The Ambition of the Dreadlord Raveres
Part II: Allies, Foes, and Bargains
Episode Fifteen
The knight's prayer was some of the most tedious time Raveres had ever spent. At her prompting Sir Jean had explained some of his people's cult. Their worship of a goddess known as the Lady of the Lake, the Divine Damsel… A maiden of purity and chastity. Of vows, and devotion.
It was not nothing like invoking the Cytharai, or even the Cadai! Rather than extol devotion for battle, or express a desire to lay low those they were about to face, Sir Jean explained that their goddess was one of protection.
And a fickle one who required her devotees to take the brunt of their tribulations head on, humbly and unflinchingly.
Listening on, and hesitatingly participating in the beginning of their liturgy, Raveres finally admitted that she just couldn't do it. The rites were far too humiliating! Kneeling? Bowing and prostration? And the verbal self-flagellation! The insistence on humility…
All of Raveres' earlier enthusiasm was swiftly spent, and the tedium of the knight and squire's prayer began to grate on her physically. Until finally a strange feeling of revulsion started to rise in her gut. At first Raveres thought that it was merely sea-sickness, or agitation from the ship's luncheon.
But as Jacque and Sir Jean continued their refrain of sacred words, in their alien tongue, the revulsion grew in its affect. Interrupting them when Sir Jean was doing a refrain with Jacque, Raveres made the excuse that what she'd seen so far was enough piety for her.
Sir Jean appeared pensive but understanding enough as she turned to leave. Whispering to herself as she exited the cabin Raveres groaned,
'I think the attempt was enough!'
Then her stomach began rolling over and over itself in waves, 'M-maybe… oh gods.'
A massive assault of nausea made Raveres turn to and keel towards one of the small portholes in the hull of the ship. She hadn't even gotten her hands clear of her mouth or her head positioned through the window before she began puking. It was far more caustic to her throat and tongue than a normal illness and her skin felt hot in an instant.
Yet once it was past her lips and gone from her body welcomed relief washed over her.
"Gah!" she exclaimed, "Gods below… these fucking Humans!"
Rubbing her face with the back of her left, un-gloved, hand she shivered and felt the malaise pass with the breeze. Spitting the last of her earlier meal of gruel and dried meat out the window she snarled and couldn't help but smirk.
'Well… if there was any doubt that their Lady watches over them…'
She laughed and turned back to the upper deck, "Then there's certainly none now."
The scent of her bile wafted towards her from the sill of the porthole and she shuddered,
"I need fresh air. Humans be damned these lower decks are too small!"
The ship seemed to her as if it had been made for the Dawi. The beams and the planking were such that she was forced to bend herself low in order to walk, and even when she sat, she couldn't find reprieve. There were no highborn comforts to be had on this voyage.
When Raveres mounted the small staircase and began climbing the thin wooden steps a voice at the back of her head echoed, 'No wine… no baths… gods be good this isn't longer than two days…'
Coming to the surface of the deck Raveres looked towards the aft castle and saw that Asada was no longer alongside the helmsman. Instead, he had taken up a position at the bow of the ship. Yet he wasn't alone in his vigil. Prince Balik, his retainers, as well as several members the crew were standing all looking in the same direction.
Yurin was leaning against the mainmast, his face still green from the motion of the water, but he appeared to be well enough that he was drinking from his leather flask. At the noise of additional feet upon the deck the translator turned, and upon seeing his new master he perked up and returned his water-skin to his hip.
Pointing to the commotion at the bow Raveres asked, "What's gotten them worked up?"
The Human translator shook his head and hiccupped, looking down in revulsion and apologising,
"I… I'm so sorry my lady. I've never been aboard a ship before… D-does it get any better?"
Raveres smirked sadistically as she watched him, "For you? Soon enough"
Stepping closer she repeated, "Now, the crew?"
Yurin nodded, and immediately regretted the action. Wearily he did his best to recompose and answer,
"They seem to have spotted some kind of a beast or something… I-" he retched and groaned, "I'm no sailor… ha, but I'll come with you to enquire."
Raveres nodded and raised a brow, 'his dedication is admirable' she smiled privately. Confidently she began forwards, stepping along the deck some of the crew moved aside and averted their eyes from the Druchii. Behind her Yurin dragged himself along the rails, doing his best to remain level as the ship swayed and moved from side to side.
Prince Balik angrily shouted at Asada and pushed his hand against the man's colossal bicep. Raveres stopped mid-step and her face lit up in perverse entertainment. Yurin's eyes widened and he clung to the rail uneasily as a wash of silence came over the men.
Asada began to rumble and turn as Prince Balik arrogantly remained still, his face one of privilege and utter disregard to his own mortality.
"He's going to kill him." Raveres whispered.
As she stepped forwards her smile grew and Yurin swore in Druhir,
"By Father Asuryan…"
Asada grunted a few words and Raveres darted a look over her shoulder at her retainer.
"He's w-warned the prince that the fish may have a royal guest if he ever does that again."
Raveres' eyes lightened and she felt her heart beat faster.
'Please do…' she thought, 'please do! With no sign of those damned pirates, it would make my day to see him drown!'
Yurin cleared his throat and interrupted the tense moment as he spoke in Arabyan. Captain Asada looked over at the Druchii and pursed his lips in disgust as he responded. Raveres' retainer began his skilful translation and repeated;
"He says that they saw some debris in the water and rotten carcasses. The birds were feasting upon them, but other than that there's not been anything to see since you departed."
Raveres' excitement dissipated when it became obvious that neither man lacked the sense enough to attack the other. Thinking on it more she realised that while hearing and seeing these fools tear one another apart may be entertaining, the pirates might still retain numerical superiority.
Begrudgingly the she-elf had to acknowledge that she needed every living body aboard. Looking from every man's face the Druchii drew in a breath and straightened her back. Striding towards the men they parted to her left and right, except for Asada.
With a smirk she walked past the captain and began looking off the bow,
"Rotten bodies, eh?"
Yurin repeated the question and a crewmember attested in confirmation. Above them the distant calls of seagulls and other water birds sounded out. Engorged on the choices parts of flesh they began flying home to their roosts.
Peering over the railing Raveres scanned the rolling waves ahead of them. Sure enough, in the water, there were some floating boards and large ruined parts of muscle. She furrowed her brow; nothing floating looked recognisable as well… anything.
She looked around the water skilfully before tilting her head back up. The sun was just a few inches from passing the horizon. And there appeared to be clouds and a light mist blowing across the sea from the north east. Her eyes widened and she felt an awkward drop in her heart as she stared at the centre of the rolling clouds.
'How did none of these fools see that?!' she thought.
