Zara cursed herself for growing complacent even as the world warped around her. She had known the Pirate King would act, but she hadn't expected it to happen so soon. He had caught her off guard and thrown all of her plans out the window. Derrin had been right that they were in a bad spot. They couldn't have allowed the enemies to control the situation, but they also couldn't act first. It seemed the pirates had taken away the decision entirely.
Now she was being teleported to god's knew where without a plan or warning. It was a strange sensation being teleported like this. She felt as if her body was being pulled through a space of white fog. It reminded her a lot of traveling between seas, only on a much smaller scale.
The act of teleporting someone as powerful as her had to have been draining on the Pirate King. She also had not been a willing recipient of his power, making it even harder to activate. Still, he would have succeeded. She had long suspected how the Pirate King's abilities worked.
He had marked the sailors to slowly teleport them out and kill them. That would give him power and the ability to grow unease amongst the camp. It hadn't worked, but the plan had been there. However, she was also fairly certain that he could transfer between those marked as well. That's how he had arrived in the caverns so fast. Even now, he was likely transferring with her in an attempt to take over the fort.
Zara staggered slightly as her feet connected with the rocky ground beneath the island. She knew where she was instantly. It had been her home for far longer than the pirates, after all. Before she had even properly manifested into existence, she sensed the figures surrounding her. It had all been planned. The Pirate King would subdue the fort while going up against her subordinates.
She would be forced to face his own.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in," One of the pirates sneered.
Her voice echoed through the cavern as Zara quickly surveyed her surroundings. There were six of them, all surrounding her. They had segregated themselves from the rest of the pirates to avoid casualties. The gearborn were also surprisingly not present.
"Where are your new allies? Hiding away? Or are you hiding from them?"
"Shut it, tramp. You Valencians are always so high and mighty, standing atop your throne. Well, we're gonna pull you down a notch today," a back-haired pirate growled.
"By working with the enemies of humanity? That's a new low even for you. Do your subordinates know of your treachery yet? Do they know what will happen to them and the rest of you when everyone hears of this event? Do they know what the punishment is for treason in Valencia?"
"Enough of this. We were ordered not to get into an argument with her. She is simply trying to buy herself some time. We take her, now!" A glowing sword appeared in his hand.
All throughout the room, weapons manifested into existence. Most of them wielded swords, all glowing with various colors. One held a pair of glowing yellow daggers, and one moved back without summoning any weapons at all. It seemed like not all of the Pirate King's lackeys were Valencian. Not that it mattered much.
Zara frowned slightly. She had been trying to buy some time, but not for what the pirates thought. Her vision had split as she had activated her marks on both Silas and the rest of her soldiers. She watched him and Derrin desperately trying to stop the Pirate King as he bore down on them. The rest of her soldiers had yet to notice the incursion. She didn't use her mark on the Pirate King; that would be costly in more than one way.
However, she had also been delaying them for another reason. She was marking each of her enemies. It had been a long time since she faced this many foes at once, and even longer while being caught off guard. They could certainly sense her marking them, but there was nothing they could do, not without rendering themselves useless.
Despite the pirate's proclamation, no one moved. They seemed to be unsure of how to approach this fight. Zara was glad for their uncertainty. It gave her more time to observe them. She could study their techniques and strategy, even before they struck.
The pirate that had retreated was clearly some sort of support. The others would try to protect him. Another one seemed to stretch, readying themselves for battle. However, Zara noticed that his limbs seemed to move strangely, as if they were longer than they should have been.
She continued these observations all the while completing her marks on her enemies. As she finished, she activated all of her marks. It would be costly on mist, but her fighting style relied on this. She had yet to summon her sword; instead, she opted to wait for the enemies to come to her.
Zara knew she could make a run for it now. However, there was no telling what was awaiting her on the outside. They had transferred her deep enough within the caves to prevent her from clearly escaping. It also didn't help that her powers were very direct beyond her eyes. If there was someone who could manipulate stone, then she would be screwed if she ran for it.
Instead, she was going to crush them all.
Zara watched the pirates through their eyes as well as her own. That's how she was able to tell when the first one made their move. The man blurred and seemed to teleport across the entire chamber towards her. He moved with supernatural agility.
