And the battle begins

Symphony of Stardust

Chapter 11: The Kremling Crew

Up in the crow's nest, Akira was, uh… not internally panicking. Sure, they had narrowly dodged a giant death beam. Sure, they were now chained to a ship of pirate lizard men. And sure they were doing all of this with a child in tow. But ehhh, minor concerns.

Ahem.

Where was he? Ah yes, the pirate lizard men. The ones who were already crossing the chains to board their ship. That was a problem.

"Arm yourselves!" He heard the captain call out from below. "Our only choice now is to fight!"

"Welp!" Gari stepped up to stand precariously on the edge of the crow's nest, then turned to face him and Lucina. "It's been a pleasure, but it seems I must go off to wield my blade for captain and country and all that. Do try not to die!"

With that, the frankly-very-suspicious pirate leaned back fully, falling off the crow's nest entirely. A glance over the edge revealed that he had performed some rather impressive acrobatic feats using the rigging to safely land on the deck. Street performer. Sure.

Akira turned to Lucina. "Don't grow up to be like him."

Before she could respond, he looked back over the edge to survey their situation. There were three points of connection between their ship and the Kremlings'. Robin ordered some of his men to stand guard at each connecting point in an attempt to barricade the points of entry. Two or three men armed with swords would bar access, while several other crew members stood back, firing upon the stalled Kremlings with flintlock pistols.

This strategy worked for a time. In fact, it likely would've gone flawlessly, had they been dealing with ordinary human opponents. Unfortunately, Kremlings were far beefier than the average human. The crew members struggled to hold them back from the entry points, and their low-quality pistols couldn't easily pierce their thick hides deep enough to do lasting damage.

What's more, some of the Kremlings they managed to knock into the ocean instead began scaling up the sides of the ship. Digging their claws into the wooden hull to reach the main deck or crawl into windows. It wasn't long before the ship was overrun with the kritters.

Just as Akira started weighing the pros and cons of stealing one of the Black Dragon's smaller boats to make a sneaky getaway, Chrom burst into the fray.

Any doubts Akira may have had about the man's skills as a merc went out the window once he saw him in action. Where it took at least three average members of Robin's crew to stand up against a single Kremling, Chrom handily dispatched several of them with relative ease.

Akira watched with interest as the sheer force from one mighty blow of his sword sent two Kremlings sprawling to the ground. He then expertly ducked under a sword swipe from his left, then cleanly batted the blade away when the Kremling came in for a return swipe. He brought his blade down the beastman's torso, then back in for a horizontal cut. While the Kremling doubled over in pain, Chrom ducked around it to grab ahold of its tail one-handed. With a mighty heave, he hauled the creature over his shoulder and over the edge of the ship.

Akira whistled. "Damn."

Lucina bounced up and down with barely restrained energy. "He really is like Mister Ike! Mister Ike is really strong, too!"

"I'll take your word for it," Akira replied without taking his eyes off of the situation down below. With the situation on the main deck slightly more under control thanks to Chrom's intervention, the merc turned his attention to the chains tethering their ships together.

The merc ran straight at the nearest chain, and, with all the knuckle-headed determination of a boulder rolling down a hill, ran across it. Any Kremlings unfortunate enough to still be crossing the line were almost casually knocked aside as Chrom made his advance on the enemy vessel.

"What's Mister Chrom doing?" Lucina asked curiously.

"Hmm…" Akira turned his attention to Robin. The captain was pinned down by K. Rool's ranged assault. With the Kremling captain's attention on him, he could not make a direct move to help his crew. But then, the same could be said for K. Rool himself. "I get it. While K. Rool and most of his cronies are focused on the Black Dragon, he's sending Chrom in to do some damage."

"By himself?"

Akira shrugged. "He doesn't have much choice. Aside from the captain himself and maybe Gari," he sent a sidelong glance down to said flamboyant pirate, who might as well have been dancing with the Kremling he was engaged with. "Chrom looks to be the only reliable fighter here."

"Then, we should help!" She declared determinedly.

