Chapter 58 - Pirates on deck! (2)

"The ghost dragon spat out the ghost of the pirate captain, the ghost actually the soul of the captain. The pirates let go of their weapons as they lost the will to fight while Lance grabbed the ghost. The pirate ghost turned into a small flame the color of snow and water within Lance's grasp.

"Consumption of mana is too taxing. Still, this is a complete soul. According to the *Necromonicon*, I can use the soul to create a bone golem with complete control over it. Not a shred of free will will exist, and the pirate becomes a puppet to live for all time. The sad part is, the golem is indestructible, and only I can give his soul peace. If I die, he'll stay as a golem for all eternity. I need to find a way to integrate magic into martial arts. It's clear, through the existence of warriors who use mana and mages, that it is incomparably difficult to become both. Perhaps I should make a short spear so that one hand can cast magic while I use my practitioner arts and martial arts with the rest of my body," Lance muttered, oblivious to the pirates and sailors as he immersed himself in his revelation.

"We surrender. Just let us live from him," a pirate said to a nearby sailor, the other pirates nodding in agreement.

"What do we do?" the sailor asked his captain as Lance looted the living, soulless body of the pirate captain.

"Ah, shit," Lance said as he stored the flame inside the ring of the dead captain, realizing what he did as he heard the sailor. "I should have used a regular dragon. No one else had seen that type of dragon outside Pangu. The people below deck should not have seen anything. That solves that problem."

"What's going on?" a sailor asked as the bone mice scurried over the decks of both ships. The mice swarmed, and at least two jumped and attached themselves to the chests of the sailors and pirates.

"Ah... so this is to be my fate," the captain of the sailors sighed as realization dawned in his eyes.

"What's going on? Let go of me!" a sailor cried.

"We surrendered. I don't want to die!" a pirate whimpered.

Lance's expression was indifferent as he snapped his fingers. Each of the bone mice positioned themselves where the heart would be and blew up. All the pirates and sailors on deck died as the bones of the mice minions became transparent and exploded into bursts of pure mana. There was no fire—just strong surges of mana destroying everything within the blast radius.

Lance's knees became weak, and he struggled toward the mana cannons, storing them as well as the storage bags of the pirates. He already had a gun and did value it much at his current cultivation. As he managed to stumble across the planks and collapse onto the commercial ship, the pirates and sailors below the decks of both ships had arrived.

They paled at the devastation on both ships but noticed most of the bodies were from sword wounds. They guessed a magical beast had passed by and taken some of them for lunch before fighting each other again. Mei had arrived from below the deck of the pirate ship as she chased some pirates, killing them before scurrying toward the pirate captain's cabin.

"We're being robbed. Back to the ships!" a pirate said as he saw Mei sprint up the stairs, ramming the side of the steering wheel to partially destroy it as she ran inside.

"Don't let them get away! They might bring more ships!" a sailor said. "Somebody find the captain too!"

"I thought he was fighting on deck?" another frowned before he was distracted by a pirate.

"Panther, come to me. I spent too much energy," Lance ordered through his mental link.

"I will be there with Lingqi shortly, master," the panther answered at once.

"Die!" a pirate said, shooting his gun at Lance, but saw the crystallized spirit energy beam shatter against Lance's body. He paled as Lance was not harmed in the slightest.

"Impudent scum!" the panther roared, the pirate only hearing a great roar as the panther appeared like lightning. Its white teeth dug into the man's throat, the pirate gagging as he fell to the ground due to the weight and force of the panther.

"Victory!" a sailor yelled, and the sailors cheered as the sailor held the head of the pirate captain. None of them saw Mei pass by, and the sailor in question did not know why the pirate captain just stayed on his knees the whole time the pirates fought.

"You did something," Mei said, her comment not a question as she had heard the roar and saw too much damage and not enough bodies.

"The mast is not damaged much. We need to leave. I can sense mana fluctuations a few miles out. Well, my bone fish do. It seems beings made of mana are highly sensitive to it," Lance rasped, leaning on the panther as he got to his feet.

"Sailors, we need to flee. Let the ship be and set sail! There are more coming!" Mei shouted after a moment.

"What about the captain?" a woman asked as she appeared on deck. "Anyone see my husband?"

"Mana cannon got him. I'm so sorry," Lance rasped, acting pitiful as he covered his eyes with his palm. It looked like he was crying, and the woman fell to her knees in shock and grief.

"Barry, you're first mate. You're captain now. Orders, captain?" a burly man with wounds on his legs asked as a slightly shorter man stared back at him in shock.

"Someone get topside on that mast and use the magic telescope. Somebody get the compass. I need our bearings and the location of the suspected pirates. All sailors with strength of the second stage and above, I want you all on oars. The rest of you clean up the mess and toss the bodies overboard. We... need to lessen the load if pirates are truly in pursuit," the man said, his voice and confidence rising with each sentence. Sailors were prepared for this. Pirate attacks were uncommon, but deaths were not. The ship always had to be prepared for the loss of her captain.

"You heard the captain! Clean that mess and get on those oars!" the man's closest friend said, his voice moving the other sailors to action as they muttered apologies to their dead crew members and the previous captain's wife.

"They didn't have to die," Mei said as she, the panther, Lingqi, and Lance entered Lance's room.

"No, that was my fault. I was immersed in testing my theories and did not plan ahead. I created a scenario where I risked exposure of my identity if news ever reached Pangu. The identity of Guo Yang," Lance admitted. "Did you get the chest?"

"Take it," Mei said, tossing a small chest the size of a melon at Lance. "Can we escape those pirates?"

"We should be able to. We had ample enough warning. I released my bone fish minions as I cannot control them if they move a certain distance from me. However, they are far, and even with a practitioner or mage on board, this ship has its own. It'll take a few hours. I need rest. I cannot do what I did a second time," Lance sighed as he stored the chest in his storage ring.

"So you admit you were wrong," Mei commented.

"I can kill even you just fine. My lava chains do not consume my own spirit energy or mana. I just cannot alter them beyond their normal length and mass without it," Lance snorted. "Admitting one's mistake is not something shameful. It is the act of pretending you did an action without shame that is dishonorable. To admit even one mistake is better than none at all. Without acceptance, there can be no progression. Only stagnation. I am to enter the Realms of Immortals. The opinions of mortals, I really could care less."

"So that is your aim. It is no wonder, all your actions. I see it now. I understand. You have no attachments to this world. If you did, they are not many," Lingqi said.

"There is no power without sacrifice. In my doing so, I enjoy the world less than you and perceive it through different eyes," Lance said, the others silent as they left the panther and Lance alone to rest and recover his strength. The commercial ship quickly set sail away from the pirate ship as two others were verified heading in their direction.