by Tony Tran
While everyone was still startled a giant man walked in from the hole in the wall. The man was as big as a bear and stood taller than the door. He was walking shirtless so all the folds of fat on his body were hanging loose and squishing around as he walked. On his bald scalp were two large scars that formed a X.
He held a wooden club which he propped up on his shoulder. This club was studded with many spikes on one end to the point where one wouldn’t be wrong to call it a giant mace.
“Ha ha ha you fools think you can hide in here? Hand over the duke now! And we will spare the rest of you.”, the huge man said with a sneer.
“Duke?”, Zhang thought to himself and then turned to Yuying who looked equally perplexed.
“Who sent you!!!”, Yan Li yelled.
“Hpmh, you think you have the right to question us? At a time like this? Quit yapping and hand over the DUKE!!!!!”, the huge man replied.
“Over our dead bodies!!! Men protect the duke and charge!!!”, Yan Li yelled as he led the charge toward the huge man.
Half of the sailors followed Yan Li’s charge while the rest formed up around Jian Wei.
Yan Li and his men ran quickly towards the huge man and circled him. Spears and swords poked and slashed wildly at the huge man. However, all of this seemed useless against him. He stood there as if he wasn’t injured in the slightest.
“Hahaha puny scum let a real man show you true strength.” The man laughed as he raised his giant club and swung it horizontally. The club swept the Yan Li and his men off the ground and slammed them into a wall.
Some were unlucky and were impaled by the spikes on the club and some were equally unlucky and had their spines and bones crushed by taking the impact of the club head on. The only lucky ones were those who were hit by the bodies of those in front of them.
What no one noticed was while the man had swung a shadow had weaved its way through the mass of sailors. And when they did, the shadow was already behind the huge man. This shadow could be made out to be none other than Zhang.
Zhang had made his way through the sailors and behind the man’s back and when he reached his destination, he pulled out a crude looking long dagger. If one looked closely dagger they’d be able to see that it was what looked to be a huge tooth tied between two smooth pieces of wood. This dagger was made from the Voracious Eaters razor sharp tooth.
Zhang drew a vertical slash down the man’s shoulder and then a horizontal one slitting the man’s Achilles tendon. Zhang knew he could not end this with a simple slash to the neck or a stab to the heart so he decided to try to immobilize the man as much as possible.
In fact, if he had gone for the man’s heart his dagger most likely would have been too short or maybe only the tip would touch its target. As for the neck, one would have to ask what neck? Layers on top of layers of fat had made the man’s neck indistinguishable from his torso.
“Gahhh you little piece of shit. How dare you injure me!!!!”, he bellowed as Zhang jumped back a short distance away.
The man fell into a frenzy and swung his club in an endless barrage towards Zhang. Thankfully Zhang had already immobilized his ability to move on his right leg. This made it so Zhang was for sure more agile and quicker than the man.
“You useless fools what are you doing standing there watching HELP ME!!!!”, The huge man screamed to his men who were standing at the hole in the wall that he had made.
Soon many men with their faces covered by black cloth filled the room with blades drawn.
However, they were ignored as Zhang charged at the man once more this time aiming for his other leg. The man saw Zhang running towards him slammed his club into the ground and swiped to the side.
Zhang jumped into the air and did a somersault then slammed his dagger into the man’s left eye and kicked off the man’s chest and landed on the ground.
After being stabbed in the eye and kicked, the man fell to the ground and covered what used to be his eye and howled in agony.
Taking this chance, Zhang jumped on top of the man’s chest landing on his feet and stabbed into the man’s hand that was currently covering his face pinning his hand into his face. Then stomping the man’s sternum hoping to cave in his chest.
But the man had too much body mass for this to be done. The man waved his left arm wildly trying to strike Zhang. He knew that if he wallowed in his pain and did nothing he might lose his life.
Not being able to cave in the man’s chest Zhang pulled out his dagger and used it to slice off the man’s right hand that was covering his face.
Then hopped off the huge man’s chest and picked up his massive club. While on the island, Zhang had trained his body once more from scratch to get it back on par with his previous body. Although it wasn’t quite there yet his body now possessed a lot of strength. Enough strength to barely lift up the giant club that was about as big as he was.
While Zhang was dragging the club toward the immobilized giant man, it made a scraping noise against the floor of the ship. Once he was in front of the man, he slowly lifted up the club and raised it above his head and slammed it down on top the man’s head.
The giant clubbed smashed the man’s head to a pulp and his brain matter was splattered all over the floor. The entire time, the sailors and their adversaries watched in silence both at awe of Zhang’s power and in fear of it.
