Another weird sleeping schedule soooo here ya go, lovelies :)
Enjoy!
Also P.S.— watching y'all brainstorm theories with this story is too much fun lol, keep them coming!
xoxo

Alistair

Now he had to die.

I shifted the heavy weighted blade in my right hand, pushing it back to slice easily through the flesh of the last men near me. They were all piss excuses for fighters, none worthy of the blade that soon struck them down. Once I had cleared a path to the edge of this vessel, I raised my left foot and kicked the wood board off the edge of my fucking ship.

The last of the men still walking across it all fell into the deep ice cold water, as did the wooden piece itself. I did the same thing to the second and final board, sending it and its filthy men into the sea.

When I turned around, my eyes found Caspian again. The sword I had told him to pick up was still laying on the floor, and his hands had stretched across his chest to hold his upper arms in an odd way. Almost like he was cowering.

I felt my rage only grow. Did he... did he catch a fucking shiver? At a time like this? My feet started to carry me towards him, thinking of the ways in which I was going to skin him alive once I got my hands on him. How much pain I wanted to inflict, first jamming my fingers directly into this fish chum landlubber-

Those very same steps then slowed to a stop only a few more quick strides away from this infuriating slave, stopping myself from going any further as soon as Caspian took another step towards the now gathering enemy pirates. His hands slowly slid down his arms, before they tucked themselves into his long sleeves. "How many?" He asked, turning his head slightly over towards me.

Those dull eyes weren't quite as dull anymore. "Hmm?" I answered.

"How many must I kill to rest my head for a moment? Uninterrupted?"

I stared at him blankly, studying his face. I swear I saw a flash of pain for just an instant when his hands reached further up to grip his upper arms tighter, but it was gone soon after. Was he serious? I wondered. He had no weapon, and he looked like he was one sudden strong gust of wind away from toppling right over.

Yet, that question— he seemed awfully serious.

"Kill them all." I told him, my lips tugging up into a slight smile. This was at the very least going to be interesting. And that could work for me.

I watched as his arms slowly fell back to his sides, that sudden chill he felt, gone.

Then I felt it.

Right before I heard or even saw it, I felt it.

The cracking of the floorboards as metal sunk itself deep into the refined wood. I heard chains rusting against each other, before my eyes finally registered what had just put two gaping holes in my fucking ship.

Caspian had suddenly released a large heavy dagger from each arm, connected to metal linked chains going up into his sleeves. When they pierced through the wood, they cut the floorboards up completely. I found myself blinking a few times, questioning if I needed to remove this eye patch to be sure I was seeing things fully.

There was absolutely no way he had concealed those thick chains and a dagger around each arm like that. I wasn't sure where they had come from, but something was very... not right.

I couldn't even see where on his barely covered arms the chains were anchored to, and my questions only grew when his hands snapped up, using the chains like a whip to send those daggers cutting through my fucking wooden floorboards. Soon after, the daggers shot into the air. Then he yanked them down, bringing the handles of those daggers directly into his surprisingly strong hands. They had to be, to handle that amount of force from the handle.

I watched his body drop a bit lower, his right foot pushing back slightly to take a stance that looked familiar. I think. Or rather some of it did, I thought to myself. Some of it I didn't recognize at all, like the way he held those daggers out in front of him, shielding his face.

I expected him to leap forward, closing the distance quickly between him and the other pirates for a closer engaged combat. That was both the blessing and curse of using daggers instead of a sword. How close you needed to come to your enemy.

But I was wrong.

Pleasantly surprised, I'd say rather.

Caspian cast the dagger forward out of his right hand with incredible speed, piercing through the clear air to stab the pirate directly in front of him, right in the middle of his chest whilst that chain kept it tethered. I watched the blade exit through the man's back. Caspian then grabbed the taut chain with his left hand to anchor it with his right, and he yanked that hand to his right side, snapping the chain back with unimaginable force.

The recoil on those links were indescribable. That dagger sliced through the pirate it was anchored into, and three more pirates directly to the right of him, gutting them all open. Before any of these remaining pirates could understand what had just happened, Caspian yanked that chain in, returning his now bloody dagger back to his right hand.

That's when he finally leapt forward, using that vicious element of surprise to bring the combat right to the remaining men. None of the pirates could strike their sword in time, before Caspian's hand cut forward, easing his hold on the dagger and allowing the chain to extend his reach as much as he needed, as he slit each of their throats with those short blades.

All I could do was watch as blood quickly stained his white as snow hair and clothes, but he didn't give it a moments rest before using his left dagger to strike forward again through the air, wrapping itself around another pirates neck, I watched him snap down on the chain, and that dagger slit that pirate's neck right open like a guillotine, before returning to Caspian's left hand.

