Kynos backed further away from the woman. The pain from the bruise forming on his chest was causing him some issues with breathing, but he did his best to lay a web of shadow covering the entire area in front of him as he retreated. For the current Kynos, that was the extent of how much he could do, and he hoped that the woman would be stupid enough to step into it.

“A quiet boy huh? I like the quiet ones too,” the woman said as she licked her lips, “but in my experience, boys are only quiet when they're dead.”

She sauntered forward, hips shaking, and Kynos did his best not to smile. She was walking right into his trap. To lure her a bit more, he clutched his chest with his right hand and and dropped down on one knee.

As she stepped onto the edge of the web, he sprung his trap, making five spikes fly at her from almost point blank distance.

She stopped it.

She had known all along, and stopped all five spikes with the flat of her cutlass. Then she moved so quickly that Kynos lost her for a moment in the darkness.

The next thing he felt was pain. She had ran at high speeds through his web without him being able to react, and dropped a two-handed swing sideways into his stomach. Kynos flew back and almost fell down the hatch into the crew quarters.

The thick layer of shadow on his stomach had protected him from being cut in half, but now he was in serious pain and lost control of his shadows entirely. The woman inched forward casually.

“Okay boy, I'll give you two choices. One, you die, or two, you serve me. Of course, bad boys need punishment, so to repay me for killing my men, you'll be killing the girl and the other boy with your own hands.”

She stepped forward again as Kynos crawled around the open hatch, desperately trying not to retch.

“Oh, but don't worry. I'll let the only 4 members of my crew that are still alive rape them both before that, so they'll be begging for death.”

She raised her sword and pointed it at Kynos.

“Chose quickly boy, or I'll be the one doing all of the honors.”

Kynos looked up and spit at her.

Enraged, the woman leapt forward. A jet of dark red blood flew from the hatch right at that moment.

The liquid shot out with enough force to knock her sideways, and a jet black spike followed from Kynos, impaling her through the stomach. The woman coughed blood and slumped over, glaring eyes still fixed on Kynos.

Mithandra emerged from the hatch first and immediately began stomping on the woman's corpse.

“Hah? Rape? How about you get fucked? You like that big black spike? How about I have my boys give you a few more, bitch?!”

Kynos coughed, both in pain and as a reminder to Mith that there were more important things to do, as he watched Axal crawl up shakily from the hatch. Kynos thought he was admirable, really. Axal had not only helped kill the woman pirate, but was actually doing his best to not watch the eight-year-old girl stomping on a bloody corpse two feet away.

Mith abandoned the plan to sabotage the fire crystals after hearing just 4 more pirates were alive. Instead, she had Axal wheel a cannon to point at the opening to the deck, with the support of shadows. Kynos sat on the floor, far too beat up take up physical labor at this point. Mith then cupped her hands and yelled towards the exit to the deck.

“Hey, you dumbshits, I killed your bitch queen and we're about to blow this whole tub up!”

Ever since the woman pirate had died, Mith had been using a lot of ugly sounding words neither Kynos or Axal understood. Also, Kynos could've sworn he was the one to land the killing blow. Maybe Mith thought her stomping had finished the woman off?

Four men crowded into the entrance, brandishing swords, and Mith snapped her fingers. Kynos lit the fire crystal protruding from a hole on the top of the cannon and a giant lead ball roared out a second later, turning four men, a door, and a fair amount of ship into mush and splinters.

Mith triumphantly waved a thin rapier she had found in the hold. According to her, the three of them had just commandeered a pirate vessel.

That being said, it was too difficult to sail a vessel with three children, so she took the other two to the boat strapped onto the side of the ship. As Mith helped Kynos into the boat, she sent Axal to get various supplies, including a large piece of sail canvas and dried provisions. She didn't bring any water, because the large ocean to the east of Alva and west of the Imperium was freshwater. Only the cursed sea sandwiched between the northern ice shelf and the three continents was saltwater.

As Axal loaded the last crate of food onto the boat and lowered the boat along the ropes, Mith let out a horrified sound. Kynos, who had been resting with his eyes closed in the boat opened them in time to see the woman pirate, cutlass in hand and bleeding profusely from the stomach, behead Axal from behind. She looked like a demon, mouth opened in a maniacal laugh as she coughed blood.

Without thinking, Kynos threw what he had been holding in a death grip in his left hand at her, along with a shadow spike and a small jet of fire. Mith, watching the three pouches of fire crystals flying through the air, made her decision and slashed the ropes with the tip of her rapier, dropping the boat into the water.

Mith held Kynos as he whispered goodbye to his best friend. The explosion triggered the rest of the fire crystals scattered on the deck, capsizing the pirate frigate.

Kynos turned eight.