The drakes scattered, the young ones fleeing in terror, while he adolescents and alpha females just look irritated. Either way, this didn't bode well. "They are running away! WE WON!" A hopeful crewmember exclaimed, and he decks below were filled with HUZZAHS! [I]"No....something worse is on it's way! Prepare for-"[/I]

He was cut off by the roar of the alpha male, and his frown deepened. He peered through the gun port, and a ship immediately burst into flames as the drake king made his appearance. He immediately stuffed a cannon ball down the barrel of the gun he was at. [I]"Everyone fire at once, then fire at will after, as fast as you can! We must keep fire on him at all times! We will melt these guns down if we have to! Ready down the line?! FIRE!" [/I]

The ship rocked sideways as all the guns on that side fired in unison, the sky, already angry and buzzing with cannon fire from the other ships, came alive with the added fire of the Jester's guns. The king pitched and roared, some cannon balls bouncing off his thick armored hide, but still stinging him. Something had to be done about his armor. Rous decided that fairness was out the window now, and fun was no longer to be had.

He unbuttoned his coat, and took it off, exposing his bare chest, scars and tattoos. He hung his coat up on a hook as he ran for the stairs. Taking a spot on the deck, he popped his knuckles, and brought his fist back next to his face, bringing a fire javeline to life. But this one was different from those before. Where the others were smooth jets of flame, these were angrily glittering, blazing. He took aim with his left hand, hopped once and threw the javeline.

As the bolt sizzled through the air, the king drake dove, dodging the javeline. A moment after it passed where the drake was, it exploded in a massive cloud of blue fire, the sound echoing as loudly as the cannons. Rous cursed, and wrought another, flinging that one, and missing once more as the cannons pelted the drake, some balls riocheting off, while others hit him solidly. The drake made a pass at their ship, the ship rocking dangerously. Rous leaned forward to avoid slipping backwards, making a grab at a few unfortunate sailors who lost their balance, sliding screaming towards the rails on a rediculously slippery deck. Some didn't catch themselves, and went plummeting towards the mountains below.

This needed to end, soon.

-d- OoC// Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, gang. Been real busy at work!

Avery watched the chaos, the attack on the alpha male wasn't going well. She felt helpless as she watched many of the crew tumble overboard. The captain wasn't doing much better, although his attempts at hitting the drake with the javelins was impressive. She made a note to ask him if he thought it was possible to do anything like that with water sometime. First they had to make it through this. Her muscles protested as she stumbled over to the captain. "I might be able to help. At least so he can't dodge." she told him as calmly as she could. It came out in short breaths.

Avery plunked herself down on the slick deck, hoping it wouldn't tip and send her flying. Balls of light grew at her palms she sent them soaring towards the alpha "Don't look." she warned the captain as they exploded in front of the drake's eyes. The explosions were almost as bright as the sun. The beast roared, swinging its body and taking out a mast and parts of another ship. "That's all I got." she croaked out, glad to be sitting on the deck.

Amidst the cannon fire and gun fire and an angry drake, Blackfire would easily be missed. Especially because she was completely black. She made a beeline to the alpha on leathery clawed wings, taking advantage of its momentary blindness, and pried off one of its chest scales. It roared in pain, definitely disoriented; unable to get enough force to do the damage herself, she cleared out of the way. "Strike him now!" she shouted as she darted toward the ship. "Get him before he reorients himself!"

She landed on the deck of the ship, not seeming to have a problem keeping her balance. She was completely black; skin, hair, wings, even the four horns sprouting from her head and the thin little tail swishing behind her. Her eyes were a royal purple, glowing faintly, and the same color was dripping onto the deck and mingling with the drake blood. On closer inspection it was clear: she was bleeding from quite a few places. Her shirt and pants were in tatters like she'd fallen down the side of a mountain, and parts of her chest and legs were exposed. "Captain," she said, standing in front of Rous. "Reporting for duty."

