Iona’s eyes adjusted as they got in, and she was in the middle of a brief look around when massive earthen spikes detached themselves from the ceiling, impaling the ship, dooming it to the depths.

Iona flung herself from the sinking ship, leaving the remaining pirates behind. The ones who hadn’t died from the attack would sink or swim on their own merits – mostly swim, the skill was easy enough to get, or to have merged into another skill. Their career had been enough to forfeit any protection Iona might’ve extended towards them.

Iona managed to make it to rocky ground inside the cave, rolling as she landed, making sure she’d taken cover behind some rocks. She looked up, then around the cavern.

While dimly lit, there were enough torches, and pure sunlight from outside, to see well enough. A couple of holes in the ceiling let some natural light in, with unnaturally large patches of grass and trees near where they landed – the work of some skilled person amplifying what nature was providing. A clever Earth mage had made a number of large stalactites hanging from the ceiling. It meant that with nearly no effort, the stalactite could be broken off, the large mass plunging down on any unsuspecting invaders – like Iona. Given the narrow cave entrance that ships would be forced to use, it was a solid defense.

The pirates had nearly an entire port built inside. Four docks, with one ship left. Iona hoped that the pirates were ambitious, and she wasn’t going to miss a fourth pirate ship out and about once she was done here.

There was no way she was going to be that lucky.

A variety of buildings were shoddily built of wood and stone. Even as Iona watched, they creaked and swayed in the breeze.

Animals filled pens, sheep and chicken, pigs and cows. They were the primary beneficiaries of the unnaturally large patches of grass. Naturally, the pirates were the beneficiaries of said animals. They were packed against each other, each animal with practically no room to move. Not a humane practice, but only worth frowning over, possibly tut-tutting over later with a date.

A building looked like a warehouse, another a tavern. The big one was probably where the mayor//pirate admiral administered from, and that one was probably a brothel.

Almost a full, working town.

Iona was briefly starting to reconsider the mission when she spotted the last pen, separated from the rest by a gap.

All the better not to hear them screaming.

People.

Humans, dwarves, beast-kin, all had collars and chains. Even a harpy was present, weights cruelly punched through her wings.

Iona felt revulsion filling her, almost forcing its way out, as the brothel and tavern took on new, ominous light.

As she studied the town, she noticed a detail that she’d missed on her first check, the distance and the light making the bodies swinging on the gallows hard to see.

Left to rot.

Fine.

Iona wasn’t quite sure how, but it looked like the pirates somehow thought she was still on the wreck. Perhaps a combination of the light and shadow as the ship passed into the cave, combined with the falling rocks and spray of breaking planks and splashing water had hidden her as she jumped off. Either way, nobody was approaching her hiding spot.

However – Iona had dramatically underestimated how many pirates there were. She believed she could take a ship full of pirates, especially as she could force the terrain to her benefit, and it was harder to surround her and kill her via a hundred cuts.

Hell, she could take them all if it was a hundred one vs ones. She’d trained under Alruna after all.

But she was slowing. She’d taken a few hits, point-blank instant spells cast right as people died, and had more than a few cuts, was bleeding from more than a few places. She kept reshaping and reforming her armor to close any holes, but it thinned her armor. Not to mention, Iona couldn’t hear anymore. Missing an entire sense was bad news, especially if she needed to handle so many pirates at the same time.

The Wobby Pass flashed through her mind again. The ratio was similar, and Iona was alone, without even a companion or another Valkyrie to watch her back.

She knew she had limited time. What Iona needed to do was even the odds, and unorganized pirates were a lot easier to handle than organized.

Fire. Fire was the answer. Sure, they probably had a water mage or eight around – it was a good element for mages living on the sea – but it’d cause a distraction. Iona briefly cursed taking Ice, and not Fire for her arrows, before putting the thought aside. There were torches everywhere, and some looked like they were dangerously close to the main building.

Ugh. That would probably end with Iona needing to save the innocents trapped in the buildings.

Perhaps the slaves would participate. It would dramatically change the odds, even if they just acted as a distraction.

Fire. Fire in a lot of places, but none too large. Nothing that would cause uninvolved people to burn alive.

Iona’s [Vow] would be pissed, and Iona would die shortly after.

There was an elegant solution. Iona drew her bow, and carefully sighted.

It wasn’t the longest shot Iona had ever tried to make, but the size of the target at the range made it one of the hardest shots. About the size of the smallest coin, although blessedly not the size of the tiny bit of Arcanite embedded in every coin that provided its value. And the torch needed to fall the right way.

Iona stilled her breathing, not even hearing her heartbeat in her ears. She sent a quick prayer to Selene and Lunaris, then a second one to Xaoc for good measure.

Selene and Lunaris wouldn’t mind. What Iona was asking for was a bit outside of their domain – and entirely in Xaoc’s.

She drew the bow to full, and carefully worked on her aim, carefully adjusting for the slight breeze, trying to get a feel for the capricious wind and how it’d grab and twist her arrow.