Well, the captain technically told them to take cover. Though really, if the ship went down, they'd be going down with it. Besides, pirate rules were more like guidelines.

So Akira nodded. "Let's." He started climbing out of the crow's nest.

"So, what are we doing?"

"I'm going to go provide some support for Chrom. You…" He gestured to the bow and quiver she still had with her. "Try tagging some of the pirates with arrows. That should do something."

"Uh, just to clarify: you mean the other pirates, right?" Akira elected not to answer as he hopped down onto the horizontal post that held up the ship's sails, the yardarm if he remembered his sailing terminology correctly.

Idly, he adjusted the trusty device he had hidden under his left sleeve. It'd been quite a while since he used this one, one of his favorite and most trusted tools. Hopefully, it still worked.

It'd be a painful drop down to the ocean's surface if it didn't.

Throwing caution to the wind, he ran down the length of the wooden post and lept right off. He spun midair and, with a flourish, threw his left arm out. From within his sleeve, a sleek wire shot out. The hook at the end embedded itself in the central mast of the Kremling ship. His line secure, Akira freely swung between the two ships, flying over the heads of Chrom and the Kremlings he was engaged with.

Using his momentum, he swung up and disengaged his grappling hook, landing cleanly on the yardarm of the enemy vessel. He turned his gaze up to the Kremling stationed in the crow's nest. In the reptilian creature's hand was what looked to be some kind of small bomb. It looked like it was about to callously drop it into the fray down below, primed to take out not only Chrom but members of its own crew as well.

Yeah, that wasn't happening.

Pulling some fancy moves of his own (Gari wasn't the only one who could do it!), he shot his grappling hook into the mast above the Kremling. The line reeled him in, allowing him to deliver a flying kick that knocked the Kremling into the mast. Using the Kremling as a kick-board, he flipped back onto the railing, then again to drop back down onto the yardarm.

The Kremling recovered and glared down at him. It raised its clawed hand, intent on throwing the explosive at Akira instead, only to realize the bomb was no longer in its hand. Akira idly tossed the stolen weapon up and down in his hand. Akira raised an eyebrow at the disgruntled Kremling.

Then he tossed the bomb into the ocean.

Snarling, the beastman drew steel and dropped onto the yardarm after him. Akira drew his knife and used it to parry the blade. Parrying a sword with a knife wasn't ideal, though, especially with so little room to maneuver. He remained unscathed, but he found himself getting pushed back across the yardarm.

He weaved and parried until he was nearly out of space to back up. A grin spread across the Kremling's reptilian face. Grasping its blade in both hands, it came in for a powerful downward swing that Akira wouldn't be able to dodge without throwing himself off the edge.

So that's what he did.

With what little room he had left, he cartwheeled back into a handstand, then kicked up into a high somersault. The Kremling's blade hit nothing but wood. In the blink of an eye, Akira shot his grappling hook into the yardarm and pulled himself back in. He landed on the Kremling's sword, embedding it further into the wood. He then used the pirate's arms as an incline to run up and over it, stomping on its head at the end for good measure.

Their positions reversed, the Kremling could do little more than face Akira as he delivered the coup de grace. With a devastating dropkick, the Kremling was sent sprawling off the edge and into the sea.

Akira brushed his hands off. Now, what other damage could he deal?

With another swing of Chrom's sword, another Kremling was sent sprawling to the ground. By this point, most of the Kremlings on the ship were opting to keep their distance from him. A wise choice, though Chrom had half-hoped for more from the dreaded Kremling Krew.

Chrom raised his broadsword challengingly. "What? No one else wants to test their luck?"

The Kremlings cautiously backed off. Chrom was nearly ready to claim this as a victory when a tremor shook the deck. Followed by another, then another.

The Kremlings hurriedly scattered to make way for Kaptain K. Rool himself. The hulking Kremling captain was humongous, both in size and in presence. His rotund proportions did nothing to detract from the Aura of strength he projected. An aura tinged with a slight bit of madness.

