Thread: Open Skies, Smoking Guns(Myself x F R O S T)

Mercury's golden eyes watched the tide of the battle turned - so far things had been playing out admirably, replacements for dead crew were expensive and always needed to be put in their place lest they step on mercury's tail or something equally insulting and need to be replaced themselves. With the their leader lying on the deck with his lifeblood rapidly gushing from the torn vein caused by the dragon's savage bite morale was plummeting in the enemy, those who had seen the act had already taken several steps back with looks of horror on their faces. Mercury couched over his fallen foe, resisting the urge to feed on the warm body, but his curiosity overcame his bloodlust and his golden eyes moved to the neko who had assisted him then the rest of the crew as they pushed the defenders below decks. A fanged smile touched the dragon's handsome face, watching fear and awe ripple through the enemy crew he never would get tired of seeing that reaction in humans or their kin. The creature stood soon after, glancing left and right at the enemy soldiers. Those who had witnessed his deed stared in horror, others scrambled for the hatches. The dragon stretched languidly while watching the humans rush below deck, those smart enough to surrender being rounded up at the mercy of the boarding pirates. A glance at the neko who had assisted him informed the dragon that she had survived the battle, and he turned to offer her a slight nod of his head, blood still dripping from his chin, claws and tail spotting on the deck where they fell. Despite his fearsome stance the dragon did still flinch when the gunship belonging to the greenbacks exploded. The expression was actually almost cute, wings tensing and tail whipping the deck hard enough to split the timbers, a fanged grimace striking his face before while his vision snapped to the descending ship before he immediately glanced around and snarled at anyone who looked at him. Most of the crew knew better than to mock the dragon for this skittishness around explosives. He almost died in one one of those explosions after all when that bastard 'dragon hunter' took his treasured horde and left him for dead, broken and wounded in the rocks. If the captain he served had not found him he would have died there for sure. Luckily it seemed most of the others had also been staring into the explosion and missed his startled reaction. He did regain his composure quickly enough though there was a new pink tint to his pale cheeks when he checked on his companions on the boarding party. He did quickly dismantle the officer's hand and wiped his bloody claws on his uniform and claimed the sword as his prize before turning to a fellow boarder who had the audacity to give him an order, sneering at him. Watch your tone, mammal. He cast a sideways glance at the boarder in question, still slightly irritated from his own reaction to the gunship's explosion. He also made a point to only take orders from the captain and even then she seemed to know how to get him to comply pretty easily, other crew members might be smart enough to offer suggestions, but he was already fairly irritable, though the boarder's suggestion made sense. He also cast a rather piercing stare at the neko when he noticed her pillaging the corpse of one of his kills, namely the officer who commanded the soldiers on deck. He let that one slide however, as she had assisted him in that fight and though he would prefer to add any possible treasures to his new horde it was unlikely that he would ever use such a treasure with his talons and the anthropocentric design of firearms. He did still huff at her and gestured to her and several other of the crew to follow him, turning and flicking his tail towards the boarder who offended him, aiming to splatter him with some of the blood from his tail as he passed by, part playful and part spiteful. Dragons tended to be a little like cats that way With the deck cleared of soldiers, it was easy to explore the merchant ship without any hindrances. Mercury could have taken to the clouds in order to find a weakness down below but that meant that he would have to face anyone inside alone, which he was not thrilled to do... This of course meant that the dragon folded his wings on his back and took his time gazing around the deck of the ship to find one of the weaker spots in the floor. Some ships had metal plating and prying the plates off would be difficult, however near the bow of the ship was a crew hatch that lead below decks, meant for engineer access and locked and secure with only a couple bolts and a padlock. Mercury stooped and examined the hatch for a couple moments, glancing at the neko who had assisted him earlier. Thank you by the way, for the covering fire He said, softly, pulling gently at the padlock and attempting to get his talons under the edge of the hatch, tail occasionally whipping behind him as he grew frustrated, eventually he gave up and stood, the look on his face communicating that he was about to do something drastic - a look that signaled the party with him to take cover. Mercury was young for a dragon, a whelp compared to some of the older and more legendary dragons that the sheer name of made soldiers leap from their ships. Ta'lan, whos molten breath had turned hundreds of warships into molten slag and Tessia, who enjoyed convincing ship captains to fly straight into her deadly storms, the siren as they called her. Elder Quicksilver Dragons were even rumored to be able to cut ships in half with their own breath weapons. Mercury however was quite young, and though formidable had a lot of room to grow. He took a step back and arched his back, opening his mouth wide and inhaling deeply, the only warning the crew would get before he spread his wings and roared. What came out of the dragon's mouth was not fire though, but a stream of scalding white light. The stream burned and scorched the planks and wood, melting metal and charring wood until the stream burnt through the decks below. In the short and sweet time it took the hatch was reduced to cinders and broken blanks and Mercury's legs tensed, leaping up into the air and crashing through the hatch into the decks below, extending his wings to catch the light from above and illuminate the deck below. It seemed to be some sort of galley, but was full of crates. Mercury sniffed the area, not smelling any human sweat or other odor. Its clear He shouted up to those above, silently moving behind one of the crates, anticipating the crew to send at least someone to investigate, claws out in case he had to pounce someone.