Chapter 5: The Fall of the Nation of Pirates

Duraldo stood up from the throne room, looked out the window, and took another
swig from the glass of wine. He was confident that he would win, but he still
had doubts that he could take this many fighters on at one time. Duraldo sat
back down and started thinking of a way to kill a lot of them without having to
get up and close. He looked around the room and noticed there was a cannon
sticking out the east side of the room pointed out into Plains. Duraldo stood up
and walked over to the cannon, he then turned it and faced it into the fort. He
then looked around, saw that the archers were situated above the bridge
connecting the two towers over the gate. Underneath this bridge stood a cluster
of pirates with their swords in combat position.

"Oh you have go to be kidding me..." said Duraldo as he aimed the cannon towards
the bridge. "Are these guys that stupid?" Duraldo picked up a stick and slid it
across the stone wall a few times, causing it to light a small fire on the
stick. "Well, tally-ho." Duraldo lit the end of the cannon, and ran down the
hall.

As Duraldo reached the outside of the throne room, he heard a loud explosion,
followed by some screams, then a collapse of concrete and rock. He looked over
at the where the bridge once stood, it was not standing, and neither were the
men that were above or beneath it.

At that moment, the fort was in a state of chaos, the pirates seemed to be
disorganized in their movements, that it appeared to be a swarm rather than an
army. Duraldo headed towards what seemed to be a storage room, inside there were
five guards, already drunk, and so he quickly made them into ten guards. Duraldo
could hear the bell being rung across the other side of the fort as he was
examining the room. He noticed a bow and arrow, a knife, a crate of explosives,
and a couple of dead pirates on the floor. It only took him a second to know
what to do, he quickly stripped the pirate of his clothing and put it on, it was
a tad smelly with an odor of rum and whisky, and had some recent bloodstains on
it. It was perfect. Duraldo grabbed the crate and the weapons and walked out of
the room and headed for the central plaza where everyone was running in panic.

A pirate approached Duraldo. "What are you doing? Br careful with those, we
don't want any accidents.

"I got an order from commander to places charges and be ready to detonate them
just in case" said Duraldo.

"Ahh carry on then!"

Duraldo placed a line of chargers right across the middle entire fort. Strangely
enough, it seemed the other pirates didn't care; they just stood there manning
their posts around the dynamite. Duraldo climbed high up on the East Tower.
Soaked a rag of cloth he found laying around, into the barrel of oil that was
next to him. Lit another flame, and lit the rag on fire, placed it at the end of
an arrow, and shot it directly at one of the dynamite charges. One arrow was all
that was needed to set off the fatal chain reaction.

When the dust finally settled Duraldo simply picked off any moving survivors
with the bow until there was no movement what so ever. Duraldo hopped down the
tower, and walked into the rubble to see what he could find. Unfortunately for
Duraldo, anything of value was destroyed with his careless explosion.

"No matter...it is all good, I will simply pillage the town south of here, what
was it Itanzera I think. Now let's see what this necklace can do." He placed the
necklace of piratacy around his neck, and felt a rush to his fingers. Then felt
a cold draft, looked down to see himself completely nude. And all his clothes in
his hand. "Hehehe clever, it appears I can take anything from anyone without
that person noticing, even myself!"

Duraldo put his clothes back on, and felt a slight burning sensation in his left
arm, he rolled up his left sleeve to see a black line on it. "Apparently, these
artifacts give repercussions when they are used, but this one isn't as bad as
the Ring of Gusto" Duraldo said to himself.

Duraldo set down a little mat in a building that was still standing, and laid
down on it, it was getting dark and he wanted to rest.

"Am I doing the right thing?" Duraldo asked himself, "killing these people, will
it really fix the past that I screwed up? Listen Duraldo! There is no time for
this depressing thinking, you must focus yourself on the ultimate goal. Now
where could that 3rd artifact be? Maybe I should have asked that gluttonous
excuse of a king they had –"

Duraldo felt a cold, hard steel rush on his neck.

"Drop your weapon now" said the voice from behind him.