chapter 22

the next morning Arowens biological clock did its job and he woke up early in the morning, he felt a little bit tired but he was already used to wake up that early so he fought the sleep and got to his feet, the gentle sway of the ship informed him that they are still sailing and that the weather was fine so he freshened up, wore his shoes and went to the ships Deck to breathe the fresh air

once on the Deck what greeted him was not the sunny and blue sky, the sky was covered by grey clouds for as far as the eye could see, there were clouds everywhere and even though sea was calm, the atmosphere was gloomy

"just my luck, the fking weather is just horrible, and what's with the heat"

not only was Arowen greeted by gloomy weather and it was also very hot, but that didn't faze him he was already prepared for some crazy shit anyway, though it didn't help his mood that turned sour, on the deck he could spot crew members running around trying to fix the ship, after such a storm it was bound to receive some damage, hopefully, the mast was intact, it was reinforced with iron so no worries there, the mast is the most important component of a ship, without it it would be considered crippled as there would be no way to move in the sea,

watching the crew moving around being busy arowen didn't want to bother them so he moved to a corner where he will not disturb anyone nor would anyone disturb him and started moving through the motions of his swordplay, the 8 attack directions, stabbing at vital points in the air, and also defending, he was training in slow motion, now that his strength and speed reached the limits he found that slow-mo training is the best for control and precision, and as a Dreamer he didn't worry about his attributes declining like a normal human if he stopped training for a long time, in fact, he could slumber for a 100 years and his physical attributes would not decline, but of course he still needs nutrients to survive

a few hours later, Arowen was sweating bullets and under him was a little puddle of his sweat, as vapor was steaming out of his skin, but he never stopped he was concentrating on the motion of his sword, slow and fluid, which is easy to say but harder to put on display, that was until he heard an alarm going on

"PIRATES AHEAD!!" the watcher on top of the mast spotted a pirate ship on the horizon and looked at the direction the watcher pointed, there in the distance he could spot a black dot, quickly the ship got into position and charged at the pirate ship, it was on the way and with the wind, they will reach it in 10 minutes, Arowen was also getting ready, as was the whole ship for battle, he spent the whole morning conditioning his body, so he only had to prepare himself mentally as this will be his first time fighting to the death against another human being, he already was used to fighting animal and killing them, but this time it is a different thing after all they were the same species, and he was thought all his life on earth about the importance of human life, and how killing is wrong, though he didn't buy into that bullshit in the past and he didn't think it would be any different right now but he couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous

when they were at cannon distance from the pirate ship, they each faced sideways and canon fire deafened his ears, and after each round of fire the ships would get closer, the pirates in the grand line unlike the blues were bolder and crazier, they would fight the marines tooth and nail so they didn't run and chose to face them, as for Arowen, in the midst of all these cannon fire he tried his best to protect the ship, the first volley using his sword he slashed at canon ball and it was easily separated in two but unlike the anime, it didn't go to two separate ways and fallen into the sea, instead, the momentum if his slash was only enough for it to avoid hitting him and the two parts of the cannonball fell on the ship doing double the damage it would have done otherwise

'lesson learned no slashing canon balls'

the next volley Arowen didn't make the same mistake, instead of slashing, he stabbed the cannonball and it was skewered on his sword, this time he caught two cannonballs that were close together heading for the mast, then with quick thinking, he whipped his sword in the direction of the pirate ship and the two cannonballs were sent flying towards it, this attack of his was successful as one ball hit a pirate but the other failed to hit and fell to the sea

meanwhile, the other marines were firing there cannon and guns in the direction of the pirates, and just before the third volley the ships were close enough for boarding, ropes flew between the ships, marines boarded the pirate ship and pirates boarded the marine ship, it was chaos, not only that the third volley was loaded and cannons were fired in close range putting a few holes on both the ship's side, the pirate ship was more damaged as the marines ship was reinforced with iron

when the boarding battle started, Arowen chose to remain and protect the ship, he wasn't used to such large scale battles, he didn't have much experience on group fights except for a few wolf packs in the forest and even then they were less than a dozen, but this is a battlefield, it was chaotic so he chose the safest option and stayed to protect the ship, he won't die even if he was surrounded but he didn't want to take the risk of injury, in the middle of the sea it may prove to be fatal

with that said, Arowen was now faced with a pirate that stunk to high heaven, his teeth were yellow and he looked crazed holding his saber, the pirate attacked immediately with surprising ferocity and speed, but Arowen was no pushover, plus to him, the pirate was moving very slow, his footing was unsteady, and the swing looked clumsy to his eyes, Arowen didn't hesitate and cut through the saber, also liberating his head in the same attack, and to his surprise, he didn't feel a thing, it was just like when he killed other animals, it was the survival of the fittest

'it seems that I was right, and it was just the society and TV trying to shape into thinking that it will be horrible if we killed another human, that we will have nightmares, that we will be monsters, but I can understand where they are coming from, after all, if everybody started killing, there will be chaos and we as a species wouldn't have advanced as far as we did...'

Arowen didn't have time to dwell on that thought any longer, he was brought out of his thoughts by another pirate who thought he could sneak attack him from behind only to be met with a sword to the face, and so the attack continued and the pirates were almost wiped out except for a few who surrendered