Nolan thought back to his early days in Venara, of wandering through the forests of the Northern Plains region, of living in Redfox Village and constantly venturing out into the surrounding grasslands. His memory traced his journey through those towering forests and into the beautiful fields of Flora, and of his short time in Greenwall. Even though his life in this world basically consisted of him fleeing from danger, it didn’t change the fact that he had travelled through most of Verdure’s provinces, and most of the southwestern region of Hauss. From there, he wound up in the Three-River Valley and eventually came to own a lot of land near Ian and Liv’s hamlet. He’d gone on to travel through countless valleys, including the so-called Cutthroat County where he’d battled against Count Algrave and the Red Mountain King’s forces. From there, it was a straight shot from the Kingdom of Ridgerock to the Grand Isle of Weston, and here he now stood.

“Yeah, I’ve seen a few places.”

“What were they like?”

He told May all about his travels, from the moment that he first arrived on Venara. He spared no details on some of the more intense parts of his recollections, whereas anything romantic or otherwise involving other women was wholly omitted. His stories held her focus for as long as he spoke, as if she were watching an episode of her favourite show.

“What a life you’ve led,” she exclaimed at the end of his recounting. “To think that you’ve been to so many places, and done so much even though you’re only…how old are you, sixteen? Seventeen?”

He forced a cough. “Actually, I’m…holy shit, am I really twenty-one?”

May put on a look of skepticism. “Hah, twenty-one? Now you’ve got me questioning the truth of your tales.”

“Didn’t we tell you that time moves differently where our master lives? I’ve spent about five years in that space, and we don’t age while we’re there. So, yeah. My body’s sixteen—no, it should be seventeen now—and my mind is almost twenty-two.”

Nolan glanced over at the others, who were still standing on alert at various locations on the deck. Now that he thought about it, wasn’t he the oldest of his friends aside from Sean? Nolan felt sad all of a sudden, wishing that somebody would hand him a warm blanket and a hot mug of cocoa. Where did my youth go?

“And did you grow up in that village? What was it called, Fox Village?”

He shook his head. “Actually, I—”

A sudden explosion cut his sentence short, a cacophony that was quickly followed by a loud chorus of bells from several directions.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Sean’s voice drifted over from a distant part of the deck that was now misted over. “Get the hell out of here!”

The enemy ship immediately veered off to the right, though it brushed up against another of the sect’s vessels that had been moving parallel to it. Within a few moments, four more ships came into view, two on their left, one at their backs, and one that had sneakily pulled ahead and reduced its speed.

May frowned. “I didn’t think that they’d chase us into the formation. There’re thousands of boats along the island’s coastline, so if we’re running into some here then we can be sure that there’re others looking for us elsewhere.”

“That sounds about right.” Nolan hopped off of his barrel and hauled it over his head. “I’ll tell you the rest later. Keep steering, I’ll see what there is to see.”

He threw the barrel at the closest of the ships to the left of their own, though this time the significant damage didn’t deter their pursuers from directing their ship closer. Those aboard the opposing deck even went as far as to throw dozens of grappling lines over in an attempt to tether their ships together, and when his friends made to cut the lines they were immediately beset upon by precise and constant arrow fire. Nolan couldn’t believe that the sect was going to such lengths just to capture them; he even felt a bit of pity as he watched some members attempt to anchor their sinking ship to his own in what seemed like a bid for mutual destruction.

The cries from nearby alarm bells began to grow louder and more numerous, which foreshadowed the arrival of many more enemies. From the sounds of it, it seemed as if they had unwittingly sailed directly into a widespread fleet of well-manned ships. This could only mean that these ships had been waiting on standby even as Nolan and the others had been fleeing across Weston’s countryside, which betrayed the fact that this had all been planned by the leader of the sect.

“Wait,” called Nolan, who saw that Esteban was about to throw one of his barrels onto the deck of the damaged ship. “You”—he pointed at the white-haired woman—“can you sink that ship?” He had retreated to his former position, along the small section of walled area that extended outward from the captain’s quarters.

“Do I have a choice?”

“If you can’t do it safely then I won’t make you.” There were already over a hundred arrowheads protruding from the wall of sturdy wood that he was hiding behind, and without his spiritual sense he could only jump in surprise whenever an unexpected projectile punctured the wood around where he was huddled. “But if you can, then get the fuck out there already!”

She rolled her eyes and leapt upwards, disappearing into the slightly dispersed fog before she cleared the top of the mainmast. A few moments later and the woman crashed into the centre of their ship as an indiscernible blur of whiteness that blended all too perfectly with the mist that currently defined the day. She broke directly through the deck and smashed down into the lower levels of the hull, at which point she promptly began to wreak havoc on the ship’s frame and foundations in as efficient a manner as possible.

Meanwhile, Nolan and the others were busy bombarding the other ships that had recently surrounded them, since they were now taking fire from all sides. He’d been hit by three arrows so far, though none of them had managed to penetrate more than a centimetre into his skin before falling off with muffled clatters. Still, each hit hurt like hell, and he had to be careful to protect his eyes and his Johnson.

It only took a couple of minutes for the surrounding ships to sink, making it so that the only bell tolls to reach Nolan’s ears came from unseen sources. All too suddenly the waters were filled with hundreds of terrified sect members that had abandoned their smoldering, water-admitting ships within moments of being rocked by the terrifying—and, in their eyes inexplicable—explosions that all of them had been forced to face.

Twenty minutes or so after cutting the last of the grappling lines away from the railings on the port side of the ship, Nolan and company were met with another unexpected and demoralizing development. Without warning, their ship suddenly slowed to a stop and then reluctantly ran aground, though not without a terrible protest of whining wood. As he and most of his friends were knocked from their feet by the sudden impact of sailing right into a stretch of uncanny shallows, the surrounding mist abruptly dissipated as if blown away by a giant fan. Like an illusion had suddenly been dispelled, most of the region was quickly cleared of all perspiration. A bright and sunny sky revealed the presence of over thirty other ships in the immediate area. These were all intimidating in size and many of them were slowly approaching their location, attracted by the warning bells that their allies were sounding. Only, there were many bits of rock visible in the area, so they couldn’t proceed recklessly.

“My energies are coming back!” came Esteban’s cry, though his elation quickly drained when he noticed all of the other ships. “Does…does that mean theirs will too?”

Nolan was too busy focusing on his inner essence channels to answer the foolish question. While they might have left the limits of the sect’s formation, it didn’t mean that their internal conditions would immediately return to normal. On the contrary, like a backlog of traffic that was finally starting to move, the energies within his inner essence channels were slow to resume their normal functions. Based on what he felt, Nolan wouldn’t return to his usual condition for another ten minutes or so.

Flee to Nia, quickly!