Chapter - 18

WORLD’S STRONGEST (1)

 

11 months back….

...

“You will see those kingdom’s naval forces have got nothing on us. They sunk my two ships this afternoon, but I managed to escape with half of my crew. ⸻Alive.”

A man cries slamming his wooden mug on the table.

“So, are you planning to get back at them soon?"

“Yea… after I have drank enough rum. I will come up with a very devious plan to surround and pillage all their ships.”

“Ay, no one but only you can do that Cap'n Garr.”

“I have heard you still have a lot of money and spare ships.” Strangers had gathered around the famous captain Garr as he indulged himself in drinking more.

“You see we just recently got our own ships taken in custody so we were looking to be placed under you.”

“I see you. You can’t resist the temptation of working under the most successful Pirate Captain. Don’t let my glass be empty for tonight and I will see that you will be given work you like.”

“Ay Captain here drink more…” The strangers kept on filling the man’s glass after glass and all of them were drowned in liquor.

Another man was sitting silently on his own table until he could no longer bear to watch this.

“All of you are useless. Nothing is going to change and it will keep getting worse if we do not take care of this problem together.” The man shouts, with a voice filled both with anger and frustration.

Blasting his mug at Garr hoping to knock some sense into him. A tall figure materializes out of nowhere, grabbing the mug with a hook.

“You shouldn’t be wasting rum like this young kid.” This man who had a hook for his hand and a black eye patch covering his missing eye speaks frivolously taking a sip.

“It’s Captain Brine. He is finally back.” Other people in the room cheered.

“Guess what, my crew has now become the first to give chase to these naval allied forces without sacrificing a ship.” Captain Brine announced proudly.

“It’s no use getting so worked up Plank, take a piece of free advice from me. You need to know when to give in a fight when someone strong appears in front of you.” Captain Garr laughs and chugs another mug of rum like a horse.

“Isn’t he the new guy here?”

“Why even bother with this failed Captain? He got his whole crew killed because he got so full of himself.”

“What a joke and he still shows up here after all that?”

The other pirates could not stop bad mouthing Plank.

Plank narrowly stared around the room with uneasiness realizing his surrounding's true nature.

This place was a small secret tavern hosting a conglomerate of pirates. Built on an unknown hidden island, whose location was only known to the pirates after they had pledged an oath to their brothers to never reveal it.

After the human continent kingdoms and a few nobles on the Demon Continent coast decided to ally themselves for mutual trade to accumulate more profits. In response forming an allied naval force to wipe out all the pirates from the seas.

Since then pirates have been dwindling in both spirit and numbers.

Plank was a new pirate captain who was the first to challenge these naval forces head-on, but got his entire crew wiped out. He could only escape by a hair’s breadth because of his magic skill after he drowned along with his ship.

Plank had always believed that the sea was a place of freedom, where he could escape all the shackles of human society that saw him as useless. It was only sailing at sea that made him feel at ease.

In search of this freedom, he abandoned all his family and hometown and made the decision to head for this archipelago of pirates. In pursuit of becoming independent,  he sought the thrill of adventure on the horizon and the opportunity to decide his own fate.

The people in this room were his pirate brothers, who called themselves the best pirate and conquerors of the sea. They all had the appearance of dead men and were casually rotting from the inside out.

And that was what the pirate Plank could not bring himself to accept.

“Hey Captain Brine. Tell us how did you escape the naval army.”

“It’s not a big deal. Just place one of your rats in their ship walls and wait for the signal. Sorry, but I will refrain from revealing the details this time. A man ought to have secrets.” Captain Brine sat alone on the middle table. Usually, he would behave friendly but when drunk he had a bad habit to gut out other people in his merriment.

“Tcch… don’t you get so full of yourself. Soon my pockets will be heavy too. You see we have caught the wind of a new merchant ship and our eyes are set on its route.” Captain Garr starts talking slyly.

“Are you jealous in any way Garr?”

“…Of course not. I am merely stating.”

“But won’t you agree it’s only that money in the end that brings this nasty rum on the table?” Captain Brine too was now drowning in the taste of the liquor.

“You got that right.” Captain Garr and Captain Brine finally reached a conclusion to which they could both agree to.

“Don’t worry Captain Garr, we will tag along anywhere with you.”

“If we can get a small piece from that and if you will be so kind.” The sailors again started praising Garr. Massaging his hands and legs, pouring his favorite rum while he stretched on the cranky sofa made of branches.

“Now this is heaven. You all are free to come along as long as you stay away from my rum and do not get in my way.”

Plank was listening to all of these talks of greatness which did not make any sense to him at all. And when he finally explodes he thrashes his own table.

