Anciel took out the knife and slowly put down the bag on the floor.

The green-scaled beast noticed something moving across the room and jumped up onto the crates with inhuman agility.

While it looked down from above, Anciel jumped straight up underneath it and sliced it across the neck!

The reptile dropped its scimitar and held its bloodied neck with both arms, consequently losing its balance and crashing to the floor behind the cargo.

“That’s one down…”

The boy wiped the knife with the beast's clothes and put it into the bag, replacing it with the scimitar.

The sword was heavy enough, yet he could wield it two-handed if needed. The only problem was the size, but he had no alternative alas the knife could only be used in sneak attacks.

He went to the open door, checking left and right before coming out and closing them behind. These were the type of doors that could only be locked from the inside, but with a little trick of his…

The boy closed his eyes and put a palm on the lock, focusing on the mechanism inside. It took a moment, but the lock made a clicking sound and the doors were locked.

“There,” he hoped it will buy him some time before the rest of the robbers find the body and go on high alert.

First he looked down into the river hoping to see his friend but to no avail, then he took the ladder leading to the upper deck, peeking as he reached the opening to check the situation.

The boy's green eyes spread in fear as he witnessed all the humanoid animals. Some of them mammals, some fish, and other birds. There were all kinds and they used their natural advantages to board and take over the whole vessel in a matter of minutes.

The orgriash were dressed in a savage fashion befitting tribal beasts as themselves. Some wore bone necklaces and various other decorations featuring skulls and wicked-looking markings.

Others brandished almost pirate clothes, whilst every one of them had some form of weapons, all depending on their animal attributes and fighting preferences.

An eagle-like orgriash took out his spiked machete and threatened the passengers; “Out with your stuff! An' if we find just one of you hiding something worthy, we will take at least two heads as compensation,” he pointed at two of the passengers who in turn screamed and held each other in fear.

One of the beasts looking like a snake grabbed a purse from a lady and turned its contents upside down into his own bag, hissing; “Tsk! There's nothing here,” it then proceeded to examine the lady's jewelry and took it off by force, “Hmmm... I might take you instead?” his tongue flicked in front her and naturally she collapsed, one hand at the forehead.

“Useless...” the scaly creature went on to rob other people of their valuables, while the rest of the bandits checked each room, forcing passengers out if found. The upper deck was the priority since it housed accommodations for the wealthier, thus it was taken care of first.

Just as Anciel asked himself; 'Doesn't this ride have any guards posted?', two men in blue uniforms, holding their hands on their heads were brought in, stripped of their weapons, and with blades pointed at their backs. Quickly after them, the captain and the first mate followed suit.

“Tie them up. We'll decide what to do with them later,” said the raven, who was obviously the bandit's leader.

Damn, this boat is beyond hope. Better get out of here. No one can help them now...

“We have to help them,” a voice came from above him, water dripping on his face.

“What the- ...Label!” he almost raised his voice but managed a whisper instead, “You're ok... “, Anciel let out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry, I'm late. I had to trick that thing into thinking that I drowned and then I.. well.. drowned IT instead.”

“Here, your clothes. So, what do we do? There are too many of them and it seems for now they haven't hurt anybody yet. Best we flee while we still have our things intact, less it will be a short journey...” Anciel assessed the situation reasonably.

“If we leave these people here, how can we become anything more than cowards?” Label's brows furrowed.

“Ahh.. I kind of had a feeling you'll say something like that,” the boy put a hand on his face, “Fine. But keep in mind; 'One has to survive today to be capable of greatness tomorrow.'“

“Who said that?” blondie asked.

“I did,” Anciel climbed up and went behind the corner.

As they closed in on the bandits, they could hear them talking.

“The boat has almost stopped. Our own ship should be here soon. We'll load the cargo then.”

“Excellent. We just need to keep control of the vessel until then.”

The boys looked at each other; “We haven't got much time. We gotta' get the ship going if we're to escape with everyone.”

The boys made their way up to the roof. The orgriash up top had to be dealt with first.

“Here. You might find this more useful,” Anciel handed over the scimitar while preparing the knife backwards in hand once again.

He took the lead up to the roof and while there was no real way up, all it took was one agile swing from his friend and he was at the top. Since assessing the opponents wasn't possible from beneath, he decided to roll with it when he gets up. After all, there won't be too many patrolling up there, he figured.

Label came soon after him, jumping on as if it was child's play. His unusual strength sure came in handy.

There were two bandits up there; one on the other side of the roof behind the chimney; the other one covered in a dark hood.

He saw them as they landed but didn't alarm the others surprisingly enough. It went for his blade instead, only to be jumped by the dark-haired boy who landed on the beast's shoulders and tried to sink his knife into his forehead.

