06

On the ship, Leatrix heaved a sigh of relief once she saw Kael reach their vessel, she lifted her leg from Warwick's head, only to twist her lips into a frown.

"He's already dead." She mused, the weight of her foot had long since mashed the captain's skull and forcefully popped his one eyeball out of its socket.

The once proud captain had been decreased to nothing but a mutilated corpse, and his burial ground would at best be the dark seabed.

With a discontent look in her eyes, Leatrix turned to leave, wiping her golden stiletto against her green kilt, which draped over tight-fitted knee-length white socks. 

However, a heavy jump broke through the main deck halting her steps, she flung her head back and locked eyes with the same beast man from before crouched down on the deck, his captain in his arms.

"That's payback for that punch earlier." She proclaimed, half expecting him to lunge forward in a revenge assault. But rather he picked up the captain's eyeball, plopped it back into its socket, then closed his already broken jaw.

Leatrix gasped when her vision landed on a triangular tattoo on the right side of his chest, peeking out of his shirt as he hoisted the corpse off the deck.

"Tch. I might have just done you a favor," she growled under her breath, moving toward the forecastle deck, and parting ways with the beast-man.

Hopefully for good.

He promptly rose to his feet, hauling the captain over his shoulder, and strode towards the main mast, which was split in two. He flung his head back and sat beside it, right after laying the captain carefully on the ground.

"Guys! We're leaving!" Leatrix yelled out from above, her men shook their heads and hastily withdrew from battle, flocking over to where their commander stood.

The pirates who knew they were both outnumbered and outmatched, stood back, concentrating more on making an effort to evacuate before the ship capsizes. With their captain gone, the crew automatically disbanded. Causing a huge panic as every man fought to save himself!

Meanwhile...

On the invader's ship, Leo shoved his legs and furiously tossed his head back, battling against the ropes that tied him to the main mast.

"Untie me already! I'll kick your ass if you don't." He shouted at the kid, who roamed across the empty deck paying no mind to his hostage.

"I mean it, I have concealed strength that you can only dream of..."

"Shut up for a second ." Kael sharply interjected, pulling open a piece of the deck. He brought out a black box that had symbols Leo couldn't read inscribed at every side and lifted its top.

"What is that?" Leo uttered under his breath as he watched the kid pull out a long black rock and draw something across the deck.

In minutes, he finished his drawing of what looked to be a pentacle. Standing in the middle, Kael pushed his palm forward and under his breath made some inaudible incantations.

A strong gush of wind flooded by, as the exteriors of the shape lit up. Satisfied, Kael exited the pentacle and reached into the box. Leo quietly observed him pull out a small red pouch with loose golden threads.

Kael grimaced.

He lifted the underside, emptying the contents of the pouch which summed up to two garnet gemstones and an IOU note.

"This is bad." Kael listlessly announced, rising from his feet.

"What's going on now?"

"The teleportation shard is gone." He vaguely responded, reclining against the mast most casually.

"How come you look so awfully chill about it? Isn't it important?" Leo implored, wondering why he abruptly ended his little incantation.

"And more importantly, what is a teleportation shard?" He snapped, on the brink of having his brain fried if someone didn't sit him down and explain things.

Kael tucked his arms across his shoulders, letting out a sigh he answered, "it's a one-time use item infused with Mana, designed especially for teleportation purposes."

Leo nodded, "oh, so the portal you guys used earlier was the teleportation shard?"

"Yes." The kid answered, "I wonder if I can..." He mumbled to himself staring intently at his fingers.

Leo who thought he had his head wrapped around the idea, piped up, "hold on, why can't you just use magic to transport yourselves?"

Kael blinked twice, "did you grow up under a rock?" His voice was flat, and his eyes serious, proof that he wasn't trying to crack a joke.

"Teleportation magic is even rarer than Leatrix's gravitation magic, if we had someone who could create portals, we wouldn't spend twenty garnet gemstones to purchase a teleportation shard." His unequivocal voice spat out, as he relaxed his shoulders towards the end.

'Did that cost much? Come to think of it, the captain said something about me owing him gemstones.'

*Bang*

Leo and Kael turned their heads towards the other ship, an explosion just went off, a rather loud one.

"At this rate, they'll all die." Kael informed him, "I'm so frustrated." He said with flattened eyebrows, his words not matching his expression.

"Die you say? Can't you bring them back or something?"

"Were you even listening? Without a teleportation shard, I can't activate the portal I've drawn. My Mana grants me Ice and snow abilities, I can't channel teleportation Mana fragments as the shard can." He sharply replied, walking over to take a close look at the other ship.

"Maybe if I can freeze the surface of the sea long enough for them to run across it." He pinched his chin, contemplating the idea.

"But, I'm out of stamina to carefully solidify the ice, it could break and everyone would fall to their freezing demise..."

As Kael carefully contemplated his options, Leo took a look at the pentacle which was still glowing, and an idea popped up in his head.

"You just need to charge this thing right? Isn't there a stone inside me? Then just use me! The damned thing has been causing a ruckus in my system." He suggested, casually the problem coming up with the most basic response.

All the talk about stones, shards, and gemstones didn't make much sense to him, but ever since he swallowed that stone, Leo could feel a slight change inside him.

Or perhaps it was all in his head.

Kael pensively looked over his shoulder at him, "are you saying the philosopher's stone is activated?"

Leo rolled his tongue around his mouth, 'better to play along, for now, this kid looks like he might rip open my insides out of desperation.'

"Yeeeeah" He replied, placing too much stress on the word, even as a beer delivery man, Leo had always been a terrible liar.

He was almost fired once when he admitted to a customer that the miscount in his order, was caused by a bug in the company's system.

Kael who seemed to lack the common ability to seethe through deception nodded, "I see, then let's go with that, it'll charge it faster and make the portal even larger."

Another loud bang drew both their attention towards the near capsizing ship, only this time, the main deck had split into two!

"That's looking bad..."

"It is, let's hurry," Kael told him, untying the knot that held Leo hostage. Just as Leo was about to stretch his limbs and take a deep breath, he felt something cold prod at the left side of his neck.

He looked down to see a piece of ice shaped like a blade, its sharp tip pressed against his skin, just eager to pierce into his flesh.

"One chance." The blue-eyed boy warned into his ear, "If this idea doesn't work, I'll rip out your guts and take out the stone."