A day later Josiah had done a little raiding on the shoreline villages, he wasn't nuking them with water from the coast like he had before, survivors were getting away and just as planned he had attracted the attention of the Navy, he gestured for his crew to sneak into the water as he watched the blue sails draw closer, a blue flag with a golden sun embroidered on the flag, it was a galleon, the ballista's turned toward him, but he stood there proudly in his new clothes a black leather coat with tricorn hat a plume of black feathers, on the side of it. He had tied his white hair back in a braid. He had a pair of sabers sheathed at his sides.

An officer walked over the side of the galleons railing and looked down on him, if not barely, the ship is big but it isn't the man o war that irons had. "Where's your crew? Survivors told stories of a crew of demons but I only see you. Don't tell me, they took what they could from your ship and fled."

Josiah shrugged, his hands still in his pockets. "Maybe. Or Maybe I sent them back to hell."

The officer snorted derisively. "Get down there and arrest him, it's to the hooks with him."

Josiah watch the gangplank fall and the soldiers march, he flicked his fingers in his pocket and a wave bumped the galleon and rattled the gangplank, causing a few of the soldiers to fall into the sea and didn't come back up. Josiah watched the water bubble and chuckled. "Seems your crew can't swim, how shameful for the royal navy."

On queue Reirshi leapt from the water and brought his harpoons down into the man's chest and tore them out before turning and throwing the harpoons into the ballista operators. And dragging them off of the chairs mounted to the sides of the massive crossbows.

Josiah walked casually over to the gangplank and started walking up, he smiled as the Neshili leapt from the water and onto the ships deck, Josiah unsheathed his swords as he stepped onto the deck, he deflected the cutlass of a crewman, and stabbed the man in the arm. And then kicked him in the chest and dragged his sword across the man's arm, his sword cut the cartilage and bone though with difficulty. The man's cutlass flew from their grasp and he fell to the ground his arm split down the middle like a grotesque banana. But he stabbed his blade half way through the man's eye, his screaming was getting annoying.

Voku climbed up the side of the ship and stood up to his near nine feet height on the deck and hefted a large smithing hammer that was the size of a sledgehammer he held it in one hand and frankly it was a bit goofy like looking at him wielding a stick. The monstrous smith swung his thick sharks tail and plowed a few of soldiers to the side. He made a loud rumbling growling noise that sounded like an avalanche, and slammed his hammer to the side and a soldiers head disappeared in a splash of red.

Josiah saw a few soldiers throw themselves off of the ship at the sight of the creature. And the rest of the soldiers were outnumbered atleast three to one. He had an entire villages worth of Neshili troops, and the naval soldiers seemed all too aware of it. Some threw their weapons to the ground, others tried to jump off of the ship and the last few fought like rabid badgers.

Josiah sheathed his swords and crossed his arms waiting for the last few people to die fighting, when the last one fell he motioned for the Neshili to shackle them and line them up.

He walked up to them just as the last one was shoved to their knees, he put his hands on his hips right at the base of the sheathed swords as he stood in front of them. He looked each one in the eye. "Hmmm..." He stood there and scratched the back of his head. "What to do... What to do... I could let you go but then I'd just get more navy ships on my ass, I could just kill you but that doesn't benefit me more than your continued silence... Keeping you prisoner might keep the naval baddies off my ass for a little while but it'd cost me food and water. Hmmmm..." Josiah shrugged and looked at them. "Pick a number between one and ten. "

Josiah watched most of them pick numbers like seven or eight, seven was oddly common, but he found that the smart ones picked five and six. He by the end the ones that picked higher numbers were thrown into the ocean with the shackles still on their wrists, he'd have them recovered later. For now he had a few prisoners who he could use to bargain.

Josiah walked downstairs and into the cargo hold, he saw at least thirty racks of weapons, everything from swords, spears, bows, and crossbows. And at the end of the cargo hold was a door with a lock on it. He looked at the door and was about to kick in the door, then he realized that captain would have the key, he sighed and walked up onto the deck grabbed the officers corpse by it's uniform collar, he took the key chain belt, and also found a nice bag of gold coins, which was tied to the belt.

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Josiah walked back down the stairs and opened the door, what he saw put dollar signs where his eyes should have been, he saw chests overloaded with gold like something out of a videogame or a pirate themed picture book, the gold didn't quite glow or sparkle, or it did but only because of the lantern he had lit, there were also shelves full of little doodads that looked like old Mayan artifacts, Reirshi had followed him down and commented as he held up a coin. "These have Neshi symbols on them, and I see some religious icons that were taken from churches and temples."

