Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  “They found the bodies of their comrades quicker than we thought and then had everyone confirm that they were their comrades. All of them have a tiger tattoo on one of their arms.”, A sailor told Zhang.

  As soon as the man finished his sentence the pirates charged. Seeing this Zhang also moved forward with his blade in hand., Zhang made his way to the closest pirate and plunged his dagger into the man’s neck. And before pulling his dagger out Zhang used his other to work the man’s sword loose from his hand.

  Seeing Zhang moved the rest of the sailors charged also, along with Yuying and Ai. If they faltered all that waited them was death. So naturally they, had nothing to lose and fight all out.

  Zhang was able to procure another sword and stored his dagger into his interspatial ring. Although the dagger was incredibly sharp compared to the two swords Zhang had obtained, using dual swords had always been his forte.

  Like a whirlwind Zhang danced through the mob of pirates. As he passed by, severed limbs were sent flying and blood sprayed in all directions. Zhang was like a bloodthirsty beast that had just been uncaged.

  Jian Wei watched as Zhang slaughtered his way through the pirates in awe from the rear.

  “Li he might be the one that I’ve been looking for all this time.”, he whispered.

  “Yes my lord he might be a fitting successor for you.”, Yan Li replied also in a whisper.

  Shortly after, more pirates came over from the other ships and filled the deck of the ship. A man watched the battle from the crow’s nest of another ship and pulled out a flare from his pocket.

  Bang!

  A red flare could be seen in the sky. After this flare was shot two more blue flares were shot from the pirate flag ship. Once those two blue flares were shot two of the ships that had been waiting from afar moved toward where Zhang and the sailors were.

  Soon those two ships reached the ship Zhang was on and started tossing grapple hooks over and roped their ships in. Then the pirates on those two ships began boarding also.

  “Retreat to the lower decks!!! We can’t fight them all at once!”, Zhang yelled.

  The sailors had long ago fallen under Zhang’s charisma and had followed his orders without question. Only ten or so sailors were left that was including Jian Wei and Yan Li. One by one they started running down the stairs to the lower floors.

  If battle was to break out in the lower decks it would be much more manageable than on the upper decks. This was because the hallways only allowed for roughly two or three people to stand side by side. So at most they’d only have to fight three pirates at one time. Rather than fighting pirates from multiple directions.

  The sailors had found a small room to hole up in the lower deck. Thanks to this, they’d only have to face one pirate at a time. Giving them an advantage because some of the sailors had spears, whereas all the pirates used only swords.

  “You all stay in here I will go out and stretch a bit.”, Zhang said as he rushed out of the doorway slashing wildly.

  In such a small space no one was his match. Zhang was most adept at facing many enemies at once. Adding to that, was the ability to use the small spaces to his advantage. When one person attacked him he agilely moves close to another enemy. This caused his foes to waiver because they did not wish to hit their comrades which would give Zhang time to dispatch them and their comrade one after another.

  Using both swords in his hand he did not waste any of his movements. Every swung cut flesh, and every lunge pierced skin.

  To the pirates Zhang was a grim reaper who crawled from the depths of hell to claim their lives. Well in part, what they thought was true. Zhang did indeed crawl back to the world of the living from hell.

  Everything was going smoothly until a man with a silver mask walked in the corridor. The masked man had long flowing black hair and pitch black battle armor on.

  “You are sure dressed odd for a pirate.”, Zhang laughed.

  “Hmph don’t group me with those lowlifes. I’m part of the order of the blue moon. I was hired to return back a certain man’s head and present it to my employer. Now move out of the way and I just might let you live.”, the masked man said.

  “If you want the old man’s life then don’t even think about it! I owe him for letting me aboard his ship and that is a favor I must pay back.”, Zhang said as he charged toward the man.

  Swinging both of his swords horizontally Zhang wanted to bisect the man in two. However, to Zhang’s amazement the masked man’s sword cut Zhang’s two swords into halves.

  Tossing the two swords to the ground, Zhang pulled out his vial of corrosive poison and tossed it at the man.

  Seeing the strange vial, the man instinctively dodged but when he was in close proximity with the man Zhang released his essence which made the vial to hold the poison. Once the vial disappeared the poison splashed everywhere.

  Some of it landed on the man’s armor while some landed on his mask. Oddly only his mask started corroding but not his armor. The man quickly took off his mask and tossed it to the ground where it melted beyond recognition. The armor the man wore despite being splashed with the poison stayed in perfect condition.

  “What the fuck was that? You brat you're looking to die!!!”, the man screamed as he glared at Zhang.

  “Looks like I’ll have to use that.” Zhang thought to himself as he once more charged at the masked man.

  The masked man also charged at Zhang. When the two was in reaching distance of each other the man lunged his sword looking to pierce Zhang’s heart. Seeing this, Zhang moved to the side. But he was not quick enough and the man’s sword pierced his shoulder.

