First Blood

"Alright!" The evil captain slammed his mug down on the table after he took a

swig of his rum. Jace, his crew, and Cindy were all sitting at a large table across from

the evil captain and his four crew mates. There was so much tension in the air that it

was almost tangible. Everyone who sat at the table each had drinks. But Jace and his

crew and Cindy hadn't touched theirs while the evil captain and his crew mates were

chugging away.

"So, you're all wondering why I'm here. Well, I'm here to talk to Jace." The evil

captain gestured his mug towards Jace, causing the black rum to swish back and forth

smoothly in his mug. Jace perked up his head sharply and gave attention to the evil

captain with a stressed look.

"Why do you need to talk to me?" Jace asked with his voice cracking.

"I need to talk to you because you've been causing a lot of trouble for me, my

fellow other captains, and The Shadow. You went to a very important island, found and

took the thing we've been looking for for months, and destroyed a good portion of our

men and destroyed tons of valuable resources. The Shadow has been on my ass to find

and talk to you. And also to find this Port too. I've been patrolling these waters for

weeks and couldn't find anything until The Shadow alerted me that one of our ships

entered unmarked waters. So I went to check it out, and I found you and the Port!" The

evil captain said with prideful confidence.

"That's all you wanted to say?! Why was finding Port Savvy so important to The

Shadow?!" Cindy asked with frustration. The evil captain took the last sip of rum in his

mug. He slammed his mug down again and shook the table. He swallowed his rum with

a gulp and spoke with a smile.

"Remember when I said I just wanted to talk? I lied." The evil captain lifted his

right hand and lifted two fingers up, his index and middle finger. He then gestured them

forwards and pointed towards Jace, his crew, and Cindy. After he flicked his fingers,

everyone could hear a rumbling explosion and the sound of whistling cannonballs. The

evil captain used a silent incantation spell and commanded all of his loaded cannons on

his ship to fire at Port Savvy and the ships in the harbor. The ground shook and

everyone in the Pirates Guild except the evil captain and his crew mates fell to the floor.

Another loud rushing sound of artillery could be heard approaching the Pirates Guild

and a blazing fast volley of cannonballs ripped the roof off of the Pirates Guild, sending

debris, glass, and wood everywhere throughout the building and surrounding area.

"Let's do this, Jace! Let's see what that cutlass can do!" The evil captain taunted

Jace as Jace, his crew, and Cindy got up from the floor and got ready to fight.

"That's it! I've had enough of you!" Jace yelled out in anger. Jace's crew were

also pissed off and so was Cindy. They all grabbed their weapons. Cindy grabbed a

dagger she had hidden on her thigh. Casie grabbed her dagger angrily from its sheath.

Flamett furiously generated the brightest fireballs she had ever created in her hands

that burned with her anger. And Thrasher pulled out both his cutlass and saber at the

same time with such force it caused sparks to fly. Lastly, Jace grabbed the handle of his

cutlass. It started to glow a rich gold glow and hummed with angry energy. It was almost

like the cutlass was reacting to Jace's emotions. Jace ripped the cutlass out of its

sheath with extreme force. The cutlass riveted the very fabric of the air around it as it

swung, causing waves of energy.

"Ooh! That thing looks powerful! But you can never beat me!" The evil captain

shouted as he too, unsheathed his cutlass that hummed with intimidating power as well

and glowed a crimson red. Beside the evil captain, his crew mates also unsheathed

their weapons.

"Good luck with these guys! They're my first mates and my best fighters!" The

evil captain exclaimed.

"You guys handle the first mates! I'll take the evil captain!" Jace said with a

commanding tone.

"You got it Jace!" Flamett said in agreement.

"Leave them to us!" Thrasher stated with confidence.

"Once we've beaten these guys, we'll come help you finish off the evil captain!"

Casie said with enthusiasm.

"Let's do this!" Jace yelled as he and the evil captain lunged towards each other

at sound breaking speeds. Jace and the evil captain clashed blades and a massive ball

of explosive golden and crimson energy filled the Pirates Guild. Jace's crew and Cindy

got down behind a table, and so did the evil captain's crew mates. The ball of energy

spun and swirled aggressively until it swiftly exploded and destroyed an even greater

chunk of the Pirates Guild by disintegrating most of its walls and rooms. Jace and the

evil captain were flung to a field by the explosion and landed close by BOOM!

