"Humph, some fucking pirate captain you are to lose your crew to some snobby northern kid. They are practically naked after crossing the void line"
Marina snickered, showing her disappointment in Packard 'Chameleon' Crain. His defeat brought great shame to all the other pirate captains serving Pirate Lord Corey 'Witch' Drachen, one of the three Pirates Lords.
The Pirate Lords controlled most of the southern sea. They practically ruled the ocean as well as the many islands in the sea. The three Pirate Lords had combined naval power higher than the southern continent kingdoms, hence, the senate avoided crossing them even though the pirates kept plundering many merchant ships.
Each Pirate Lord had several pirate captains serving them. The pirates who don't serve anyone such as the Silent Reaper were called the rogues. The pirate captain serving a pirate lord was free to plunder the rogues as they wished. If a pirate captain serving a pirate lord attacked another pirate who served another pirate lord, the pirate lords would investigate the attack until they found the wrongdoer. The wrongdoer would then get the punishment called the sinner's funeral. This was the only time one could see the pirate lords appear together in their ships.
No one got the sinner's funeral in the last hundred years which showed that the pirates could follow the rules unlike the Southerners believe. One could even say that the pirates had a miniature version of democracy within them.
Just like the sinner's funeral, no outsider has killed the pirate crew of a pirate lord in many decades until Michael massacred them mercilessly. Which was the reason Marina appeared to avenge the crew under the orders of Pirate Lord Corey. In the hierarchy of pirate captains, Maria stood at the top. She was one of the most feared pirate captains of the Southern sea.
"Captain Marina, he was not normal. How could a normal human being heal himself just like that?"
Pachard had been blabbering running his mouth about Michael's healing ability to everyone on the witch island. The matter even reached the ears of Corey herself. To see if Packard's been telling the truth, Corey ordered Marina to capture Michael alive.
"Let's see if he can heal like you said when I'm done with him " she crunched her knuckles with an evil smile on her face. Something sparkled in her eyes.
"Is this gonna be another disappointment?" Marina asked herself.
They were sailing towards Ross's ship without an idea of Michael following them from above.
"Remember our task at hand maggots, we want the one called David alive. The rest of them could go to hell"
"Aye aye, captain" the muffled cries of Marina's pirates reverberated the ship.
The pirates quickly moved towards their posts to start the ambush. The three galleons began to circle Ross's ship, they were going to flank the ship in a triangle shape.
"Don't kill them" Michael glanced at the two ships in the near distance, telling Gaya to take care of them.
"You sure you don't want me to kill them? It's no fun" she pouted before flying towards the two ships. For a few moments, he just kept hovering over Marina's ship before slowly descending from the sky.
"Huh? What is that?" The pirate standing on the crow's nest noticed a black figure moving towards them. He couldn't clearly identify the object due to the darkness.
"A ghost?" the pirate's hands shivered as he slowly reached for the lantern hanging on the wooden pole. He wanted to light the lantern to see the object in light.
But before he could light the lantern, the object got too close to the ship. Since the pirates firmly believe in superstitious things, the first thing that came to his mind is the ghost.
"Ghost!" the pirate screamed until his throat hurt. Immediately Marina's gaze turned towards the crow's nest. The word ghost made the other pirates shudder in fear.
"Intruder!"
When Michael landed on the deck, they could see that they weren't dealing with a ghost but another human being.
"Are you looking for me?" they only heard his voice. The night's darkness prevented them from clearly seeing his face.
But that changed when Michael conjured his green alchemy flames in his hand. The green flames were bright enough to light up the entire ship.
"It's him!" Packard pointed his finger at Michael, screaming frantically because of the sudden fear he just experienced.
"How...how did he?"
"Fire"
"What kind of fire is that?"
"Where did he come from?"
Many questions were running through their heads after seeing him suddenly appear on the deck before them. Marina left the helm while a pirate in her ship lit a lantern to signal the other two ships to stop.
"Well well well, I'll be honest. I have no idea how did you manage to come here but I'd say this, you have some balls"
"Two actually" Marina saw no fear on his face. He leaned on the wooden pole leisurely while the green flames somehow hovered beside him lighting the ship jade green.
