Vero chuckled and looked at the old man. This guy had been a pain in the arse to find and killed three of his disposable stooges, but he had finally found him. A single drop of blood runs down the man's face where Vero's knife glanced him. Vero smiles, that would be enough. Whether it was poison, paralysis or vertigo, just drawing blood would suffice to turn the tides in his favour. Question was, which effect would it be? As the old man fell down, it could be any of the three.

Knives clatter and ching with those metallic sounds that Vero loved so much, and he brings another knife to his hand. The man gets up and faces him, and Vero frowns. Seemed like the man ducked down, rather than falling prone. Perhaps it was a completely regular knife he threw after all, he couldn't tell. He should really label these things. Well, he knew for sure that there were poison-coated knives in his sleeves somewhere, and he'd embed one of them into this old guy eventually.

Yes, Vero was going to have some fun with this guy. Under the guise of taking revenge slowly for the deaths of his men (a morale boost, as the cap'n called it.), he would play with the old man's skin for a while. Use his knives, do some target practice, really enjoy the sound of screaming from a fresh victim. And it wasn't as if this old guy stood a chance against him, the devious and cunning Vero. No simple squashbuckler could possibly-

A few minutes later, Vero is lying on his back with blood foaming around his mouth and his wounds feeling pretty damn severe. That old man was quick for his age. Too quick, no fair. Well, Vero was fairly certain that he would survive these wounds. They weren't that severe, and who needs both kidneys? Yes, the captain would take care of that son of a bitch, and then find Vero in need of some medical attention. He'd probably be scolded for getting all his men killed again, but it was all a learning experience. Yes, Vero was certain to survive these wounds, he would only come out of this stronge…

And then the lights went out.

***

Barry swings the rowboat at Terry's face and Terry quickly ducks under it. His fist finds its way into Barry's soft side and the half-ogre buckles over involuntarily. He only roars more angrily, trying to grab and kick at the gatorman.

Captain Leon looks at the two brutes fight, more amused than anything. It seemed like the wizard wasn't interfering yet, so Leon was keeping his eye on them and his men ready to react to that little magical nuisance. He looks over his shoulder at the direction that the two pirates had fled to, but didn't see Vero return yet. Damn incompetent jester, hadn't he killed them yet? Well, it didn't matter. He had, what, six pirates with him? They were certain to win. And even if they wouldn't, Lady the Lass would keep an eye on their flanks.

She was the best fencer amongst them and a good marksman too, so she could probably defeat the whole village population if they were to riot. Which was honestly the only way that Leon saw for those two pirates to beat Vero and his men. They were outnumbered more than 3v1 after all, who could possibly win at those odds?

Yes, victory was almost certainly his. Whether by skill or numbers, they had this little insurgence beat. 

***

Lucy walked though the empty streets to the village exit into the woods. Her dolly Ann-Mary in cradled her arms and her usual energetic behaviour dampened, she just walked calmly. She spots a figure lying in the street, sprawled out with no consideration for anyone trying to get through. And there was icky red stuff sprayed out everywhere too. These new pirate guys were so inconsiderate and rude.

Lucy doesn't concern herself with the strange sensation that something is wrong, however. Instead she walks towards the body and crouches down. She touches the red stuff with her fingers, and the liquid changes somehow. Almost as if it grows dimmer the blood coagulates, though she wasn't sure why and how to describe this feeling. Ann-Mary gets a bit heavier in her arms somehow, but Lucy doesn't concern herself with that.

There was another body nearby. Lucy repeated the ritual, though she wasn't sure why she was doing this. And then with the third guy. When she reaches the fourth guy however, she can hear his heart beat. Blood was foaming around his mouth and his wounds were severe, but he seemed to still be alive. His wounds were severe, but could regenerate easily once turned. He would make a fine thrall for the time being. Lucy frowns when she thinks this, not knowing what 'thrall' meant nor where all this new information was coming from. But she obliged her thoughts and touched the body.

As she leaves the dying Vero behind her, hair begins to rapidly grow on his skin and his body begins to convulse. If he'd survive, he'd probably rampage for a bit and shed more blood for her and her siblings. Werecat spawn were always so chaotic and ravenous when they were just turned, after all. Lucy frowns again, more words that she didn't even knew she knew. Maybe she was just woosy. She should ask her mother if she was getting ill after she came back from her forest stroll.

Ed groaned as he looked at the remaining pirates. Hadn't they done enough for one day? Couldn't he just go back to Adeluna, get some rest and forget that this was even happening? His body hurt, he was tired and to be honest he was overdue a drink or two. He gripped the axe in his hand and tried to work out what exactly he was going to do next. Probably if Peabody wasn't stood right there next to him, he would have run. Lived to fight another day, he would put it to anyone who asked. Try to make it sound at least a little noble instead of just cowardly. But the fact was he wasn't alone. He has Peabody with him and somewhere around here was Twinkle in their skiff. Their way out. He sighed, and looked up at the pirates who were preparing, as he thought about all this, to butcher them all. It was going to take a miracle, because he was about out of magic to keep him going and he had no idea how Peabody was even remaining on his feet right now.

As far as Ed could tell, there were three main threats. The first was the girl with the bow trained on them. She wouldn't have to even be a terribly good shot to kill one of them right now, at the distance they were. The second looked to be the leader of the pirates, who was grinning to himself and saying something to his companions. Ed didn't quite catch what the man was saying, it didn't really make a difference at this point. The third had to be the pretty incredible brawl going on behind the rest of the gathered pirates. Now, there had to be something he could do to get them closer, to the point where they might be able to deal with the girl with the bow. Weren't pirates bound to some kind of code? Wasn't there some word you could use, something you could say that bound them to not kill you until you could get in close and talk to them? He was sure there was something…. Began with a P, didn't it? Ah, what good did it do him even if he could remember? What were the chances that they would even respect their own laws? They were pirates!

