Night had fallen faster than Artemisia would’ve liked. In that time, she had sewn Omero’s torn robes back together, and the two had gone to see Epu to be outfitted. The American had found her a black men’s blouse and trousers, surprisingly on the smaller side, although the clothes were still baggy on her limber frame. The only thing he had to show her was how to load her gun, how to point and fire it. Thankfully she had a decent aim for never wielding a carbine before, yet the kickback in the weapon scared her thoroughly. Shaking his head in dismay, the American decided that instead of wasting his time teaching her the finer points of firing the carbine, he could at least give her a run down on how to take care of herself in a fight, which meant an hour’s worth of sparring with the American before he was satisfied that she could defend herself. He gave her a leather holster in which to put the carbine, and she tied it about her waist. 

           With that the American, Artemisia, and Omero made their way to the upper deck. She inquired shakily, whispering to Omero, "Are you ready?" 
         Her limbs trembled fiercely, as if caught with a sudden cold. In truth, Artemisia felt more scared about boarding this other ship than she did about fighting with the harbinger, or taking the leap off the crow's nest from the previous night to save Omero. As they ascended and reached the upper deck, Epunamun turned to her and handed her an axe.

“Don’t lose it.” His words were no louder than a whisper as he gave it to her. The axe had a wooden handle with what appeared to be an iron or steel blade. She took it with sincerity, and felt safer immediately than going in armed with the carbine and her stowed daggers.
        Epunamun led the trio over to the captain, and he seemed delighted that they had found something for Artemisia to wear and assembled said weapons for her. Emilio tugged on the belt at her waist, asking her how it fit, but answered himself anyways. She gave him a half shrug with a lopsided smile, “It’s better than nothing.” As the captain looked over her outfit, his fingers poked and prodded at her, seeing if anything was loose. She wanted to shy away from his touch, but stood her ground. It reminded her of the slaves she had seen coming up to the auction block in the old Sintra town square; how the slavers would grab and squeeze the meat on their limbs, peel back their lips to check their teeth and so forth.
           The only emotion she showed was when Epunamun mentioned that she had enough muscles on her bones so that they would break; her face flushed deep red, but in the darkness of the inky black sky, she doubted they could see that. Emilio then directed the trio over to the dingy that was waiting for them on the side of the ship. 

       Artemisia headed over to the boat, and climbed in, checking once more that she had everything with her still. She sat inside, waiting for the others to join her. As Omero and Epu climbed in, they all waited for the signal to be lowered into the water below. When the low whistle came, the dingy was lowered into the dark waters below. Just a few feet from the surface, the pulley caught, suspending them for a moment in time, before it splashed loudly into the water. With that, the sailors that had come along with the party rowed the dingy toward the ship. An eerie fog had settled over the ocean’s water, making it hard going, but the sailors that accompanied them knew where they were headed. It wasn’t until ten or fifteen minutes later, that the darkened outline of the other ship came into view.

“Are you ready?”
Omero could sense the fear in her voice. Not that he could blame her. If anything he was grateful she was afraid; it showed she was not unaware of the danger she was heading into.

“I’m ready, just don’t draw attention to yourself and remember what I told you”.
       Omero couldn’t deny that he was impressed with the progress that Artemisia had made. Given the short amount of time she had to practise, her aim with the carbine was impressive considering it was her first time. As they made their way to the top deck Omero noticed the captain making his way towards the trio. Omero realised that this was the first time he had seen the captain this close up; on closer inspection of the man he noticed he had a huge scar across his chest. The scar looked as though it had been burnt into his skin but was far too neat to have been a simple accident. Omero decided to look away to avoid drawing attention to himself. Not that it mattered much, Emilio’s attention was fully focused on Artemisia and he appeared to be ignoring Omero. Not that Omero minded much; if gaining the captain’s attention involved being poked and prodded the same way Artemisia was Omero was quite happy to be ignored.

