It's all out chaos aboard the flagship of the MoonClaw Pirates. Its crew of wolven beastkin might not have done anything specific to incur the wrath of the Champion of Ursol more than any other in the fleet, but here she was, on the deck of their ship, fighting with such primal fury that it made the beastkin feel inadequate. Any who dared to take on the future chieftess of Bjonholm with their fangs bared, were quickly shown to the floor, or the sandbar that lay overboard. However, any who dared shrink from facing her while wearing the colors of the MoonClaw Pirates, suffered the same fate.
Ursol's blessing coursed through Nene's body so strongly that even her battle cries sounded more like the proud beast she reveres. Wolves who charge at her quickly reconsider their position when they see the pure ferocity that shines within Nene's emerald pools. Not only does the Champion of Ursol hunger for justice and vengeance, but when she beheld Anon, fighting along the shorefront with nothing but his bare fists and a fighting style that resonated with her very soul, she found herself almost unable to focus fully on the true task at hand.
Even now, on a ship full of feral enemies, Nene's thoughts still burn with the images of a man she greatly admires, and the desire to fight back to back with him once more. For after their enemies lay beaten into the ground, and they both wear the proud scars of victory, they would relinquish themselves to their urges and-
Nene's train of thought is interrupted by the whistling of steel in the air as it flies down towards her face. The girl raises her claw with unflinching determination and glides her electrified nails through the blade as if it were a thin cloth. The wolf's ears droop when he examines his emasculated sword, but his gloom is replaced by immense dread when he sees Nene cock back her curled paw.
A blow that leaves a circular indent within the beastkin's furred chest sends him skidding along the deck by his heels. By the time the wolven pirate slams into the fenced railing of the ship with his back, Nene has already found her next target and dashes across the deck to force them into combat.
"Nene cannot slow down. Have to smash whole ship fast." She thinks to herself as she bobs away from razor sharp claws. The primal powered warrior then lets loose a series of lightning fast jabs to the beastkin's snout, leaving it a bloody and disfigured mess in a matter of seconds. In a daze, the man falls to his knees, his swollen eyes twitch slightly, looking right past the orange clad girl who just beat him senseless. Nene begins to turn, the sounds of hurrying footsteps giving her the mental image of how many approach. Her natural aptitude for battle already puts her next action into motion; gathering the electrifying power of Ursol within her mighty paws, and bringing both arms wide behind her. The air crackles with lightning as she lets her inner rage manifest itself as a storm that cannot be tamed.
The trio of wolven pirates who sought to ambush Nene while her back was turned, now find themselves in a precarious situation. Nene swings her arms in front of her, sending a cross of thunderbolts streaking towards her targets. The electrical force cracks and leaves breaks in the floor as it flies in such a dazzling display of beauty and destruction that it forces those who witness it into a state of immobility. The purple and white wave passes right through the three, its current cutting through clothes, singing fur, and overloading their nerves with a static stimulus that renders their muscles inoperable.
Nene marches back towards the middle of the ship, wriggling her claws, scraping her black talons against one another that spark at the slightest touch. She singled out the wolf pirate ship first since she thought beastkin would be more of a challenge, an outlet for her swelling bloodlust, but they have been nothing but a disappointment so far. Her eyes scan the ship's corners; pirates shirk from her gaze, hiding behind the middle mast, the upper floor, a few she catches even abandoning ship with their tails between their legs.
Nene spits, hoping to wash the taste of cowards in the air off her tongue. "Fight Nene! Nene promise Anon and her people that she would crush all of you!" Through her heavy blood haze, the sound of wheels ferrying a heavy object reaches her ears. She looks to see a mobile cannon being ushered by three large wolf men with an even larger one at its back. They cease their movement and check that the girl stands in the line of fire.
"Captain, we're locked and loaded!" One of the cannoneers sounds off, his voice shaky but carries a faint glimmer of hope.
"Then let's put this beast down for good." The captain of the MoonClaw Pirates; a wolf beastkin dressed from head to toe in what might be considered average captain's attire; a navy bicorn that has had two holes along its top to allow the man's pointed ears the freedom they need, a navy captain's jacket complete with the golden shoulder tassels, and finally a pair of dark brown britches that end just at the beastkin's heels. His dark blue eyes meet the greens of Nene's, and flicks the match held in his large paw against his side to then light the fuse.
