Cross shoved Ailis roughly off to the side, drawing his own, heavier blade with a well practiced, almost effortless motion. The matte finish on the blade such that even in in the firelight, it refused to be anything other than a dull gray. He held it at arms length with one hand. He glanced from the dark haired woman to the rest of the pirates and back. The smile he'd had on for the girls didn't falter a bit and might have even widened.

"That many for just the three of us? I'm almost tempted to ask the girls to sit out and make it fair."

As the events slowly tolled out of their favor, the duo 's faces changed from excitement to melancholy. They had the whole plan set out, they'd get in good with the pirates, stay the night on their sky boat and make away with their valuables during the night. It was fool-proof, but then this goddamned native had to screw up their plan. Una thought to herself. "If I make it out of this alive, I'm going to skin this guy and leave him to dry in the hot sun." Which Ailis read, from the expression on her companion's face, and responded with the thoughts. "And then we'd throw salt on his raw, exposed, body and leave him for the vultures." The two offered eachother loud, careless laughs and Ailis quickly unsheathed her sword from it's encasing revealing the red hot metal of her blade. Una continued to rest her hands on the leathered grips up her own blades, waiting for the first action to be made before responding.

"If this guy is so caught up on making a fuss about himself, why not let him have a go?" - Ailis

"Agreed, it's a win-win situation for us regardless. If he lives, then he took care of them for us. If he dies, less work for us!" - Una

"Never in my life have I come across anyone so daft as to disguise themselves aboard a pirate ship as large as ours," the girl began, "You think I'm stupid enough to overlook two brand new faces that weren't with us from the beginning? Girls no less." The girl's words seemed to remind the three pirates around them that they [i]did[/i] fall victim to their disguises, and they rubbed their necks innocently, turning away in shame.

"Who [b]you[/b] are, though, I cannot tell," the girl offered a glare towards Cross, "but burning one of my crewmen, staked to a tree... that will not slide." With a great motion, she crouched slightly and then threw her arm up, flinging the albatross up into the sky. With a screech, it took off over the lake and towards the airship.

Taking a step forward, the girl seemed initially poised to prepare for a strike with her sword, but in a flash of an instant, she motioned for something entirely different.

The glint of steel flashed before Cross's eyes, searing through the air towards his person; throwing knives.

Cross grabbed the corner of his cloak and threw it it front of the knives, catching most and deflecting the rest. A single blade grazed the back of his left arm, passing by his head. Another that might have otherwise caught him in the face stuck fast into that same arm. He straightened up and glanced at the piece of sharpened metal in his arm. With a scowl, he tore it out and tossed it onto the ground. "That's hardly sporting."

Swapping the blade to his right hand, Cross charged into the fight with a wide swing, of which the girl easily ducked under, rolling along the ground before planting her feet into the mud and leaping like a rabbit to Cross's chest level. Midair, she curled herself up and launched her heels outward, impacting Cross in the chest.

"She's a pirate. Fighting on even ground isn't in their nature." - Ailis

"Should we help him? The fight really isn't that fair." - Una

The two shrugged at eachother, and whether it have been out of boredom or the goodness of their hearts, they also entered the fray. The cubi's blade came quickly from the right end of the group, it took just a few momenets to already have slashed past a few of the stray pirates. Their wounds smoked and refused to bleed as they cauterized upon impact. Had the battle started? She couldn't tell, but nonetheless for her the fun had started. Una had vanished from her former location, whether your eyes were on her the entire time or not the woman seemed to have just evaporated into thin air or something.

"Peek-a-boo!" Said the elven girl, who breathed softly into the raven-haired pirate's ear.

With grit teeth, the girl seemed more annoyed than surprised by Una's stealthy approach, but as she rolled her head to the side it became apparent what her tight jaw was for instead. Brutishly, the girl swung her head into Una's face, tightening her mouth in preparation for the jostle she'd recieve herself.

With a slightly larger gap between at that moment, the raven-haired girl swung her saber upon Una, attempting to disembowel her with a vicious strike.