“Why do you all act like petty thieves? From when have we been this weak? Just give me a small but strong group and a good ship. I will snatch the sea from those naval forces.”

“You have big ambitions kid. But those naval officers are not that forgiving. In the eyes of people we are not heroes but criminals, you get that. The moment they catch you, they will torture you till it satisfies them.” Captain Brine stands up from his seat and starts walking to where Plank stood.

“Now that guy has really done it?”

“Why what happened?”

“Haven’t you heard the story of how Cap’n Brine lost his eye and leg!?”

“I have only heard rumors but is that true of how he gouged his enemy’s eyes with that hook hand when he took his revenge.”

The pirates in the room could not help but chatter about the mystery.

“First they break the same wine bottle you drink from, and start skinning you with its edge. And finally when they have heard enough of your screams till night comes. They melt the same glass and put it in your eyes. Do you know the pain as your eyes burn and the light vanishes from your eyes? And finally, when they are bored of your screams they throw you from the ship into a pool of sharks.”

“Then….” Plank’s legs started shaking in fear because he failed to notice that he had come face-to-face with Captain Brine.

“I lost my leg and hand to the sharks. But when I came back alive, I made sure each of those bastard's eyes was gauged out.” Captain Brine lifts his missing hand and blows at the hook close to Plank’s face. “At least that’s what they talk about me. Hahaaaa…”

It almost scares Plank to his core and makes him topple on the upturned table and fall on his butt.

“You really got us there Brine.” Captain Garr and everyone started laughing at the clown Plank.

“Well, they even say that afterward I made them drink molten glass, and I still keep those gauged-out eyes as spare in my pocket. Even I don’t remember how much of that’s true.” The expression on Captain Brine’s face was similar to an old man recalling his good old memories.

“Don’t speak when two big people are talking that’s another free advice from me. Plank” Captain Garr could not stop laughing.

“Just quietly finish your lime juice and enjoy your day of successfully evading death, because you will never know when it comes seeking you.”

Suddenly it started raining heavily and thunderstorms appeared out of nowhere.

“It’s the first time I was wrong about the weather.” Captain Garr, even after being heavily drunk had his presence of mind intact.

“Coincident like these make me feel sick.” Captain Brine's gut voice spoke out loud for him.

Just then amidst the rumbling sound of the heavy downpour Plank could hear hurried splashes in the water collecting outside until it became too clear to be heard by everyone. The running was followed by a short pause and then someone knocked on the door.

But instead of waiting for the gate to open, like the ruffian he was, the common pirate breaks in.

“Trouble, help us…. Everyone is being killed.”

“What happened wasn’t your crew on a voyage today. Is it the navy again.”

“No… everyone is my crew dead till I made it back here and others who joined are still fighting on the coast. It’s not the navy, or adventurers or a rogue pirate. Just one person.”

“HahaHaaa…. maybe you are suffering from hallucination. Get yourself something to drink. I am feeling kind so I will pay.”

The man whose face was still filled with horror as if he had seen death himself screams when no one believed him.

Just then a glint of light follows in the black clouded sky. Through the window, everyone could see that light fall on the ship anchored on the coast. When that glint vanishes, the top of the ship gets blown up from the inside out in one blast of flames, and the ground trembles. All the empty barrels surrounding Captain Garr roll around.

“Wha…at? Just now really happened.”

“Is it some new kind of canon made by the naval army?”

“The army has no way to know of this place nor can they follow the route that can allow their ships to come here without hitting the submerged mountain rocks.”

Just then Captain Brine looks for the man who came in with the news.

He was holding his head to the ground, vomiting, crying, and nauseating all at the same time.

“He is here… he is gonna kill us all. He will kill us all. Me and everyone…”

Captain Brine pulls the whimp by his collar and slaps him.

“Describe the person who did this to you. Who exactly is here?”

“He appeared from the sky like a God and sunk the entire ship by throwing around his spear.”

“Nonsense.” Captain Brine throws the man on the ground back again where he crouched under the table and went back into hiding.

Plank could still see the flame that lit the sea reflecting the night sky. The screams of his fellow sailors and the pirate ships vanish one after another. And every time it was a small line of light flashing and then everything exploded. Vanished without a trace.

And when the next trace of light appeared in the sky, before any of them could have actually realized it. The real thing finally falls right in front of them.

And the moment the light knocked the ground, from the steam rose a being with an inhumane body physique. His face was completely apathetic and devoid of any emotion, with blonde hair. Yellow eyes with black sclera. Golden ornaments adorned his muscular neck and biceps. But his blue rounded ears which looked similar to the fins of a fish, made it clear that he was not a human.