Matthew had been shooting at the beast's eyes with bulletstorm after bulletstorm, to no avail. The outer layering of the beast's eyes were too tough for the bullets to do any real damage. Then the drake flew by, and Matthew seemed to immediately know what to do. As the ship turned to a diagonal angle Matthew lunged for the mast and threw himself against it, clinging on for dear life. He clutched his Fathers blade as he carefully examined gargantuan creature. That's when he saw it. The missing plate in the Drake's chest, ripped out by some sort of shadowy creature. He took aim at the weak point but out of the corner of his eye the shadows exuding from what seemed to be Blackfire seeped into Matthew's view, corrupting his sight.

All he saw was shadow. Then a face and bare shoulders, a strange tattoo covering what Matthew could see to be at least the being's entire left shoulder. The face of this being seemed very similar to Matthew's father, yet it was slimmer, and it's hair was black, with two horns poking out of it's head, much like Matthew's. "Awaken, my champion, your mother was not strong enough, but you, however..." In reality, Matthew was clutching his head with one hand, emerald green light emitting from his eyes, green flame forming around the base of his horns, and the ornate runes on Matthew's pistols seemed to glow as well.

Nikki started shooting again on the captain's orders, though she was frustrated by the lack of visible effect. Then something dark and mostly human-shaped flew across the sky. Nikki's eyes widened. Was that...Blackfire? No way! She grinned at the sight. She'd have to tell the other woman just how awesome that was after they defeated the alpha. The nekomimi tried to hit the exposed area, but her aim just wasn't good enough. She was a melee fighter, not a marksman. And she only got a few tries in before she was distracted by Matthew. "Hey, you alright?" she called, moving toward him as she reloaded yet again.

Having managed to stay atop deck during the entire battle. Fer looked around getting struck with an eerie feeling as all the drakes scattered. The roar of the approaching alpha male was almost defining, feeling like it he did temporarily loose his hearing. For what seemed much longer than seconds Fer looked around the darkened colored ship for more amo in silence. He stumbled around with the rocking of the ship, dodging any stray bullets seeing the streaks of the fire javelin’s blaze across the sky. Finding a new gun he took a new position trying to help as best he could.

Jack ran back up the stairs as more commotion went on. Her bleeding stopped for the most part, the clothing in those areas getting caked. The newly black shadow caught her eyes watching carefully as Blackfire landed back on the deck. “Oh wow” She said softly. More adrenaline pumped through her going to look for a new weapon. Using the slippery spots to her advantage darting about the deck, sliding to go quicker.

[I]"It was more than enough!"[/I] He said to Avery, bringing his hand back for another javeline. He threw it at the disoriented drake, the bolt hitting him just above the exposed skin. The bolt exploded, peeling away more of the scaley armour to expose his underbelly. He pulled his hand back again when blackfire landed in front of him. Thinking something new had decided to join the fight, he spawned a flame sword, and swung.

The tip of the sword stopped inches from her forehead as she spoke, and Rous blinked. [I]"The hell? Miss Blackfire? What happened to you? Nevermind! We need to kill that drake now! Everyone, aim for his stomach! It's wide open! Where's Mr. Lief?"[/I] He spoke, moving her out of the way with his aiming arm, and throwing the fire javeline when she was clear

Matthew was huched over, still clutching his face as the man in his head kept speaking to him. "Who are you?!" He whispered under his breath but in his mind he was screaming. "You could call me a patron of sorts." The man said with a sly smile, "It appears you and your crew is in a predicament." Matthew looked at him in confusion "We're winning, Blackfire just ripped a hole in his chest." The man shook his head "At this rate, it will tear down your Captain's ship by the time you tear down him." He extended a hand, "Become my champion, and this can change." Matthew stared through a small opening in the darness at the sight of his crew members firing at the exposed spot on the Alpha Male's chest, while it became angrier and angrier. Matthew turned his gaze back to the man, who still had his hand extended. "Fine." He said. He grabbed the man's hand. "Good to have you on board, my champion."

