Six Warriors

Tempest - (Miguel)

Jacques' boat was a sloop-of-war called Erhais, it was a relatively small ship with a capacity of one hundred crew, one cannon on deck and the capacity to carry up to fifteen cannons. Jacques said that Erhais had some protection spells spread around the hull and the old ones, so as not to be destroyed so easily or have the sails set too easily, he seemed to be very proud of that little warship. On the ship, Jacques introduced him to his crew and Parrot recognized him and greeted him in a friendly and warm way.

"They're good men and loyal. It's hard to find a loyal crew like that these days, most would sell their mother to take over as captain." Jacques said to Miguel, "I can't conceive of a better crew, maybe they're even a little crazy like me, maybe that's why we get along so well, anyway, let's communicate our trip to them."

"Men!" Jacques bellowed to the crew, climbing onto a makeshift podium, "our crew is undoubtedly legendary, our insanity-bordering courage is a matter from the coast of Dnalowat to the interior of Ratelslang, pirates, corsairs, sailors, all fear our insanity of not to fear the defaults of tempestuous fate!"

"Ahoy! Ahoy!" The men roared in response, starting to warm up to the speech.

"Songs extol our achievements, many think I'm a minor trickster god, think I'm uncapturable, and my luck is inexhaustible!" The men roared even more in response, "And my crew is not left behind, who doesn't know the story of Parrot, the Man with the Golden Tongue who courted even the King's wife! And got her coming out of such a feat unscathed! Or Dagoberto's Glass-Eye, slayer of giants!" The men roared even more, "but our legends can be expanded to a level never seen before! We will never be forgotten! And here's our pass to an even bigger adventure!" Calico pointed to Miguel, "this man, this young man is going to take us on an expedition of insanity and unimaginable rewards, you can trust my word that his name will also become legendary, this is a young man of courage, determination and cunning! Let's follow the course of fate, be it tempestuous or calm, let's make our story brothers! Let's go to Trident Island!"

"Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy! Yo-ho!" The men screamed and seemed excited about a journey that could possibly kill them. Jacques was right, they were a little crazy indeed.

...

half the first day of travel had been smooth, but from then on nothing had been easy, the closer they got to the island, the more the sea got rough, as if some sea god didn't want them there. On the night of the second day Miguel thought the ship was going to sink and everything would literally go down the drain. After that night of insane and furious storm in which Miguel thought he was going to die, the next day dawned like a beautiful sunny morning where the seagulls squawked and the sound of water hitting the hull was gentle. The crew was tired, but the fact that it was a short trip and the day dawning like that raised their hopes.

"Whether there was any kind of mission worse for me, I don't know." Stanis was talking leaning on the edge of the ship, looking out to sea. For the past few days, at best, he'd been seasick of the boat's hustle, at worst, he'd been mortified with fear from the storm.

"Hey, calm down big guy, it'll be all right." Victoria said with a friendly pat on the boy's shoulder.

"You were right before, we shouldn't have come here." The big guy seemed almost to whimper.

"Friends, friends, I know what can cheer you up now." Said Parrot playing some notes in the concertina.

"Don't say singing, please." Miguel said with a wave of his hand.

"Although my immense musical talent is only surpassed by the size of my immense secret organ, no, it's not singing I was talking about." Parrot asked Miguel to hold the concertina and then took a deck of cards and a set of dice from his pocket, "I'm talking about betting games! Come on, how about? Dice? Poker? Can't decide, huh? Okay, how about joining the two in a Poker dice? Sounds interesting to you guys?" Parrot put the outside of his hand to the side of his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, "by the way, it's a secret, but my assumed secret organ is my lungs, seriously, I can keep not breathing underwater for almost twenty minutes without using magic or anything! That's how I managed to escape a mob of angry knights in the barony of Zariggs."

"I wanted a spell to end my seasickness, that's all." Stanis said.

"Come on Stanis, come on so you can forget about seasickness maybe" Victoria said.

They played for a while and it was fun, the calm sea, the gambling, the sunny morning, everything made Miguel think that that last day of the journey would be easy, but... he was wrong.

"Captain!" One of Jacques' men, named Marcel, shouted, "Ship in sight! Ship in sight!"

He pointed east, and it was impossible not to see what Marcel was pointing at. It was a ship, and by the black flag emblazoned with a skull it was a pirate ship. The flag of this ship was a skull with a sword pierced through its mouth and two pirate pistols crossed under it. The black sails indicated that they wanted to attack.

"It's Captain Bradford Saggingsails' Jolly Roger, the Bloodthirsty Looter!" screamed Marcel. According to Victoria, Captain Bradford was Calico's great rival, the two have already entered into several battles to see who was the strongest.

"This scabby sea bass!" Calico Jacques shouted. Miguel grimaced as if to say that Jacques's cursing was silly.

"Are you complaining about my swear, sailor?!" Calico yelled pointing at Miguel, "because know that when I was your age my father taught me in the worst possible way to respect the clichéd slurs of sailors! And he taught me a dozen of them! Scurvy dog, pit rat, sea worm, lily-livered, bilge-sucking!… "

"Oh no please!"

"Is this serious?" Victoria asked looking annoyed "we're about to get into a sticky situation here and you're arguing because of name-calling?

"We have to protect the honor of traditional piracy curses! It's our brand!"

BOOM!!! A cannon shot was heard, interrupting the discussion, and it was coming towards Jaques's ship, but luckily it went overboard.