"Wow! That cutlass of yours sure does pack a punch! I thought I was gonna lose

that clash!" The evil captain complimented smugly.

"You were a pain back home! And you're still a pain here!" Jace shouted.

"So you do remember me." The evil captain commented.

"You put me through so much in school! I'll never forget the ways you humiliated

and picked on me!" Jace yelled as a raging golden hue of flames surrounded him,

originating from his cutlass. As Jace and the evil captain stood in the field, ready for

another clash. The evil pirate's ship's cannons could be heard and seen firing at the

Port and the ships in the bay. Explosions could be heard all throughout Port Savvy,

leaving behind wakes of destruction. After another ground shaking explosion hit the

Port, Jace and the evil captain leaped at each other in blurs of speed. With teleportation

like motion, Jace and the evil captain traded equally powerful, air rippling blows that

flashed with golden and blood red radiance. Their blows rapidly spread across the field

they were in and the explosions could be heard all throughout Port Savvy. As they

continued to fight, Jace's crew and Cindy were dealing with the four first mates the evil

captain brought with him.

"Ye landlubbers don't stand a chance!" The taller of the four first mates taunted

Jace's crew and Cindy. The four evil pirates smiled and drew their weapons as they

stood in the rubble of the Pirates Guild. The tallest evil pirate, who wore a red bandanna

and a pitch black jacket with a beat red undershirt, drew a large saber from a sheath

that was on his back. The two averagely tall evil pirates who both wore matching black

hats and classic pirate jackets with red undershirts, similar to Flamett's, both whipped

out two daggers each and got ready to fight. And the last evil pirate, who was the

shortest of the four and wore a brown jacket with a blue and white striped undershirt,

drew a cutlass and got into an attacking position.

"I got the taller one." Thrasher said confidently.

"Sounds good Thrasher. Flamett and I will take the two twin looking guys." Casie

stated with courage.

"Right!" Flamett agreed strongly.

"And I'll take the shorter one!" Cindy shouted.

Thrasher, with his saber and cutlass at the ready, instantly leaped at his target.

But his target did the same and they clashed mid-air and seemed evenly matched. They

sent sparks and gusts of wind all throughout the room and were both flung to the

opposite ends of the room after their clash. When they landed and got ready to fight

again, they shared a confident smirk and started to both dash around the room slashing

at each other, sending more sparks and bursts of wind everywhere with each clash of

their blades. For a second, everyone watched in awe, but quickly regained their

postures. Flamett, who had angry and blindingly bright red spinning fireballs in her

hands, locked eyes with her enemy and his confident smile quickly disappeared.

"Take this you scumbag!" Flamett yelled as she started throwing relentless

fireballs at one of the evil pirate twins. It didn't take long, but she was chasing her target

around the room while throwing fireballs. All the evil pirate could do was run and deflect

the fireballs he couldn't dodge with a frantic look on his face while sweat dripped off of

his brow and chin.

"Looks like it's my turn!" Casie said excitedly and started to announce an

incantation. She grasped her dagger, held it above her head and said. "Wind, come to

my blade with your power. Form bullets of piercing energy and force!" Right after she

said those words, wind came rushing into the destroyed Pirates Guild and surrounded

her dagger in a cylinder of raging wind. She pointed her dagger at the other evil pirate

twin, and insanely fast bullets of cutting wind shot at her target like bullets from a gun.

The evil pirate twin confidently dogged them. He started to make his way towards Casie

and danced through all her bullets of wind. Casie started to get worried as the evil pirate

twin closed the distance between them. As Casie got more stressed, she started to get

more frantic with her shots and they were going everywhere around the evil pirate twin

until he leaped at Casie and clashed his daggers with hers. When their blades collided,

the evil pirate's daggers interrupted the wind on Casie's dagger and sent an explosion

of wind all throughout the Pirates Guild. They both held each other at bay with grunts of

effort in a lock of blades that caused sparks to ignite with each grinding inch of their

daggers.

"Ye think ye can beat me with yer wind?" The evil pirate twin stared sharply into

Casie's eyes and challenged her.

