Present Day...

The wind continued roaring through the waves surrounding the tiny rock in the middle of nowhere. On this tiny rock, two small armies stood at the ready, between them two men respected well by both sides.

One man was the captain of the Black Pirates. He was tall and quite muscular, with a huge sledgehammer as long as himself strapped to his back. A long and torn gray scarf fell from his neck and danced in the wind behind his back.

The other was the temporary captain of the Black Pirates. He was much thinner than his opponent, but almost just as tall, with spiky black hair that reached his shoulders and a worn out brown vest worn over a black shirt. His right arm's wrist had a metal cuff on it, with the chains it had been ripped from still partly attached and dangling from the wrist.

Only one thing united them at the moment. They were both fighting for the blacks.

"What have you done to my crew, Nkudu?" Morgan demanded furiously. His eyes glowed with anger as he glared at his former subordinate.

Nkudu glared right back at him. "I'm doing what is right, captain."

"Your ideals are weak. You want to forgive those animals? You want us to fight them without killing them? To disable them or knock them unconscious? They are trying to kill us, captain! Your softness is going to get us all killed!"

Morgan knew he was talking about the whites. He had always hated the whites with a passion.

He answered, "You want to kill them? For what, Nkudu? Revenge? Is that it? Are you willing to destroy everything we've worked for together over the course of twelve years go to waste for revenge?"

"You didn't see what I saw that day!" Nkudu shrieked. "You didn't witness what they did to my family!"

His hands shaking with uncontrolled rage, Nkudu balled his two hands into fists and assumed a stance, with his right hand moved forward and left leg ahead of his right.

"And so you want to become what killed your family? You want to become those same monsters?" Morgan asked, still trying to find a peaceful solution to the situation. "Do you think Alina and Ikunu would want this?"

Nkudu's eyes darkened.

"They would want justice, captain."

Morgan sensed Nkudu focus his ley. "Don't do this. You know you'll lose!" He cried.

The members of the Black pirates had started lining up behind Nkudu now, beginning the Ritual of Battle.

"Yin Olorun!"

THUD. THUD. THUD. The men stomped their feet in a steady rhythm, stopping only for the lead man, Urek, to make the War Cry.

"YIN OLORUN!"

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Morgan could see he had no choice, and began to draw his hammer. Behind him, the Redshire pirates began to retreat back to their ship.

Nkudu let out a slow, steady breath. Believe in me, Alina. Ikuno.

I will avenge you. No matter what Morgan says.

He looked up, and opened his mouth.

"PRIMIS!"

* * * * *

"The stages of Ley?" Jackie asked, still sitting on the railing of the Ivory with Whitebeard.

The Ascendant shook his head ruefully. "Morgan really didn't teach you anything, huh. Yes, boy, there's three stages of Ley." He raised three fingers for each one.

"Basic Ley."

"Advanced Ley."

"And Elemental Ley."

Jackie muttered, "So I'm guessing I'd be starting off with Basic Ley first then."

Whitebeard stared at him, and laughed. "Oh heavens no, kid! You need to shape up first! Your body is in horrible shape."

Jackie looked genuinely hurt and insulted. He took off his jacket and shirt, to reveal his well-crafted body.

"Look at this! These abs! These arms! How the hell can you say I'm in bad shape, old man?" He flexed his muscles, trying to prove his point.

Whitebeard looked at him and shook his head in disappointment.

"Listen up. This is why you're small fry the way you are right now. Those muscles of yours? Those muscles are just for show. It's like a very well-designed pirate ship without any cannons or weaponry."

Jackie squinted at him, full of confusion.

He sighed. "Look, what you lack is firepower. Your body just looks good. It can't do much aside from that. I'll bet all my wealth and fortune that Brice would beat your ignorant ass all over this ship if I told him to."

Remembering the fat guy with half a chicken leg in his mouth, Jackie felt fairly insulted.

Whitebeard continued, "Ley just can't be learned without a shit ton of physical training. Now, the physical training is most important when you're starting to use Ley for the first time, so that's pretty important. Once you get the hang of Basic Ley, everything else will just sort of come along naturally."

