Armad spent the next six days contemplating his next destination which would be Sisiya. And since he'd never set foot in capital, he didn't know what to expect. What would the people be like? What kind of reception would he expect from Nostalgia after everything that had happened? It was a lot to think about and it made him anxious. On one hand, Bihanzin was seemingly fighting against the jinzidal Kings so he could be a valuable ally in ending the slave trade. But on the other hand, the King might consider him a threat because of what he knew. It was a fifty-fifty chance.

Gaus would have liked to wander in the seven worlds looking for his soul fragments, but he lacked the time to do that. His mother needed to be cured as soon as possible or the disease would progress beyond what could be treated. After knowing 'the secret' and what Ururu was planning to do, he might even offer to help Bihanzin in his fight against the jinzidal Kings in exchange for the longevity he needed to cure his mother. It was a risk he was willing to take. One way or another, he would be getting longevity from one of the Kings.

Armad continued to spend the rest of the journey in his room. He barely went out to see the sun to minimize the chance of someone onboard recognizing him.

One day, as he laid in bed thinking about how his life had turned out, he heard a noise coming from outside. At first, Armad thought the passengers were gambling as usual but then he realized the noise was a bit unusual. It was like a scream and was going down. There were some battle cries thrown in-between as well.

It was either pirate had attacked the ship or a fight had broken out between the passengers. Whichever one was happening didn't concern him. Every ship had strategies put in place to defend against such attacks.

He closed his eyes and ran different scenarios on how he would get Nostalgia and her father to give him what he needed once he reached the kingdom. Nothing seemed to work. But sometimes you just had to be there for a plan to come to your mind. And what if simply asking for the longevity worked?

As he thought about it, he realized the ship had gone eerily silent, making him think the pirates were defeated. But it was too early unless the pirates were too few or unprepared. Or maybe... it was the six people guarding the ship that were defeated.

Armad took a deep breath and shook his head. Something didn't feel right about the situation. He tried to sense the guards' pol and that was when he quickly jumped to his feet and ran for the door. As he opened it, a green smoke flooded the room. The passengers laid unconscious on the floor.

Armad held his breath and went straight into the smoke. After about five steps, he stopped and blew air from his mouth. A flash of lightning flowed out of his mouth like a breath of fire and pushed the smoke away. A ship hidden in the smoke became apparent. It was three times the size of their ship. Armad could see the word Sneakers written boldly on the ship.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He looked around him to assess the damage. Most of the passengers were already knocked out by the smoke but a few were just paralyzed or weak. The smoke was mostly sedating and not killing them. Armad almost heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the captain lying in a pool of blood, clamping his chest. The end of an arrow peeked through the front of his chest while the guards surrounded him and tried to help.

Then he heard a voice from the ship behind him.

"Give us all your supplies and weapons if you want to see another day."

The man warning them looked like the captain. There were seventeen crew members behind him. Each exuding the energy of pol from their bodies. Armad noted there wasn't a single passenger on board which further confirmed his suspicion about it being a pirate ship.

He looked at the six guards surrounding the captain of his ship and saw fear, none had any fight left in them. He turned to the rest of the sleepy passengers and saw some of them bringing their belongings out to the robbers. And he sighed.

There was only one person who was brave in the entire ship. A boy who couldn't be more than fifteen pointing a sword at the pirates.

Armad could beat the robbers but that would likely disrupt his disguise and then the crew would know who he was, causing him a lot of problems during the rest of the journey. Besides, the passengers had agreed to the pirates' terms and were handing their belongings over already. So Armad just decided to help the wounded captain instead of fighting the pirates.

The arrow was away from his heart so he would probably live, unless if it was poisoned which Armad doubt. Although, any attempt to remove it without a healer around might cost the man his life. The first noise he heard must have been the robbers greeting them with arrows before sending the poison gas. And that must be when the captain was hit. The noise went down after the gas had started taking effect.

Different thoughts flooded his mind. The most prominent being sympathy for the person who helped him. The robbers didn't deserve to go free, after all.

As if hearing his thoughts, the young man holding the sword screamed and attack the pirates. A blazing fireball passed from the tip of his sword to hit the ship. The wood caught fire and cracks appeared in it. One of the pirates made hand gestures and pointed at the fire. Ice snaked from his hands forward. It surrounded the fireball and extinguished it. At the same time, plastering the wood where the fire had cracked it.

The pirate clapped his hands in a gesture again and in the next second, a giant box of ice formed around the young man, turning him into an ice statue.

The young man was at fifty-one years and the pirate attacking him was at one hundred and seventeen years. There was a huge gap of power between them.

"Boy, no one lives after touching my Sneaker." The captain of the pirate ship said. He turned to the man next to him. "Get him."

The man jumped into Night-trader and drew his sword. He aimed it at the young man's frozen neck.

"Scram." Armad said gently but his voice sounded like thunder.

The pirate stopped moving, sweat pouring down his cheeks. He raised his head in fear to look at Armad. As their eyes met, his knees buckled.

Armad looked at the frozen young man and then at the pirate who was at least twice his age and his anger flared.

"Great Cold," he said, calm but furious. The gray hail of pure energy materialized out of thin air and swallowed the pirate. It turned him into a true ice statue from the bones out.

Armad turned to the captain of the pirate ship. "If you want to see your mother again, leave. You are advised to leave your ship behind."