“With their power,” Einen shuddered, “they could conquer the world.”
“More like burn it to the ground.”
They didn’t talk about anything else. Dora didn’t mind that the two of them were talking in a language that she didn’t understand. In the world of martial arts, where the eternal struggle for power never ceased, secrets were considered an integral part of life.
As they descended, Hadjar turned toward the stables, but soon realized that he was heading there alone.
“Don’t we-”
“My father gave me a ship.” Dora smiled happily.
“A ship?” It took Hadjar a moment to remember that Dora, despite all her modesty, was the eldest heiress of one of the seven great clans. If he so chose, her father could buy her an entire fleet. “Why?”
Hadjar looked at Einen, but the islander pretended not to notice his gaze. Dora blushed.
“My birthday was two weeks ago,” she muttered. “I’m seventeen-springs-old now.”
“Wow!” Hadjar, despite not being close friends with her, still tried to maintain a civilized relationship with the elf. “Then please, accept my belated congratulations and a small gift.”
He took two storage crystals out of his spatial ring. Even after fighting the Dah’Khasses, he still had five left. Each of them was worth about three thousand Imperial coins, which was quite the sum by anyone’s standards.
“Is that what I think it is?” At that moment, Dora didn’t look like a warrior, but like a teenager who’d just received an unexpected but very welcome gift. “Thank you!” She smiled and hugged Hadjar, but then, as if remembering something, pulled away. The crystals disappeared into her spatial artifact, and the trio set off toward the port.
Chapter 638
H eading into the port, Hadjar stopped dead in his tracks as he remembered walking up the ramp of ‘Rukh’s Wings’. The memory faded after a moment, swept away by the breeze. The port was in absolute chaos: hundreds of boats and ships were soaring into the sky and flying southeastward, toward the heart of the Empire.
The capital was getting close to no longer being the Empire’s most populated area, losing out to the Wastelands. Less than ten hours after the announcement, thousands of cultivators were already on their way to one of the most dangerous territories on the entire continent, with many more to follow.
Dora’s ship, a small, one-sail vessel with the capacity to carry about ten people, was anchored in a private section of the port with several other ships. All of them, regardless of their size, cargo, and equipment, displayed the same flag — the Imperial coat of arms above the coat of arms of House Marnil.
“Will that thing really be able to take off?”
Einen tilted his head in confusion, looking at a five-decked battleship with at least five hundred guns and seven masts holding twenty-one huge sails.
“My father took me to see some fleet drills when I was a child,” Dora said, walking over to him. “The thunder of that ship’s cannons can stop a mortal’s heart.”
“Hot damn!” Einen cried out in excitement and awe. “In my homeland, even the sovereign’s fleet doesn’t have battleships… Hadjar! How many months would it take you to conquer the neighboring kingdoms with that ship?”
“Months?” Hadjar chuckled. “They’d surrender after just seeing me approach in that beast. I’d capture them all and burn their forts to the ground in a…. week… maybe two.”
“Hot damn,” Einen repeated, slightly shocked by the answer, but no less excited. “If I had one, I’d be the King of the Skies.”
It was worth remembering that the islander’s heart wasn’t that of a common sailor, but the heart of an heir to a great pirate, conqueror, and smuggler.
“Stop gawking at it, we’re wasting time,” Dora said and walked up the gangplank to her own ship.
Hadjar followed her. The boat, despite being moored, still swayed in the air. The hieroglyph that kept it afloat was no bigger than a hand. It wasn’t hidden as they usually were, either, but hovered in the air not far from the helm. The crystals that powered it were held in special slots inside the mast.
While Einen tried to tear his gaze away from the huge ship, Dora replaced the small crystals already in the slots with the ones Hadjar had given her that he’d retrieved from the wreckage of the ‘Drunken Goose’. The crystals were so large that they didn’t quite fit into the slots, peeking out of the mast like thorns on a rose.
Observing Einen as he climbed the ramp, Hadjar was surprised to see the giant smile plastered across his usually serious face. Eyes opened wide, he stared at the ship as if he were a child looking at a toy he desperately wanted for his birthday.