On the outside, Matthew suddenly staightened, his body seeming to shoot up. His horns were more prominent, and flaming a bright green, his eyes shining a darker shade of green. His pistols were ablaze in their holsters, yet as the flames licked the leather holsters it didn't affect them. Without a word, not even acknowledging Nikki's call, he slid his right foot forward towards the giant beast to brace himself, his right arm drawing one of his two pistols, which seemed to be raging with green fire, brimming with 'bad vibes'. Then as if out of the blue, a shout of defiance to the Drake emitted from Matthew, echoing off the the mountains miles below.

(( Sweet! Nikki is jealous.))

"Whoa!" Nikki took a step back as Matthew changed and caught on fire in places. "Sweeeet!" Her tail lashed in excitement -- this battle was awesome, and only seemed to get better. Her fingers itched at the sight of the flaming guns. She bet they would fetch a nice price now, what with the magic that was clearly on him. She pushed the thought from her mind. Though she was a thief, she never took anything from her friends save as a prank. Then Matthew shouted, and she flattened her ears. Must they be so /loud/?! Still, it was going to be an interesting fight, she expected.

Rous ducked his head a bit at the loud shout from Matthew, surprised he was able to make such a noise. He looked his gunnery seargent up and down, furrowing his brow. The demonic magic boiling within him worried Rous, as did Blackfire's appearance. Two demons on board wasn't a good sign, especially since neither claimed to have control over that side of their personalities.

But, he was curious to see what the man was capable of. He brought his hand down, and simply watched, seeig what kind of damage the man could dish out.

Avery started to get up, to help Matthew but froze as he straightened and plunked herself back onto the deck as he changed. She flinched and covered her ears as he yelled out. "This is one hell of a fight." she thought, her eyes flicking between Matthew and Blackfire. Like the captain she did nothing, watching was probably the best thing at the moment anyways.

((OOC: Demon magic bullet time!))

After Matthew had released the shout, the Drake roared back, in response to his challenger. It reared back in preparation to release a gout of flames, while Matthew aimed at its exposed chest. At the very moment the Alpha Male began to bring its head back down to shoot a pillar of fire, Matthew pulled the trigger, releasing a small sonic boom as the bullet left the chamber. Time seemed to slow as the bullet flew through the air, green flames engulfing the iron. It hit straight on, travelling through the beast, tearing through its thick hide.

As the flames died in the drake's throat, Matthew wasted no time. He slid his feet, bracing his left side whilst drawing his second pistol. He shot another bullet, hitting one of the scales, and the screech of metal tearing the iron-hard scales sounded, the bullet travelling no more than a few yards into the creature, but still piercing the scale none the less.

The drake began glowing a sickly green, small layers of hide turning paper-thin and falling off the gargantuan beast. It roared in pain as the scales began to chip, starting from the hole the second bullet made, green flames running through the cracks in the scales. It shot a pillar of flames into the sky in rage as it began slowly burning away, its body being scorched from the inside, the drake unable to handle all of the dark energies coursing through its body.

"Blackfire!" Matthew shouted, not taking his eyes off the beast, as it mustered up the rest of its strength to aim at the ship, flames once again filling its throat "Finish him!"

Blackfire leaped from the side of the ship, wings carrying her to the alpha male. Before it had a chance to finish gathering breath, she burrowed into the hole on its chest, and let her shadows free. The poured out of the hole and quickly began to spread across the drake's body. They dove into the second bullet wound, extinguished the flame, snapped the antlers off, forced their way into it any way they could - it was not a pretty sight to watch, by any means. The drake began to drop as the shadows constricted it, though not quite because the shadows had gotten to it. At least, not only because.

