Let Battle commence …..enjoy!
I don't own Hetalia
Chapter 10 : Battle For The Mer King
Arthur and Gilbert struggled up the side of the ship, as they could only used their arms and their tails were quite weighty out of the water but a lifetime of swimming made them strong so they would be able to make it to the railing. They were halfway up when Gilbert stopped and cocked his head.
"What is it?" Arthur asked, as quietly as possible for a mer. Gilbert said nothing for a moment and then turned to Arthur.
"Peter's on his way with the Jack and the Spadian army," Gilbert replied. "They should be with us soon."
"Good," Arthur replied. "We need all the help we can get." And they continued to climb the ropes as they heard the sound of fighting on deck and Arthur worried for Alfred and Matthew. Just before they reached the top, the sound of fighting stopped and he could hear Princess Erica's voice. He could not understand what was being said but he recognised Alfred's name. He caught hold of a handful of rigging ropes and pulled his head above the railing to see what was happening.
Princess Erica had her back to him and, beside her was a guard who had Matthew entangled in a net and a blade at his throat. Princess Erica had a pistol pointed at Alfred and that worried Arthur as much as the blade at his Ace's neck. He had seen such things being used at the castle, by soldiers practising their marksmen ship and he had seen some shoot at clay pots and watched them shatter. He shuddered to think what they could do to flesh so he had to stop Erica before she could use that thing on anyone but the moment anyone tried any kind of move, Arthur believed Matthew's throat would be cut so Erica had to be stopped and Matthew had to be freed at the same time.
"Joker Gilbert," he said, trying to whisper so that his clicks and squeals could not be heard. "I need help to free the Ace while I deal with the land-dweller princess."
"Don't worry," Gilbert replied. "The Awesome me will free Ace Matthew. You stop the land-dweller hag." And they got into position...
As Arthur got a firm grip on the ropes, Erica spoke again and turned the pistol to aim it at Matthew and, while Arthur was glad it was not aimed at Alfred any more, Matthew was not any better. Arthur shuddered to think what a pistol would do to Matthew's head. He looked at Gilbert who was ready to pounce and he nodded.
With a burst of strength, Arthur gripped the rope hard and swung over the railing and round, his tail catching Princess Erica in the face with the end, smacking her back against the railing and she dropped the pistol, her feet flying over her head as she fell over the railing and disappeared with a scream. At the same time, Gilbert had leapt over the railing and on to the guard holding Matthew, forcing the blade away from the Ace's neck before bending his red tail round and hitting the guard with the powerful appendage, knocking the man unconscious.
Alfred was stunned at what he had just seen. When he recognised the blonde head appearing over the railing as Arthur, his heart soared. Arthur was alive! He held on to the ropes of a small piece of rigging and pulled himself up further and Alfred saw something on his neck that he had not seen before, three slits on either side and the hands holding the ropes were webbed. A movement on the other side of the rigging caught his eye and he flickered his eyes to see a male with white hair and red/pinkish eyes, also with slits in his neck and he was braced to move. It was what had happen next that took his breath away.
In a simultaneous attack, the white haired man leaped over the railing and crashed into the guard holding Matthew while Arthur swung himself round through the air in a blue blur and caught Princess Erica in the face, making her drop the pistol aimed at Matthew's head and sending her, shrieking over the railing before he fell to the deck. The white-haired guy had knocked out the guard, freeing Matthew and that was when he had time to notice the real change to Arthur.
Arthur was completely nude, salt-water drops running off his shoulders to his lower back, on to the blue scales that covered his lower body that was now one long tail, instead of two skin-covered legs. A tail that ended in a fanfare of delicate looking membranes and a dorsal fin that ran down the back from where the tail began at Arthur's lower back and joined the explosion of the caudal fin at the bottom. Alfred thought Arthur had been a vision of beauty before but now …...
Arthur had become Alfred's angelfish.
But real life intruded. The ship's crew were closing in and the fight was not over as Arthur and the white haired man with a red tail, now Alfred had noticed, used their strong arms and powerful tails to put themselves between the two twins and their opponents, their chest swelling and Matthew knew what was coming.
"Alfred!" he called, pressing his hand against the sides of his head. "Cover your ears!" Alfred put his hands over his ears, just in time as Arthur and his companion let loose. Despite Alfred's ears being protected by his palms, what came fore from the two mer's mouths was still enough to cause pain.
