Invasion of the Four Finger Pirates

Job details:

“How often do we get pirate attacks out here on the coast?” Shane ask, as he grabbed the monocular from Line. The young fellow beside Shane was a member of the magic council, also the one who had delivered the job details to the mage. It had been the mayor of Hargeon town who had instructed Line to bring the job to Shane, acknowledging his skill dealing with pirates from when he had helped close the robbery case in Hargeon. Line Harkor was the mayor’s secretary, a strapping young man who had to take a desk job out of no choice. He had been injured during one of his duties as a constable in Hargeon, and the mayor had offered him the job, knowing of his reputation for being an honest and meticulous man.

“Quite often. At least 2 or 3 times a month. That’s why the mayor is trying to train two batches of enforcers. One batch to patrol the entire coastline, while the other will serve on land as the backup force for anything that the coast patrol missed,” Line replied as he sat down on the rock behind them. They were on the edge of a cliff, giving them a great vantage point of the coastal town Mira about two kilometers away from them.

Shane took his time observing the entire situation. The pirate ship was a great vessel, the sail at the top of main mast displaying a skull with two sabers crossed behind it and four vertical lines running down the entire height of the skull. It was the mark of the Four-Fingered Pirates, named after their captain’s right hand. Captain Albiro hadn’t started his career as a pirate, instead he had started off as an assassin. From what Line had told Shane on the way, Albiro had been an infamous assassin during the peak of his career.

Unfortunately, he had been betrayed by one of his close friends and colleague. In the middle of an assassination, Albiro’s weapon of choice, a hidden blade mounted to his wrist and would extend from below his wrist and along his palm had malfunctioned. The hidden blade extended with a hiss as usual, but had been tempered with to veer slightly off course. It resulted in the blade cutting off Albiro’s middle finger, leaving a bloody stump.

His shout of pain, stifled too late, had woken up his target and its guards, forcing him to abandon the mission and escape with his life. He could have completed it, but at great difficulty and cost. His identity was even sold out by colleagues to the target, putting a bounty on his head. Albiro had no choice but to fled, leaving land behind and taking up a life at sea, swearing revenge on the people who had betrayed him.

The Four-Finger Pirates had taken over the central part of the town, barricading it from any invading army. At the very front of their defense were cannons mounted at the top of the walls and on the roofs of some of the sturdier houses. They could shoot anything coming in from the main road, and anyone on the side roads. The second layer of defense were mages. Fire mages. Shane’s eyes lingered on them for a while as he watched a particular fire mage trouble the civilians with his magic. A humph came from his closed mouth. There weren’t too many of those mages.

From what he could see, their defenses were quite weak.

“How’s the progress on that?” Shane asked, referring to the new batch of marine and land enforcers that the mayor of Hargeon was creating. He returned the monocular to Line. The secretary took it back and pushed it into his backpack before replying.

“Not too well. He’s having trouble drafting people to join, and there’s another issue of funding for the training and the salary. He’s trying to get the merchants to collaborate, convincing them that it would be for their own good as well. It’s a good effort but I doubt it will take off soon,” Line said with a shrug. Focusing back on Mira town, Line pointed to where the pirates had made their temporary camp.

“How long will you need to end this?”

Shane looked at the town again with a thoughtful look, before replying with a grin.

“Give me three hours. I will clean up this mess for you.”

It was relatively easy to sneak into the captured town, as most of the pirate crew were entrenched in the official district. They had set up their base of operation in the town council’s building. Surrounding the town council had been some other office buildings and the shopping plaza. The pirates had sealed off the entire area, detaining the civilians and workers that had been in the area as well. The docks were near the town council building as well, with the large pirate ship docked there.

Shane had wanted to bust in directly but decided against it. He didn’t have the strength to do that yet, and he also didn’t have the confidence that his sudden intrusion would not cause any unnecessary consequences. Instead the mage had skirted around the entire captured compound, avoiding the cannoneers sight and slowly made his way towards the dock. Although he could handle all of the pirates, he wasn’t sure if he could do it before they escaped. Hence, his strategy was to first board the pirate ship and remove their exit plan from the equation. Then he can slowly take his time dealing with the pile of trash.

