Re: World-Valencia

[Sydney Underhill]

Upon seeing the Admiral wrap a single arm around the pirate leader's neck, cutting off all oxygen, Sydney put two and two together, finally coming to full light. A lazy smile spread across her bloodstained face, and she found herself walking towards them slowly, swaying slightly out of her own physical exertion, as the muscles of her legs burned like they never had before.

She cursed her humanity at times like this, more so than ever before - how dare it try and hold her back.

The Commodore soon found herself to be standing directly in front of the suffocating pirate Captain, his skin nearly turning purple from the lack of oxygen as his entire body convulsed, desperate for air.

Tilting her head up ever so slightly, Sydney locked eyes with Avery as she brought the knife - like point of her poleaxe to his abdomen.

This was the man who was the head of the parasitic organization that had sapped her of her glory and her strength and her power for so long.

"Do you...remember me...?"

[Ulysses Septimus]

Avery's eyes widened like those of a bullfrog's. "Un-Underhill?" He only managed to choke so much out, short of air thanks to Ulysses' impressive strength...

Content to leave the pirate captain to the mercy of the officers, "Blaze", or more accurately, Servus Decimus Secundus, advanced slowly from his position onto the main level of the island: bashing the butt of his rifle into the head of any pirate with their back turned toward him, then swiftly finishing them off with a well-aimed stab of his bayonet.

Secundus cut his way through the pirates in this fashion, until he came upon where Sentus, Quintus, and Decimus was at. He noted with a sort of mechanical calculation how a swashbuckler was attempting to sneak up on Quintus, and held his own gun up.

Coldly, mechanically, he locked onto the target with the synthetic eye, and pulled the trigger... the bullet entering its victim with a loud BANG!

[Sydney Underhill]

By now, Quintus was leaning the entire weight of his frame on his left leg in order to prevent straining the right side of his torso, which would only cause more blood to rush out of the wounds.

He struggled to maintain his grip on his rifle, his fingers and hands moving four times slower than they had been at the start of the mission, presumably because of the shock of blood loss, and as if that was not enough hindrance, his sense of coordination was dangerously becoming uncalibrated.

The musketeer internally cursed himself - this was a crucial mission, for his sworn Commander and for the clockwork Armada - and he could not let himself fail to serve his part.

[Ulysses Septimus]

Decimus, who had watched about all of this from the very edge of his peripheral vision, almost allowed himself to relax, almost: they should be able to hold off this corner, now that Secundus is here, until this bloodbath ended.

He nodded at the spy, who returned it and took his place next to Quintus. Together, they would ensure success...

"Care to do the honors, Commodore?" Ulysses asked in the cold, dulcet voice provides by the mask: and by that, of course, he meant execute Avery...

[Sydney Underhill]

"It will be my pleasure..." Sydney responded, her voice laced with carefully - controlled anticipation and excitement as she lined up the point of her poleaxe with the pirate Captain's heart, watching his eyes widen in fear.

"And now, pirate scum, you will watch yourself die."

And her grey eyes penetrated into Avery's skull with her gaze, unblinking and unwavering as she slowly pushed the point of the knife - like tip through the fabric of the pirate's coat, through his flesh and through his heart, and finally, out of his back, the bloodied point visible to Ulysses, who was standing behind the now - dead pirate.

"We've done it, Admiral."

[Ulysses Septimus]

Barely holding back the urge to let out a loud, crazed laugh, Ulysses allowed the body to slide from his arms and crumple onto the ground in a mound of chilling flesh. "Indeed, we have, now the rest of Skull Island will follow."

All around them, pirates cried out in pain and fear as the clockworks finished off the stragglers, rounding up survivors as prisoners.

This was enough to shift Decimus from his tensed, battle ready stance into a more relaxed one. His mind, however, had not followed so, for he knew that his fellow musketeer was in a rather dangerous state, and he himself fared little better.

[Sydney Underhill]

"I can hear our victory..." Sydney hissed, letting her eyes slide shut as she inhaled the heavy scent of carnage, which laid heavily upon the air of Skull Island by now. "We have made an example, Admiral...an example out of those who dare to defy us."

As the number of pirates rapidly dwindled (this was helped by some of the pirates taking their own lives, as some had finally realized their own hopeless situation), Quintus allowed himself to drop his guard slightly, taking his vision off of the area in front of him in order to search for his Commander. After all, she was not one to take large amounts of caution when fighting, as proven by the several scars from her fights as a privateer that still littered her body.

[Ulysses Septimus]

Drawing his sword from his belt, Ulysses crouched down and carefully severed Avery's head from his body: taking the pike weapon of a dead Buccaneer, the Armada Admiral placed the pirate captain's head onto it and held it high...

On the other side of the field, where the musketeers stood, Sentus flicked as much blood he can off of his weapon, and turned to the musketeers. "Servus Decimus and Custos Quintus, report: system conditions?"

"By observations, condition unstable." Secundus finally spoke up. "Medical attention is a must." His synthetic eye did more than just helping him aim, it also provided technical read outs of certain matters...

[Sydney Underhill]

"A fine trophy, Admiral." Sydney stated, an immense feeling of power coming over her at the sight of the decapitated pirate leader's head. "This island has fallen to the Armada...shall we prepare for our return to Valencia? I am certain that Lord Kane would be most pleased to hear of our victory..."