As the sword came towards Una, she quickly let her body go limp, falling down quickly and firing a leg towards the back of her opponent's knee. The blow she took to the head disoriented her, and her nose was trippling blood, so in a fit of rage she'd continue this action in a flurry of blows towards the girl's legs.

Cross landed on his back and nimbly rolled to his feet. He broke off his fight with the dark haired woman and charged the pirates, smashing through their blocks with the strength behind his larger sword. One by one he went through them, dealing each one a blow to the head with the flat of his blade. The last pirate he disarmed, snapping the saber between his crosshilt and blade before delivering a final headbutt. He stood and turned to observe the other fight.

The girl's leg was bent the first time, nearly putting her vulnerable on the ground, but she managed to keep her standing position in the end, albeit with a bit of a wobble. Dodging the following strikes from Una, she lifted her targeted leg upwards in anticipation of the next strike before slamming it down upon Una's own outstretched limb. Kicking it away, she practically turned Una on the slick earth, granting even more distance between herself and the trio.

Shrugging, the girl grinned devilishly. "This many for just one?" she retorted to Cross's earlier comment.

"I told them to sit out. it's not my fault they can't listen." Cross threw his sword back into the sheath.

From the sidelines Ailis quickly came in at an aggressive attempt to slash the raven-haired girl's torso in a diagnal strike. The heat of the blade visible in the air as it slashed down in a red glow towards her, the Thanatite continuing to maintain it's molten exterior as she assaulted the enemy. Meanwhile, as Una was tossed aside, the rage within her intensified as her jade-green eyes glowed with a malicious aura. The elf quickly regained her footing and with blades now on the aggressive she sprinted clockwise from the girl, before attacking a few feet next to her partner's position. The dagger's shorter range would put her closer to the enemy, but the motives were for something different.

Unfamiliar with the material making up Ailis's blade, the girl assumed she could simply parry her strikes. Raising the saber, she brought it bear with the cubi's blade, impacting it with a surprisingly dull sound; it had already begun to turn the saber to slag. Retracting her weapon, the raven-haired girl could only stare at what had been done to the saber in a mixture of surprise and anger. Little time was offered for her to analyze the damage, however, as Una charged in.

Unsure of what [i]her[/i] weapon could do, the girl resorted to a much more defensive stance, refusing to block with her sword in fear of further damaging it. She darted back with each strike, narrowly missing the swinging dagger each time until a final strike clipped her outstretched left arm. Retracting her wounded limb, the girl retreated a few more steps closer to the lake.

Behind her, it became apparent a great commotion was rousing from the ship. Torches and yells reached their ears as soon as their attention had been drawn to it. Above the girl's head, the deck of the ship could be seen out on the lake, lined with countless pirates staring straight back at them.

"If this drags on any longer, you'll have to deal with a lot more than me and some peons," she stated, grasping her burning arm.

Cross followed her towards the water, picking up a short, thick pice of wood as he did so. At a dozen paces away, he pictched the branch towards her head with a sharp overhanded throw while simultaneously picking up his pace and charging towards the girl bare handed.

"That ego of yours seems to have vanished." Una said as she spat the blood hardening in her throat.

"You okay?" Ailis approached the wounded girl, as she watched from the distance while pirates in the distance gathered like an angry mob. Resheathing her sword, and quietly pacing towards her elf companion, weighing an arm onto her shoulder.

"The wench headbutted me, she's got guts, I give 'er that." Una cackles as she seems to have enjoyed the scene more than anything.

Wounded but not disorietated, the girl easily bent her body to the side, barely scuffed on her ear by the branch. Sword hand situated to comfort her wound, she didn't dare try and fight Cross any longer, once again choosing to bob and weave rather than strike back.

Cross followed along, matching her movements more easily in the sand of the shore than in the mud of the forest. "Your captain won't get here in time. You're doomed with the wound, just give up." Saying this, he stumbled and crashed to one knee, his face twisted into a grimace of pain.

