Year 765 The Storm Crawler Charge

She follows behind him, trying to ignore the urge to sick again. This time related to anxiety; she keeps getting in spurts while her gaze inspects the butt end of his new weapon. The carving of a water equine creature is what she could make out from the deep maroon wood. After some walking, they reach the stairs to the ground floor, and that is where she smells the smoke. He did too because he gave her this look, the look that he is about to confront Azar. Rhea is ready to tell him to hold off again despite him being of higher command. But he wasn’t much of an obedient one like herself. She ends up not having to.

“Capt’n,” a voice she grew to recognize as Cid came from their right. Connor no longer dons his original intent in the curl of his scowl.

As perceived, Cid appears right out of the corner on his own. Some new wound marks the young face of the half-giant. The wound bleeds over his left eye, keeping that eye shut. But there’s no saying that his eye didn’t perish.

“Cid! What happened?” Rhea advances towards the half-giant, and he flushes after just noticing her with his only working eye.

“Oh, lil matey! Tis a scratch from a guard. He caught me and Trevor not paying attention is all. Trevor left me to find ya.” The half-giant grins, very unaffected by the bleeding nor the deep cut.

“You are going to see Sabol at once.” Connor closes in next to Rhea, eyes laid on the boatswain sternly. It was like he was mad that Cid got injured in the first place. What she knows is Connor trying to get him out of trouble. She received that same stern gaze in the past.

“Capt’n! I miss ya!” Cid puts the axe down, readying to embrace Connor, who at once slips away and ambles towards the exit. That did not deter Cid; his smile even bigger than earlier. “I‘ll get ‘em later.”

Rhea snorts, imagining Connor being hugged by the giant man, breaking away some of the pain in her. Cid didn’t wait for her to react, following Connor with his axe drawn again. Rhea peers behind her, sensing the mana, how it moves further away from them. She desperately hopes Azar took the battle outside of the building.

Hopefully, Connor’s mother managed to get out too.

The temptation to follow Azar tenses her muscles, but what keeps her from moving is her desiring to stay near Connor. Blinking away the trance, she ran to catch up with the two pirates.

The entrance of the mansion is just before them, and five Kraxxian slaves guard the entrance. Just as she had tasked them to do. Two exceptionally large brutes kept the doors shut, and a smaller female took on the one peekhole. Two other males remained close, watching the path they were coming from.

One of them saw Connor and panicked. “Gist! Gist!” (Ghost! Ghost!)

The call had them point their weapons their way. Connor and Cid halt in their stride, both respecting the warning, even if more than likely Cid doesn’t understand a word of it. Their reaction worsens because Connor looks just like the man that tortured them. “Ku Janvik GIST.” (End monster Ghost)

They were saying they would end Connor. Rhea bounds in front of them, waving her hands. “Nei Gresvins! Gresvins.” (My friends!)

All the Krax relaxed their weapons at the sight of her, and they study Connor longer. A young male Krax from the group moves close to her and whispers , “Nu gist slavick?”(Not ghost slaver?)

Rhea shook her head, pointing at the emblem on her. “Jerokip.” (Husband)

These poor people could not even handle the sight of someone that even looks like Gerard. Their scars are living proof of the torture they had to endure. For an obvious example, this young male was missing an ear. Even with Rhea confirming their safety, they all scrutinize Connor more than Cid.

“Nu Janvik slavick.” (Not monster slaver.) Connor’s voice formulating the words had her straighten her spine. She forgot that he even knows how to speak it and listening to him speak in Krax had her completely blush. It was obvious.

“Lil matey? Are ye okay?”

I am not thinking about how attractive your captain is. “Just fine.” Rhea turns to the shocked Krax again, forcing out the attraction. “Bris karin va.” (Let us through.)

The two brutish Krax open the doors, and they were free to go through.

“Vaja Roi, venbrum” (For our kind, moon eyes.) The Krax fist bump their chest as a salute. Rhea made sure to do it back, then made her exit with Cid and Connor.

What awaited them was pure chaos. The foyer was in disarray, with a stone statue in pieces on the ground, and the garden completely squished by all the boots that crossed over it. She couldn’t hide the complete destruction.

There was more to come from the sounds of a skirmish resonating to their left. Rhea turns on the balls of her heels to follow the sounds. “Rhea!”

She ignores it, pushing through a wall of bush to see the other side. There was an open field besides the building, and their crew, mixed with slaves, kept the guards from entering the building. She could see that the battle was an even match between them, after all, the guards appear endless, and the crew didn’t have that much power to keep this up. This gave her an idea and one the captain will not like much.

“I got to help them.” She said it to the air, but she knew she wasn’t alone. Connor found his way beside her; Cid was still looking for a better way for his giant body to get through.

“…and how do you suppose to do it?” Connor challenges her resolve. Due to worry, he hadn’t stop eyeing her every now and then, probably because of her healing injuries.

Rhea bit her lip, seeking with her sharp eyes for a good spot. She finds one and points at the tower. “I will smite them with fire from up there.”

Connor follows where she points, his silence telling her how much he didn’t like her plan. He breathes in a sharp inhale and releases whatever “unreasonable” caution he had in the moment. “With all those guards?”

Rhea nods, she figures that they will be able to take down a few guards and especially with Cid’s help. Connor ruminates her plan, long enough for Cid to find his way to them.

“What did I miss?”

“We need to take down that tower.” Connor’s answer had her wide-eyed. He accepted my plan. Rhea is going to have to remember this moment as a victory.

“Easy enuf, captain.” Cid charges towards the tower before Connor could even stop him.

“Eager as always.” Connor glares after him, but he didn’t stop the half-giant. Perhaps, he just didn’t want to fight two out-of-control adults all night.