  But taking this chance where the man would not be able to use his sword Zhang reached out his hand and struck the man with his palm. In his palm was a tiny black flame. Once the black fire touched the man his face fell ashen.

  “Wha what did you do to me!!”, the man screamed as he felt his consciousness fade and after a few moment his body like many others before him, slumped to the ground and became lifeless.

  Zhang winced as he pulled out the sword lunged in his shoulder.

  Afterwards, not wasting anytime, Zhang quickly took off the man’s armor and donned it. He also took the man’s sword and tied it to his waist.

  Once the armor was donned Zhang began his killing spree again.

  Chapter 16: The Truth

  As Zhang continued his killing spree, through the corridors of the ship, he realized that although the black armor was extremely hard it was oddly very light. No matter how many hits Zhang took while in it he did not feel a thing nor did the armor dent or give way. This of course was obvious because the armor was able to withstand the corrosive poison of a level eight Lightning Eater snake.

  With this armor, Zhang was practically unstoppable. Everyone he met would meet their demise. While on his rampage Zhang happened upon a group of five men who had masks that looked similar to the man that he obtained the black armor from. However, these men wore bronze colored masks and possessed equipment of a lower quality then the man with the silver mask. Nonetheless they still possessed better things than the pirates that Zhang had been fighting so far.

  Unlike the man with the silver mask, the group of men with bronze masks fought in group. They had impeccable coordination and changed from one formation to the next. These men made it hard for Zhang to use their numbers against them. All of their movements were in unison and hard to predict.

  If it was not for the black armor Zhang most likely would have been slain long ago. Although they were able to overpower Zhang with teamwork, they were not able to stop him from drawing blood. The five masked men were covered in cuts and bruises and were in a much worse condition than Zhang was.

  This was because they only had leather armor on and it provided little protection against the sword that Zhang had picked up from the silver masked man. Although the sword was not made of Blood Iron like Zhang’s swords that his father had gifted him, these swords were extremely sharp and light
. This allowed Zhang to swiftly slash and cut his enemies.

  “Brothers that armor is strong and this brat isn’t a walk in the park either. I think we need to use a different strategy.”, one of the masked men said to the other four.

  Although the other four did not reply, they each pulled out a large pellet from their robes. And almost simultaneously they tossed the black pellets onto the ground. Once the pellets hit the ground they caused a small explosion and white smoke filled the corridor.

  Once the smoke filled the corridor there was utterly no visibility. “Shit!” Zhang yelled in his mind.

  Now that there was no visibility Zhang was at a greater disadvantage. The five masked men clearly were adept at fighting with no visibility or else they would have not created the smoke screen.

  And he was indeed correct because moments later, he heard a blade sweeping towards his head. Zhang quickly ducked however when he did he could feel that another blade was coming. Zhang needed to avoid the second blade that was coming down from above. But if Zhang did not avoid it the blade most likely would cleave his head into halves.

  Sending energy into his legs Zhang jumped back to avoid the second blade. And with a thump his back slammed into a wall.

  “Damn they just keep on coming!!”, he cursed and ducked once more. After Zhang ducked, two blades could be seen chopping into the wall at the spot where his head was.

  Zhang knew he had to act or he would eventually be killed. So he gathered all his strength in his fist and punched the wooden wall, shattering it to many pieces.

  Once the wall broke Zhang quickly ran to the other side of it. However, when Zhang entered the room, on the other side of the wall, daggers with chains attached to them flew pass Zhang’s sides from behind.

  The daggers nailed themselves into the wall in front of Zhang. Then the five men rushed in and began twisting the chains and making overlap roping Zhang. Moments later Zhang was wrapped by chains.

  “Ha we caught you now you brat!” One of the masked men laughed as he held on to one of the chains that bound Zhang.

  The moment after he finished his sentence to his surprise a blade punctured from his back through his chest.

  The other four men were also caught by surprise and could do nothing but watch as their comrade slumped over and rolled onto the ground after the blade was pulled out of his body.

  At the spot where the man had been standing, stood a beauty that was out of this world. The four remaining masked men stared in disbelief, “How could someone be so beautiful…”, they thought.

  This person was Yuying who had come to help Zhang and happened to appear just at the right time.

  Without saying a word, she bent down and placed one of her fingers on the dead masked man’s forehead and strange runes formed on her hand and flowed onto the corpse. Just like before she was taking control of the corpse.

  “Stand! And kill!”, she yelled at the corpse.

  The four remaining masked men stared in horror as their fallen comrade slowly got to his feet and charged at them.

  Taking advantage of the confusion Zhang jumped and fell on his back. When Zhang landed on the ground his body weight tugged the chains that were in the hands of the masked men and caused two of them to fall over. Once on the ground, Zhang started rolling trying to loosen the chains.