The men began to look at one another and whisper and talk when they saw that the elf had stopped moving, or breathing. Asada spoke to the men and they began laughing at his joke. Yurin furrowed his brow and felt somewhat ensconced by the Arabyan's words,
"He's making light of you, my lady. Saying that you've never seen night on the sea, and he's made, an, an entendre…"
"Yurin."
Raveres' voice interrupted her translator and he raised a brow nervously at her strange tone,
"Y-yes mistress?"
"Tell them to beat to quarters now, we need to light lanterns and make ready for battle."
Yurin's face froze and he stuttered as she turned around bellowing; "Now you fool!"
The men's laughter changed and petered out as they watched from Yurin to Raveres uneasily. Her sudden turn and shout made them half step back in surprise and unease. She ignored the men and leaned back forwards, tightly gripping the rail as she narrowed her eyes and looked towards the blowing clouds.
The more that the mist and fog began to come down to the water the more obscured the horizon became. Yurin looked at Asada and relayed her orders. The Captain incredulously looked at the translator before turning to look off the bow. He spoke gruffly, and Raveres could tell he was trying to be dismissive as Yurin translated,
"He says that its mere wisps of cloud, maybe a light rain, but he's never known pirates in these waters to attack under cover of rains or dusk."
Raveres shook her head,
"This is exactly what happened to my ship! Yurin, you will tell him that those are not natural clouds, and that fog is not a simple occurrence of the sea. The pirate's vessel is enchanted."
Pushing herself off the rail Raveres turned and pushed through the crowd. The men looked at her uneasily before they began to stare at the mist and fog, which at first appeared leagues away yet was steadily growing closer. Yurin repeated her words and Asada turned and began scrutinising the horizon more seriously.
"I'm rousing the knight! He better get them ready Yurin or I'll take command."
"But my lady! There's not a ship to be seen! Surely that's not what's afoot?"
She began descending the small steps and roared, "Rouse them to battle now damn it!"
The Human translator nervously nodded and bit his tongue. He drew a deep breath and prepared himself to repeat the threat and orders to Asada. The swarthy Arabyan turned and spat at the deck as Raveres disappeared below, responding,
"The day a woman or an elf takes my ship is the day that I become a sultan!"
The men laughed but Prince Balik furrowed his brow and spoke to his men. In the crow's-nest a man called down, vindicating Raveres' words and making Asada's face change from an angry grimace to a wrathful one.
"Ship ahoy! Nestled in the fog! She's coming over the horizon!"
Yurin tensed and Asada quickly began issuing his orders.
'By the gods! H-here we go!?' The young man thought.
For him it just became as real as it was going to get… until battle was joined. Sailors began pouring over their stations as men descended into the holds, weapons; swords, bows, clubs, bolts, hand-grenades, and all other manner of armament began coming to the surface. One of the officers began at Asada's side as they went back to the helm.
"But sir, the fog?! The she-elf is right we'll need the lanterns and torches to see!"
He growled and flexed his mighty muscles; his neck bulged as he responded,
"I know how to fight a-sea! I've been killing men and boarding ships since before she was squirted into the foul womb she came from!"
The officer paled back and Prince Balik furrowed his brow again. Yurin looked around as the deck became swarming with men. The prince approached the quiet and nervous translator while he nodded,
"Herald! Your lady, she's fit to slay a dozen men is she naught?"
He punctuated his question with a laugh and Yurin bowed as best as he could.
"Y-yes your highness."
"Is it true this is the work of magic?"
He pointed towards the smoky clouds approaching and Yurin felt no choice but to agree, "S-so it would be…"
The man in the crow's-nest began descending the rigging, jumping the last feet to the deck he sprinted to the aft of the ship and made a hasty report to Asada. Yurin could tell he was shaken, but was this really all that concerning?
Balik began hounding the poor herald with questions, almost unaffected by the chaos of the men around them. He seemed calm, and unfortunately focused on only one thing… Raveres
'This idiot…' Yurin thought, 'He does realise what she is right?' he wondered.
'I certainly hope that he-'
Yurin's eyes widened, 'I swore to serve her…'
Looking around the ship, the ocean extending in all directions, his life so plainly vulnerable, Yurin's fateful decision came full on.
'By the gods… a Druchii…'
Without her intoxicating visage to plague his mind, and the stress of the whole situation so far, the young Human realised the grave reality that he and the idiot Prince Balik were, at the moment, not so different.
…
"It's just like when they attacked me and my expedition!"
Raveres climbed the steps back to the deck with Sir Jean and Jacque following closely behind.
"Aye… It must be the foul creatures' habit."
She nodded, "Must be. We assumed a spell caster or someone aboard the vessel but I suspect it may just be the ship itself. An illusion woven into her planks, down to the keel,"
Raveres would have smiled in approval if she wasn't so angered to have been caught the same way as before. Sir Jean could feel the emotion and rage pour off her and he offered a reassuring tone,
"I do not like this either my lady, but I'm sure we've better warning this time."
She grunted quietly, seemingly unconvinced.
"We'll lay them low Sir Jean… I know it." Jacque added.
Though he didn't understand their words he was responding to the obvious tone and body language of the two adults. Sir Jean smiled curtly as he stepped up after the she-elf,
"We shall indeed my boy."
When they reached the deck, the men were drawing in the sails and they had changed their course somewhat. The Arabyans were all on edge as they searched off the starboard side for their quarry.
"As if they've happened upon us in this way…" Raveres spoke under her breath.
Sir Jean nodded,
"It is poor timing, they've the wind, and they're smothering us with the fog… If we join battle now, we'll be fighting into the night."
Searching the deck for her retainer Raveres eventually yelled, "Yurin!"
The translator appeared and Prince Balik stepped beside him, "Y-yes my lady?"
"Tell Asada that the fog will lift as soon as they enemy is within range to fire their weapons!"
He nodded, and Prince Balik watched on with interest, hanging on to each word from the she-elf's mouth.
"During the fighting my ship's ballistae made several strikes along her port, if they've not shored them up or been able to repair them, I would suggest that there we make double our efforts and focus our fire."
Sir Jean interjected,
"My lady, Asada would be more willing to comply with this information was I the one to deliver it. Please, allow me."
Raveres looked from Yurin to the elder knight before nodding, "So be it."
Holding his sword steady Sir Jean mounted the aft-castle and headed to the helm.
"Captain!" he began.
The dark-skinned mountain looked and barked, "What knight?"
"I bear important information,"
The other officers raised eyebrows and some looked on expectantly as the Breton explained Raveres' strategy.
…
The tension was palpable and the Humans were all searching their surroundings uneasily as the fog began to thicken and the distant shape of their target became impossible to remain seen. The air became cool and Yurin shivered at his mistress' side.
