Leaping forth from the fountain of water, the silhouette of a human flew above their heads with quiet grace, before landing down right behind them. As the displaced ocean fell, Azdin's gaze locked onto her with narrow focus.
Her skin was a deep ebony brown, striking beneath the brim of her weathered tricone hat. Curly hazel hair spilled from beneath it in unruly coils, framing a face that was both beautiful and severe. A black eye patch covered one eye, while the other remained sharp and watchful, carrying the quiet intensity of someone who missed very little.
A long navy blue coat hung from her shoulders, its dark fabric sweeping behind her as she rose from one knee. Brass buttons and a worn insignia caught the light along its front, giving it an air of authority without diminishing the ruggedness of its wearer.
At her waist rested a cutlass, its polished blade deliberately left exposed from its scabbard, the weapon gleaming as it caught the sunlight.
Her striking appearance aside, right away Azdin noticed something off about her. Despite having freshly come out of the water, she was completely dry. Just from that he could already come to a couple conclusions, but he didn't want to make any certainties yet.
'Her clothes though, and that insignia.. she's a marine?'
He recognised it from the books he had been reading. Officially the navy were a sort of policing force of the seas, and anyone who worked for them was titled a marine. And this woman, appeared to be of decent rank amongst them.
Their influence was strongest in the neutral territories, so encountering one first was in good fortune.
Azdin wanted to observe her silently for a while longer, but she ended up breaking the silence first. Almost right away.
"No cannons, and not even any hooks. This ship hardly seems very suited for naval combat. The crew seems far too small too."
She spoke to herself for a while after that, noting everything she saw. It appeared that she was analysing them?
They were dealing with a person here. At the moment, she didn't seem hostile either, so it appeared that there was room for negotiation. In their plans when something like this occured, the one who would do the talking was Azdin.
Again, the woman spoke,
"Three Awakened? One seems decently armed, one has a strange pet, and the other is completely unarmed. A strange, but weak trio."
He felt a little insulted.
The crow gawked,
"Moron!"
The marine lady sharply turned her head towards it, her confusion very much apparent.
"What? It talks?"
It was just about to open it's mouth again, but dropping one of his weapons, Hugo grabbed it shut.
"Quiet you!"
She stared at it silently for a moment or two, before commenting,
"A talking crow.. how unnerving."
The interaction was strange, but just from that Azdin was certain she wasn't hostile. They really could talk.
"You're a marine right?"
Signaling to Hugo, the two of them slowly lowered their weapons. If all went well then they wouldn't need to fight, she should be on their side. However, he still showed caution by keeping them out, the marine didn't know about his sorcery and that he could summon and dispell them at will.
Once they did, the marine spoke again.
"It seems that the leader among them is attempting to make contact, but he has yet to realize that I have no intention of doing such a thing."
Naturally, the shock hit them both.
'But you've been doing nothing but talking this entire time???'
That wasn't all she had to say though, adding on..
"Did they perhaps think that hiding their sails would disguise their allegiance to the war empire? Had they forgotten that no more war empire ships were allowed be present than permitted? Or maybe that was the reason why they hid their sails, to try and sneak in with the rest?"
Another bolt of shock struck him again, but he didn't allow it to interrupt his line of thinking. He had already come to the conclusion,
There was a misunderstanding!
How she could tell that the ship was allied with the war empire didn't matter, he had to resolve this fast before things got out of hand.
"Wait! We're not war empire, we're escaped captives! We defeated the crew here and took over the ship!"
The young lady didn't seem to care to much though.
"That's an obvious lie, how could a small group like this achieve anything. If these are all their numbers then that couldn't be further than true."
But that was just the thing, this wasn't all of their numbers.
"You don't know how many of us had to died for us to win, we didn't get here without our own sacrifices."
"Another lie."
She was completely confident in herself, and she seemed unwilling to compromise too.
'She said she wouldn't talk to us but she's done nothing but that..'
The way she spoke was strange too. It was like she was speaking out the first thing that come to her mind. She never addressed anyone one of them directly, but always had something new to say about whatever they did.
"You war empire filth really will stoop to any level just to do as you please. All of you, every single one of you are the same."
And to make it worse, she seemed to hold a grudge against the war empire too.
"If this is all you are, then turn back now before I take you all into custody. I will not tolerate anymore of your lies."
The way she said that too, made one assume she was capable of handling all three of them at once. Not only was she annoyingly hard headed, but arrogant too.
Azdin knew he had to stay calm, as the one negotiating he had to keep a cool head, yet he could feel himself growing a little frustrated. This was his first time dealing with this kind of person so..
When he glanced at Hugo, he could read his concern without him even speaking.
Just from that, he forced himself to calm down. There had to be a peaceful way out of this.