Chrom watched as K. Rool effortlessly hoisted up an unlucky member of his crew with one arm. He snapped and growled in whatever passed as a language for his kind. With a huff, he chucked his trembling crewmate in the direction of the Black Dragon.

The rest of his cowering crew followed their crewmate soon after on their own. Clambering over one another to climb across the chains. Some even opted to just jump over the railing and swim their way across. Even if Chrom couldn't understand their language, the message had been perfectly clear.

Chrom frowned deeply. He never approved of the idea of ruling through fear. Sadly, it seemed to be the standard way of things for pirates.

Setting his misgivings on the topic aside, for the time being, he fixed his new foe with a steely gaze. "So, you're the dreaded Kaptain K. Rool then?"

The Kremling captain fixed him with a slightly unhinged gaze of his own. He wore no visible armor, only the stereotypical pirate hat atop his head. As well as a long coat not dissimilar to the one Robin wore, albeit a dark red color and much larger to fit his larger frame.

Besides that, his only weapon appeared to be the oversized blunderbuss resting at his side. It wouldn't be terribly useful to him if Chrom got in close. If his casual display of brute strength earlier was anything to go by, though, even the Kremling captain's bare hands could be dangerous up close.

Even so, there was nothing for it. Chrom took a ready stance. "Hear me, Kremling Captain! I am a mercenary by the name of Chrom! By my blade, I will see you taste the bitterness of defeat!"

He took off in a sprint. K. Rool brought his massive firearm up in a quick motion to fire at him, but he deftly sidestepped the shot and charged into the Kremling captain's range. With a mighty shout, Chrom swung his blade, intent on driving it into K. Rool's mighty gut.

*CLAAAAAAANG*

Vibrations violently ran up Chrom's arms from his blade connecting with what felt like a solid steel wall. 'Just what is he made out of?!' His arms continued to tingle, even after the vibrations subsided. He took a moment to rub his arms in an attempt to massage some feeling back into them. He sighed in relief as the tingling sensation went away. That was unpleasant.

He realized belatedly that K. Rool had been merely standing there while he took his reprieve. Awkwardly, he raised his head to see the Kremling captain looking down on him with a toothy, reptilian smirk. He slowly and deliberately raised a clawed fist…

And then violently slammed it into Chrom's face.

Back up in the crow's nest of the Black Dragon, Lucina had tempered her excitement somewhat in favor of a calm focus as she took aim with her bow. Memories of lessons with Miss Byleth came flooding back to her.

"Shoulders loose. Both eyes open. Index finger above the arrow, two fingers below. Keep your stance relaxed."

Rather than risk accidentally shooting a member of Robin's crew, she had taken to firing upon the Kremlings crawling across the chains. Their slow pace made them easy targets, and a successful hit would usually see them falling into the ocean. It took her a few tries to adjust to the swaying of the ship, but she got the hang of it after just a few misses.

"Calm your breathing and stay focused. Even the slightest unnecessary movement can throw off your shot at the last moment. Always keep your target's movements in mind when shooting a living being."

After teaching her the basics, Miss Byleth started taking her out on hunting trips, justifying it to her worried brother as a 'field exercise for practical experience.' Compared to shooting deer and rabbits in the woods, the bulky Kremlings may as well have been fish in a barrel.

An added benefit to her vantage point was that she had a clear view of the situation unfolding on both ships. Once Chrom drew K. Rool's attention away from Robin, he had shifted his efforts to aiding his own crew. He looked to be limiting himself to using weaker spells. Possibly so as not to hit his own men by mistake, or maybe he had used up too much magical energy to use any more big spells.

Either way, his efforts were about the only thing tipping the scales in his crew's favor on deck. She supposed that that would just have to do.

'I hope Corrin and Shulk are okay…' Their ship was a chaotic mess at the moment. And she had yet to catch sight of either of her companions. She could only hope they were safe below deck.

Her attention was brought back to the enemy ship by the disheartening sight of Chrom getting slugged in the face by the Kremling's captain. She winced in sympathy as his back slammed into the ship's railing.

