Sword of Flames [Book I] - {#Wattys2017}

Chapter 19 - The Battle Begins!

Hello! Before reading, I'd like to warn you that there is some gore in this chapter, so read with caution. See you in the author's note at the end!

Chapter 19 - The Battle Begins!

The clouds in the sky darkened, matching the bleak fate ahead. Zikarith took out one of his arrows and put it in place on his bow ahead of time so that he would not have to do it when the others arrived. He and Levana were aware that chaos would ensue as soon as the true Deserted Corpse pirates infiltrated the smaller ship, but they were confused. The two awkwardly stood in the middle of the feud, not wanting to help the people who were out to kill them but also not wanting to help the people who would want to kill them. Levana ran to the deck and checked if she could use her minimal water skills to swim to shore, but they were so deep within the sea that there was no way she'd make it to land alive. She had no choice but to stay.

The strong winds of the sea did not make the ride any more comfortable. As the enemy ship catapulted the heavy spheres with ferocity, the pirates on the ship fiddled with the lever to shoot out theirs.

"This is why Twisted Death was so weak!" a pirate she had not seen before complained. "Their cannons are so hard to use!"

"Well make it work!" the captain boomed. "There's no time to-"

Before he finished his sentence, a small bullet penetrated through his skull. In horror, Levana witnessed the blood trickle down his head - like the water from a half-on faucet - and his body flopped to the ground, dead. Zikarith was terrified by the sight but not as much as Levana. Tears began to stream from her eyes as the disturbing image messed with her mind. Her breaths were unbalanced and her hands trembled from the first kill she had ever seen.

"Captain!" Jerdvin yelled, running to the bleeding body on the ground. The other pirates froze in fear of what to do without their leader. The man picked the body up, looked at it, and laid him back down after acknowledging that there was no way he could be revived. Zikarith focused on the sea instead of the scene on the ship.

Jerdvin stood back up and put the captain's hat on his head as a symbol of reassigned power. "Do as Captain told you! Everything after that will be up to me!" The pirates roared in determination and kept at work, trying to suppress their grievances. Jerdvin then glanced at the kids and stomped towards them.

"And you two," he said between his teeth. "Don't even try to interfere with this battle, or I'll make sure to kill you both." Levana and Zikarith did not reply with a no or yes; they knew they were going to have to fight in order to escape. The two just had to hope that he was killed before he killed them.

The Aboves on the other ship became rowdier than ever. As their hollers crescendoed so did the panic in everyone's hearts. The crazed pirates were so close they started climbing on the ledge of their decks to get ready to infiltrate the other boat. The sunset in the horizon counted down the moments until it was time.

One pirate in the middle had his hands out as if he was holding onto the wind for dear balance. With a weapon in his hand, which performed similar abilities as an Earthian gun, he grinned with his crooked teeth sticking out and leaped from the ship onto their boat with ease. His eyes and mouth grew wide and he began shrieking with adrenaline flowing in his body as one of Jerdvin's men jumped in to fight.

And hence, the battle began.

Numerous pirates made the jumps at once with wild excitement to kill. Levana moved back in horror as she watched the men slaughter the people she was just in a room with so maliciously. The possibility of Zikarith being next, or her being next, was so probable that it haunted her mind. Pirates from each side decapitated the others and stabbed their hearts until dead in an orderly fashion; whoever was closest was next. As the enemies quickly became closer and closer to where she was standing, a fear so similar to the one she experienced in her dreams came back. The girl screeched and descended onto the deck of the ship with her hands over her head. Her fingers left a gap that let her vision see through, and she eyed blood splatters on the floor. But when she picked up her body to stand up in a straighter position, a freshly cut head laid right in front of her eyes.