“What do you think Brine?” It was as if Captain Garr's system had metabolized all the alcohol within seconds when he suddenly acted out seriously.

“Gods he said. They all left the realm of humans a long way back. That’s not a god, a man, or a demon. He is a monster.” Captain Brine announced.

“A monster…. He destroyed all our ships and he looks so ominous.”

“That’s not something we can fight on our own.”

“Run maybe we can make it to the coastal ships docked on the other side.”

The sailors who were until then indulging the Captain started running away on their own. The other taverns and rest houses on the island had the same idea as several torches could be seen running towards the opposite coast. News of an unstoppable powerful invader had spread fast, after he had put up that light show in front of everyone.

It just went to show that he wasn’t afraid of fighting numbers.

The only three who now stood in front of this new messenger of destruction were Captain Garr, Brine, and Plank.

“You look like a kid. So what do you want from us pirates that you have to go around killing everyone.”

“Depending on your answer we just might spare your life young one for what you just did?”

Captain Brine and Garr did not look at all intimidated by this powerful invader.

“Hear me landers, I am the One True King and Ruler of Atlantis, Kai Atla. The last of my kind and I have come to make you my servants.”

“Whaa… Haahaaaa….” Captain Brine and Garr burst into a fit of laughter.

“We are no one’s servants. We are pirates you hear that? And you will pay for killing my fellows. We will never serve you because we are free. Ruler of whatever you are I am going to kill you.” Plank after seeing all that destruction. It did not do him any good to think straight as the other two did in the situation. He brandishes his sword and aims it at the intruder.

“Hold it, kid. You said you are the ruler of Atlantis but that place vanished after the Great War. It is no more than a myth now” Captain Brine after laughing at his own joke jolts his hand and from the inside of his sleeve a gun appears.

“Aren’t you a desperate one? It’s funny how you still call yourself a King if you are the last of your kind. A king of no one out hunting pirates and looking for servants to serve his fantasies. You may perhaps have a better chance of finding a partner first with your manly looks. Sorry to disappoint you kid but you will find that us pirates like to be free-willed than forcibly serve under someone.” Captain Garr seemed to be indifferent to the pressure the King of Seas exerted around the place.

“Weaklings.” A spear as per the description materializes in the boy’s hands. He taps it once on the ground and as the metallic voice reverberated through the place.

Plank and the other could feel their ears drums tearing apart and about to burst.

But the worst was yet about to come because the oceanic waves abruptly grew higher and higher until they turned into a tsunami and wiped away all the ships, harbors, and men fleeing the island in the blink of an eye.

“Hey. Hey, aren’t you taking his joke a bit too seriously? Do you really plan to wipe us all out if we refuse?” Captain Garr had a sour expression on his face.

“I will.” The guy did not seem to be much in the mood of talking.

“How dare you? I will cut you into pieces?” Plank again stood up and shouted. The only problem was that before he could rush in with his sword his way was blocked by the two pirate Captains.

“Young kid, straight running into trouble again. Will all of my free advice go in vain? Well, I don’t use those myself that’s why I give them for free.” Captain Garr spoke with an attitude.

“What do you mean, let’s team up and take this bastard down.”

“Don’t be so foolish. Can’t you see how strong magic he possesses? Controlling the waves and Tsunami, he truly is a monster.”

“Then how are we supposed to defeat him?” Plank could not take a no for an answer.

“You won’t be defeating him? It will be only us two fighting him.”

“We are asking you to save yourself.” Captain Brine shouted.

“No, I won’t. You two do not boss me. I am not your stupid underling.” Plank was reluctant.

“Plank we have not forgotten or given up on our freedom. It’s just that we have spent all this time in regret and all the failures we had. We became rusted.” Captain Brine was now reloading and checking the barrel of his gun.

“But the sea can only be conquered by a free-spirited. Seeing you all hyped up reminded me of how stupid I used to be when I was young. Bring all the pirates under one banner and reclaim the waters.” Captain Garr was also the same while measuring the sharpness of his sword.

“Don’t do this. You are not heroes, just two measly old pirate captains. You will die.” Plank was now a bit hesitant to move.

“Remember, those who revel will be saved.” Captain Brine turned his face away from Plank.

This time here’s a real serious advice for you, Plank don’t die.”

“Now go while we keep him busy.” The two shout in unison.

Captain Garr pushes Plank and he falls to the ground. But instead of just lying there he finds the mud underneath him had become slippery and soft. The more he tried to move, the slimy mud carried him away down the road.

It was Captain Brine’s magic to liquidify the ground around him.