Raveres kept sight of the ship, following its trajectory through the fog. Despite the thickness of the mist which hung so heavily she had trained her elvish eyes upon the rough line of the ships bow and kept them there, watching, unflinchingly as it sailed closer towards them.
"There it is…" she mumbled periodically, announcing to others as well as herself that she did still see it.
It was bearing through the fog at an even pace, far swifter than her size and guns suggested she should have been able to be. But now they were enveloped in the fog. Men lit torches and lanterns and bathed the deck in lamp-light as the sun became fainter and fainter along the edge of the world.
'So it begins…' Sir Jean thought uneasily.
Asada called to Raveres begrudgingly, asking "What's its heading now?"
She responded, remaining unblinking at the side of the rail. Yurin watched his mistress as she began to grow ever more distant in her gaze. As if she was falling to a trance her face became devoid of expression and her eyes became bloodshot from remaining open for so long.
The pirate's vessel was only a few chains distance away when the fog finally lifted. Unfortunately for them the mist and heavy clouds which had surrounded them was trapping in the light of the dying sun and their lanterns. Once it fell away the darkness of evening was upon them and the enemy ship loomed like a black wall of shadow at their starboard.
At its unmasked appearance Raveres finally blinked and emotion came to her face, she bared her teeth and wrapped her gauntlet around her sword's handle.
Drawing the blade, she screamed, "Sa'an'ishar!"
Yurin at once gripped his blade and drew it. Behind her, nearer the aft-castle, Sir Jean gripped his longsword and brought her from its sheath. Jacque likewise exhaled heavily and nervously followed.
The sound of swords being drawn and weapons readied was a chorus of steel and iron as the Arabyans began a battle chant. Asada's expression became professional as he bellowed to the men along the rigging and his helmsman.
Their ship was smaller than the galleon, and far nimbler and quicker in the engagement. The archers on deck let their arrows fly and notched plumed shaft after shaft. Grenadiers used small elaborately designed carronades to lob their explosives towards their foe.
Sir Jean leapt to Raveres' side and she looked to her left to see that Prince Balik was there as well, eagerly smiling. His golden blade had been drawn and his gruff retainers stood by, their steel glinting in the fire-light. She looked the prince up and raised a brow in disbelief at his weapon.
He beamed a smile and made a boast. Yurin was so nervous he failed in his duty and instead held his sword so tightly that the blade shook as his arms shivered. The dhow cut a stream line along the portside of the galleon as they fired relentlessly.
"They've yet to ready their cannon?!" Sir Jean cried.
Raveres looked along the hull and noticed that all the ships' gun-ports were still fastened closed and their doors tightly shut. The rigging too was a shambles, lines and sail had been half-hung, and barely clung to their mizzens.
There were no sharpshooters in the crow's-nests. There were no claw toed sailors clamouring up or down the netting. Even in the darkness they could see that there were no men at the rails to respond with musket fire, or crossbow bolts.
The Arabyan's began to falter and their barrage of arrow and grenade ceased. Tension began to hang as they cut around the aft of their target and alongside the starboard. Asada ordered them to come closer. Each man was tensely watching the motionless ship.
Raveres' left hand began a tremor and her breath increased in rhythm, 'It's a trap… it's a ruse… this is wrong! I can smell it!'
Sir Jean called to Asada and the captain gave the order for the grapple lines to be thrown. Men began spinning hook and line and tossing their claws over side. Raveres exhaled and growled in anger,
"Mathlaan be damned! Where is my vengeance!?"
Yurin gulped hesitantly before responding, "Perhaps they've abandoned ship?"
Before she could glare at her retainer flashes of purple light illuminated the sky and a resounding cry wailed over the edge of the galleon and in between the two ships. Then the shots began…
Musket fire erupted from opening portholes, and from intermittent spots along the railing. Asada jumped from the aft castle and cried orders to his men as Raveres turned to see the colossal captain approach. Men began returning fire with bolt and arrow as planks and crossing beams were thrown up and over.
The lines pulled taut as the two ships grew closer and closer and the wailing of injured men surrounded them as grotesque noises emanated loudly from the other ship. Raveres narrowed her eyes as she avoided splinters and tried to make out the details of their foes.
'There's foul magic at work…'
Sir Jean called to Asada, "We'll lead the attack! Captain, I beg your leave to lead the men!"
The gruff Arabyan lifted a heavy grenade and threw it over the rail.
"I shall lead this battle you interlo-"
A hole appeared in the man's thick neck, and like a pressured torrent, his blood began spraying out. Two more musket holes appeared in his throat and head, toppling the mountain of a man and causing a great groan to erupt from the crew.
Sir Jean's face grew pale and he held his tongue tightly as he and Jacque watched the captain fall and begin gurgling on the deck. Raveres turned to see what had happened and she grit her teeth before she reached beside and took hold of Yurin. The young man was hyperventilating and sputtering as men fell beside him and the clouds of acrid musket-smoke filled the air.
Screaming at him Raveres took command,
"Yurin! I shall lead the foray! I want the deck illuminated with fire; and tell this SPINELESS scum I will flay their cocks if they dare not follow me!"
The young man shivered and shook as Raveres let go and stepped on top of the first boarding platform in place. Her face was one of terrifying focus, before she turned back to him and screamed,
"Say it!"
Her form took on that of a banshee, or a weight and it made the translator whimper under his breath weakly. He nodded and forced his eyes closed as he yelled as hard as he could to the crew. Sir Jean pursed his lips and stood up from Asada's side. The captain's face was contorted in pain and his eyes rolled back into his head. Blood still spilled with a slowing pace from his neck.
Drawing a breath Sir Jean watched Raveres mount one of the bridges and knew he must now follow, with a steady voice of command he ordered,
"Jacque! Stay close to me or the crew, stay out from the she-elf's' path!"
The squire looked to his master with tenseness in his face. He clutched his sword in his hands and nodded. His cowlick of hair bounced as he gave his tabard one final adjustment. Sir Jean leapt onto a bridge and began following Raveres, letting out a battle-wail as he boarded the thin plank bridge beside hers.
Behind him the young Jacque let out his own high-pitched battle cry and clambered onto the plank. With her sword high overhead Raveres let out a bloodcurdling scream and sprinted headlong across the bridge. Khaine's fury had taken her completely and she was plunging on whether the Human crew behind her were to follow or not.
She was not going to be stopped by any mortal or any simple blow to her flesh. Not even a commandment from the Witch King would have held sway over her to stop her from spilling blood, not now… Not ever.
