Captain Sparrow Shortbeard saw the large city on the horizon. He could make out the large white stones in the distance, the moon shining on the surface of the wall. He grinned and took a whiff of his pipe, and he exhaled towards the group of women on his vessel.

Unlike the rest of his crew, these were not lizardmen. Though they had scales running down the side of their face and necks. Not only that, they had fin like structures where their ears should be. Their bodies were a mix of scale and skin, and they had gills on the sides of their chest.

The sirens were all beautiful by human standards, but they didn't arouse any such feelings in Sparrow. Nonetheless, he looked at him as if they were pieces of treasure. He felt incredibly lucky to be graced with these creatures.

Sparrow grinned and gestured towards them. "Ye 'member the deal? If ye sing for us really well, we'll let ye go. Remember that the target is that there city."

The girl that represented the sirens frowned. "With such a large city, it will take a while for our magic to work on them."

"Don't worry, we'll have all night. There not be a chance they'll notice us. We've already slipped through the water empress's barrier, lass."

Naturally, as a water magic user himself, Captain Sparrow would not fall for such a simple barrier. The man looked at the other sirens and noticed their looks of confusion. I guess what that woman said was true.

The siren representative said the rest of them didn't know commoner, so she was the one who spoke for all of them. It didn't matter much to Shortbeard of the Pirate Bay. As long as they did what he told them, none of it mattered. Soon he would be rolling in the riches of the elves, and that was all he cared about.

He let the women talk amongst themselves and joined his most trusted lizard general.

Orlak saluted. "Good evening captain!"

Sparrow patted the general's shoulder. "And a good evening to ye, Orlak." He offered up his pipe towards the general. "Would ye like a hit?"

Orlak shook his head profusely. "No, sir. Such a thing is wasted on me."

The small dwarf raised an eyebrow, not speaking on the topic further. Though, he knew it was likely the lizardmen simply didn't want to experience what he had before.

"Don't worry, pretty soon we'll be bathing in the riches of elves."

Orlak's eyes opened and closed. "Your accent, captain…"

The dwarf shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Only when we get to plundering will I have to care about such things. Those sirens will serve our goals nicely."

"Your plan is a good one, captain, and it will make less work for us. Why waste the lives of lizardmen when you can use up the sirens?"

Sparrow laughed heartily and climbed up the wooden stairs to his captain's wheel. He grabbed two of the prongs with his hands and looked out over the far away city.

The sirens below him started their song, imbuing their voices with magic power.

Sparrow himself had rarely heard a siren's song, so this was a rare opportunity for him. Of course, there was a large chance that the song wouldn't work on many of the elves, but it provided him with the comfort that his job would become easier.

The sirens only had to incapacitate the majority of the citizens, and Sparrow would take on the leader himself. And if all of that failed, he still had an army beneath his feet.

Water drakes and massive serpents swam beneath the ocean's surface. All of them could be considered a calamity themselves, and each of them were strong enough to topple a city on their own. Despite all of that, a strange feeling twisted in the dwarf's gut.

There was this inexplicable feeling of dread. He could feel the empress's strong mana signature, but he didn't believe it was even close to his. Yet that feeling never wavered.

Even with this strange feeling in his gut, he would not stop his plan. If worse came to worse, he would easily be able to escape. He was a dragon after all. His mere presence struck fear into the hearts of mortals. It was what made these sirens go along with his plan in the first place.

Though, it was all convenient. They just happened to be somewhere nearby on the day that I needed them? No, I refuse to believe that is the case.

Sparrow considered the possibility that someone orchestrated the siren's arrival, and he was walking into a trap. However, there was no trap big enough for him. No amount of web spinning would get him stuck. After all, there was no spider that could make a web strong enough to hold a dragon.

He thought back to his three primordial ancestors that were still alive somewhere. Would they seek retribution for what he did? Sparrow didn't think they would. He'd felt the ripples of one recently. Far to the south he'd felt her magic power, yet that still was not enough to give him pause.

Sparrow took another hit from his wooden pipe and tuned out his thoughts. He focused only on the music in front of him, acting as some kind of prelude to his battle. Sparrow only considered the treasures that would await him. Long lived races like elves were bountiful. He was certain to come away with an artifact or two.

Indeed, why worry about such trifle matters? The apple of my eye stands before me, and the time is nigh upon me.

Sparrow started to consider his victory instead. He thought about how much bigger of a ship he would need to add to his already glorious hoard. Perhaps I will need to build a ship as massive as a capital city?

And he had the perfect little future slaves to do it. All of those elves before him could be compelled labor.

Hours passed beneath the moon's light and the light of the glistening stars. The song of the sirens had seemingly worked.

Sparrow gazed through a magic item. While he could simply use his own magic to see long distances, the dragon dwarf found that this long magic tube only added to his aesthetic.

He looked over the docks and saw that several of the little elves had fallen asleep. Their eyes glazed over, and each of them sat around, awaiting their demise.

Sparrow pulled on the ship's wheel, and he channeled his magic down, issuing silent orders. The large serpentine drakes responded with their own happy little shrieks, and the ship moved forwards.

The captain felt his heart pumping in his chest. The joy of his life was upon him. It was the only thing that brought him pleasure anymore from his long existence, and the feeling never waned.

Blue scales started forming along his body, and his eyes turned into slits. The horns on his head grew, and the rest of his body grew with them. Pretty soon, Sparrow had become the object of mortal terror.

He flapped his wings and took to the sky, watching the ship below him inch forwards. He could see the massive drakes beneath the water's surface preparing their magic, and he started preparing his own.

Blue bubbles started forming all around him, each of them larger than the water drakes beneath him. It didn't take him long to form enough bubbles to make his army look pathetic in comparison.

Sparrow grinned and channeled more mana into each of the spherical structures. They moved through the air like slow clouds towards the city. Each of the bubbles finally reached their spot, hovering over the city. Death's harbinger had arrived.

"Now," Sparrow said, his deep voice rumbling on the wind.

All of his bubbles ruptured into an explosion at the same time. The shockwave spread out, and boiling water erupted outwards in all directions.

At the same time, the heads of the serpents surfaced, and they launched their own magic. Several arcs of lightning raced towards the city, and some beams of water joined them on their path.

However, in the distance, another dragon's roar was heard. Above the city, Sparrow saw the flapping of red wings.

One of his own raced towards explosion instead of away from it.

You damn fool, that water will melt your scales.

Even though he had that thought, his gut never lied to him. That feeling in his stomach became even heavier. It was as if he swallowed a mountain of rocks even larger than his hoard pile.

Vibrant red flames formed in an instant, growing to the size of a mountain and swallowing all of Sparrow's magic.

His eyes shot towards the arcs of lightning, racing towards the harbor, but those were also unlucky.

A singular elf stood there in flowing robes. An enormous wall of water stopped most of the projectiles, and some of them continued.

Stone walls crumbled behind her, and several elves were struck by lightning, their lives fleeing the mortal world.

Yet, Sparrow could not be happy about it. The red dragon flapped her wings again, and she stared directly at Sparrow, a fire burning red hot in her eyes.

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