"Y/n!" Carlos called, shooting a smoke bomb into the air with a slingshot.

"Got it!" the girl answered, shooting it down with an arrow so it landed in the midst of the pirates, covering their field of visions with blue fog. Her heart somewhat soared with the thought that Carlos trusted her so much but she didn't focus on that as the pirates quickly got out of the fog and were ready to fight in a matter of seconds.

Carlos fired a few more smoke bombs which exploded upon impact to the masts and needed no more guidance.

When the pirates rushed toward the group, Mal and Lonnie didn't waste any time to run to meet them, holding up a few completely on their own so there were less that got to those who were a bit more towards the back.

Y/n kept keeping to the background, partly because Asher had hurriedly commanded her to do so and partly because she could keep an eye on the situation from there, covering the others' blind spots with nailing — or arrowing — their enemies to their spots when needed.

However, that meant that there was no one particularly keeping an eye on her blind spots, allowing Harry to sneak up on her and grab her arrows from the pouch behind my back. Before she could react, he easily snapped them in half. It was lucky he hadn't taken the bow, hanging around Y/n's back.

Hurriedly, Y/n took the sword that she had left on her side just in case and started duelling with him, still looking at the arrows. That was the finest Northern wood! Incredibly flexible, smooth and easy to aim! I can't believe he—

"You're too distracted, princess," Asher pointed out, suddenly back-to-back with the girl.

"Good to see you, too," the princess of the North commented and they rounded so Asher was facing Harry now (as he was the trained soldier-to-be between the two of them) and Y/n was facing his previous opponent, a girl a few years younger than her and a clear amateur in sword fighting.

It didn't take long for Y/n to knock her sword out of her opponent's hand but that's when it was revealed that the girl was skilled in martial arts. Thus, her own sword was also quickly wrung out of her hand and thrown to the side (though the other girl would've had an advantage over Y/n, had she used it), leaving the princess to defend herself by ducking and stepping to the side. Unfortunately, her foot slipped at an attempt of doing the latter and Y/n found herself dangling from the bridge, her heart racing in her ears.

The situation was not to be praised. The girl was leading Y/n a merry dance, making her constantly shift her body weight from one hand to another as she had to keep switching their positions to not get her fingers stepped on. At the same time, Asher was easily holding off Harry. But still not easily enough to turn around and pull his friend up.

So she had to look for another way out, her fingers slowly starting to hurt from the constant pressure. A level of stairs below her was Carlos, currently pretty much unoccupied as he had just pushed a pirate into the water Y/n was not too far away from falling into.

"Carlos!" the girl called out. Carlos snapped to look up at the frantic girl.

At the same time, her opponent took the chance and stepped on her fingers, making the princess let go with a yelp.

Y/n fell through the air, feeling her heart rate pick up. And then she skidded to a stop in the midst of it all, Carlos' hands wrapping around hers and pulling her up, the effort making him stumble back and thus making Y/n stumble into him.

The boy was quick to brush Y/n's hair out of her face, concern reflecting out of his eyes as he quickly observed her face. "Are you okay?"

Heart still in her throat, Y/n couldn't answer. Instead, she stuffed her face into his chest, whispering a thank you.

Carlos placed a comforting hand on top of her head, tightening his embrace for a moment before letting go and looking at the girl with a small smile. "Come on, let's help the others and get out of here."

Y/n nodded determinedly, her heart still racing. "Yeah, let's do it."