Yui opened the door to the next room where many pirates were seated inside. There looked to be well over a hundred or more when we were cooking, but now looked to be half that number. They were sitting along wooden tables with their heads down, eating the stew we helped prepare.

One of the closest pirates looked up towards the opening door towards us.

Yui hurriedly pulled the door closed before turning to the rest of us.

“Quite a number of them.” Miko commented.

Yui nodded, still holding onto the door’s handle.

Miko positioned herself in front of the door. “We could use this as a bottle neck.”

Yui remained quiet for a moment before nodding. “Take one step back from the door and act as a small wall. We will fight around you.”

Before Yui opened the door, I cast quicken on everyone and summoned a campstone nearby for some extra health and mana regeneration.

Yui waited for a nod from Miko before opening the door.

Inside the pirates seemed undisturbed and continued to enjoy their meal. The nearest pirate once again turned their head to look towards us but otherwise remained undisturbed.

“Are they not going to attack?” Yui whispered softly. “Maybe they’ll…”

“Die!” Burin threw an ice spear towards the nearest table. He missed the pirate, and instead knocked the bowl of stew from his hands.

“Nice one.” My shadow commented.

The pirates stood up, not just the closest. All of them. They let out pirate noises and then charged towards us.

“So… You told them.” I said to my shadow self as I watched the mob of pirates try and press themselves through the doorway with disinterest.

He stood ready to help, a spear in one hand and sword in the other. “Yeah. Thought I would save you the trouble. Yui seemed happy about it.”

“Probably because of that thing in the training hall.”

“Haha, yeah… That was fun.” He looked down at his hand. “Her cheek was so soft.”

“Ah I see. You like touching young woman’s cheeks.”

He looked at me, a shocked expression on his face. “Did you have to put it like that? No. It was… just nice to fight something that wasn’t trying to kill me.” He gave me a sly look. “Plus, she did look good… the dodging, twirling, and … jiggling.”

“Okay, enough.” I had to suppress my lips from forming into a smile. “How did the others take it?”

“Burin and Miko cried. Richard had a bunch of questions, and the two beastkin tried to worship me, you… us.”

I groaned. “I’ll make sure to keep my distance then. Cried? Both of them?”

“Well Burin started first, saying how sad it was. Miko joined in after.”

“Thanks. I don’t know how I would have responded to that.”

He gave me a small shrug. “I am you, after all. If you want to thank me, raise strength and dex to a hundred.”

“Fine.” I agreed. They were both pretty close anyway and would only take a few levels. It would take away from casting but if I put more effort into using my spells, my intelligence should rise up naturally. Reaching one hundred in a stat was a big milestone. Physics start to become more of guideline than a hard rule you had to worry about at that point. Being able to stop instantly from a sprint, or punch through a steel wall with nothing but your naked fists. With the stats I had as a hero, you could move so fast you could pretend to teleport, jump so high it seems like you are flying, and break weapons just by letting your opponent hit you. Not that I ever did the last one… more than once.

Focusing back on the fight, I peeked over the group. The pirates were in a large mass, pushing themselves through the door, only to be stopped by Miko’s shield. Feeling a bit bored I decided to conjure a wall in the middle of the group. The summoned wall was still a terrible thin wooden construction that could easily be torn apart. Roughly a meter and half in height, the wall appeared in the centre of the group and was mostly ignored. The wall did nothing but caused the pirates to form into two lines. In fact, I think it actually allowed them to flow faster towards us.

They did not seem to care about the wall at all, which bothered me. Focusing a second time, I summoned another wall, but this time it was perpendicular to the first, crossing the room and cutting off half the pirates. This had more of an impact. The pirates started hacking their way through it with knives and… spoons? I had not bothered to check what they were wielding, but sure enough, each pirate held a knife in one hand, and a spoon in the other. There were only a handful I could see that were missing a hand and wielded a hook in its place.

It did not take long for them to break down the conjured walls. I did not mind as it just allowed me to summon them again. It also slowed down their push forwards, making up for my earlier cast and giving the group some breathing room. That combined with the seven percent buff to their attack and movement from my new buff spell, the group were handling themselves just fine.