Even the crew of ‘Rukh’s Wings’ would’ve envied the speed with which the islander cast off the mooring lines. Having freed the boat, Einen went over to the helm. Still smiling, he pushed the lever and stepped on the pedal.
The crystals flashed a bright blue. The boat, not designed to withstand such a large amount of energy, vibrated violently. Hadjar, familiar with the dangers of sky travel, immediately grabbed the railing. Sitting down on a bench, he pulled Dora down along with him. The elf girl, despite the fact she’d bragged about sailing as a child, turned pale and froze in her seat. Both of them thought the same thing: they should’ve just followed the example of the other students and traveled on mounts.
“Will it-”
“It’ll hold!” Einen laughed. “It’ll hold!”
Yanking on the rigging, he hoisted the sail and sent the boat into a sharp ascent. Dora fell to the floor. Hadjar was about to help her up when he heard her giggling happily as she looked at the glittering domes of Dahanatan’s palaces disappear somewhere below them. The ship picked up speed so rapidly that it left a clean cut in the clouds. The barrier that covered the ship shone so brightly that it looked like a glittering ball of lightning.
The ship was leaving the capital at a breakneck speed. The vessels they encountered along the way met them with loud shouts and cheers. Among all the great clans of the Empire, the Marnils, as healers and sky travelers, were respected, and even loved. They were considered one of the mainstays of the Empire and praised for helping the wounded and those in need.
Their journey, devoid of anything save for the endless blue sky and clouds, soon became boring. Einen, standing at the wheel, was the only one who still seemed to be enjoying himself. He stared steadily at the horizon, basking in the warmth and the golden rays of the sunset.
When the stars appeared across the black velvet canvas of the night sky, Einen became even happier. Guided by them, he made his way through the clouds.
“Got a moment?”
Hadjar opened his eyes and stared at Dora, surprised to see her sitting so close to him, as she usually avoided his presence.
“Is it important?”
She nodded. Hadjar looked at Einen, but he seemed too absorbed in his thoughts, overjoyed at the fact that he’d gotten an opportunity to fly a ship. Hadjar understood him well. He often longed for the simple life of a military man, back when he’d usually known what tomorrow would bring, provided he didn’t die in battle.
“Let’s talk, then.”
Dora was quiet for a while, finding it difficult to start the conversation.
“My aunt told me everything,” she finally began. “And I… I wanted to ask… to ask how-”
“It’s all right,” Hadjar interrupted her. “I’m all right.”
Dora turned away. He could feel how difficult it was for her to be near him. It had always been like that, from the very first day they’d met. The only reason she’d ever bothered with him was Einen.
“But this is… It’s a fragment… Of the Enemy himself. The most terrible of all the monsters! There are so many horror stories about him.”
“As well as about Helmer, the Last King, the Gray Man, the Gravedigger…”
“Please stop.” Dora shuddered. “I know all those stories… Everyone does.”
“It’s just
how things are.” Hadjar smiled.
“But this is different! Helmer and the others aren’t real. The Enemy is! Always has been, and always will be, and he’s inside you! You… You’ll die if you don’t-”
The look in his eyes made her shut up. She glanced at Einen, who was still too busy with the helm and his nostalgia to pay attention to what was happening right under his nose.
“Why are we talking about this?” He asked, wanting her to get to the point already.
“He’s your friend,” she whispered, now staring longingly at Einen’s back. “He’ll be hurt if you die. And he’ll be even more hurt if he has to kill you when the Enemy’s fragment takes control of you.”
Hadjar smiled. He envied Einen sometimes…
“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “When the time comes… If I fail… I’ll go on a long journey where, alas, Einen won’t be able to join me.”
Dora turned to him, eyes wide as if she were seeing him for the first time.
“Thank-”
Her words were drowned out by a thunderous boom. A frigate with a black flag emerged from the nearby clouds — pirates.
“By the Heavens, you bastards are starting to get on my nerves!” Hadjar exclaimed.
