Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  “Who are you to question our lord?”, one sailor said angrily.

  “Enough. If it was not for him, we would have died long ago.”, Yan Li reprimanded the man.

  “Ok Zhang I will tell you the truth.”, Jian Wei said as he pulled a chair and sat on it.

  “Have you heard of the Warring States Region within the continent?”

  Zhang did not reply but he nodded and continued to listen.

  “Within the Warring States area there are many different powers, some weak, some strong. The strongest is Aurora City. Aurora City is the largest city within the Warring States Region and possesses one of the largest armies in the area.

  Aurora City’s influence stretches over a vast area of the Warring States Region to the point where it controls a few other smaller cities. It’s size alone makes it a duchy and its ruler naturally would be called a duke but being the absolute ruler the man is more like a king. And that man is standing right in front of you.”, Jian Wei said with a hint of pride in his tone.

  “That still doesn’t explain why all these men are after you. Also, as the ruler of Aurora City why are you here at sea?”

  “Roughly two years ago, when the Siwang Empire began its invasion of the various kingdoms an alliance was formed. My domain stretched over a vast area and parts of it is very close to the Heilong kingdom. Thus, we were invited to join the alliance. Naturally, many people were against joining the alliance because they thought that by joining we would provoke the Siwang Empire. But nonetheless, I decided to join and my word is law. Ever since my decision to join, various factions had formed and have been working to overthrow me.”, Jian Wei sighed.

  Then I was recalled receiving a letter from the alliance for a meeting between the rulers of the various powers. They would meet and map out a plan to reclaim the land that the Siwang Empire had occupied and possibly invade parts of it.

  Jian Wei had arranged to secretly travel to the Heilong Kingdom for the meeting. After the meeting, him and his people traveled to the archipelago of 100 islands and return home by sea. This was to avoid any ambushes that those plotting against Jian Wei had set.

  But somehow on their way home, they were hit with a storm and the trip was delayed. This allowed the plotters gathered enough time to assemble forces to attack.

  If they allowed Jian Wei to return to Aurora City, he would once more become untouchable. So the plotters hired large numbers of pirates and assassins to attack Jian Wei. Of course they could not kill him because if Jian Wei was not around anymore his 2nd in command would naturally take over. After the 2nd in command took over, he would naturally purge the city to avenge the death of his master.

  So they needed to capture Jian Wei alive and then use him to subdue his loyal subordinates and slowly usurp his power and rule the city.

  Sadly, a wrench fell into their plans. This wrench would be known as Zhang, and the two beauties. Had it not been for the trio, their plan most likely would succeed. This was in part because Jian Wei did not want to draw a lot of attention so he only brought a few of his men with him. And of these men, most of them were just ordinary foot soldiers because moving the elite troops of the city would draw too much attention.

  “I see”, Zhang said as he nodded.

  “Since we have come this far I would like to ask you to escort me back to Aurora City. Naturally you’ll be awarded once we return.”, Jian Wei said to Zhang.

  Zhang did not know how to reply to Jian Wei’s request. Had he not already been tangled up in this mess he would obviously decline. No reward was worth one’s life. But now that he was already so tangled up in it he obviously had no way out. The pirates would not let him off even if he declined.

  A veil of silence fell upon the room as Zhang contemplated.

  “Since things are already like this I will stick with you, in return for letting us board your ship. Of course we will take the reward that is being offered. That is if we all make it out here alive”, Zhang said with a slight smile.

  Chapter 17: Escape?

  Escaping from the pirates would not be an easy task. Zhang’s group had less than twenty people whereas there were hundreds of pirates wanting to claim their lives. Zhang was confident he could single handedly kill most of the pirates but he was not confident in being able to safeguard Yuying, Ai, and Jian Wei.

  He is only one person how would he be able to slaughter enemies while protecting others? In battle one would have to pick between the two because unless you possessed enough power, choosing both would be a fool's dream.

  “There has to be a way.”, Zhang thought.

  That’s when it hit him. He could sink their ships, they would allow him and everyone else to avoid having to fight the pirates head on. As for how he would sink the ships? Well he just happened to have two large canteens of super corrosive Lightning Eater’s poison in his interspatial ring.

  “Everyone follow me! We have to make sure there are no more pirates on this ship. Once we know that the ship is clear we can escape! I have a plan!”, Zhang said excitedly as he headed for the door.

  Zhang had become the leader of the group within everyone’s heart by this point and no one questioned his decisions. His actions showed that Zhang was a decisive person and a natural born leader.

  If the pirates did not outnumber the sailors by such a high number, by following Zhang’s commands they most likely would have beaten back the pirates by now.

  As the group walked through the corridors they could still spot one or two pirates walking around. Compared before the ship now seemed empty and void of life.

