Yosaku's POV;

“I'm bored,” my tone was as bored as I felt. There is nothing to do here. No scenery to draw, no hard training without sister Lia and no tips without sister Lara. No sunbathing Nojiko, Lia or Lara to look at and no Josef to listen to when he speaks about the Grand Line.

Noa doesn't need us with his inspection of the Shadow and sparing with Jonny gets boring after a few hours.

“I know, you've said it five minutes ago and five minutes before that as well”, replied Jonny in an annoyed tone. It's not my fault that we can't do anything here, other than to wait.

This small port has nothing. We played some cards with the remaining guards, but that turned boring after a few games. I don't know how they can be satisfied with sitting here and doing nothing. When we are out in the sea there is always something to do.

Be it training, fighting Marines and pirates, or sometimes listening to fantasy stories about different worlds told by Lara. These stories are always fun and interesting. And she tells them with such a clarity that you could believe her to have been there.

“I'm bored”, by now I'm just saying this to annoy Jonny.

“Shut u... wait, can you hear that?” I pushed myself up from my chair and looked at Jonny. He too was lying on a chair but was now looking down to the port.

I tried to concentrate and could indeed hear some noise coming from the port. “Are they having a party?” This sounded like loud yelling or shouting.

“Would explain how they can stay here without becoming batshit crazy.” I nodded to Jonny's small joke and stood up to look over the railing. The wood was buffering the sound and made it hard to listen.

Yet, with a single glance, I knew that they weren't having a party. The soldiers were all jumping and running around, but not because there was music, but someone was attacking the dock.

Two dozen men were trying to storm the port and the remaining guards are trying to stop them. It will be a lost battle, two dozen against ten isn't favourable for us. Especially when you take in the fact that these ten men aren't the strongest. Jonny and I have easily beaten them up during our landing.

“Yo Jonny, we are under attack”, I shouted back to the chairs. Jonny raised an eyebrow from under his sunglasses and threw my sword over. I caught it with one hand had a closer look at our assailants.

There were 26 of them. Ten were already in direct combat with the remaining guard, while another six were taking aim at the guards with guns and rifles.

Those guys were also stronger than the royal guards and had a wider diversity in their weaponry. All in all, they were really similar to pirates. And one of them looked exactly like a leader would look like. He stood at the back, giving commands and having a bearing of someone in charge.

He also had a massive sword on his back. It was bigger than mine and probably of better quality.

Lara told us we will get a better one when she has time to forge one, but so far that didn't happen. The Shadow isn't equipped with a forge. I just hope that our swords survive a fight against this guy.

“What do you think we should do? These royal guards guys are loosing. A cannon shot might help them, but also the risk of wounding them as well”, suggested Jonny. He was now next to me, his sword lazily resting on his shoulder.

“Two of them are already down if we aim carefully we might be lucky and only hit the guy that is in charge”, I replied and pointed at the back of the attacking force. Jonny nodded and vanished into the ship.

Come to think of it, where is Noa? He said he would inspect the underside of the ship, so maybe he's still in the water? Would be for the best if he stays out of this. Noa has had not enough training yet.

A bang came from under me and the black ball of explosives raced towards the group of unwanted visitors. Jonny's aim was good and the ball exploded in the middle of the six gun using guys. They were ripped apart by shrapnel and painted the floor in red.

It's so good to have sister Lia against cannon balls. Without her, the Shadow would have been hit more than a hundred times by now.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

However, it seems like Jonny couldn't aim at the leader, his position might not have been in sight.

There were now only six guards and 12 of these unknown guys left. These numbers are better if these six guards were rested and unwounded.

“Guys? What happened?”, shouted Noa up from the water.

I looked over the railing and spotted his blond head almost directly under me. “We are under attack, come up and stay on board. Maybe have an eye out to the sea. These guys might have come to use the port. Jonny and I will take care of them from the land.” Noa nodded and began to climb the ladder.

He was next to me a moment later and Jonny has also come back. The unknown guys have used the time and taken a position that would make another shot at them hard. “Let's help them, we won't be able to hit them now.”

Jonny and I vaulted over the railing and landed on the cobble stone of the port. A quick sprint was enough to bring us directly in front of the attackers and between the now four remaining guards.

It's a little mean to only now help them, but with six gunmen aiming at us while fighting in close combat is not something I like. Nor what Lara taught us. Only our comrades are important enough to truly risk our lives.

I brought my cleaver-like sword down and cut one of the unknowns in two. He was in a deadlock with one of the guards and had no chance to block my attack. The guard nodded in thanks and helped one of his colleagues.

Now that I'm closer I'm also able to make out tattoos and other finer details. They were definitely pirates. No universal clothes and different tattoos on their bodies. The only thing everyone had was a tattoo on their chest. Two crossed daggers with a rose in the middle. But slightly under the tattoo was another one, smaller and harder to see. It was a large, grinning, smiley-skull with a diagonal line crossing the whole smiley. All of them had the same tattoo and also smiley, so they must be a representation of their crew.

Might ask Josef later about the strange jolly roger. He knows a lot of them.

In the meantime I have to cut a few idiots in two. And the guy in front of me will help me. He had a normal sword that was just now coming down at me from the left upper side.