The demon girl crawled back out of the bullet hole, drake already dropping fast, with its heart in hand. She leaped from the body and was soon back at the ship, with both the heart and the set of antlers. "Just what I needed, Matthew," she said with a wink to the other. "Here you are, captain... invaluable trophies." Her cocky grin started to fade a little as she swayed in her spot. It was even harder to see where she was bleeding from now, with the addition of drake blood. "I think... I think I need our medic... blood loss is serious stuff..." She collapsed in a cloud of smoke; when it dissipated, she was back to her original skin tone, body looking completely shredded. No doubt from landing on and rolling down the mountains.

((Damn it double posting. Yay demons!))

Avery stared at the two demons, unsure what to do, or could do, to aid in the battle. The destruction of the alpha was terrifying. Watching it burn was horrifyingly mesmerizing, and she found that she couldn't look away. The medic was frozen to her spot, trying to grasp what had happened, until Blackfire mentioned the word 'medic'. That word brought her to focus. She was the medic and would have to act like it.

Thankfully the ship was steadying as the attack was halted and she quickly went to Blackfire. Her eyes did a quick assessment, "Somebody get me bandages, thread and a bucket. I have bandages in the middle drawer on the right side of my office. Thread is in the drawer on the left." she ordered, "I hope your innards aren't different from a normal person. No offense." she told the demon. The injuries didn't look good, "Captain, I might need your help to cauterize." she added as she started ripping strips of her own shirt off to bind what she could. "Blackfire, do you know where you are? Do you feel dizzy? Where does it hurt the most?" She asked, her hands working quickly. There was no way to know if the other woman had fractures, or internal bleeding.

Nikki's eyes widened at Matthew's display, only to go wide as saucers when Blackfire attacked. "/Whoa/," she exclaimed, the muzzle of her gun dropping in awe and surprised. "Man, remind me never to make her angry!" She hurried over to inspect the grisly trophies, more interested in the antlers than the heart. "That was amazing!" she enthused, tail swishing. "Hey, you okay?!" Her attention switched as the other woman changed forms and proceeded to collapse. "She's really torn up," Nikki commented, staying out of Avery's way, but watching intently.

((OOC: Sorry for the late post))

IC: Matthew kept shooting while Blackfire ripped through the creature, fiery bullets piercing through the scales, and occasionally out the other side as his movements became faster and faster. A bulletstorm raged through the Drake as it was being torn apart, both from the inside and out. The green flames seemed to ignite Blackfire's darkness, like oil to a flame. As it fell, it was already engulfed in green flame, and by the time it reached the mountains below, it was but a large, charred piece of flesh.

After Blackfire had wiped out on the floor, he was wearing a sly grin, yet a crazed look in his eyes. As he was walking towards the Captain and the medic, his green flames died out, his horns growing back to their original size, and his eyes ceased to glow. In the middle of his stride, his pace slowed and he began to stumble, and then fell flat on his face, to the cold hard deck.

Once he opened his eyes again, he was in darkness, the only source of light four torches floating in the air. He then saw them. Seven figures, each of them a different shape and size. He immediately recognized the one with the three small green flames behind him, the one he saw while the drake was attacking the ship. He was the only one Matthew could make features out of, as the rest were covered in darkness, their forms vague. He was a pale-skinned man with black wings and horns, as well as having many features similar to Matthew's father, but he was much thinner, almost lithe. His chest was exposed, showing strange markings all down his left side and shoulder.

"And how do you expect this child of a champion to be stronger then your last two? The Lief bloodline has not held up for very long." Said the largest one of the seven, a light blue flame mellowly burning behind him.

"And yet they have all been more powerful than any of yours so far, Leviath." The man said. "Though this one may be young, I feel as if he is one of my strongest yet."

"You said the same as that Jack fellow, as well Beelze. It's a shame he had fallen to the blade of one of the bearers of the Father Flame, however." Said a silky voice, coming from the woman-like being of the seven, with a purple flame dancing behind her.

"He did not accept Beelze's power though, and his wife could not endure it. Their son however.. That is a different story." Said a malice-filled voice from the second largest of the group, a red flame raging behind him.