"Ley itself is an energy released by all living creatures. You have Ley, I have Ley. It's everywhere around us, just like air."

Jackie tried to think really hard, which wasn't something he usually did for anything aside from treasure hunting or making calculations to draw charts.

"Soooo then those three stages of Ley you were talking about are basically about controlling the Ley around us?"

Whitebeard nodded. "Your idea is correct. There's a little more to that, but I'll explain it later. Just remember that Ley is everything to do with the environment around us."

"You sure seem pressed about remembering that, don't you?" Jackie asked.

Whitebeard laughed. "Am I? I suppose it's because there's the complete opposite of Ley, which is called Ki. It's an ability quite well-known in East Asia."

"Whereas Ley is everything to do with the energy around us, Ki is everything to do with your own life energy, within your body."

"So, does Ki also have three stages like Ley?" Jackie asked, and Whitebeard shook his head. "No. There's certain differences between the stages."

"Leaving Ki aside for now, in between each stage of Ley, there's a quite big difference. Advanced Ley and Basic Ley are virtually the same thing, but with a much greater gap and additional points between them." Whitebeard tried to refrain from speaking much about Elemental Ley.

However...

"What about Elemental Ley then?" Jackie asked with the most purest of intentions. Whitebeard sighed.

"Elemental Ley is the final, and arguably the most powerful stage of Ley. Mark my words boy, not many can use Elemental Ley. It is the ability to convert the Ley around you into a certain Elemental attribute belonging to you."

"Every being has their own attribute, which they will learn of as they train and gradually learn how to master Elemental Ley. Attributes are normally based off the Five Petals system for Ley, which was created by an unknown scholar thousands of years ago."

Jackie furrowed his eyebrows. "Five Petals?"

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Whitebeard raised his palm.

"Fire. Water. Air. Earth. Lightning. Most attributes are either these five, or elements which would fall under these attributes, like maybe how Heat Ley might be connected to Fire Ley, or how something like Cloud Ley would be derived from Air Ley."

Jackie nodded, actually understanding what he was saying for once.

Whitebeard suddenly snapped his fingers together. "Ah! I forgot something."

"There's two known forms of Elemental Ley. Now remember, Elemental Ley users themselves are quite rare, and the people who can use the forms themselves are rarer still. These two forms are called 'Primis' and 'Secundus'. These two allow an explosive increase in power. I won't explain Secundus to you, but Primis is important."

Whitebeard had a quite steely, no-nonsense look in his eyes as he glanced at Jackie. "Primis is..."

* * * * *

"A form which greatly increases the user's compatibility and versatility with his Elemental Ley. Sometimes the form boosts physical strength, sometimes it enhances their weapon. Depends on the user, really."

"PRIMIS!" Nkudu screamed, and a massive explosion engulfed the small piece of land on which the battle had begun.

Morgan had seen Nkudu's Primis several times before. He knew full well what to expect as he raised his hammer. The dust was easily carried away by the fierce wind, revealing his Primis.

His arms, all the way upto his shoulders, were encased in a rock armour. There were sharp, nail-like spikes rising from his knuckles, and his upper arms had guard casings, each one with a rock extension rising over his shoulders. A rock mask with a tribal-style "mouth" covered his face.

"Don't get cocky just because I cannot use Primis, Nkudu. Calm yourself. Pay attention to my movements." Morgan advised as he began to approach Nkudu with his hammer in hand.

Nkudu scowled, and leaped forward. "This isn't a sparring match, captain!" He yelled, and swung his fist at Morgan. Morgan moved extremely fast, and Nkudu briefly saw his eyes behind him before the massive sledgehammer smashed into his arm.

The impact threw him at least three meters across the ground. His left arm was completely numb, and the armour was cracked.

As expected from him...his speed is incredible. It's been so long since we last sparred, I completely forgot about it.

"Were you always this slow, Nkudu? Or did you forget how fast I am?" He asked, calmly walking towards him with the hammer casually swung back on his shoulder.