Yui even had the time to turn back towards us and shout out “Thirty four!” with a grin on her face.

“She took the lead?” I asked my shadow.

“Yeah.” I could hear amusement in his voice. “I’ll wait until she reaches forty before I completely crush her.”

Sure enough, a short time later…

“Eighty two.” My shadow bragged to a frustrated looking Yui. She looked exhausted. She really should not have tried to keep up with him after he dived into the room.

The room was covered in spilled stew and pirate bodies. We spent the next few minutes either picking up loot, the usual stuff but with more spoons, or resting from the battle.

“That had to be most of them, right?” asked Miko, who was sitting down against one of the tables.

“Its a big ship.” Replied Burin as he looted another pirate. “Damnit, why so many spoons!” Searching for gold, but only finding silver…ware.

As it turned out, there were still quite a few pirates. We pushed forwards, cutting our way through rooms filled with cannons, fabric, hammocks, and weirdly enough, one room filled with hook hands and wooden legs. We continued moving upwards until we finally made it to the main deck. The deck was very wide, providing a large area to fight in. Over the edge of the ships railing, I could see sandy dunes backlit by a setting sun. The sand moved past us like a golden ocean.

“The sky!” Miko yelled out joyously.

“Yarr!” The surrounding pirates responded merrily to her cheer… and then attacked.

Miko jumped a metre into the air and swung her mace around, catching one of the pirates in the face. “That scared me!”

We cleared up the main deck swiftly, even the sisters were pitching in when a pirate got too close. Everyone seemed happy to have reached outside.

“Sky isn’t that special.” Burin grumbled from next to me. He was still disappointed we had yet to find any gold.

A loud and deep sounding “Garr!” sounded from above us. Turning to look, there was a large silhouette of a man with a tricorn hat, wielding both sabre and staff, standing in an impressive pose on the quarter deck. After spending a moment looking down on us, he leaped, spun in the air, and landed heavily on the main deck.

He was a beastkin, with a long tail that had a hook attached at the end of it.

[Captain Sanfur The Pirate Mage]

Health: 9300 / 100%

Class: Sand Pirate Captain

Level: 8

Race: Beastkin

“Garr!” He bellowed out and slammed his staff into the deck, causing a transparent golden sphere to surround him.

“He has a mana shield.” Richard stated.

“Pirate mage?” Burin questioned.

“Cool.” My shadow and I said at the same time.

“Formation!” Yui called out.

Miko took the front with Yui at her side. Burin moved forwards just behind them. Richard remained where he was with the two sisters next to him, and I stood at the back with my shadow.

The pirate captain did not move towards us, instead he pointed with his staff and cast a spell.

An orb of golden energy built up around the top of his staff and launched towards our group in an arc.

Miko let out a yell and a wall of blue energy flowed outwards from her shield. The golden orb slammed against Miko’s power, just above her head and exploded. If she had not blocked it, the orb would have landed in the centre of our group.

A second golden orb exploded, causing Miko’s energy shield to shatter. Burin responded by launching an ice spear. Yui followed suit and cast her firebolt spell.

The firebolt zipped towards the pirate and popped against his bubble. Pathetic. I’m sure it would have been way more impressive had I been the one to cast it. Tsk, should have been mine.

The captain ignored the attacks and continued to point his staff towards us, with yet another golden orb forming at the tip.

Richard yelled out and slammed his hands down onto the ground. A giant brightly yellow glowing humanoid formed before him and then charged the pirate. The construct was twice the size I was. It slammed against the captain’s mana shield. The sphere shook from the impact and the captain stumbled backwards, the ‘golden explody orb’ spell faded from the tip of the staff.

Yui turned towards us. “What was that, Reigner?”

I pointed towards the group’s healer. “Don’t look at me, that was Richard’s.”

“It’s not over yet” Richard said and clapped his hands together.

The avatar of light leaped into the air, belly flopped onto the shield, and detonated. A blinding light burst out from the explosion.

