“What the hell, Romulus?!”
“Aw, come on Trigno. The kid was just lying there in the dust. Plus, he put on a good show.”
“That doesn’t mean you had to bring him onto the ship! He’s wearing the uniform of an AG soldier for crying out loud!”
Rorik groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. His many wounds made themselves known know to him, as aching pains racked his body.
“Wonderful, now he’s awake. You can’t seriously expect me to keep him here, now can you?”
Rorik opened his eyes and blearily looked around. He saw two men bickering at the foot of his bed.
“Christ that fucking hurts” Rorik remarked as he sat up. “Where am I?”
One of the men looked at him “You’re on my ship, the rumbling caldera-”
“HOLY SHIT! YOU’RE TRIGO, THE VOLCANO!” Rorik blurted in realization
Trigno glared at him, “And you appear to be part of the AG. Now where do you suppose that brings us?”
“Ah, yeah, about that… I kind of murdered the admiral that I was serving under. Meaning that I’m technically not part of the AG anymore.” Rorik hastily explained
Romulus’s eyes widened “Say… You wouldn’t happen to be called Rorik, would you?”
“Yeah that’s me, why?” Rorik inquired
“BWAHAHAHA! I knew I recognized you from somewhere!” Romulus laughed
“Uhhh, I don’t believe we’ve ever met.” Rorik said with a confused look
Trigno visibly relaxed at Romulus’s realization “He means that you’re on every bounty board in the first sea. You’ve made quite a name for yourself in such a short time.”
Rorik frowned “Damn, I was hoping to gain more combat experience before having to face the AG…”
“Well, the barkeep who hired you told me to give you this” Romulus said as he handed Rorik a flintlock pistol.
Rorik sighed and took the weapon before saying: “That job was not worth it. Anyways, I should really get going.”
“I’m afraid that Romulus didn’t tell me that he had brought you on this ship until after we set sail. So you’re kinda stuck here until we reach the borealis.” Trigno said, clearly irritated.
“Well… I have some experience being part of a crew, maybe I could help out while we’re sailing?” Rorik suggested
“Hm… Alright, we have ourselves a deal. You start work tomorrow” Trigno agreed
Rorik awoke to the sound of a bell ringing.
“Everyone, to your battle stations! Lets show the AG what we think of their recent actions!”
Rorik quickly stumbled out of bed and drew his cutlass. He rushed upstairs and saw two galleons belonging to the AG firing upon the rumbling caldera. Trigno was firing blasts of magma while Romulus was throwing cannonballs bigger than a 1/4 vastus’s head. The rest of the crew was firing cannons, Rorik was quick to help them.
Before long, the ship suddenly lurched as the AG hit it with grappling hooks. AG soldiers started boarding as magma pirates met them in combat. Rorik quickly shot an AG soldier in the head before clashing swords with an enforcer that hopped on the ship.
“What the hell are you doing here?!” The enforcer asked
“Ah, Enforcer Williams.” Rorik greeted his old instructor “This is for making me do 100 pushups everyday.”
Rorik blasted Williams with lightning, staggering them. While they were regaining their footing, Rorik stabbed them with his cutlass before throwing them overboard. As Rorik observed the battlefield, he felt… something. Like a small twinge in the back of his mind. Rorik began focusing on this feeling, as he did, he started to see something strange.
A deep red aura was surrounding Trigno as he used his magma curse, but there was also one other aura on the ship.
“TRIGNO! LOOK OUT” Rorik yelled as he tackled the wizard who was about to blast Trigno
Rorik and the wizard grappled for what felt like ages before Rorik was blasted back by the wizard’s powerful light magic. The magic seared his flesh and burned his clothes, Rorik yelped in pain as he crashed into the mast of the ship. The wizard tried to follow up the attack, but they were hit from behind with a flying cannonball.
“You alright there, Rorik?” Romulus said as he hefted another cannonball.
“Yeah, I’m fine” Rorik said as he slowly got up and started reloading his pistol.
One of the AG ships went down as Romulus chucked a 300 pound cannonball at the bottom of it’s hull. The other one went down as Rorik and Trigno rained lightning and magma upon it.
“Fuck… that was intense.” Rorik panted
“Eh… It’s about par for the course. Good job with that wizard by the way, might’ve hurt if that attack had hit me.” Trigno said. “You’re stronger than you look, kid. Now get some sleep, we’ll be pulling into the Borealis docks early in the morning tomorrow.”
Rorik was about to oblige when he sensed something concerning.
“Holy shit, you feel that?” Rorik asked
Trigno looked at him with a confused look on his face “Feel what?”
“I’m sensing a huge amount of power. Right about… There!” Rorik pointed into the night sky
Trigno looked up to see a man with flaming blue and orange wings flying above the sea.
“Ah, that would be Theos.” Trigno informed Rorik calmly
“The war phoenix? Now why would he be in the first sea?” Rorik asked
Trigno sighed “Who knows… You’re pretty sensitive to magic power, aren’t you? I hardly felt his energy at all.”
Rorik laughed “Yeah, I guess. Anyways, I’m gonna go get some sleep. See ya”