She seethed and jumped the last feet from the bridge onto the galleon's deck, cutting down the nearest man-shape she could see. Her eyes wild with fury she kicked her target and the pirate gurgled and retched as she dislodged her sword from his chest. He fell backwards and with flaming arrows now soaring overhead Raveres finally saw what had become of her quarry…
The man's flesh had purpled and his blood was congealed in his face and arms. Veins pulsed under his skin and spikes began breaking through in lines along his bones. His teeth were so long that his lower jaw hung open involuntarily, trying in vain to keep in his fangs.
His right arm had moulted and hardened nearer the wrist and hand. His fingers fused together in a disgusting mass of flesh and nail. The limb appeared to be extending and warping. The muskets began to fail out and she noticed that the pirates were not reloading. Discarded pistols and muskets fell from their users' hands once spent.
Sir Jean and several of the Arabyan sailors had made it behind her and were now jumping to the deck. The pirate crew looked at the boarders with vacant or dazed expressions. Each one of them had been warped or mutated in some way; their flesh remoulded into grotesque, horrifying forms.
Raveres shuddered breathlessly,
"What in Khaine's name is the meaning of this?!"
Sir Jean quailed and stopped in his advance as he looked from ravaged pirate to pirate before he cried in reply,
"They've been made twisted by c-chaos!"
At once the men groaned and let out howls as they lunged forwards with clawed arms, swords, club, and all manner of weapon. The flaming arrows she'd ordered began the rigging and sails alight and now the deck was illuminated as strongly as if it were day.
The full horror of Annio's crew became visible and Raveres crinkled her nose as she screamed,
"Kill them all! Slay the abominations!"
Parrying a man whose right arm had become a bone-like blade the Druchii screamed and easily reposted; darting forwards with an upwards slash, cleaving the man's head off. Not even before the man's headless corpse fell to the deck, another, warped Human, took his place, and continued the melee.
Beside Raveres her knightly companion was locked tightly with a man whose bald head and withered features resembled that of a dried crab. Avoiding his strikes Sir Jean smashed the man across the face with his left gauntlet before holding him by the throat. With a loud yell he brought the hilt of his sword downwards and bashed his pommel into the man's head, cracking the round pan of his skull open with a sickening whack.
Throwing the lifeless body back to his 'comrades' Sir Jean waved the men behind him and with cheers the Arabyan's began to pour onto the deck. But as soon as the new arrivals saw their opponents' warped bodies the men of Emir Al Daouk each made curses or exclamations of horror.
"Sir Jean!" Raveres cried.
Dodging a spear wielding man, she caught the shaft under her arm and easily cut the wood with her blade. The knight parried and lunged forwards, impaling his sword through a man's engorged and misshapen chest. Kicking the corpse away he readied himself and countered another blow,
"Aye?!"
"What the fuck is this?!"
Dropping low Raveres avoided a man's clawed arm and watched it collide with an Arabyan whose guard was down. The razor-sharp bone lodged in the man's face and halved his jaw amidst choked screams. Blood and broken teeth flew down as the pirate withdrew his 'weapon' and readied another strike, this time aimed lower.
Sir Jean responded after grunting,
"Nothing but the taint of chaos! The foul prince of pleasure or father Nurgle has warped their flesh into his own playthings!"
Jacque cried and kicked forwards as he skilfully parried and smacked away opponent's blades. Yet for his skill at retaining a defence his fear and the madness of what he was seeing made the youth tense and shake; unable to deliver any form of a killing blow. Leaping to his right Sir Jean cried,
"Have at you!"
Then he brought his blade along the arms of a pirate and dissected them from their owner. Turning to his squire he loudly reminded,
"Stay close to me my boy!"
Jacque's horror strewn face nodded and he stifled a shudder as he moved himself closer to his master and tried harder to fight. The Arabyan's were not used to facing such a foe and for them the sights of the warped men made several of them stop dead in their tracks upon first sight of their form. A lethal mistake for some…
But the full force of the dhow was not yet committed against the pirates. A shadow passed overhead with a mocking laugh as Prince Balik swung onto the deck from the rigging of their ship. He landed with a great cry into the midst of several of the most warped and grotesque of the pirates.
Raveres watched his brief flight with disbelief and snarled, 'One ball and no brains… the fucking halfwit!'
The prince's retainers followed on lines of their own and skilfully dismounted to land on those enemies closest to their lord. With a mad laugh and battle cry the pauper-prince began fighting, swinging his sword around uncoordinatedly in the middle of the deck, nearly singing as he flourished and danced about.
'With any luck he's mauled before making a complete fool of himself.'
Looking away from the idiot prince, Raveres began to search the faces of the horrifically disfigured pirates as she whispered,
"But where is he… where is he…"
Moving from the mid-ship and towards the aft she easily cut down three more uncoordinated pirates. Her rage only grew at the ease with which she was felling these men. The simplicity of their fighting made her even more maddened as her vengeance seemed to become hollow.
"Where are you, you Slaanesh worshiping cunt!?" she finally cried.
She had wanted to fight competent 'men'. She wished to duel living beings who reacted, who thought tactfully about their motions. She wanted a hard fought, yet satisfying victory. One that was well deserved after the absolute insult and wretchedness that she had endured so far…
Yet all around her, easily being put to the sword, were mere walking hunks of flesh, made both mad and utterly devoid of life by a foul corruption. Puppets of some unseen daemon force.
At first the Arabyans were only tentatively engaging their foe, so aghast and terror stricken from their appearance and the intimidation of the foul magic, they'd stayed far back and moved only as sparingly as was necessary.
But now even they had noticed the mindlessness and incoordination of the possessed pirates. And so, the former ravers of the sea were being put to the sword.
They couldn't even form speech as their rotten and warped minds barely functioned enough to allow them to move. Grumbling and retching horrible sounds as they moved, lurched forwards, or slashed. Most of them made only gurgling croaks as they fell over and expired, those less taken with the corruption made more familiar cries of pain or surprise when they were slain. But none seemed to be able to use their tongues.
Felling ruined pirates left and right Raveres angrily cried,
"Where are you Annio!"
She growled and engaged a man larger than the last, hoping vainly for some kind of a challenge in his twisted flesh. With a feint and a fleche, she lodged her sword into the eye of the man. She repeated her question,
"Where are you Annio!"
A flash of motion beside her and she moved back skilfully.
"That is, if you still have the brains to comprehend me…"
Parrying a clawed hand, she easily tripped and impaled what must have once been the ship's surgeon. His blood-stained clothes and apron suggested as much.
With rage boiling within her breast, she screamed,
"Annio Bilbali! Show yourself to me!"
Climbing the steps to the helm she easily jumped over falling lines and burning rigging, repeating the captain's name madly as she became more and more blind with fury.
"Annio!"
"ANNIO!"
She heaved and her chest rose up and down violently as her breath became ragged. Her talisman of Khaine dug into her skin mockingly and she became all the bitter for it; slashes and cuts became less fine or skilful in their execution.