After thinking on it for a moment, a solution came to him. In their plans, Lotte was supposed to keep the people hidden down below until the situation on the deck was sorted. If they could reach her, and have her bring the ordinary people up then maybe..
'No, would she even believe that they really were ordinary people?'
If she saw the elderly, would she really believe they were natives, or maybe even think they were being held hostage?
'People died for us to get here, but she's able to disregard them with such certainty.'
How badly did she hate them? How could he take advantage of that to turn this situation around?
As he contemplated these things, it seemed the headstrong marine came to a decision first. Or rather, she already knew what to do, but was finally ready to act on it.
"It seems he's ran out of things to say. So I won't waste my time on this any longer."
Lifting a hand, she laid it on the handle of her blade.
"Not only have you all attempted to trick me into allowing your passage into a place you don't belong, you went as far as to lie about people who don't exist. Making up deaths for your sob story."
"For that, I will be taking you all into custody."
Glancing at Hugo, he blinked once, and then twice. Hugo shook his head in a panic, but Azdin just smiled.
'Sorry Hugo, but I just can't accept this.'
Looking back towards the marine, Azdin spoke,
"You said that a small group like us wouldn't be capable of achieving anything meaningful here."
She didn't respond this time.
"Then I'll make you see. The small one here is you."
**
The crow was the one to act first. Immediately taking off from Hugo's shoulder, it swiftly flew through the air as it charged straight in.
Maintaining her seemingly calm expression, she took out her cutlass and simply slashed away at it, anticipating where the crow would travel. To her surprise, she completely missed, as it narrowly dived under her strike before flying right past her.
At the same time, Azdin charged forward. The tip of his spear aimed right at her heart.
The marine felt his lethality from a mile away, as she turned his attention towards him. That would quickly prove to be a mistake.
Lon before the two even clashed, crow which had already risen high into the sky by then extended out it's wings fully. Releasing a burst of black feathers that instantly washed over the ships deck.
She was somewhat surprised, yet that didn't avert her attention one bit.
"I will cut your neck from your head."
That simply declaration sent a chill down his spine, but Azdin advanced forward without hesitation.
Next, she turned into a blur, as something moved in-between them. The next time he could see her clearly, the gap between the two had shrunk into almost nothing.
Her sword, was already inches away from his neck just like she promised.
Still, he advanced.
From that small distance she could see his eyes clearly. There wasn't a hint of doubt to be found in them, even when her blade was already biting into his neck, and his spear had long since missed its target, he showed no fear.
"Why?"
It was a simple question, was he brave or was he stupid? Although he couldn't reply, he had given his answer almost immediately.
Because, he had vanished.
He had vanished into thin air, as if he were nothing but a ghost. The only proof of his existence, the drops of blood that stained her sword.
Subtle confusion hit her first, and then there was pain.
A sharp, piercing pain tearing through the back of her left leg.
When her head turned first to see what had occured, there she saw a spear lodged right into it. And Azdin the one holding onto it.
Holding back the pain, she cried out,
"Every single one of you, scheming, heartless bastards that rely on nothing but trickery and deceit!"
Once again she swung her sword. Her arm now moving even faster than her whole body once did. This time, he was unable to even react to it's faintest traces. There wasn't even a flash of a blur for him to anticipate.
But when her swing was complete, not a single hair on his head was even harmed.
Her sword had completely missed.
No.. she wasn't even holding a sword.
"What—"
Before she could finish her sentence a fierce blow crashed right into her jaw, throwing her head back.
And then another came after, this time even stronger than the last. And then another, and another, all in devastatingly quick succession.
Azdin quickly pulled out his spear, then prepared to skewer her other leg, as the nameless awakened unleashed a flurry of quick yet powerful blows.
It was then that she finally snapped. Her anger that much more apparent.
Before the next blow could connect, she caught it in the palm of her hand. Before the spear could pierce flesh, the woman groaned as she forced herself to stand on her injured leg, and used her healthy one to smash down right on top of the incoming spear, trapping it's head in the ships deck instead.
Azdin quickly let go of the weapon and attempted to back away.
Still holding tight onto the nameless Awakened though she simply dragged her infront of herself before delivering a powerful punch to her gut. Sending her flying towards him.
The two crashed right into eachother, causing them both to topple to the ground while the marine locked onto them with bloodthirst in her eyes. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself off her ground with a great leap, powerful enough the break apart the wooden floor beneath her.
She soared high, to the point that she almost reached the ships lookout before quickly plummeting again. Aiming to land right on top of the two.
'This one's gonna hurt.'
Quickly shielding the nameless Awakened, Azdin closed his eyes and braced himself.
When the moment of impact came though, nothing happened.
Instead, he heard the sound of something heavy splash down into the ocean.