The moment the last bullet hit the crow's nest in the Yogi Pooh, an ax hits the stomach of the rightmost Marine, almost splitting him in half. The other two Marines turn around to now face the giant man-bear.

Ragnar grabs one of them by the head with his claw and smashes him through the floor. The Marine falls all the way to the bottom floor and almost opens a hole in the hull of the ship. He then readies his ax to strike the last Marine as he points his gun at him, but a javelin flies through the air, hitting him in the shoulder.

Ragnar winces from the pain. Most of these guys' weapons weren't able to penetrate his fur and flesh deep enough, but this one seems to have some effect on him. However, Ragnar quickly shrugs it off, taking the javelin out of his shoulder and throwing it right back, impaling the man who managed to skewer him into the wall.

After taking care of that, Ragnar shifts his focus back to the man in front of him, only seeing a dead body with a bullet wound instead. He shrugs it off as a lucky occurrence and continues with the fight.

As Verona reloads Little Timmy, he takes a quick look at his Captain and Pearl's fight against Lieutenant Hubris.

Several hand axes are strewn around the deck of the Yogi Pooh.

Pearl and William got some cuts and bruises on them, but nothing too serious.

Hubris also doesn't have many serious injuries besides that hole on his right cheek. His confident expression is now gone, and a more serious and focused one took its place. He's fighting two people at once but isn't struggling as much as one would expect. He's a Lieutenant after all.

Pearl dashes forwards once more, unleashing a barrage of kicks and punches towards Hubris, demonstrating once more her aptitude for martial arts. Some of them connect, others are avoided or blocked by the cheek of Hubris' hand axes.

Hubris also takes the opportunity to deal some significant damage to Pearl. Slashing her left arm and right side. Her scales manage to resist most of his attacks. But her body isn't covered by them completely.

While Pearl and Hubris have a go at each other, William stands further back with his flintlock ready to take a shot. He always waits for Pearl to get some distance on him before shooting just to avoid hitting her. However, Lieutenant Hubris is starting to catch up to their strategy and is often ready to void William's shot and counterattack with a flying ax.

Pearl finishes her onslaught on Hubris with a well-delivered kick to the stomach and William takes this chance to shoot at him. But as expected, Hubris dodges the bullet and throws one of his handaxes at him. William doesn't manage to get out of the way in time, and the ax digs into his shoulder.

Hubris rights himself up and smiles creepily at Pearl.

-Impressive! Who would have thought a princess like yourself would be this adept at hand-to-hand combat? – His screechy voice sounding as annoying as the first time he opened his mouth.

Pearl simply grunts at him. Her breath now starting to sound a bit irregular.

-And you! Captain William… – Hubris looks at him with scorn – I thought a pirate captain would have more dignity than just letting his underlings do all the heavy work. Well, what can I expect from someone who relishes killing an innocent old man? PATHETIC! – Hubris finishes with a screech and throws one of his axes at William. This time, he manages to safely get out of the way.

Before William could even think of a witty response, Peal is already about to punch Hubris in the face.

-DON'T YOU DARE DISRESPECT MY CAPTAIN! – She roars out loud. Flames coming out of her mouth as she speaks.

Her scaly fist connects with Hubris' face making him stumble backward. Her sudden increase in strength makes him wonder if she was holding back all this time.

But she's not done yet.

Pearl takes a deep breath and goes in for a fiery finish. Hubris, in panic, tries to hit her with an ax but it goes way over her head and into his own ship, decapitating one of his subordinates that were about to clash with Duros.

Back at the ship, Pearl opens her mouth unleashing a wall of fire that envelops Lieutenant Hubris as he screeches in agony.

William has seen this happen before. But it looks way more satisfying when it's done to someone like Hubris.

As the flames disperse, the charred figure of Lieutenant Hubris falls to his knees. With his "Justice" coat all burned, he looks up with fear in his eyes.

Pearl tried to hold back a little so she doesn't set the whole ship on fire. But even so, this guy is pretty tough, considering he's still conscious.

-You… fucking monster… - He says with a gruff voice.

Pearl might have felt insulted by his statement a week ago. But now, she has accepted that part of her thanks to the idiots that still decided to stick with her even after seeing how much of a monster she can truly be.

-I thought I'd have some PTSD after what happened back at the cave, but that was fucking awesome! – William says holstering his gun as he walks towards her.

A bashful smile forms on Pearl's face. She quickly looks away as her face adopts a crimson color.

-D-don't think I would be happy with that, i-idiot… – She says in the happiest way possible, and failing to hide it.

-Yeah, of course not. – He responds.

The fight for them is as good as over now. William wonders how Ragnar and the rest are doing with the grunts until a large thump catches his attention.

-Phiu… That was fun! – Ragnar says with a whistle as he returns to his normal form.

-It sure was a workout... – Duros adds while cracking his neck.

Duros and Ragnar coming back to the ship nonchalantly certify that the rest of the Marines have been taken care of. Verona also climbs down into the deck.

Hubris seems genuinely baffled by this. How could his twenty men crew be defeated by these lowly pirates without even killing one of them?

-Hey guys! – William says as if they've just come back from the mall – How was the fight op there? You two got a bit roughed up by those guys…

-CHAHAHA! This is nothing! I feel invincible now with this fruit! – Ragnar affirms this by flexing. Almost every wound on his body has stopped bleeding except for that puncture wound on his shoulder, but this doesn't seem to bother him at all.

-Well, it was quite difficult to fight without my armor. But this is nothing that a couple of bandages and a good night's sleep can't fix! – Duros says with his usual attitude.

-You too also got banged up by that guy, huh. – Verona comments on William and Pearl's situation with him being the only one who got out of this unscathed.

As if noticing just now how injured he is, William clutches his side with his hand while wincing. Pearl doesn't seem too bothered by her wounds, though.

-Yep. This guy isn't a Lieutenant for nothing, huh… – He responds looking back at Hubris.

-H-How could you lowly pirates get through my exceptionally trained men?! You just killed an old man… – He remarks with pain in his voice.

-Yeah, yeah, we got that. – Pearl says – Captain, what should we do with this guy?

-I got some questions for him. – Ragnar says stepping in and lifting him by the collar. Hubris screeches in pain and panic.

-And so do I... – Verona adds standing beside Ragnar.

-Alright, you guys take care of that. Duros, come with me. Will take the stuff on his ship. – William says with a tired voice. Looks like the adrenaline is leaving his body by now – Pearl, what you're gonna do?

-I'll stay here and clean up this mess. – She says signaling to the fifteen plus axes lying around the deck and stuck on the walls.

-Oh, could you please put those in my room? – Duros chimes in – I used to have some of those back at our old ship. But I guess they all got washed up on the shipwreck.

Pearl nods and starts with her cleaning right away. William goes to the Navy vessel to loot it for all its worth, with Duros coming right after him as Ragnar and Verona prepare to interrogate Lieutenant Hubris.

When William was about to step into the enemy ship, he comes to a sudden stop.

-What's wrong, Captain? – Duros asks.

-I just noticed it… – William says as he comes to a realization – We're actual pirates now!