A somber silence hung over the crew of the Britannia as the rising smoke from the besieged port of Antega began to fade over the horizon. The ship continued to steadily lurch back and forth as they closed in towards their alternate destination, though the worried glances the crew all shared with each other spoke volumes of their ill fated venture.

“Captain!” One of the crewmen along the ship's starboard cried out suddenly. “Malgrior! Just over into the distance!" He called, pointing towards its general direction. The captain stepped up along the poop deck with a telescope already against his eye.

“Aye, Can’t be but an hour longer out at this distance," he paused long enough to look over at his crew, and explained with a tired sigh, “We’ll keep a wide berth around the coast; the waters can be a bit choppy around this time of year.”

“Captain!” Troy spoke up in irritation “We have lost enough time as it is, not to mention we are heading to the wrong port. If there is any way that you can get us there faster, then I insist you take it.”

The captain and his crew looked at the Radasanth delegation member as though he had just grown a second head. The captain's weather worn brows began to crease as he hesitated over his words for a brief moment. “Beggin your pardon sir, but that's the Aegis cliff between the port and us. We just can’t go and rush past the cliffs into port at full sail, there’d be nothing left of the ship to go home in.”

The delegation member remained unmoved as he raised his own sandy coloured brow in question “Can it be done?”

Again, the Captain hesitated to answer. “Aye, I know a way. Blockade runners and smugglers would skirt around the cliff's edge, but doing so would be a considerable risk to the ship and my crew.” He answered very reluctantly.

Troy turned his back to stare at the port. “Then proceed. The longer we take getting there, the greater possibility of everything going disastrously wrong.”

He turned only long enough to stare at the captain from over his shoulder. “Did we already not agree that any damage sustained will be paid for in full?”

The captain quietly mumbled something under his breath. He shuffled from side to side, in time with the vessel cresting the waves, and fixed his eyes from the delegation member to Malgrior and back again.

He gave out one last reluctant sigh before straightening his posture and calling out to the crew. “Make ready for full sail! We’ll need speed and our wits about us to get through this in one piece.” The orders were given with conviction, much to the dismay of the sailors. They looked at each other in worry.

Umbra looked over towards Troy with an air of distaste welling up from within. Even as the valiant crew of the Britannia moved about the deck in accordance to the captain's orders, the Mercenary contemplated throwing the man overboard along with the contract that bound them to his will.

Might have to get into a line for that. Umbra observed as there was no shortage of people that gave the stoic man a look of utter contempt. The mercenary approached the currently less-than-impressed co-leader of the brotherhood while holding onto a piece of rope that had been tied to the main mast.

“You might want to hold onto this.” Umbra offered “And hopefully the little lady finds somewhere safe below deck for what is to come.”

"I hope she likes the sea," Shinsou replied, gritting his teeth as he bound the rope around his forearm to secure himself, "Because thanks to that clown, if she stays down there, she'll be seeing plenty of it soon. Someone better get her above deck before she gets killed."

The ship lurched heavily towards starboard as its sails were fully unfurled. The Britannia quickly picked up speed, blowing through the waves that attempted to push it to shore. They closed in alongside a worryingly large amount of jagged stone that, for a brief moment, seemed to loom above them as they teetered ever so daringly close.

Umbra’s knuckles whitened as their grip tightened around the safety rope; their iron sabatons raking across a length of the deck as it listed at a steep forty five degree incline. The captain hissed a curse and reached over to aid the helmsman from avoiding steering them directly into the hazardous rock formation.

An errant wave almost ended them at that moment, as the top of the main mast came within only meters of colliding with a rocky outcrop shaped like a bulwark of spears rising from the ocean floor. A lantern that hung off the back of the ship's poop deck was torn off completely as the hull groaned in complaint, scraping along the reef hidden below the waves before the ship gave an almighty shudder.

Eternity held its breath as the moment lingered for an age. The Brittannia cleared the hazard with nought but the port dangerously close up ahead. “We're going too fast! One-quarter Sail! And get ready to drop the anchor, we’ll try to come to a full stop right on top of that pier” The captain ordered.

“Oh shi- Captain! Demons, on the Pier!” another crewman yelled out in alarm.

“Damn it!” The captain huffed under his breath as he stepped away from the helm to give Troy a ‘told you so’ look. “Looks like Malgrior fares little better!”

Troy didn’t answer and instead looked upon the rapidly approaching pier with a look of contempt. “Enough is enough. Captain, bring us into port” he said venomously and looked at Umbra directly.

“Umbra, you're up, secure the pier!”