  Yuying’s feint worked so she released her control over the corpse and it once more slumped over and fell to the ground.

  She rushed toward the nearest masked man and began swinging her sword. From behind her shadow yet another out of this world beauty appear and lunged at the man Yuying was fighting with her sword.

  Seeing his comrade in trouble the other masked man who was still standing let go of the chain he was holding and rushed over to help. But he was too late Ai had already stabbed her sword into his comrade’s stomach while Yuying had kept the man busy.

  By the time the two masked men that tumbled had gotten up, Yuying and Ai were already overpowering their comrade. The two beauties had unbelievable coordination and every movement they made seemed to just blend together.

  Zhang finally had broken loose from the chains that bound him and jumped onto his feet. With chains still in his hand he ran up to one of the two last masked men who were now fighting Yuying and Ai. Once he got behind the man Zhang took the chains in his hand and looped them around the masked man’s neck.

  With a strong yank Zhang made the man fall to the ground. Once the man was on the ground again Zhang pounced on him and began strangling him with the chains. Slowly the man’s face turned purple, his eyes bulged outward and tongue stuck out because he was gasping for air.

  The last masked man seeing that he had no chance to win this fight any longer began running toward the hole in the wall that Zhang had made.

  Zhang pulled the daggers that were attached to the chains out of the wall and skillfully threw them at the man’s leg and shoulder.

  “GAAHHHHHHHH”, the man screamed.

  “You’re not going anywhere.”, Zhang said sternly as he slowly reeled the man in by pulling on the chains.

  “I SURRENDER PLEASE SPARE ME!!!”, the man screamed, tears formed around the corners of his eyes.

  “Tell me why have you guys attacked us!”, Zhang questioned the man.

  “We we were hired to capture someone on the ship. I don’t know much. We were given lots of money and treasure. The orders were simple, we just need to capture a man who was in the drawing we were given and kill everyone else. I’ve told you please spare me please!”, the man plead.

  “Fine I’ll spare you.”, Zhang said as he plucked the daggers out of the man’s leg and shoulder. Once the daggers were taken out Zhang took the dagger and with a sweep sliced the back of the man’s other leg.

  “You, you what are you doing!! You said you’d let me go!!”

  “Of course I’m letting you go. I’m keeping my word of course. Obviously this won’t kill you, I’ll make sure of it.”, Zhang replied with a smile as he slashed and cut at the man’s tendons.

  This man would most likely live but, would he ever be able to walk or move his limbs again? Most likely the answer would be no unless some sort of miracle happened.

  “If one is prepared to take a life then they must be prepared to lose a life.”, Zhang said softly.

  “Where’s Jian Wei?”, Zhang asked as he looked toward Yuying and Ai.

  “He’s still in the room before, we were worried about you brother so we came to see if we could help.”, Ai replied.

  “Alright let’s head back, there’s something he’s obviously not telling us.”, Zhang said as he stood up.

  Before heading out the door Zhang made sure to loot the things on the bodies of the five men and of course took the daggers with chains with him. These would be handy things to have.

  The corridors of the ship were filled with bodies and blood. Limbs were scattered everywhere. Although Zhang had slain many enemies there were still more coming down from the upper deck. As the trio walked through the corridors they’d often run into small groups of pirates.

  Of course these pirates would serve as cannon fodder in front of the trio. Zhang made sure to take anything that was of value on these pirates as they made their way back to the room where Jian Wei was.

  A large mob of pirates could be seen trying to squeeze in through the entrance into the room where Jian Wei was. But the entrance was too small and at most only one or two of them can fit. This made it so that the sailors could fend off the pirates without being overwhelmed.

  The pirates in the back kept pushing forward trying to enter the room. While the pirates in front would be met with spears and swords.

  As they were busy trying to get into the room, the pirates were being dispatched one by one from behind by the trio.

  Now the pirates were sandwiched between the trio and the sailors and their numbers began to dwindle until none were left alive.

  Zhang led Yuying and Ai toward the room.

  “Hold your swo
rds it’s us!”, Zhang yelled out.

  When the trio entered the room they could see that two sailors had lost their lives defending the room and the rest of them were not that better off. Their bodies were covered in blood, either from their own wounds or from the enemies they had slain.

  Zhang closed the door and with a sweeping motion of his hand sealed the door into the wall. Once the door was sealed Zhang began treating the injured, the Underworld Heart could be used to mend wounds and regrow limbs. So Zhang was able to bring everyone’s bodies back to perfect condition.

  “Senior I would like to know why all of these people are after you. If you don’t wish to tell us, then it is fine but we may have to part ways. I will not risk my own life along with their lives without even knowing the reason why.”, Zhang said as he pulled up a chair that had fallen over on the ground and sat on it.