He then moved forward swiftly, so swiftly, I found myself suddenly dropping to a knee. My hands gently placed themselves on the bloody wood.

His feet were barely making contact with the floorboards as he ran.

His dagger cut through the air at speeds I was having difficulty tracking with my common eye, but I saw the bloodshed. All of it. The floor ran red by the time Caspian quickly cut down each man in his path, finding his way to the largest pirate who boarded our ship before most of the now dead pirates could even process what had happened to them.

This last pirate was taller than I was, but awfully slow during battle. I believe that's why he had kept his distance from me since the fight had started. I noticed he managed to smash one of my men's face open just moments ago, so I wondered how he'd fair against Caspian.

His strength rivaled my own, I'll give him that.

I watched as Caspian's now completely blood coated left dagger was sent forward once more, wrapping itself around the pirates neck before the pirate could react, much like Caspian had done to the others, and creating a secure anchor...

But the larger pirate quickly grabbed hold of that thick chain before Caspian could, and he yanked it forward with his calloused fingers hard.

Caspian jolted forward, his balance thrown off immediately. The force demanded his feet to stumble towards the looming pirate, to which I thought this smaller man was surely dead by now. It was the pivot of Caspian's right foot that made my eyes widen slightly, surprising me yet again. He used that larger man's momentum to launch his body up over the him and onto his shoulders, before wrapping his legs securely around this larger man's neck.

No one, not even myself had fully understood what Caspian was doing next, until I saw him recoil his chains, snapping them forward to bring his daggers back to his large hands.

Then he jammed each devilishly sharp dagger directly through the ears of the larger pirate, shattering his skull.

My heartbeat stopped a moment when I caught sight of Caspian's face.

The pirate's eyes grew wide with horror, his body somewhat finally understanding what had just happened. He managed to throw Caspian off his shoulders in front of him immediately, but those daggers were still lodged deep into his skull, and when Caspian fell, he rolled, crossing the chains with his arms a few time before he landed on a knee.

All myself and my men could do was watch as Caspian snapped those chains quickly again, causing the daggers to recoil, and the larger pirate's head to completely combust.

A river of blood coated every nearby pirate, and Caspian himself who was now struggling slightly to stand from that knee. Once he finally did, we all still watched on as the pirate's lifeless body fell to the deck's floor in front of him. It practically rocked the ship when it did. I looked around at the men behind Caspian. The men he had killed— no, massacred. There was at least twenty dead by his hands alone, and the remaining few had long since tested their fates with the sea.

This left us with a deck full of bodies.

I heard the snapping of wood above my men as the enemy's ship tried to suddenly dislodge, to which Snips quickly called out to me. "What say ye, Captain!"

I wasted not a second with my harsh, bold answer "Scuttle that Scurvy Dog!"

"Aye!" My men shouted, quick to make their post. "Ready the cannons!"

"Ready the cannons!"

I wasn't letting this enemy slip through my fingers. Not now. Our sails ran blood red for a reason. We left no survivors, for dead men tell no tales.

I heard my Master Gunners prepare the cannons down below, moving those heavy metal launchers across the ship now that they had a clear image of where to aim. The Destroyer had cannon holes on both sides, both an advantage to a shorter and longer range, which was what made her the perfect ship for battle. Any battle. And the perfect vessel to hold my soul.

When I felt those cannons load, I couldn't help but smile. My eyes glanced back to Caspian, he was finishing wrapping those chains up around his arms inside those long sleeves.

I didn't have time to begin to comprehend how that weapon worked yet because I heard my men give the orders to fire down below, sending cannons launching straight across, pass the deep fog, to the enemies ship right besides us.

The sound of metal splitting wood was immediate, with cries of terror soon following for those few still on board.  A smile formed spread across my lips as I walked back closer to the stairs, towards the top deck. I wanted to feel that ship touch the sea floor, with its men not far behind it.

Caspian had started to walk back towards us himself. He moved much slower than he had before the fight, something I didn't think to be possible. I saw his hand reach for his left shoulder before he forcibly pushed it back in. As I suspected, that massive pirate must've dislodged it when he yanked that chain forward like that, forcing Caspian's hand.

And yet I still didn't understand what had anchored those chains to begin with. It was like they were a part of his arm or something.

Caspian slowed even more to clear his throat a moment, before I heard him say "I'm going... to go lay down." He passed by me, his long blood red hair sticking to his drenched shirt. He looked like he had been submerged in war for days, with some of the men's bits of innards still all over him. Before he could get his left foot up on that first step, my right hand reached back, snatching up a large clump of his stained red hair and yanking his entire body off the steps.