  Every pirate who came across Zhang’s path was quickly cut down before they could even utter a single word.

  Once Zhang reached the upper deck of the ship he found it empty, well besides the corpses of the dead that laid everywhere.

  A thought suddenly entered Zhang’s mind. The storage room on this one ship had so much treasure then the other ships most likely had an unbelievable amount of treasures also.

  Although it was not the time to be greedy Zhang felt the need to check out what the other ships held. They might have some useful treasures for him to use to combat the pirates.

  Thus he decided after he sunk the other pirate ships he would visit the storage rooms to the ships that were now pirate free. Zhang somewhat regretted the he would not be able to get the treasures that could very well be on the ships that he would sink. But he was not going to let greed get the better of him at least not in a situation like this.

  Off in the distance, the remaining pirate ships including the flagship began moving. It had been a while since they sent two ships over for reinforcements but afterwards they did not receive any signals that their mission ended in success.

  Anticipation filled Zhang’s eyes as the ships inched closer and closer toward him.

  The wind blew and the sea rose up and down as Zhang waited for the pirates to come within his range. He took out the two canteens and reshaped them. Zhang had turned the two large canteens into twenty orbs that could fit within his hand.

  These orbs of course were filled with the corrosive poison inside and if thrown against a hard surface would shatter like glass.

  “Yuying, Ai come here I have something fun for you two to do.”, Zhang said with a devilish smile on his face.

  Once the two girls had walked up to Zhang, he handed them each six of the orbs filled with poison.

  “Let’s make a bet whichever one of us can sink one of their ships the one who uses the least number of orbs will win. The losers will have to listen to one demand from the winner. How’s that?”

  “Hmmmm why not.”, Yuying said.

  “If I win then you’ll do whatever I want brother?”, Ai said excitedly.

  Thus the trio started a game which in a way decided the fate of hundreds of pirates.

  Jian Wei, Yan Li and the rest of the sailors stared at the trio in disbelief. What kind of monsters were standing in front of them? So far they had seen that the trio were fearless and
extremely powerful. How could people so much younger than them be so much stronger?

  The logical answer would be these three were geniuses. But being a genius also had its limits thus, the trio were labeled human shaped monsters in the eyes of the sailor. This was meant in the nicest way possible with a hint of reverence.

  Once the pirate ships were a few hundred feet away, the trio began throwing the orbs. Zhang was the first one to throw and the orb. His threw landed on the side of the ship’s hull of one of the smaller ships. The orb shattered splashing corrosive poison all over an area of the ship’s hull.

  A huge hole soon was seen on the ship's side and water began leaking. After moments the pirate ship bow began sinking. Not long after that pirate ship disappeared from sight.

  A few pirates who were in the upper deck had been able to survive the sinking of the ship, but the vast majority of pirates had sunk to the bottom of the sea together with the ship. Most of them died because they were stuck in the ship and others died due to the suction that the ship caused as it sunk pulling those unlucky souls down with it.

  “One point for me.”, Zhang said smugly.

  Not wanting to lose Yuying and Ai quickly threw one orb each landing on a different ship. Yuying’s orb had landed on the hull of a ship towards its stern. The ship began to take water in but oddly enough it did not sink.

  Ai’s orb hit the hull of a pirate ship towards it’s bow just like Zhang. The ship began taking in water and began sinking and soon, just like the ship before, it disappeared from sight.

  A proud look could be seen on Ai’s face whereas a somewhat dejected look could be seen on Yuying’s. However shortly after the ship Ai targeted sank the ship Yuying targeted began to sink also.

  “Now it’s a three-way tie. What now brother?”, Yuying said with a smile.

  “Then that big ship will be the tie breaker.”, Zhang said as he began throwing.

  Zhang’s orb landed square on the side of the ship at the place where it meets the edge of the water. Water could be seen flowing into the hole but the ship still stayed afloat.

  Next was Yuying and Ai who also hit spots that would normally sink a ship. However, strangely the ship was still floating as if nothing had happened. The trio kept throwing orbs until they ran out but the ship continued moving towards them without slowing.

  “It must have floating compartments in the interior of the ship keeping the whole thing afloat.”, Zhang said looking at the ship.

  “Brace for impact!!”, one sailor yelled out.

  “This way!”, Zhang said as he led everyone in the direction of one of the empty ships.

  Soon after the flagship collided with the ship that they had previously been on, the pirates jumped over from the decks of the flagship.

  These pirates were out for blood. Many of their comrades had perished and they wished to get revenge. A man bulging with muscles jumped down from the deck of the flagship.

  This man was shirtless but wore a black cape and in his hand he held a giant halberd.

  “Captain! No one is here!”, a pirate yelled towards this man.

