Chapter 61 - Pirates!
The morning was cold, too cold that even the warmed dorm felt colder than usual.
I had to send Jull to the town for delivering the new armor for Trudvar.
I had some arrangements to be done and Nurina had a shopping list so I had to move fast that early.
The 'Icicle' is the ship of the College I arrived on, was going to restock from Dawnstar so I made my arrangements with them yesterday.
After a few minutes, I was standing outside the College with Jullanar and Trudvar as I was giving them their weapons.
"Here for you, you will use my Hammer!" I gave my Agni-Ra to Trudvar.
"Eh! Isn't this the Boss's Hammer that was used in the tournament?"
"Yes, it's my favorite weapon so make sure to safeguard it well." I said, "Julls, these are for you."
I gave her two short swords that suited her style.
"Now, to the ship."
"The ship, Boss?"
"Oh, forgot to tell. The main road maybe filled with some intentional unwanted encounters so we are taking the ship to Dawnstar."
"Dawnstar?"
"A friend is going to be there, he will be of much help in this quest!"
"Yes, Boss!"
We took the steps down to the docks, unlike the appearance I and Julls came in, I am now was dressed in the College Robes over my Scaled Cuirass and Julls was in a dark fitting light armor.
As we reached the end of the stairs, we could see old Captain Geldof shouting at his sailors.
Yet, when he saw me, his attitude completely switched.
"Haha! You came lad. Come aboard, we have a short journey this time."
He was as cheerful as ever now, let's hope this trip take no much time.
Some time later, the 'Icicle' set sail.
This trip would take two days. Pretty good time to practice spells and 'cultivate'.
Time passed peacefully for a while, I was sitting in the cabin with Julls who was lazing around doing nothing, or she was playing with her new twin swords. She took a liking on them.
My mind was actually on my research, I was thinking of applying the 'Inner Magicka Control' into my so called cultivation.
The 'Inner Magicka Control' is mysterious and its applications are awesome, I can recreate many ideas from the fantasy novels and techniques just when I put it with another ideas.
The most important two techniques I can think of is how to 'Circulate' Magicka into my body and using it to add strength by 'Energizing' my body.
I think this will open a door for the actual Combat Energy, or what others used to call 'Battle Spirit' or stuff like that.
Also, to discover more aspects I try to look into the current ones and think of their reverse. Necromancy for example is a magic to manipulate the dead, so shouldn't there be a magic to do the opposite?
I am not talking about the Light magic or what's called here Sun magic. I am talking about the Life magic or the Nature magic.
History recorded many mages who had the ability to communicate with nature, humans also make nature part of the goddess Kyne or Kynareth specialities and Elves say the same about Y'ffre or Jephre.
The correct way to manipulate Nature with Magicka in my opinion is divided to Flora and Fauna. One needs to communicate with both Green Nature and Wild Nature to start the first steps in this path. I'll call it the 'Way of the Druid' from now on.
The other kinds I am after are both the Space Magic and the Time Magic.
Space magic needs a lot of spatial awareness and understanding of the energy of space itself, 'Time' is even harder. Nurina gave me a long lecture about that.
I know these two magics are Psijic specialty and hard to master so I associated them with Mysticism even though I felt they belong to Alteration. Why not, as I know that both magics are part of the nature around man, but that's a long theory I left aside.
To reach all the magics I thought about just now, is to understand them or 'Detect' them. This goes without saying that my 'Detection' magic I am practicing now is the most important step and the way to unlock and understand new abilities.
The scary thing is, I am increasing my power in order to find these mysterious magics.
Increasing power like this is not a good thing. It's dangerous and may cause a catastrophic result one day. I am guessing that one day my body may no longer be able to keep my energy in and some accident happen. Something like what happened to The Augur.
I must have talked to him before I leave but it would have taken a long time to prove to him that I am worthy with knowledge. He is very particular about passing the knowledge.
My last concern in the Mysticism right now is the opposite of 'Detection', the 'Divination'.
When normal people think of Mystics, they think of those who can tell the future, scry into fate and all that.
I learned two spells in 'Divination', one of them was passed down to me by Nurina and it's my 'Alarm' spell, that spell that saved my life who knows how many times. I also learned 'Clairvoyance', a spell that guides one by his need to his target but it's really a hard to control spell.