Her concern grew when K. Rool leveled his big gun at the downed mercenary. Lucinda's eyes narrowed. 'Oh no, you don't!'

Lights danced across Chrom's vision. That… had hurt. Very much so.

He nursed his aching jaw as he waited for his vision to return to him. The first sight that greeted his recovering eyes was by no means an uplifting one. He stared down the barrel of K. Rool's blunderbuss, the crazy crocodile ready to put him down right then and there.

'Damn! I have to… move!'

The sound of an arrow embedding itself in wood rang out before K. Rool could pull the trigger. He blinked. He ran a hand over the top of his head where his hat was meant to be. He turned around to find his hat pinned to the mast, shot clean off his head with an arrow. He fixed a wide, bloodshot eye on the source of the arrow.

He pointed his blunderbuss up, over Chrom's head, likely aimed at the Black Dragon's crow's nest. Chrom's eyes widened when he remembered who was up there.

He needn't have worried, though. Before he could so much as let out a shout, a foot connected with K. Rool's shoulder, throwing his aim off enough to miss the crow's nest. Akira flipped back from where he had come literally swinging in from, a wire detracting into his sleeve as he did so.

The frizzy-haired boy adjusted his glasses in an ever-so-snide manner. "Need some help?"

Chrom finally recovered enough to get back to his feet. "If you're offering, I won't turn you down."

Grumpily, K. Rool ripped his hat free from the mast and readied his gun. With sword and knife in hand, Chrom and Akira prepared themselves to face the Kremling captain.

"E-Eeeek!" Corrin cried out as a Kremling got a little to close for comfort. A clang rang out as Shulk blocked a sword strike from it. He had to brace his free hand on the flat of his blade just to defend against the beastman's brute strength.

"Hiyaa!" He caught the Kremling off-guard with a kick to the knee, then swung his blade, sending it stumbling back into a stack of crates. The Kremling collapsed in a pile of boxes and went still.

Shulk let out a sigh of relief. Before the chaos had started. Shulk and Corrin had retreated into the cargo hold in the lowest part of the ship to hide. Unfortunately, some of the Kremlings had managed to get into the ship's interior. Shulk had already fought off a few greedy ones who chose to raid the hold rather than help their brethren fight the rest of the crew.

He looked over his distressed companion. "Are you okay, Corrin? You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm… I'm fine…" She clearly wasn't, but she at least didn't look injured. All Shulk could really do was make sure it stayed that way.

'But that vision… If it were to come true, this would most certainly be the situation that causes it…' He shook his head. 'I have to make sure that doesn't happen.'

"H-Hey, Shulk?" Corrin asked nervously. "Do… Do you think Lucina and Akira are all right? They haven't come down here. You don't think…?"

"I'm sure they're fine!" Shulk gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Akira is way more reliable than I am in these types of situations. They'll get out of this scrape, no problem, just you wait!"

Corrin still shuffled around nervously. "I don't like not knowing where they are. The ship kept shaking, and there were all of those scary bangs. and now all I can hear is the fighting, and… and…"

"How about this," Shulk interrupted before she could spiral deeper into her panic, "I'll go back up real quick and check to make sure they're safe. Then I'll come right back down, alright?"

Corrin still looked worried, but she nodded. Honestly, he'd prefer to stay and keep an eye on her, but having her stew here in uncertainty wouldn't help either. What if her concern over her friends' wellbeing is what ultimately leads to the vision coming to fruition? And while he wasn't lying about Akira's reliability, he was admittedly still concerned himself.

The stairway at the end of the room was the only entrance into the hold. So long as nothing got past him while checking up on the situation, Corrin should be safe there.

He started up the stairs, only to notice Corrin trailing behind him. "Corrin, you should stay here. I'll be back for you, I promise."

"But I'm worried about you too. And I… don't wanna be left alone…" Shulk wanted to tell her to stay. Even now, the image of a rampaging draconian form remained at the forefront of his mind. His resolve melted at the pleading look in Corrin's eyes, though.