Seeing the opportunity, the girl immediately returned to her offensive stance, and brought her sword upwards to strike down upon Cross. With a quick step forward she returned the man's advance, driving a heel into the sand before arching downwards to maximize the power behind her cleave.

The grimace flashed back to a smile as quickly as it had appeared. Cross reached up with his left hand and caught the blade with the sound of metal on metal. A twist of his hand snapped the blade where it had previously been damaged. His other hand came up in a swift uppercut as he stood, meeting her momentum with his own.

With a whoosh, the upper half of her saber found its way upwards and then into the sand with a dull smack. Immediately noticing her error, she could only wince in anticipation of the strike, which landed square under her jaw. With her small weight and Cross's superior strength, she was sent practically flipping backwards onto the sand. Her lack of movement signified unconsciousness.

Cross exhaled slowly and approached the motionless form, not without a bit of caution. Once satisfied that the pirate was out of the fight, he turned to shout over his shoulder at the two local girls. "Be ready. They'll be here in a few minutes."

"Well then..." Said the duo in flippant unison.

The two looked west, and began walking away from the dangerous scene, away from the lake in general. Ailis' arm still resting on Una's shoulder, the weight of the girl caused the elf to limp as they paced off-location.

"Do you think he'll manage?" - Ailis

"He's got the guts to knock a woman out. He'll be fine." - Una

Turning from the retreating pair to the motionless pirate, Cross sighed in exasperation. He wasn't exactly in the mood to be fighting that number of pirates. A duel with the captain would have been quite managable but this was a little much. Grabbing his new captive, Cross lifted her over his shoulders and followed the pair, almost not noticing the extra weight as he jogged to catch up.

"Hey now, you're leaving empty handed?"

"Empty handed? Let us list the things we have acquired today." - Una

"Foreign clothing." - Ailis

"Heavily stained" - Cross

"But if cleaned, some nutty collector might pay some coin." - Una

"Una receives a bloody nose." - Ailis

"You didn't even have to get your hands dirty did you Ailis?" - Una

"Nope." - Ailis

"We also have her." Una pointed her thumb back towards the unconscious pirate girl. Shrugging off the fact that it wasn't 'her' who knocked the girl out, or made the decision to bring her, she grinned and cackled.

"Hostages are always good money." - Una

"Well, that's worth the effort then," Cross replied with a hint of sarcasm, "And I offered to buy your Cubi friend. At least then you would have had some hard coin in your pocket."

"My accomplice in crime is not for sale. She's far too precious to me." Una said this with a bland tone, as if saying it sarcastically.

"Oh yes, and my lovely Malach companion is so much better. I have not a scratch on me." Replied Ailis, who seemed to take the sarcasm a bit more personally than you would expect.

Cross chuckled. "At the very least, I'll have to buy a meal from you two." He frowned slightly. "I don't think I've eaten yet today."

"A meal, you realize there isn't a town in a few days travel. In every direction.. The closest one is to the east, and it's a rough walk without supplies. Rather, why are you acting so friendly stranger? Do we know you? What's your name? What tribe are you from? Where are you from? How much money do you have?" Una asked this rather seriously and shot each question at lightning speed towards the red-haired stranger, her eyes unblinking as they scanned him for any sign of weakness.

Cross stared back, thinking for a few seconds. "I suppose maybe the Who would be first. My name is Cross, no tribe and not really any home to speak of. I think it's important to be friendly to people you meet on the road, especially to anyone that has the courtesy to return the favour." He put a bit of emphasis on this last part but continued on without leaving a chance to respond. "I doubt you'd know me as I've been away for quite a while, since the last war." Cross purposefully left out the answer to the question about money.

Una regained her footing, allowing herself to lean off of Ailis' shoulder. The two looked at the man, and then back to eachother. The tucked their heads towards eachother, whispering into eachothers ears, glancing back to the 'Cross' fellow and then to eachother again. They seemed to conclude on something nodding to eachother. "Okay, Cross~ you can accompany us. But there's a few conditions. The first, you have to provide for yourself. The second, you have to provide for us. The third, you have relinquish your ownership of that girl to us." Ailis smiled as she finished their conditions, and nodded to the man with toothy grins.

