Chapter 7

Shi Hou burst onto the deck to find the crew engaged in repelling boarders. Burly sailors with cutlasses and improvised weapons clashed with snarling, crocadilian, Beastmen. The beastmen wielded an eclectic array of weapons, from large-bladed chopping swords to daggers, to one with a large, bone, tetsubo that seemed to be made from river dragon bone and was scribed with Thaumaturgical Sigils. That last one likewise wore a breastplate of golden metal with a briliant, yellow, hexagonal, crystal set into it and carried a dagger of golden metal at his belt set with a rounded, many-faceted, green, triangle. That was clearly the leader.

Shi Hou lashed out in a flurry of cuts with his daiklave, carving into a Beastman that had just kicked one of the Ship's Crew to the deck and was preparing to finish him with a downward thrust of his straight sword. Daiklave cut into toughened hide and gutted the Beastman, spilling entails onto the deck. The knocked down sailor stood up as Shi Hou moved on, parrying a strike from a Beastman's Hatchet aimed at his neck and cutting out with a riposte that cleaved that Beastman's skull open. As he made his way toward the Beastman's Leader, who was engaged in melee with the First Mate, Shi Hou laid about with his Daiklave, killing or wounding Beastmen as he carved a path forward.

One Beastman, equipped in a fine quality chain shirt with an exquisite quality chopping sword and fine quality dagger, tried blocking his path as he neared the Beastman Captain. The Beastman managed to get both his blades up to block Shi Hou's Daiklave as he cut out and whipped his tail at Shi Hou, which was tipped by a razor harness cunningly tied in such a way as to act as a third weapon. Shi Hou was forced to expend essence to jump up and over the sudden attack, hopping over the bladed tail and coming down with an essence-fueled falling slash at the Beastman's head. His falling star maneuver cleaved the Beastman's skull in half, but the delay had cost him.

The First Mate of the Riverboat, a swarthy, black-haired, bearded, Nexusite named Kohoda, had been smashed to the deck by the Beastman Captain, his right leg shattered in three places by a strike from the Beastman Captain's River Dragon Bone Tetsubo. The Beastman Captain roared into the night air in triumph and prepared to strike down at the fallen First Mate. Instead of letting that happen, Shi Hou sheathed his blade, expended essence, and dashed forward. The technique of Breath and Essence control lent alacrity to his movements and he drew his blade in a draw cut that just barely managed to intercept the falling tetsubo, batting the bone weapon away from the head of First Mate Kohoda. The tetsubo crashed into the deck instead, splintering the wooden deckboards instead of Kohoda's skull.

"I'll be your opponent!" Insisted Shi Hou.

"Fool, do you not know who I am? I am Sander of the Scalebrood Pirates! The son of Lien the River Terror and Marko the Fang, both Warriors of the Lunar Exalted! This stretch of River is my territory, and not even the Fleet of Nexus dared to challenge me!" Snarled the Beastman Captain, Sander.

"So you're a half-caste, then? Perhaps this will be a good fight after all." Grinned Shi Hou.

"Fool! I will be glad to shatter your skull! First, however, there is the matter of him!" Growled Sander.

In an instant, the Orichalcum Knife was out of its sheath. Shi Hou moved to parry a stab, but Sander instead threw the blade at the downed Kohoda while burning essence to strike at Shi Hou with a powerful smash of his tetsubo. Shi Hou was knocked to the side from the blow, ribs bruising under his armor. The Dagger sunk into Kohoda's chest, easily piercing the leather of his buff coat and slicing into, and collapsing a lung. There was no time for Shi Hou to do anything about it, however, as Sander moved to follow up his first blow with an essence-enhanced overhand smash. Shi Hou dodged aside only to be forced to bend damn near in half to avoid a second, sideways blow, and roll away from a third, downwards, blow. The fourth and fifth blows required essence expenditure to hop away from, while the sixth was parried, if barely.

That left Shi Hou and Sander in a weapons clinch as both combatants attempted to leverage themselves into a position to kill the other. They were evenly matched for strength and technique, it seemed, but Shi Hou was not above fighting dirty. With a shout, he brough his knee up into the groin of his opponent, sending Sander stumbling backward in pain. His follow-on strike was just barely ducked as Sander expended essence and roared out, sending a bolt of primal sound at Shi Hou, his Lunar Blood influencing the Elemental Bolt Technique. Shi Hou was picked up by the bolt and carried into a pile of crates stacked on the deck, fortunately empty as they were provisions crates whose contents had already been eaten.

Another Beastman in an exquisite quality Breastplate thought to take advantage, cutting down at him with a fine quality greatsword, but Shi Hou burned essence to rise to his feet like the Effortlessly Rising Flame, avoiding the cut and lashing out with a decapitating strike of his Daiklave. Shi Hou wiped the blood pouring from his nose and waded back into the fray, cutting out with his Daiklave to bisect a Beastman with an exquisite quality Katar who was trying to punch his Katar into a Sailor's chest. He killed one last Beastman, this one with a pair of fine quality knives trying to gut the Ship's Bosun before his attention was drawn elsewhere.