"Grr, you think, hmph." Casie tried to talk as she grunted with fatigue. "I can't fight

with a dagger? Grr, I can fight without my magic. Let's see who's better." Casie returned

his challenging stare with an intense and focused stare that surprised the evil pirate

twin. After they exchanged words and stares, they flew away from each other with a

loud ring of steel and leaped at each other again. Trading blows and clashing evenly,

sending sparks onto the floor.

"Ye don't stand a chance against me!" The short evil pirate shouted at Cindy as

he approached her.

"I think you might be in over your head here mate." Cindy said with a smile as

she approached the short evil pirate as well. They both met each other, both in ready

attacking positions. Cindy towered over the short evil pirate, she was about two feet

taller. The short evil pirate looked up at her as she stared at him with a confident smile

and a readied blade.

"Ye are a lot taller than I thought… but I won't let that stop me!" The short evil

pirate jumped up at Cindy's face and swung his cutlass with strength but was stopped

instantly in mid-air by a wall of defense. Cindy blocked his attack just before it hit her

face with her dagger. She almost made no flinch of strength when she blocked the short

evil pirate. The short evil pirate fell onto the ground as he lost all his attacking

momentum.

"Oh shit…" He said blankly as Cindy flung her arm back to swing at him with her

dagger. "I'm gonna die!" The short evil pirate closed his eyes and held up his cutlass in

front of himself just in time to block Cindy's strike. Cindy struck the short evil pirate's

cutlass with such insane force and strength that his cutlass was thrown from his grip

and he was flung to the wall, making it crack when he smacked it. He opened his eyes

while nervous sweat poured down his face. Cindy smiled at the short evil pirate with a

cheerful smile and leaped at him from across the room with speed. The short evil pirate

closed his eyes and covered his body with his arms in protection, but he didn't feel a

slice or a hit. Not even a nudge. All he felt was a rush of wind and heard a loud clanging

of blades. He opened his eyes slowly and was shocked to see that the taller evil pirate

had come just in time and blocked Cindy's attack with ease.

"Oh my word! Thank ye mate! That was too bloody close! Where's the guy ye

were fightin'?" The short evil pirate asked his comrade.

"Look to yer left." The taller evil pirate said as he sent Cindy flying across the

room with a strong deflecting parry. The short evil pirate looked to his left, and in the

center of the room on a broken table was Thrasher, who had a deep and bleeding cut

across his torso from top to bottom.

"Hey! Good job mate!" The short evil pirate complimented.

"It was no problem, we were decently matched, but I ended up on top." The taller

evil pirate shifted his attention back to Cindy who was back on her feet and ready to

fight again. "Now for ye." The taller evil pirate quickly lunged at Cindy and they both

started clashing blades in flashes of sparks and flurries of wind.

"Get back here!" Flamett was still chasing the other evil pirate twin and he was

still frantically deflecting her fireballs everywhere and dodging them.

"Oh my goodness! Ye're crazy you know that!" The evil pirate twin shouted as his

hair was being signed by all the close calls he had with Flamett's fireballs. "My daggers

can't take much more of this either!" The evil pirate twin's daggers started to almost melt

from all the fireballs he had been deflecting, they were glowing a hot red and were at

their limit.

"I know I'm crazy! And I love it! Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!" Flamett laughed out loud in a

crazy manner and kept on throwing fireballs.

"My daggers are gonna melt soon!" The evil pirate twin said out loud, but it was

his lucky day because the last fireball that his daggers could repel, deflected one of

Flamett's fireballs back at Flamett. Flamett's eyes grew big with shock and she was hit

directly with her own fireball. She was sent flying and was instantly burned and got

knocked out.

"Holy moly, that was close!" The evil pirate twin said to himself as he panted and

wiped sweat off of his forehead.

In blurs and flashes of speed, skill, and sparks, Cindy and the taller evil pirate

were still clashing and fighting each other until they both locked blades.

"Look around ye! Ye can't win, One of yer friends is about to lose! And Ye've lost

two of yer other friends, and both of them need healin' right away and ye're the only one

who can heal them." The taller evil pirate taunted Cindy as she struggled to hold him off.

"Looks like you've got me at checkmate huh? I'll play into your hands, but only

this once." Cindy, with the last of her strength, flung the taller evil pirate away and yelled

out a healing incantation. "Light of the earth! Fill this room and mend what needs

mending!" Golden particles all of a sudden filled the room with a flurry of radiating light.