Ed decided that the only way they were going to work this out was to just go for it. The pirates hadn't said anything to them yet, so why not see how close they could get? There was a sudden screeching sound, from not too far away. Ed looked around nervously, freezing in place. Sounded dangerous, whatever it was, and it sounded big. He gave the pirate captain a grin and decided his previous idea was a bad one. Perhaps staying where he was wasn't such a bad idea after all. "So, what now my friend?" he called over to the pirate captain, "How about we all just call it a day, take the rest of the afternoon off and just rest? See how we feel about things tomorrow, eh?" This was replied to with laughter. A lot of laughter. Balls, seemed like that wasn't going to work. Well, best to just accept he was going to get an arrow in the chest. He looked at the girl with the bow and was surprised to see that her attention was somewhere else entirely. He followed her gaze in time to see a large, humanoid… Thing rushing at the group of pirates. It looked like some kind of cat… Or maybe a werewolf… The girl managed to loose a few arrows into it before it was in the middle of them, screaming and attacking. Ed gripped his axe tightly and looked at Peabody. 

Elsewhere, Twinkle was humming quietly to herself, following the little girl. It was strange to see the little one do magic, but then the whole day was just getting stranger and stranger.

Lady the Lass quickly shoots at the strange monstrosity that swoops down from the roof, embedding an arrow straight through its chest. Some of her men also struck the creature and others missed completely, but it didn't seem to matter much either way. The lycanthrope, who was clearly once Vero from the iconic jester-esk hat that he was still wearing and the great number of knives that were dangling from his chest belts, didn't seem too bothered by the missiles.

The sailor that he landed on screams in fear and terror as Vero lands on him and quickly claws out his neck. The blood splatters wildly and turns the already bloody Vero even more macabre as he gets up and runs at the nearest living sailor. He bites out the poor lad's throat and is already engaging a third sailor by the time that Lady's second arrow is ready to fire. It strikes the lycanthrope's forehead and ricochets off. Damn. She was aiming for the eye, but Vero was continuously moving and made for a hard target.

Vero snarls as the third sailor manages to fend him off for a while, the man's sabre moving just fast enough to counter the claw attacks. The sailor screams as the talons rake his forearm, but otherwise manages to come out unscathed. Vero screams a lot louder and angrier as other sailors quickly approach to attack his unprotected rear side while more arrows strike him from the flanks. They didn't seem able to kill him, but they were certainly hurting him. Vero begins to circle around and attack all the sailors surrounding him more recklessly, allowing the wounded sailor to back off. It seemed like he was injured worse than she thought, because he quickly found some shade and fell down.

"Damn it, where the hell did this come from?" Lady the Lass cursed. "Only the captain and I have anything that can even hurt these creatures, assuming that whatever this creature is remains vulnerable to silver like the other lycanthropes." She says, grasping the hilt of her silvered lass. Drawing it, she walks forwards to take Vero down more permanently.

***

Captain Leon laughed. Those two nuisances were cornered, and they knew it. His pirates laughed with him. Then the laughter stopped as some creature appeared and killed two of his men in a matter of seconds, apparently completely unfased by the arrows that it was riddled with in the process. The creature looked like some monsterously deformed Vero, and Captain Leon quickly rubs his golden eye nervously to assure himself that the magical item was ready for use. If that monster would attack him, he'd have no choice but to use it to take him down.

Damn, this was problematic. Did those two intruders do this? Or was this the doing of that halfling wizard, the one who had been standing on the sidelines looking cool as if he was a shonen character? Damn it, damn it! This situation was too convoluted, too many unknown factors, too many of his men dying. If this kept going, he might not have enough of them left to sail his ship back to the nearest city! He couldn't see a silver lining in any of this! Not to mention, he might actually lose some less disposable men! Well, women. Lady in particular. She was worth a dozen of these worthless sailors, including his other screw-up lieutenants.

"Damn it, take those two goons out!" He shouts to the sailors. "Leave the monster to the professionals. Anyone with spears or other long-reach pokey weapons, with me! I want that creature surrounded by pikes to keep it rooted in place!"

Most of his men shout happily, gladly charging to kill those two much more normal and familiar intruders. The ones with spears sulk a bit as they run after Captain Leon.

***

Slowly, calmly she walked through the abandoned street. There were no people, her family and fellow villagers were hiding indoors. There were no pirates, they were probably all at that ruckus in the distance. There were no more bodies, those had either shriveled up into mummified corpses or got up to rampage. So Lucy was alone, just her and her dolly Ann-Mary. Just the two of them, walking through the ruined and weathered walls to the north of their village. The wooden gate had long since rotted away, the remnants removed by the villagers without being replaced by a new door. A part of the wall had since crumbled off and fallen into the sea, so a door wouldn't have helped regardless. And the tower that once stood here had long since been scrapped for building materials. These remnants were but a shadow of the fortifications that once kept the monsters at bay.

Lucy's brow wrinkles, she didn't remember ever hearing anything about a tower. So how did she know where it once stood, almost as if she could see it in her memories? And why was she walking into the forest again?

Her mind calms down and her thoughts drown out into a sense of drowsiness. She'd think about these questions later, she was too tired to think about anything right now. She would walk now and see where she ended up. Something like a temple, she thinks?