The fighting was vicious and merciless, with the elves relying upon speed and grace to help them defeat the slower but often stronger defenders. Keshira crashed through them, sacrificing defense for her formidable offense. She was cut in many places, but the wounds were minor. The wounds she inflicted, however, were crushing injuries that left her victims incapacitated or worse.
Rosh likewise used his strength to his advantage. His great sword easily overpowered the elven parries. The giant of a man ignored the few scratches he received and even the bruise of a pistol bullet that hit him square in his mail covered ribs.
Kragor fought near his wife, beating back those that came near to them and allowing her to continue to throw whatever object she picked up. She quickly ran out of daggers, and scrambled to grab whatever she could to turn it into a missile weapon, from dropped weapons to a dismembered hand to belaying pins pulled from the rigging. Her accuracy was alarming regardless of the object she chose to make a weapon of.
Jenna alone fought like the elves did, her body flowing and gliding across the deck as she danced among them. The elves found her difficult to contain, and many were injured or killed as she came up against them.
The crew of the Voidhawk, from captain to deckhand, fought admirably. Each was wounded multiple times, yet they fought on and repelled the attackers successfully. Soon only 3 elves remained, and they were backed up on the stern castle of the ship with nowhere to run. The scout ship was not close enough to jump to, nor were any of the ropes bridging them readily at hand.
“Surrender!” Dexter demanded, wiping away blood from a shallow cut above his eye.
One of the ropes connecting the ships fell away, cut from the scout ship by someone still aboard. Dexter gestured with his head and said, “Keshira, be a dear and stop whoever’s doing that from cutting the scout ship loose.”
In a flash she was gone, running to one of the remaining ropes and leaping from the deck of the Voidhawk halfway up it before grabbing on and hauling herself up onto the deck of the scout ship. Unable to see her progress they continued to hold the surrounded elves hostage and waited for the outcome of the reverse raiding party of one.
They heard a few yells, and a shot from a pistol as well. A short sword clattered to the deck of the Voidhawk a moment later, and shortly after the body of an elf crumbled to it. The elf groaned and raised himself up, one arm clearly broken and blood running from his nose.
Jenna laughed a moment later, recognizing the wounded elf as Duballin. He spat out some blood and then tried to scramble away when Keshira landed gracefully on the deck behind him. Dexter chuckled a little as well, seeing the tables turned, then his laugh died when he saw Keshira.
Her baggy clothing had been hanging with many cuts and tears in it from the fight already, but now it was even worse. It scarcely offered any modesty, though she seemed unconcerned about it. More importantly than the ruined clothing was the long sword that was sticking through her side.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Rosh could not stop himself from asking.
Keshira glanced down at it then up at Dexter and Rosh. “Yes,” she said. “It does.”
“Gods, woman, take it out!”
“No!” Jenna said, countering Rosh’s suggestion. “If you remove it you might bleed out. We need Bekka to have a look at it.”
Keshira nodded. “I will survive.”
Dexter glanced at her again, then back to Duballin. “I’m not for knowing much about elves,” he said, walking closer to him and relying upon his men to keep the other elves from doing anything.
“But I’d wager that your Emperor doesn’t take to failure kindly,” he continued. “So it’s not going to look good for you when I send you back on that ship with a message to leave us be.”
His face, already white from pain, paled even more at the thought of the fate Dexter had laid out for him. “Kill me you unworthy human coward!” Duballin spat out at him.
Dexter just chuckled. He turned to the other elves. “Stand down or else.”
“Or else what, you’ll kill them? After proving you’re too much of a worm to do it to me?” Duballin raged.
Dexter walked over to Keshira and reached out until his hand was on the hilt of the sword driven through her side. His eyes searched hers, looking for a sign of fear. He saw nothing but blind acceptance of him. He yanked the sword straight out, pulling it free of her. He was a little shaken and felt weak kneed at the momentary pain that had flooded her eyes, but as he continued to look at her he saw it fade. He held the sword up and studied it.
“Keshira, are you alright?” he asked while his eyes focused on the sword. He did not want to look at her right yet, since his stomach still felt a little uneasy.
“Yes, Captain, I will live,” she said, happy to please him with an answer if not more.
“This is a nice blade,” Dexter said, swinging it and watching her blood fly off of it as though it was water rolling off of a duck’s back. It had an excellent balance to it and, if it could plunge through her magical skin so easily, he knew a very sharp edge.
“The sword is magical, Captain,” Keshira informed him.
“What? How do you know that?” Dexter asked, surprised.
“I can sense it, it is part of my powers, awareness of magic about me,” Keshira said. “He wears a magical ring on his finger and the pouch about his neck has some magic as well.”
Dexter blinked, surprised. He turned back to Duballin and stripped the three rings off his fingers, figuring she could tell him which one later, and yanked on the pouch, snapping the leather cord holding it. Dexter turned away from the defeated elf and looked at the still resistant prisoners.
“Keshira, the one in the middle, break his fingers,” Dexter said.
She started forward immediately towards the three elves. They tried to back away further but only the edge of the boat awaited them. They looked at each other as Keshira advanced relentless on them. Swords raised defensively they waited until she got close to them, then finally the one in the middle threw his down.
The others followed suit, though Keshira continued to follow the bidding of her Master. She reached out quickly, grabbing his arm and easily overpowering the elf. Her hand slid up his arm and clutched his closed fist in hers and she began to squeeze.
“Keshira, stop!” Dexter called out to her, glad his bluff had worked and fearful that it had almost not been a bluff.
She let him go and retreated. The elf clutched his hand, face pale with the pain the short bit of pressure she applied caused him.
“Kragor, keep an eye on them,” Dexter said. He glanced at Keshira and saw that the bleeding from the sword wound in her belly had actually stopped. He smiled and added, “Keshira, you too.”
She smiled brilliantly and turned to face them. Dexter watched her for a moment then shook his head. “Rosh, Jodyne, Jenna… with me. Let’s make sure they can’t turn around and come at us again.”
Dexter replaced the long sword in his scabbard with the one he had taken from the elf and then climbed up a rope onto the deck of the scout ship. Aboard it he saw two more bodies of dead elves. Apparently Keshira had met with considerable resistance. He glanced around and looked up to the turret with the heavy ballista in it.
“Rosh, get that thing down. I want it,” Dexter said, pointing at it.
The large man grunted and headed off into the ship to climb up on top and work on the mounts that had it secured to the deck. Jenna and Jodyne followed him inside, with any one of them picking up things along the way that they took a fancy to. Jodyne found the galley shortly and busied herself with taking what she could from them to bolster her own stores. Dexter reminded her to leave enough for them to survive on.
Jenna amassed a stockpile of spare weaponry, having to resort to filling a large canvas sack she found with the miscellaneous arms. She lugged it back to the front deck and let it sit there, then returned, searching for more. In the cargo hold she found the spare powder kegs, which she excitedly picked up and carried to the main deck one at a time.