"As long as he doesn't mess with any of my power, or my champion's." Said a nervous voice, from the scrawniest yet tallest of the group, an orange flame darting around him.

"I'm fine with whatever, but if he dares to take any of my power," The figure paused, as if its mouth was full, "I'll have to eat him." The figure was one of the smaller ones, yet he was very round, and smaller shadows seemed to become engulfed in his if they got too close.

The last one Matthew saw seemed to be on the floor, breathing in and out rhythmically, then Matthew realized he was sleeping, then looked at the flame behind him. It was an indigo flame, slowly pulsating with each of the sleeping shadow's breath, yet it was chained with a black metal, as if to keep the flame from being free.

Rous watched, with mild interest, as Matthew peppered the drake with some dark magic bullets of some sort. He was impressed at the damage it was doing, making the scales rot off in a way. He was even more impressed when Blackfire decided to crawl into the drake through one of the rot holes, and have her shawdows rip the thing apart. Then it proceeded to burst into flames.

The drake gave one final, pained roar, and fell from the sky. It's flaming form dropped below the clouds, and faded from view. After a silent moment, every crew on the remaining ships, including theirs, cheered. Hands were being shaken, hats thrown in the air as Rous looked around, proud of his crew. Avery's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he bent down beside her. [I]"Have someone take her down to the infirmary, I'll meet you there."[/I] He paused for a moment, mulling something over. [I]"Also, clap some irons on her as a precaution, until she wakes up. Just to make sure she isn't going to go on a rampage in her sleep. Hopefully she understands my weariness and doesn't take offense to it." [/I] He stood up as Matthew approached, his hand resting on his own pistol. Matthew also collapsed. [I]"Same for him. Down to the infirmary to check him out, irons on his wrists to make sure. See you in a minute. I want a head count, now! Someone get over here and help the doctor get these two to the infirmary! "[/I]

As He turned, he noticed the ships converging on theirs. One threw a gangplank over, and across it strode their captain, a cheesy grin on his face. "That was some work you did there! I knew it was a good idea to hire you! The stories weren't blowing your skills out of proportions!" He and Rous clapped hands in a handshake, Rous nodded. [I]"You will have time to thank me later, over a pint! My crew needs tending to, as does yours."[/I] The captain nodded, laughing in agreement "Such a commanding man! No wonder your crew fights so well. Rous Al'Shineran! Those drakes never stood a chance!" He walked back across the gangplank, and the gangplank was withdrawn.

The battle had taken a little over an Hour, the summit of the mountains drawing near. They would be in town by midday, a welcome thought to cross his mind.

As they crested the mountain, Rous leaned over the rail. Just below them a long forgotten Spire raked the sky, one of the few towers of an old castle that still remained standing. Rous touched the brand over his heart as they passed. He'd have to go there on this leg of the trip, to get the gloves for the pyromantically challenged crewmembers, the main reason they would be docked for three days.

OoC// Alright, head check! Haven't heard from in awhile, you still with us?

(( oh dear. No pyro powers for Matty? Well, Nikki is slightly less jealous now.))

"Everyone's falling over," the neko observed, somewhat amused. Then the captain spoke, and her ears perked up to listen. Nikki was immediately by the doctor's side when Rous finished speaking. "Oh~ I'll help!" she exclaimed, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "But I don't think I can carry all of him on my own~"

Avery finished bandaging Blackfire, she would replace the wraps at her cabin. "I can carry him, find somebody to help carry Blackfire. Also remember to shackle her." She told Nikki as she scooped up Matthew. She thought about swinging him over a shoulder but she dodn't know if he was hurt internally. Instead she carried him like a very large child. The crew moved out of the way as she approached them. The crewmember who had been sent for thread and bandages saw her and turne back to her room, holding the door open for them.nnReaching her cabin-office she layed him on a stretcher and chained him to the wall. She wet a cloth and layed it on his forehead becore heading back for Blackfire who was in a more stable condition than she had been.nnOoc/ I'd try to type more but typing on an ipod sucks