Chapter 639
A cannonball struck their shield and disappeared in a shower of multicolored dust.
“Motherfuckers!”
At first, Hadjar thought he’d been the one who had cursed, but then he realized that that hadn’t been his voice. Purple eyes shining brightly, Einen sharply spun the helm. Dora, grabbing hold of everything she could get her hands on, screamed in fear. She didn’t look like a warrior, but like a frightened child.
“Hadjar!” Einen shouted. “Get ready!”
“For what?” He shouted back, trying to be heard over the whistling wind.
“We’ll board them! I’m sure you know how that’s done!”
Einen turned the helm sharply, making the ship practically whirl around. Dora, still screaming, wrapped herself around the mast like a vine. Hadjar wanted to scream as well, shout just like Derek had… Brushing aside the unwelcome memory, he summoned his inner dragon and the Black Blade.
Einen, still spinning the boat, ducked under the frigate. Emerging from the other side and not rising any higher, Einen pushed off from the ship, drawing his weapon and summoning his Call. Soaring through the sky, he pierced the frigate’s shield, crashed into the stern, and began to climb up to the deck.
“What’s gotten into you?” Hadjar wailed, breaking through the shield after him. He plunged his sword into the ship’s side and began climbing as well. “You’ve always been a quiet schemer!”
“Where’s your Sea Spirit, barbarian?”
Hadjar couldn’t see Einen’s face, but he suspected that the islander was grinning from ear to ear.
“Sea Spirit?” Hadjar groaned. “Fuck your ships, your horses, and your other unholy means of transportation!”
Einen laughed.
It took the pirates several seconds to detect the invaders. Leaning over the railing, they shot at the duo with their crossbows. The bolts, each surrounded by a veil of dense energy, whizzed past them.
“This frigate will be mine!”
Einen’s Call struck the frigate with its armored fist, breaking through the stern and sending Einen flying. His flight ended in a violent struggle on the upper deck.
“I’ll never again get on any ship with him, ever,” Hadjar muttered to himself.
Opening his hands, he repeated the same trick he’d used in the Palace of the Dah’Khasses’ King. His cloak swirled like a black ribbon around the hilt of his disappearing sword and yanked him up. Landing on the deck, he instantly drew the Black Blade and ducked under a short saber. Bouncing back, he blocked the second swing with the flat of his own blade. His foe was a short, gaudy young man dressed in colorful clothes. Radiating the aura of a mid-stage Heaven Soldier, he wielded a curved dagger and a broad saber. There were about fifty pirates on the deck. Hadjar and Einen, two foes already dead at their feet, stood back to back.
“It seems to me like this wasn’t one of your brightest ideas,” Hadjar whispered, shifting his grip on the hilt of his sword.
Deciding not to give the two friends time to think of a plan, the pirates surrounded them in a tight circle and showered the duo with crossbow bolts. Einen deflected them with his Call’s armor, which grew to cover Hadjar as well. Hidden behind the rainbow dome for the first time, he suddenly felt as if he were behind the walls of a living fortress.
“I’ll break through to the gunpowder hold!”
Einen lunged forward, his Spear-staff Spirit appearing behind him. The ape, seizing it, imitated the islander. There was so much power in their movements that it tore one of the nearby pirates to shreds. Guts and blood rained down on the deck. “You handle the officers and the captain!”
Hadjar made a sweeping strike with his sword. A long, bright crescent of energy swept through the pirate ranks. A dozen of them were instantly sent to their forefathers, and only the ones who’d been lucky enough to have found themselves on the edge of the attack or had managed to use a defensive Technique survived with light injuries.
“Holy shit! Just how many of you are there?” Hadjar shouted, looking at them.
A repulsive woman was sitting on the bridge and observing him. Looking at her, Hadjar realized that she was a relative of those two female pirates he’d encountered before. However, she seemed much more powerful than they had been, since she was at the peak stage of the Spirit Knight level. She also didn’t seem to care about the fight, tossing a gold coin from some southern kingdom into the air and catching it as it fell.