They swirled beautifully like a galaxy and bathed the injured who were in the room.

Thrasher's cut healed just enough so that the bleeding stopped, but he still wouldn't

wake up. And Flamett's burns healed, but she also wouldn't wake up. After Cindy said

the incantation, the golden particles slowly fell to the ground and she fell to her knees in

exhaustion along with them, and with the last of her energy she shouted at Casie.

"Casie! You need to leave while you can! Get Jace and leave Port Savvy!"

"What?! I'm not gonna leave you guys!" Casie shouted as she and the evil pirate

twin locked blades again in a fuse-like flurry of sparks.

"You have to! Don't worry about us, just leave and regroup!" Cindy said and fell to

the ground unconscious with the rest of the golden particles as they dwindled and

dimmed to darkness.

"I guess I have no choice, if I stay I'm just going to be defeated. I need to get

Jace so we can figure something out to win." Casie thought to herself as she started to

conjure some wind. "Wind! Come to me and share your power!" Caise shouted. And as

she did, some rushing wind came into the Pirates Guild and surrounded her in a funnel

of fury. The evil pirate twin she was fending off got flung away and she jumped as hard

as she could. With a burst of air, she launched upwards through the broken roof of the

Pirates Guild and into the sky. She launched upwards above Port Savvy and noticed

with worry that it was decently destroyed by the artillery of cannon fire. She also noticed

the two ships in the harbor that were defending Port Savvy, were sinking with smoke

billowing from them.

"This isn't good. How did this happen so fast?! And where the heck is Jace?! I

need to find him!" Casie was floating in the air with a funnel of wind surrounding her.

She heard loud and deep explosions coming from the field where BOOM! was in. She

directed her attention to the field and saw golden and red bursts of light with every

explosion she heard.

"There he is!" Casie put her arms above her head as if she were going to dive

into some water, and she shot towards where Jace and the evil pirate captain were

fighting.

"BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!" Jace and the evil captain's blows were getting

stronger with every hit, each explosion sending even more powerful shockwaves

through both of them and the earth, shaking the rocks that were buried deep in the

ground and cracking them. Jace could feel his bones rattle with each strike he blocked

and threw at the evil captain. But every time Jace got angrier and put more strength into

his swings, the evil captain's swings and blocks got stronger, and Jace was starting to

not be able to keep up with the evil captain's strength. Jace and the evil captain leaped

at each other in another flash. They locked blades and sent a pulsing shockwave

through the air and the evil captain spoke to Jace haughtily.

"You won't be able to win this Jace! Port Savvy will be mine!"

"I can beat you! Don't get ahead of yourself!" Jace yelled as his anger started to

get more intense as he remembered getting bullied in school by the very person he was

fighting now.

"You just don't get it do you?" The evil captain said with a smirk. "Your anger is

just making you lose." After the evil captain said that remark, He made a snapping

forward thrust on Jace's cutlass and sent Jace off balance, the evil captain flung his arm

back and swung at Jace's waist with extreme speed and force. But Jace just barely put

his cutlass in the way of his strike and was sent flying by a mind blowing explosion of

crimson and golden energy. Jace was knocked out cold as he slid and rolled on the

ground, leaving an indent in the ground where he slid and rolled, as if a plane had

crashed landed in the field. Jace stopped rolling and tumbling and laid motionless on

the ground, still clutching his cutlass and the sheath in each of his hands, the cutlass in

his right hand and the sheath in his left hand. The evil captain slowly walked over to

Jace with a smile on his face.

"I knew I'd win, even when we first started fighting. Now to finish you off!" The evil

captain raised his cutlass above his head with two strong hands and swung a powerful

strike at Jace, but he ended up not hitting anything but the ground and it cracked with a

deep breaking of rock with his strike.

"HUH?!" The evil captain exclaimed in upset. He looked all around and finally up

to the sky and saw a young girl carrying Jace as she flew away. Casie flew in at mach

speed and scooped up Jace right before the evil captain could land his hit. "No matter,

you can live this time Jace, but I have a feeling you'll be back to save the rest of your

friends. Until next time. But for now, I have work to do." The evil captain smiled to

himself, sheathed his cutlass, turned and walked towards the smoldering and smoking

remains of Port Savvy as the sun started to set in beams of intimidating reds and

oranges.