“Vreil, we attack together”, Arthur shouted from behind the Sword of the Sea. “Go!”

“Pointless”, laughed the crazed man as he pushed them both back. This time he didn’t stop to chat, he immediately followed through and pursued Vreil who was now barely able to catch up to his speed. After a successful block, Vreil’s sword was pushed aside.

Shit, he thought as the Sword’s sword was heading towards his throat, I can’t make it!

They had gotten arrogant and challenged someone they shouldn’t have. This man, the Sword of the Sea, was way above their league.

Arthur was running towards them, but he was too far to make it in time. I am going to die.

Suddenly, Vreil heard a whistling sound. Before he had time to consider it, the Sword stopped his attack and his head whipped around at a quite neck-breaking speed, although unfortunately not in the literal sense.

“This is the first time I see someone blocking my dart like this”, came a familiar voice from the back of the ship, and Vreil wanted to scream in delight. Milos!

“To catch my dart with your teeth when it was coming from your blind spot, you sure have some great reflexes”, Nigel boarded the ship as well, following Milos.

The Sword spit the dart that was between his teeth. “Ranged weapons and poison is what I hate the most”, he said.

“Then I will give you something you will like”, Milos said cockily and transformed. The Sword of the Sea’s eyes widened, and then he laughed, the sound coming out crooked due to his misshapen nose.

“A transformational, an Arknas, and two skilled swordsmen? Now you may have a chance.”

Milos revealed an odd look. Recently, more and more people seemed to know what a transformational was.

Nigel drew his sword as well and they all attacked at once. Milos was wearing some armor-like appendages around his claws, so he could now use them to block against swords. The Sword managed to not get hit by any of their attacks, and he returned them with his own attacks.

The man’s greatsword was large enough, and the man was strong enough, to block Vreil’s and Arthur’s attack simultaneously. They defended against his attacks, but every once in a while one of the four was getting tossed away like a ragdoll, only to rejoin the fight with increased fervor.

The five warriors danced on top of the ship, one against four, stepping on the dead pirates’ bodies that still littered the ship’s deck. Steel clangs resounded constantly, and only the Sword of the Sea’s maddened screams of exertion and joy were louder than the weapons clashing.

The greatsword clipped Vreil, cutting a chunk off his leather armor. It clashed against Arthur, smashing the young man against the ship’s mast so hard that the wood dented. It sailed over Milos’ head, the distance so little that a couple of hairs were cut.

This was a fight for their lives, and everyone’s heart was beating crazily, barely surviving on the edge of their razor-sharp blades. Thoughts of retreat had infiltrated everyone’s minds, but doing so would mean the death of others; and none of the four young men made that choice.

The Sword of the Sea was dominating them, but he could not land a solid blow. Slowly but surely, he was being pushed back until his back touched the closed wooden door of the captain’s cabin. He had fought valiantly but, against four fighters, he by himself was unable to keep pace; he was slowly being overwhelmed. Still, the four of them hadn't gone uninjured. Several shallow gashes and already-purple bruises littered their bodies, and the battle could easily turn around at any time.

Blades and claws were clashing left and right, sparks flying, and the sound of combat was probably loud enough to be heard over the entirety of Portsmith. Realizing he was being overwhelmed, the Sword of the Sea decided to go for broke. Allowing a claw past his defense, he let Milos’ claws sever his arm to make a desperate attack against Vreil.

A mountain-like greatsword descended right at Vreil, and he wasn’t at all ready to meet it. He couldn’t retreat either; there was no time. Left with no other choice, he raised his sword to block, knowing fully well that his strength was not enough against such a direct strike. For the second time, Vreil stared death in the face.

And, for the second time, he survived.

Another sword came from the side, striking the Sword’s greatsword just enough for it to deviate; the strike against Vreil was indirect and the Arknas was catapulted backward, but he’d managed to parry it. He had survived.

The Sword of the Sea screamed, blood and spit flying off.

Missing an arm and with his last attack having failed, there wasn't much the Sword of the Sea could do to defend himself; yet, he was still a dangerous enemy. Afraid to let him live, Nigel’s sword pierced right through the man’s heart, and simultaneously his head got cut off by Milos. The Sword of the Sea was no more.

“Don’t be afraid”, shouted Jiovanni and jumped on board. “For I am here! Is there anyone left for me?”

The four that were just now fighting for their lives stared at him, and Jiovanni stared back.

“No, sir”, Nigel finally replied. “We took out most of them but we spared the captain. He probably has the information we are looking for. If the attempt was planned by the Black Beard pirates, this man here,” he pointed at the decapitated Sword of the Sea, “probably knew about it too, but we couldn’t afford to hold back.”

“Really?” Jiovanni inspected the body that was now missing an arm and a head. His greatsword was also thrown to the side, lying away from the corpse. “You really did a number on this fellow... Who was he?”

“The Sword of the Sea.”

Jiovanni looked at their serious faces, their bloody appearances, the tension and fear in their eyes; and then he started laughing. “Hahahaha, you boys almost fooled me. As if the likes of you could kill the Sword of the Sea. Hahahaha”.

"That’s it. I will feed him his fingers", Arthur said and moved towards Jiovanni, only to be stopped by a snickering Vreil.

“Look”, the Arknas simply pointed to the greatsword, and Jiovanni visibly paled below his armor when he saw it.

“This…” he muttered, raising the blade. He looked at the body again. “Did you really…”

“We did really”, Arthur crossed his arms. “And almost died in the process, too. How about a ‘good job’?”

“That is…” Jiovanni was still in shock, but he finally nodded, recovering himself. “Unexpected, but good job. Excellent, in fact! Now, that aside, where is the captain?”

“He was knocked out when you stepped on him.”

