I almost got myself caught. The captain’s intuitions are frighteningly accurate. He is captain of the ship for a reason after all. It was stupid of me to think all these pirates were a bunch of barbarians with no brain, fortunately hid the matchsticks and the paper I was carrying otherwise there would have been no way to reason with them.

Everybody was at edge was extra careful today. It would have been nice if they believed the Mermen story and be done with. It’s hard to act when everybody’s on alert. The next day in the evening I was in the kitchen peeling vegetables for preparing soup when suddenly there was ruckus outside. I stepped out and saw everybody running and all over the place. It seems they are preparing for something, I spotted frank at the corner while he was carrying a bunch of swords, I strode towards him and asked what the commotion is about.

It seems that they have spotted a merchant ship and are going to raid it. Frank passed everyone their choice of weapon; he also gave me a short sword and told me to keep it just in case. He went to the captain and discussed something with him; the captain gave an inquisitive look towards me and said something to frank. Frank then returned towards me and gave me the key to the provisions room.

“Since we are short on crew members, we all are going to engage with the enemy. You stay behind on Radius and bring out the barrels which are marked with danger sign. When the captain shouts fire, you should throw the barrel in the enemy’s ship; we will take care of the rest. Don’t screw this up or the captain will get mad” Frank said as he handed me the key.

Radius was approaching the merchant ship and will catch up with it quickly. The pirates prepared themselves to mount an attack. I quickly formulated my plan; this probably going to be me only chance and I am not going to give up on it. I quickly gathered the hidden matchsticks and ran towards the provisions room. In front of me there were six barrels. I forced open the lid of five barrels and flipped the barrels then I poked a hole in the remaining barrel with my short sword, the gunpowder was slipping thought the hole I just made, I quickly made my way out with the barrel in hand dropping gunpowder all the way from the provisions room. Once out, I saw that the merchant’s ship was hooked to the Radius by some ropes and the pirates were engaged in battle with the guards on the merchant ship. I kept the barrel down and started cutting down the ropes with my sword until there was only one rope that held together both the ships and it looked like it won’t last long. I light the gunpowder with the matchstick and immediately bolted towards the merchant’s ship.

As I flung myself towards the merchant ship, I heard a loud explosion behind me. I abruptly landed in the merchant’s ship, the rope that held together both the ships seems to have been snapped and I saw Radius slowly started to sink. There was enormous smoke raising out of it indicating that the ship was beyond salvage. I quickly focus my view to my new surroundings. I saw a lot of corpses both that of the pirates and the guards of the merchant ship. The captain was engaged with two guards and Frank was engaged with one, rest of the pirates were dead. It seems the explosion of the Radius which was practically their home gave them a shock and the guards probable took advantage of the moment and dealt a heavy blow to the pirates.

I didn’t waste a moment. I knew that the captain is a handful so I quickly proceeded in franks direction. The guard looked agitate when he saw me approaching and it seems he was barely fending off Frank’s attack. I didn’t care to explain anything to him as it will only confuse him. I quietly stood a few steps behind frank, he didn’t notice me yet. I pounced at him aiming my sword at his back but Frank notice the surprise attack in the nick of time, he turned and kicked me with his right leg. I stumbled from the blunt force and fell on my butt, it should have hurt pretty bad, but I didn’t felt any pain. I stood up and saw my sword jutting out of Frank’s thigh, blood flowing freely from the deep wound. Frank look at me with anger, he was fuming with rage when he realised I betrayed them and had destroyed their ship.

The guard stood there looking at me in confusion. I motioned him to go help his comrades who were dealing with the Captain. He stood there for a moments and then seems to have realised something, he nodded at me and immediately ran in the direction of the Captain.

“You fucking runt, I should have disposed you off the moment Captain told me to, but I convinced the Captain that I will look after you and train you to be one of us. We saved you and fed you and this is how you repay us. You backstabbing bastard” Frank yelled at me, he seems to be going insane in his rage.

“You saved me and fed me because you wanted a slave who you can order around. Rather than an ounce of camaraderie, I feel disgust towards you pirates who plunder, kill and rape innocent men, women and children without a hint of guilt. It sickens me to think that I ate the same food and slept in the same place as you filthy pigs” I hissed at him in anger.

Frank pulled out the sword from his thigh with a scream and glared at me holding swords in both hands. I didn’t have a weapon and going against frank barehanded is an invitation of death. I looked over to find anything that would aid me. There was a small wooden chair in the corner. I bolted towards the chair and grabbed it; frank followed me but was slow because of his wound. I flung the chair in his face and immediately pounced at him without a pause.

The chair hit him on the face and he fell on the floor. I was already upon him that’s when I realised that one of his swords was impaled on my shoulder. A sharp pain ran though my shoulder. Frank smirked at me and was about to stab me with the short sword, I ignored the pain and quickly grabbed the short sword with my other hand. I yanked the sword forcefully and the sword fell a few meters away from us. Blood dripped from both of my hands; I didn’t flinch and without waiting bashed my fist against Frank nose with all my might. I continued to bash him without giving him a chance to act. I don’t know how many times I bashed his face. I realised that Frank was dead the moment the black globe appeared; regardless I bashed his face a few more time. I pulled the sword out of my shoulder. Surprisingly blood stopped pouring out of my wound and I felt the pain lessen. I stood up and looked at the direction of the Captain. The Captain was also dead along with another guard. Two guards stood near his corpse covered in wounds looking at me. I can sense they are being cautious and contemplating whether I am an enemy or allay.

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I screwed up something and have to repost the whole chapter. I am new to RR and still have a lot to learn to get around. I wrote a big afterward but now feel unmotivated and tire to write it again.