Dueling Under the Warped Night - Part 2

It wouldn’t be weird if everyone in the immediate area was temporarily blind and deaf now. Just the massive lightning bolt Corsair hit Annabeth with would be enough to do such. But it was even worse with the massive strike Minako sent too.

She was told to concentrate and fire everything she could, both in talismans and fox fires, so it was expected to be a massive attack. And with both of them combined, a whole chunk of the battleship vanished.

It was impressive that it was still floating with a third of its starboard missing.

The vessel could likely be repaired if the fires went off and with the proper facilities, but, right now, it wasn't a working warship anymore. And that was if it didn't turn into wreckage due to the spreading fires and all the structural damage.

All in all, it was pretty much disabled all right. This much was obvious even from afar, and with its captain knocked out, it would stay so for a good time.

“And I can see the lads usin’ the chance already.” Anna smirked to herself as she opened her eyes from the inside of the turret she had been embedded into and looked at the moving lights far away. Seeing them wasn’t easy due to the fires and the pain, but they were trying to move away for sure.

She was already thinking of leaving even.

If it wasn’t for her half-carbonized legs and the whole damage to her belly and arms, that would be what she would do. It was even scary to imagine how she would look like if it wasn’t for her clothes and the number of protections they had.

Mixing both fashion and utility was a good perk for sure.

Her clothes were barely holding together though. Even with all the extra weight and enchantments, there was a limit to everything. They likely saved her a minute of healing still, so it was fine.

“You saw what I did, Anna! Anna… By the Circle, Anna! You are… Y-you are… We’ll leave here now. Just hold out and I’ll get some help… It should be possible to heal you yet.” A rushing Minako appeared in the inquisitor’s sights, breaking her scary smile as she noticed the situation in which her target was. It was the second time she panicked this hard and looked so worried this night, which was still very weird for the redhead looking at it. “I’m sure all is still fine, but if I need to…”

“I’m fine, ‘kay? I’ve no need fer help.” She shot out while staggering her way closer to the melt hole to recover her lost bag. “Heck! There ain’t no one who could help me to begin with.”

Getting close enough to worry about someone this fast simply wasn’t something Annabeth could do. She also disliked having someone worry about her like this. The why was beyond her and there was a lingering feeling that the kitsune wasn’t even what was getting her angry, but that was that.

Maybe she was only stressed and lashing out for the same reason she was losing control lately.

So, instead of answering and risking anything, she only rose her hand to make Minako stop, and then got up by herself.

“But you don’t look fine… And they’ll recover soon, so we better leave, right? This should be enough damage to solve our problem, and I can’t watch you… you hurt like…”

“Set some extra fires first. It seems we disabled this thing, but I’d like to be sure.” Anna continued as she popped her remaining elixirs and reloaded her damaged shotgun.

The assault rifle wasn’t as resistant as the cursed rifle or the double barrel, so it was bent and melted, so the redhead had to give up on it.

But after throwing away her rifle and grenade launcher, Anna tried to move away too fast, stumbling in the process and rilling Minako up due to that. She ignored the kitsune though and forced her still slightly charred body to steady itself.

“We should retreat, Anna, you don't…”

“Quiet! Thanks fer helpin’, ain't sure if I'd manage to go this easy, but that's all. Now throw yer flames a last time while I prepare a boat, ay?”

She lightly pushed Minako off and turned to the closest davit still holding a whole lifeboat. But she soon turned in a rush after feeling a known tingling and hearing a click from the inside of the flaming hole.

It was a rushed move and, in all figures, an overextension of her already tired body, but she still managed to push her five-tailed companion to the floor. Covering now blushing the fox with her own body.

“Huh?! Anna?! Why are you…? I mean, we shouldn’t, but…”

“Next time, ya horny fox, look ‘round and pay attention... Cof!” Anna coughed some blood as she shut down the fox being held and staggered up once again, turning to the same enemy from before that was approaching.

From the flaming wreckage in the general area, a mature blue-haired woman in a tattered dress and with missing scales on the armored parts of her body. Parts of her hair were also bloodied and she had bruises all over her body, but it didn’t seem like Corsair was any less up for a fight now.

In fact, by her expression alone, she was much more into it now. And the constant crackling of lighting across her whole body only made this fact clearer. “Now scurry off and lemme finish this. And keep an eye on this hard thingy under yer robes... You may wanna use it later.” She spoke in a low voice to the kitsune still on the floor and then turned to Corsair with a smirk. "And ya, yer a real pain, ain't ya? Firin' on mah' walkin' cannon like this..."

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see an inquisitor save a spirit... But can you fault me on this one?” The captain put on a pained smile as she once again pulled her flintlock’s hammer without ever reloading them. “You always dodge my guns as if you know what they did was very angering. I had to try it out on something... And we agreed that hitting each other's 'toys' was fair, didn't we?”

“I like the words 'tools' better than 'toys', but yer ain't wrong... So, what do these puny pistols of yers do? They ain't even enough to go through mah' chest, so it has to do somethin' else.”

“Do I need to explain really? I’m sure you’re feeling why these bullets aren’t meant to penetrate too deep… They're more to wound than to kill. And they have a side-effect too. It even eats a couple of days of my life in exchange for it...”

“Ya sure? I ain’t feelin’ a thing…” The inquisitor bluffed as she felt the many wounds on her back taking too long to close. It was already enough of a pain that this bullet of hers shattered on impact and filled her body with fragments. But they seemed to have some kind of enchantment or poison in them. Or even some curse too.

It wasn’t enough to tip her natural resistance to pain yet, but Anna was sure her body was getting sluggish. With a not-so-clear-minded guess, she’d say that her body was less than half as capable right now.

At least, she was sure her foe wasn’t as close to as capable as she was before too. Corsair's wounds should be as painful, if not more, than Annabeth's, and the wounds themselves were a detrimental factor too for the dragon.

Both of them were likely still on the same even ground from before, just much closer to getting knocked out now. Not that it seemed that either side was willing to retreat even then.

“Anyway, I guess that’s enough recovery for us both.” Corsair stowed one of her flintlocks and, now that she had no blades left, opened her left-hand claws to make the melee-ranged pair. “What about three exchanged and then we leave?”

“Sigh… That’s why I hate battle junkies.” The redhead sighed as she threw her bag away after pocketing two shotgun shells, and then got ready to fight. She had a musket with a bayonet in her right hand and a damaged shotgun in the other, all topped by breaking the already damaged seal on her right arm.

“Now come at me, mate.”