Wrought King of Iron

Chapter 34: White Knight Blood (II)

Engulfed by a blinding light for a moment, I opened my eyes to find myself under the shining sun in an open space. I could smell salty water, and see a vast ocean beyond. Looking around, I realised I was now on a vessel, and there was a fleet surrounding it. Svelten had painted over reality with his inner world. As I had assumed, he was a nautical soldier of some sort, possibly even a pirate.

Turning to Svelten, I remarked, 'Is this your Reality Marble? I thought it would be more impressive than just some toy boats in a bathtub.'

He scoffed at my attempt to provoke him, still arrogant, responding with, 'Hoh? Just some boats on water you say? It would be ever so embarrassing then if you were to drown in the bath. I see you have no fear of the ocean, or even the fleet that surrounds you. I take it you've never participated - no, never witnessed any nautical battle of any sort, have you? Oh, how unfortunate. In that case, I'll have to instil such fear into your very being.'

After he said that, he raised his hand and pointed to the sky. He then proceeded to snap his fingers, and roared, 'Every ship's canons, fire upon this boat immediately!'

The boats were close enough for me to clearly see several figures, albeit small and lacking in any details, by steel canons. They started to move them and aimed in our direction.

Oh sh*t.

It seems like the captain does not go down with his ship, because Svelten quickly jumped from this ship to another, leaving Luvia and I standing directly in the centre.

BANG!

The cacophony of harsh explosions traversed through the air to make a concentrated attack upon my ears, as canons fired their rounds at this ship, and it felt as if the world shook and crumbled beneath me.

Immediately, I jumped on to another ship as the former one collapsed and sunk into the ocean. Looking back, I expected to see Luvia right behind me, but it turned out that we were separated as she had escaped onto a different ship. There wasn't much I could do but hope she would be fine.

'Fellas! By captain's orders, we have a fish to flay!' A crude voice shouted from beside me.

Turning to look properly at my surroundings, all around were hostile enemies ready to attack. In order to get back to Luvia, I would have to go down the ships, as they were formed in what seemed to be a crescent formation. She was at the bottom and I at the top.

I faced one foe head on and projected Kanshou and Bakuya. He was only holding a single cutlass, so I quickly rushed at him intending to finish him off with one blow. 

Aiming to slice at his neck, I swiftly swung my sword with every expectation that I would be too fast for him to react. Things are never that easy in reality.

Clang!

My sword crashed down into metal, however it wasn't a cutlass that had stopped it, but he had taken out a long gun, maybe a musket, and blocked my strike with it. Aiming directly for my head, his own sword came thrusting at me with the intention to kill, though my other blade was already in motion and cut off the hand lunging at me. 

His hand flew into the open skies, and yet the enemy before me did not scream in pain. He was incapable of attacking with a gun at close range, so I quickly ended his life, cutting through his neck with ease. His flesh seemed a bit softer than normal.

This all happened within a few seconds, however, it was enough time to be completely surrounded by more people all around.

Peculiarly, they seemed to advance with some sort of strategic formation, which was odd to me as I had thought them to be pirates, but they don't strike me to be the barbarous sort now. It didn't matter either way, because I would have to fight them nonetheless.