"We have to convince them we're not worth the effort." He skewers one directly in the center of its ring of eyes, though and through, and it shudders and dies - at least they have brains in the roughly appropriate place. "Steering through this mess without them throwing us and the boat off-balance when the engine's cut is going to require a near-miracle as it is- damnit." On cue, a particularly large creature bursts past them and starts to climb up one of the mast poles, apparently after Nazca in her precarious position.

He dispatches it easily enough, but it leaves him in a necessarily vulnerable position - not nearly as vulnerable as someone crawling through the rigging, but precarious anyway. A particularly nasty wave chooses to crash into the boat at just that moment, which sends him backwards to slam into the railing. He's just regaining his balance (and the wind that was knocked out of him) when another creature grasps opportunity - and Balthier - in its jaws, leaping up onto the side of the boat and biting him squarely over his shoulder with row after row of needle-teeth.

The pirate has barely registered Oh, that actually hurts quite a bit before he's dragged over the side and into the black, roiling water.