Assesment and, Unexpected Development

Roland turned around and saw an old man with a big nose, the old man had a stethoscope around his neck. Roland immediately jumped away in fright, not only because of the creepiness of the situation, but because of {Keen intuition}.

[Species: Human]

Assasment Comprehensive strength: Unable to Judge

'What does 'Unable to Judge' mean?' Roland was confused by this new term. He had a guess in his head but he didn't dare believe it.

"Oh my, young people are so lively." The old man had a humble and honest expression, the old man gave off the feeling of being a kind old man. 

"Are you ok young man?" The old man asked with a concerned expression.

"Yeah I'm fine." Roland quickly regained his composure. 'I need to learn how to control my emotions.'

Roland didn't want to be like an open book in front of others; it is always better to remain inconspicuous in front of everyone not just your adversaries, this will also benefit in threatening situation.

"Your the youth who we found adrift in the middle of nowhere." The old man flushed a wide grin,"You must have a very intresting story. Pray do tell, how did you end up in such a situation?"

Listening to this old man's words, Roland couldn't help frown.

He thought for a sec and replied,"How rude of me, I didn't get sirs name. I'm Roland, and regarding the matters of the 'intresting story', I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. You see, I have no knowledge of anything prior to waking up, besides my name that is."

The old man's eyebrows lifted momentarly, he ignored Roland's words and said, "Oh my, what an eloquent tongue you have there! You must have been taught well!

"Mr. Apus we need your assistant treating the injured." Just then, First Commander walked over and spoke to the old man respectfully. 

The old man, Apus, nodded, he looked at Roland, "I look forward to hearing your story."

First Commander looked at Roland with a wierd expression, "The quicker you clean the deck, the quicker you'll get your meal"

Roland didn't know whether to laugh, cry or sigh. He saw the suspicious gaze of the First Commander. He couldn't help but frown, 'Why would First Commander react in such a way? forget it, I'm too hungry to think about this.'

Roland shook his head as he looked the wracked ship that resembled a dirty teenager's room. There was red and green blood the deck, the red blood obviously belonged to the crew, while the green blood belonged to the flying fish.

Roland approached one of the fishes that was twitching on the ground, he picked it up and threw it into the ocean. He was an organised person in his previous life, he discarded the corpses of the fish, moved the destroyed parts of the ship and followed along with his mop and bucket. Due to the rain, the blood wasnt sticky so it wasn't that hard for him.

Roland was distracted while cleaning, more specifically, his attention was on the side. The old man, Apus, was in fact a healer or the 'medic' of the ship. He was cleaning word and applying bandages to various people, but Roland's interest was on what he did for the seriously injured people, that had either lost a limb or had life-threatening wounds.

The old man stretched out a wand, his lips moved rapidly, seemingly chanting a spell. Water wrapped around the person's wound, and the wound healed. Sadly, severed limbs couldn't be grown back. One person's arms which had been bitten of and was basically 'hanging by a string', was restored after some great effort. The key was that his bones hadn't been severed.

Apus's expression was getting paler and paler, the more he casted his spell. He would rest and drink some potions every now and then. 

'Looks like the spell requires some great effort.' Roland didnt realise that the novelty of this word was already stalking him, like a predator hunting it's prey.

"Hey!"

Just as Roland, absentmindedly threw a dead flying fish in the ocean. First Commander, who was helping move some broken parts of the shipe. Spotted him and walked over and shouted, "Hey! Listen those fishes are worth a lot of money, put them in that bucket over there." 

"I'm sorry, I had no idea." Roland recovered from his shock.

"Just remember in the future." First Commander knew that the 'Kid' was still young and didn't know any better. First Commanders looked hesitant and asked, "What did Apus say to you just now?"

"We didn't talk much. He suddenly appeared behind me and asked to hear about my past. I told him I don't remember anything besides my name and that's when you arrived."

"Hmm." First Commander fell into thought, after a while he came to and left to help the others.

'There must be a story!' Roland glanced at the old medic who was helping others with a smile on his face. He quickly dismissed those thoughts as this had nothing to do with him, he was currently hungry and had to focus on cleaning.

Time slowly passed.

The dark clouds still covered the sky and the rain was falling and didn't show signs of letting up. Roland and a few able-bodied people were helping with the cleaning. Those injured had left to recuperate.

"First Commander, there's trouble!"

Just then, somewhere from atop the ship came a loud shout. First Commander looked at the direction the scout was pointing at.

A fleet of about ten ship, were slowly drifting from the horizon. First Commander saw the fluttering red flag and his expression grew grim, and he blurted out, "Pirates."

'Judging from the amount of ships, they knew we were coming this way. Otherwise they wouldn't be in such a dangerous area. No one knew about this last minutes change in rout, not even the Sterling family, so how did the pirates know? it had to have come from someone in the crew.'

'Traitor!' First Commander was shocked. Most of the people here he could trust with his own life, there wasn't anyone he could think off who'd betray. His gaze suddenly landed on Roland, 'but my instincts tells me it's not him.'

"First Commander! What are your orders?" Getting no response, the scout, shouted anxiously.

