Hello everyone and welcome back to chapter 41 of the story! And since this chapter is going to be released a few days before the 1st anniversary of the fanfic, expect a gratitude message in the author notes section at the end of the chapter.
But putting that aside for now, let's start the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: All the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author.
In the middle of his private room, the captain of a pirate ship was reading what looked like a japanese comic book, manga in other words. The man of black beard and hair seemed entretained as his eyes would watch and read the content of the pages.
"Ohoh, yes! This volume is being crazy good so far!" The pirate captain said to himself, being so emerged in the manga world that his ears completely ignored the restless and insistent knocks on the door of his room.
"Hey, Cap'n! Do you even heard what I just told you!?" A annoyed voice sounded behind the door. "Don't tell me you are staring at those idol whatever figures of yours again!"
"It is action figures of the highest quality ever!" The captain responded, feeling somehwhat called out. "And they are art so don't you dare to insult me figures like that!"
"Whatever...I'm gonna enter anyways." The voice behind the door said, starting to unlock the door.
"NO WAIT!" The captain immediatly got up from his chair and in a span of a second, completely cleaned his room that was previously messy. It was just in time as the member of his crew opened the door, finding the room totally impeccable.
"Wow, you sure are responsible when the subject is about your room captain." The pirate, a woman with a large and vast blond hair said after she presenced her captain's room. She wore a big red pirate coat.
"Hm hm I know Anne." The captain said, trying to ignore the woman as he was sitting in his desk, pretending to be analysing something.
The pirate woman got curious and approached him. "Checking more treasure maps cap'n?" She decided to take a look to see what her captain was looking with so much attention. It was just blank paper. "You know you are staring at an empty page right?" Anne told him, somewhat more dissapointed in her captain.
"Empty page? Check yer damn eyes again woman! Soon, this page will be the start of my new hentai series!" The captain exclaimed all happily and intrigued.
"Why did I had to join this shitty crook?" Anne lamented with her eyes closed, sighing to the side as her captain went to grab a pencil on the corner of his desk.
"Anyways, better start now." He said with a happy smile. "Time to become the king of the doujin-"
"GET REAL YA FILTHY WEEB!" Anne smacked her captain in the head. "We have better things to do right now!"
"Ow! Like what?" The captain asked to his subordinate. "What can be better than consume material of my liking?"
"We've spotted the pirate ship we had been chasing some days ago in the distance." Anne informed the captain, who despite that didn't seemed very intrested.
"And?" For him, that matter wasn't still enough to make him want to leave his private room.
"And I deduce that tiny goddess may be aboard on the ship."
The captain immediatly slammed the pencil on the table right before he could even draw a line on the paper. Slowly, the man got up from his chair and turned around to look at Anne with a serious glare. "And ye only tell me that now?!" He yelled at her.
"At least I told you." Anne responded, holding herself to not punch her captain in the face.
"Great!" The moment the man exclaimed, a cigarette dangling from his hair fired up. "Me day had just become better!" He went to grab his coat that was suspended in his chair. "Time to give those scallywags a taste of our cannons!" The man stretched his arms and exercised his neck. "Tell the rest of the crew to get ready!"
"Aye aye captain!" Anne responded and walked out of the room. "Also, your hair is on fire captain." She said before getting out.
The captain however didn't seemed to be alarmed by that. "Heh. The flames in me hair can only mean one thing..." He said, putting out the fire with his bare hand as soon as it touched his own hair. "That Blackbeard is back into action!"
"Blackbeard?! The famous pirate?" Mash exclaimed as she heard Doctor Romani reveal the identity of the pirate through searching the his jolly roger that they had spotted in another pirate ship.
"Now that's someone I guess everyone knows." Ritsuka speaked, knowing very well the historic figure that was Edward Teach.
"I literally only knew him some days ago when me and my crew were chased." Drake told them. "So that must mean his life as pirate must have happened long after I was dead if he's that famous."
"He is THE pirate. There's no one more famous than Blackbeard himself when the talk is about piracy." Romani specified. "We will have an hard time if someone like him is our enemy in this Singularity."
"Wich makes me think..." Ritsuka moved his head to look at Drake. "Do you recall anything from that chase that could help us prepare against Blackbeard?"
"Hmm, it was a bit hard to take appointments when the chase happened in a middle of a storm." Drake responded. "But if there's a thing worth mentioning is that that bastard's ship seemed almost invencible when fighting against my own ship. And the speed that it was navigating to keep with us in the middle of turbulent seas was almost worthy of being called scary. Me and my crew barely managed to get away."
"Were you able to see any member of Blackbeard's crew that we should be aware of captain?" Mash asked to the pirate woman, trying to get to know about Blackbeard and his crew as much as possible.
"Sorry but unfortunately I was too focused on navigating the ship that I didn't saw their faces clearly." Drake said to the shielder.
Peko and Nala also went to join the conversation after the former stopped the latter from getting into a fight against Euryale. Speaking of wich she also was hearing the conversation alongside Asterios.
"Thankfully we still have another person who has run into Blackbeard." Peko said as he looked at Euryale. "Were you able to seen him up close Euryale?"
"For my eyes bad luck, yes I was." Euryale responded to the boy.
"Then you must know how he does look like." Nala said. "To be the most famous of pirates, he sure must be threatening.
