Chapter 2 - Raid
Following behind the captain, I realized that the inside of the ship was very well designed and spacious. We passed exquisite training rooms and different cabins. My eyes also landed on the captain's exposed legs, it definitely added to the beauty of the inner chambers.
We then arrived at two doors, one was labelled as the captain's while the other was labelled as the first mate's.
"There is currently no first mate, so you will stay here, your first training session is after the first raid of an enemy ship, train your body until that. Do not disappoint me" Angela commanded as she went into her quarters.
I entered my cabin, there was a simple bed, a table, an empty wardrobe, and an empty armor stand. A simple layout that was well suited to my needs. I sat on the bed, thinking about how faced paced all the events of the day was. How I woke up in somewhere that definitely was not earth, learning to use the energy in my body to fight and nourish my muscles. I think I would have to explore the intricacies of this world and find out exactly where I am and how everything else works. And I also would have to get to the bottom of the whole Angela issue. I knew that directly confronting her about this was too risky at it could lead to unwanted trouble, so I would take it slow.
The first thing to do was to gain more power so that I could have a certain standing in this world, that's how the books I read was. The fatty said I was at the middle of the mortal realm. So I'm assuming that it is my current cultivation stage. I'll have to train to increase it.
With those goals in mind I decided to try to increase my level to top of the mortal stage and hopefully break through past the mortal stage. I got on the floor and started planking, I let out a breath of relief as my core energy started nourishing my body again.
Now it is confirmed that working out can help me increase growth. So I'll push myself to gain some more strength. After two hours of vigorous training, I finally broke through the middle stage of mortal and just reached the high stage of the mortal realm.
With my body dripping with sweat, I looked at myself in the mirror to see that I am a lot different than what I remember myself to look as. I have become more well-built and I have become slightly taller. It seems like cultivating my body with energy makes me look better at the same time.
I trembled in excitement as I realized that I can finally look like a more perfect version of myself.
A faint knock on my cabin door alerted me, when I opened it, it was the short man with the mustache. "The mess hall is ready, come up and get your dinner or starve yourself to bed" he said grumpily and strutted away.
I was speechless ...
I made my way back to the deck to see a sky full of bright stars, I could even see a few moons and something like a miniature milky way. The sight was truly breathtaking.
I let out a breath and looked for the mess hall which was said to be right below the lower deck.
As I pushed the door to the mess hall, the sight was extremely merry. The crewmembers sang while drinking rum, feasting on delicacies prepared by the pirate chef. In the middle of the ruckus, the fatty saw me and immediately came forward, patting me on the shoulder "our newest brother, Owen! Grab some rum kid, we are going to sing".
I wasn't the type to drink, so I politely refused. Just as the Fatty started to drink another helping of rum, loud horns blared across the ship, rendering the entire mess hall silent and solemn. Every drunk pirate immediately sobered up after circulating their core energy throughout the body.
"It looks like we found some nomads, come brothers, prepare for battle" yelled the fatty valiantly. The crewmembers let out shouts in unison as they charged out of the mess hall, preparing to loot the nomad's ship.
All pirates taking part in the charge stayed on the lower deck, the captain; Angela stood at the forefront. I was extremely nervous and fearful; I could feel that the possibility of death was very high. Despite my fears, I was excited to test out my new skill on suitable enemy.
In the distance, I spotted a worn-out looking ship heading towards us with a tattered sail at full speed. "Here they come, vanguards, prepare!" Angela commanded raising an exquisitely forged sword. I nervously held onto the hilt of my sword as I stood on the front lines right behind the captain.
"just keep behind me and the captain and support whenever you can" a voice said as a fat hand tapped my shoulder. The fatty who stood next to me smiled with a hint of bravery, no wonder he was a high-ranking official in the crew, 'looks like he does have some merit' I thought to myself as I said I nodded to the fatty.
As both ships inched closer towards each other, I couldn't help but shoot a fervent glance at Angela, the familiar figure who meant the world to me. I was in fear that she would get hurt, because the Angela I knew wouldn't even hurt an animal, and here she was, preparing to lead a charge against a hostile pirate ship.
I steeled my mind to protect her even if I couldn't protect myself, this feeling was instinctual.
As the ships finally faced each other, I saw the bloodthirsty faces of the nomads standing on the ship. With thick facial hair and burly bodies, they raised their rusted swords and roared out battle cries as they charged towards our ship.
I felt fear from the bottom of my heart, but forced myself to brave through this, pinning all my hopes on fate. As Angela led the charge with a subtle command, I followed behind her with the other crewmembers letting out battle cries.
Cannons boomed as the cannoneers ravaged the ships of their enemies. With the destruction caused by the cannons, many pirates of each side suffered fatal injuries and even gory deaths. I kept charging through the smoke and flying wood splinters without fear and followed my crew as we jumped across ships, boarding the nomad ship.
The scene was chaotic, sparks flew around as blades collided, the nomads seemed very bad at utilizing energy as they barely used it, while our crew had much more members fighting with swords augmented with energy.
As everyone viciously battled their opponents, a burly nomad with a scar across his face charged towards me. I instinctively tensed up used my blade augmented with energy to meet with his swinging battle-axe.
My arm felt numb as my sword met his battle-axe, however, he was pushed back and seemed temporarily stunned at how I knocked him back. "Ah!?" the nomad exclaimed in shock before preparing to charge again.