A speed enhancer. She grinned and deftly dodged the strike aimed at her head. The man whisked past and stopped at the other end of the clearing. That first attack started the entire battle.
Every single enemy began to move. One pirate leaped to the ceiling and flipped upside down. Another one's limbs elongated as they stretched towards her. Zara felt the wind suddenly pick up in the chamber despite it being a rocky cavern. The sound of the ocean also echoed.
Speed.
Elasticity.
Adhesion.
Wind.
Water.
Support.
Those were the enemies and the powers she was going up against. They had shown all their abilities too soon. Two daggers fell at her from the ceiling as the speedster rushed from behind. Her glowing purple blade puffed into existence.
She saw the whole battle, she saw all, she saw everything.
It was as if she were omniscient.
None of that would matter if she could not process the information fast enough, however. The first wave she did. She sensed the wind trying to prevent her from leaping left. They wanted to force her away from the exit as much as possible. That was fine.
The speedster lunged and reached her before anyone else. His mistake. Zara side-stepped the strike and kicked the man in the back as he rushed past. He was sent tumbling like a ragdoll across the room. The daggers fell upon her, threatening to take her head off. Zara deftly parried one strike, and caught the other by the wrist.
She yanked, sending the pirate careening. At the same moment, the pirate on the ceiling dove at her. Spinning, Zara drove her knee into the pirate's chest. She groaned as Zara slammed her blade into the pirate's leg.
A wall of wind pushed her back before she could finish the pirate off.
It was a mistake. Using the wind, she vaulted across the clearing straight into the water user. Her sudden burst of speed caught the pirate off guard, and he struggled to block her strike with a torrent of water. Zara paid it no mind. The problem with those with water manipulation was that they needed water to work their magic. In the cavern, there was little water and not nearly enough to protect the man.
She brought her blade down, piercing the torrent and slashing across the man's chest. He screamed in pain, and the water collapsed to the ground. The speedster was already coming again. He hadn't learned his mistake from the first attack and was still alone. None of the pirates were used to fighting as a team. They were together because that was the only chance they had at taking her out.
However, they didn't use their powers as a unit. Instead of trying to overwhelm her superior speed and strength, they attacked one at a time. Had they been fighting as a unit, she might have been at risk. The speedster was faster than her despite her superior rank. It was his natural powers after all.
Against another of his level, he would have been nearly impossible to avoid. In this fight, his speed didn't help him, though. Zara knew exactly where he was swinging before he did it. She had numerous angles on the man's attack after all.
As he dove with sword outstretched, Zara pivoted and drove her blade point-first through the man's chest. The pirate collapsed to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The cavern fell silent for a moment.
"You scum! You're so dead now."
Zara glanced across the chamber at her enemies. Despite their rage, their fear was plain. A whiteness hovered across them that she could see in all of their eyes. One of the pirates' visions blurred as tears streamed from her face. They had come into this battle thinking they stood a chance, when the Pirate King had just been sending lambs to the slaughter.
It didn't matter.
They would all die today.
She would make sure of it.
The dead speedster lay discarded on the floor. His blood pooling across the chamber rocks. All around his form, the sounds of battle continued. Zara was fully focused on the remaining combatants. The injured pirates seemed to be coming at her with renewed vigor after watching their friend be so easily dispatched. However, it wasn't enough; it could not be enough.
Zara had been watching the pirate in the background for a while now. They had yet to make any proper moves in the fight. At least, not ones she had picked out. She had her suspicions, though. It was likely that this pirate had the power to mark others. That was why he wasn't involved.
There was no way for him to mark her, and he was instead using his marks to help teammates. What it was exactly, Zara hadn't fully determined. But she did know that the pirate with a slash across his chest was already back in the fight. He wasn't rushing at her, just sending torrents of water. It was clear that something had happened to make him able to continue the fight, though.
She'd figure it out in due time.
In the meantime, Zara dove to the side as a current of water slammed into her opponent. The pirate was sent flying from the ceiling with a stream of curses. The remaining pirates moved in to block her from finishing the injured pirate off.