"Hmm, I'd say he is more of a clown than a menacing lawless man." Euryale told them. "That stupid would just do the most ridicule questions to me like 'What is your favourite videogame?' 'How many manga volumes do you read by day?' 'How much do you spent in gacha games?' Nonsensical crap like that! Any more second with him and I would have gone insane!" The young goddess shared her experience, clearly not liking to have to remember the short time she was with Blackbeard.
"So you runned away from him because he is insufferable?" Peko asked to the young goddess, still not understanding if that was exactly the motive.
"Honestly, half of the reason to run away from him could be that, but the reason why I did that is completly different." Euryale said.
"What was it?" Ritsuka asked her.
"I heard him and his crew talking about some kind of 'treasure ark' that can only be unlocked and opened with the sacrifice of a god." Euryale revealed. "I didn't waste another second to flee, knowing well what their intention with me was by keeping a deity like me aboard by their side."
"A treasure ark hm?" Mash murmured. "That can give us some clues."
"An ark that needs a god's sacrifice to be opened sure sounds special." Nala commented. "And I'd bet it can't be just your average golden coins and jewels inside it."
"Thinking the same here." Ritsuka talked. "Could it perhaps be the Holy Grail?"
"That would depend on the amount of mana energy that resides inside the ark itself. It could be high enough to be the grail or something completely different." Romani told them.
"Then this ark surely isn't your average treasure chest but something more." Drake said, thinking for herself a bit. "Now that doesn't mean it can still have the same spirit as that of a treasure hunt!" She said with a happy face.
As the conversation went on, Mash tought of something. "But wait! You are a servant too, aren't you Euryale-san?" Mash questioned the goddess.
"Indeed I am. Despite that, I've still been summoned to this Singularity as a Divine Spirit." Euryale answered Mash's question.
"But I thought it was impossible for divine beings such as gods to be summoned as servants." Mash said.
"Well that's because Euryale here is a minor goddess Mash." Romani told her. "Now if we were talking about some major gods like Zeus, Hades and the rest of the olympian gods, it would surely be impossible for the Summoning System to summon a deity of that caliber as a servant unless they themselves lower their Divinity or use a human vessel to manifest as servants. Euryale was capable to become a servant and keep her goddess status because her Divinity being low when compared with Greece's main gods. The same is applied to all the other mythologies."
"Heh." Nala smirked and gave a smug look to Euryale after hearing Romani's explanation. "Minor goddess." Despite the slight mockery, Euryale decided to ignore and keep her perfect idol posture.
"Then when it comes to the great scheme of things in the greek pantheon...you actually arent that mighty despite being a goddess, correct?" Ritsuka asked to Euryale, trying to see what he just heard from Romani was right.
"Look, it isn't as if every god and goddess was born to be destructive powerhouses." Euryale told him. "I mean, what would be the fun if every deity was equally strong?"
"That sounds like a bad excuse of someone that is butthurt." Ritsuka thought to himself.
"Even so, Euryale is still a goddess, meaning that the ark can be opened with her sacrifice." Peko said. "In bad hands, I'm sure it can cause a lot of trouble. I also hope the Holy Grail isn't inside or else we would..." Peko didn't finished the sentence, instead looking at Euryale. She didn't seemed to be on the mood to do sacrifices and Peko didn't want to force her to do it. The rest of the group most likely tought the same.
"!" Asterios who had been quiet througout the whole chat, suddenly moved. The big servant went to grab his axes and make an hostile face. "Grrr..."
Everyone was clearly surprised by Asterios reaction that came out of nowhere. Peko even thought it was because of what he had just said.
"E-Easy Asterios! If it happend to be the grail we will still find another way to open the ark without having to-"
"It wasn't that kid." Drake told to him, looking at the horizon of the sea.
"Huh?" Peko reacted confused.
"Bad pirates...nearby..." Asterios said, putting himself infront of Euryale. "Wanting...to take...friend away."
"Is it true Asterios?!" Ritsuka exclaimed in shock.
"The big guy is right on the money." Drake said, handing to Ritsuka a telescope. "See for yourself."
Putting is eye on the lens, Ritsuka caught sight of a pirate ship coming torwards them. "Crap! We have enemies on our way!"
"Do you recognize the ship?" Nala asked to Drake.
"Even if scarcely, it has features of the same ship that chased us on that storm." Drake's gaze tightened as she reminded of the ship's appearence. "That must be Blackbeard's ship!"
"Can we try to outwit them?" Ritsuka asked to Drake, seeing if it could be possible for them to try get away from the enemy ship.
"Unfortunately I don't think we can." Drake told him, staring at Blackbeard's ship with anger. "We only managed to get away that time because of the violent waves and weather. In perfect and clear weather conditions, that damn boat will catch up to us in no time!"
"Then it can only mean one thing..." Nala told, summoning her sword.
Ritsuka was thinking the same. "Mash!" He turned around to look at the shielder, about to give her the order.
"Engaging in combat mode master! Offensive and defensive modes ready to input!" Mash declared.
"You should go hide inside the ship." Peko told to Euryale who was still standing in her place. "They definetly are going after you so you sure you want to stay here in the deck?"
Euryale gave him a little smile. "I appreciate your worriedness with me Peto-"
"Peko." The boy corrected her.
"But has a servant, I'm not entirely defenseless. Besides, Asterios will make sure no harm comes to me." Euryale said, looking at the big servant.
"Me...guards...friend." Asterios said while staring at Peko. "Boy and others...guards ship."
