No sooner had the duo picked themselves off the floor that the source of all of their problems within the harbor town arrived. Ruby had spotted the frogwoman swimming seconds before she appeared out of the water and began her padded walk towards them.

  {“Two mermaids to contend with. Tell me, why did you choose to pick this pce to weave your evil spells and kill my tribe?”}

  Initially watching the frogdy get closer, Ruby stepped in front of Nerice and withdrew her namesake and held it by her forearm. Looking for some sort of weakness to exploit Ruby studied her adversary closely.

  Standing a few inches shorter than Ruby, the frogwoman had blue-green slick and slimy skin that shimmered all the colors of the rainbow as she walked forward. Adorning the top of her head were a set of lidded shimmering purple eyes that stared at the couple sardonically. Her arms and legs bore the shape of a human-frog hybrid with her thighs almost as wide as her body for jumping, and her arms a tad thinner due to the use of magic. Adorning the ends of her legs and arms, were mustard yellow webbed hands and feet, complete with pearl-like orange spheres.

  {“Why would a pair of mermaids pick the ndwalkers over us, a peaceful people, hummm?”}

  Stopping at a safe distance from her advisories, the frogwoman pnted a whalebone and pumice staff topped with a perfect ball of kyanite in front of her, the staff glowing as green as the rune on her right bulbous hand.

  With a soft tap of assurance on Ruby’s shoulder, Nerice confided in Ruby quickly.

  {“Tanya, Look at the rest of her. I suspect she is a mage of some talent since she did summon that kraken and is currently controlling it while she is standing there. Perhaps you should try and get to her fnk?”}

  Fighting the urge to stand right where she was in order to protect Nerice, Ruby Kept looking for weaknesses in the frogwoman’s defenses. Noting that the creature’s arms and legs were covered in an oceanic version of armor, it took Ruby a few seconds to put what each piece was made from. Form-fitting maroon lobster shells had been strapped onto the woman’s biceps, forearms down to her thighs. Her shoulders and shins had the same shells, except they had spikes somehow attached to them for greater defense.

  -She uses her legs for her total advantage. Can push off and sm her shoulders into her enemy, or powerfully kick with her legs to shatter skin and bone with her shins. Smart.-

  Ruby reflected to herself and then sent the information with a mental visual to Nerice who simply nodded. Once Ruby had been convinced and heard Nerice clicking her tongue for bearings and a ‘visual’ of the area she resumed her careful study of her opponent. An exceptionally hard and form-fitting turtle shell protected the frog from its neck to its waist, where its armor shifted once more into horseshoe crab shells that draped over her hips. Completing the frogdy’s look, Ruby counted two twin whale-skinned bags that she assumed held either food or the means to cast more spells and the headdress made of sea kelp and interwoven with chunks of red-orange coral which were combined with pink fiments and allowed little pieces of kyanite to hang down like little teardrops.

  {“Let’s get something straight, madame frog.”}

  Ruby started to answer the opposing woman’s question, and broke the shaft off of her trident creating a makeshift trident dagger.

  {“First, I am still mostly human. Second, we went ashore and were attacked by some of your scouts without provocation.”}

  Nerice ughed manically and interrupted Ruby.

  {“I taught my dymate how to turn all of you frogs into soup. You are going to taste the best; your legs are so thick. I can’t wait to tear the muscle from bone…maybe while you y there and scream.”}

  Completing her purposeful taunt of the mage across from her, Nerice smiled and waited for the frogwoman to state the obvious.

  {“So, you’re the one. Killer of communities, a psychopathic mermaid all in blue. Blue is supposed to be the noble color, one that is compassionate.”}

  Lifting her green glowing hand, the frogmage waved her hand around, apparently forming a spell in her mind.

  {“So tell me, murderer, how have you betrayed your colors?”}

  Clicking to ensure her distance was as accurate as possible, Nerice got a light shimmering image that formed in her mind that outlined her opponent.

  {“I wasn’t always blue. Kyanite poisoning has changed my scales…and you have a great deal of it I pn to take and feed on.”}

  Vowing to ask Nerice ter about her former scale color, Ruby kept her calm demeanor even though she felt the excitement of a fight about to begin. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and Ruby was briefly reminded about her time onboard ships swinging from rope to rope in order to reach her enemy's ship and tear down its canvas before she’d reach the main deck and fight with the crew. Sometimes shooting them, more often stabbing them with her hungry dagger. A slight movement of the frogwoman’s hand brought Ruby from her murderous past and into the present just in time to see the green glow emanate and then rocket out a small ball of crackling energy that once traveled a couple of feet split into multiple balls and arced towards both Nerice and herself. “Watch-” Ruby tried to warn Nerice but her dymate had already been in motion.

  Sensing the ozone change in the air that fshed through Nerice’s nose, the blind woman simply smiled and sent a set of concentric rings of her own magic through the air that in effect captured the balls of lightning as they broke apart and tried to hit the two mermaids. “Tanya, now.” Nerice confidently urged her pirate lover to attack.

  A warm pulse from her dagger and Ruby decided to pull a tadpole pod from her little bag and pour it over the bde. When she heard the liquid hiss and turn her bde bck, Ruby knew for certain that the bde was ready to feed and destroy. Rather than bolting straight for her enemy, Ruby had been in enough combat to use her superior dexterity to her advantage and make herself look like she was going one pce and ending up in another. Deciding on a pattern that double-backed for her approach, Ruby ran right in a semicircle in an attempt to appear like she was going to attack the frogwoman’s runed hand. Just before Ruby would have to commit fully to her feigned move, Ruby cartwheeled to the left and shed out with her trident dagger, aiming for the frog’s protected hips. Hyperfocused on her intended target, Ruby didn’t anticipate that her enemy was in fact monitoring the situation carefully and managed to swing her staff and sent a wave of green glowing water from her staff that swept under Ruby’s feet as she nded. When the intended attack went wild, Ruby slipped on the water and managed to hook the trident dagger through one of the straps of her enemy’s leather bag and it jerked the weapon free of her hand. “Shit!” Ruby excimed and found herself on her butt still spinning in the water when bad suddenly became worse. She watched at the slippery water she was doused in, rose up and began squeezing her as though an invisible hand were closing tightly across her chest.

  {“Ner…ice..”}

  Ruby desperately called as her body rebelled from not being able to breathe.

  {“Can you get me out of this shit?”}

  Ruby begged and somehow forced herself into one st big breath before the water rose over her neck.

  {“Nerice? Love, this is getting … I can’t move, damnit.”}