“I think this would get him far away enough. The kid would otherwise have gone on and on. Makes my head hurt.” Captain Brine took a deep sigh.

“I hate this Brine but I think that advice just now came a bit too pricey.”

“You bet, sometimes you just end up paying with your life.” Captain Garr aims the barrel of the gun at the invader called Kai.

“Have you two said your final words? But even he won’t be able to escape from me.”  The King of Atlantis, Kai did not look too pleased with two weapons aimed at him.

“We will have you pay for destroying our peaceful night and our home.”

“…Now.”

Captain Garr, shouts simultaneously shooting multiple rounds from the heavy shotgun in his hand.

Kai, did not seem to be fazed, by the deafening blast from the muzzle. But just then he thought he could strike the bullet with his spear. His balance becomes unstable on land.

“That trick you used...” Kai whispered, as he understood the ground beneath him had softened by magic and his legs were half sunk.

Captain Garr had played his trump card just at the right moment, by prolonging the talk and softening the ground from the bottom and only revealing it when he was sure that Kai would submerge underground.

But instead of falling, Kai flung his hand and the bullet is stopped by the heavy golden bracelets around his wrist.

“Not yet.”

Brine rapidly fire more rounds all aimed at his enemy’s vital points. Kai could not neglect them as these bullets aimed at his eye, neck, and leg.

Also, another man seemed to have started to move, but until he got too close, Kai never realized.

When he looked closely, the Captain called Garr was running on a thin surface of solidified water without making any noise.

“…Just stand still and don’t make your end too miserable.” Captain Garr aims for his final blow with a sword while Kai was supposed to be still busy deflecting the bullets with his hand and regaining his balance out of the fluid pit.

“…. I think you have taken me too lightly. I am disappointed.” Kai’s words sent a chill down the two captain’s backbones.

No matter how favorable the situation looked for them, there are always times when the tide of battle changes with a snap of a finger. All the death battles at sea that had honed these two-pirate captain’s skill to sense danger, had just then broken all thresholds.

Kai’s spears automatically fly through the air and impale the stomach of Captain Brine. Gutting him from the inside out.

“Damn you.” Garr hurried to land the blow, but Kai caught it with his bare hand and snapped the sword.

“Icicles impale him,” Garr yells.

The rainwater collected on the ground turns into thin pointy icicles. A full cluster of them grows and surrounds Kai, but before they should have actually pierced him, the icicles stopped moving.

“My magic failed. But how?”

Both the Captains were astonished as Garr had the strongest ice magic on the pirate island. His icicles once even impaled half a ship which then made him a captain. But now they were stopped and his magic did not work anymore.

“I am the ruler of the seas and I hold dominion over all water. It’s useless to attack me with it.” Kai explained his dominance.

Before Garr and the injured Brine could try anymore. The spear impaling Brine twists, severing his body in half and rotating back into Kai’s hand.

In the next movement, he flung his spear and chops off Garr’s head.

“This was a waste of time. Maybe I will just kill them all.” Kai clears the icicles by flailing his spear. He tightens the muscles around his legs and shoots off the ground with his spear raised up.

That single jump took him so high that it gave a devastating picture of the entire island in one glance.

Half of it was now drowned in the Tsunami he summoned. And the other half he destroyed when he first came here.

In a blink of an eye, he spotted the third pirate Captain, Plank, and decided to land there.

“Maybe he would be able to become my servant and do as I say.”

…

“No. No. I have to get back. I have to fight. This is my chance.” Plank tried to rub his hands on the ground, but the slipperiness carried him through the ground, till a small elevation throws him off his path and he struck his head against a rocky wall.

When he thought he could go back and help his people, the light that had by now struck a deep fear in his heart shoots off into the sky and again lands in front of him.

“Where are Brine and Garrrr….” Before Plank could finish he saw the right half of the intruder’s body covered in blood. But it did not belong to him as he was completely uninjured.

“I killed them. Now it’s your turn or you can save yourself by doing what I say.” Kai points his golden spear at Plank.

“No, that can’t be. Not those two. Damn you. I will cut you into pieces.” Plank’s anger overpowers him and he rushed at Kai, with blood in his eyes.

All Plank was able to think was to thrust his sword into the enemy.

But before he could do that, Kai holds him by the collar and throws him back at the mountain wall.

Plank could already feel some of his bones crushed in that crash.

“Do you really plan to attack me like a savage? At least those two were better than this.”

“You murderer how dare you say that. I will kill you.” Plank stands up again even though his chest was hurting and his legs were in a damaged state.

“The black water that summons the shadow from the sea. Listen to my voice….”