Though at odds with being treated as the delegation's own private hound, Umbra would not deny that the order was not an unpleasant one. Umbra released the safety rope and reached for the hilt of the weathered and battered bastard sword at their hip in one fluid motion as the vessel bore down upon the pier.

“Drop the anchor!” The captain yelled from behind as the mercenary strode over to the railing at the bow of the ship. A quick glance down gave no hint to suggest that the Brittannia would be able to come to a full stop before slamming into the stone pier, though watching the fate of the ship was discarded in favour of engaging a contingent of demon soldiers that were hastily rushing down the length of the pier to meet them.

Umbra unsheathed their sword in response and stood atop the railing, before calmly stepping off.

Umbra dropped from the bow of the ship like an iron weight towards the demon at the fore of the contingent, a large burly thing with a pig-like face. They had not even spotted the iron clad warrior fall until Umbra was atop the pig demon feet first and drove it backwards into the ground with a pained squeal of detest until darkness claimed its consciousness.

Umbra stepped off of its face without missing a beat and swung the length of the sword atop their shoulder as they eyed at who or what was left. Five gruesome grotesque monstrosities hissed out their displeasure, their red hued skin littered spikes and chitinous protrusions and their visible bare muscles gave no doubt that these creatures were from a wholly different realm. They were clothed only by the barest of threads, with no sign of any type of armour. Supposedly the demon that resembled a pig with too many tusks acted as a leader or general, being the only one that had been armed and armoured. Though, these impish looking fiends were not entirely defenseless either. Umbra noted. What may have once counted as their fingers had been warped and twisted into menacing bladed talons, and their sharpened teeth gleamed menacingly upon their lipless faces.

Umbra had little time to reflect on the nature of these demons as the bow of the Britannia failed to come to a stop in and continued unabated, colliding into the stone landing and shaking it to its foundations. Its hull groaned in protest as momentum continued to carry the ship further along the pier, splintering and snapping its wooden husk into several pieces until it came to a thunderous stop. The vessel lurched atop the wharf like a beached whale, buckled from bow to stern along its starboard. Its underbelly was gutted open and from the wound spilled precious cargo, loose from the supply hold.

One of the demons charged under the cascading failure of the hull's integrity when it sensed that the warrior was distracted. Claws swept in from above at what it had thought was a defenceless target, its claws swiped at nothing but air as Umbra glided to it’s left, swinging their sword downwards to cut through flesh and bone until the demon's head and arms were sundered from the rest of its body.

The four demons that were left released an inhuman shriek, and snapped forwards as one to tear their prey apart. Red lightning flashed up along the mercenary’s legs and in the next instant Umbra stood behind the pack with their back towards them.

Another set of claws came sweeping in from a particularly observant demon, whilst the others stared ahead in confusion at their target’s sudden apparent disappearance. Umbra spun on their heel and battered the demon's claws to one side with the flat side of the weathered sword, and followed through with a kick that caught the imp squarely in the chest and sent it tumbling off to one side.

The third demon, after hearing the commotion, turned to meet Umbra’s gauntlet. As it connected, it broke both tooth and bone with a crunch. But just as another began to turn around, Umbra seized the one with the broken jaw by the face and swung it head first with a tremendous force into the third, knocking them both down to the ground in a heap.

Umbra looked up at the fourth demon still standing as it pounced upon them with savage glee, only to be met mid-flight by the broken hilt guard of Umbra’s bastard sword. It wedged deep into the demon's eye socket with a sickening squelch.

And now that they are down Umbra mentally checked off as the two dazed impish fiends slowly started to regain their senses. Umbra fell upon them as they drove the weathered blade through the forehead of one and stomped down upon the other with their iron sabaton, feeling only a muted crunch underfoot.

With no sign of reinforcements, Umbra turned to what remained of the port city of Malgrior. Although it was considerably smaller than Antega, the damage was no less extensive. The stench of smoke and burned flesh lingered in the air as though death itself had descended upon the lives of those who once lived here. Umbra’s gaze lingered up the blood-stained steps that led into town as the sounds of screams echoed in the distance.

The demon that had been kicked to one side charged towards Umbra with an unholy rage. Umbra regarded the demon with revulsion before slamming their iron pauldron into the demon's path, knocking it back down to the ground in a senseless heap.

The mercenary spared one last glance to the broken remains of the Brittannia and the sailors moving around atop its splintered deck. Umbra felt that they would be ok for the time being and reached down, grabbing the demon by the back of its neck and dragging its limp weight towards the center of town.