"…Alright. Just stay where I can see you, alright?" Corrin nodded vigorously.

Shulk nudged open the door at the top of the stairs. The floor above the hold was a mostly open floor where the crew kept the more often-used supplies they needed easy access to. It was also where the cannons were fired from and where the Kremlings were crawling into the ship from.

He peaked through the door just in time to watch a member of Robin's crew get chucked out one of the openings in the side of the ship. It seemed the Kremlings had already mostly taken over the less-occupied floor. Not good; they had to get through to reach the main deck. On the other hand, taking Corrin up top was beginning to look like the safer option. It would've only been a matter of time before this whole group made it down to the hold.

"What do we do?" Corrin whispered.

Shulk brought his hand to his chin as he considered his options. There looked to be nearly a dozen of the crocodile-like creatures. Definitely too many to fight on his own. But maybe…

"Hang on." He retreated back down the stairs. When he came back up, he clutched a bundle of rope in his arm. He handed one end of it to Corrin. "Hold on to this, we're gonna use it to trip them up. When I call out to you, make a run for the stairs, alright?"

At Corrin's nod, he initiated his plan. He threw the door open and rushed out into the crowd of Kremlings. Rather than draw his blade to engage, he instead ran between them. He dodged and weaved as they moved to attack him, unraveling his rope bundle all the while. He may not have been as nimble as Akira, but he was no stranger to being quick on his feet either.

He deftly evaded the swings of swords and claws, strategically moving to get them as grouped together as possible. The more he dodged, the clumsier the Kremlings' movements became thanks to the rope woven between their legs. By the time he got to the end of his rope, the Pirates could barely move with how tangled and bunched together they were.

"And pull!" He and Corrin both tugged hard at the ends of their ropes. As one, the group of Kremlings came crashing down. toppling over one another as the web of rope tightened between their legs. "Now! Let's head up!"

Corrin hastily circled around the pirate pile to follow him. So far, so good. Hopefully, things were going well up top.

Akira banked right to dodge a shot from K. Rool. The Kremling captain went for another shot but was forced to switch targets back to Chrom. Learning his lesson from their first exchange, the blue-haired swordsman swung at K. Rool's legs rather than his armored stomach. The Kremling captain hopped back with more dexterity than one would expect from someone of his size. He fired off another shot to keep Chrom at bay, only for Akira to come in with his knife from behind. K. Rool swung his arm around to get Akira off his back. But once again had to divert his attention to defend against Chrom.

This was the arrangement Akira and Chrom wordlessly worked out with one another. K. Rool rightfully acknowledged Chrom as the more direct threat. Allowing Akira to sneak in hits on his softer back and sides. It was an effective pattern, but Akira didn't feel like it was enough.

If the bandit Wario had been a heavyweight, K. Rool was a veritable fortress. While Akira's glancing blows were distracting, they weren't doing enough damage through his thick hide to deal significant damage.

He wasn't the only one getting tired of the stalemate, evidently. In-between another of their coordinated strikes, K. Rool, adjusted a dial on his blunderbuss. This time, when Chrom came in for a strike, the Kremling captain pointed his firearm to the side.

Rather than firing some form of ammunition, the odd blunderbuss fired off a stream of flames and smoke. The intent of this function was not to bombard them with fire, however. Instead, K. Rool was sent flying across the deck of the ship by the force of the exhaust. Whereas before Chrom and Akira had competently kept the Kremling captain sandwiched between them, he now had both of them clear in his sights. He swapped the blunderbuss to its prior setting and took aim.

Akira took cover behind the central mast. Chrom, on the other hand, stood his ground. Akira was about to declare him a damned fool when he noticed the aura building around him. 'He can channel Ki,' Akira realized.

Ki, or Aura depending on who you asked, was a type of life energy contained within the body. It was different from magic. It was reliant on diligent training of the body rather than the mind. It was often utilized in combat by martial artists and other mighty warriors. Chrom being capable of channeling Ki, explained how he could so easily combat the inhuman Kremlings. He was clearly a more powerful and skilled warrior than Akira had pegged him initially.