Speaking of 'Alarm' spell, I am hearing the 'Tek TekTek' in my head and I am getting a bit nervous because of it.
Something is wrong!
Jull also noticed and moved with me, her ears are sharper than mine so she must have heard something.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I am not sure, but a lot of footsteps are sounding from the deck."
"Up we go!"
Unsheathing our blades we headed up to deck.
The deck was in a mess!
The sailors were running around everywhere and arrows were coming and going.
I didn't step on the deck yet. I still had to assess the situation.
"What's going on?" I grabbed one of the sailors and pulled him to me.
"Don't you see? Pirates! PIRATES!"
Oh! What a high spirited fellow!
But Pirates?
This ship carry the banner of the College, no pirate shall be this ignorant and attack the ship.
"We are going, here!"
I evoked 'Stoneskin' and cast it on Jull, then on myself.
"I won't forgive you if something happened to you!" She said.
"Hehe! The same back to you!"
We ran onto the storm of arrows!
I hate arrows.
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[A/N: 3rd Person POV.]
Two vessels attacked the 'Icicle' from each side.
One was a small vessel and one was a little bit smaller than the Icicle itself.
The pirate banners indicated that they are not the usual pirates of these parts! These were Argonian pirates.
After the war in Morrowind between the Dunmer and the Argonians, Morrowind lost a big part of its territory to Black Marsh in what is known as The Accession War, a war about seeking revenge for thousands of years of slavery, or so one theory goes.
Now after nearly two hundred years, new Argonian pirates started to emerge in the north of Skyrim.
Jon was for the first time witnessing a naval skirmish, and he didn't take a liking to it.
'They are just shooting arrows at each other like this?' He thought.
Normally, he didn't see any pirating scenes like this in movies, the golden age of pirates during the Gunpowder Era was only known to him so this to him was a sort of disappointment.
"Captain Geldof! How are we going to deal with this?" Jon took cover beside the Captain and asked.
"If it was one side then it would be easy. We can't focus on that 'Caravel' with that small 'Sloop' on our back, my quartermaster is injured lad, this is your time to shine."
[A/N: I am using the classification by size! 'Sloop' is a small vessel with a single mast, think of it as Merry Go from One Piece. 'Caravel' is a long and light ship with two masts in normal cases, 20m long. The 'Icicle' is a Nordic Brigantine. I am posting a pic for the ship types on Discord.]
"I don't want to shine!" Jon retorted.
"Haha! That's the spirit lad, go to Fraki, you know him? Figure out a way to secure our backs from that small one. We'll send the other to Oblivion."
Jon was having a headache, in this madness, this old man was able to find a way to feel excited.
'Fine!' Jon jumped and took cover after cover as he reached a sailor called Fraki. Jull was behind him all the time.
"Captain said to send that small boat to Oblivion!" Jon said.
"It's not going to be easy! We need someone that can cast 'Fireball' at least."
"I can cast it!"
"Boy! We only brought you to the College two weeks ago!"
"Shut up and do as I say! I'll blow these f**kers up so give me some damn cover!"
"NOTCH ARROWS!"
Farki didn't argue more and trusted Jon.
Jon was already evoking a 'Fireball' each hand and waiting for the cover fire.
"LOOSE!"
With the sounds of arrows cutting the air, the pirates on the 'sloop' hid behind anything the could find.
This was Jon's time to shine.
He cast the first spell and targeted the area behind the mast were most pirates hid, the second spell was cast at the place he could see most of the pirates' arrows were stored. He wasn't done yet, he was evoking a third spell hurriedly but the pirates started to target him wholeheartedly, as he was dodging back he was finally done with charging the spell and targeted the sail.
The three spells landed and exploded splendidly well. The first put many pirates in critical states, the second is going to cripple their shooting as most of the arrows were destroyed and the third was a goodbye gift.
"Ysmir!" Fraki was witnessing the one side bombardment and couldn't help but feel happy. In his head one spell was good enough, let alone three. "Ready your arrows! We'll give them another round!"
"Fraki! They are throwing the hocks!" A sailor shouted.
"Oblivion! They are persistent!"
"Don't mind that now!" Jon said, "I am going to the quarterdeck, I'll need cover there!"