"Prepare for combat! And prepare to raise those sails on my signal!" With gritteed teeth, First Commander issued his order. 

This wasn't a wise decision. Some of the crew weren't in any condition to fight, and most of them were completely exhausted, their combat ability was at it's lowest. Even if they hadn't encounter the attack from earlier, just from the ship's alone, they were outnumbered. 

Surrendering wasn't an option. These types of pirates weren't know for their 'reasonable' personalities. Also the 'cargo' of this journey, was very valuable, but they also had a member of the merchant family.

The crew who could still stand, quickly raised their weapons, seemingly ready for combat. Roland on the other side could only lament at his terrible luck. His seemingly indifferent eyes looked at the approaching ships. 

Indifference didn't mean he wasn't worried or was fearless, on the contrary he wasn't overcome by his fears like last time.

As the ship's were getting closer and closer to each other. A shout came from the biggest ship, that was also in the fore most position.

"Surrender or die!" The voice carried ridicule behind it. 

A middle-aged man wearing, dirty rugged clothes was standing on the bowspirit(a long horizontal or vertical pole situated in the front of a ship ) of the ship holding a scimiter in his hand. 

The captain gave Roland a different vibe then everyone else, as if he was on a different level then everyone else. This dangerous feeling seemed to be above the First Commander.

Similar clad individuals could be seen on all the other ships, all laughing and behaving in a crud manner. Roland involuntarily thought of a certain movie franchise when he saw these outfits.

Hearing these words, everyone's face on the meechant ship was unsightly, but they still remained unyielding. Roland swept his gaze at the crew and shook his head. For him, surviving was top priority, he wasn't attached to any of these people but he had to admire them.

First Commander gritted his teeth, "Prepare for combat."

"Don't say we didn't give you a chance. Kill them all!" The Captain of the pirates waved his weapon with a shout.

Everyone, was ready for combat. As the ship's inched closer and closer, the pirate ship's had blocked the front and sides of the merchant family. 

The pirates on the ships swung on ropes and landed on the merchant ships. The merchant crew was instantly outnumber, 1:4. 

[Species: Human]

Assasment Comprehensive strength: Unable to Judge

Roland who tried to escape, in order to hide and not deal with this situation, had his path blocked by a skinny pirate.

'Seems like the overall strength of the pirates, surpassed the merchant crew.' With these thought, Roland threw a bucket of water at the unsuspecting pirate, and turned around and ran away. 

Soon the clashes of weapons, sounded across the ship. Unsurprisingly, the merchant crew was instantly supressed by the pirates. 

"Raise the sails!" First Commander shouted as he dashed towards the captain of the pirates, who was surrounded by others who had a similar dangerous vibe. They should be the captains of the other ships.

First Commander knew he couldn't afford to fight of so many pirates head on, especially when his crew's combat strength was at it's weakest. His only hope now was to try and escape.

The sails dropped and the ship jerked forward, this move undoubtedly caught everyone off guard, everyone jerked forward. 

First Commander who was prepared took advantage of this situation and slashed at the closest 'smaller captain' and rushed towards the others. 

The other captains reacted quickly and rushed towards First Commander. A fight instantly ensured and the first commander got on the defence as wounds appeared around his body.

The 'main pirate captain' just stood there and watched everything unfold. First Commander didn't allow himself to be surrounded so a pursuit was underway.

This all happened in an instant, just as the ship started moving, it crashed into two other pirate ship's. The two pirates ships bowspirite, crashed into the merchant ship and got parried away. The merchant ship seemed to be made of stronger material then the pirate ship's. 

First Commander was prepared for the second jerky motion and allowed a sword to slash his cheek, he took this opportunity to stab at the attackers neck.

Of the previous eight 'smaller captains', only six were left. This made the 'main' captain frown, but he didn't take any action. 

The merchant ship squeezed inbetween the two ships but was ultimately stuck in the middle. An eeb and flow motion like the ocean on the beach, was created, making everyone fighting unstable.

Roland who was on his hands and knees, didn't encounter this problem. That damned pirate who he escaped from, kept chasing after him and ignored everyone else. Roland thought of the times, he got chased by players who where better then him in online FPS games from his previous world. Only this time more then his rank points were at stake.

Roland 'crawled' forward and backward, using other people as cover. He obviously disturbed others who where fighting, and they cursed him out.

'No shame in trying to survive.'

Just then his leg was gripped but a strong hand he couldn't break free from. The person lifted him up with one hand, "Gotcha"

When Roland saw the skinny face of his 'follower', his face paled.

"First Commander, trouble behind us!" 

Just then, the scouts desperate shout, overwhelmed the sounds of battle, reaching every corner of the ship including the other pirates ships.

This confused everyone, and everyone stopped fighting.

Brother, can't you see we're in the middle of fighting for our lives? What could be more important then this? Come to think of it, why are you up there still scouting? Shouldn't you be helping us? Regardless, the merchant crew slowly turned their heads to look.

With a large number of people turning their heads, like a domino effect, everyone, including the captains followed suit. Everyone's eyes simultaneously widened, everyone tilted their heads upwards in unison as a huge shadow was forecasted on everyone.