Within a span of a day I thought I had seen my life flash before me at least thrice. But the day continued surprising me. There was nothing more scarier than a bunch of rowdy men and women with scabbards and axes in their arms and cursers for one’s mother in their mouth charging at you at the same time.
“Curse my balls,” Crookbag looked back. I looked back along with him. Three of his girls were dead, and two were bleeding. “We’re surrounded.”
Chagum, stood beside Crookbag and spat. “We can’t fight all of them.”
“True,” Crookbag dropped his axe, and extended his hand at her. Chagum nodded and placed her knife on him.
“They’re going to kill us!” Kaya stuttered.
“Is that foresight?”
“No, I just spat reality.”
Crookbag lunged his knife into his palm. Blood squinted out, but he only gave a grunt, then roared. “I SUMMON YOU FROM HELL!”
I prayed on any luck that was left within me for that to be anything but a death cry.
A few pirates at the front stopped, equally surprised. But the other pushed past them and charged forwards. When it was just only five feet between us and the men, a sudden purple light pierced through the ground. I looked to the left to see hieroglyphs dancing on Crookbag’s arm.
[Summoning Complete]
[Ajax The Warrior]
[3000 Material Points Consumed]
“What the-”
Before I could finish a shadow fell upon right in front of me, and there was a thunderous roar. The ground shook, and Kaya gripped on me for support. The figure in front of me was the size of Crookbag, but dressed in black armor from head to toe. On the armor were strange symbols written in blood red and glowing. But my eyes moved to its arms. Instead of hands what rested was two large axes, it’s hilts gleaming in the light.
“FUUUCCCKKKKK!” I heard Hassan’s voice behind the chaotic pirates who were now backing away. “HE HAS A SUMMON SKILL YOU MORONS! CHARGE AT HIM! CHAR-”
His voice stopped midway when the abomination Crookbag summoned widened its hand as if to give the pirates a hug, then closed them, blades moving together rapidly. Blood spurted out, fountain high. Heads lolled. At least ten screams echoed into the night at the same time.
And to match the screams the creature roared too. It was a hollow voice, but deep all the same. More like a giant inside was screaming to escape.
Only then I understood why Isla feared Crookbag so much. It wasn’t the man, but what he could summon.
“It’s going to clear us a path,” Crookbag roared over me. “Chagum, get the remaining girls-”
There was a shrill scream behind us. I turned again to see Hassan behind, his blade jutting out from one of the girl’s throats.
“CHARGE!” he yelled.
The pirates who were edging backwards scrambled forwards, either pushed by fake bravery or a suicidal run. The creature raised its axes again, and there were more screams and more blood. But I didn’t spare time to look. Hassan was right behind us.
“You piece of shit!” Crookbag lifted his axe again. “I will tear you apart!”
Two assassins lunged at the pirate, but he disappeared in an instant and appeared to our right.
“You started this you fucker!” he yelled with a sore throat. “You could have handed over the boy and lived happily ever after fucking your private army. YOU ASKED FOR THIS!”
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He disappeared again, and I felt the air behind us thicken. It only lasted for a moment before I caught a blade coming straight at Kaya.
I lunged at her, gripping her from both my hands and shoving her down. Something stinged from my side, and the pain amplified as soon as I hit the ground. It was like a thousand ants was biting me at the same time.
Damn, it’s been so long since I felt pain…
I gritted my teeth, and clutched my side. I spared a glance upwards to see Hassan grinning. “You whore, I’m just getting star-”
An axe landed straight into his head, splitting his skull and sending bits of flesh and blood. His white eyeballs gouged out, and blood and snot spewed out gushed out of his nose as his mouth cracked and teeth fell off.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, but I doubted Crookbag wanted it to be one.
He raised his axe. “That was for my girls limp!”
He killed him! Hassan is dead!
But the pain stung me harder, and I fell to the side, gritting my teeth.
“Jorg!” Kaya appeared above me. She had her hands pressed to my wounds. “Jorg! Talk to me.”
“Is he dead?” I bluntly heard Chagum’s voice. “Good. Fucker is responsible for the death of my girls.”
