Deciding that their silence was enough of an answer, she considered her situation and how convenient her past abilities would have been had she managed to keep the dragon or werewolf traits, even the Naga would have helped.
But she was no longer a demon or vampire, no longer a chimera. Instead she was mostly harmless creatures and that was more than a little annoying to her in that moment. What good was a sphynx against assassins? Was she going to riddle them to death?
If push came to shove, she would take her chances in the water but that was going to be a last ditch effort. She wasn't sure if she could outswim a shark.
"What was the flame?" Scar Face asked.
"Fire magic," she replied, not knowing why she answered, but he had been polite at least.
He grunted and she realised they were waiting. Looking down, she found the blackness had spread another inch in the moments of their conversation and she pressed at the fire, pleading for it to hurry up.
"I'll give you three wishes if you go away," she offered, the men exchanging amused looks and shaking their heads.
"Worth a try," she breathed and deciding she needed one of their swords, she aimed for scar face, his two wounds and seeming visual difficulties making him the best target in her eyes.
Driving her foot into his raised arm, he deflected it, but hadn't prepared for her to spin and throw her elbow into his temple. Her elbow screamed and he went down.
"Thank you," she quipped as she took the sword from his hand and spun it, aiming it downwards and driving it into the join of his shoulder and neck.
It had taken only a second and the man collapsed onto the deck, his collapse allowing her to drag the sword free and turning on nondescript who had gone for her after she had taken down his companion.
His anger made him erratic and she was easily able to deflect his overhead blow, using the sword to push it up and then to his side. She took advantage and drove her fist into his face, causing him to stagger back.
Turning to the leader, she found his hand coming for her and she turned, not fast enough for his backhand that sent her crashing to the ground.
He was on her in an instant, dropping his knee into her gut and curling his fingers around her throat.
Gasping, she reached out but found the sword to be missing from her side, only barely able to reach it, not enough to grab it.
Her free hand pulled at his fingers and her knee to his back did nothing to dislodge him.
His teeth were bared, furious that she had killed one of his men and his unarmoured fist rose, driving down onto the side of her face.
She was unable to draw in enough breath to try screaming in pain, his armoured fingers crushing her throat and allowing not a single shred of air to enter or escape her body.
Clutching at the sword, the handle taunted her with bare hints of a touch and she strained for it, her head beginning to spin.
Clutching it, she drove the handle into the leader's jaw and he fell off her. Gasping in a breath, she rolled onto her side and shoved herself onto her feet, staggering away from targets, nondescript and the leader as they made to follow her.
Someone's fingers curled in her hair as she reached the stairs, dragging her back and drawing back her head to expose her throat.
The blade against her skin was cold and she went still, panting as she realised it was the unarmed man, holding one of her knives.
"Slit her throat," targets snarled from across the deck, but the leader growled his fury.
"Not yet, I want revenge," the leader hissed.
He stumbled into view and she looked up at him, a small bead of crimson forming where the knife bit into her skin.
The unarmed man, whom she decided should now be dubbed the magic man, given he was no longer unarmed, eased the pressure on her throat so that when the leader drove his fist into her gut, he wouldn't accidentally kill her.
She crumpled under the strong blow, managing to hold down her stomach contents as it all threatened to come up and it was the man's grip on her that kept her off the deck.
"You killed my man," the leader snarled, his armoured fist landing on her cheek and tearing the soft skin to leave shreds of it on the guard.
"To be fair, you tried to kill me first," she wheezed, her retort earning her another blow to the stomach and she whimpered, collapsing to the ground as the magic man let her go.
Curling into a ball to protect her stomach, she could see them out of the corner of her eye.
"She'll be dead in the next ten minutes," the magic user said, ignored as nondescript stepped up behind her and drove his foot into her back, her voice ringing out in a cry of pain.
"She deserves a slow, painful death. Not one by your magic," the leader snarled, using his foot to roll her onto her back and she looked up at them, smiling weakly though she felt like vomiting on their feet.
"Either way, she will be dead."
She touched against the flame and laughed inside her head, focusing it and in an instant she had engulphed herself in flames once more, the fire burning off the ice inside her and she took advantage of their distraction to roll and throw herself away from them, towards the stairs.
They swore and came after her as the flame died and she leapt from the deck and down onto the main deck, knowing she wasn't as fast as she needed to be but neither were they.
She had taken them on a merry chase around the ship as she found herself back on the bow of the ship and cursed as targets came up before her, nondescript leapt over the railing and the leader and magic user coming up behind her.
She looked between them, frowning and then backwards at the water. There was always that option but she really didn't want to have to go swimming.
The leader had lost his trident somewhere, but that left him being the only one unarmed. It didn't make for great odds on her side.
Deciding her best chance was to throw another one of them overboard, she turned to the leader and offered him a smile.
"Shame about your friend," she said tauntingly and he gritted his jaw. "Close were you?"
"He was my brother," the leader snarled and she laughed, looking between them all.
"Sorry," she lied, making it clear she was not in fact sorry.
Targets lost his cool and she found it rather fitting that he would be the one to end up back in the water. So when he came for her, she drove her foot into his shin, grabbed his head as he staggered and pulled it down, guiding him face first into the railing and then scooping her arm up under his gut and heaving him up and over the railing.
There was a splash and she was down to three.
"Do you think he'll stay down this time?" she asked, smiling at the livid leader and his two remaining men.
"I'm going to make you regret the day you were born," Nondescript said, and she laughed.
"I do that on a regular basis," she quipped.
A boom rocked the ship and all eyes turned for the disturbing buckling of the deck of the boat, the wood seeming to bend outwards in a way that was both terrifying and enthralling.
Taking advantage, she drove the sword into the nondescript man's stomach, his grunt drawing the attention of the last remaining men and she calmly plucked the new sword from his limp hand as he fell against her, his eyes wide.
"Three down, two to go," she said and smiled, now having two swords, after she slid the bloodied one free of the nondescript man.