Skull and Dagger

Some instinct told Frank to duck right before the shot was fired. The gunpowder impacted on the foe that had been sneaking up behind him, and the raider fell to the deck, his eyes dead. Frank took advantage the gunman’s surprise to slash at his ankles. The man fell to the ground in pain, and a quick stab was all it took to end his life.

Unfortunately, two more of the foreign pirates quickly took his place.

Frank barely had time to scramble to his feet before he was besieged once more. He easily parried his two foes’ blades before making a strategic retreat. With a quick jump, he caught hold of the rigging above him, hoisting himself up and to safety.

Below him, four of the enemy followed his ascent.

Frank's brow furrowed for a minute at the intensity of the attack. Elsewhere on deck, his men were quickly outnumbering the enemy. An unusual number of the attackers were chasing him, given how poorly they were faring elsewhere. In fact, if he didn’t know better, he would have sworn they were after him personally…

A one-eyed pirate caught him right as he reached the main mast, and he was able to deftly slip behind the wooden beam before the blade could strike him. A quick lunge, and the opponent was falling from the rigging to plunge into the ocean.

Not pausing for a moment’s rest, Frank climbed for the crow’s nest, the other three men still hot on his trail. He reached the sanctuary without a second to spare and finally was able to get the advantage over his attackers.

The smartest of the three slipped down the rigging to safety. The other two didn’t have the balance or firm footing to effectively attack him, and both quickly met their watery graves.

He chased after the fourth, not wanting the man to make a surprise drop down onto any of his crewmen. They met down on the mast yet again, and Frank was surprised to find that this one was actually quite an excellent swordsman.

The exchanged a quick series of feints and lunges, all while hovering forty feet over the perilous waters below.

A quick parry and redouble, and his opponent’s blade knicked his arm, drawing first blood.

“Ha!” the other man reveled in his victory…

Only to be caught off guard when Frank's next lunge was followed quickly with a dagger to the heart.

“You fight well,” Frank said with a small smile as dawning realization shone in the other man’s eyes, “but you forgot one thing…”

The man gave him a curious, disbelieving look.

“There is a reason I am called ‘the Bloody’,” Frank said in a cold, formal tone that belied his usual rough accent. And, with that, he sent his final attacker plunging down into the deep sea.

His head turned abruptly at the sound of gunfire impacted less than ten feet above him, and he looked down to see the sniper speared through the back, his aim thrown off by…

“Thought you were dead, mate,” Frank sighed in relief, quickly sliding back down the rigging to guard his first mate’s back.

Gerard gave him a catlike smile and pushed his drenched bangs back from his forehead. “Unlike some people,” he said with a wry chuckle, “I have the common sense to duck out of the line of fire.”

Frank laughed at that before the two of them returned to battle…