"Pirates rarely use large projectile weapons, much less large scale magic unless their target ship resisted with some first. They desired not to risk the potential loot, as a bad shot might potentially sink a ship, and its cargo with it. Because of these reasons, most pirate encounters on the high seas were typically decided via boarding actions and melee combat." - Ching Xie-Lien, Lady Admiral of the Al-Shan Empire, circa 342 FP.

"Well, there she goes again~" said Arquivaldo with a whistle as he saw his adopted daughter swing over to the pirate ship. Uruza tossed down a couple of flasks just before she caught the other ship's riggings, and they exploded violently once they hit the deck. Arquivaldo himself had drawn a cutlass in his right hand and a hatchet in his left, and looked at the approaching pirates before he spoke. "Let's get rid of the uncouth guests first, shall we?"

"Sure thing," Cal said. By now the pirates had already entered the ship from their port side, at least thirty of them had crossed before one of Uruza's flasks fell on the makeshift bridge and broke it in half, which sent the pirates on it plummeting into the ocean below. Cal looked at her nieces, who looked at her with eyes that asked for permission. "You can start, girls."

Both girls nodded, and with a swift movement flung the javelins with their atlatls. Both javelins struck home, the pirate struck by Elaina's javelin violently exploded as the burst of lightning magic she charged it with triggered. Several other pirates were slightly injured by bone shrapnel from the violent explosion, and one unfortunate one clutched a rib bone that pierced his throat by chance, as his lifeblood streamed out of the wound.

Sidonie's was less flashy, but more effective, as her javelin discharged a fatal shock on impact. The remaining unspent magic she charged into the javelin then leapt towards the nearest pirate in the form of a lightning bolt, fatally shocking the woman as well, before it spent itself against a third who was only badly injured.

Arquivaldo whistled in appreciation at how well the girls acquitted themselves, not even a look spared to the pirate that had reached him. He just swung the cutlass in his right hand without looking at the pirate, who desparately defended herself from the blade. She failed when he nonchalantly sliced through her throat with one swift strike she failed to parry.

"Those girls have some talent," he said to Cal. Another pirate came at him and was met by the same insulting treatment, as he didn't even look their way while he dispatched them easily. "Good seedlings, for sure."

"They're decent enough, yes. Needed some real experience though. Hunting was the most they did before this," Cal said as she just cleaved a pirate in half with her halberd. Several of the pirate's comrades stopped their advance in shock and fear when they saw their comrade fell to the deck in two halves.

Cal rewarded their pause with a throwing dagger each, all to the throat. The dying pirate's efforts to stem the flow of their blood was made into a mockery when the daggers vanished and teleported back to their sheaths ten seconds later, which left the wounds they left behind wide open.

She then took the moment of respite to look over her nieces. She needn't have worried. While they lacked the experience, decades of training drilled into them by their mother and other instructors had left those girls far more than a match for mere pirates.

Elaina twirled her bloody spear as she parried away a pirate's cutlass with its shaft, befote she brought the cross-shaped spearhead down in a vertical strike. The pirate was a clever one and pushed closer to her instead, so only the shaft struck his shoulder, painful but far better than being struck by the blade.

He never saw what killed him as Elaina simply twisted her spear until the blade lay horizontal behind the pirate, and violently pulled. Keen mithril blade easily parted flesh and bone, and the next thing the pirate knew, he looked at his own headless body as his head rolled on the deck flooring.

Sidonie subscribed to a more efficient style. She'd lure her opponent to attack, dodge or parry their blow with one katar, and swiftly dispatch them with the other. One pirate had his hatchet batted aside by her left katar, while her right gave three swift stabs to the man's solar plexus, heart, and throat in quick succession.

Cal nodded approvingly at their performance while she stabbed her halberd's spearhead through the throat of one pirate, then tore the man's neck apart as she brought the crescent blade around in a swing that beheaded another pirate. Both of her nieces seemed to have no mental issues with killing, which when she considered their ages and the many hunts they had been to, was not really a surprise.

Still better to play it safe than be sorry though. Cal had seen people who excelled in training and eagerly went into battle during the civil war, just to find themselves either unable to actually kill another person, or were stunned that they did, and ended up dead instead. She was glad her nieces didn't seem to have that issue.

As callous as it may have seemed to those that lived their lives in peace, Cal held little value for the lives of people, unless they were people she cared for.

One pirates tried to surrender, as she knelt down with her hands raised. Aby, who was right next to that pirate, just pointed to the red flag they had unfurled with a grin on her face. The pirate woman still had a dumbfounded look on her face when the orc's weapon - a two handed metal club studded with short spikes - slammed into her and sent her broken body over the railings.

Not twenty minutes had passed before all the pirates that boarded their ship were dead. Cal and the crew had allowed her nieces to do the lion's share of the fighting to prove their mettle, and they had not disappointed. Together Elaina and Sidonie accounted for more than half of the dead pirates, with little more than scratches on them.

When they looked to the other ship and checked how Uruza was doing, they saw no sign of the woman on the other ship. What they saw instead, were many, many dismembered pirate corpses on the deck, not a single one of which was left in one piece, with cuts so smooth Cal wondered how the half-merfolk woman did it.

Her unvoiced question answered itself when Uruza strode out from the ship's lower deck. The woman was clad from head to toe in an eerie jet black armor of pure void, which also extended to her weapons. She dispelled void armor when she saw the crew looking at her, and waved.

"Hey pops! Wanna keep the ship? Still in good shape, it'l prolly fetch a pretty penny on the market," yelled Uruza from the other ship.

"Sure thing, lass! Stay there, I'll be moving in closer and we'll get her cleaned up good in a jiffy!" Replied the captain. True to his words, both ships were nearly touching each other mere minutes later, while crew members came out from the deck below and cleaned the corpses from both ships, simply by tossing them overboard after they rifled through them for valuables.

Soon enough half the crew had hopped over to the other ship to help Uruza with operating the ship, and both ships sailed side by side as they continued on with their journey.