      Omero boarded the rowboat and waited for it to be lowered into the sea. As the boat splashed loudly into the water the sailors that had come along with the party rowed the dingy toward the ship. Omero wondered how they even knew where they were going given the thickness of the fog. But Omero’s doubts were soon put to rest as the outline of the pirate ship came into view.

          The sailors rowed the dingy closer to the ship, and when they were close enough to reach out and touch the ships hull beneath their fingertips, Epu raised up his boarding hook, and let it fly. The rope wrapped around a wooden banister above, giving a sharp tug, the American was able to determine that the hook had caught. Before Artemisia could blink, Epu was half way up the side of the ship before she followed suit and grasped In the cover of darkness, the six members climbed over the edge of the railing and dropped onto the main deck. 
        Artemisia crept up quietly behind Epu and crouched down behind a wooden barrel so she wouldn't be spotted. Suddenly, a loud [i]BOOM[/i] rang out as a canon released fire, striking the ship. Oddly enough, Artemisia felt a strange impression growing in the gut of her stomach, an impression that no one was aboard this ship. Epu stood up from behind the barrels and raised his axes, when again, another cannon struck the ship. This time it knocked Artemisia backwards from her crouching position.

        When Artemisia stood, the barrels and crates were thrown to the port side, and Epu appeared to have been thrown, and struck his head upon a fastened down crate, for he remained unconscious on deck. 
        Immediately, her attention was captured by the smell of smoke which came from the stern of the ship, and it was there in the dancing firelight that she knew of the carnage that she had sensed.

"Goddess protect me." She whispered to herself, and clasped her hands in front of her chest and kissed her knuckles. Artemisia whirled about to search for Omero and she spotted him less than three paces from her.

"Look!" She hissed and pointed to the blood on the floorboards that glinted in the firelight, to a gnawed on foot, a hand with no fingers and what looked like to her, a decapitated head caved-in where someone or something had eaten half of said victim's brains.

        As Omero looked over where Artemisia was pointing, he soon realised the reason for the fear in her voice. The deck was littered with countless gnawed body parts. As Omero briefly surveyed the rest of the ship he soon realised that there was no one on board, other than the boarding party, who was still alive. Whatever had caused this carnage was not human, that much was clear. Omero's attention was soon turned towards the stern of the ship where a fire had started to engulf the ship. The fire has started to quickly and too unnaturally for it to have started via cannon fire. 
       A figure emerged from the stern stairs and was backdropped by the rising flames. The creature had the form of a woman but it's lower body appeared to be made of fire. Omero identified the creature as a dark Naga. He had fought such a creature before alongside the Red Cross in France. He knew better than anything that this monster was a force to be reckoned with. As the Dark Naga approached them Omero turned to Artemisia.

"Get behind me and give me support with that" Omero said nodding to the carbine in her hands "I would much appreciate it if you don't shoot me by mistake" Omero finished as he drew his rapier and headed towards the Dark Naga.

        With a grimace more than a smile, Artemisia nodded vigorously, silently promising not to fire the carbine if she needed to. She hadn't spotted the creature yet, as Omero stood in front of her, but as she peered curiously over his shoulder, the glinting off firelight sparkled like gems from the creature's lower half. As it inched its way towards the duo, Artemisia compared the creature, with the torso of a woman, and its serpentine like movements to that of a snake. And it was then that a large knot began to form in the pit of her stomach.

     Immediately her hand went to her hip where she had fashioned the axe, and hoisted it from its holster and grasped it firmly in her right hand, meanwhile her other hand traveled to the carbine sitting in another holster and rested there in case she needed to grab it. Cautiously she crouched down and whispered to Omero,

"I'm ready when you are." Again fear had crept into her voice and she could feel the blood drain away from her fingertips.