Even from standing ten meters away from him, she could feel the heat being emitted by the orb of jade-green fire. Marina slowly walked down the stairs adjusting her shirt.
The pirates slowly reached for their cutlasses before unsheathing them. Michael still remained calm because no matter how many cutlasses or crews they have, he could defeat them with a couple of wind blasts.
He was curious about what Marina could do. The pirates looked so afraid of her and Michael wanted to know why they are for a woman without any weapons.
"I've been hearing some weird things about you kid. It seems some of them might actually be true" Just like Marina saw no fear on Michael's face, he too saw no fear on her face which surprised Michael.
"I bet that armor of yours will fetch us a nice amount of gold. After all, that's the least you can do for us for dragging me this far"
"Didn't he say I literally crushed his crew to death?" a hint of fear emerged in Packard's eyes when Michael said that. He also noticed some pirates clenching their teeth in anger. He figured that there might be some relatives among the pirates he killed.
"You're not going to fight them, you're going to fight me" she crunched her knuckles. He creased his brows because she acted like she wanted him to fight him hand to hand.
She removed her hat, revealing her dark grey hair.
"Stand down maggots. This will be womano a mano" this time, Michael was stunned by her words. As far as he could tell, she's either stupid or extremely confident in her fighting ability.
Either way, he decided to agree with the woman's bizarre decision.
The pirates immediately lowered their weapons as an evil grin appeared on Packard's face.
"What makes you think you can beat me?" Michael asked, smiling at her.
Boom!
Instead of answering Michael, she just punched the sail pole beside her. Her fist obliterated the wooden pole into blisters as the entire ship trembled.
The sailcloth flew into the water, leaving the ship with one less sail.
Yet again Michael was stunned by this woman. It was impossible for a normal human being to possess such strength unless she's not normal.
At this moment, his curiosity reached a new peak. He focused his gaze on this woman but as expected, there wasn't a single trace of Arch energy in her body.
"System, scan her body. I want to know how she managed to destroy the pole with a single punch"
[Two thousand badass points required to scan her]
"Take it"
[It will take fifteen minutes]
"So I have fifteen minutes to play with her"
The pirates moved away to make a space in the middle of the ship.
"He's dead"
"Here we go, it has been so long since we saw captain beat the shit out of someone"
"I don't know man, everything about him rubs me in the wrong way"
The pirates began to chit-chat while Michael walked towards the center. The woman snapped her fingers as the pirates lit all the lanterns they previously put out.
Michael's alchemy fires vanished into thin air, surprising many pirates.
"What's going on there? I'm done with one ship"
"Get it done, I'm gonna play for a while"
"Who're you talking to?"
"You'll know soon. Now shall we start?"
Michael cracked his neck waiting for Marina to make her first move. Standing on the opposite side, she moved one leg behind, raising her fist like a boxer.
Whoosh!
The very next moment, she dashed at him with extreme speed. He slightly moved his body, evading her fist. Although he evaded her punch, her speed stunned him. For a big woman, she was very agile and fast.
With a swift twist, she turned her body before throwing a punch at him again. This time Michael didn't evade her punch but raised his palm.
Boom!
The moment Michael's palm and her big fist clashed, it produced a loud booming sound. The force of the clash sent both of them sliding backward.
Michael's hand felt numb after stopping her punch. For a moment, his brain thought he was being hit by a raging bull.
"You're still in one piece" she sounded surprised.
"That's all you got" Michael wanted to see the full extent of her strength so he riled her up. If Southerners could not cultivate, how was she this strong? That was the question running in his mind.
She dashed forward again but this time, she was rapidly throwing punches and kicks at him. If it was before he learned the new fighting technique from Gaya and trained himself like hell, Marina might have landed some blows to him. Since that was not the case anymore, he evaded and dodged every single punch and kick of Marina. He felt like dancing with her while the other pirates stared at them in utter shock. As time went by, their fighting area expanded to the entire ship.
"AHHHHHHH!" she began to scream like an enraged beast as Michael felt her strength growing exponentially.
"Good, let it all out"