I wondered if she was referring to me or Hassan.
“We need a healer!” Kaya snapped. “Bring me a healer.”
I saw Crookbag’s large figure loom over me.
“You aren’t here to give orders girl,” Crookbag’s eyes fell upon me. “But we need this bastard.”
He lifted me by the collar. I thought he was going to choke me again, but he slumped me over his shoulder. I looked down to see a very furious looking Chagum and a worried Kaya.
“My summoned soldier can last only a few moments longer. I’m using it to cut a path to the ship over the soldiers. And then boy,” I heard his voice more closer now. “You better spill out everything you have to our captain before I make that wound worse.”
*
I don’t exactly recall the journey to the ship. I remember Crookbag spitting out insults while Kaya kept calling my name. We took a few turns, and some passerbies looked at us. Some pulled out daggers and charged at Crookbag. That’s when I realized they weren’t passerbies. They were Isla’s men with orders to kill us.
I wonder how Masha is doing, I drew her figure in my head. I hope she’s fine.
My skin prickled from the heat. And with my vision blurring I saw burning houses and screaming people. There were piles of bodies, laid weapons, and broken structures. Masha was right. The peaceful state of the town was changed in an instant. We were in war, and I started it.
I drifted off to sleep some time. And then I some sharp pain from my back as I landed on something hard. Kaya still called my name. And now I heard different voices, with Crookbag ordering over the rest.
That’s probably when I went to sleep.
When I woke up I felt like shit. My mouth tasted of crushed herbs, and when I tried to turn my sides ached like someone was squeezing my balls. But at least I saw clearly. And when I looked around I found I was a in a small wooden cabin. By the small motions of the bed I figured I was in a ship.
I prayed to the gods for it to be Crookbag’s ship.
“You’re awake!”
I turned to see Kaya beaming at me. “Oh by the gods!”
She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close. She still smelled of burnt pie, but with a little odor from the town. I didn’t care. It was good to see a familiar face. And it felt good to be held by her.
“What happened?” I asked when she finally let me go.
“We are in the ship of the Waylong pirates.”
“Uh-huh,” I looked at the weapons pinned to the wall, and the dirty bottles at the corner. “Figured that much.”
“You slept for at least three hours,” she looked outside through the little cabin window. “It’s almost past midnight now.”
I saw an orange glow behind the window. If it was midnight then there was no fucking way the sun was too kind to shine.
“What’s happening in town?”
Kaya grimaced. “It’s war. Crookbag sent two crews to burn every possible place Isla’s crews could hide in. One crew came back, the other never did. But the counterattacks are harder. Two of Waylong storehouses were burned to ground in three hours. More than seventeen dead. Two of Isla’s strongest crewmen are in this town. They won’t rest until they have our heads.”
I swallowed nervously.
“Kaya-”
“I’m going to repay you,” she grabbed my arm and tightened it. “You took that blade for me.”
I did. And maybe it was guilt. Or maybe I was getting used to Kaya being beside me.
“And in the future stop doing idiotic things like that!”
“I’ll try,” I wiggled my hand free. “At least help me figure this thing out.”
The blue screen appeared again, but this time it greeted me with an achievement.
[30 Material Points Gained]
“For starters, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Kaya stretched on her chair, seemingly relaxed. “Material points are like currency. You can buy skills with them, and they decrease. But you can kill people and earn it back.”
I sliced the letters and a new text appeared with my statistics.
[3330 Material Points]
“So is this a lot?”
I turned to see Kaya gawking her mouth open. “T-That’s….it’s like you found a damn goldmine.”
“I got it after killing Isla. Maybe she was worth 3000 Material Points.”
“She’s the pirate queen,” Kaya snorted. “Of course she’s going to be worth that much.”
I shivered. If the pirate queen was worth so much, then how much was my sister worth?
“You can purchase a lot of skills with it,” Kaya said, her eyes brightening. “Jorg! We actually have a way out of this damn city.”
“We sure do,” I smiled. “And its time I led the battle.”