In came Sander with a shout, charging at Shi Hou, essence burning as he moved across the deck at preturnatural speed and lashing out with his tetsubo as he did. Two sailors were thrown overboard by Sander's charge and two more had their chests caved in. Sander had miscalculated, however, and as Shi Hou ducked the fifth and final swing of Sander's tetsubo, the Beastman found himself overextended, if only slightly. While normally that slight and opening wouldn't be exploitable, the techniques of the Even Blade Style allowed Shi Hou to strike the gap in Sander's defense. Burning essence, Shi Hou closed his eyes and looked, following the essence trails to slip his Daiklave through and carve off Sander's right leg at the knee.

The Beastman Captain howled in anger and pain as he toppled to the deck, leg pumping blood. He lost his grip on his tetsubo as he went down as well. As Shi Hou moved in to finish the fight, however, Sander burned essence and suddly the Orichalcum dagger had flown back to his hand. Sander tried to throw the blade at Shi Hou to discourage his finishing blow. Shi Hou parried the weapon away as he came in, the dagger stuck into the mast, buried to the hilt. Down came Shi Hou's Daiklave, striking for Sander's crocadilian snout. The blow, powered by essence cleaved Sander's head in half.

With the death of their captain, the remaining few Beastmen attempted to withdraw. Shi Hou led the ragged remaining crew in cutting them down as they did. Only two reached a skiff and attempted to withdraw back to the collapsed tower. Shi Hou wasn't having that, though. Instead, he unslung his Marukani Bow for the first time this journey, nocked two arrows, channeled essence, and let fly. The arrows burned with divine light as they flew true, Shi Hou's divine parentage influencing the Dragon Graced Arrow Technique. Both arrows struck true, burning through the torsos of the fleeing Beastmen. A third glowing arrow was fired at the sole Beastman on the tower parapet, burning through his throat.

With that, the pirates were all dead. However the rest of the evening was spent tied up at the hidden pirate dock at the collapsec tower. Evening Rabbit was pressed into service treating the many wounded, while the Captain saw to the dead, giving what funerary rites he knew to avoid the casualties rising as hungry dead, as was his prerogative as Captain. Shi Hou busied himself with loot collection. The weapons and equipment of Sander were his to claim, but everything else was to be piled into shares for the crew. That included any loot salvaged from the tower, of which there was quite a bit. Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit would get two shares, the same as any officer on board, in recognition for their work. Dead men got their shares paid out to their next of kin.

All told, there were around twenty thousand dinars worth of looted equipment and goods, along with eight thousand dinars of currency. Sander had ambushed a number of ships going up to nexus to trade. These included ships trading weapons, wine, jewelry, and clothing. With the crew whittled down from the attack, though not as much as there could have been, thanks to Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit's Intervention, that meant Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit's shares were around three-thousand-two-hundred-ninety-four dinars each. There were only five dead including Kohoda, leaving ten living crew and officers. Evening Rabbit also upgraded her Black Jade Chain Shirt to an Orichalcum Breastplate and took the Orichalcum Dagger for herself. The Thaumaturgical Bone Tetsubo would be sold in Nexus for a profit.

All told, it could have been a lot worse for all involved. They spent the night docked at the Pirate Hideout, the watchtower was surprisingly dry, only having the exterior look collapsed. Wounds were heald, repairs made, loot collected, and funerals held. In the morning, the remaining crew boarded the riverboat once again, this time with Shi Hou pitching in to help sail, as the dead had left holes in duty shifts that would have slowed them down otherwise. Thankfully, between his knowledge of riverboat sailing and essence expenditure, Shi Hou was able to cover.

A day later, they made it back into patrolled waters, letting the Nexusite River Patrols know about the watchtower and cleared out pirates. The Captain of the Nexusite River Cutter thanked them and paid out a bounty of five-hundred-twenty dinars, twenty for every slain pirate and two hundred for the Watchtower. No doubt Shi Hou would find that the tower had been taken over as a forward operating base by the Nexus River Patrol Group when he next passed by. Honestly, that would probably be a good thing. It would help the Grey River be better patrolled, and with the Marukan Redoubt a few days sail to the south, Lookshy would keep Nexus from being onerous with tolls.

Two days later, they pulled into dock at Nexus, where Shi Hou had been hired to deliver Evening Rabbit. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, we finally made it to Nexus, however, things here are not entirely going to be as they seem. After all, Marilka the Red wasn't wrong in her predictions about Evening Rabbit's supposed allies reaching the end of their rope. Nor was she wrong about them not having Evening Rabbit's best interests at Heart either.

As to the Beastmen, the Crocadile Beastmen were built with the following Mutations: Claws/Fangs, Tail, Night Vision, Thick Skin, Deep Lung (A Reskinned Version of Gills that lets them hold their breath rather than breathe underwater). Meanwhile, Sander was a Half-Caste Lunar with various Melee, Athletics, Thrown, and Lore Charms.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the start of goings-on in Nexus as Shi Hou and Evening Rabbit try to get their bearings.

Stay tuned. . .