"Understood Asterios!" Peko responded, giving a smile to the minotaur. "Let's both protect Euryale and the ship!"
Asterios nodded in agreement before Peko walked torwards the rest of the group that was now putting the cannons in position alongside Drake's crew.
"Damn you weren't joking when you said that ship was fast!" Romani exclaimed as he watched the signal of Blackbeard's ship in his monitor. "It will reach us in a span of a minute and half!"
"That's enough time to at least grab the guns!" Drake told the doctor before looking to her men." Do ya hear me?! Go arm yourselves up lads! A battle is up ahead!" She shouted to order to her crew, who all immediatly went to grab their swords, knives and handguns.
"We ready cap'n!" Bombe exclaimed, standing side by side with his captain. "Waitin' for ya orders now."
"Alright! Light up the cannons men!" Drake ordered, raising her arm as the crew put themselves in position, Chaldea group included. With the enemy's ship fetting nearby, Drake decided it was the perfect moment. "FIRE!"
In a instant, the cannons were activated and the cannon balls went flying torwards their target. However, Blackbeard's ship managed to dodge the first wave of cannon balls from Drake's ship. In retaliation, the adversary responded in the same way, utilizing their own cannons to shoot down the Golden Hind.
"They're firing at us!" Ritsuka exclaimed as he tried to help Drake's crew by putting the cannon balls inside the cannons while Mash, Peko and Nala would try to defend the ship from the enemy's attacks and Drake was at helm doing her best to avoid the ship from getting hit. A massive cannon ball hit on the water nearby, making the ship slightly wobble.
"Grr, that damn scumbag!" Drake hissed as she held the helm tightly and tried to regain the balance of the ship. "Don't stop reloading men!"
"They are approaching us!" Peko shouted, seeing Blackbeard's ship catching up to them.
"If it keeps like this, that ship will reach us in thirty seconds!" Romani informed everyone on the ship.
Nala sliced a cannon ball in half before responding to what the doctor had said. "Thirty seconds?! We won't be able to escape!"
"Then the best we can do is to fight Blackbeard's crew face to face!" Ritsuka told.
"That would mean to also have the possibility to fight enemy servants master!" Mash warned him.
"True that it can be risky but it may be better than to be chased endlessly by them!" Peko told to Mash.
Mash defended an incoming cannon ball with her shield. "So we must tell Drake to go torwards Blackbeard's ship!"
Ritsuka tought if Drake would be acceptive of that idea. "I'm not sure if-"
"Hold on tight men!" Drake yelled to everyone in the deck, doing a maneuver with the helm, changing the direction of the Golden Hind that was now sailing torwards Blackbeard's ship. "If he wants to see us up and close then he'll have it!" Despite the sudden change of plans, her crew didn't stopped firing the cannons torwards the enemy and vice-versa.
Coming from Blackbeard's ship, a cannon ball went higher and faster than others, with its trajectory about to land on Euryale and Asterios.
"Watch out you two!" Nala yelled at the servant duo.
Thankfully, Asterios showed his Berserker strenght by being able to catch the cannon ball without making it explode upon contact, softening the impact. In return, Asterios threw the ball back to its sender with greater strenght, being able to hit successfuly the enemy ship on the hull.
"Nice one Asterios!" Ritsuka told to the minotaur servant.
Nala saw how close the ships were about to get from each other. "The ships are getting closer!"
"Ten seconds until the contact with Blackbeard's ship!" Romani told them, seeing the two ships signals on his monitor.
In the next seconds, both crews of the two ship stopped firing from the cannons as the ships were now some meters away from clashing.
"Embrace for impact!" Drake yelled at her crew, and everyone followed the intruction by clinging on a part of the ship's deck or into each other. The Chaldea group did the same.
"Mash! Peko! Nala! Hold onto one another!" Ritsuka said as he and the other three formed a type of group hug right before the ships collided, making the deck tremble and shake off a bit. Fortunately, everybody was alright. As they were all regaining their feet, an annoying laugh came from the other ship.
"Zehahaha- I mean...Hahahahahahahahahhaha! Looks like we finally meet eye to eye, Captain Drake!" The voice belonged to the captain, who was also at the helm, staring at Drake on the opposite vessel. "As a fellow criminal of the salt waters, I could say it's an honour."
Drake's gaze immediatly turned into displeasure and hostility as she stared at the other captain. "Khh! You should have invited me to drink instead if what you wanted was to see me, Blackbeard!" Drake yelled at him.
"Heh! I'd have to agree with you." Blackbeard said before doing a silly smile. "If I knew Captain Drake was a woman from the start I would've put more effort in catching your ship hehe."
"What a pervert..." Drake tought to herself.
"But unfortunately you look too much of an hag for my taste Drake, so I'll have to pass." Blackbeard told to the female captain in all his honesty.
"There was need to do that comment at all!?" Drake shouted with indignation.
"Hey you sorry excuse of a cap'n!" A small girl with short white hair who was next to Anne called out Blackbeard. "Just tell 'em what we came here for already!"
"Oh right! I almost forgot about it! Thanks for reminding me beautie!" Blackbeard smile to his subordinate.
She in return just let out a low growl. "What a scum..."
"Honestly beetween him and Jack I don't know who is worse." Anne added.
"As you can see Drake, there's two things I want from you." Blackbeard told to Drake.