After using the club to smash the man’s head Zhang lifted it up once more and began spinning. He was trying to pick up momentum and when it was just right he released the giant club sending it crashing into the group of invaders.
Five of the invaders was stuck under the giant club and when they fell over, they had knocked down many of their comrades that stood by them.
“KILLLL!!!”, Yan Li screamed as he charged toward the stunned enemies.
The sailors rushed toward the invaders and almost systematically killed them. The mess hall was now a bloody mess. Blood, guts, and body parts littered the ground. Anyone with a weak stomach would of have emptied their stomachs a few times by now if they saw this sight. Zhang walked up to one of the corpses and began taking its clothes off.
“Brother what the hell are you doing?”, Ai asked.
Without answering, he tossed the clothes toward Ai and began doing the same thing to another corpse.
“What are you guys waiting for! Do you want to leave or not?!”, Zhang asked as he began putting on the clothes that he took from the corpse.
As if they understood what he was doing all of the sailors including Jian Wei began taking clothes off the corpses and put them on. Yuying and Ai had headed for the kitchen to change. Because there was no way they’d do it here in a room full of man.
Zhang stood guard in front of the kitchen making sure no wondering eyes or people entered it.
All of the corpses had black clothing with an insignia on the right shoulder with a picture of a shark. After donning the black clothes, the group started slowly heading back in upper deck. Anyone who met them along the way and wasn’t on their side was taken care of in a swift way.
Above, there were many men in black however, they paid no attention to the group coming up from below.
There were currently four ships with planks heading on to the ship they currently were on.
“Sir we searched the raft that was attached to the ship and found some valuable things where do you want me to take them?”, a man asked.
“Put them on my ship in the cargo hold.”, another man said.
“Follow me everyone.”, Zhang whispered.
All the sailors and Jian Wei after seeing Zhang’s performance no longer questioned him. They knew this young man could very well be their only hope of escaping alive. Zhang led the group toward the direction of the raft and eventually onto it.
Once on the raft, he began helping the men in black carried things off the raft. Zhang’s plan was to help them carry things onto one of their ship and then sneak aboard and commandeer the ship.
Everyone from the group picke
d up a few things and followed Zhang’s example and then headed towards the ship that was going to store the treasures.
They all walked onto the ship unnoticed and after all the men were on board this new ship they began to disperse. They were going to split up into smaller groups and took care of the men in black on the ship they were on.
Chapter 15: Storeroom
Upon boarding the enemy’s ship while undercover, Zhang suggested for them, the sailors, to break up into small squads and clear the ship. They pretended to help the men in black carry things back onto the ship and had to make their move soon before the enemies found the corpses in the mess hall.
The men in black brought a large portion of the trio’s things onto the ship beforehand and were now busy stacking things on the ship.
The ship they boarded was much smaller than the ship they previously were traveling on. This one was only roughly one third the size of the other ship.
Jian Wei and a few of his men were tasked with keeping guard above deck on the ship and made sure to inform the others if anything happened. While the sailors were to sweep the entire enemy boarded on ship and stealthily silence everyone.
Once the ship was completely taken over, they would cut all of the ropes that kept the ship bounded together, free the ship, allowing them to escape. This was of course after they somehow set fire to the three other enemy’s ships and the large ship they were on before.
But the real question was, if they could escape the six other enemy ships that had stayed a short distance away. Particularly, a very large ship that was the farthest away from them. This ship was twice as big as the ship they had just taken over and was most likely the enemy’s flagship. The large ship had hundreds of oars poking out from its side and would most likely be able to catch up to them once they fled. On top of the massive sail of the ship hung a black flag with a skull and crossbones.
Zhang had broken off from the group along with Yuying and Ai. They were currently headed toward the storage room of the ship. Zhang’s goal being to get his two canteens of corrosive poison. Although he didn’t hope they would work but they most likely would come in handy during the escape.
Everyone who had ran into the trio was almost instantly killed. Zhang had given Yuying a dagger just like his, made of the other fang of the Voracious Eater. She was able to skillfully use it and quickly ended the lives of many unfortunate people who ran into her.
“Damn maybe we shouldn’t have killed all of those guys, at least after they tell us where the storage room on this ship is.”, Zhang said with a sigh.
“Brother come here I’ll show you something.”, Yuying said as she gestured him to come toward her. Beside her was the corpse of a pirate.
Once Zhang walked up to her, Yuying placed her hand on the corpse's forehead. Then strange runes appeared and covered her hand. The runes danced about on her own skin and then shot straight into the corpse.
Once all the runes disappeared from Yuying’s hand, they appeared on the corpse. The corpse suddenly started jolting and then it’s eyes opened to reveal blank white pupils.
“Stand.”, Yuying commanded.