       Omero slowly approached the Naga as it started to increase it's speed; approaching both Omero and Artemisia much faster than it had previously. Omero knew that the Naga's strength would prevent him from being able to counter it effectively, but he also knew that Naga's were not particularly fast; this one in particular moved much slower than ones he had fought previously, most likely the result of exhaustion from the previous battle. Therefore he would be able to dodge the creatures attacks without too much difficultly. 
       As soon as the Naga got in range of Omero it lunged forward while wildly swinging it's claw like hands at Omero's head. Omero dodged under the naga's claws while also slashing the creature across it's back. Instead of blood, what looked like molten metal poured from the wound. The naga let out a scream of agony as it violently spun round slashing wildly at Omero. 
        Once again Omero dodged the attempted attacks and this time managed to wound the Naga's hip. Omero jumped back from the crature as it once again tried to strike him; though it appeared that Omero had the upper hand he knew that it would take a lot more then a few stab wounds to defeat it. One of the sailors who had previously been cowering behind one of the barrels saw an opening; the Naga was currently facing away from him and attention was focused on Omero. 
       The sailor decided to take advantage of this and  blindly charged towards the naga with his hand axe raised above his head, screaming as he did. A foolish move; the naga heard him before he was even close and with one powerful strike cut the man in half.

       By distracting the naga, Omero was able to inflict  some wounds upon the fiery creature. She moved like a woman, but the naga had scales that coated her entire body, with black reptilian eyes that reflected in the firelight. At her hips, she slowly changed from a womanly figure into a serpentine like body with a massive, muscular tail. With his clever thinking, Omero gave Artemisia enough time to circle around the duo and get a better shot.

       She crept around the wooden barrels and crates, noting the other slain sailors dismembered bodies. Forcing herself to keep her lunch, Artemisia found a hiding spot behind a large crate. She jumped, and hoisted herself up, lying down on her stomach and pulled out the carbine.
       She let her breath fall quiet, as she cocked the carbine back, and felt the weight of the trigger against her fingertip. Artemisia counted her seconds breathing in and out, before pulling the trigger.

      The carbine sounded off with a loud [b][i]BANG[/b][/i]! Artemisia swore as she missed her aim, a shot meant for a head strike on the naga, however the bullet struck the naga in the shoulder. Rolling off the top of the crate, Artemisia dropped away into the shadows, and quickly moved herself away further into the depths, making sure she wouldn't be caught immediately.
         Quickly, Artemisia moved to the other side of the ship, her heart pounding vivaciously in her chest, screaming to be let out. Her eyes burned with tears, afraid that she would fall to the naga as she hurriedly fetched another bullet from her pocket, and slid it into the barrel.
       Finished with loading the carbine, Artemisia cocked  the carbine and lit the fuse and aimed again. This time she aimed again at the naga, but lower. Artemisia aimed for the naga's chest, who was in a crazed search for her, wailing loudly across the other side. She fired again, with her finger on the trigger, and the bullet struck the naga in the throat. Still the horrid beastress did not die, only fluids the colour of the fire itself poured from the creature's wounds.
       Now the naga paid close attention to Artemisia and slithered inhumanly fast across the deck of the ship, closing the distance between the two; her deadly claws raised with her fanged mouth open, ready to tear into Artemisia.
          Thinking quickly, Artemisia grasped the axe  Epunamun had given her and slung it at the Naga's head. The strike hit soundly, as it cleaved the head of the naga partially, leaving to naga hanging upon her axe blade, not quite dead.

"Omero! Help me! I don't think she's quite yet dead." She struggled to hold the heavy naga away from her. Half of the naga's face had gone limp, yet the other half still displayed angry emotions, gnashing teeth and a furrowed brow with a twitching arm.

          Omero was running as fast as he could to help Artemisia, the Naga had slithered it's way towards Artemisia at such a inhuman speed Omero was unable to keep up with her, but now that Artemisia was holding her in place with the axe that Epunamun had given her he could finally deliver a killing blow to the monster. Once Omero was close enough he used all the force he could muster and swung his sword driectly at the naga's neck. 
          The neck had already been weakened by the carbine bullet that Artemisia had fired and provided much less resistance than Omero had anticipated. The head of the Naga came clean off as molten liquid started oozing out. Omero grabbed Artemisia and pulled her away, trying his best to prevent any of the molten blood from coming in contact with her skin.