"Well I know already ya want to take the little goddess back. What's the other?" She asked him, only knowing that Blackbeard was after Euryale. What was the other thing that Blackbeard wanted that made him chase Drake and her crew so much on that day?
"C'mon ye sea weed! Don't tell me you don't know what pirates like us wants the most?" Blackbeard pointed at Drake. "The Holy Grail you have, give it to me!"
"So that's the other motive huh?" Drake replied.
"Blackbeard is after the grail as well?" Nala said, hearing the conversation beetween the two captains.
"But he seems to be after the one Drake has and not the one from this Singularity." Ritsuka told her.
"Despite that, I can sense that a grail in the hands of someone like him would cause us a lot of trouble in finding the actual grail we're looking for." Peko speaked.
"Was thinking the same." Mash said. "Blackbeard doesn't seem a person who would have the best intentions with the grail."
"Yeah." Ritsuka said before looking at Blackbeard himself. "But honestly I was expecting him to appear more menacing."
"So what do ye say about giving me your grail and Euryale-chan to me and I let you go huh?" Blackbeard said, trying to make a deal with Drake.
"Tsk! I hate how he calls me that." Euryale showed her disgust when hearing the way Blackbeard called her. Unfortunately for her, she should have remained silent.
"Ohoh? Is this the sound of my idol Euryale-chan?" Blackbeard laughed and smiled clumsly as he stared at Drake's crew on the deck and found Euryale among them. "Glad to have found you again! You don't know how sad I was when you runned away just before I had the chance to talk about my favourite manga series with you." He said in a sad tone while crying comically.
"For a captain of a pirate crew he behaves very weirdly." Peko commented.
"Super weirdly." Nala added.
After whipping out his tears, Blackbeard caught a glance of the Chaldea group as well. "Hm, I see you also have more people on your crew." He looked at them, more specifically at Mash and Nala. "Drake ye damn hag! You had these two idol material girls on your ship and didn't decide to tell me?! How cruel of you!" Blackbeard went to cry and lament again.
Both Mash and Nala looked at them with the same disgust as Euryale.
"I can't tell if this guy is just a loser or a deranged person."
"Why I somehow felt uneasy with that comment?"
"You are a damn idiot if you think I'm giving any one of my crew to you!" Drake defiantly told to Blackbeard.
"In other words, you are saying a 'Screw ya!' to me?" Blackbeard questioned Drake.
"Aye. I'm not willing to trade ya anything. I'm a pirate that values the treasure I already have!" Drake responded. "So why don't you turn around and just go look for another grail instead of taking from other pirate heh?"
"Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." Blakcbeard gave a sly grin, his hair overshadowing his eyes with a glimmer appearing in it.
"What do ya mean by that?" Drake demanded.
Blackbeard in response went to take out something behind him. "I already have me grail right here." He said, showing a Holy Grail in his hand to Drake and the rest of her crew, causing a shocking reaction in all of them.
"Tha-That's the grail from this Singularity!" Peko exclaimed.
"How the hell does he have it?!" Ritsuka exclaimed as well.
"Fou fou! (Holy shit!)"
"Hehehe I see this is shivering yer timbers! I admit, this piece of treasure is quite valuable. So why not join one more and start doing a collection? Buahahahahahahahahaha!" Blakcbeard laughed annoyingly.
"Ya scurvy dog!" Drake insulted Blackbeard. "Where did you found it?"
"In a island southeast from here and right on the first days of coming to this place. Talk about luck eh?" Blakcbeard explained. "And its signals got stronger on that day when our ships saw each other. So in me pirate head what could it be if not for other grail? Good thing that my intuition never fails!"
"So this explains for why his ship was moving so fast." Romani told to the group. "Looks like he is going to be our main enemy here."
"If we end him here, this Singulairty gets resolved!" Nala said, prepared to fight Blackbeard and his crew already.
"But he has the grail so I don't expect to be easy." Peko told his sister.
"Drake also has hers so the field is balanced." Nala responded.
Blackbeard and Drake however were still talking with one another.
"So Drake? Wanna give the grail and Euryale-chan back to me? I'm being generous and all!" Blakbeard gave a last chance to Drake.
And gave the same response. "Y'know what Teach?" Drake drew out her handgun and pointed at the other captain's head. "To the Davy Jones locker with ya!" She said, firing the gun with the bullet passing centimeters away from Blackbeard's face, taking out some facial hair off of his beard.
In reaction, Blackbeard fell to the ground by the sheer shock and sudden action of Drake. "D-D-Drake ye damn swashbuckler!" He stood up again. "You have just signed yourself and your men to a watery grave!" He looked down on the deck to his own crew. "Invade the ship men! Kill everyone except for Euryale-chan and bring me that hag's grail!" Yelling that order, all the pirates from Blackbeard's crew yelled back and raised their swords, proceeding to grab the cords to swing and jump on the deck of Drake's ship.
"Fight them back men!" Drake shouted to her crew as she runned down the stairs to join them on the deck. "Let's make them pay for having messed with us!"
"AYE AYE CAP'N!" All of the pirates from Drake's crew yelled and proceeded to clash with Blackbeard's pirates, causing a chaotic battlefield on the deck.
"Go help the rest of the crew me hearties!" Blackbeard said to a group of servants that were watching the fight in the ship, including Anne.
"We aren't your hearties..." The short white haired girl by Anne's side told to Blackbeard.
