Face Off, Face On (2/2)

Your Zombie skill is now level 7!

Your Zombie skill is now level 8!

Your Command Undead skill is now level 29!

Anne only laughed harder and hacked into the now-rising corpses of her fallen crew.

And then Threadbare lost sight of the fight, as the halven holding him turned and ran.

“This is a losing battle,” said the dark-haired halven, ducking behind the mast. “She won't give up. She's got stupidly high levels and skills, and she's not using everything she has yet because she's still enjoying it. You can't stop her here. You can only slow her down.”

“I have something that will break this ship to pieces,” Threadbare said, watching as the Lop Garou backed away, and Celia and Kayin joined Jean, trying to hold back the piratical terror that was Anne. “But I don't know if all of my friends would make it out alive. And I don't want to kill anyone under the ship.”

“She'd survive that! And if she survives it, she'll just sneak away and grab Cecelia at another time and get a replacement ship later! She's a Pirate! That's what they do!”

Threadbare craned around the mast and watched the last of his zombies fall.

“I'm open to better suggestions,” he said, craning his head to look up at the halven girl. For a girl she was, somewhere in her teens with a colorful headscarf keeping her hair in check and worried, sleepless eyes that glanced all around, keeping track of the chaos that surged around them.

“Give me a second,” she said and muttered “Foresight.”

Then her eyes went wide, and she said, “Foresight,” again, a little shakily. She muttered “Well maybe if... Foresight.”

“Excuse me?”

“No, never mind. Okay, that might work. Renny?”

“Renny!” Threadbare said. He knew that name! That was one of the missing golems who had gone to the Forest of Final boss a year ago.

“Hello, sir!” came a mild voice, as a fox's head poked out of the halven's handbag. “Don't yell! Anne thinks I'm just a toy.”

“I need you to wait until I say 'now,' then use your illusions to make Cecelia seem like Threadbare and vice-versa.”

She dropped Threadbare and her handbag and ran toward the dog beastkin.

“Wait, Chase! What kind of... oh dear,” said Renny, watching her go.

“You took a waystone from the jar, didn't you?” Threadbare asked.

“What? Oh, that. Yes, it's a long story... oh, okay.” Renny said and looked at Threadbare. “Phantasm. That Je Ne Se Quois, sight, sound, touch, taste, smell.”

“I didn't hear her say...” Threadbare started to say, then flinched as Celia's voice finished his sentence. “...now.” Renny had changed his voice.

“Cagna Wind's Whispered me,” Renny explained and looked toward Celia...

...just as the Ringmaster shouted “May I Direct Attention to the young man on the wheel! He's doing a fine job; everyone give him a hand!”

You have Resisted Thomasi Jacobi Venturi's Direct Attention!

WILL+1

He alone saw Celia shift, saw her gain his own furry features.

“Now we need to exchange you before that effect wears off!” Renny said, desperately.

“Call Golem,” Threadbare said, and with a bamf of displaced air, Celia was there in front of him.

She blinked. He hugged her, and said “I'll be back as soon as I can,” then charged out toward Anne, seizing command of a couple of Celia's whirling knives to make the performance convincing.

Your Command Animus skill is now level 45!

And a stranger's gruff voice spoke in his ear as he charged. “Attack her left leg with everything you've got, and then don't resist when she's got you!”

Already he could see Anne's head turning. Already he could see her shaking off the effects of the Ringmaster's skill.

Already, he could see her turning toward Jean, drawing her arm back to strike...

And before she could look back and see him, he slashed her leg with everything he had.

It was the hardest he'd ever hit someone.

Your Brawling skill is now level 76!

Your Claw Swipes skill is now level 65!

And she staggered as a red '364' floated up from her head.

Against any human in Cylvania right now, it would have torn the leg clean off. It would have killed quite a lot of them instantly.

But this was Anne Bunny, and to her 'twas but a flesh wound. She didn't even bother transferring it to her crew.

Instead she twisted, and punted Threadbare into the air, as she slashed his borrowed daggers to the ground, deanimating them through damage. Then she grabbed him by what she thought was the hair but was instead the scruff of his neck. She didn't seem to notice the difference, as she rolled backward with her quarry, away from Jean and Kayin.

“All right,” said Anne, straightening up as she stuck her cutlass in the mast. “If you're going to be playing shenanigans with me mind, then this ain't fun anymore. Stormanorm! Flip the ship!”

Every member of the crew left on the deck charged toward the ropes, the rigging, the railings, everywhere they could get a handhold.

And before anyone else could react the ship was rotating on its axis...

...and turning the deck downward.

A few of the unexpected allies had enough agility to grab onto a trailing lin, or get ahold of the railing as they fell.

But a great wind blasted forth along the deck and shook them off like fleas on a dog.

They fell... but Threadbare saw the wind coalesce, saw it open eyes, and saw his friends slow as they hit it and drifted gently downward. The wizard's work, he expected.

The ship kept rolling, and when it was right side up again, Anne leaped off the mast, and landed before Jean, putting her blade to the woman's throat. Jean, clinging tightly to a cargo net, merely looked to Threadbare with red, red eyes and smiled.

“I am sorry for everything. Do not blame yourself.”

Then she shut her eyes...

And Anne laughed. “Come now, who do ye think I am? This is just a job. You betrayed yer employer, true. But that's none of me affair and nothing personal. And so long as you're alive, Miss Cecelia here won't be no trouble, will she?” Anne's teeth flashed gold, as she grinned down at Threadbare.

“Please don't hurt her,” Threadbare said, holding out his arms placatingly. “There's been enough bloodshed tonight.”

“On that I agree,” Anne nodded. “Same terms as before. Janet! Columbia! Go get Miss Jean below and secured. Stormanorm! Get us out of here as fast as you can!”

“We've taken some pretty bad damage, captain,” Stormanorm said. “We might need some repairs.”

“No worries,” Anne said, setting Celia to the deck and switching the sword to her throat. “Your friend the bear taught me all about how Animators can help with that. Come and let's go undo some of the harm...”

It wasn't exactly a happy ending.

But his friends were out of danger.

And as she took him below decks, he saw that the handbag was still there, with the fox's head poking out, still and unmoving and very convincingly pretending to be a simple toy.

The illusions could continue so long as Renny remained undiscovered.

This will do, Threadbare decided. And even as he did so, voices from the other side of the deck drew his gaze.

“How could you do this?” the Lop Garou rumbled to Jean. “He won't forgive this betrayal. You know what he'll do.”

“Times change,” Jean said. “And some things... some people are worth dying for.”

“I hope for your sake he hears that with friendly ears,” the Lop Garou said, as the crew bound Jean in irons and started dragging her off. “Because there is nothing I can do to save you from the Phantom of the Lop Ear...”