Chapter 17

A hood concealing his face, his metallic boots clanged with the armoured floor of his battleship as he walked towards the edge of the Mace. Trident by his side, Thorace surveyed the entire terrain if the battlefield. The grand mountains blazed like monuments underneath the rays of the twelve suns, along with the menancing look of the battleships surrounding him, Thorace could see that he had been cornered, but that didn't mean he had been caught, instead, it gave him the opportunity to make the conflict even more interesting, and the way the tables were about to turn would be dramatic.

"I can feel it", Trident said taking in the air, "the heat of battle."

"You read my mind Trident", Thorace remarked, "I'm really anxious to get in the zone."

Staring at the battlecarpets above him, five in all, they were the flagships of this fleet. He knew who they were, Thorace smiled, and he was as the one who had come looking for them - the real instigator of this conflict. Not a laurel to his reputation as a cosmic pirate, but it didn't matter to him, they had something which was if keen interest to him and from experience, anything that had to do with pirates that served the Feudal Order had nothing good about it. It was always another strategy to either dominate and take over a new race or, to take down pirates like him who weren't loyal to the feudal lords of the interstellar.

"How can we be", Trident snorted, "we aren't puppets like them who only serve where gains are to be made, not regarding the means of attaining such quests."

"You're right Trident, we don't serve cosmic lords who rule as tyrants and we don't play in the little league of plundering the astral seas. The differences are lucid, they're just pirates at sea, but we are cosmic pirates of the astral seas and we don't serve anyone or any unjust cause."

Thorace could feel the burning rays of this plain's suns fall on his armour as though he stood beneath a waterfall of fire. He nevertheless needed the heat, intense as it was, it resonated with the intensity of his soul.

"Thorace", a voice called from above, "so you've finally decided to show up, we can consider your surrender, because you aren't leaving this place alive."

Thorace lifted his gaze to the skies then lowered his head downwards, he recognized the voice and also knew its owner, so there wasn't any need straining his eyes just to catch a glimpse of the fool underneath the blinding rays of these suns.

"Norgus", Thorace called, "you know that I came here on my own accord, so don't think you have me cornered because you're the ones who are going to have a taste of what surrender means."

"You never change braggart," another said.

"Nord", Thorace responded, "my words are backed by actions, I never say what I don't mean to do, I'm only being honest and that's just too brutal for your over bloated ego."

"Honest indeed", another voice sneered, "honest that you don't obey the orders of the feudal lords."

"He thinks he's a cosmic lord himself, I'm just anxious for the day that his demise will come."

"And that day is now", the fifth said, "I don't see how you're going to escape this Thorace Nertival."

"Zorg, Shev and Dorvin", Thorace sighed, "why don't you petty puppets ever learn, you think I'm planning on retreating - that's what I never do."

"Braggart !" Zorg yelled. "I'm going to plunge my sword into your bowels if you don't shut that trap of yours."

"Your threats don't intimidate the likes of me Zorg", Thorace replied, "if you want to satisfy your inferior state of mind, a duel isn't far from being considered."

"Thorace !" Zorg yelled, prepared to take a dive from the edge of the battlecarpet but a hand gripped his shoulder pulling him backwards.

"I don't see any need for that", Norgus scolded, "you're only playing to his mind games. They're just the way they are, arrogant and confounded in their pride which will definitely be their downfall."

To them, Thorace and any pirate who broke away from the faction of pirates that served the will of the cosmic lords was a traitor. Who did Thorace and his partners think they were ? Just because they were able to resist being subdued by the intergalactic emperors, they thought that they could take complete control of the cosmic plains of this realm. Even with their cosmic arcades, their state of existence was simply a resistance that was one day going to get crushed.

All five stared down at Thorace seething within from the defeats and losses they had incurred from him. They had lost cosmic beasts, battleships, battlecarpets, interstellar chariots, cosmic minerals, precious astral stones and metals, interstellar cities, astral barracks and galaxies. Foremost of Ali, his gang of cosmic pirates had hindered the the feudal lords from being able to harness their most powerful weapon - the cosmic arcades. How they were able to successfully guard it from being taken over or created was a mystery to the Feudal Order. The Astral League of Cosmic Pirates had always been what had kept the Feudal Order in uncertainty about the control they had over their realms. But with no alliance as such to have been founded within their realms, they had taken the League as a myth, a myth which still had the element of trying surrounding it.

"So what made you risk your safety to come trailing us all the way here Thorace ? You could instead have used such amount of time and energy in building another cosmic arcade or impede the plans of another cosmic lord to seize a territory," said Norgus.

"Because the grand scheme is what you're carrying out," Thorace replied grinning.

"You never cease to amuse me Thorace Nertival," Norgus laughed.

"Neither do you Norgus", Thorace answered, "don't think you can fool me, you know what I want so calmly hand it over Norgus."

"And what is that ?" Norgus challenged.

"The Trail Disector," Thorace answered.

All five pirates restrained themselves from gasping, how did these so-called cosmic pirates get to know their every move ? The Trail Disector was an astral weapon and machine, designed to be used by the Feudal Order in creating cosmic arcades of their own, it could also be used as a link to other arcades that had been harnessed as well as the ones still non-existent, it had the ripple effect of bringing hundreds under the control of the Feudal Order. The possibility of it being able to accomplish such a feat had not been confirmed, and even before it had been put to test here was Thorace Nertival demanding for it.

Obliging to Thorace's threat would mean facing the wrath of the Feudal Order, and not playing to this piper's tune would lead them into a battle that they were certain was going to end disastrously for them. Now it was beginning to make sense to Norgus, they had all been playing to Thorace's plan all along by attacking him in the first place, but drawing them into a Stereo-asteroid, Norgus knew wasn't just a coincidence - every move made by Thorace Nertival always had an outcome.

"Call for a retreat !" Norgus yelled. "We have to get out of this place as fast as we can."

"Too late," Thorace sighed, they'll just have to face him head-on.