I had to turn my gaze away. It was like a giant flashbang.

“Shit, I’m blind!” Yelled Miko.

“Me too!” Cried Burin.

“Sorry!” Richard called out. “I didn’t think it would bind us when exploding.”

I summoned a wall between Miko and Captain Sanfur, or so I hoped. I couldn’t tell since I could hardly see through the spots of light filling my vision.

I confirmed that the spell managed to land where I wanted, after the handful of seconds it took for my vision to clear.

A moment later the captain crashed his way through it. “Yarr!”

Miko stepped forwards into melee range and smashed her mace against the golden barrier. Sanfur repositioned himself, no longer leading with his staff and instead moving his sabre to the front. He struck out towards Miko, who took the hit on her shield. However, the blow was heavy enough to force her to step backwards.

Yui joined the melee and slashed against the golden sphere while doing her best to avoid any strikes aimed her way. Burin stayed just behind Miko and attacked with his hammer.

They were rewarded as spiderweb like cracks started appearing on the golden shield. A couple of good hits later and the sphere exploded outwards, knocking the three onto their backs. Only Richard and those behind him were far enough to not be knocked over.

Sanfur was hunched over himself, looking exhausted. The group took advantage of his downed state and attacked. Sword, Hammer, mace, and beams of light all struck the captain who seemed more interested in looking at the wooden deck than defending himself. The only way we knew they were making progress was the health bar above the pirate’s head, from the identify spell, slowly draining.

After losing about twenty percent of his health, another golden sphere appeared around the captain. He rose back to his feet and started swinging.

“Should we jump in?” My shadow asked.

I waved the question off. “Let’s continue watching for now.” They were not struggling. Their teamwork was solid, and they still had most of their health and stamina. Interrupting them right now felt a bit rude.

The fight seemed simple enough and was a good opportunity for them to build experience against a strong foe. After getting back to his feet, Sanfur’s attack pattern changed. He not only slashed outwards with his sabre, he also used his staff in wide swings, and would occasionally kick outwards, knocking whoever was hit backwards a few steps.

The pirate captain also started using his tail hook. Every now and then the hook would latch onto a weapon or shield and rip it from the owner’s grasp, causing them to either rush and collect their weapon or pull out a spare from their storage. I learnt that Miko kept at least two backup shields handy.

This was a problem as it caused the team to deal less damage while receiving more themselves. At one point Yui was forced to dodge to the side after the pirate captain ripped away Burin’s hammer and threw it towards her. It was quite impressive to watch and looked like a fun way to fight. I liked the idea of disarming your opponent and then returning their weapon with lethal force.

The team was struggling. If they were not careful, they could end up spending all their time collecting their weapons instead of dealing meaningful damage to the beastkin captain.

It really showed how numbers would play an important role against this guy. With more people the less of an impact his tail hook would have. Since there were only a few attacking, he could keep almost all of them disarmed. Yui started to just take hits from the tailhook, moving her weapon behind herself and protecting it from getting thrown across the deck. She took quite a beating for the decision, but in return was able to dish out constant damage.

Burin just stopped using his hammer completely and instead attacked with weapons made from ice. Unfortunately, any projectile he threw at the captain was quickly snatched out of the air and tossed towards someone else, so he was forced to use them in melee.

“I’m going to focus on healing.” Richard called out from behind the others “I’m getting low on mana.”

Eventually the pirate captain’s shield broke again, knocking down everyone too close. After getting back to their feet, they rushed the captain and wailed on him.

As another shield started forming around the captain, Yui turned to look at me and my shadow, who were still just watching. She looked tired and had rivulets of sweat running down the side of her face. She squinted her eyes. Was she angry at me?

“Reigner!” She screamed out. It sounded angry. “Fucking do something!” Yup. Definitely angry. That was the first time I had heard her curse like that.

My shadow grabbed a handful of popcorn from a paper bag and tossed them into his mouth. “You’re in trouble.” He mumbled though a mouthful. When did he conjure that? Whatever. Not important right now. What was important was to help the team! I was planning on waiting a bit more until they were almost completely exhausted but seeing how upset Yui looked, I thought it was best to intervene now.