Instead, they were made far more horrible just for the sake of it: like a blood-drunk Witch-Elf.
Raveres cut limbs off men and then kicked them over; she sliced off legs and screamed, she impaled her blade into abdomens and tore her out on an angle, spilling entrails and foul organs. Her mind was losing all sense of composure as it quickly dawned on her that her glorious revenge was stolen.
The deck was becoming quiet as the last of the crew were dispatched and Sir Jean tried calling to Raveres as she hacked and battered the last pirates aboard the aft. The men who sunk her ship. The men who laughed as she fell into the waves. The skilled swordsmen and sharpshooters who had put her crew, her captain… her fellow Druchii to death.
Each of them had put up a paltry fight, representing nothing but a token resistance as the playthings of a now-bored and disinterested daemon. The pirates were already dead before they spotted their ship upon the horizon. Her victory was vanished before they even came to and boarded.
Sir Jean climbed the steps to the helm and was calling her name. The last 'living' pirates stood near the wheel, groaning and lazily eyeing Raveres, waiting before beginning their loudly telegraphed attacks. She stepped to the side, feinted, lunged, beat, feinted, and then slashed. The first fell, his ribs cracked from the impact of her steel.
"Raveres!" Sir Jean called.
She dipped to the side and bared her teeth as she brought her sword up and through the next man's face. Nose, teeth, and the flesh of his cheek came free with rotten ease.
"Raveres!" the knight cried.
She finally heard him enough through her haze that she responded, bellowing a horrible scream; "WHAT?!"
Punctuating her word, she side-stepped and decapitated the last sailor before turning to see the knight. Her face was streaming with sweat and Sir Jean's eyes were wide with fear,
"We must leave this ship…"
Above them the flames in the sails had spread and the rigging was burning with tongues of light. The foremast creaked and began cracking as flames started to feed themselves and consume their way down the wooden beam.
"The ship is to flounder; we must depart now lest our own vessel become consumed!"
Raveres screamed and impaled her sword through a dead man's abdomen,
"I have had my victory taken from me knight! You are dreaming if you think I shall lose my gold as well!"
Sir Jean furrowed his brow and raised his voice,
"You will not speak to me thus! We must leave or we will all die! Look upon what you have wrought!"
Raveres seethed and refused to move her eyes away from the knight's.
"You have slain the last of them, their ship is a wreck… your honour has been satisfied! You've given yourself so totally to madness that no amount of blood shall sate it!"
Arabyans were confused as to what they were to do; some were bent down aiding their injured or fallen comrades, while others leapt off the galleon and back to the dhow, and the last few stood quietly, in disbelief, as they surveyed the massacre which had just taken place.
Raveres growled as she drew her blade from the corpse, ignoring the knight she stepped to the rail and yelled,
"Yurin! Yurin you coward! Stand or I'll hollow you out myself!"
Appearing from behind the rail on the dhow the erudite and sickly man rose into view, "Y-yes my lady?! I'm here-"
"Keep still your tongue! Tell these Arabyans to get below and begin helping me find my gold!"
He nodded and wiped a line of spittle from his lips, "A-aye…"
He relayed the order and several men on the deck perked up as they looked to Raveres. She stepped towards the staircase and began down to the main deck. Sir Jean face shivered in disbelief,
"Druchii, Lady Raveres? We must leave!"
She pushed past the knight and dragged her sword along the deck,
"Make the ship ready to sail, but you will not leave until I have what I came for!"
Sir Jean pursed his lips and held his tongue for a few seconds, but eventually the patience of the knight had finally worn out and his voice rose in disdain,
"Druchii! You will listen to me!"
He opened his mouth and stepped after her, drawing a deep breath. He was about to speak when came a horrific rumble from the bowls of the ship. The Arabyans, Sir Jean, Jacque, and Prince Balik looked down. Cracking and groaning began to shake the ship and Raveres' eyes widened.
An awful cry and mangled yell came from the bowls of the ship as tentacles began slithering up from the hold. They moved upwards and began bringing water towards the burning masts, or they tried sweeping the burning wood off the deck, some just wrapped themselves around the flames and snuffed it out.
One of the Arabyan sailors was in a tentacle's way and he slashed at it with his sword. Sir Jean looked at the man with horror and began a cry,
"No!"
Time slowed and as soon as the man's blade made contact with the appendage, and as he cleaved it through, an awful shudder rocked the galleon. A groan and roar shook the wooden construction down to its keel as beaks and teeth began to erupt from the ends of the tentacles and they began moving with horrific speed.
They began attacking and seeking out any living man they found. Sir Jean skilfully cut three in a single, lucky, swing; their bloody stumps recoiled and the beast below began groaning in pain. Raveres heard a great cracking under her feet and jumped pre-emptively as a thick tentacle, larger than the rest so far, burst through the deck where she had been standing.
"Fall back you fools!" Sir Jean cried.
Switching to Druhir his voice pleaded,
"Raveres we must go! This is not a time for-"
An Arabyan, being held and gored by several beaked tentacles at once was thrown and impacted him square across the chest. The elder knight swore and fell back, winded, and nearly crushed by the bloody corpse. Jacque's face was struck with horror and he screamed,
"Master!"
Sprinting through the carnage the youth leapt over bodies and dodged under tentacle trunks overhead as he dove to Sir Jean's side. Raveres looked around and grit her teeth, dodging and rolling, angrily avoiding several of the smaller abominations, cutting and slashing their 'heads' as they attempted to bite at her.
"What is this magic!?"
The Druchii heard what sounded like a woman's laughing from below deck as several tentacles lunged at Raveres in a coordinated pattern. She avoided several and 'decapitated' the ones which dove closest to her, but she'd moved right where 'it' had wanted her to.
Raveres had stepped above one of the hatches in the deck and she lost her footing when the door was ripped open downwards. She fell with her right leg dangling into the hole as the rest of her body went falling onto the deck.
Her cuirass dully whacked against the deck and she nearly broke her nose as her face impacted into the wood, and her amulet stabbed into the flesh of her bosom. Struggling for purchase with her left hand a tentacle wrapped around her leg and began pulling her below deck. She growled and turned, slashing with her sword as best she could into the darkness of the ship's bowel.
A hand darted upwards and gripped her by the wrist. A familiar face greeted her as a figure walked into her view. She struggled, and kicked, trying to free herself as well as clamber back up the hole as the hand dug its nails in and held her tighter.