[Ulysses Septimus]

"We shall." Ulysses replied with a hint of giddiness in his voice. "But I must also say, a large part of it is due to your efforts, Commodore: your hand played the most cards in this game." The man suddenly winced, right hand reaching to touch one of the several deep gashes that riddled his chest area; ripping his uniform enough to reveal his pale, almost clockwork-like skin which was dotted with his own blood, inflicted by the sabers of Morgan Lafitte before he dispatched her.

"Hmm, this is going to be troublesome... I think it is best we clean ourselves up before anything else..." Ulysses had noted the dagger wound in the Armada Commodore's leg.

[Sydney Underhill]

"What...?" Sydney followed the Admiral's gaze to her leg, where she now first noticed the dagger, buried to its hilt in her thigh.

That's what that odd burning sensation had been...

"Well...there are medical supplies on the ship, Admiral...I suggest we head back soon, so that we may also repair any damage to the clockworks..."

As she said this, she looked in the direction of her own musketeer for reassurance that he was unharmed - only to find that this was most certainly not the case, judging by the twenty pieces of shrapnel that were protruding from his frame. Her eyes wide with panic, the Commodore completely ignored the stabbing pain in her leg as she sprinted towards Quintus at top speed.

[Ulysses Septimus]

Noting her behavior, Ulysses sped up to follow. "Commodore, I have the pirate responsible for this under custody and will be glad to hand him over to you."

[Sydney Underhill]

"Oh my God....my GOD!" Sydney shrieked, her hands reaching out as if to brush over the musketeer's torso, but hovering just inches away for fear of pushing the multiple pieces of metal further into his skin. "Quintus...!"

She then dropped her hands and turned to Ulysses, her eyes hardening dangerously.

"Show him to me. My face will be the LAST thing he sees."

[Ulysses Septimus]

The Admiral snapped his fingers three times: upon his signal, two Dragoons dragged a battered looking pirate forward, locked in chains that looked strong enough to restrain even the Grand Marshal Rooke himself.

Ulysses' attention, however, was not focused on the prisoner-

His scarlet orbs all but drilled into the empty sockets on Decimus' face-mask, from behind the protection of his own. Gloved fingers slipped into the pocket containing the Apple, probing the bond between him and his creation with a silent question:

"Was he responsible for your injuries as well?"

Without a practiced eye, no one would have noticed the subtle nod from the black-uniformed musketeer officer.

[Sydney Underhill]

Her face colored red with a deadly rage, Sydney raised her axe, taking slow steps forwards until she was standing directly in front of the pirate.

"Do you realize the magnitude of your mistake?"

[Ulysses Septimus]

Though the pirate had a look of defiance in his eyes at first, it changed into the face of a man absolutely terrified and afraid for his life. He opened his mouth, perhaps to beg for forgiveness, though nothing came out like he had suddenly gone mute...

Ulysses smirked, both at the thought of the fool getting what he was asking for and at the thought of blood that would soon be spilled-

"Creator! Behind you!" The Admiral spun around at the sound of Decimus' alarmed voice, just in time to stop a blade from digging right into the spot between his shoulder blades, a strike that would have ended him, had it landed true.

His lips twitched, using one hand to hold onto the 16 year old swashbuckler's arm: roughly slamming him into the ground with the other. "So it would appear we have stragglers, huh?"

[Sydney Underhill]

"Oh, do give us a show as you finish him, Admiral - that way, this one here will get a little glimpse of what will soon become of him..."

[Ulysses Septimus]

"Gladly." It started off just as a chuckle, before it turned into a throat tearing laugh from Ulysses.

Effortlessly, he hoisted the young pirate up, by just one arm, even lifting him off the ground. "But I am rather curious, who exactly are you?"

"Stephen Devereaux, clockwork scum!" The teen spat, his skin darkening from the lack of oxygen.

Something jarred in the back of Ulysses' head. "Adrian Devereaux had a son? Well isn't that a pleasant surprise." Long slender fingers reached behind his own belt, drawing out the bloody knife he had used to dispatch numerous pirates moments ago.

The Armada officer ran the blade up, hovering right above where Stephen's heart was... and dug in. Not enough to kill him, of course, but to make a deep enough mark that almost said here.

The bloody blade dropped into the blood soaked sand moments later, as was Stephen, whom Ulysses all but pressed right into the ground with his strength and weight.

Only then did the demented lieutenant of Kane dig his fingers into the cut: his fist closing around his heart for several seconds, as if testing it, feeling its pulse-

One burst of strength was all that it took, to dislodge the organ from the pirate's chest cavity.

Blood doused Ulysses' mask and the front of his uniform; holding the organ high in the air like a priest would, until it burst within his hands, like a fruit crushed into nothingness.

[Sydney Underhill]

Looking down at the pirate below her, Sydney saw that his face had completely drained of color and that his entire body had gone limp with fear, the chains that bound him becoming the only thing preventing him from completely falling backwards.

"So now you know...you know what'll happen to you if you dare to harm such a perfect creature..."

[Ulysses Septimus]

"Commodore, do allow me a suggestion: perhaps we should take this one back to my flagship, to the dungeons. That way, needed medical attention can be distributed to those who needs it, as well."

[Sydney Underhill]

"Indeed, that is wise..." Sydney muttered, a smile crawling up the sides of her face as she looked down upon the chained pirate.

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