"Aww please! I promise to give you huge barrels of rum after the fight if we win!" Blackbeard begged them.
"Hmm, lots of alcohol heh? That sounds fine to this old man." A man with short brown hair tied into a small ponytail and goatte said. He was wearing a green uniform and wielding a spear.
"See? He understands the appeal!" Blackbeard said to Anne and the short girl. "And how about you big guy?"
A tall and muscular servant behind Blackbeard growled in response, running and jumping torwards the other ship. For the surprise of the Chaldea group and Drake, Eric the Bloodaxe had returned.
"Didn't we defeated him some islands ago?! How can he still be alive?!" Nala said in shock, not expecting to see the servant after their duel that occurred earlier.
"He's heading to Euryale!" Ritsuka shouted, seeing Eric charging torwards Euryale who was on the other end of the ship.
Thankfully, Asterios was once again there to protect his friend by clashing his axe with Eric's own axe and giving a punch on the enemy's face. "Protect friend!" Asterios yelled.
Euryale however was worried with the recent injuries he had sustained on the previous fight. "Don't push yourslef too hard Asterios! Watch out for your wounds!"
"Hey you four!" Drake called out the Chaldea group as she was shooting and slashing down Blackbeard's pirates left and right. "Go land some aid to the big guy!"
"Understood!" Ritsuka responded. "Let's go guys! We must help Asterios defend Euryale!" He said to the rest of the team and they were all on their way to give help to Asterios.
But along the way, Mash saw something coming torwards Ritsuka. "Master watch out!" She yelled, blocking an incoming spear from hitting Ritsuka.
"T-Thanks Mash! I barely saw that coming!" Ritsuka said, catching his breath from the scare he had got from the sudden attack.
Peko and Nala stopped running to see if Ritsuka and Mash were alright.
"Ritsuka! Mash! Are-"
Nala immediatly shoved Peko away. "Behind you!" Nala said to her brother before coming in clutch and saving him from taking a bullet on the back of the head.
"Crap! Almost had him." Anne cursed and lamented for her failed shot.
"With the way you grab the gun it could only be predictable." The short girl told her companion.
"Or perhaps the gun is just bad Mary. Have you tought about that?" Anne said to the girl who named now was revealed as Mary.
"I higly doubt that..." Mary responded. "Eitherway, the orders of that idiot captain was clear." She took out her sword. "Kill our enemies and retrieve the targets."
"You okay Peko?" Nala asked to her brother as the two were now face to face with two enemy servants.
"Y-yeah. Thanks Nala." Peko said before getting up and looking at Anne and Mary. "Guess they will be our opponents."
Meanwhile, Ritsuka took a glance at Peko and Nala situation. "Looks like we can't help Asterios right now."
"Don't worry about him or the kids over there. Everyone is having their own fights." A man, presumably another servant, grabbed the spear he had throw and stood in front of Mash and Ritsuka. "And I guess I'm gonna be your fight after all." He talked in a relaxed and comfortable way despite the situation.
Ritsuka sweated a bit at seeing the man. "Mash, is he a..."
"Yes senpai. He is a servant alongside those two pirate women and the Bloodaxe King." Mash responded. "I suspect you were all summoned to this Singularity by Blackbeard thanks to the grail, am I correct?" Mash questioned the spear wielding man.
The man in return just looked to the side and gave a smirk. "Hmm, yeah. You could say that." He return to look at Mash.
"This magic energy around him...This servant is definetly skilled and perhaps the strongest among Blackbeard's crew." Mash analysed, staring at the man's spear. "And that spear also appears to be incredibly powerful. Who this servant might be?"
"Hey, you look a bit nervous girl." The man said to Mash. "Just relax. Having pressure won't help you at all in a battle."
"Don't mind him Mash! If you need help I'll use my Command Seals to do so!" Ritsuka said to the shielder, giving support to his servant.
"Thank you senpai." She smiled to Ritsuka. "Now I'll make sure to defeat this servant!"
"Hehey, go a bit easy on me as well, will you?" The man chuckled a bit as he rubbed his ear. "This old man has just came back from retirement after all."
With that said, Mash and the spear servant started to fight, clashing with each other. Mash would try to hit him with her shield but the man was very agile and skillful with his weapon, parrying the attacks and being able to land two small hits on Mash's body after dodging.
"Mash is having difficulties to keep up with him!" Ritsuka noted as he saw the spearman block Mash's kick and strongly shoving Mash away with the spear despite her best efforts to stay in the place. The shielder had very short room and time to breath as the enemy servant was already trying to hit her again, altough not making much effort to do so.
"Aah! I've got you!"
Ritsuka wanted to continue watching the fight but a yell from an enemy pirate nearby reminded the master of humanity that he was in the middle of the battlefield and had to stay with his guard up. He was able to dodge the swing of the pirate's sword and grab his hands, struggling with the pirate for the sword's possession. Eventually and after some more struggle, Ritsuka was able to push the pirate off the ship altough the sword fell alongside the man to the water.
In the other area of the deck, Peko and Nala were fending off against the servant pair of Anne and Mary.
Nala focused on changing blows with Mary while Peko would fight Anne.
"Of what I heard, you two don't seem to like your captain very much." Nala said to Mary as their swords were doing sparks against one another.
"Yeah we don't." Mary responded to the other girl while still maintaining focused on the battle.