Cross thought these over for several seconds. "Well that's hardly fair since you seem to have already assumed that I'd be useless on my own and now you expect me to provide for everyone. I suppose i could make the offer to let you travel with [i]me[/i] for free, no string attached. I'd help you with any of your efforts and you help with mine."

As if [b]routinely[/b] the two looked at one another with awestruck expressions, as if they had just been insulted beyond forgiveness. Una puffed her chest out, stomping towards the man and pressing her chest against his with an almost masculine expression upon her face, almost. Meanwhile, Ailis tapped her forehead with an index finger as if some miraculous migraine had just been afflicted upon her. "Are you an inbred? Let me get this straight, you're saying that we'll have the luxury of travelling with [b]you[/b] for the conditions we made. I'm half tempted to march my arse along with you to town, just so I can make this point. Ailis... inform this man of who we are." Una grunted as she pulled her body away from the man, kicking some moist debris from the ground as she scouted the area.

"Yes your highness! Well my newly acquainted friend, if you've been around the last decade you'd already have hard the tales of two scourges that are feared by criminals, murderers, bandits, and any military regime Dis has to offer. The last part is of course a bit of a stretch, but we are indeed the lovely beauties of fame, the two gold-digging, ransacking, renown criminals of our lovely home. Now please don't forget this, Una takes this very personally. I, don't really like the attention, unless I'm hungry.. Then the attention is quite appetizing." Ailis beamed a smile, and then walked quietly towards Una to press her back, getting her attention back to the situation.

Cross was frowning by the end of this speach. "Unfortunately I've not heard of you, but as far as introductions go it was quite well done. It seems to me that you don't know who I am either, likely because the stories of my accomplishmenst haven't reached this Sphere. I am feared by kings and governments. Wars have been decided by my blade and nations have fallen. Tales of my feats have been told in story and song for thousands of years." He held out the hand that was not occupied in stopping his prisoner from falling to the ground. "Pleased to meet you."

"Yeah." - Una

"Okay big guy." - Ailis

The two viewed the man's hand with a confused expression. Una in particular didn't want to touch the man's clad hand, her eyes wincing as it was stretched towards them. Ailis didn't mind much for it on the other hand, though handshaking wasn't really commonplace in either of their cultures, she went with her stomach and grabbed the man's hand. "What do we do now?" The Cubi asked rather out of place. "We'll need to find somewhere a bit off the path to set up camp, they'll be looking for us. But I don't plan on leaving yet, the food on that sky boat.. There's gotta be something valuable on it." The duo nodded to eachother, and without acknowledging the new member of their troupe, they took to the brush and started searching the area for a place to set up for the night.

Cross chuckled to himself, half disappointed. He left the path and headed for a nearby hill, aiming for the far side from the road.

"We can set down on the other side of that, keep watch from the top."

"No no!" - Una said.

"Una's ears are too sensitive. If she sleeps at that elevation.. She'll be complaining for the rest of the next day." - Ailis rolled her eyes as if she was a bit embaressed to say the statement, scratching her head and pulling strands of hair behind her ear.

"The ears of the Malach, are the most sensitive of any elf! It's a curse!" The elf whined, a bit pathetically.

Cross gestured to his own ears. "Not at the top, at the bottom. On the far side from the road we won't be seen and a sentry on the top could see for quite a distance."

"That might work then." - Una

"Did you steal any food Una?" - Ailis

"I shoved some bread in my vest. Why?" - Una

"Hungry~" - Ailis

"Cross, that's your name right?" - Una asked, absentmindedly in fact.

"Yeah?" Cross replied. "You two can share the bread if you want, I'm sure I could find something on my own."

"Only breads?"

"That's hardly a meal."

The two pouted, putting up the facade of starving damsels.

Cross sighed and started walking towards the left hand side of the hill. "I'll take care of her arm and then see about food. I don't think you two will starve to death before then."