He was possibly the largest man that Jim had ever seen. He was clad in leather armour, and furs, with red paint over the top half of his face, and bleeding from a large wound in his exposed chest. His arms were covered in mismatched metal plates extending uover his shoulders preotecting his head. On his right hand was a hatchet, strangley small for such a large man, but Jim assumed most of his damage was done with his large, rough and brutal hands. Swollen knuckles from recent fistfights or pummelling. His axe was in his right hand, twirling around his fingers; a practiced trick feigning skill in the absence of actual skill or formal training. He saw Jim as he emerged from the smoke and stopped, turning to face him. Meeting eyes for a brief moment he started stomping over before breaking into a clumsy run, axe raised above, beginning a curling swing at Jim's head. As he closed the distance Jim went for his sword but mistimed the draw, and had to duck under the swing, weaving back and to the left. As the giant realised he had missed his axe flew over Jim's head to the right, he snarled and drew his arm back to his left, hoping to land a backswing. Jim leaned back as it came and put his hand to his sword again, feeling the sharp swing of the axe brush through the air in front of his face. His arm raised above his head once again curling off to the right, telgrpahing his swing. Jim drew his sword and met the blow with a high swing to the left cathing the axe at the top of the hilt and loosing it from the man's grasp. The axe sailed overboard into the sea spray. As the brute watched it disappear Jim brought the sword to bear in a backswing of his own and slashed his throat. The raider clutched his neck and dropped to his knees, before spluttering and landing on all fours. Jim watched the man wretch, try to draw a breath and cough once again before he looked up at Jim. Jim turned away and left the man to die.
As he turned he flicked his sword in his hand and sent blood onto the deck, to be met with the wall of smoke starting to dissipating. As the smoke started blowing away, Jim began to see the chaos unfurl in front of him. The deck was absolute mayhem. Jim found himself at the helm as the smoke faded, and saw Nichols desperately trying to steer from port to starboard.
"You're doing great Nichols, keep it up!" He yelled as the young man nodded and went back to his task. As he turned back he spotted a group of four raiders moving towards him pointing and gesturing to go to him. He realised he was still dressed in his formals, and they recognised him as the captain, which he technically was. Behind them he could see the small group of riflemen firing in volleys with Ash at the centre keeping the fight going, and every other crewman was engaging in combat, outnumbering the attackers but being outmatched, desperately fighting for their lives. Jim raised his sword in a guard and stood firm with a side facing stance. Two of the men carried swords, the girl had a pair of hatchets and another, the largest, had a two handed axe. They ran at him in a staggered line, one behind the other. The first came with an overhead two handed swing for his head. Jim instinctively raised his sword above him to block the blow and deflected the blow to his left while moving right, as the sword slipped off of his own he brought it own down aiming for the nape of the neck. He felt warm blood splash his hand and face as the first died immediately. The next swordsman aimed low for his front foot as he resumed his stance. Jim stepped back and cut the arm of his opponent deep at the forearm, forcing the enemy to drop his weapon and stumble back in pain. The screeching woman with the axes jumped and brought both axes down in another overhead attack. He blocked the blow as before but the axe blades were wrapped around his sword. He allowed the weight to fold his sword over his right side, trapping her weapons under his blade and slashing at her throat with all his strength, cutting her neck open. Her eyes went wide before she fell hard on her back, in total shock. The final foe wielded the axe in two hands, swinging it around gaining momentum for a massive strike. As he came forth for an attack Jim parried the weapon aside, allowing it smash into the wooden decking and punched first with his left hand, and then hard with his hand gaurd opening a large gash in his enemy's eyebrow, though he kept hold of the axe. Screaming he dragged the axe from the deck and swung hard at Jim's head. Using the same duck and weave as before Jim moved back and left, staying low, and cut at the legs of his enemy severing one of them at the knee and cutting deep into the thigh of the other. Blood ran thick onto the slick deck, and the man collapsed hard onto his remaining knee.
He opened his mouth as he saw Jim raising his sword and said one word, stopping Jim in his tracks.
"Please." He shouted, tears his eyes and pain in his face. Jim, stunned, lowered his sword and looked at him, awaiting some beg for reprieve.
"Make it quick," was the only response. Jim swung his sword up with both hands and brought it around hard to the left, and cut his head clean from his shoulders. The body twitched and swayed before Jim kicked the chest and it fell awkwardly onto the wood with barely a sound.