"Prepare cannons! Draw swords! Prepare to fight!" screamed Jacques. More cannon fire. Bradford's galleon approached Calico's, until at last they were paired up side by side. On top of the mast, pointing a sword at the sky, was a man with a forked beard, black in color. His mouth showed some gold teeth and some rotten ones, he wore the red captain's coat, and the hat of the same color. It was Captain Bradford. "What are you doing here, Saggingsails?" Jacques asked angrily, "Do you want to lose your brand new galleon?"

"Ha ha ha!" he chuckled, his voice ragged and scandalous "afraid, Jaques? If I were anyone else I might even make a temporary alliance and wipe out these lily-livered of Dnalowat, but as you, son of a scurvy harlot, the Bloodthirsty Looter will finish you both." His men laughed.

Miguel and Jacques hadn't noticed, but on the west side a navy ship of the line was approaching. It was the largest ship within the three and the Erhais of Calico Jacques the smallest.

"As always funny, Saggingsails." Calico replied. The pirates advanced against each other. The sounds of screams, swords clanging and flesh tearing could be heard. From the navy ship, o oficial used his spyglass to observe what happened.

"That's Edmond Turrier, a naval captain who's been chasing us for years," Parrot said to Miguel.

"I can't believe my luck." He yelled. He spoke in a peculiar way, his 'R' was pulled. "Two of the most wanted pirates battling in front of me." Laughed "Sailors, attack!"

Edmond ordered his gunners to aim at the enemies. The gunners aimed towards the ships. Miguel noticed that the sea was starting to get furious.

The navy ship has arrived. The sailors advanced like wild beasts against the pirates.

"Surrender and face a fair trial! Resist and die here and now!" Edmond yelled.

"Kill them! Kill! Kill those lily-livereds from Dnalowat's navy! Kill these scallywag Jacques men!" Captain Bradford screamed and snarled. Shots were heard, sometimes from pirates, sometimes from navy's men.

Holding a scimitar, Miguel dueled times against pirates, times against the men of the navy, his friends Yumi, Stanis and Victoria were also fighting bravely, Jacques held his rapier and dueled against the men of Bradford. Bow arrows and crossbow bolts flew back and forth and a torrential rain began to fall. The ships were beginning to sway and shake with the fury of the seas, the deck was slippery, a storm was starting, and thunder rumbled in the sky. A kind of marine noise was heard, but no one paid attention in the heat of the battle. The sound, however, was repeated more than once. Suddenly the battle ceased. Once again the sound was heard, this time stronger and stronger. The pirates and sailors looked at each other, attentive. The silence was broken only by the noise of the rain and the wood of the ships. Again the noise coming from the sea was audible.

"The... the legend says that a sea monster inhabits this route..." a man moaned scared.

"Stop being turds!" Roared Bradford from his ship "back to battle!"

Miguel was looking at him at the time of what happened, so he saw what happened. Just as the pirate captain screamed, a quick, hard blow was heard, and Bradford's ship was shattered into several splinters.

"Sea monster!" Shouted the pirates. Miguel's heart raced.

"Excellent!" Thought Miguel, “this fight between pirates and the navy in the middle of a storm was not enough, this monster still comes to me. I'm dead."

"May our mother Arian help us!" Calico prayed still with the rapier in his fists. According to Miguel had heard from some sailors, Arian was one of the goddesses of the sea, along with his brother Moryak. The so-called “sons of the sea” prayed to one of these two, which included pirates, sea creatures, sailors, among others

"Kill!" Shouted the captain. The monster threw one of its tentacles into the bow of the captain's ship, which shattered like glass. Jacques advanced against the creature, but was knocked down by Edmond (unintentionally, as he was thrown by one of the creature's other tentacles). The two were sliding together along the ship that was bending with the battle. There was nothing left of Bradford's galleon, save pieces of wood that floated in a rough sea.

Yumi, Victoria and Stanis attacked the creature's gigantic tentacles, but it was too powerful. Part of the squid's head appeared among the waves of water, something on its cephalopod forehead glowed bluish and the creature evoked thunderstorms that hit parts of ships and men. Not enough the strength, toughness and size of the creature, it still had magical powers!

Dagoberto Glass-Eye jumped madly from the mast straight at the creature's head, hitting the blue stone on the forehead that had glowed when it had summoned the rays, the kraken seemed to shriek furiously and grabbed the man with its tentacles and crushed him like an egg. It was the end of the famous pirate Dagoberto Glass-Eye, a legendary death.

"We are going to die!" Parrot yelled, "This terrible creature is going to kill us all!"

In the midst of all that chaos, the sea in an uproar, people dying, the battle between the navy and two rival pirate crews being forgotten in the face of a greater threat, the monster, a man in a small boat appeared there, which caught the attention of Miguel and some pirates from Calico's crew.

"W-who is that guy? Is he crazy?!" Asked the men who saw that mysterious fellow approaching such a huge monster.

He was a man wearing parts of armor and a gray cloak and hood, he carried with him a very large claymore sword. That mysterious guy raised his sword and it glowed, the monster's head rose to the surface and seemed to look at that man as if he were a great threat... the strange guy brandished his sword in an air strike and a blast of powerful energy went towards the creature, which tried to defend itself by creating a kind of magical barrier with gigantic waves... it was useless... The big octopus monster screeched as it was hit by the withering blow, half of its head split and slowly opened as it spurted dark blood everywhere, Miguel and the others could hardly believe it, the man again moved his sword and a second attack hit the monster, which this time was cut in two as if it were simply a piece of sushi or something, the storm immediately ceased when the monster was defeated and its parts sank into the sea that became to calm down.

"W-who is that man?!" Parrot exclaimed in amazement, "That's the man who stopped the tempest!"