The iron artillery lets out an ear cracking boom as it discharges, and the smoke from the gunpowder ignited within its casing rises. The whistle of the wind that the cannonball sings during flight abruptly stops, and the pirates' fanged jaws curve upward. Their mark was undoubtedly hit.
"See lads? Nothing even that wild monster can outrun cannonfire!" The captain begins to gloat.
"We sure showed her, Captain Wulf." One of the MoonClaw underlings agrees.
"Even if that didn't work, the captain would have torn her to shreds!" Another feeds his commander's ego.
"She wanted to fight? Beasts like her who clearly haven't evolved are not for fighting. They're only for killing if they get out of control." Wulf crosses his arms in triumph, but as the smoke clears, his canine eyes spot a silhouette through the veil, and his face goes white.
There Nene stands firm, knees bent, her paws and arms shaking as she holds the iron slug between them. The girl's face drips with sweat, and her own fangs clench and grind in anger. She struggles to get control of her breathing, but the sight of the wolves through the clearing smoke rouses her to aggressive action.
Taking the cannonball in one hand, Nene lifts it high, winding up her throw, choosing her target with cruel precision. The bodies of the pirates barely respond to the fear they now feel by the time Nene lets the iron ammunition fly with an overhand throw and a mighty yell, as if her own arm was the cannon. The iron ball crashes into the wheeled mortar, breaking its front half into pieces and the bodies of those who stand too close to it.
The captain of the MoonClaw Pirates groans from his defeated position on the deck floor. He sits up and shakes off the disorientation. His eyes focus just enough to show the Champion of Ursol stepping towards him, her claws ready to maim. Pure panic overtakes the wolf beastkin, and he scrambles into his inner coat pocket for something. A gasp of relief escapes his jaw when he pulls out a simple stick with a white cloth strung to its length. He covers his face with one paw and waves the flag frantically in front of him.
"I-I surrender! N-No need to come any closer!" He whimpers.
"You surrender?" Nene scowls, taking one slow step closer, causing the captain to jump in his seat.
"Y-Yes! We're both…ummm" Wulf's eyes dart in almost every direction, but get stuck on Nene's claws, that she flexes, and the sounds of her knuckles cracking helps to break his composure even further. "Clawed? Individuals. We can talk this out, can't we?"
"Nene hates people like you." She says through a small growl. "Did you stop hurting Nene's people when they asked? Did you stop hurting them when THEY surrendered!?"
"O-Of c-c-course we did!" The beastkin offers with both his hands raised, but when his words are met with another threatening step from the warrior in front of him, he begins to shift himself backwards in a hasty retreat. "There's no use in workers who are too injured to work, right? Surely you understand."
"I thought I would be happy when I got to see more of mama's people…but the ones husband brought back, the ones he saved…they were all hurt!" Nene shrieks, stomping another foot forward.
"Hungry, sad, dirty, they had cuts, bad ones, along their arms and backs…" Her eyes narrow on the beastkin who looks back, his chest heaving from the building dread. "Some heal, but Nene saw how green and black some of them were…they're the kind that hurt for a while after the bleeding stops."
"Y-You can't possibly think my friends and I did all that. Can you? The fleet is made up of so many different people, pirates much meaner than us too. Maybe it was-" Wulf continues to bargain, likely as a last ditch effort to save his own skin, but Nene's guttural rumbling stops the words right in his throat.
"Nene knows what being cut by claws looks like." She grumbles, bringing one of her paws upward, lightning crackles along its surface. Nene takes another step forward, her foot snaps the discarded white flag in two. "Now is your turn to feel it. Claws of Ursol much much stronger than scaredy dog claws."
Knowing that negotiations have failed, Wulf makes a desperate swipe with his own pointed talons at the girl. Nene's own paw flashes in the air, and the snap of bone comes like a sudden thunderclap. The pirate captain yowls and tries to instantly retract the source of his anguish, but his arm does not budge; caught by the wrist within Nene's own bear trap. Her claws converge, tightening themselves around Wulf's arm, mowing through the patches of fur to draw blood from his hide.