Jiovanni looked at his feet and noticed that he was, indeed, standing on someone. “Oops”, he said, not stepping off. “So, did you have any luck in your missions?”

“Our part didn’t”, reported Milos. “We wanted to ask some people but the streets were empty, so we ambushed a couple of pirates. They didn’t know anything though, so we decided to take over their ship. When we came here, Vreil and Arthur had taken everyone out and were fighting this guy, so we helped them.”

“We didn’t have any luck at the bars either”, Vreil sat down in an effort to calm himself, “but while we were going through the port we were attacked by the pirates, and then we chased them to their ship. We took everyone out, but then this dude came.”

“I see, so the only lead we have is the captain, right?” Jiovanni finally stepped off the unfortunate man and picked him up. “Let’s wait for him to wake up, and then we can have him tell us about everything. For now, let’s hide here and capture whoever comes on board.”

For the next ten minutes, nobody came on board so Jiovanni got bored. “Change of plans”, he said. “Let’s throw water on the captain and wake him up.”

Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed one of the many buckets of water lying around and splashed it on the captain’s face. When the man came to, he saw five faces looking at him; he also realized that he was tied up.

“Hello, Mr. Captain”, Jiovanni greeted him. “How are you feeling today?”

“What? Y.. You are the ones from before. Didn’t he come to save me? The Sword? Where is he?”

“The man you are talking about is dead. You can see him if you look behind me, the one who’s so discreetly missing his head. The only one who can save you now is me, so don’t make me angry, okay?” Jiovanni smiled.

“I, uh, yes sir. How can I help you?” the captain stammered, visibly shocked. His eyes were still glued to the corpse of the Sword of the Sea.

“You can tell me everything you know about the man named Sting.”

“Sting? He is an irritating prick under the Commander. And he is damn skilled with the sword. That’s all I know, I swear.”

“It’s alright, I believe you”, nodded Jiovanni. “And where is he now?”

“He is on a secret mission from the Commander, word is he has been sent to assassinate someone important. But then the Commander decided to send the Sword of the Sea to watch after him and told me to take him to this town. He was the only one who knew the details.”

Jiovanni frowned, and the captain paled even further.

“Okay... One last question and if you tell me what I want to hear, I will not kill you. Have you ever seen an elf?”

“I, uh, can you promise not to tell anyone about this?”

Jiovanni straight-up slapped the man.

“I’ll speak, I’ll speak”, cried out the man. “I may be a captain, but my ship is said to be the worst in the fleet. That’s why I usually have to do all the boring jobs, like keeping watch on the base. And once, I saw these strange lights coming from underwater, like there was a ship down there.”

The captain now leaned forward, lowering his voice in a conspirational tone. “These lights came from the open sea and they headed straight for below our base. At first, I thought they were sea monsters, but then my brother told me there are no sea monsters. Then I remembered that there is an underwater passage connecting the inside of our base to the bottom of the sea outside. I always wondered what that was for, but I am pretty smart so I figured it out. Do you want to know what I figured out?”

He stopped, glancing at Jiovanni, but the man was wholly unamused. Disappointed, the pirate captain continued.

“People say that the elves have ships that can move below the sea surface, so maybe those lights were elven ships, and the passage is to allow the elves to come into our base without being seen by too many people. There were rumors our Commander was in touch with the elves anyway. I never saw them again after that day though.”

“I see. Well, that’s enough. Did you hear that?", Jiovanni turned towards the rest of them. "We got even more information than what we were looking for. It is clear that these pirates are guilty. Load those who are still alive on this ship and lower the flag. We will use another flag when we are off the coast. We are headed for the White House, Justice island.”

“But you said you won’t kill me!” screamed the pirate.

“And I won’t”, Jiovanni replied calmly. “I will just deliver you to the White House and they can do whatever they like. Now, get those pirates on the ship, throw the dead bodies to the sea, clean the deck, and lower the flag. We set sail, to Justice!”

🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️

Just as their ship was getting out of sight, a group of riders entered the port and looked around. They were dressed in black robes but, when one of them reached for something inside his robe, his Red House insignia became visible. He took out his clock and looked at the time.

“They are not here, but it’s still too early for them to have left”, he deduced. None of the others replied. The speaker was a tall man with broad shoulders, who looked like he wanted to chop down anything that got in his way. He had no hair or facial hair whatsoever.

Right now, he was confused; things were not going as planned, and that was never good.

“Pils”, he called for his most trusted subordinate.

“Yes, sir”, Pils replied, stepping closer. The commander looked at him. He had recruited this man in a village to the west, in the middle of nowhere some months ago, back when he was a recruiter. The other two buffoons that were with him died too soon, but he turned out to be a talented soldier and, thanks to that, the hairless commander got a promotion. He was now a 50-man commander.

“Any idea why they are not here?” he asked.

“No, sir, but we can ask around to see if they did stop here and what happened to them.”

“Mhm, good idea as always, Pils”, the hairless man nodded in pride. “Men, split into pairs and go around asking. If anyone resists, you can massage them with your blades.”

“Hey, boss”, said one of the men, “should I be staying here in case they were late?”

“DAMN YOU ALLEN”, the leader shouted. “DON’T YOU DARE SLACK OFF AGAIN, YOU IMBECILE, OR I WILL KILL YOU”.

“Okay, okay, just saying”, the man sighed.

The leader was proud of his men, except for this one. He had never been through the training and a superior just loaded him on this group. The commander wasn’t even allowed to punish him!

They split up and started asking, and what they learned was that the ship had indeed docked there but then some people came asking about them, there was a big fight, and then the ship left.

“The revolution”, mumbled the leader, cupping his chin.

“Men, turn your horses around. We are going back to Bellamy.”