THE ASC3NDANTS Awakening. (III) ✔[#Wattys2019]

Chapter (8)

"Fire...!"

And another blast of cannon fire which shook the ship went out deafeningly.

"Load again!" He called out to the men again.

They rushed to reload but he did not realize that they were running out of cannon guns. Because a few days earlier they had dumped a few of the cannon guns and ball boxes into the sea when they hit a storm.

No one realized this! Nevertheless, this was only realized, when the next order to fire came and only three guns fired! Shockingly, not more than three cannon guns fired. Stanley felt the rocking of the ship. He almost lost his footing when the second last firing went.

There was some confusion. The men glanced a side at each other! Just when pirate started hitting at the lower deck's door. They turned and started to drag a cannon gun towards the door to keep it tact as Capt. Horrace had put it. But this was to be done in case the box had been thrust out! But they hadn't received the signal yet. And what were they to do about blocking the infiltration and looting of the lower deck then?

Stanley saw the pirate turning towards the lower deck as if they had a motive! Cries of pain rose from each part of the ship as bodies fell onto the deck.

The drizzling rain-washed the deck of blood and red and Stanley saw how overwhelmed his men were by the pirate's surprise attack. He had so few bullets left himself! He drew his blade and then yelled out to the best of his men.

He stood at the center of a furious fight and blood was everywhere! His clothes were torn he was bruised here and there! The canons below deck had been fired without a signal. He had to get to the miracle box immediately to thrust it out as the plan aught be from the start. Otherwise, they were bound to lose against the pirates all over again like the last five Black Project vessels and their captains!

At this point he realized he needed his back defended. He yelled out to his second in command to join him. They had their blades out but hardly had they charged forwards when Captain Horrace yelled out a new command to his men. He was being circled!

"Defend the lower deck men!" Capt. Horrace yelled out to his men to but where he stood, the fight was growing tenser.

Stanley turned to see what the captain meant. No pirate was to head below deck for reasons he and the captain alone knew best!

He glance back at the center of the deck and remembered he had to release the miracle box! Nevertheless, when he turns, he sees the man behind the ambush. Captain Alsahim! At first, he could not believe what he was seeing.

Alsahim starts towards him, his face bent slightly down and concealed by his long dripping hair. Stanley took a step back with a twinge of fear showing across his face! This moment and the feeling that washed over him seemed to slow down everything around them.

At first, Stanley could neither move a second step back nor run from what was approaching and yet he had to get to the miracle box as soon as he could.

The Pirate raised his Persian sword and in slow motion-like charged forwards. Stanley did not move. He couldn't move his legs and he did not know why...!

He leaped off the ground and sliced his blade down at his horizontally. The force he used terrified Capt. Stanley! Stanley looked a little confused and overwhelmed by the pirate's very nature and d stature. He slid! Seeing Stanley, the young man most assuredly the captain of the B.P guard on board this ship, struggle to obtain his ground for attack, the pirate attacked again this time with such force and determination in order to finish him off this time around but it wasn't as easy as he had anticipated!

Stanley delayed stepping out of the way letting the blade taste his flesh by an inch.

The pirates and Stanley's bladed met with a spark. And slide off. When he sliced out at the captain, he spun at an angle of one hundred eighty degrees. He spun while midair and when he landed, his blade came like a spear at Stanley's chest. This time Stanley saw this and automatically did a back touch. The blade missed his belly and chin by very few inches!

Nevertheless, his shirt rose off his belly and the blade went right in under ripping the wet shirt open with buttons flying free, leaving his chest open and bare!

The buttons tumbled and rolled across the bloodstained deck which was wet with rain and blood and down through the deck.

All the same, Stanley was up on his feet in a second but still stumbled over a pail the ship's cleaner never removed earlier! He tried to obtain his balance! This is when two of his men came between to back him up while made it back to the Miracle box. Something he would appreciate later.

He was falling backwards. Fortunately, some rope ladder leading up the main mast caught him! Capt Stanley quickly realized what they were doing for him and so he got moving. While he rushed back through the fight scene and crawling wounded men, he remembered a ship without a captain isn't a lost one.

He turned this and that way in search for the Ship's captain! And saw him finally.

Captain Horrace wasn't in good shape! One of his legs and shoulder were badly bruised and so he limped. Nevertheless, he was brave and popular survivor! One thing Stanley learned the day he got on board Holtem Ship was that Horrace is the best Captain the ship's ever had ever since Cobham went missing.

He watched him without knowing whether he would make it!

The captain waved his sword out at the pirate to keep them off. Its like they too feared him. The two who dared to start forwards at him, he disarms them like a pro. But the pain in his arm and leg seemed excruciating. He staggered back using a nearby barrel of wine or water to support his weight.

Meanwhile he raised his blade again just in time to stop the rest from attacking too. They feared his blade and raised face level, it gave him the space he needed to breath and think. He glanced a side and saw Stanley stumbling back into the pail.

"Capt. Stanley- reload and get done!" Whatsoever, the pirates never stopped charging! This time, he reached for his dagger and when the third pirate attacked, Capt. Horrace merely leaned a side onto the side of the ship. He thrust his dagger into the man's wrist somewhere between the two bones near the wrist. The man yelled out in pain. The captain pulled him into himself quickly just when another pirate on the right raised his gun to shoot.

Captain Horrace turned the pirate he held into the gun muzzle and when the shooting sounded, the bullets went right the man he was strangling. Now the captain drew his pistol and shot at the pirate who had just fired at him. However, the gun had no bullets left!

Good enough all the bullets the other pirate had too were done! As first as he could, the captain pinned the first pirate's arm into the side of the ship.

The pirate, who had just fired at him, threw his gun a side and decided to charge towards him. The captain saw the man's intention was to carry him off the ships side into the sea! For that case, he did not let him do so. Instead, he simply bends low and picking the pirate up off his feet waist level and up over his shoulder into the sea.

His men had defended him but the reason why, he had no idea. But it placed him in such an uneasy position!.

"Stop him!" He called out to his men in Arabic. Those who heard turned immediately from the lower deck's fight scene still blocking his way from the Catapult without knowing they had done so.

However, without any doubt, the grand pirate acknowledged how good and skilled the young man was compared to his earlier accomplices. He saw this from the way he made it through the men to the catapult like he were not alone. His mouth gapped a bit when he saw his men collapsing to the floor without much resistance!

And where the young man ended up, there was a strange sort of catapult. What was this for? He had no idea until he saw it shift so mechanically. And he changing its gears so fast while turning it to face a certain direction.

Next thing he saw him scanning the fog with his spy glass. And then a cry from somewhere on the other end of the ship giving him coordinates he has never heard the B.P guard use from the day he last defeated Cobham.

The directions were given and immediately, the young man turned the catapult around towards the opposite direction as if he knew his target to be... This is when the grand pirate saw the little box amidst the turning of the catapult. At once, he knew what they were targeting!

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