“YOU” -He points to her-“Will keep close to me. We are going to take them by surprise.”

“Who are you calling ‘you’?” She shook the Flarishk pendant at him, genuinely peeved by his attitude.

“Yes, my wife who chooses to still not listen to me.” Connor relaxes his glare after and he allows a bit of his vulnerable side through to say this, “I need you alive.”

Her face burns, not ready for such a comment. It has been a while that she felt his tenderness and even a meager comment is making her melt. What is wrong with me? “I…will stay alive.”

“Good.” He turns to finally run to the tower she mentioned. Rhea made sure to keep up, the stinging in her wounds no longer slowing her down. Cid chose to face the guards head on, giving Connor and Rhea a chance to sneak behind. They wait till Cid had the whole squad of guards paying mind only to him. The one guard at the top of the tower is too busy aiming at the skirmish does not notice them plotting their downfall.

Rhea inspects the tower’s wall, thinking to scale it. It is like Connor read her mind because he touches her shoulder to get her attention. Her gaze lowers to him till her vision is full by his visage. He shook his head no, mouthing out the words, “Keep close”

It was a reminder of what she agreed to do. With a short inhale she nods.

Connor takes his calloused hand off her shoulder, now peering around corner. She scans his backside, the fancy blue cotton fitting his broad shoulders right. She can tell that his muscles are just beneath to keep the shape up. The right sleeve was torn off and she can see the coil of his bicep. For a moment she had lost the wheel of her imagination, remembering how lucky she was with their first night together. He didn’t notice her ogling only wave for her to follow right before he moves for the entrance of the tower. She does the same hugging her body close to the wall. She briefly glanced to notice the half-giant fighting the guards.

Connor must be confident enough in Cid to not insist to help him. He enters the tower, Rhea kept close. Immediately inside the first steps of stairs invites them. Connor gestures she should go first. Rhea did exactly that running up the flights of stairs with Connor in tow. There were no enemies at the stairs and in no time, she reaches the top. The guard there saw her, however, she is much faster than them. Her hand pulls out one dagger and she launched at the guard to take him down with it. He couldn’t block really, using his arm to take the stab of the blade. Blood touches her skin and she drove the blade deeper. What the guard didn’t know is she wasn’t alone. Connor stabs the man in his chest next with the borrowed sword. She can feel his closeness as they work together to kill this man. With the drop of his body, the guard no longer had fight in his eyes and pass on. Rhea pulls her dagger out of his arm to put it away. She checks her horizon and finally smiles.

“I can see even the ship from here.”

Connor only watches at the doorway to the steps, with pistol and sword ready. “Smite away.”

Rhea perks up to his voice, checking their perimeter. She sighs thankfully to see Cid downed those men and kept his tall frame near the entrance. He did pace like a child ready for some more play time. She forgets how much this half giant likes a challenge; he barely complained about his wound getting in the way. It inspires her to keep going.

She finds her next victim, squinting where their crew might be overwhelmed. She saw her opportunity, willing fire in her palms. She imagined it take shaky silhouette of a spear, seeing that Azar could make them into blades easy enough. The fore spear kept it shape, and she is extremely giddy she needed to try it at once. She aims at a few guards coming through a gate. In one swing she propels the spear with the point aiming at the gate. When it lost momentum she wills it to keep a flight. It pierces the ground before the gate like a normal spear. The guards are caught unaware when she wills it to explode and spread. Now that entrance is covered by her fire. Next, she finds where the guards take post behind the bunkers. She finds them, wills another fire spear, and propel it towards the first bunker. It took explodes with a simple twitch of her mind.

There is another bunker, and she sees the guards there in terror. She sent another one of her spears after them. This explosion finally cues the guards to find them. Already a few walking towards their way.

“Connor! They are coming this way.” She shouts over the chaos.

“Understood. Keep smiting” He bounds back down the stairs to help Cid. She is left to her devices, and she picks her next victims. Her eyes on the archers next.

The fire always felt good on her skin whenever she conjures it, her hot red fingers gripping the very center of this spear a second longer, thinking how much more she could make. How much she could burn. They all deserve to burn for what they allowed to be happened in those walls. She releases this spear onto the long-distance archers.

Is that cheering I hears?

Her gaze follows to the sound of the cheering, and she can see them, the crew. They knew who the owner of the fire and she can tell a a few of them parts to go help Connor and Cid.

Those two are just doing fine, the guards could barely overwhelm a half giant and a pent-up captain. However, any help is welcomed especially how hard it has been trying to do things on her own for so long. She doesn’t miss the life of solitude, and the tears she felt on her cheeks are proof.

She must keep fighting for those she lost and for those she must protect. Her volley of fire spears is sent towards another entrance, letting these ones build the flames to block a safe way for the guards to come through. “AVAST YE, THE CAPTAIN IS HERE!”

The roars of cheerfulness could be heard by any deaf person; it might even wake the dead. Rhea laughs, it’s so good to hear them, peeking back to below her. She saw Gash at once.

What is that old man doing out here? Even he couldn’t bear waiting at the ship. From what she can tell, Gash is just as desperate to find Connor.

“HANDS MAKE THESE BASTARDS REGRET T’ EVER TAKE FROM THE NIGHTMARE MAIDEN!”

Rhea halts her smiting, seeing that it is not needed anymore. She felt her fire recede back into her core as she watches her crew working with the slaves to take down the retreating guards. Her heart is at ease, feeling she had done the right thing for now. At least she is useful.

“LASS COME DOWN ‘ERE.” Rhea heard the excited Gash again. Him calling to her usually meant she was in trouble and needed to talk to Connor. This time, it was to cheer for their victory. She breathes in her first in a long-time sigh of relief. Then lets out an excited, “AYE, AYE!”