Nkudu smiled under the mask. "Please. I've been the temporary captain for two years now. I've grown stronger than I last was!" He hauled himself back up to face Morgan.

He regenerated the cracks on his left arm, and once again ran straight at Morgan.

Without hesitation, Morgan slammed the hammer into the ground, trying to make Nkudu loose his footing. But Nkudu only jumped, and reinforced his armoured fist even more before smashing it into Morgan's face.

The impact shook the huge rock they were fighting on, and the on looking members of the Black crew nervously looked down at the ground.

Nkudu laughed and asked, "How did that feel, captain? Did it hurt?"

Morgan grabbed his arm, and smashed Nkudu into the ground. As he gasped for air, Nkudu saw that Morgan didn't even have a scratch on his face from the impact.

Heh. What a monster.

"How about this, then?" He threw himself away from Morgan as fast as he could, and sped around Morgan, trying to use the space between them to his advantage. Morgan was fast, but not so much when his opponent was farther away.

With this in mind, he launched himself at Morgan's only blind spot, his back. Morgan saw him in time, and swung the hammer.

Shit! Nkudu frantically reinforced his fist with rock armour thrice, before the iron hammer struck. The hit blew him away, and the shockwave sent air whistling past the awed audience of the Black pirates.

He struck the ground and rolled twice, before coming to a halt.

He raised his right arm gently, to find the armour completely shattered into pieces. Two of his fingers, the index finger and the middle one, were broken.

He felt blood trickle down his nose, and released his Primis. The rock on his arms crumbled onto the ground, and he bowed his head to the captain.

"Welcome home, Captain Morgan." He muttered dryly, and lost consciousness.

* * * * *

"Alina, I've been offered a new job. I think the boss is finally gonna give me a promotion!"

"Really? That's wonderful, dear! It would help so much since we've had Ikunu now as well..."

Nkudu could hear it. He couldn't see it, but he could hear the voices. Was he hallucinating? No, he couldn't see anything. Morgan had knocked him out, he remembered that much.

He knew whose voices they were. His own, and his wife, Alina's. It was the day he had received his "promotion".

"Harvey told me that someone called Alcora is interested in meeting me. He has a job that I'd be dying to accept, it seems."

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it's better than cleaning the streets every night."

Why did he have to hear this? He knew already what would happen. He had no desire to listen to what was going to happen.

Looking back on it, cleaning the streets for a few dozen gold a week was complete paradise compared to what came next.

He could see everything that was happening, even if all that surrounded him was darkness. He had already lived it.

"What the hell is this? Harvey? What's going on?" Instead of a meeting with just Alcora, he had been met with five men carrying long-nozzled pistols, including his former boss Harvey.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

Someone had appeared in front of him in the shadows of the alleyway, gently putting his hands together for the five men.

Nkudu could still see the face of that man. The man who had deceived him. He was tall, thin, and had skin so pale it made him look almost inhuman. His hair was long and straight, and fell behind his back. He wore a dark violet suit, and a black vest and shirt to match his black trousers. On his face was a small smile, shown by a slight raise of thin lips.

"I believe you are Nkudu, yes?" His voice was silky, weaving through his ears like thread. "I am Alcora Zeck. And you are now my slave."

For the first time, Nkudu realised he couldn't do anything at all. He couldn't grit his teeth, or make a fist. He was trapped in this nightmarish hell, listening to everything that had ruined his life.

He could hear the loud THUD of the iron bars slamming behind him as him, his wife and his 4-year-old daughter were thrown into a tiny prison cell.

"What right do you have to do this?!"

"What right? Don't speak of what you don't have, Nkudu. You were a slave since the day you were born with that skin. The black are worthless maggots who worship their white masters. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Nkudu remembered the look of contempt on Zeck's face. As if he was looking down at filth. Trash.

They were forced to toil for years under Zeck. They were given food whenever the cooks felt like it.