Elongated arms came at her from both sides, attempting to overwhelm her defenses. It might have worked too. However, Zara could see every angle the pirate was coming from through the eyes of his companions.
His attacks proved to be nothing more than a minor annoyance as she drove her blade through his arm. He cried out in pain and attempted to pull his arms back. Zara grabbed on as she ripped her blade free in a spray of liquid red. She drove it in again and again before he managed to pull free. All the while, the man screamed.
Zara didn't care.
She wanted to kill them all.
They had killed her friends and massacred her men. They all deserved death already. To make matters worse, they had aligned themselves with the worst of the worst. That was an unforgivable crime.
Speaking of the tin cans, Zara was surprised they had not shown themselves yet. There was a battle taking place, and she knew they were nearby. In fact, she was more worried about their arrival than the current fight. She could mark people, but robots? She had no idea and wasn't sure she wanted to try.
The pirate controlling the wind currents finally chose to engage in the fight. With nearly half the group injured, someone needed to slow her down. He came fast, using the wind to push him in just the right way to dodge her first strike. Zara narrowed her eyes. Why hadn't he come to her first? He was clearly the most skilled fighter of the group, and yet he was playing a mage.
He wasn't as skilled as Derrin, that was for sure, but Derrin was an anomaly. Instead, the pirate used the wind to his advantage. If she overstepped, he'd be able to get under her guard, but if she held back, he'd just push himself away. In the end, she wasn't forced to make a decision as a pirate lunged at her from the ceiling.
The wind slammed into her, trying to push her into the oncoming blade. Zara let it, and at the last moment, she flipped. The sword cleaved a few strands of her hair, but it wasn't enough. Zara slammed into the pirate on the ceiling and heard a crunch. There was a cry of pain as both her and the now-injured pirate tumbled back to the floor.
The fight had turned into nothing more than a beatdown. It was a delayed beatdown, certainly, but it was still a beatdown. However, with one of the pirates eliminated, she had taken Silas's vision back into her mind. What she saw made her panic. His golem shattered before her eyes as he unsummoned it in the nick of time. She watched Derrin and Silas being pushed back as they failed to fend off the Pirate King.
From her spot beneath the caves, there was little she could do to help them at the moment. She could send Iris, but that wouldn't help them in the fight. She could also try taking control of the Pirate King's vision, but that was also extremely risky. She was prevented from having to make a decision as at the last moment, a figure came rushing into Silas's vision.
"Good…" she muttered, dodging a torrent of water, "...reinforcements have arrived."
Zara watched as the pirate with elongation rushed at her again. The blood had stopped pouring from his mangled arm…except it wasn't mangled anymore. She knew what it was immediately. That was unfortunate for the pirates. The biggest saving grace had just been discovered.
Zara lunged at the pirate, utilizing wind. He used it to push her to the side and past him as he ducked away. It was a risky move because it meant putting her back with the pirates. It just needed to pay off, and it wouldn't matter.
Flipping through the air, Zara landed a few dozen feet from the pirate with healing powers. The pirates' eyes went wide as they finally realized what was happening. Zara raced towards them.
"Stop her!" Voices echoed throughout the chamber in panic.
Panic was not good enough and she cleaved down with her blade. The healer managed to get their own weapon summoned in just the nick of time. It wasn't enough. They were no fighters. They were no warriors. They were simply meant for support through and through. There was nothing the pirates could do as Zara took the man's head from his body.
Screams of rage filled the chamber as she turned on the remaining pirates. Any chances they had of killing her had just been lost. They were all injured and weakened from the prolonged battle, and there was nothing they could do to beat her overwhelming vision.
Nothing except…
Zara's gaze froze above the fallen corpse. The other pirates seemed to sense the new presence as well. A group of metallic figures stood in the doorway to the chamber. Their silhouettes reflected in the dim cavern light.
Zara had been hoping they wouldn't come and dreading that they would. Even if she had far more mist than the pirates, and even if she used far less of it in the fight, she still wouldn't have enough for a full-on battle with them.
"Those blasted tin cans," She snarled.
The Gearborn had come at last.