One mer's war cry was enough to give pause to any enemy but mers were capable of harmonising their voices with allies to boost the strength of their cries and Arthur and Gilbert altered their voices until they matched and their voices issued one supercharged war cry that drove back the crew as the screeching sound pierced their eardrums and drilled into their heads. Alfred and Matthew were a little more protected, being behind the two mers and the sound being directed toward the crew and away from them but still, that hurt!
The crew moved as far away as they could from the strange creatures, that had suddenly appeared in their midst, and their unholy screeching but they could only screech for so long. Arthur and Gilbert would need help.
And soon.
A mile away, a school of Spadian mers glided through the water, all with their arms adorned by coral bracelets and led by a mer with three coral bracelets on his arm, his blonde hair flowing backwards as he sped through the sea, his green eyes keeping an eye out for danger, as was part of the pod that was surrounding the only member of the royal pod left in Spades. Jack Yao swam beside the warrior, along with the Black Joker as he guided them toward the land-dweller vessel that was holding the Queen, the Ace and the next King. It would not take them long to swim the distance but who knew what they would face when they got to the ship.
"I suggest you stay back until we secure the vessel, my Jack," Lars said, looking toward Yao as they swam side by side. "We can't have all the royals at risk."
"I can fight," Yao protested. All mer royals were trained in combat in order to protect themselves, when needed. "We must retrieve the Queen and Ace and secure the King as well, aru."
"I understand," Lars replied. "But we can't risk..."
They broke off as a ripple moved through the water from the direction of the land-dweller vessel and every mer warrior knew what it was. A war cry. Weaker then normal but undoubtedly a mer's battle weapon.
"We have to hurry," Peter said, swimming harder. "The Queen and the Red Joker are fighting and they need re-enforcements so let's leave the argument for later."
The rest of the pod swam harder to catch up to the young mer and to reach their missing royals in time.
Coming after the Mertorian ship, the Altheian royal ship sped through the waves at full sail in order to catch up with the vessel carrying the king's kidnapped nephews and the Spadian Queen. Captain Matthias stood on the deck with King Alex and Prince Jason by his side as he looked at the horizon through his spy glass, looking for the 'enemy' ship. It always amazed Alex how Captain Matthias Kohler could keep his hair that spiky when out at sea. Matthias took the spy glass away from his blue eyes
"Not in sight yet," he reported and he looked up at the crow's nest and shouted. "Emil! Any sign up there." There was a better view from the crow's nest, the lookout could see further but a white blonde head looked down at the captain and shouted back.
"No ship yet, Captain!"
"Well, we can't be far from them now, keep looking!"
"Aye, Captain!" Matthias turned back to the King. "We'll catch up soon, Your Majesty, they didn't have that much of a head start and I saw their vessel, it's not as fast as ours." Matthias's first mate, an emotionless looking man called Lukas Bondevik came to stand beside him.
"Berwald have the men prepared for a boarding the vessel when we catch them, Captain," he informed. "And Tino has sickbay ready."
"Good," Matthias replied. "We'll have to hit fast and decisive to secure the safety of Princes Alfred and Matthew, as well as Sir Arthur. It would be good if we capture the Mertorian Princess at the first opportunity. Get her and they'll have no choice but to surrender."
"Let's hope everything goes that smoothly," Jason replied. "I don't want to lose my cousins, I've only just got one back."
"And there could be diplomatic repercussions if anything happens to Sir Arthur," King Alex added.
"I understand, Your Majesty," Matthias replied. "And their safe recovery is my crew's first concern, I assure you. We'll do whatever we have to, to retrieve them with as minimal risk as possible."
"That's good to hear," Alex said and then, a shout came from the crow's nest.
"SHIP AHOY!"
Princess Erica had no idea what hit her and only had a brief, terrifying moment of falling before she hit the ocean and went under the salty brine. She struggled back to the surface but was hindered by the floating skirt of the wedding dress that was entangling her legs. When she broke the surface, she knew she had to remove the material or it would drag her back down.
Fortunately for her, her wedding gown was made up of two pieces and she fought to undo the skirt and struggled out of it, leaving her in bloomers, a petticoat and the top as she swam to the side of the ship and grabbed a trailing rope to climb up the side of the ship. That was when she heard the screeching.