Josiah shrugged. "Well, Neshi has her little doohickeys back and we have a new ship with an armory and a good amount of treasure."

Reirshi hissed in it's Neshili language. "You could show her some respect, Captain."

Josiah turned. "Neshi dragged me to the deepest depths of the sea and took my arm replacing it with THIS!" He smacked his tentacle arm down on the floor. "I will show her the respect she deserves from someone she has wronged."

Reirshi shook it's head. "You did the same thing to my host, you killed him and corrupted his body beyond recognition."

Josiah ignored him as he walked over to a particular piece of treasure that he could see was glowing, it was weird, because it was a small piece of black metal, but he saw it had a blue aura around it, he reached up to it and plucked it from the small wooden stand it was mounted on. He looked at it, it looked like a small shard of a blade, the sharp black metal he saw was serrated and it's blue glow was like a fiery blue aura.

Josiah put it back on the shelf and turned, he could hear something happening upstairs.

He walked upstairs to see Irons standing on the deck kicking one of the prisoners in the chin hard enough make him leave the ground for a few seconds and then collapse to the ground on their back. Josiah walked over up the stairs to the quarter deck and watched the massive pirate beating on the naval prisoner, holding him by the scruff of the shirt and just laying it into him, he's beating his teeth into the back of his throat, before he threw the man screaming over the side of the ship.

Josiah simply brushed a hand along the wheel, it was a beautiful ship, maybe not a flag ship but... "That'll be a gold thousand coins."

Irons looked at him. "Excuse me boy?"

Josiah turned. "You just ruined my ransom, I was gonna trade them back to whatever nation they came from for a price." He said.

Irons laughed. "The Hadrian Empire doesn't do ransom, their men are expected to die in the line of duty, they're expendable as the seaweed we wipe our asses with."

Josiah cursed. "shit, well I still have their ship."

Irons nodded. "Boy, I've only known you a week and you've already pissed off the navy enough for them to send a galleon, what the hell are you planning boy?" He asked, lighting a cigar with a match using his callused thumb to ignite the match.

Josiah smiled. "Let me show you, you got the ingredients right?" He asked.

Irons took a large smoldering drag from the massive cigar. "Yeah, I got your soft yellow rocks and your white rocks." He said, breathing out a smoke.

Josiah smiled.

about an hour later he'd had the powder mixed together.

Irons walked across the beach carrying the barrel, a hole in the bottom spilling some powder while Josiah watch him from the edge of the water, Irons set it down and Leo gestured him back over. He came back looking at him. "What now boy?" He said, lighting a cigar.

Josiah took the cigar and tossed it to the black powder trail and Irons glared, but they looked at the powder as it sparked and the trail started burning, and when it reached the trail it exploded causing Irons to stumble backwards. "Fuck, that was..."

"The beginning of modern warfare." Josiah said, picking the cigar up and frowning at it's smoldering remains.

Irons nodded. "I see that, I heard rumors of this showing up in the Hadrian empire, but-"

Josiah cut him off. "This, is showing up in the Hadrian empire?"

Irons nodded. "They've been using it to blow open gates, it showed up about three months ago, right after the holy paladin of Grelorious was summoned to the world." He explained.

Josiah cursed. "Looks like we need to get ahead of the game."

Irons raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Josiah shook his head. "I'll draw out the designs when we get back to the ship, it seems we're in an arms race. For now take the boat back to the ships, I'll meet you there." He said, before he dived into the water and started propelling himself back to the ship.

----------------------------------------

Lord Admiral Reidenhart groaned when he heard the news. "I sent a fucking galleon what do you mean they haven't reported back?!" He shouted.

The poor cadet drew the short straw and was sent to the lord admiral to deliver the bad news.

"S- Sir, that's not all, We found the quartermaster dead in the water, his face had been so badly beaten only his insignia told us who he was, we also found this on the beach." The cadet said, setting a piece of burned wood on the admirals desk.

"The fuck am I looking at Cadet." The admiral barked.

They flinched back. "We found the remains of a barrel on the beach and a trail of blackened soot, it was burned from the inside and it looked like it exploded, the remnants were scattered across the beach."

Reidenhart sat down, and rubbed his eyes. "Leave..." he muttered.

The Cadet didn't need to be told twice and left. Reidenhart took out a scroll and started writing, when he was done he threw the letter into a brasier of blue flames. Not twenty minutes later a large golden golem stomped into his office, not even bothering to knock or say hello it simply said. "Emperor Hadrian Will See You, Now."