Not enough time for me to raise my own sword for a block, but there were other ways. I let go of my sword with my left hand, now only holding it with my right, and raised my left arm forward and upwards. Our close proximity allowed me to get inside his defence and push his wrists with my arm back upwards. My higher strength overcame his by far.

A twist if my right hand left the pommel of my sword upwards, followed by an upwards hook and the guy got a face to face meeting with hard steel. He got lifted off his feet and thrown into a comrade of his, he got caught and neither fell down, but I wasn't finished yet. With another twist, my sword was back in a forward position and also at a perfect height for a downwards slash.

The heavy sword cut the first in half and left a deep gash on his friend. One was instantly dead, the other will follow within seconds.

With three down I allowed myself to glance over to Jonny. He too has just finished one of his opponents. Luckily it seemed like it was only his second. Hah, and he said that I'm gonna be too slow for him to keep up.

“What's up Jonny? Too slow to follow?”, I mocked and pierced a fourth pirate. He was in a fight with one of the remaining guards and not fast enough to evade. A strong pull on my sword freed it from the bones and flesh.

“Shut up!”, shot Jonny back. He jumped forward, in the middle of two more pirates and pierced his sword in the throat of the first, while kicking the other back. He pulled the sword back out and made another piercing attack at his stumbling second target.

The tip of his sword hit true and the stumbling, soon to be dead, pirate got his heart pierced. That was the moment I realized that he just now caught up. Shit!

Quick, where is the boss? He gives double points.

I spotted him only ten seconds later. He was frowning and had already one hand on his massive sword. He was also slowly stalking towards me. Nice! Now all I have to do is to not get killed and kill him before Jonny does.

But how do I do that? If it was the old me I would jump in, shout a little about my strength and then try my best. A tactic that, more than I like to admit, ended in failure.

No, I have to use the Lia tactic. First looking for a weakness in his posture, then, if possible, do some damage from the distance and only at the end engage in close combat. This is exactly why all of us have at least one pistol with us in every fight. Mine was a single-use version, but it packed a heavy punch.

The downside of this plan was that I suck at shooting. My only chance at hitting him at all is when I am at most a meter away. So sneaky it is. A glance to Jonny told me that he was still occupied with one of the remaining pirates.

I fingered my pistol and hid it as best as I could, before rushing to the boss. He spotted me three meters before I reached him and he began to move his sword before I was even two meters in front of him. From up close I could see that this thing was the same size as him, two meters.

One hit and I'm dead meat. Yet, sparring against Jonny had one benefit above all. Handling fast movements for evasion. This guy is even slower than I, so sidestepping his attack was easy. He did try to move his sword to the side, but that was when I was already close enough.

I pulled my pistol up and almost touched his shoulder with the muzzle before pulling the trigger. A loud bang told me that the bullet was gone. The recoil ripped the pistol out of my hand and threw my arm upwards. Doing this with one hand is not a good idea.

But he was in a worse condition. The front of his shoulder had a smallish hole, but the backside was ripped apart. This arm will no longer be usable for him. And it even was his main arm.

The big guy let his sword fall and used the momentum of the pistol to twist around. The recoil left me in no good position to move and I had to watch how the unwounded arm, including closed fist, raced towards my head.

Shit, that was exactly what Lara told us back in East Blue.

Suddenly, a sword raced past my face and I had a close and detail picture of how a cut of hand splashes blood. Great, now I also got blood in my eyes. I also did jump back, just in case. "Here's Jonny!"

I hastily wiped the blood away, but not before hearing a gurgled grunt and heavy thump.

With bleary eyes, I could spot the dead body of the pirates boss and a grinning Jonny in front of me. O hell no! He stole my kill and he SAVED me! Fuck no, now he won't stop reminding me.

“Good that I was here in time, looked like you needed a helping hand. I wouldn't want to see how you get scolded by sis Lara for not paying attention during a fight. Especially not when it is something she has warned us about.” I could only groan in reply.

If Lara hears about this, it will at least mean training under one of her 5g regimes. They are saved as punishment for doing something stupid. Last time she had to punish us with that was when Jonny slipped and pierced my biceps during a pirate raid. Lia had to save us. Thankfully it was only Jonny who had to do the regime.

Not so good is that I laughed at him, he might rat me out.

I asked with dread “What will it cost me?”

“Hmm, how about a week worth of your booze ration?” A wicked grin was on his lips. That is mean, but Lara's 5g regime is meaner.

“Fine, but a single word to her!” I left the threat unspoken. Both of us know that breaking a promise is a no go. Each of us has enough on the other to get in deep shit. For example, the one time we spied on Lia and Lara while they slept together. That was hot.

“I know. Seems like the remaining guards finished.” I followed Jonny's look and saw how three guards were trying to save the wounded guards. “I'm gonna help” added Jonny before he jogged over to one of the guards.

I looked down at the dead boss, remembered that Jonny won, and then took the guys sword. It was heavy, heavier than mine. And I won't be able to fight with it one-handed. In short, it was perfect.

A few adjustments to the guy's sword straps and I now had my very own big ass sword on my back. I had to wear it slightly curved, it was longer than I am tall. I then followed Jonny and began to help him with bandaging the guards.