  “FIND THEM AND BRING ME THEIR HEADS!”, the man yelled.

  At this point, he clearly did not care about the mission that he was hired for anymore. Too many of his subordinates had died and he fell into an endless abyss of rage.

  What he didn’t know was when his ship rammed into the abandoned ship Zhang and his followers had all jumped over the opposite side of the ship into the water.

  And as the pirates searched for them on the ship, they swam to the other side and were climbing their way up and onto the pirate’s flagship.

  The pirate’s flagship was roughly twice the size of the abandoned ship so naturally it took them a while to climb the upper decks from the side of the ship.

  Once they reached the deck of the pirate flagship they found it completely empty.

  “It seemed they all went over to the other ship looking for us.”, Jian Wei said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

  “Let’s go see if anyone is still left on board and silence them.”, Zhang said.

  They were planning to attack the pirate flagship and then escape before anyone noticed. They would use this method to slowly sap the pirates out their numbers.

  At once they rushed down toward the lower decks and slayed everyone they came across. Zhang’s primary objective was to kill as many pirates as he could. His 2nd objective was naturally the storage room in the pirate flag ship.

  The interior of the flagship was roughly identical to the other pirate ships, which made it easy to navigate as Zhang headed for the storage room.

  Soon they reached the door leading into the storage room. Zhang withdrew his sword from the interspatial ring and stabbed it into the lock of the door.

  Once the sword was stabbed into the lock, the door slowly began to creak open. After the door opened Zhang peered in and saw a massive room.

  Thousands of chests laid about most likely filled with gold. Hundreds of smaller boxes and chests were neatly laid out on shelves. Without bothering to open the large chests Zhang took them all into his ring.

  Naturally the sailors did not question Zhang. They were willing to let him get all the treasures if he was able to lead them to safety.

  What caught Zhang’s attention was in the corner of the room were hundreds of kegs stacked on top of one another. A black powder like substance was scattered on the ground in front of these kegs which peaked Zhang’s interest.

  From the knowledge from his past life these kegs were most likely filled with black powder which is basically gunpowder. Most likely the pirates were using the gunpowder to sterilize and cauterize their wounds. This was of course there were no such things as cannons in this world yet at least, to Zhang’s knowledge.

  A glint could be seen in Zhang’s eyes as he took the kegs into his ring.

  Once they cleared out the flagship’s storage room, it was time to leave and head back and catch some stragglers.

  As they made their way toward the upper deck Zhang left behind a gift for the pirates when they return.

  After the group made it to the upper decks Zhang ordered them to jump in the water and hide as they did before. He was going to stay on the ship and wait until the pirates began to return in their flagship. Eventually they’ll have to come back once they found that all the ships were empty.

  During his wait for the pirates to return Zhang took the chance to set up his trap further. Suddenly he heard someone scream.

  “COME OUT HERE NOW!!!!!”

  “Ha guess they searched all of the ships and came up with nothing.” Zhang laughed as he climbed up on of the sails of the flagship.

  A short while after, the pirates began dejectedly came back to their flagship. Their search was fruitless and many of their comrades died for no reason. Their captain being furious was not a good thing either.

  One by one the pirates boarded the ship and to their amazement their comrades who were left behind were all dead.

  “BOSS!! Something is wrong! All our men that were left behind are dead!!”, one pirate yelled out towards their leader who was still aboard on the other ship.

  “WHAT!!!!?”, the leader of the pirate’s screamed as he jumped up in the air and landed on the flagship from the other ship. This was an amazing feat, since the flagship was double the size of the other ship and was roughly one hundred feet taller than the other ship.

  “Time to leave.”, Zhang said as he jumped off the massive sail of the pirate’s flagship. As Zhang fell towards the water in his hand appeared a small orange fire.

  The fire shot out from Zhang’s hand and landed on top of a trail of black powder. Once the fire touched the trail of black powder it triggered a burning trail.

  Looks of horror appeared on all of the pirates’ faces. They saw the trail and the ones near it tried any means to stop it. Some kicked at the small trail of black powder on the ground. Others toss things over it. Some heroic souls even took to jumping
on top trying to stop the fire.

  But Zhang made sure that they would not be able to stop it. He had made it so the trails of black powder would split off into multiple trails. One trail eventually turned to two and two eventually turned into four. Also the fact that the black powder burned at an extremely quick rate made it very difficult for the pirates to stop it.

  Many pirates seeing that they had no way of stopping it jumped off to the side of the flagship. However, only a few of them made it before the trail reached its destination. Zhang had lined the 2nd floor of the flagship with kegs of black powder at certain intervals.

  Soon a massive explosion happened. Smoke, pieces of wood, fire, and various limbs of people flew in all directions. The last remaining pirates had been eradicated.