A Headbutt Is The Strongest Weapon

We waited until nightfall before making our move. Two pirates kept watch. One of the lookouts was stationed on the mast, and the other was wandering around the deck. We had counted ten other pirates go below the deck and one more, likely the captain, head into the chambers.

Túta and I managed to sneak alongside the ship without being seen. I could take down the pirate on deck, but the one on the mast would surely raise the alarm.

“Pippa, do remember when you headbutted that lizard creature?”

She nodded.

“Can you do that to the guy on the mast?”

She nodded once again.

“Alright, the moment Pippa takes care of him, I’ll charge the one on the deck. Túta, you assist Pippa once the one goes down and watch my back.”

“Okay.”

And with that, we began our strike.

Pippa flew at full speed, spiralling around the mast to appear last minute. This startled the guy as Pippa went full speed into the mast pirate’s guts. The impact sent him tumbling over the lookout’s edge and into the water below.

The other pirate heard the commotion and looked upwards at the other pirate as he fell. I charged him in that moment of distraction. He blinked, surprised as I narrowed in on him and smacked him over the head with the back end of the cutlass, knocking him out.

I glanced over to Pippa and Túta. They were busy restraining the pirate who had previously been on the mast. They had managed to pull him out of the water. He was unconscious from the impact of the fall. I hadn’t considered how hard Pippa must have hit him. Even the reptilian creature was stunned by her blow.

“Alright, that’s two down. Another eleven to go.”

“I maintain this plan is insane.”

“It may be crazy, but it’s working.”

“Pwii,” Pippa nodded.

We continued to banter in hushed whispers until we finally decided to take down the captain. We crept along the deck until we reached the captain’s cabin. It was a small room below the ship’s bridge. A small round glass window allowed us to gaze inside. In the corner of the room, the pirate captain slept on a netted hammock.

“Alright, so what’s the plan?” Túta asked.

“The man is asleep. I don’t think it’ll be hard to restrain the bastard.”

“But if we do that, won’t the others below deck wake up?”

“Probably, I guess we can just have Pippa shoot a fireball at them.”

“I don’t think the three of… Did you say Pippa could shoot a fireball?”

Pippa proudly puffed out her chest.

“Yeah, Pippa can do that.”

“What even is Pippa?”

“The cutest girl in the world,” I said, giving her a little scratch under her chin. As I did this, I felt daggers being directed towards me. I turned to see Túta giving me a death stare.

“Well, of course, my dear sister is also the cutest in the world,” I teased.

“Sister…” Túta mumbled, clearly annoyed.

We readied ourselves. I would go in first, Túta would cover me shortly behind, and Pippa would watch both of our backs in case any of the other pirates stirred whilst fighting the captain.

I swung the door open, even though I had tried to keep it as quiet as possible, it still made some noise. The captain’s eyes opened. Instinctively, he reached for his blade resting next to the hammock.

“What the…” The captain began as he sat up, but was abruptly cut off by my boot colliding with his face. The impact sent him spiralling across the room to thump against the wall. He fell forward onto his stomach, dropping his blade.

I expected him to stumble back to his feet, but he didn’t get back up.

“Huh?”

“What’s up?” Túta asked.

“I thought it would be, I dunno, a little more difficult than this,” I signalled towards the unconscious pirate captain.

Pippa joined Túta in restraining the unconscious captain. As they did this, there was some noise outside the room.

“Hey! The lookouts are unconscious. Everybody up, we are under attack!”

Well shit, those below deck have noticed our actions.

Túta and I pulled out our blades as we charged out of the captain’s chamber.

Pippa fired a fireball that hit six of the pirates who had been below deck. Although it didn’t vaporise them, it clearly injured them. They screamed in pain, rolling around on the ground in sheer agony. I can only imagine the pain of the burns, given what I went through back at the forge. I actually felt sorry for them a little.

Pippa puffed out her chest proudly.

“Pippa, that was amazing, but don’t do that again, unless you think we are in danger.”

“Pwii,” she nodded sadly.

My blade clashed with one of the remaining pirates’ blades, and he gave me a weird look as his eyes glowed yellow.

“What the, why didn’t that…” He looked confused, but before he could react, I used my hook to redirect his blade to the ground and then punched him in the face.

“How did you avoid his sleep ski…” I knocked out another pirate with the back of my blade. I did this just as Túta took down the last pirate she was fighting. We finished restraining the pirates.

“Alright, you scallywags. Let’s go.”

“Why are you doing this?” The captain asked.

I ignored him. I figured it was a bad idea to tell him we did this to steal his ship.

We marched them off the boat and through the town. Túta ran ahead to alert the Guild Hall, and when we arrived, we were met by several adventurers and a woman with pointy ears.

“Thank you for capturing these pirates. The adventurers here will handle them now. If you would like to follow me, we can issue you a reward.” She turned and entered the building.

I happily followed her. She led us to the back of the Guild Hall, where there was an office.

“Thank you once again for capturing those pirates. I am Hazatariel, the Guild Master. I understand you are not adventurers, so to handle this task, I am extremely grateful.”

She bowed her head.

“Now, as for the reward, we can offer you fifty gold coins for your effort. Once again, I am extremely grateful for what you have done.”

There was a knock at the door, and a man came in with a sack. He handed it to us, and inside was the gold we were promised.

"If I could arrange lodgings..."

I cut her off.

“Thanks, but we have pre-existing arrangements.”

We exited the Guild Hall and ran straight back to the dock to the ship. Every pirate needs a ship, and although this was only a temporary one, we had one now.

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 14