Not Again

"Why the brown-clothed man had ignored Maruge's body, Kruxe could only attribute to Zolink having informed them about it, but now, this also meant there was a chance that Zolink had informed them of his dead body.

"What would I do if he comes storming back up the ladder looking for me?" Kruxe wondered.

Deciding to be on the cautious and patient side, Kruxe decided to wait for the brown-clothed man to return, his gun raised and poised to fire at the eyes.

Seconds went by, and just as it was about to be a minute, the ship suddenly took a hard rock, then a cold wind came down through the hatch that was just above and hit Kruxe, who was hiding behind the ladder.

With the cold, Kruxe shivered and a thought entered his head, but he shook it off as being impossible.

"There is no way the ship has begun moving, if it moves far from the dock, I'll be doomed."

Kruxe felt tempted to go and confirm his gnawing suspicions but held himself back and waited for the brown-clothed man to return.

Before a minute passed, the man came carrying a barrel on his shoulders, moving with such ease and speed that one would always gamble on the barrel being light however, with the heavy thumps of his footsteps, Kruxe knew that was not the case.

Showing no sign of panic or worry, the man walked up to the ladder.

Just as Kruxe thought he was about to lift the really heavy barrel and climb up the ladder, he took it into his arms and roared, "Catch!"

With the yell, the man took the barrel into his hands and after getting it over his shoulder, he threw it up the hatch, the person who had been standing there easily catching it, leaving Kruxe temporarily transfixed at the display.

Kruxe watched with shock as the man quickly climbed the ladder and went up.

"Perhaps he was in a hurry and so didn't check, I hope that was truly the case."

After getting over the display of strength, Kruxe's mind went back to the issue of the brown-clothed man raising no alarms at his absent body.

Preparing to ascend to the upper deck, Kruxe could only hope that for some reason his presence was still a secret and that there wasn't a trap waiting for him.

A deep breath and a minute later when he could hear no sound from above, he climbed the ladder and once more ascended to the first deck, the deck just below the main deck.

"No traps, no big huge man," Kruxe thought quickly surveying his surroundings as he ascended, and this time, rather than wait, he quickly moved for the next ladder, not wanting the pirates whose voices he could hear from the cannon area of the ship to accidentally spot him.

With trepidation, Kruxe climbed the ladder, his body leaving the warmth of the ship and now climbing through another hatch onto the main deck.

Not too long ago, Kruxe had climbed down this hatch with huge goals in mind, determination surging through him but now, as he climbed through it once more, he left a defeated man.

The will that had flowed through his being and spurred him to sneak down this hatch now instead spurred him to survive, fleeing from the ship he had willingly boarded.

On the main deck, Kruxe found that the was ship no longer as it was, the darkness which had once pervaded the main deck being no more and to his dread, the ship was moving albeit slowly, but before he could dwell much on that, he looked up.

In the sky, Kruxe could see several flaming balls lighting up the sky and smashing into the ship and its surroundings.

Watching the chaos, Kruxe wondered how the ship was able to remain in one piece with all the bombardments it was receiving and he immediately began fearing for his mother.

Fortunately, before any foolish thoughts could enter his head, he quickly went into a roll and moved to the side, dodging a fireball that was heading for his position.

With a quick leap and roll, Kruxe got out of the way of the still flaming ball, successfully dodging it, but as he moved to get up from the ground and move away from the flaming ball, there was a large crash as something landed beside the burning ball, and then there was a laugh.

Before Kruxe's mind could understand what was happening, the sound of something heavy being hit sounded, and to Kruxe's amazement, the flaming ball went flying off the ship and back into the air, seeming to head back to where it had originally come from.

With the flaming ball gone, the smoke from it, which had begun covering the ship, began being blown off, slowly revealing the figure of the person who had discarded the fireball, however, before that could happen, the figure himself moved.

With a rather pudgy stomach, tight clothes, and a hammer in hand, he boisterously moved out of the smoke, passing beside Kruxe and giving a snort when he looked at him.

"What are you doing out here? Get your ass below deck and help with these idiots, or I'll throw you overboard immediately," the man roared, the familiarity of his voice immediately placing him as the man who had been conversing with Zolink earlier.

The man's words shocked Kruxe, and not wasting time to figure out what was happening and test the man's patience, Kruxe pushed himself up and began moving for the hatch he had just emerged from.

With his eyes on the man who had saved him, as soon as he saw the man look away, Kruxe moved past the hatch and began making a run for the ship's rear.

Kruxe planned to climb onto the quarter deck and then jump off the ship from it's back.

The thought of jumping off the sides of the ship and immediately getting into the sea ran through Kruxe's mind, but the fear of being hit by one of the cannonballs or flaming balls that were raining down was a strong deterrent to this idea.

Running with all his might, Kruxe was already halfway up the stairs to the quarter-deck when he heard a low, sharp piercing sound.

While still moving, Kruxe's eyes looked to his left and right, trying to find the cause of this low but sharp sound, but he was unable to locate anything.

In no time, Kruxe climbed onto the quarter deck and quickly forgetting about the issue of the piercing sound, he looked toward the area behind the ship, and just as he had hoped, there were way fewer cannonballs falling in that area.

Kruxe had just taken a single step forward when a heavy wind suddenly fell upon him, sending him falling to his knees, but before his knees could actually touch the floor, Kruxe was hit by huge force and thrown to the side, slamming into the ship's railings.

While thanking the heavens that his spinal cord was intact, Kruxe wanted to give attention to the pain that filled his back, however, the situation in front of him demanded his attention.

There, a few steps s from his original position, stood a mildly fat man with a long nose on his long face, a triangular seafaring hat, and a long tobacco pipe in his mouth.

This man was someone who Kruxe would never forget as he was the captain of this ship and unfortunately for Kruxe, he was staring at him.

Being stared at by this powerful pirate, Kruxe with filled with dread, his heart nearly stopping when the light of recognition entered the man's eyes, but then, the captain quickly turned his head and looked up at the sky, staring at the red glow rapidly approaching him, a grunt leaving his lips as he spread his legs and pushed out his palm.

With the captain's actions, an ashy glow surrounded him as his palm smacked against what Kruxe could best describe as a spinning disc of fire.

Releasing a grunt, the captain smashed apart the red disc, causing it to explode and a fiery explosion to engulf him and while in the end, he remained safe, most of the quarter deck was burnt black and when he glanced behind him, both the railings and the boy he had seen were no longer there.

A multitude of thoughts went through the captain's head, but in the end, he didn't have time to dawdle around, having to deal with the persistent enemy at hand.

"Set sail!" the captain roared as the ashy glow on his person thickened as he turned toward the man who had arrived atop his ship.

While a battle ensured on the quarter deck of the ship, Kruxe found himself sinking to the bottom of the sea and unlike last time, it wasn't because he was too tired to swim, but rather because of the burns and, most importantly, the broken bones he had sustained from just experiencing the shockwaves of the captain blocking the red spinning disc

"Damn it, Not again"