Jon ran while covering himself with a broken barrel. Farki saw that and commanded the ten or so sailors to follow.
As they reached the 'quarterdeck', Jon was already done with charging a spell!
"Take cover! Once you hear a strong noise, rain them nonstop, remember! Never look to that spell!"
The sailors lowered their heads to cover and nodded. Jon was the one giving orders now.
Jon cast a 'Grip' spell on the barrel and moved it away in the air, the pirates naturally thought someone was trying to sneak on them and rained the barrel with arrows. Ten meters away from the barrel, Jon was charging a spell with all his might.
"Now, take this."
He cast the spell from his cover randomly in the middle of pirates!
An awful ringing noise and a strong light exploded on the pirate 'sloop', the pirates started screaming from the noise and closed their eyes from the strong light.
"GIVE THEM EVERYTHING!"
With Jon command, Farki and the other sailors as well as Jullanar started raining arrows randomly at the Argonian pirates!
Jon returned to his cover and started charging his spell.
This was the normal 'Fireball' that he used to blast the pirates minutes ago. But this time he was dual casting it, one spell two hands.
He reached a certain point where a spell is fully charged but he wasn't done yet, he was overcharging the spell.
The 'Fireball' in his hand was growing larger and larger until its diameter reached one meter.
"Get back!" Jon shouted and the sailors ran like undead escaping from the sun. Jon carried the spell over his head and it looked like he was carrying a small sun.
"Take this you f**kers! Odama Fireball!"
The Fireball flew towards the pirate vessel delivering the final blow! The pirates were in no shape to look at what is coming at them but those who saw were already running to the sea. Still, the 'Firball' reached its target.
A thundering explosion as if an Expert spell was cast, this this was akin to the wrath of the primordial gods smiting down their foes. No vessel was seen after the strong explosion and shock wave, as if nothing was there, except for small pieces of wood and smoke that appeared on surface.
This rather felt really terrifying! Jon's face was twitching from awkwardness!
"Jull, did I overdo the last spell?"
Jull looked between him and the place that was supposed to be the location of the pirate vessel, "No, you just made our efforts seam as if nothing!"
"Oh! Gotta cover that up now!" Jon said, "Ehem! Good job everyone, now to the next ship!"
The sailors were terrified and nodded, they ran to help with the fight on the other side.
"Jull, that small bag you carrying has a blue potion, hurry up! I am low on juice!"
"Here!" Jull gave him the blue potion, Jon was being refreshed as he was drinking it but the potions in real life are much slower than the one in game. It would take fifteen minutes to digest the effect of the potion completely.
While enjoying the drink, noise erupted from the other side of the ship and it started to shake.
"The pirates are going into melee!" Jull checked and reported!
"Let's join the fray!"
Even though he was low on Magicka, Jon unsheathed his sword and went towards the fight, he was craving for a group fight like this.
The place was hectic, fight erupted on both ships and the pirates were fierce fighters.
Jon was thinking how to deal with a situation like this but he was rather not experienced in this sort of fights, his slight lag attracted a pirate to him.
The Argonian pirate was not an easy foe, he slashed at Jon left and right, he was physically superior to Jon and with the same speed.
Jon was put into a disadvantage really fast. Still, tricks were his favorite part in a fight!
His right hand had his saber and his left evoked a spell! The spell was not really visible so it gave him a better opportunity to trap his foe, once the pirate was making a big slash, Jon cast the spell.
The spell landed on the torso of the pirate, as if flesh was being shattered, the spell destroyed a small part of the body and the pirate screamed from pain.
This was 'Force Bullet' and that's why it was nasty, it would brust in the target causing such an unsightly result.
Jon next attack was with the sword to the pirate's heart. Life departed the pirate after that.
The second foe was not much better, the third, the fourth, the fifth. Jon started to get accustomed to the hectic unorganized combat and his brain was working like a machine.
The pirates felt tne threat and started retreating to their ship, they noticed that the cover from the small 'sloop' vessel was no more and started to reconsider the attack.
The sailors wouldn't let go of such an opportunity and chased the pirates to their ship! The fight completely moved to the other side.
The sailors became the pirates and the pirates became the defenders!