"Like fucking hell you are." I whispered to him, my voice carrying over the sound of cannon fire as I dragged him by his hair around the deck towards my study, it was located closer to the back end of the ship.

I could feel his hand struggling desperately against my death grip but I didn't dare let go until I had him through the door and sitting at the far end of the desk.

"What the hell was that?" I barked at him, my voice tight with anger as I pointed past my study doors to the aftermath of this fight.

Caspian was still giving me this irritatingly puzzling look. A look I wanted to knock the shit out of.

"What the hell are you?" I seethed.

He still held my intense gaze, looking up at me from where I stood leaning against the desk. "I'm a mer-"

My hand reached forward, grabbing another clump of Caspian's hair before slamming his face into the wooden table. Hard. I heard the break in his nose immediately, but just in case I was going to choose to ignore it, blood starting gushing out moments later.

"Shit." I hissed, reaching into my own blood soaked coat to hand Caspian a somewhat clean cloth. He very hesitantly accepted it, to which I didn't exactly fault him. "If you say you're a merchant again, I'll snap your bloody neck."

"I'm perfectly okay with that."

I looked down at this absolutely mentally deranged human. Actually I still hadn't quite determined whether he was human.

He looked like he could barely hold himself upright at the moment. His eyes held not a shred of energy in them, though they seldom ever did. He was now completely filthy, and as I studied him upper arms, even through the long sleeves of his shirt, I realized there was no way he could conceal that weapon there. Caspian slowly leant his head forward into his hands that were resting on the table, keeping the cloth against his broken nose as he did.

I pushed myself away from the table to take a look out through this room's window. Out to my ship. The almost ear deafening sounds of cannon fire were starting to slow below us, which meant that we had hit our target past the salvage point. Good.

My men had fought well tonight, we'd only lost two. But him...

I turned back to Caspian who still had his head rested in his hands, but his eyes had drifted closed now. For a split second, panic overtook me as I approached him, moving my hand near his mouth to confirm that he was in fact still breathing. His soft breathes were warm against my rigid cold skin. I was going to awaken him, but I stopped myself.

If I was nothing else, I was at least a man of my word. Caspian had followed orders, direct orders, so for now, he could rest.

Instead, I left the man to sleep in my study, heading back out into the clearing chilly air to find Cael. He was still just where I had left him before the battle began, on that top deck watching over the crew. Once I joined him, again, my dear friend finally turned to me.

"What the hell was that?"

I shook my head at that question. One I couldn't quite answer. "That's something I'd very much like to know myself."

Cael took a moment before he asked me "what did he say?"

My eyes scanned the deck for any clear damage besides what Caspian's daggers had done to the wood. Snips wouldn't be happy about that. "He didn't say much. He's resting now."

Cael's head snapped in my direction.

"Sleeping!" I clarified. Good lords.

"He took out all of them." Cael was looking back out to the sea of dead bodies still on our main deck. The men were starting to clean up the bloodbath that was the last few moments of this fight, but instead of the usual upbeat spirits, I noticed a weariness within the crew.

Tonight hadn't exactly gone as planned, even though everyone had followed my direct orders. That's what had made things so... interesting.

"Did you see it?" Cael turned his head to me. "Him?" I slowly nodded, not bothering to meet his gaze. Instead, my eyes remained on my men and the work they busied themselves with.

"Yes."

"That look on his face."

"Aye. I know." I nodded, eventually turning to face Cael. "For now, we'll keep him aboard. This can prove to be beneficial for us if calculated correctly. And I'm addition," I added, leaning a bit closer to Cael, "no one wins a war raged against The Pirate King. There is nothing you need to trouble yourself with."

Cael scoffed at my confidence. "I'm going to see if we can't locate one living pirate to question about the ambush."

I just nodded to Cael, allowing him to leave me at the top deck alone. I scanned over the countless decapitated and sliced up bodies, my soul already tiring from the thought of how long it would take to clean all this.

Regardless of the countless battles I've fought in, none had resulted in this much bloodshed so quickly, not even the easier pickings. At least seventy to eighty bodies would be sent overboard to feed the fish by daybreak.

And that look, I thought to myself. The smile on Caspian's face as he stabbed those daggers straight through that pirate's skull. It was a smile that terrified Cael most, for it was a smile that mirrored my own.

Unpredictability came with that smile.

I was starting to believe that this man and mine's paths may have been fated to cross, but I just wasn't sure why yet.

••