As Plank again tries to dash toward the enemy, he chants a spell simultaneously. The rain which has been continuing nonstop suddenly halts in that specific vicinity and the color of them turns black. Levitating in mid-air even Kai had no idea what was happening to them.

“…Explode.”

The black raindrops cause simultaneous explosions one after another.

BOOM….BOOM….BOOM.

“That should have got him, and if he is still alive I will do it again and again.”

Plank waited for the dust to clear hoping to see his enemy injured after suffering from so many non-stop explosions.

 But instead, a spear rushes out of the black smoke clearing it. It impales Plank’s hand and pushes him back till it pins him to the wall.

“The black water that summons the shadow from the sea… listen to my voice and explode.”

The raindrops turn black again around Kai who stood uninjured. His body was as if made of steel, without a single scorch. But this time Plank was the one more surprised because the raindrops did not explode. It turns back to water and spills on the ground.

“My magic…. But how?” Plank had no idea how this happened. Usually, his spells always got his target.

“That’s my power and authority. No matter how small a drop it is or larger than an ocean. I rule it all and they only listen to my will. You have lost. So will you prefer to die or follow me.”

“I am free. I will decide my own fate.” Plank was as adamant as ever.

“You are only weak. And the weak have no right to decide their own fate. They can only be dictated by it.”

“I don’t believe you. You are not even a human but a monster.” Plank refuses even with death staring him in the face.

Kai stares at Plank and a vein in his thighs explodes.

“Ahhhh….” Plank cries in pain and another vein explodes in his second thigh.

“How are you doing this?” Plank’s breath became heavy with pain.

“I told you I hold dominion over all water. And that includes the water running inside your body too. I can even make the blood in your head explode if you want me to. But that would end things without any pain.” Kai was not averse to the idea of exploding people but he rather depended more on his physical strength.

“You think I will be scared? Do your worst to me.”

“I will give you a ship that can cut through the water and the weapons to conquer the sea. The only thing I want is for you to place your life and fate in my hands. If you grow too attached to the weak it will just hold you back. So, you must serve the strongest to survive.” Kai came out as cold as he could appear to be.

“Just what kind of thinking is that? And just who are you?” Plank was finally being offered the power he desired. But at what cost… after losing all the things he could have cared about.

“I am the World’s strongest,” Kai speaks triumphantly and with pride that befits sea royalty.

“You are the world’s strongest. As if I will believe such bullshit talk. Can you even prove it?” Plank shouts at the top of his voice. His hand was bleeding all over including the veins in his thighs nonstop.

A couple of minutes and he would have died of blood loss anyway without proper medication. He had already started feeling the setback and his view turned dizzy..

“A servant does not need a home or their belongings. Everything they will possess even their life belongs to their master.”

Kai takes out the spear that pinned Plank to the mountain wall.

With bloodied legs and hands he collapses to the ground in front of Kai.

“I will show you for once the power of the World’s Strongest and then you will submit to me.”

Kai turns around and steps forward. Stoically holding his spear, he starts exuding magic power.

 Even without seeing his face, Plank could tell that the low chuckle emanating from him was dripping with scorn. Energy as bright as sunlight surrounds his form. His hair dazzled and his arm rings vibrated to produce a symphony.

“⸻My strength equals the three realms.”

In an instant, the earth started shaking. The currents hitting the coast went wild as they rose to touch even the stars. Magical energy visible to the eye starts siphoning from Kai’s body into his spear as he lifts it up.

“⸻The wait is finally over.”

His enchanted words took shape and the mere spear of gold turned into a trident with two more points protruding out it now. Giving it more of a complex design and incantations marked on it that whispered to the ears even if Plank couldn’t read them.

Like a legend being rewritten and Plank being the only one to see it happen. The black clouds, the lightning, a battlefield washed with the blood of people he had slaughtered numbering in hundreds. It was nothing less than sort of a world upheaval.

“⸻I reject understanding, I seek power. I long for the beautiful world of depth and blue.”

“UNIQUE SKILL: GIFT OF WATER. HYDROCLASM”.

…

Blue light filled the space and annihilated everything in the surrounding area. The land, mountains, and all the creatures were overcome and faded into dust.

That day, the sheer release of the power of the World’s Strongest wiped out the entirety of the Secret Pirate Island and all its natives from the map except for one.

Captain Plank suddenly rose to power, bringing all the pirates scattered far and wide under his command. His new relic submarine could travel underwater and a combat suit that helped him to propel himself in the air.

Soon, he came to be known as the mightiest of all pirates, and yet the cost he was forced to pay to accept that power was put on balance yet again.

***