97 Vol 2. pt. 34 Patch 6.0: The Second Round (1/2)

Tabitha comes above deck to check on what's going on, and what she sees is The Shoebill heading directly toward a potentially even-more-dangerous enemy than the longship's crew.

”Oi, what happened?” Tabitha asks.

”Those twink pricks betrayed everybody. Took out six other ships already, so only us and Jax's are left,” Fenrir explains.

”Ya know that ya ain't goin' to beat them, right? If they've already taken out that many ships on their own, and it looks like they didn't exactly take any damage durin' that, then there's no way that we can take them down ourselves. Ya don't even have a plan, do ya? And it ain't like I've got any secret inventions that can help out.”

Fenrir's grip on the handle of his blade tightens. He knows that this is most likely an impossible fight, but he doesn't want to just run away from it. The Divine Brigade always ran away from or avoided getting into fights that it knew it couldn't win. Fenrir wants to be different now – he wants to heroically take on almost impossible odds and somehow come out on top and save the day, but he knows that trying to fight is going to almost certainly result in death.

”I just noticed this, but have your ears and tail gotten bigger? Your tail looks like it's getting pretty bushy,” Tabitha says.

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”Maybe? I don't know, don't look in a mirror much,” Fenrir answers.

Fenrir looks at The Weeping Tit. The ship is keeping a close distance from The Steel Tiger, but Fenrir doesn't know what the point is. From what he saw onboard Jax's ship, it's poorly armed for combat. It only has four cannons, two for each of its sides, and they're all smaller and less effective than the ones onboard The Shoebill. The Weeping Tit's crew is a crew that just wants to enjoy life in this game and go fishing. Fenrir doubts that any of them ever expected to get involved in something like this, even if coming together for this plan was their idea in the first place.

More importantly, Fenrir knows that he and The Shoebill can't afford to get into a losing fight. Taking on the longship during the first round was already incredibly risky, but they at least had some of those carcass shots that Tabitha prepared. They don't have any more of those – they were out of money to buy the materials to make more of them. Furthermore, that was taking on a distracted enemy and more of a rescue mission than a mission to eliminate the enemy. Finally, when Fenrir looks behind The Shoebill, he sees the longship still pursuing them.

The Shoebill is between two enemies right now. One of which is primarily dealing with The Weeping Tit but looks ready to change focuses should it need to, and the longship which is likely going to pursue The Shoebill until the round is over.

Another flare is shot into the air from aboard The Weeping Tit. This one uses white powder to signify that the plan is canceled and to, essentially, run away.

”Captain?” Corwin asks.

”If we get sunk out here, we're done for,” Tabitha says.

”Fen, I know you want to save them and sink those bastards, but—” Cassiel gets interrupted.

”Damn it!” Fenrir slams his fist against the ship's mast. ”Olly! Get us out of here and take us behind the isle to the fishing spot! We just need to focus on winning the round and avoiding them if we can!” he shouts.

…

”Good, he ain't stupid enough to try and take these backstabbin' cunts on when he's already got another enemy chasin' him,” Jax says as he watches The Shoebill turn away and head for the isle.

”What are we going to do, brother?” Jin asks him.

”We're goin' to buy The Shoebill some time. I'm the one who came up with groupin' up against those long-eared cunts, and I let this bastard over here,” Jax looks over at Alexander onboard his own ship, ”trick me, so this is my fault. Let's just try to help out The Shoebill however we can now.”

”What about the nets? If you want to buy them some time, we could try wrapping them up?”

Jax has a shine in his eye as he looks over the rest of the crew now. ”Ya heard him! Prepare the nets! We've got ourselves one nasty cunt to catch!”

…

”Why aren't they trying to escape?” Fenrir asks. Everybody but Bonekraka and Tabitha are at the ship's stern now watching as The Weeping Tit shoots grapple hooks onto The Steel Tiger. ”They shot the flare, so – damn it, they're sacrificing themselves.”

”Why?” Serra asks.

”Because they're men taking responsibility,” Fenrir answers.

As they watch on, The Weeping Tit's crew tosses heavy and weighted netting over The Steel Tiger. Jax and his crew get nets tangled in The Steel Tiger's sails, over the bow of the ship, and even traps some of its crew underneath it.

…