As he approached the docks, Shane could see that it was empty. The pirates had probably rounded up all the personnel related to the docks be it the fishermen or dock managers and bundled them up near the town council building as well. And it was empty to the point that there were not even any pirates patrolling the area. Shane moved low to the ground and silently, hiding behind crates as he moved towards the pirate ship. He was careful not to make any noises, making good progress.

As he finally reached the end of the docks and was as close as he could be to the ship, hiding behind one of the large stack of crates, Shane watched and waited. Even after fifteen minutes, there were no one around the gangplank. Could they all have camped at the town council building. Finding it ridiculously careless of them, Shane silently walked up the gangplank, keeping his guard up in case of a trap.

The moment he stepped onto the deck, a booming voice loud enough for the entire deck to hear questioned his arrival. A large spear was thrown in his direction at an alarming speed and Shane rolled to the side to avoid being skewered.

“You dare step on to this ship?!!”

Shane stood back up and looked towards the bow of the ship. An unshaven man, with dark blue hair tied at the back of his head in a long plaid. He was of a muscular build, wide chest, broad shoulders and strong arms from working the deck. He was tall. Shane watched as the man created another spear out of thin air. A mage specializing in the steel magic.

“Shane Stern, here to complete the job,” the blonde mage answered confidently, arms crossed across his chest and looking at the man with a cool smile. “And who might you be?”

“Warren Brull. Lieutenant to the commander of the Four Finger Pirates 5th Division,” was the reply that he got. From the way he had introduced himself, Shane got a glimpse of the size of the Four Finger Pirate’s fleet and he was slightly impressed. It seems the Four Finger Pirates were more formidable and organized that he thought.

“So you’re the leader here? I advise you to withdraw all your men, and we will forget this ever happened,” Shane offered. He wanted to fight, to solve this the usual way, but there were hostages involved and he would settle it through words if possible.

What he got as a reply was hearty laugh and the expression on Warren’s face turned deathly. The lieutenant lunged at Shane, spear in his right hand as he roared, “You dare belittle us?!”
Shane tensed up but stood his ground. As Warren was about to successfully impale the mage with his spear, the latter swiftly stepped to his right at the last minute. As Warren lunged past him, Shane struck the big man with a charged fist to the base of his spine[1]. The punch caused Warren’s body to stiffen and he almost lost his balance, forcing him to take big strides before coming to a stop.

He turned back around to face Shane, but the latter was already too close.

“Shirotsume SMASH!!” the superhero in training shouted, as he lunged with a raised knee, intending to crash it straight into Warren’s chest. The pirate lieutenant was shocked but managed to raise his spear up to block. To his horror, time seemed to slow down as he watched the metal spear bent under the force of Shane’s attack and eventually broke into two, while the mage’s knee slammed into his chest with astounding force. Warren crashed backwards onto the deck floor, rolling head over heels twice before coming to a stop. He landed on his knees, palms flat on the ground, his face an expression of shock before twisting into anger. The brute of a man balled up his fists and slammed it onto the wooden deck before standing back up.

Metal began to form along his fists, entirely covering it and then forming into extremely large gauntlets. His armored fists were now at least three times their original size. His eyes stared daggers at Shane, years since he had taken such a humiliating beating.

“Yes. I will forget about this little incident. After I kill you!” the lieutenant roared as he charged forward again, fists raised. Shane’s body began to emit white steam as the distance between them closed. Exhaling from his mouth, Shane grinned as he charged as well, fist against metal in a direct fistfight. For a while, the two of them continued pummeling each other, neither making headway. Every punch thrown by either party was met with another punch by the other party.

Knowing there was no point going on, Shane wanted to use another of his spells but Warren was faster. It came in the form of a normal punch, but the moment Shane blocked with one of his own, Warren send a blast of magic from within the gauntlet, expelling it from his hand as thought a rocket and sent Shane flying away with it. The blonde mage crashed heavily into the mast, a crack in the thick wood sounding out when he made contact.

Shane pushed the giant gauntlet away from him and stood up straight, out of breath from the impact. Before he could regain his footing, Warren had leapt up from the deck and shot out the other gauntlet at him. This time Shane threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the giant gauntlet as it crashed into the mast again, causing another crack.