As soon as the words left her mouth the corpse got onto its feet and stood.
“Now lead us to the storeroom.”
Again, the corpse responded to Yuying’s order and began walking.
“Impressed brother? Hehe”, she said with a laugh.
Zhang became kind of distracted as he intently watched her smile. However, after a couple moments he was able to snap out of it and ask her, “What exactly did you do?”
“Simple, I used a technique I learned in the underworld, called “Reanimation.” This technique lets me send essence into someone who had recently died and reactivate their body. Once someone dies, their soul passes on into the Underworld however, their body still retains a bit of their intelligence. I’m able to reactivate the body and command it to do my bidding. I could use this on living people also but to a lesser extent but we shouldn’t rely on it because the technique isn’t meant for someone only at the 4th level in terms of essence to us. If one wasn’t mindful, they’d end up sapping themselves of energy and might die.”, she explained.
Zhang although was intrigued did not ask anymore. This was because it currently was not the time nor place to be comparing notes on this technique or that technique. They were currently on an enemy ship and could be found out and attacked at a moment’s notice.
The corpse stumbled its way to the storeroom as the trio trailed behind it. The corpse had lead them to an iron door that was bolted into the walls of the ship.
Zhang reached his hand and pulled on the door handle but it was locked. One would need the key to the room to access it. However, Zhang had another means of entering. He pulled out a vial in his sleeve and dripped a few drops of Lightning Eater’s poison into the lock.
Once the drops entered the lock, a fizzing sound could be heard and smoke could be seen floating out of the lock.
Moments later, the door creaked open. Ai grabbed the handle and opened the door. The inside of the storeroom was filled with chests of all shapes and sizes. This was somewhat odd being that this was not the flagship of the pirates, so they shouldn’t have many things besides the stuff they had just looted.
Zhang reached his hand and opened a large chest by the entrance. Countless shimmering golden coins filled the chest to the brim. As he opened a larger chest he found that they were all filled with gold coins. Upon closer inspection Zhang found that all of these coins were from an area on the southern peninsula of the Wulin continent.
This place was known as the land of Warring States. Taking up the entire southern peninsula of the continent and a broad area above it the Warring States took up roughly one tenth of the entire continent. This area was made up of hundreds of duchies and city states that each had their own ruler. Although this area was split into small ruling powers no empire or kingdom had ever been able to take over or control this area. This was because each time an army was assembled to invade, all of the small ruling powers would band together and repel the incoming invaders.
That being said the ownership of land in this area still constantly shifted from one person to the next. Rulers would be challenged and replaced or one state would conquer another. The rulers of the states did not bother with internal struggles only when invaders from other kingdoms intervened.
Each portion of the land although divided when it came to rulers, used the same type of currency. And all of the gold coins in the chests had the symbol of the Warring States, an eagle carrying a sword with its talons. This was to represent that there is always someone looking to seize power in the area.
“Brother, sister look!”, Ai yelled at Zhang.
In her hand was a small chest and inside the small chest was four rings. The rings all looked somewhat the same with many etchings on.
“Those are interspatial rings!!! Just what we needed.”, Zhang exclaimed. With these rings they would be able to store away all of their things and not have to carry loads of stuff while traveling. Ai handed Zhang and Yuying each a ring and put one ring on her finger and put the box with the extra ring inside her interspatial ring. They only needed three rings one for each person and the extra ring they’d most likely sell.
Interspatial rings fetched high price if sold on the market. Usually, however even if one had the money there was a chance they could not even find a ring to purchase. These rings were rare and the method to make them had long been lost.
Finding the rings on this ship was extremely odd how could pirates come into possession of such pricey things and not even store them on their flag ship?
After putting on the rings Zhang dripped a drop of his blood onto it and binded it. The ring was now his and no one else but him can access the things inside without him unbinding the ring first. Then with a swept of his hand all of the large treasure chests he had touched before were sucked inside the ring. Then one by one he began storing the smaller boxes and chests
. And finally Zhang stored away the things that were taken from the raft.
After he stored everything away, it was time to go back to the upper deck and meet up with the sailors. As they made their way up, the trio did not meet any enemies. However, when they reached the upper decks they stumbled upon a horrific scene.
The sailors along with Jian Wei and Yan Li were surrounded and had their backs to the entrance to the lower deck. More than half of them laid on the ground covered in blood either dead or dying.
Only around fifteen sailors including Jian Wei and Yan Li were still left standing. Whereas in front of them stood roughly a hundred pirates with weapons ready to draw blood. Jian Wei’s face was white as paper and blood was dripping off of his fingertips.
“What happened!”, Zhang yelled as he ran on deck.