The raspy and guttural voice of the possessed captain Annio-Luis Philipe de Bilbali came into view,
"Hello again, mi amour"
Raveres forgot her hatred for a brief moment and instead let out an involuntary cry of horror. His face was barely held onto his skull; his hair was sickly and looked like he'd been dead for days but kept preserved in pitch. His eye lids were putrid and feted with sores, but his eyes themselves were like looking into a nightmare;
The veins had blacked across his sclera and his iris', once vibrant and coloured were now yellowed and whitened with rot. But his pupils… they were black and green, like the back of a beetle. The darkness within them was almost slithering out from his body and into Raveres' mind.
His hands were black at their tips and his shirt was tattered. A third, claw-like, arm was growing out of his back, asymmetrically stilted to the right. His throat had small sores and little proto-tentacles growing from under his skin. She looked at the hand touching her again and saw that fingers were growing out the top of it.
His broad forearms had become marred in symbols and glyphs, cut into his flesh by some crude, dull, weapon. His shirt hung open and his chest was a mass of slithering tentacles as his muscles and flesh hung out in heavy uneven blobs.
Raveres screamed and brought her foot up to kick him. Aiming for his horrific visage she put as much terror-fuelled force as she could behind the strike, and for once this night she was blessed; for her aim was true.
Crushing the sole of her right foot into the middle of his face she broke his nose and forced him to let go of her while he recoiled from the blow. As he groaned in pain the whole ship shuddered creaked.
Digging her left hand into the planks above so tightly Raveres felt her nails crack and pull up from her fingers. Her feminine nails started ripping away from their beds as she hoisted herself back out of the hole and onto the deck.
Madly she screamed, giving herself the impetus and relief, she needed, and crawled several feet before throwing herself up and standing. Readying her sword and gripping it with both hands Raveres grit her teeth and seethed as her left hand began to bleed from the ruined fingernails.
She hadn't any time to ready herself before a laugh came from the hole and Annio leapt onto the deck into full view. His legs had turned into slithering mass of tentacles. So numerous and motioning it reminded Raveres of maggots, or worms writhing around in filth…
'He's become a toy of Nurgle as well?!' she thought vainly.
Annio drew in a ragged breath and his voice boomed amidst the screams of some of the Arabyan crew.
"What do you think of my s-ship… and my p-pet?"
His voice was up and down in tone, and made Raveres want to drive forwards and shove her sword through his disgusting chest. Yet she remained still.
'How do I know that would even kill him?!'
Jacque had done everything he could to push the body off of his master and on the other side of the hole, nearer the mainmast, Raveres saw the squire help lean Sir Jean against the trunk of wood. The squire had stayed his blade and sheathed it. His face was tired and his hair slick with sweat as he held back tears and forced himself to stand.
Sir Jean' head drooped and he could barely stay upright, even with the youth helping him. An Arabyan leapt to the knight's side and helped the squire shoulder his weight. Raveres' knew that it was now her own; a battle utterly on her own wits.
She couldn't help but hear in the back of her mind the perversion of irony; 'what? You wanted him… here he is!'
Looking up at the captain she snarled and responded,
"I think you look like a rotten, putrid, mess. I couldn't care less about your ruin of a ship."
One of Annio's tentacles lunged towards her and she jumped to the side as she brought down her sword. Cleaving the thin appendage easily it wriggled about before two heads grew from the bloody stump.
'What, is he a fucking hydra!?'
The captain laughed at her expression,
"And that's not all. I was so rude to you before, but please I ought to introduce you to my pet…"
On cue a mass of his tentacles darted forwards and Raveres instinctively brought up her sword and stepped back to defend herself. However, they were far faster than the first and quickly gripped her around the legs, arms and waist.
Screaming as they wrapped around her, she was lifted up with surprising ease as Annio slithered below deck and Raveres was ripped along with. The thicker tentacles which seemingly came from the ship continued to attack and harass the Arabyans as Raveres disappeared from view, with a grunt and a loud shout.
…
The bowels of the ship had been chewed away and its beams sank down into a strange darkness. It smelt wet in the air and it hung heavy with an acrid stench. The deeper she was drawn in the more weight each breath gained.
She tried counting as she passed through the decks of the galleon. But when she reached three, she doubted there could be any more depth, yet Annio descended even farther. Raveres' eyes burned and she was tightly held by the muscled limbs, struggling against her bondage.
Rather than a complete lack of light she saw that there were strange blue lamps hanging from the walls, as well as several spots along the ceiling. They reminded her of witch-light, and at once she assumed them to be perversions of the Druchii staple.
Once they stopped moving, she was finally released. Expecting the bottom of the ships wood framing to greet her Raveres landed with a great shout onto something… The floor was coated in a thick layer of bile? No… merely wet wood, the ship must have sprung a seam.
Pushing her left hand off the ground and quickly standing she felt the blubbery softness of sea-flesh. She exclaimed in surprise and disgust as she rose into a stand, searching the darkness for Annio. The lower deck was far larger than it should have been. Her voice and breath echoed…
She felt no claustrophobic oppression of closing walls of wood, or a ceiling too close to her head. In fact, an eerie level of spaciousness became the feeling around her. Spurred on by her movement and breath the blue globes of light began to brighten.
Nearby Annio announced his presence in the dark and she pivoted, ready to fight.
"As I said… my dark lady… So rude of me to not introduce you sooner, but you should know. New-borns require much sleep."
He punctuated his cryptic message with a chuckle. Finally, she was able to see more than a few feet in front of her. But Raveres began wishing that she couldn't. The interior of the ship was fused with a great beast of flesh and bone. Beams of wood descended from the deck above into a breathing, pulsing membrane of muscle below.
White bone and tendon held the wooden shell of the ship above together as anglers of shifting blue bioluminescence began engorging and brightening. The globes of blue energy pulsed in tune with the whole of her surroundings, until now the whole of the vast chamber was lightened and visible.
Annio began laughing as he watched Raveres look around her in horror. Then, near what would have been the stern of the ship, she saw it… His pet… It was like the head of a sea creature yet it was mixed with aspects of a man, and then twisted together with the taint of chaos.
The 'face' looked like that of a fish Raveres had never seen before, its jaws were great hinged monstrosities, and looked like something only from her deepest nightmares… It had barbed teeth at varying uneven lengths; some were too premature to be considered teeth yet, while others were already so long, they appeared as sabres and made it impossible for the great mouth to close completely.
The head was massive, the size of a carriage at least. The Human aspect of the fish's face was that its eyes had great lids covering them, and so proving Annio's words correct that it was at the moment asleep. The flesh of the beasts' face was malted; both scale and pink Human-skin which had been fused together in an unholy marriage of terror. In places it wasn't yet mature, the scales or flesh was nearly translucent, with veins and tendons shivering and pulsing under the surface.
Raveres willed her eyes to move off the massive head to see what its body was like. And after circling the perimeter of the beast's crown and lower jaw she saw that it was attached to the membrane of the ship… For all purposes the ship was the creature, and the creature the ship.