Nene's vengeful glare makes the wolf beastkin let out a small whimper before shielding his face with his free hand, an act that only makes the Champion or Ursol even more irate. She yanks the sniveling oppressor up towards her, and brings down her thunderous claw upon him. Nene's primal fury slashes right through the long black nails of her enemy, reducing them to mere stubs as her claw rips and tears through the surface of the MoonClaw Captain's chest. Fur and blood swirl in the air following Nene's strike, and the body she holds begins to lose its strength, but she's not done with him yet.
Nene lifts her prey higher, and starts to deliver punch after punch in and around the fresh wounds she had just made. Each slam from her mighty fist forces more blood to leave Wulf's body, and the captain violently coughs up even more. She was going to bash the suffering of her people into his body. She would make him suffer for what he was willingly a part of. Only after his body becomes limp, and only small shudders of breath escape his body in an unsteady rhythm, does Nene halt her assault. She lets the maimed and broken captain fall to the ground.
With her self appointed task almost complete, Nene walks back towards the middle of the deck, stepping over the bodies of the defeated, around the broken floorboards, and brushing discarded weapons out of her path. She looks over the port side railing, another ship sits beached less than a mile away. Some crews are in the middle of attempting to push their ship back into the water, which brings the girl's attention back towards the mainland. Nene reaches down and relieves an unconscious pirate of the spyglass that was strapped to her vest, and extends it to let her look outward.
She sees her friends; Watame, Undine, and all of the lioness pack valiantly fighting the encroaching pirate force. She then scans the shore in an attempt to find Anon or Polka, but when neither is nowhere to be found, her own internal compass points her in the direction of the man she yearns to fight alongside with. She brings the eyeglass up to the hovering galleon, and her fangs glisten in an elated smile when she sees the black flag that displays the emblem of the SeaKroc Pirates, sliced clean down the middle.
"Anon winning his fights too. As expected of husband. Nene need to keep trying harder. Need to let everyone know she won, and will keep winning." Nene says to herself, tossing the seeing tool aside. A look that borders on calculating begins to form on her face as she looks around the deck, and then back to the closest enemy ship. Like a light illuminating a darkened room, an idea brightens Nene's face. She works fast, gathering a heavy barrel, a long plank, and one cannonball. As she constructs, she makes quick glances at the crossbeam along the mast, then back to where she works. After placing the iron sphere carefully at the one end of the wooden board, and making sure it is stationary, Nene hums in satisfaction. Her makeshift catapult was now complete. All that was left was to give it the proper payload; her.
Nene looks up again at the wooden spire, and at the dark navy flag that flaps with the sea breeze. Nene breathes deeply, she smells the salt in the air, the unique moist scent that preludes a coming storm, and lastly, her first victory of today.
With her lungs full of air, she takes a mighty step forward with her arms outstretched, and she brings them both together like a vice upon the wooden pillar. Her electrified claws press into the mast's foundation, splintering the timber and sending hairline cracks up and down its length. Nene grunts, and begins to climb. She reaches the crossbeam that holds the flag proudly for all to see, and stands along it, taking in the view and observing how heads along the other ships turn toward her.
"I am Nene Momosuzu!" She roars with a voice that booms like thunder. When she can feel even more eyes looking at her, she lowers herself and digs her claws into the top of the flag. Nene lets herself fall, dragging her sharp talons along the thick tapestry, giving the jolly roger of the MoonClaw a terrible scar to mark its defeat. Before she can fall further, Nene stops herself with a foot against the mast, and looks out the battlefield once more. "Mangy dog pirates all felt the might of Ursol for hurting Shallah and the people who live here! Nene is coming for the rest of you! There is nowhere to hide for those who challenge the might of Ursol!"
Having broadcast her threat, Nene takes a deep breath and lets go. She falls straight towards the empty end of the catapult she hashed together. In a few seconds she would be aboard another ship, filled with more pirates for her to punish. A broad smile paints her face.
Nene likes smashing things all by herself, but it more fun to fight with friends, even during contest. Nene has beaten fifty-two pirates! Husband probably close to that too. Together, we will free mama's people and make all of Bjornholm proud of us! Then after, Husband and Nene will wash each other again~ It's time for Nene to fight harder than ever before!
( sey "WANTED eae ; iq ( : . RIPGSNARL WULF §S0G0LD \. REWARD