Just as I prepared to stab the nomad, a light flashed as a sword impaled the nomad's throat, revealing a gory sight which almost made me throw up. "Hehe, I can sell this axe for good gold" the fatty's voice sounded as the axe was claimed by him. "Good work kid, you subdued the lieutenant, charge ahead now, we should help Angela kill the nomad captain" Fatty Ben said as he bounced away to claim the life of another nomad, knocking away many of his fellow crewmembers with his bottom as he charged.
I was speechless watching this scene.
Seeing us breach through their inner defenses, the nomads tensed up. I charged ahead with a few crewmembers, blocking the attacks of many nomads with my sword as they tried to stop us from advancing. I still didn't feel comfortable with killing anyone, so I dealt as little damage as possible while defending myself with my natural reflexes and energy.
The situation on the deck of the nomad ship was extremely scary, there were severed body parts and many half-dead bodies. I was covered in the blood of many friends and foes as It would splatter onto me throughout the chaos. I forced myself to look ahead and focus, I spotted Angela on the upper deck of the nomad ship, fighting two nomads at once, both nomads seeming very skilled. Her long black hair flew around as she defended and attacked at the same time, her fighting seemed extremely skillful and graceful. But it was apparent that she was feeling a slight pressure from the combined attacks of both nomads.
"Oh no" I said to myself as I made up my mind and rushed to the upper deck, subduing many nomads forcefully with my sword. For some reason, time seemed to slow down whenever I was in battle with an opponent, I felt as if my reflexes have been improved by leaps and bounds. This was probably due to the advancements I've made in my cultivation realm, I made a mental note to myself to keep training hard.
As I reached the upper Deck, I saw Angela fiercely parrying the attacks of both nomadic pirates. One of them even licked his lips and smiled as if victory was close at hand. I couldn't let this happen, I let out a roar as I willed all the energy in my core onto my sword, slashing out with great strength at one of the two nomads.
As my sword slash approached the nomad, he widened his eyes at the sheer strength behind this attack and tried to block it with his sword. As his sword met with mine, his sword was sliced cleanly as the sword energy went onto cut into his chest.
The nomad went flying backwards with blood flowing out of his wounds rapidly. The sword energy had ravaged his insides as he coughed up blood
"what a demonic kid! captain, I cannot continue to fight, forgive me" he hoarsely said as he slumped down weakly after coughing more blood.
The captain was the other nomadic pirate locked in a battle with Angela, his face was of astonishment as he cast his gaze on me. He kicked Angela back towards the crowd of combatants, letting one of his lackeys distract her as he walked towards me. I held my sword at the ready, trying to augment it with energy, but my core seemed to be depleted. I was horrified as I awaited certain death, I was sweating, drenched in the blood of friends and foe, the scent of blood all around. I chose to ignore all that and put all my undying will into this final battle.
The nomad captain snickered as he flicked a dagger from his sheathe at me. I felt time slow down as I saw the trajectory of the dagger. I used my sword to cleanly deflect it aside, creating a metallic clang with a series of sparks.
I was secretly excited on the inside as I deflected the dagger very skillfully.
The nomad captain's face changed to one of pleasant surprise as he prepared to slash his sword. His figure was hulking while I was much shorter, I put in all my strength to meet his sword with mine. The impact numbed my arm as I stepped back. I was at the edge of the upper deck, at that moment, an idea struck me as I quickly glanced down at the lower deck filled with battle and death.
The nomad captain slashed out once more with his sword "This will teach you filth some respect" he said as his sword came slashing at my sword. The moment our swords connected; my arm felt so numb I would drop the sword. I used the knock-back force of the clash to pretend to almost fall off the upper deck.
"The shrimp has met it's end" The nomad captain boomed mockingly with his deep voice as he kicked out towards me.
"OWEN!", Angela's voice screamed from afar as she saw this.
Just as the nomad's kick almost connected with my body, I felt time slow down once more, using this, I immediately sidestepped and agilely dodged his sword strike at me. The nomad captain let out a confused sound "ah?" as I swiftly knocked his sword out of his hand and tackled him off the upper deck, falling downwards with him.
The nomad captain kept screaming and bashing my back as we fell downwards, I coughed blood as I felt my back absorb the force of the bashes. I adamantly held him downwards to take the brunt of the force.
I heard a crash and felt my head spin, opening my eyes again, I saw the lifeless eyes of the nomad captain still in shock. Our crewmembers on the lower deck who saw me clash with the captain had immediately assaulted the captain as he crashed onto the deck.
I felt weak, my hand had already let go of my sword as I could no longer feel my arm, my body had suffered many injuries as a result of the fall. I tried to stand, but immediately felt like my legs had become jelly. I heard the victory cries of our crewmembers; I heard the fatty shout "loot the ship and come back! Victory is ours"
Knowing that we already won, I seemed to let down my guard and immediately slumped to the ground, succumbing to my injuries, and letting my vision and consciousness black out.
'We won. My first battle was a success. I even killed a captain', were my final thoughts as my consciousness faded.
Without me knowing, my body had strengthened itself to a greater degree after the battle on the nomad ship, energy was absorbed into my body as even this counted as a form of working out. I subconsciously had reached the pinnacle stage of mortal, with just a little training, I can break through to the next level.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
haydendark
haydendark heyy
so I've noticed that many of you really like it, and that makes me really happy. I wont let anyone of you down by slowing cheaper release rates, don't worry. I just hope you all keep giving this kind of support :)
please do leave a review!
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