"Then why follow his orders? Why don't you two just leave him?" Nala questioned Mary and Anne's loyalty to Blackbeard.
"Simple. Gold and treasure. He promised us that so we'll stick with the jackass until then." Mary answered, making more pressure on the grip of her sword. "Now shut it and fight!"
Peko knew he shouldn't be hearing another conversation while fighting with Anne, but his ears simply couldn't help but catch the talk of his sister with Mary. "So you two are planning to backstab him?" He asked to Anne.
"If he continues like that and we eventually find that 'ark' he so much talks about...yeah we backstab him." Anne said with a cheerful smile despite speaking of her possible treacherous act. "Plus I think the rest of the servants wouldn't mind that much."
"I know he probably isn't a very great guy but that sounds cruel." Peko accused to Anne.
"Cruel? We are pirates boy! Things like dignity, honour and loyalty aren't very common among us." Anne responded. "As long as me and Mary keep winning, I could care less about being loyal to a random captain."
"Then good to know you aren't in Drake's crew." Peko said before proceeding to try to slash Anne's body.
The pirate woman however dodged it and kicked Peko in the hand that was wielding the sword, putting the boy open.
"Here goes!" Anne said as she fired her gun torwards Peko that was able to dodge and fire his own bullet in return, scrapping Anne's shoulder.
Peko went to make another cut but this time Anne blocked it by using her boot to parry the attack and in return kick Peko in the jaw. Creating space beetween the two, Anne took the chance to fire three bullet simultaneously, resulting in Peko having to dodge two and block the last one. He went back to charge at Anne, who dodged some blows from Peko's sword but ended up with a cut on the torso as she tried to dodge the last one.
Mary took a quick glance on her friend's fight with Peko, not liking very much of what she was seeing. "Hope you aren't getting slow at this age already." She then focused back on Nala, with the two clashing some more. Mary noticed something on Nala's style of combat. "I have to say. You fight quit fastly."
"Heh, what happened to the shut it and keep fighting part?" Nala responded to Mary's small compliment.
"Don't get me wrong. While your fighting style isn't bad at all, there's still something lacking." Mary said the last part in a cold tone, being able to overthrow Nala's sword and defense, making the girl lose her balance.
"Wha-"
"Your strokes don't carry much weight or great strenght." Mary made a cut on Nala's abdomen, greatly wounding her.
"D-Dammit!" Nala cursed as she coughed some blood and fell to the floor, feeling the pain of her injury.
"The attacks are easy to block when someone keeps up with the speed and memorizes the pattern." Mary looked down on Nala. "Honestly, how can you think of protecting anyone while lacking those aspects of combat?"
"Ggh! Y-you..." Nala wanted to continue fighting despite the wound.
"Nala!" Peko shouted as he briefly took a glance on his sister's fight. "She's in trouble! I should hel-"
"Where are you looking at kid?!" Anne yelled at him, gaining Peko's attention before shooting at him. Peko barely managed to dodged it.
Peko's eyes however went to look at Nala again, seeing her try to get up again. "If I don't go help her she may...!" Peko refused that tought, shaking his head. "N-No! That won't happen! Sis is strong after all! I know she will turn the things around." Peko shifted his focus back at Anne "I know you will Nala."
More to the right, Mash and Ritsuka were still occupied with the spearman servant, with Ritsuka catching sight of the injured Nala. "Nala's injured Mash!" Ritsuka told his servant.
"That's bad! We need to help her!" Mash talked back before defending a blow from the other servant.
"I'll try to reach her! Give me cover in the meantime!" Ritsuka ordered to Mash.
"Understood master! I'll try my best!" Mash replied.
Nala was starting had got back into her feet altough painly. She was starting to feel her legs losing some balance. The cut had been more damagitive than she expected. "This isn't good..."
Mary saw that her adversary wouldn't be able to keep going for much longer and so she decided to go for a mercy kill. "Well, at least you tried I gue-" Before Mary could try to attack Nala again, Asterios and Eric passed right in front of the small pirate, taking her by surprise as the two Berserkers were having a wild fight. "What the hell is with those two?! Eric should have the upperhand since the other servant is injured!"
Asterios and Eric were both madly dealing blows against each other either with punches or the axes. Asterios would defend Euryale with every tooth and nail he had, preventing the Bloodaxe king from having the chance to even approach the goddess. Every other pirate that was near their fight would be subjected to colateral damage from how mindlessly and feral the two berserkers were fighting against one another.
Even the spearman servant took a second off of his fight with Mash to stare at the other fight. "Woah, those two sure fight like monsters. Lucky to both of us that we aren't fighting neither of them." He let out a smile.
Seeing that Mary had been forced to take steps back in order to not be beaten by either one of the two berserkers, Ritsuka was able to approach Nala and give her some assistance. "I'm here Nala! You feeling okay?"
"Y-Yeah...This hit wasn't that strong..." Nala tried to not make Ritsuka worried, despite knowing that he would obviously see right through it.
As Asterios and Eric continued fighting, the minotaur servant didn't realized the mistake he had just made by focusing so much on the fight wit the enemy. He had left Euryale alone in the meantime. Even if Eric wouldn't be able to kidnap her, she was unguarded for someone else to try and do that.
And it was from Blackbeard's eye that the captain saw the chance. "Hehehe. You are coming back to us Euryale-chan!"Blakcbeard went to grab what appeard to be a cannon ball on the floor and threw at Drake's ship, precisely torwards Euryale.