[1] Cedar Smash

The pirate lieutenant continued his violent onslaught, procuring a metal hammer from thin air and proceeding to smash it down on Shane. The violent gleam in his eyes was enough to tell how much he would enjoy if the hammer squashed the blonde mage into a splat on the deck, but Shane was no pushover. He prepared his right fist as the hammer came down and countered with his own attack, a supercharged uppercut. “Hargeon SMASH!!!!”

Force met force, but Shane’s fist won out in the end. Warren’s grip on the hammer wasn’t released in time and he was overturned along with the hammer when Shane slammed his uppercut into the hammer as it came down. His opponent in mid-air was an opening the mage quickly seized, kicking off the deck and leaping towards Warren. Both of his arms were raised into the air, fists locked and he let out a cocky grin as Shane smashed both fists onto Warren’s body[3]. Warren was immediately set on a course straight down onto the deck from the blow, smashing right through the deck floor.

He’s a beast, was the single thought that appeared in Shane’s mind as the pirate erupted from the hole in the deck, propelled upwards with an ever elongating spear held in his right hand. In his left hand, metal wrapped around his arms in the form of a miniature cannon but powerful enough to knock out Shane if he took point blank. However, he was not in the slightest bit worried.

“Burst! Balsam Smash!” was the last words that Warren heard before he was completely crushed. The deck on which they had fought was a rather small place and completely within the range of Shane’s control as he utilized Burst, moving himself right next to the pirate lieutenant and smashing him in the opposite direction with a charged roundhouse kick to the middle of his back. Warren destroyed another part of the ship as the forecastle deck crumbled under his weight.

Shane took a deep breath as he waited. After a few seconds, he walked over to the pirate and smirked. Warren Brull had been utterly defeated and had been knocked unconscious. Grabbing the nearest rope he could find, simply snapping it off from wherever it was connected, Shane took only five seconds to wrapped the rope around Warren and tie him up. He made sure to tie up the man’s hands so that his palms were pointed at his own neck. If he still wanted to make a handcannon, the first thing he would do would be to blow his head.

Once done, Shane effortlessly picked up the man and heaved him on his left shoulder, walking down the pirate ship and into the compound of the town council building. Whoever who had wanted to stand in his way, stood down the moment they saw who was on Shane’s shoulder. Most of them subconsciously trembled when they let Shane walk past them. The man they had been so afraid of, the man who would mercilessly beat them up for any mistake had been subdued.

Reaching the center of the compound, Shane simply released his grip and dropped the man on the ground.

“This is the end. I’ve taken down your leader. Drop your weapons and get on your knees, now,” Shane commanded coolly as he made eye contact with all the pirates around him. There was no reaction from them in the beginning, but five seconds passed and the first clatter could be heard as one of the pirates in the front dropped his sword. With that first, came the rest as wave after wave of weapons dropped to the ground rang.

A series of clapping followed, and Shane looked in the direction of the sound, grinning when he saw who it was.

“Good work, Mr Stern. Right on time,” Line applauded and lauded sincerely, admiration written all over his expression.

“Thanks Mr Harkor, if you so prefer to use last names. So, I believe you will hand over this men to the Magic Council? I highly believe this guy,” Shane jerked his thumb in Warren’s direction, “will lead to further trouble if we don’t secure him properly.”

“Of course, Shane. Is he the captain of the Four Finger Pirates?”

“You guys have got your intel all wrong. He’s purely the lieutenant of the commander of the Four Finger’s fifth division. And if the lieutenant under a commander is this strong, I believe the storm is yet to come, my friend. Best pass on that information to the Magic Council. Captain Albiro will not be easy to handle.”

“I understand. I will inform them as soon as possible when I send this man over to them,” Line replied, a somber expression on his face when the meaning of Shane’s words hit him.

“Then I guess my part is over. You know where to get me if you need me. I’m especially interested in this whole Four Finger Pirate’s affair now, since I’m already involved,” was Shane’s parting words as he patted Line on the shoulder once before gathering his strength and leapt onto the roof of a two-story building in a single leap and ran off.

[3] Onibus Smash