Below him, near the bridge, stood a dozen officers, all of them experienced warriors with a lot of scars, and all of them at the initial stage of the Spirit Knight level or higher.
“Why do I have to fight these guys?” He mumbled to himself.
“Do you know how to blow up a gunpowder hold?”
Hadjar pondered this and almost took a crossbow bolt right between the eyes as he did so. Last time he’d dealt with a pirate ship, he’d turned it into a pile of splinters, canvas, and melted metal.
“You win.” Hadjar raised a fist into the air. Einen bumped it with his own and ran toward the holds, cutting his way through by wielding his staff-spear with such deadly speed it almost turned into an invisible blur.
“Well, let’s get this party started!” Hadjar held his sword in a reverse grip. “I’ll make you tell me who hired you!”
Whirling like a madman, Hadjar used the ‘Strong Wind’ stance to attack the pirates that had surrounded him. The stream of wind that surged out of his blade turned into a tornado the size of the central mast. The pirates caught in its razor-sharp edges were turned into bloody chunks of meat. Where Hadjar had stood moments ago, only a hole remained. The young man, turning into a plume of black fog, had slithered out like a snake between his opponents. Each swing of his sword was followed by a veil of impenetrable darkness in which the pirates found their death. Rage coursed through Hadjar, materializing as power in his hands and sword.
Dodging a slash, Hadjar ducked under his opponent’s arm. He swung his sword upward, cutting the man’s stomach open and letting the Black Blade feast on the pirate’s Spirit. Looking like a mummy, the pirate’s corpse landed at the feet of his brothers in arms who, tripping over one another, died as they fled. Hadjar, crouching, thrust his blade toward them again and again, piercing the neck of each of the fallen pirates and consuming their Spirits as well.
“Not so fast!”
Three officers, clad in artifact armor at the Imperial level, stood in front of him. Two of them held short axes and one wielded a heavy sword that looked like it weighed at least a ton.
Hadjar found himself in the middle of yet another encirclement. The pirates brandished their weapons and cheered their officers on.
“Ralph, Herman,” the captain said, still playing with the coin, “make sure that our oth
er guest doesn’t get lost in the hold.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Chapter 640
T wo other officers, also wearing Imperial level armor, pushed past the pirates and headed for the stairs leading to the lower decks. Two more, both of them at the advanced stage of the Spirit Knight level, remained at their captain’s side. Catching the coin in midair, she looked into Hadjar’s eyes.
“You probably know that we were hired to find you and bring you to our employer.”
“I do.” Hadjar nodded. “If you tell me who they are-”
“What? Will you let me go?” She laughed.
Hadjar shook his head. “No. There’s already someone who wants me dead. I don’t need another person after me.”
“Then I’m afraid you have nothing to offer me.”
Hadjar shrugged. He had no intention of offering anything to her. He only hoped to buy enough time for Einen to deal with the barrels of gunpowder and the pirates. But the captain didn’t need to know that.
“What I can give you is a prettier death than theirs,” Hadjar said, pointing behind him at the mummified pirates.
“Tempting,” she drawled, pretending to think about it as she tossed her thick, gray hair over her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, she drew her dagger and pointed it at Hadjar. “I’ve been given an order, boy, and I value my reputation.”
“So, you won’t tell me who your employer is?”
“Of course not, you fool. Not that it would matter even if I did, as you’ll die today.”
Hadjar studied her eyes.
“You killed my daughters,” she said, gripping the dagger so tightly that the hilt creaked a little. “My daughters! Your death won’t be quick or painless… No. I’ll chop your dick off and feed it to you. Then I’ll rip all of your teeth and nails out. And then I’ll slowly peel your skin off while you’re still alive, cover you with honey, and tie you to the mast so that the birds and bugs can feast on your miserable carcass!”
Realizing that the captain didn’t feel like negotiating, Hadjar decided to act. He swung his sword lazily, which made the pirates directly in front of him recoil. A dragon emerged from a thundercloud that formed above the ship and descended upon the deck.
Dragon Heart: Land of The Enemy. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 8 Page 3