A thickening [i]SWOOMP[/i]sounded as Omero jerked Artemisia back from the naga, sending her dancing backwards on the toes of her boots. She dropped the axe as she did so, and gasped in horror as he decapitated the naga with a finishing blow. Standing quietly amongst the flames, Artemisia suddenly declared, "Agh!" Whirling about, she darted over to Epunamun, where she found him still unconscious. 

"I think that thing, whatever it was, killed everyone onboard, Omero. We need to get off this ship soon before it starts taking on water. There might be something valuable in the captain's quarters that Emilio might want. I'll go look if you help get him onto the boat below." Artemisia looked around for the other sailor, and didn't see him anywhere.

"He might be in the dingy still, the other sailor." She wearily said as she glanced over to the captain's room. It was always easy to spot in large ships such as this, because it was on the uppermost deck with one door. A perfect view of the ocean and easy access to the wheel. There might be letters, or maps, or even gold or trinkets in the captain's quarters.

"Your going to go in there"? Omero said as he looked towards the burning stern of the ship. It looked as if it was going to collapse at any minute. 

"Are you mad? How will you even know what you are looking for"? Omero exclaimed as he lifted Epunamun's over his shoulders; the American was much lighter than Omero had originally anticipated.

"I have to try!" Artemisia cried defiantly. With Epunamun over Omero's shoulder, Artemisia took off for the stern. The fire had grown horrendously hot in a short amount of time. The flames were tall and licked at the masts above. She skittered over broken, charred planks and emerged unscathed at the captain's quarters. Reaching out, she felt the heat of the fire through the door and lifted the hem of her trousers to turn the knob. The door swung inward, revealing a dead, and badly burned captain sprawled over his desk, blood pouring from his ear.
         The smoke was thick as Artemisia covered her mouth, coughing as she went. She glanced at what she grabbed, several letters with an envelope seal stamped with an insignia, and anything else that looked in important, and mainly anything that wasn't scorched or turned to cinders.
            Just as she was making her way out of the captain's quarters, with the fire raging around her, a beam from above broke away and struck her squarely in her arm, sending up a shower of bright orange coloured cinders. Artemisia yelped aloud, and gritted her teeth, she pushed onward, racing across the deck to get back to Omero and Epunamun. When she reached the side railing, a board had dropped across, linking the two ships together.
          Tucking the papers into her corset, Artemisia took her first step onto the plank one of the sailors held it place, she could actually see onto the deck of the other ship, they were so close. Her face was covered in ash from the fallen beam, and the look in her eyes read of hope. Her eyes were red and bloodshot from the smoke, and the look on her face suggested she was more tired from their excursion with the naga encounters.

      Omero turned to the one sailor still on deck, "Help me carry him across, the last we need is dropping him in the water." The two men came together, carrying the wild American between them. Once on the other side Omero waited for Artemisia to cross. He heard a shout go up, and turned his head to face Artemisia; her eyes were blood shot and face was covered in soot as she came across the boarding plank. She held one arm tightly against her torso, signifying she had hurt herself in her escapade.

"Artemisia, I need to take a look at your arm"

        Artemisia grimaced weakly as she stepped of the plank, but she did not deny him. She rolled her shirt sleeve up herself as gingerly as possible, and displayed the wound to him. Artemisia could see the shadow that fell across her arm, and tipped her head back to shift it, "Look, tell me quickly, is it bad?" 

      Her voice trembled as she spoke, the throbbing from her arm would have to wait for the doctor to treat it. Her silvery eyes were shut tightly in pain as she waited for Omero's diagnosis.

         Omero observed the wound; Artemsia's arm had been badly burnt and severely bruised. The wound wasn't fatal but Omero knew that Artemsia was in a lot of pain.

"The wound maybe painful but it's not going to kill you" Omero said light-heartedly; trying his best not to worry Artemsia, "Just rest and keep still until we can get you to the doctor

         Once he told her that she would survive, Artemisia relinquished all feelings of despair and fell against him, exhausted. Right now, a drink of cool water would quench her thirst.

[hider=Credits][@MacabreFox][@TheDuncanMorgan][/hider]