Octavius had obviously startled his enemies, and a shotgun blast into their midst seemed to deter them further, so he moved to track down the man he was looking forward to seeing again. Before he had to turn back and ward off the crew of the [i]Powder Keg[/i], though, Ace was kind enough to show up and start cutting people to ribbons. He could practically feel the man's talent radiating outward from his swordswings, and was glad he'd chosen to specialize in the scattergun. He'd yet to meet anyone who could use a shotgun like he could. And thanks to that, clearing a path to Cyrus proved simple enough. A hail of lead, fire, and blood lead the way, as the captain shredded a swathe across the deck.

He finally caught his gunnery captain trying to descend below decks for whatever reason. He tucked his weapon under his arm and grabbed the man by the bicep, stopping his progress. "Where do you think you're going, lad?" Captain Cuttlam scolded in mock anger, surprising his quarry, who obviously recognized the voice. He turned, and looked as if he might have jumped out of his skin had such a thing been possible. "You're coming with me." the warlord growled, and Cyrus had no argument. Indeed, he wasted no time in following his old friend away from the hatches, and back toward the [i]Duchess Gambit[/i].

"Fancy meeting you here!" Cyrus proclaimed as he shot one of his former crewmates in the back, obviously not terribly keen on the men he'd been serving with.

"I've been looking for you." Octavius replied with a chuckle. "You're a hard man to get to." he added as another enemy fell to his shotgun. He managed to reload only a single shot before another fear-crazed combatant rushed him. That was more than enough, though, as he managed to slay two men with the one shot. Then he stuffed another two rounds into the scattergun and moved to retreat to his own ship. "Fall back!" he bellowed as loud as he could. The roar of gunfire and the clashing of steel on steel was quieted by his shout, and anyone with any sense would be moving off the [i]Powder Keg[/i] in a hurry. To set the example, the pirate used his daemonic arm to coil around his gunnery captain, before latching onto the mainmast of his own ship, before yanking the two of them across the gap, where he set down his newest crew member, and then looked to make sure that at least the people he cared about were around before they started moving away from the doomed vessel...