She exclaimed in maddened fear and looked under foot at the pulsing and living floor. It exhaled steadily and so the whole of the chamber would contract and move almost a foot; in and out, in and out.
Annio slithered along the fleshy ground and chuckled, "My pet does not have a name… but… when he is grown, I shall become king of the seas!"
"Perhaps 'Prince' would be a fitting name?"
Raveres watched as he drew closer to the great head and began rubbing a hand along its wet snout lovingly. Her voice cracked as she cried,
"What foul pact have you wrought, you madman?!"
The creature stirred at the noise but remained sleeping.
"In a way I suppose it is to be a torment… for killing a touched of Slaanesh…"
Annio's face grit and contorted as he violently 'stepped' back from the beast and shook. He let out a growl of pain as he spoke,
"It is… agony…"
He fell to what would have been his knees as he looked at Raveres. His face, still corrupt, showed a pathetic glimpse of the truth as he spoke,
"We are in utter torment… Kill the beast… for we are bound to its fate."
His body shivered and his eyes rolled in his skull. Growling again he slithered forwards with the speed of a snake and lunged at Raveres. The Druchii barely had time to react as she jumped to the left and lowered herself to dodge. Something wet slapped her in the face and blinded her as Annio passed.
Stumbling Raveres regained her footing and wiped at her eyes, knocking to the ground and into view what had hit her. The putrid discarded flesh of Annio's Human face slid from her hand and fell apart into pieces. His beard and cheeks looked up at her and she shook in revulsion as she forced herself to turn.
The now face-less skull and grotesque visage of the pirate captain stared at her. His bone no longer resembled that of a Human's and was beginning to shift and change, exposing the depths of the magic which had enveloped him and the curse which had befallen the Estalian.
He let out a cry and began clawing at his own skin. The bulbous and fettered flesh gave away easily and fell to the 'ground' in large clumps. Raveres wanted to vomit and she felt the bile begin to rise in her throat as she beheld the 'true form' of her enemy.
His muscles were covered in a thick hide, spotted and horrifically coloured like a kraken's. But before she could study him closer, he lunged at her again, this time aided by his large, trunk-like, tentacles.
Without thinking she cleaved at them in defence as she stepped backwards. Annio recoiled and howled in pain as the ends of his appendages flew off. Momentarily stalled they began bubbling as new ends grew from the stumps. Raveres began leaping backwards and jumping over the uneven and lumpy floor, slashing or beating with the flat of her blade.
'How can I defeat this?!' she thought madly.
Annio began crying in a shrill voice as he shuddered in pain, his body was continuing to change and morph. It seemed the daemons, or the prince of pleasure, were not yet done twisting him. One of the bulbous blue orbs of light craned downwards and Raveres stroked at it with a yell of frustration, it spilled open a thick, pungent, liquid which continued to shine.
The cutting of the bulb however caused the ship to quake and groan as the beast head at the stern moved and thrashed in pain. Where the sword had cut through the orb streaks of illuminating oil clung as if she had dipped her blade into a forge.
Annio turned and looked between Raveres and his 'pet'. Furrowing her brow, she tested something, and brought her blade downwards into the fleshy membrane bellow. It dug in about half a foot before stopping. The beast at the stern cried and its great jaws opened as its eyes began lifting.
Annio hissed and screamed at Raveres; but before she could draw her sword from the flesh he struck forwards with his tentacles and sent her flying towards the bow section of the chamber. He let out a cry as he slithered back to the head and tried assuaging the pained beast.
Raveres rolled over and forced herself to rise. The ship swayed from side to side and she tried to lower the rate of her breathing. Debris and bodies fell down into the chamber through the hole in the deck above and even a few Arabyans came down, screaming and covered in blood and wounds from their above battle with the ship's tentacles.
Three living men landed onto the fleshy floor. One ceased screaming as soon as he hit, while the other two began crying out in pain, limbs presumably having been broken from their impact. One of the men she recognised as a retainer of Prince Balik's. He forced himself to a stand and clutched at his left arm, presumably taken out of action from the fall.
They looked around and regarded the chamber with horror before finally seeing the head and Annio at the stern. Two large tentacles sprouted from beside the head and its eyes now opened, red veins could be seen and an expression only describable as rage appeared across the beast's face. One tentacle surged forward and wrapped around the retainer's leg while the other found the other conscious man.
Drawing his dagger, the retainer immediately stabbed the limb and it recoiled in pain as he readied another strike. The man on the floor wasn't so lucky, and had no weapons. He screamed and cried as Raveres watched on in mute terror. The retainer turned away and saw her, backing up he nodded to her and jumped towards her sword.
Annio cheered and watched as the crewman was brought towards the maw of the beast and was fed, limb by limb into the scythe like jaws. He screamed and cried and the whole ship seemed to rejoice at ripping the man apart. The retainer dropped his dagger and drew Raveres' blade from the floor with his good arm.
Growling Raveres moved forwards and was going to yell when the man turned and threw the blade back to her. He descended to pick up his dagger and stepped backwards as Annio roared and attacked with his tentacles and the beast cried and stabbed forwards with its own.
Catching the blade and nearly fumbling it Raveres stepped forwards and took a position beside the man. He nodded at her and she saw his features tense and awash with fear but together they tried to communicate without words and Raveres seemed to have understood that he was going to run to the left of the chamber.
Without another moment to contemplate his Annio growled and slithered forwards. Turning from the retainer to Raveres he tried attacking both and his tentacles moved uncoordinatedly. With a great shout the retainer leapt to the left and pushed himself off the wall. Raveres charged right up the middle and Annio was caught, unable to react to both.
Parrying his tentacles Raveres aimed her blade at the pirate's heart while the retainer was caught and wrapped in the mass of Annio's extremities. Slashing and crying out the warrior learned that he was as regenerative as a hydra and the more he cut with his dagger the more tightly he became bound.
Then Raveres shrieked, "Let's see if that regrowth works on your head too!"
Annio's few free limbs immediately darted up to protect his neck and left free the rest of his body. If not for everything she'd seen so far Raveres would have laughed that he took her loud announcement seriously.
Putting all her strength behind her hands Raveres drove her blade through Annio's chest. If she'd missed his heart or if his heart had moved positions, it mattered naught, as Raveres turned her sword upon entry and severed his spine, or at least whatever was left of it.
Annio let out a great groan of pain as he began crumpling, his tentacles shivering and loosening their grip on the retainer. Falling to the mushy floor the pirate and warrior both shook and sputtered. But unlike Annio the retainer rose again, his arm visibly broken and his body exhausted he still drew breath and was living.
