The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                                      In the end, Ameria learned that she could enhance her body parts in the blink of an eye. She also won an arm-wrestling match against Drannor when she enhanced her right arm with earth magic. Once she enhanced her legs with wind magic, she could move around from one side to the ship while jumping over the obstacles in just three seconds.

"Ha-ha, this is so much fun!" Ameria said.

"Unbelievable, she didn't have much physical training, but she can move faster than most well-trained graduates," Drannor said.

"I am starting to regret teaching her how to do that," Zaos said and then sighed. "I didn't develop this kind of magic in order to let others have fun with it."

"What now, Captain?" Drannor asked. "With that speed and strength, she certainly can protect herself."

"I suppose there is nothing I can do, you three are dead set on risking my neck," Erean said with a dejected expression on his face. "I might as well accept the unavoidable, risk my neck now or go against the next ruler of the country and her two most loyal subjects."

              Once he accepted that there was nothing he could do, Erean began to think about the strategy. What should he do to increase their chances of victory? Defeating the pirates and then dealing with hidden cards up Ferdinand's sleeve certainly will increase their chances. Still, they have to do so while the Sairus kingdom fleet is close enough to offer them some support. Sending a raven probably wouldn't help since the other side will think that it will be a trap to lure them out. After all, since the first warning that they sent weeks ago, they didn't have the chance to communicate.

          In the end, Erean racked his head to come up with a solution, but nothing came to mind. Once the battle starts, they will just have to last for long enough for the allies to notice that something is amiss and then approach. Once the meeting was over, Zaos resumed his research. He didn't have much time to make much progress, but every single step forward was welcome.

            Night came, and once again, Zaos decided to sharpen his fangs while waiting on the deck of the ship. That one was much more stable than the previous one, so Zaos had a nice time concentrating even while he was sitting on the deck… However, once again, things started to get noisy just after sunset. Zaos heard some shouting, and then he heard the alerts coming from the other ships' trombones. When Zaos looked in the direction the noise was coming from, he saw three ships on fire.

"What the…" Zaos frowned due to the shock. "How did they set three ships on fire so fast?"

            Before long, another ship began to burn out of nowhere. Thanks to the darkness of the night, Zaos couldn't see things clearly, so he had no idea of what actually happened. Aside from the fact that these assholes sure liked to attack before sunrise.

            The ships that were on fire suddenly got hit by other ships that had dark flags. They were the pirates… they seemed a really troublesome bunch. Still, Zaos would rather face them than mercenaries or civilians that were fooled.

"What happened?" Drannor suddenly asked as he approached alongside others.

"I have no idea, but it seems that they can set ships on fire pretty fast," Zaos said.

            The enemy ships that attacked the allies finally were approaching their ship, and Zaos understood that something was off when he didn't see any archers pointing fire arrows toward them. Then he heard a very familiar sound, the sound of something being thrown using a huge weapon of war.

            Zaos couldn't see what was thrown in the darkness of the night, but he still aimed his hand toward the ship. Then something round began to fall in the direction of the ship. Zaos fired a Wind Sword and then hit the object. Fortunately, it broke with relative ease, so that only made everyone frown.

"What was that?" Drannor asked.

"It was oil… highly flammable oil," Erean pointed at the small rope in the flame that just fell on the ocean. "I see now… they were stocking up oil to use against us."

          That explained how the ships were set on fire so fast… to think that the enemies would combine ships with catapults and barrels of oil. They weren't pulling their punches anymore. After all, that type of oil was really expensive.

"Attention, Archers!" Erean raised his voice. "Don't let any barrel fall on your ships, or we will be all gone!"

          That was easier said than done, but they didn't have any other option in the end. Before they could even think of attacking, they lost ten of their ships thanks to that deadly combination. Suddenly, the sound echoed in the area again, and Zaos waited for the barrel to show up. Still, in the end, Ameria found that one faster and then attacked.

"Captain, it seems the other ships are having a hard time stopping the barrels," Drannor said while looking in the distance. "Thanks to the darkness, they can't aim and hit the barrels fast enough. Not to mention, one or two bolts aren't enough to make them fall on the ocean."

"Shit… all ships! Charge toward the enemies and attack them with all you got!" Erean shouted. 

                  It was a risky plan, but at least by getting close, the pirates wouldn't have the chance to use the catapults… not all that much. The allied fleet began to move toward the pirate ships, and weirdly enough, they did the same. Despite their tricks, they sure were looking for a real fight. After the front of their ship and one of the pirates collided, Erean led Zaos and some other soldiers to invade the enemy ship. Then suddenly they stopped in the small wood bridge when several red points appeared in front of them, they were fire arrows, and it seemed they fell for another trap.