“Pirates!”
Chapter 533
By the High Heavens, who in their right mind would dare to attack a military vessel? Hadjar asked himself incredulously.
These people, apparently. Standing at the bow, Hadjar watched a four-masted ship with six decks descend from the clouds toward them. On its foremast was a black flag depicting a white demon devouring a child. Both sides of the ship had numerous cannons sticking out of them, every one of which was pointed in their direction. Most of the cannonballs ended up being deflected by the ‘Wing’s’ protective veil. They plunged toward the ground after rebounding off the veil, leaving traces of orange flame in their wake. The ones that broke through were shot down by the sailors who’d taken up their positions at the cannons. But despite the crew’s best efforts, some still managed to break through, crashing into the already patched side of their ship and exploding instantly.
“Damned rats!” Frig growled.
As he walked, he used his uninjured arm and teeth to secure a piece of his shirt over his wound. Ignoring the hail of splinters, the rain of blood, and the screams of the wounded sailors, he climbed to the bridge. Kicking the coxswain’s corpse aside, he took his place at the rudder.
“Port side!” He yelled. “Divert power from the storage tanks to the front shields! Everyone, to arms! Prepare for battle!”
Neither the captain nor the commander appeared on deck. One of the cannonballs destroyed the captain’s cabin, where they had been drinking, along with a good chunk of the ship.
“By the demons!” Frig cursed and turned sharply to the right.
The ship was leaning dangerously to the left. Sailors and soldiers alike, unprepared for such a maneuver, fell overboard, screaming.
The pirates turned to port side and fired. The shields, now fully energized, managed to deflect most of the new projectiles. However, some of them still broke through the veil again. There were no cannons left to shoot them down, or any sailors to man the weapons.
“Azure Cloud!” Hadjar swung his sword with savage intensity.
A black thundercloud appeared in the sky above their ship and a dragon slid out of it as if coming through the heavenly gates. Opening its fanged maw, it turned two cannonballs into dust.
“What power!” The soldiers gasped in admiration.
This Technique surpassed their commander’s best attacks. And he was a Spirit Knight! Of the five projectiles that broke through the veil, two were destroyed by the ‘Azure Cloud’ Technique, a third was split in half by Hadjar’s sword, and the remaining two bit into the side of ‘Rukh’s Wings’.
There were two more explosions.
“You demon children!” The boatswain spun the rudder furiously. “Go to the port side! Load the cannons with explosives! Divert half the power to the cannons! Let’s show these bastards their place! Soldiers, board the ship!”
“Board the ship, sir?”
“Yes, you bastards, board the ship! If we don’t stick close to them, we’ll know what it feels like to be a pancake in a frying pan in a couple of minutes!”
The ship was lurching to one side and slowly losing altitude. If this continued, they would soon crash.
“Bring me the watchman! I’ll rip out his spine and beat him with it.”
Hadjar, who’d taken down several cannonballs with another slash of his sword, was too late to react to Frig’s order. Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with the tip of a very sharp dagger aimed directly at his Adam’s apple. Holding it was a girl with short hair and an ugly, round face. This struck him as odd, as the girl was at the peak stage of the Heaven Soldier level. Hadjar wondered how ugly she’d been before becoming a cultivator, if she looked like this even after her ‘rebirth’.
“Hadjar Darkhan,” she hissed, “you’ll be coming with me.”
Hadjar didn’t have time to ask how she knew his name or why she’d come after him. He tried to lunge forward with his sword, but the dagger only came closer to his throat.
“Tut, tut, tut.” She scolded him as if he were a misbehaving child. “Don’t be silly. You don’t want to end up like them, do you?”
She pointed at the wooden railing where several corpses lay with their throats cut. The damned pirates must’ve boarded the ship before they’d started firing.
“What do you want from me?”
According to Einen, one had to stall in any incomprehensible situation, until the situation either became clear or changed. It was a very dubious theory, but surprisingly, it worked perfectly well for the islander most of the time.
“We want nothing from you, but our client will pay us handsomely for your hide!”
Hadjar glanced behind the pirate. None of the other soldiers rushed to his aid. They were busy tying down cables and ropes. The boatswain was steering the ship steadily, keeping it right next to the huge pirate vessel. They were so close to it that they could see the menacing smiles on the pirates’ faces. Then the rasping of weapons being drawn and the clanging of armor unfurling over the bodies of soldiers and pirates filled the air. This was going to be a battle in the sky between true cultivators!
“And who is this generous client of yours?” Hadjar took a small, barely noticeable step back.
If everything worked out, he would once again live up to his Mad General nickname.
“You don’t need to know,” the pirate hissed. “Put away your strange sword and armor, and follow me if you want to live.”
Hadjar glanced behind the girl once more. Only seconds remained before the ships collided.
“Well, my dear,” Hadjar dismissed the Black Blade, which made the pirate noticeably relax, “I’m in no hurry to meet my forefathers.”
Taking advantage of the moment of collision, Hadjar jumped off the ship.
“You madman!” The pirate screamed, recovering her balance too late.
Hadjar, who had plummeted a dozen yards through the air in just a second, didn’t hear her cry. A terrible wind was howling in his ears. He’d bet his life on the fact that the pirates hadn’t done all of this just to murder him. The pirates clearly needed him alive and, if possible, unharmed. And Hadjar didn’t lose the bet.
A few seconds later, as the ships became distant dots in the sky, an odd beast approached him. It looked like a carnivorous worm, only a thousand times bigger and with two wings growing out of it. The pirate girl sat in the monster’s saddle. Pulling on the reins, she held out her hand to the falling Hadjar.
“Take my hand!” She screamed.
“Sure.” Hadjar waved his hand.
Despite the fact that she was at a higher stage of cultivation, she wasn’t even a Wielder yet. A wave of Hadjar’s hand created a stream of sword energy so powerful that it killed her in an instant. Grabbing the reins, Hadjar climbed into the saddle, throwing her corpse into the chasm.
“Calm down, you damned beast!” He snarled at the worm, which had gone crazy as soon as the pirate girl had died.
Hysterical, it jerked rapidly from side to side, losing altitude. Seeing that they were going to crash into some sharp rocks, Hadjar pushed off the beast at the last moment and, after hurtling a dozen yards through the air, rolled down the slope of a rocky hill.
If he hadn’t had a dragon’s blood in his veins, he would’ve died at the beginning of his descent. As it was, he had broken several bones, but at least he was still alive.
As he lay in a ditch, he watched ‘Rukh’s Wings’ slam into the ground.
Injured and almost unable to move, Hadjar realized that he wasn’t on the border, but beyond it.
“Damn it,” he grunted.
He had landed in the territory of the hostile Empire.
To continued…
Note from the author
Hello folks!
About one third of the way is completed. The half of the 3nd big arc passed by. There were lots of heroes and plenty of deaths. I am glad that you follow me and like the way of my writing.
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Hadjar received a task from his Mentor and traveled to the border between the two Empires. During his journey, his sky ship was attacked in enemy territory, forcing him to abandon it. He barely survived, thanks to the efforts of people whom he is obliged to kill on the spot — the Lascanians. This unpredictable storm of events stranded the Mad General far away from his goal. Suddenly, he found himself fighting alongside enemy cultivators and even an orc. Now they must band together to stop the demon invasion, otherwise the war between their Empires will never take place, because no Empires will be left to wage it...
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