Canterlot Academy Trials

Meanwhile, on one of the other boats nearby…

Mio had already boarded one of the enemy vessels with a simple 1911-style handgun. Once aboard, he dodged the gunfire of the rifles fired by the crewmen with his swift, cat-like reflexes. He hid behind one of the machine gun turrets on the boat’s rear before poking his head out to take a quick, single shot--

Bang.

The caracal who had been firing at him went down from the well-placed shot Mio sent to their shoulder. He then ran up to the gangster and kicked their weapon aside before ducking under a shot from a sniper rifle!

“Yikes!”

It was fired from Irina from on top of the ship itself. The black jaguar she-cat smirked and called out to him. “Heyo! Looking for someone?”

“Yeah!” Mio hissed as he pointed his pistol at her, “I need to see your boss! Where is he?!”

“...who? Ooooh! You mean Odu!” she snickered with a snort, “Yeah, he’s not here. Sawreeee!” she apologized with a patronizing tone.

“Wait what--?!” Mio flicked his tail, “Are you kidding me?!”

Irina cackled, nearly falling off the side of the boat as she held onto her rifle. “Haaaah! You think we were actually gonna bring you our leader on a silver platter? How dumb do you think we are?”

“...if he’s not here, then where is he?” Mio asked, narrowly closer to pulling the trigger.

“...If you can beat us, I’ll tell ya,” Irina snickered as she raised her gun again, “But I have a feeling you won’t like the answer, Crown Prince!” She fired off a shot which forced Mio to take cover behind the turret once more. “Come out and plaaaaay~”

Mio gave another hiss, then a purr of frustration as he counted his ammo. ‘...12 left. I need to make these count. If Odu isn’t here, then we need to find out where he is as soon as possible. They played us like a goddamn orchestra.’ His thoughts were interrupted with a twitch of his ears towards the sounds of heavy blows landing. “...Hm?”

On the boat next to the one Mio was on…

Rudy could be seen engaging in a fierce fistfight with a panther man--it was Gwin. Irina’s partner and the commander of that particular vessel!

Specifically, the panther man was actually making more use of knee and leg strikes akin to Muay techniques learned from the Siamese region whereas Rudy had a rather unconventional style reminiscent of Savate from Prance.

The end result was a strong, beefy-looking black-furred cat man slinging slow strikes at a younger, yet speedier white-furred one.

CRACK!

Gwin dealt a swift knee to Rudy’s midsection which sent him flying across the deck of the boat until he recovered and extended the claws on his paws to grip himself into the wood of the deck With a savage hiss, he sprang to action and blitzed towards the black panther on all fours before curling himself up into a ball, rolling, then exiting the curled form with what appeared to be a sweeping kick move that Gwin was prepared to block until--

FWIP!

Rudy flipped onto his hands and wrapped his legs around Gwin’s neck, flipping him over onto his back. The young tom restrained the older tom’s arm by pulling it behind him and and putting Gwin in a textbook arm-bar style wrestling hold.

“Grrrgh…” Gwin grumbled under his breath as he hit the deck of the ship. The sensation of his arm being twisted by the younger tom had hurt his pride as much as it was hurting his shoulder. “You’re stronger than you look. I’ll give you that, boy…”

“You’re off your rockah if you think I’m gonna let you do as you please you git!” Rudy hissed in return while twisting the panther’s arm further and stomping his foot against Gwin’s head. “Now tell me where your boss is!”

“...I can tell you where he isn’t,” Gwin reported with a grunt as he was pushed down.

“What’re you playing at?”

“He’s not here,” Gwin continued, “That’s what I mean. You goody-paws and your bleeding hearts have been played like a fish in a barre--DAGGH!”

CRRRACK!

With a fierce twist, Rudy dislocated the panther’s arm to disable him for the time being. Then he got up, and noticed that Mio was under heavy fire thanks to Irina’s high-caliber sniper shots.

“Shite! Hang on, bruv!” With a single bound, Rudy leapt from one boat to the other…

All the while, Irina was cackling to herself while closing in on Mio’s position. The jaguar lady purred with amusement, “Yourrrr’re not getting anywhere by hiding, little pussyb--!”

The wind was knocked out of her by Rudy entering the fray by kicking her in the face so hard that her neck contorted and twisted from her left to her right as a trail of blood and a few teeth were dislodged from her lips as she fell into the water.

Rudy landed on the deck and looked over at Mio’s position. “Oi. You alright, mate?”

“No worse for wear,” Mio commented as he peeked out and took a breath of relief as he adjusted his glasses, “But apparently Odu isn’t present with this fleet at all. We need to apprehend everyone here and take them back for questioning immediately.”

With a confident purr and a flick of his tail, Rudy tapped his fist upon his chest, “Not a problem, mate. I think we’ll--!”

SHINK!

“AAARGH!”

Rudy screamed as a harpoon’s spear was lodged through the back of his right shoulder. The source was from the nearby boat and the harpoon device used to take down large fish was being operated by Gwin with his undamaged hand.

Mio had tried to grab ahold of his fellow soldier, but he was pulled backwards by the harpoon’s rope, barely hanging on with his claws dug into the wood of the ship’s deck.

“RUDY! Hang on, I got you!”

“FFFFUCK! This smarts!” Rudy cried out from the pain as blood spilled below him thanks to the spear shot through his shoulder, the flesh of his arm squished along the bone as the boat Gwin was on started to turn away from them, threatening to pull Rudy off the boat entirely!

“Son of a bitch, he’s trying to pull you off!” Mio hissed as he tried to dislodge the harpoon from Rudy’s arm, but it slowly ripped away at the Rex tom’s arm to the point of no return. “No…no I’m not letting this happen!” Mio took a few shots at the harpoon’s steel rope, but to no avail. He then tried clawing and biting through the cable, but nothing came of that either. It was seemingly indestructible…

“Grrgh! Spark it! Don’t worry about me!” Rudy insisted as he was dragged further and further off the boat with a panicked mewl as he grit his teeth and looked at Mio in the eyes, “It’s not coming out, dammit! Finish the mission!”

Mio grabbed ahold of Rudy’s shoulders, “I’m not letting you suffer this! What would your little sister say if she--?!”

“Abandon me or we both die!”