He put that power to good use now. K. Rool fired shell after shell his way, and Chrom met the shots head-on. The sound of iron meeting iron with incredible force sounded out as Chrom's sword met each shell, deflecting every one of them.

With a furious war cry, he brought his blade down on the last cannonball in the barrage, cleaving straight through it down the middle. Both halves of the shell flew past him, crashing against the wall far behind him.

Akira let out an impressed whistle.

Invigorated, Chrom charged K. Rool again. Seems the Kremling captain didn't fancy his chances this time, because he once again swapped to his gun's booster mode to speed out of the way. He circled his way around the deck at speeds; someone of his size had no right going, keeping clear out of the mercenary's range.

He halted his movements when Akira stepped into his path, knife at the ready. Once again pinned between the two, K. Rool pointed his blunderbuss straight down. With a mighty burst, the Kremling captain soared high into the air. And what goes up, must come down.

Akira and Chrom scurried to evade the heavy body slam, but the mighty shockwave from K. Rool crashing into the deck knocked them clean off their feet. K. Rool wasted no time. While Akira was still getting back on his shaky legs, he used his blunderbuss to charge straight at him for a devastating shoulder bash.

Chrom–who had recovered faster than Akira had–lept in-between them, shielding Akira from the brunt of the attack. Unfortunately, his act of selflessness only resulted in sending both of them flying off the side of the Kremlings' ship.

They both hit the water's surface with a resounding 'SPLASH.'

AN/ here have some Extra stuff Wolfy wrote.

[EPIC DELETED SCENE]

As the Black Dragon approached the Kremling's ship, Robin cast a disappointed look over his nervous crew. "So I've decided that you're all useless. All you grunts ever do is leech off of my tactical ingenuity. And spread overblown rumors to make us all look more impressive then you have any right to be. So no, I don't trust you to take out their laser cannon. I'll do it, my Grima-damned self!"

While his loser crew sulked dejectedly, Robin put away his wind tome and pulled out his thunder tome instead. 'Time to show these grunts how a real pirate does it!'

He charged up his thunder magic, from Elthunder to Arcthunder, and finally to his strongest spell. By the time the ship was in range, he was ready to fire.

Robin grinned. "Let's see how you handle my magic laser beam! Now, THORON!"

The crackling beam of electricity shot towards the enemy ship, primed to decimate their laser cannon, along with anything else that dared to get in its way! K. Rool leaped off the bow of his boat in an attempt to intercept the spell. No matter. Nothing could stop this raw, concentrated magic. He was about to be blown away along with his cannon-

*BOING*

Only for the Thoron spell to harmlessly bounce off his gold belly, shooting it right back at Robin.

"Uh, wha-AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Struck by his own powerful spell, Robin was unceremoniously flung off into the distance, far from his ship.

"Hold on, Robin! I'm comiiing!" Chrom jumped off the ship and started swimming off in the direction Robin flew off in.

The rest of the crew just looked on, speechless. The three individuals up in the crow's nest felt what could only be described as profound disappointment.

"Yyyep." Gari declared. "Definitely should've joined a different crew." The other two could only nod in agreement.

Meanwhile, K. Rool used his double-jump to get back onto his ship. He then proceeded to t-bag in a show of absolute disrespect.

[DELETED SCENE #2]

Idly, Akira adjusted the trusty device he had hidden under his left sleeve. It'd been quite a while since he used this one, one of his favorite and most trusted tools. Hopefully, it still worked.

It'd be a painful drop down to the ocean's surface if it didn't.

Throwing caution to the wind, he ran down the length of the wooden post and lept right off. He spun midair and, with a flourish, threw his left arm out-

There was a click.

Nothing happened.

"Ah shi-"

*SPLOOSH*

[back to Rosey]

Well hope you enjoyed that fantastic little cliffhanger

~ S. Rosey