The conditions were beyond horrible. Even an animal would not have been able to live through the treatment they received. Minor mistakes were punished with whips. Women were violated, and the elderly were killed the moment they could no longer carry heavy loads. Boys the age of ten had to carry leather bags of tools and rock almost as big as they were.

And for what did they work? Where did they work? All they knew was that they were mining for an ancient relic, a hammer believed to have belonged to a long-dead Roman emperor. They had been brought here on a ship, blindfolded.

The hammer was called Caesaris Lupus. (Translation: Caesar's Wolf.) Based on what the guards had been saying, it seemed as if Zeck was obsessed with finding that hammer.

And then one day, two of the armed guards, who he had discovered were all part of the slave trading organization called Dealers, went too far.

Drunk and out of their minds, they dragged him, Alina and Ikuno to one of the three torture rooms built in the mines.

"What do you want from us?!"

"Daddy, I'm scared!"

At this point, Nkudu didn't want to hear anymore. He couldn't stand the voice of his daughter crying, he couldn't stand the helplessness he felt as he listened and remembered.

"Please, don't do anything to my daughter! Leave Ikuno alone! Please, just let her-"

"Shuddup, bitch! Shut the FUCK UP!"

They whipped her. They whipped Alina for all she was worth, again and again. Like an animal.

"Stop it! Stop it! NO! Whip me instead, but leave them alone!" No amount of begging could bring the two drunk bastards into their senses.

They continued drinking, and torturing them. They had no mercy for Ikuno either. He could hear his daughter's screaming.

LET ME OUT OF THIS HELL! LET ME OUT! He screamed, but his body wouldn't comply. He couldn't open his eyes. He couldn't escape the screams.

"Hey! Unchain those two. Let's have some fun!" One of the two barbarians cried, and the other undid the chains locked around Alina and Ikuno's wrists.

He had hoped against hope that they would be freed. But instead, he found a new form of despair so horrifying, he still had nightmares about it, more than a decade after.

"Light it up."

They took one of the flaming torches fixed around the room, and used it to light the massive firepit in the center.

"NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" No amount of screaming could prevent what happened next.

They took a massive knife, almost as long as his arm, and cleaved Alina's arms off. Limb after limb, they cut off and tossed into the flames.

Alina's screaming. His own voice, begging them to stop the madness. Ikuno crying and crying.

And then, they tossed her into the fire.

He strained against the chains so hard, his wrists began to bleed. The blood flowed into his clenched fists, and drop after drop fell onto the stone floor.

And then they tossed Ikuno into the fire. Beyond anything else, the most painful, the most horrible sound he had ever heard in his entire life, was the sound of his daughter's screams.

"NOOOOOOO!" Was that his voice? Was that him making that sound?

The only thing that had saved his life was the Head Warden walking into the room at that moment. The two bastards were removed from duty in the mines and transferred elsewhere. And as for him...

Twice he tried to take his own life. Twice he failed. He would have killed himself sometime or the other, if he hadn't met Morgan not long afterwards.

He was the man who unified everyone forced to work for the Dealers. He was the one who discovered the Caesaris Lupus. And he was the one who kept it secret, until he was physically strong enough to lift the hammer.

To this day, Nkudu still remembered Morgan's rage. The day he had finally managed to lift the hammer, the girl he loved, known by the name Carly, was transferred to a different slave camp elsewhere.

Perhaps that anger helped him lift the hammer. Perhaps it was the massive amount of Ley he could control which allowed him to.

But he did lift the hammer. And he destroyed everything in the mines. Every single guard there was killed gruesomely by him. Nkudu had never seen Morgan that way since. He killed and killed everyone involved with the Dealers. He was beyond a beast. Beyond humanity. That day, he massacred the Dealers in the mine like a demon. The Caesaris Lupus was unrecognizable with blood, guts and brains completely covering the head of the hammer.

The same man who now demanded that nobody in his crew killed a white soldier while fighting unless it was by accident.

Morgan kept them safe. Protected them. Saved their lives. So why? Why did he resent him?

Why did he hate his captain?