Marcus let out an angry laugh as he grabbed his weapon, his men following suit. He didn't even need to order them to prepare themselves, as they were already armed and ready.
They all only had one thing on their minds: destroying these vagrants who dared to attack His Majesty's glorious ship.
Dicaeus walked along the long and dark corridors of his castle, his gate loud and imposing. His red and black tunic swished violently as he walked, making his way to the forging rooms. He narrowed his blood-red eyes upon entering the room, expecting to see his creation completed, but was disappointed to find it unfinished.
"What is taking so long?!" He growled as he saw the half-shaped beast he had brought back from Tartarus.
One of his helpers averted his eyes from the piercing glare sent his way. "I apologize, lord Dicaeus, but the bull's defeat over a millennium ago makes finding its scattered pieces throughout the realm of death difficult."
"I thought I asked you to send in a request from the god of death already? With his help, we should be able to recover the body of the bull! So what happened?" He roared.
The helper let out a whimper before clearing his throat. "Lord Emperion has formally declined our request, saying that it wouldn't be wise to revive the bull. "We now live in peaceful times, and he says that causing such devastation by reviving the bull would be unwise."
"Ill advised?! What does he know!" Dicaeus yelled, his eyes glowing with fury.
"He said that if we still insist on bringing the bull back, then we'll have to gather the pieces ourselves." He continued.
Unbridled anger surged through Dicaeus, and he was almost tempted to send his useless helper to Tartarus, but he contained himself. He was getting angry at the wrong person. He brushed his fingers through his inky hair and sighed.
"Curse that blasted hero for making my job so difficult. Did he really have to chop down the bull into a tiny million pieces?!"
In the entire history of the bull of judgement, it had only been defeated once, and it was by the hero said to have slayed the bull with the infamous weapon — shield and sword thousands of years ago. Since then, they banished the bull to Tartarus, never to be revived until it found all its body parts. The process was long and painstakingly slow; at this rate, it would take another century for the bull to be whole again. Gathering all the pieces could speed up the process, but that task was also difficult. Tartarus was as vast as the seas, an endless terrain that most thought to not have an end. It was why he needed the help of the god of death who oversaw the realm to make things easier for him, but even Emperion was of no help.
"This age of peace has made everyone soft," he sighed once more. He paced over the room, his eyes now closed as he thought of another solution. "Haa, no matter, I'll request the aid of someone else," He finally said.
"Lord Dicaeus!" A voice called. Another helper of his ran towards him at full speed, her face contorted in fear and alarm.
"What is it now?"
"I'm afraid I have some bad news to deliver. Someone took the sword and shield from its location, according to our sources."
Dicaeus paused, his head slowly turning to look at the helper, who had her head bowed. His gaze was piercing, and she could feel her body trembling. His lips twitched before he spoke once more. "What did you just say?" He asked, his voice now dangerously low.
"They gave the sword and shield to another king and his guard."
Dicaeus raised an eyebrow. "A king and his guard?" He repeated.
The young woman nodded. The god didn't waste any time as he left the forging room and made his way to his private quarters. He quickly sat in his chair as he pieces his index finger, trickling a few drops of blood on the looking glass as he conjured up the image of the only two men he knew that fit the description.
A low curse escaped his lips as he saw Ceremus and Hael board their ship, carrying the golden case that contained the precious shield and sword.
A low, fear inducing, body shattering laugh left his lips. His beautifully haunting face contorted into the most vile of smiles no human had ever seen. His domain shook with each sound that escaped his lips, and the surrounding air grew more and more dangerous.
"Of course, those miscreants have the shield and the sword." He said once he had calmed down.
"This can only be Kaleeso's doing. That little wench thinks she's so clever, but wait for what I have in store for your precious little creations. I'll make sure that weapon never reaches land."
He then got up from his chair and called for his helpers.
~*~
The ship—which remained unnamed thanks to Ceremus' disinterest in naming it was well-equipped with an array of shields and spears and a few archers at their disposal.
Since this wasn't a military or armed warship, they didn't have any siege weapons on board to help them target their enemy long distance. That meant that they would have to face these hostile intruders head on.
The enemy vessel moved swiftly, closing the gap between the ship and the royal vessel. A barrage of javelins and arrows rained down from their deck, aiming at the crew. Their target was Marcus, as he was leading his men to block the barrage of weapons coming their way. They then targeted their attacks on the weaker points of the ship—like the rig and the exposed oars—hoping to render their chances of maneuvering and attacking back. They stopped near them and launched their main assault. Using grappling hooks, they attempted to attach their ship to the royal vessel.
Once the ships locked together, the pirates, led by their leader, swarmed over the ship, trying to cut the crew down, but Marcus had no plans to let that happen. The crew, coordinated by Marcus without any shouted orders, prepared for close-quarters combat, arming themselves with short swords and shields. Chaos erupted on the deck of the royal ship as swarms of pirates invaded the precious vessel. They tried to cut the crew down; the crew was unrelenting as they formed a tight and organized formation, using their shields to block and their short swords to stab. They fought with precision, protecting their vital spots, and pushed forward with calculated strikes.
The pirates were just as fierce, but didn't come close to the tactical methods of the crewmen. They were ferocious and their movements were unpredictable, but they were flawed. They were quickly being overpowered because of the sheer numbers of the crewmen compared to their smaller numbers.
Caught off guard by their counterattack, Marcus used this as an opportunity to push them further.
"Captain, it doesn't look like the pirates are backing down." Euphorion said as he hit a pirate that was coming their way.
Marcus watched as the pirates with whom they were supposed to overpower were still holding out. He couldn't help frowning. It seemed as if the more they pushed back, the stronger they became.
"Let's change formations." Was all he said and Euphorion nodded.
They changed from formation A—meant for defence to formation B—meant for offence. But even while using their strongest defence, it didn't look like the pirates were going to be defeated.
The captain of the pirates looked at one of his crew members and said the member positioned himself up front while the captain attempted to flee below deck. Marcus saw through their act and immediately charged to the captain, temporarily breaking their formation.
The other pirates saw this as an opportunity to charge in, but with Euphorion there, there was no way he was going to let that happen.
Meanwhile, below deck, Hael could sense something was wrong.