The reason was simple! The College takes no mercy on anything that disturbs its main vein of life and pirates around these parts were well aware of the fact. No one of them was stupid enough to attack a vessel with the banner of the College!
Jon was also one of those who boarded the other ship and he was akin to a killing machine! He sheathed his sword and switched to Lightning Magic, this was a nasty magic in the sea.
He was casting 'Chain Lightning' as he already recovered some Magicka and he took no chance with these pirates!
No one noticed his state of mind except Captain Geldof. He was not fighting normally anymore, he was on a killing spree!
This state of mind tests most of the powerful young mages and warriors, and so they had to beat it on their own.
The pirates grew less and less but Jon was as fierce as ever. Those pirates were akin to mobs in a game and he was into the 'Zone' right now. He didn't take notice of how many he killed.
Even the sailors behind him were terrified, especially the ones who saw the large Fireball he cast a while ago were even more terrified! He was like a wolf between a herd of sheep.
Jullanar was behind Jon all the time and took some distance from him, those who tried to sneak up on him was done by her arrows, she never showed it a lot but even though she was one-eyed, she was a terrifying archer.
At that day about seventy pirates attacked the 'Icicle' which had forty sailors on it. Jon alone killed thirty pirates and sank a small vessel on his own.
Days later when the sailors will go back to Winterhold and a new title shall be added to Jon. 'The Mad Butcher'.
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[A/N: 1st Person POV.]
Damn it all!
I don't know how this happened but the moment I joined the fight, I lost all senses of myself!
As if I answered a higher calling, my instincts drove me to kill.
The more I kill, the more they scream. I burned them with lightning until I could smell the burnt flesh.
As if I want to cover these screams with anything I cast more magic to stop their voices from reaching my ears!
How many of them I killed was not a number I can count. My only consolation was that they were pirates!
The captain said they were not from these parts and their heads are not wanted yet so we threw them at the sea!
I don't think they would mind that! Argonians love water and so do sailors, Argonian sailors would not be sad about it, right?
Every time I had to take a life, I preferred it would be a quick stab or a swift arrow, for some reason it was less messy, clean and the victim wouldn't be in so much agony.
How did Hilda feel about this?
I mean she fought in a war, right?
There were thousands of enemies compared to this small fight.
How many does one have to kill in a war to survive like those veterans did?
Maybe I was a different case!
I killed a lot on my own.
I should have held myself back a bit, now the sailors are afraid of me.
But I am not afraid of who I am.
I would be mistaken if I did! After all, I acquired this power for that very reason! To kill enemies like a mad. To smile over their corpses as the fools who tried to bring sadness to my loved ones.
Just like those fools who chased after Hilda all the way from Hammerfell to Riften.
I remember reading that Jonrad did the same thing in Illiac Bay. He attacked some ships and sank them with fire.
Indeed! Like a father, like a son.
Dammit! I smiled. The sailors got creeped out by me again.
No problem! I just started this path and I'll take it to its end.
"That was fun!"
A soft voice sounded in my ears, for some reason, it healed me.
"We killed a lot of them today!"
Yes we did, she is right.
"And we will kill more."
That's right, more!
"We can kill as much as*Ugh*"
"Shut up for a second!" I caught her from her neck and stopped her madness from going public.
"Fine! Sorry, I was just..."
"Don't talk now!"
Damn her! She likes killing so much!
"Boss!"
"Oh! So you survived." Jull said.
"What do you want Trudvar?" I asked.
"Eh! I-l a-am sor-rry to interrupt but Captain Geldof is looking for you, Boss."
Even he is afraid!
"Where is he?"
"This way boss."
Trudvar led me to Captain Geldof. He was in the pirate ship we blundered!
"Lad, come here!"
He called for me and walked away from the others!
"Look lad, I don't know what demon haunted you during the fight but one thing for sure! You need to suppress it."
"Suppress it?"
"Aye, I saw some fine sailors fall into your state before and it took some of then to Oblivion lad! You need to distract yourself from these demons now!"
"Thank you Captain! I will."
"Look around you! This is a good distraction, a ship probably built in High Rock, can be maned by seven men and needs some light repairs thanks to you, I don't know where the pirates blundered it from, but we should take it to Dawnstar with us, what say you lad?"
"Say about what Captain?"
"I'm telling you to captain it you numbskull!"