Watching the cannon ball going on her direction, Euryale took the matter into her own hands and summoned a bow. "As if I'd let to be captured by you!" She fired the arrow, hitting the cannon ball that proceeded to explode in midair. However, Blackbeard was already counting on that by having thrown that specific cannon ball.
Appearing from the mist of the explosion, a sort of fishing net emerged and was about to fall down on Euryale, taking the goddess by surprise. "What?!"
"The net is going to capture her!" Ritsuka exclaimed as him and Nala could only watch helplessly. "Damn it! They will get her!"
But as they all tought Euryale had nowhere to run, Peko immediatly sprinted torwards her and pushed Euryale away. "GET BACK!" Peko exclaimed before sacrificing himself into being the one caught by the net instead.
"You-" Euryale said as she was trying to get up after being shoved by Peko, surprised and astonished by his act.
"Peko!" Nala immediatly tried to get to her brother and take him out of the net, but her strenght and energy was already scarce on her body. "Don't give up on me now!"
Ritsuka helped Nala to still maintain her balance. "Don't worry! We will both take Peko out of that net! Just keep strong Nala!"
Being left alone, Anne used the free space and time she had to create an idea. An explosive idea. "Well now, the storage room must be..." She pointed her gun to the deck's ground. "Right here! Mary!" She shouted to her friend who stared back at her.
"What is it?" She asked.
Anne's weapon started to shine and charged up as the pirate woman smiled to Mary. "Time to do some fireworks!" She pushed the trigger and a powerful bullet pierced the deck's floor and went to the storage room, about to creat an explosion on Drake's hull.
It was so sudden that Ritsuka could only do one thing after see it happen right next to him and Nala. Selflessly, the master of humanity put himself in front of Nala. "NALA WATCH-"
The shockwaves of the explosion send the two flying, making Nala hit the back of her head on the ship's border.
"Gah-!"
Spirited Away OST- Inochi No Namae
"You had to pick up a fight with other kids again, hadn't you?" A female voice sounded, scolding a girl who was sitting in a chair.
"...Sorry mom." Nala said with a sorrowful voice, her head lowered as she tought about what she had done earlier this day. Her body and face a bit dirtied and beaten, with some bandages being applied by the female figure who had just talked to Nala.
"It's okay. Just stay quiet while I put the bandage on you, okay dear? Also, promise me you won't go around punching boys twice your size again please." The mom told her, not wanting to see her child coming back home after involving into another fight.
"But I had too! They were bullying Peko! He just wanted to play with them and...and I couldn't stand there just watching. Not with him being treated like that." Nala let her voice raise out a bit, getting furious by remembering what the other kids were doing with her sibling.
"I knew you had reasons to do what you did Nala, but that's why we just don't go walking around among the people with our real identities. They may feel envy or other type of things torwards us." This time a male voice said, with a male figure appearing behind the female one.
"That still doesn't excuse those idiots for having beaten my brother! You know I'm right dad!" Nala almost yelled, tightening her fists.
"Well, you could have tried to just take Peko out of there with you or threaten the other kids. Resolve things without much violence, you know?" The dad tried to calm Nala down while giving her some advice.
"You wouldn't do that. Would you dad?" Nala responded, doubting of her own dad's words and advice.
"Hm, I'm an adult dear. So I'm expected to act like one." The dad explained to her.
"...I see." Nala said lowly.
"Eitherway, I hope that doesn't repeat again. Are we clear Nala?" The mom asked to her daughter, hoping it would be the last time she would have to hear something troublesome.
"Crystal clear mom." Nala responded.
"Good. I'm going to start preparing dinner. It will be ready in half an hour." The mom said to Nala and her dad.
"Understood honey." The dad replied back before looking at his daughter and whispering. "Now beetween the two of us dear. How bad did those kids got?"
Nala giggled at hearing that. "Heh, more messed up than me, that's for sure."
"That's my girl." The dad patted Nala in the head.
"Honestly if I was there I would have broken some fingers." The mom said while grabbing some carrots to chop.
"H-Hey now love, no need to be that extreme as well, hahahahaha." The dad laughed a bit nervously at his wife's comment. "You will always look after him, won't you Nala?"
"Yes! Of course I will!" Nala answered, making both of her parents smile.
"Good. Always take care of one another."
"You and Peko are lucky for having one another."
Their voices were warm, gentle, happy and kind. It made the girl feel at ease. She was next to her parents after all. The people who she loved and would continue to love next to her brother. Just hearing their voices again made all the pain on Nala's body dissapear like magic. She was okay. She was at home.
Slowly opening her eyes, Nala woke up to look at the light from the ceilling of one of the room's of Drake's ship.
"Fou fou."
She slightly turned her head that had been restion on a pillow to the right, making eye contact with Fou who was sitting right next to her face, probably having waited for the girl to wake up.
"Fou?" Nala looked to the room with her eyes. It seemed what she had experienced had just been a dream.
"Thank god you are alright Nala!" Right next to her bed, she found Mash sat on a chair, with a look of relief on her face for seeing the girl had woke up from her unconscious state.
Behind the shielder and leaning on a wall of the room, Drake was also present. "Glad to see you alright kid." She said with a small smile who quickly faded away.