Iona loosed, and cursed as a gust knocked the arrow off-course. A chicken squawked, but the pirates hadn’t noticed her attack.

They had noticed that she wasn’t in the water, or the ruins of the ship, and had started to break up, searching the cavern.

A second arrow pulled, aimed, and fired.

Hitting the stone next to the torch.

Iona bit off a curse as some pirates were getting closer and closer to her hiding spot. They were moving in a careful, methodical manner, but Iona was rapidly running out of time.

She pulled one more time, and let the world fall away as she focused, ignoring even the incoming pirates who’d see her any second now.

Aim. Adjust. Observe. Adjust. Breathe. Adjust.

And… relax, the arrow springing forth from her bow like a horse at the races, like a dog promised a cookie. It eagerly crossed the distance, and Iona continued to focus, not moving, staring at the arrow, willing for it to land, to connect.

Which it did. The arrow clanged against the holder, cheap like all the pirates’ things. Quality holders had four brackets of metal, this had a single thin one made of wood – not even stone. Their Earth mage had better things to do than arrange lighting, or was a late comer.

Either way, the arrow went through the wood, cleanly breaking it. For a brief moment, the arrow itself held up the torch, a single narrow shaft of wood holding back disaster.

Then the arrow finished its flight, shattering against the wall, as the torch slowly tipped over.

Right onto the hairy pig’s back.

The torch fluttered, then caught, flames igniting, then rapidly spreading from pig to pig, trapped haunch to haunch next to each other.

Concerned noises turned into loud squeals of fear, as the fire spread. The shoddily built pen couldn’t contain the sheer panicked porcine mass, and the flaming pigs scattered throughout the settlement, letting everyone know in no uncertain terms that they were on fire.

Setting small fires in every direction.

The burning bacon was an excellent distraction, but Iona jerked as a club hit her head, sending her sprawling.

Without [Moon’s Descent] active, Iona was a regular weight – which, given her size, mass, and equipment was still a few hundred pounds. Light enough for another physical classer to move her with a solid blow.

The pirate’s cries went unnoticed, with all the yelling and screaming – not that Iona could hear a word of that.

Her time was limited though. Iona began the second round of bloody work, fighting her way towards the "town". Most of the pirates were running around, trying to deal with the searing swine and the fire. Those seeing the bloody, flame-lit rampaging Valkyrie descending upon them like the Goddess of War promptly decided that they’d rather go chase the burning pigs. The ones waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over there.

Their organization broken, panic rising, the pirates broke and fled. Iona quickly went through the buildings, making sure that nobody was about to burn to death, then quickly climbed one of the only remaining upright structures. She unslung her bow, preparing for the next stage.

The first shot was a weak [Blizzard Shot] fired straight up, then raining back down on the town. Iona felt somewhat green as a few shards of ice rained down on recently released prisoners, her [Glacial Slow] hitting them and [Vow] being unhappy about the collateral damage. Still, it was for the greater good – smothering the last of the fire so nobody was at risk of burning alive.

Some would say that it wasn’t quite sporting or honorable to shoot fleeing pirates in the back.The Valkyries - and Iona - only had those notions in a dueling arena. Alruna was all about being out in the field, and getting stuff done. She had no time or patience for showy fights that got nothing done – and as a result, neither did Iona.

Arrows in the back of the head it was.

Iona had dropped a dozen pirates, before needing to jerk her head out of the way. A flaming blue sickle passed where her head was, only for the flaming chain it was attached to suddenly stop, and jerk to the side, wrapping Iona up with burning flames.

Has to be Inferno. Fire wasn’t solid. Iona thought, and let herself get pulled off her fragile ledge, [Celestial Armaments] flickering madly as it tried – and failed – to stop the attack from burning her armor.

She landed to the ground with a thud, and saw her attacker. A demon, one hand holding onto the chain, and the other hand ending in a wicked hook – also made out of burning blue flames. She sneered at Iona, full of confidence and looking all-too-smug.

Iona could see the demon’s foul mouth moving, forming words. Probably. Iona was still stone-deaf from earlier.

It was rare to see a demon here. They were Immortals, after all, and the Treaty of Kyowa mostly banned their presence in mortal lands. Not that it stopped criminals, and this demon was young, and low-leveled. Not strong enough, not causing enough of a disturbance to get the Wardens called.

Iona wasn’t into banter, so she quickly scanned the demon’s stats. [Blue Flames], [Weapon Creation], and [Move like a Wildfire] were the important ones, and Iona noted that the stat distribution had the demon like a speedster more than anything else. She flipped up, yanking the demon closer as she overcame her stance and weight, then grabbed the chain, flexing to break the bonds.

The demon’s mouth briefly opened up in surprise as Iona yanked the chain, bringing the demon along for the ride. Small flames erupted around her feet, but while in the air there was nowhere to jump off of, nowhere to go.

And Iona was faster, thanks to [Vow].

Iona finished reeling the demon into her grasp, and she quickly and efficiently broke her neck, letting her drop to the floor as the kill notification dinged.

System notifications were extra-weird when Iona couldn’t hear anything else.