The beast somehow managed to grab the boy's wrist just before getting hit and with his other pair of arms, or should one say 'legs'.

Anciel realized all too late that the orgriash was a spider, he lifted the boy up, hovering him before his face was covered beneath the hood.

He almost screamed after seeing what was hidden behind it. On a black hairy face, a pair of jack-knife fangs and numerous empty eyes stared at him blankly.

The lad kicked him in the face before the beast could attack using its fangs since poison from such a large spider would surely have dire consequences.

After the kick propelled him backward and the spider lost his grip, he backflipped and landed.

The beast wasted no moments and lifted itself up, turning its own rear end towards the boy, shooting a surge of silk at him.

Label jumped and pushed him out of the way in the nick of time, yet he got tangled in his stead.

“Yuck!” he whined while trying to break free, alas his strength was futile in the fight against the spider’s silky web.

Anciel hurried to try and free him, but sticky web hit him as well, not fully but an arm. Still, there was no panic on his face, but a smug grin instead.

After kneeling and closing his eyes, the dark-haired boy put his hands together and focused.

The orgriash was sure he got him and was ready to pull him in, but was instead shocked by a strong electrical discharge.

It fell on the back, with legs curling up in front, most likely as a result of a nervous reaction, giving Anciel the opportunity he needed to finish the job with a swift slash across the spider's neck.

“Whoa! Didn't know you could do that!” Label was shocked.

“There's plenty where that came from,” he first freed his arm, then continued and cut the cocoon that Label was trapped in.

“Just give me a minute to rest okay?” he had gathered some energy to continue, as it seemed this last feat of his left him quite exhausted.

Label nodded and continued on from behind one side of the chimney, hoping to flank the other orgriash. Thank heavens I didn't have to fight the spider, he consoled himself.

Yet after coming around, he noticed his foe is no less frightening.

Oh you gotta' be kidding me!

“Grrrrrrr...” the brown furry beast turned around. It was a full plate armored bear with a horned helmet and a double-bladed, two-handed axe. A sight to behold.

Label had second thoughts after he figured out what he was up against.

The bear responded by charging at him, horns first.

He started to run away towards the edge of the roof, and as soon as the massive beast drew close enough, he stuck the scimitar impaling the roof's surface and thus came to a full stop.

Ducking beneath the swing, he used the bear's momentum to trip him.

The orgriash started to tumble, unable to hold balance with so much armor.

The blond boy charged at him full force, and the beast made another step towards the edge of the roof.

Nevertheless, it turned around with another swing, hitting the boy’s weapon out of his hands. It flew over the edge into the water.

“I’ll crush ye’, twerp!” the orgriash threatened, regaining some of his balance.

He was now unarmed, so he took a deep breath and blew a compressed ball of air at his enemy.

The large beast got pushed a step back, yet it was too heavy to be taken out just like that.

“Anciel, help!” he looked around, alas he was nowhere to be seen.

Darn it!, Label ducked beneath another incoming blade.

“Ye’ are dead!” the bear was just readying for an advance when blondie noticed something…

His friend was hanging on the edge behind the orgriash where he set up a strand of spider web horizontally.

“NOW!” he yelled, giving his friend a sign, as well as providing a distraction for the enemy.

The bear looked behind as expected and Label used the opportunity to charge at him once again, this time tripping him over the web.

Label grabbed the head of the axe and the bear got dazed when hitting the side of the ship. He still wouldn’t let go of the weapon so Anciel cut the wooden handle short, releasing the orgriash into the river with a big splash.

“Well, it seems I found myself an upgrade,” Label put the shortened axe on his shoulder offering his hanging friend a hand.

“Can you even swing that properly?” the raven-haired boy was wondering.

Label took a step back and grabbed the weapon with both hands. He swung it a few times as if to try it out.

“Sure. I'm ready to go,” he grinned proudly.

* * *

“General, someone had killed Armus. Our men found his body in the storeroom,” the snake orgriash reported.

“We have some rats on the ship?” the raven spread his wings, “You know what to do,”  he ordered as he went airborne.

The snake approached the lady from before and put a dagger at her throat shouting; “Listen up! If you're watching from the shadows, come out and surrender. If not, we will kill the hostages, one at a time,” he looked around, hoping the attackers will show themselves.

* * *

“What do we do now?” Label was concerned.

“Hmm... I killed some of them. If we surrender, I doubt we'll be shown mercy.”

“Listen, I'll surrender and you find a way to get help. If they try to hurt me, I'll just roll with it.”

“You'll just roll with it?” Anciel was baffled.

“I'll think of something. It's good as long as they don't know there's two of us.”

“But there's more then two of us,” a voice came from behind.