Martial Arts Worlds

A couple of hours ago, docked on the shore of a small, and empty island.

A white-sailed ship stayed well hidden. Its flag was pulled down from its mast, and the crew remained silent inside the ship.

It was quite late in the night, and unlike other pirates, they weren't partying because they knew that there was a job to do tomorrow morning.

While most of the pirates inside the ship were sleeping on their hammocks, the captain stood on the deck, staring out into the dark sea.

Through the tree gaps, he was able to see the Kiwi Island a some distance away. With binoculars, he was barely able to make sense of the silhouette of the passenger vessel docked there.

However, to his surprise, the ship suddenly showed activity and started moving out of the dock and into the open sea.

'What the hell?' Faelan frowned and started ringing the bell.

The pirates, startled and angry, stood up and picked up their cutlass swords and flintlock pistols before making their way to the deck.

They thought they were being attacked!

"Captain, what's happening?!"

"Change of the plan, fellows!" Faelan shouted. "Set sails. Our target is sailing away!"

"The hell, I thought they were leaving tomorrow morning?" The pirates questioned in confusion. "The Count promised that."

"It looks like these people don't respect the notion of a tax!" Faelan shouted. "However, that doesn't matter. Set sail, but keep the distance until we're far enough from Kiwi Island so the navy won't bother us!"

"Aye, sir!"

With that, the ship began to move slowly away from the island. The flag was hoisted high in the mast. It was a flag of a skull with hearts in its eye sockets.

Brr! Brr! Brr!

At that moment, a phone vibrated in Faelan's back pocket.
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He reached for it and saw that the Count Sander himself was calling for him.

After accepting the call, he pressed the phone against his ear.

"Count Sander, are you aware that the ship is currently racing away from your island?" Faelan asked with a deepened tone.

While this was a mutual partnership, Faelan wasn't going to bow his head down to Count Sander because he was a retired pirate.

The retired pirates were scorned and looked down upon by those still active in the trade.

Especially if the retired pirate had the burned mark on their neck. If one received that honor, they should live and die as pirates.

"I am aware." Count Sander's deep voice came from the other side of the phone.

However, there was also some loud background noise. It sounded like there were people yelling and trying to break down a door.

"Is there something wrong?" Faelan asked nonchalantly. "It sounds like you're busy."

"It doesn't matter." Count Sander firmly said. "I need you to retrieve something for me."

"Oh, do I now?" Faelan leaned against the ship's railing with a scoff. "What do I get from it?"

"The half." Count Sander said. "I was robbed. The thieves should be inside that ship. If you retrieve my money, you get half."

"You were robbed?" Faelan laughed. "Getting rusty, are you?"

"Enough of jokes." Count Sander's voice turned colder. "Will you do it or not?"

"I will do it," Faelan picked his ear and said. "How much did they steal?"

"25,000 gold coins." Count Sander said. "A relatively small amount, but it shouldn't be too hard of a task to retrieve it. The thieves should be relatively young."

"What will I do to the thieves?" Faelan asked. "Kill them?"

"It is up to you," Count Sander said. "I fought them. I think you could earn a nice sum if you sell them as Fighting Slaves."

"Is that so…" Faelan licked his lips. "It was a nice call, Count. However, will you be alright? Those shouts in the background have turned louder."

"Nothing in our partnership will change. I'll meet you in the Pirate Kingdom."

"You're coming there?" Faelan finally looked surprised. "You are not the most liked person there. The retired pirates aren't."

Ding.

The phone call disconnected.

'He hung up on me?' Faelan clicked his tongue and pocketed the phone. 'Very interesting. It looks like these two thieves have really angered Count Sander. I never expected him to come back willingly to the Pirate Kingdom.'

He looked over to the open sea, and even with binoculars, could barely see the passenger vessel, but it was alright.

They didn't want them to know about them just yet.

The hours passed by, and the pirate ship hid in the darkness of the night.

However, then the pirates showed sickening grins, and the sails fully unfurled, picking up the speed.

With the help of the darkness, they were able to move close to the passenger vessel without getting detected.

Then, they all heard the horns blasting throughout the passenger vessel, and the pirates saw an increase in activity in the ship.

The frightened, half-dressed passengers ran to the deck to see what the commotion was about and then saw the pirate ship nearing them like a hungry shark.

The cannons on the passenger vessel turned towards the pirate ship and started shooting with smoking cannonballs.

"Huff!" Faelan jumped high in the air and kicked a couple of the cannonballs away.

Those cannonballs slammed into the passenger vessel's hull and exploded. The hull was fortified but still took significant damage.

The rest of the cannonballs missed the pirate ship.

The pirate ship slammed against the passenger vessel. The two ships were right next to each other.

"Board the ship!" Faelan, with a sword in hand, jumped onto the passenger vessel.

His pirates, laughing and grinning, followed their captain.

"Ahhh!"

The passengers screamed and wanted to run back inside, but the pirates stopped them, and forced them down to their knees.

Faelan looked up towards the wheel cabin, where the pale-faced captain was still trying to steer the ship.

With a jump, he crashed through the wheel cabin's window and placed his cutlass sword's blade against the captain's throat.

"Now, now, stop that."

The captain removed his hands from the wheel.

'Shit, why now?' The captain glanced towards the deck at the frightened passengers and felt anger rising from the depths of his heart.

However, there was nothing he could do. He was merely Martial Champion in martial arts, as he had never really bothered to advance further.

He knew that this pirate captain before his eyes was vastly more powerful.

Faelan removed his tricorn hat and said with a smile. "My name is Faelan, the captain of the Heart Eye Pirates, and I'll be taking your ship as my own."

"Faelan from Heart Eye Pirates…" the captain gulped. "The man with bounty of 19,400 gold coins…"

"So you know me." Faelan smiled.