“No, I’m not. Shut up” I said to my shadow while conjuring a spearbolt. Once it fully formed, I launched the bolt towards the pirate, just as he was rising to his feet.

My spear hit and shattered the golden sphere. Yui, Miko, and Burin, once again were flung on their asses from the barrier breaking.

“Damnit Reigner!” Yui cried out.

My shadow laughed, spraying out bits of chewed popcorn. Seriously, does he even need to eat?

Ignoring my shadow, I launched another spearbolt towards the hunched captain. This one pierced straight through the captain’s head. The captain’s body fell backwards from the force of the blow. He collapsed and lay there just long enough for the others to get close… before exploding one last time.

Experience gained.

Burin, Yui, and Miko were, for the final time, knocked down onto the deck of the ship.

My shadow was having a fit, he dropped the bag of popcorn on the ground and was bent over wheezing. Okay, he was really starting to get to me now. That’s just wasteful.

Yui let out a scream of frustration. Miko just moaned. Richard turned to me in disbelief. And Burin, well unlike the others, he was cheering.

“Gold! Finally some Pirate gold!” His arms were raised into the air as coins of gold rained down from the explosion.

After getting to her feet, Yui walked over to me. My shadow was doing his best to compose himself.

“You.” She closed her eyes and took a breath before opening them again. “We will talk later.” She then turned around and stormed off.

My shadow looked at me, shrugged, and offered me some popcorn from a freshly summoned bag.

Sighing, I reached over and grabbed a handful.

Burin and Miko were holding hands jumping in a circle around each other, laughing and crying as coin rained down around them. Azalea and Rose were hugging Richard tightly, tears running down their faces. Richard himself did not seem to notice and instead continued to stare at me with wide eyes.

He was about to speak but was interrupted as gravity shifted. The sudden change in the ship’s inertia caused everyone to stumble, lose their balance, and slide across the deck.

The ship was rapidly coming to a stop, and everyone rushed to grab hold of the nearest railing, mast, or rope to stop themselves from falling over. Richard and the sisters were not so lucky and slid towards the front of the ship. I managed to grab hold of Richard’s foot with my free hand as he slid past, stopping him and the sisters from falling off the deck.

Burin let out a mournful cry, “The gold!”

The ship came to a lurching stop, the front of which buried itself the base of a dune and making the deck slope downwards.

We had to keep hold of something as we got to our feet, the deck was now too steep to keep our balance. On the plus side, the slope elevated my position and gave a nice view of the surroundings.

The sun was gone, having sunk past the horizon, allowing stars to appear in the sky. Surrounding the ship was sand, sand, and more sand. There were dunes and valleys, all formed from sand. I had to admit, it looked beautiful. Being on a ship like this and looking out, it really did look like an ocean.

There was a thump followed by Miko’s yelling. “Dwarf overboard!”

Looking over the edge, I could see Burin sifting through sand.

Laughing, I jumped down to join him. “Need a hand?”

He didn’t even look up, continuing to move around the ship looking down at the sand. “The gold!”

I couldn’t see anything reflective in the sand and was not about to get on my hands and knees to search. Instead, I summoned my sprite and willed it to loot any coin it found nearby.

No gold and a short time later, Richard appeared over the railing of the ship. “Uh guys, you should come up and see this.”

We made our way to the front of the ship that was partially buried in the base of a dune and used it to climb up to the others.

Richard gestured towards a door at the back of the ship where the captain’s quarters would have been. Walking inside, we saw Yui and Miko, they were using rope tied to the ceiling to keep their balance. They were also currently standing over and peering into a large ornate chest that spilled out golden light.

“Is that…” Burin whispered as he approached, slipping occasionally on the wooden flooring.

Miko’s smile was so large it looked painful. “Yup!” she cheered. “Pirate booty!”

Yui turned and looked towards me. “As discussed, I will be in charge of loot distribution.”

The words sounded like they were for the team, but I couldn’t help but feel they were aimed at me.