Under her foot Raveres watched as the mangled and warped face of her foe… the man she had dreamt about killing exhaled his last ragged, and pathetic breath. Yet she had no time to enjoy her victory… Annio's pet still lived and upon seeing the death of its beloved master the beast let out such a cry that the wood of the ship's shell shook and groaned in pain.
A score of tentacles erupted from the walls and floor lashing towards the retainer and Raveres with such speed and ferocity that she was knocked from side to side like a ragdoll. The retainer however was caught again, and the ravenous mouths of the beaked tentacles began biting at him and latching onto his exposed flesh.
He flailed his broken arm uselessly as he tried smacking, dissuading, or averting incoming strikes from the left, while he stabbed and slashed, cutting as much as he was able with the dagger in his right. He screamed in pain as he was hoisted up from the floor and Raveres' battered head swirled.
Involuntarily she let loose a torrent of vomit as she attempted to stand, while the creature began pecking away at the retainer and he cried ever more madly as he was drawn towards the gore and blood covered maw of the beast.
'Must strike while it's distracted…'
Raveres stumbled and tripped over one of Annio's limbs, losing her grip on her sword as she fell to the wet membrane of the floor. She growled and forced herself to stand as small tentacles and beaks began pecking and biting at her legs and exposed arms.
It felt like burning pinches, and at the end they tried to draw away a chunk of flesh, leaving behind triangular bites the size of coins. Kicking and batting and screaming Raveres extended towards her sword, hoping that the retainer wasn't yet slaughtered and she still had time to attack.
Looking up in the blue gloom she saw that he was near the open jaws and was biting down on tentacles just as they were biting at him. When he was close enough, he lunged his right arm forwards as much as he could, aiming for the beast's left eye. As his strike met its mark the creature closed its jaws with the speed of a bear-trap.
The man and beast both began wailing in pain. Blood sprayed from the stump of the retainer's left arm and the tentacles threw him away petulantly as it began covering its wounded eye. Landing against the bow with a heavy crash the retainer's screams of pain were silenced and he lay in a heap, motionless.
Before she could come to her feet the tentacles wrapped themselves around Raveres and lifted her high. She screamed and tried to swing her sword but the beast had quickly learned to disarm before eating. Biting and curling around her right forearm it tightly pulled and Raveres was forced to relinquish her grip or have her arm broken.
In an involuntary flex of muscle, Raveres let go and was swiftly drawn towards the skin and blood covered teeth. Drawn feet first towards the beast she began screaming in terror as her mind emptied. All thoughts of revenge, of control, of battle-lust, everything left except for a madness filled revelation:
'I am going to be butchered and eaten alive…'
Voice and thought melded as she shivered and screamed, spit and sweat, blood, viscera, gore, soiled entrails, filth… it all cumulated as a burning fever ripped through her body, from her legs, through her muscles, from the lips of her groin through her organs until they all centred on a sharp stabbing pain in her chest.
Flashes of memories and heated visions filled her soul as she cried,
"Father! M-mother! KHAINE!"
Her unintelligible screams were drowned out as the creature brought her forwards and roared; its own tentacles were scarcely away from its sword like teeth before the jaws closed shut around her chest.
Expecting a flurry of pain and the sensation of being drawn in half Raveres was aghast that instead she was still living, and her legs still had feeling in them. The creature wailed in pain as its premature teeth became acquainted with Druchii black steel. The weak ivory snapped and shattered as it pressed into the cuirass and only a few of the strongest teeth withheld the pressure of biting into the castle-forged armour.
Realising she was still in one piece, for the moment, Raveres snarled and screamed as she reached forwards and took hold of the dagger still embedded in the beasts' eye. Digging it out she began stabbing madly, dripping blood and ichor across her face as she continued to drive the blade into the great disk-like eye.
She screamed and kicked her feet against the roof of the beast's mouth, driving the blade deeper with every blow. The whole while, Raveres was screaming insults and crying curses in the speech of the witch-elves. She never knew she could recite the prayers and liturgy she'd learned as a young girl, but the burning within her body the desire to kill, the plans yet unrealised, the life yet-unlived.
She drove the blade home with her right and ripped at the right eye with her left hand. The massive lids tried to cover the creature's only good eye but she dug her hand underneath it and dug her nail-less fingers into the wet orb, stealing for purchase on the material of the eye and pulling backwards as soon as she had a 'handful'.
Meanwhile the tentacles whipped at her head and wrapped themselves around her neck and chest, trying to pull her away from its mouth and face. Her words became choked and wild as she nearly tore her vocal cords under the pressure of the tentacle across her throat,
"I AM A DRUCHII! I am of the blood of Naggaryth! And I WILL NEVER DIE TO YOU!"
The beast finally pulled her free of its jaws and threw her away. Whipping back up she grinned to see she retained a hold on the dagger. The beast and the ship screamed and violently rocked with pain, she began a mad barrage and leapt forwards, both hands on the dagger as she aimed for the left eye, she was going to drive the blade into its brain.
"I will never YIELD, I will not tire, I WILL NOT CEASE!"
Jumping over the young creature's uncoordinated and blind strikes she dodged and wailed as she aimed and drove the blade into the centre of the gored and ichor covered hole that was once the beast's great left eye. She buried the dagger to the hilt and began hammering her palm against it as she chanted,
"Die! Die! DIE!"
The beast cried and thrashed, twitching and sputtering as the blade finally reached into its skull. When her hands were so bloody and pained, she couldn't move her fingers Raveres brought her foot up and gave the pommel of the Arabyan dagger as heavy a kick as she could.
At once the beast silenced and the Druchii fell to the floor, having lost her balance from the fury of her striking. Coughing and sputtering, screaming and shaking, Raveres rolled over her side and looked at the great beast. Its shattered teeth and limp tentacles lay on the floor before its horrid maw.
Then Raveres let out a cry of exhaustion as she let herself lay on her back. Into her cuirass she began to feel the piercings of several of the beast's teeth, and a burning sensation flooded into her body as the adrenaline began to wear off.
Her nail-less left hand burned from the blood and ichor of the creature's eye and all over her skin the putrid air found her wounds and began setting in, furthering the burning which was spilling over her muscles and body.
Letting out a heavy breath Raveres felt tightness in her lower abdomen loosen. The nerves and tension of her brush with death finally spilled over and with no more strength to hold herself together she felt her bladder release in an undignified and horrid combination of revulsion and relief,
"Ba-stard… bastard…" she swore.
Her tongue burned too… slick with spit, blood, and bile she looked up at the light spilling down from the hatch when something dark obscured her view and she finally made out the shape of a man.
With sword drawn the figure descended and called loudly before landing. At the appearance of the warrior, she finally felt her body give away, exhausted, as the darkness of unconsciousness overtook her.
…