Nala tried to get her back off of the bed. "W-What happen-hrgh!" Nala felt a sharp pain on her head, quickly grabbing it with her hand. She felt that a bandage had been put around her forhead.
"Don't try moving too much for now!" Mash told her, immediatly putting a hand on Nala's back and the other on her shoulder. "You were injured pretty badly during the fight, so rest for now." The shielder advised her.
"O-Okay." Nala said, feeling the pain slowly going away. "But what happened? The fight? Blakcbeard's ship and all that?"
Drake sighed. "We lost kid. Those damn bastards blew up a hole in the ship's hull." She informed Nala. "We had to retreat or else it would sink. Asterios was a great help by lifting up the whole damn thing in order to not sink. That servant is truly a beast. Capable of doing that despite the injuries and all."
Hearing that, Nala sadly lowered her head, staring at the blanket. "So we were defeated."
"Yes." Drake's hair overshadowed her eyes has the woman closed her hands into fists. "That Blackbeard...I'll make him pay for what he has done!" She said angrily, surprising both Nala and Mash. This was possibly the angriest they had seen Drake. A person that was usually cheerful and happy go lucky, so it was rare to see this much anger on her.
Nala was now looking for something. She found it strange how the whole group wasn't inside the room and only Mash and Fou were with her. What about the rest? "Humm, where is Peko and Ritsuka? Shouldn't they be here on the room with you as well?"
Mash bit her bottom lip and avoided to stare at Nala. She wasn't sure if she should tell her right now. Or how could she even tell. But right now, not wanting to tell would only make Nala realize that something was wrong. "Peko and master were..." She hesitated for a second. Nala probably wouldn't be able to handle it very well. Drake was there to tell Nala instead, but Mash felt it was something she should say and not the captain.
Nala wasn't liking who Mash was taking some time to respond, getting a bit worried. "Please Mash. W-Where are they?"
Not being able to hide it, Mash took a forced deep breath before looking at Nala. "They were captured by Blackbeard."
To be continued...
And that's it for chapter 41 ladies and gentleman!
This chapter was quite fun to write honestly. Specially the final scenes. That's right, Okeanos of this fic will start to change a bit compared with the one from the game now. So expect more Blackbeard next chapter now that Ritsuka and Peko are with him. This chapter was basically his introduction and very first fight with him and the other servants of the same crew, to get the first impressions from them (I'm here saying first impressions from characters the fandom has known from years now lol)
And now, I want to give you thanks to the people who have been accompanying this story. Just to think that it has already been (or will be) one entire year ever since I decided to start this story...wow, how the time flies. And to be honest, if someone told me one year ago right after I published my first chapter, that fast forward 365 days and I would still be writing this story, already into 40 chapters and over 300k words...I wouldn't have believed you. I'd probably respond 'Yeah, sure hope so.'
Like, I have to admit that at the start I wasn't with very high hopes for it. It was entire ideas and concepts that had been imagined and visualized into my brain that started to join together and form the aspect of a story. And I was a bit hesitant at the beggining, like 'Damn, what if nobody cares or likes my story? What if they hate it instead?' But then I was just 'Screw it! I'll write as far as it can go and for fun if nobody likes it and also, the only way to know is by continue writing it'.
So to know now that after one year, I have 26 people and possible even more reading the story that I had imagined for so much time, with characters that would always stay in my head and that I wanted to share, it's marvelous! It's refreshing! You guys dont know how my body would fuel with energy everytime I'd receive a notification of someone liking the story. That this person had decided to spent their time off to read chapters of my story of a gacha game and franchise that we both like and show their support and love...it's perhaps top3 best feelings ever.
And I know that when compared to probably other fics out there and also in the Fate fandom, 26 might not look very high. But to me is good. It's great! Having that number already in the first year of my fic already surpassed my expectations. Sure that my fic is also the type that can seem long to the people who still didn't give it a chance and I admit there was some chapters were I abused of the word count. But I'd consider my fic to have a good hell we are already in Okeanos while Orleans took a damn half year XD So I'd say if at the beggining I'd updated like I do now and didn't had that hiatus in October, we would probably be in London already or even perhaps at Pluribus Unum (I don't expect to have gotten that name right)
But anyway, thank you for the readers who have been sharing their support to my story and choosing to embark on this journey. Thank you for having made my story grow on its first year. And let's hope that when this fic makes its 2nd anniversary, we can have more people joining in by then. If not, then I'll continue writing till the end with the people that are already on board and gave a chance to my imagination.
Anyways, that's all I wanted to say and see you next time on chapter 42! Peace!
P.S: Another little scenario. (Yeah now I'm into doing this stuff as well)
Peko: Hey Kadoc! Kadoc! What is that game your have over there?
Kadoc: A new one I just purchased yesterday.
Nala: Ooooh cool! Can we play it as well?
Kadoc: (Moves the videogame away from the two) Sorry but it's way too violent for you two.
Nala: Aww c'mon now! Can't we even play for a tiny bit?
Peko: Even for half a minute or just press a button?
Kadoc: I already said no. It's a game that only me and Ritsuka can play. Also you should be-
(Peko and Nala pull out the cuttest and innocent faces ever)
Peko: Please Big Bro. Just give us a chance.
Nala: Yeah. Just for this one time Big Bro Kadoc.
(Kadoc feels a sudden pain in his heart)
Kadoc: Gragh! Wha-What is this feeling?!
Ritsuka: You'll get used to it...