What is that?! She wondered, wincing against the pain and almost loosing her grip on the rope. Because she was hanging on the side of the ship and not on deck, she was a little protected from the sonic attack but it still hurt!
She hung on, screaming at the pain in her ears from the sound as the attack went on for moments that felt like minutes before it fell away. After recovering, Erica began to ascend the rope.
Arthur and Gilbert could only hold the war cry for so long and, eventually it faded as they ran out of breath but the crew was still in shock from the unexpected attack. Alfred and Matthew were more prepared so, while the crew were pulling themselves together, they were on their feet and arming themselves, preparing to defend the two mers against the land-dweller crew.
They now stood in front of Arthur and Gilbert with swords they picked up from where they had been dropped by crew trying to escape the ear-damaging noise, as the crew shook themselves back to reality and were returning to apprehend the Altheian royals. Matthew copied Alfred's stance but he was not confident of his ability to use a sword as he had never been trained with such weapons as mers primary used their voices, hands and tails to fight, the voice and tail being out of Matthew's reach for now.
The crew got closer as Alfred and Matthew brandished their swords at them to keep them at bay but no one noticed Princess Erica pull herself over the railing. She took a few moments to catch her breath before looking up and her eyes widened at the sight of Arthur as a mer, his long tail curling around on the deck beside another white-haired man with a red tail.
This was who had taken Alfred from her ….. this freak! She would ask herself why he was not dead but the answer was before her. He was a creature of myth and had twisted his spell around her Alfred's heart and, as her eyes fell on the pistol she had dropped when she was knocked into the sea by Arthur, she correctly guessed, and she aimed it at Arthur's unprotected back.
She smiled at the thought that the freak did not know what was coming and suddenly heard a loud clicking noise as she prepared to fire, only to be brought down again as something landed on her from behind and when she recovered and looked up, the crew and ship were being over run by blue-tailed people.
Upon reaching the ship, Lars and his warriors crawled up the sides and he peered over the railing to see a lot of land dwellers surrounding two other land-dwellers who were stood in front of the Queen and the Red Joker and then Lars realised that one of the land-dwellers was Ace Matthew. They were desperately out-numbered and it was time to change that.
"ATTACK!" he called and his warriors threw themselves over the railing and on to the crew who were taken by surprise. One warrior landed on a female land-dweller in his haste to reach the Spadian royals and keep them safe. Several mer surrounded the group and Alfred and Matthew covered their ears again as war cries began to sound around the ship as the mers began to subdue the crew.
"We're catching up rather quickly," Matthias was a little surprised but not about to look a gift horse in the mouth and he looked through his spy glass. "That's strange! The main sail hasn't been ….no, wait! It's missing!"
"Missing?" King Alex commented. "How can it be missing?" Matthias lowered the spy glass.
"Something must have happened," he replied. "But it explains how we've caught up so fast. LUKAS!" Lukas came up to Matthias. "Get the men ready to fight. We'll be boarding the vessel sooner than we thought and I want everything prepared."
"Yes, Captain," Lukas replied and went to get everything ready for the sea battle that was bound to ensue while Matthias put the spy glass to his eye again and looked at the ship they were pursuing which was closer now and eyes widened at what he was seeing.
"What on earth...?!" he spluttered as he could see what was happening on board.
"What is it?" Jason asked.
"The Mertorian ship's being over run by giant, blue fish," Matthias replied, hoping it did not sound as mad to the royal's ears as it did to his.
The crew were falling to the Spadian mer army who were no match for so many mers or their war cries and Alfred and Matthew, surrounded by mer warriors, defended the Queen of Spades while the Red Joker joined the battle but no one thought about Princess Erica who had picked up the pistol and had aimed at Arthur's back again but she wanted the abomination to know who would kill it and why.
"Goodbye, Fish Freak!" she said, giving Arthur long enough to turn and see her pointing the pistol right at him and she began to squeeze the trigger.
The fight was winding down as the amount of crew left to fight fell. By a miracle, none of the crew had died but many were injured with fractured bones, cracked by powerful blows from muscular mer tails and some of the crew, not as fighting fit as some had escaped injury by surrendering from the war cries alone. When the last of the crew surrendered, the mer gave a victory cry.
A cry that was punctuated by a shot.
A pistol shot!
What. Just. Happened?!
That is all! Hasta la Pasta!