All around them, shipmates closed in ranks all wielding dozens of blades. Cutlasses, sabers, simple knifes and swords, all flashing as they caught the light within their reflections. Faces hardened, jaws tightened as they stared down the surrounded rebels.
Meanwhile, completely surrounded at the center was a legion of poor looking folk, all of various age and sizes. This was the force of people who had come up to fight, their eyes now burning with courage and fury both.
After seeing a score of them be taken out in just but a second, the reality of their situation had hit them hard. But after witnessing the death of one of the enemy Awakened, just as fast, their moral had grown once more.
Their passion burned even hotter, their desire for freedom was even stronger. Despite sudden losses, they were fully prepared to fight.
Standing against the crew of 90 War Realm privateers, were 150 of the former captives, 50 of which possessed the bare minimum skills to fight. The rest were but ordinary civilians, that had only ever known peaceful lives that never required them to do battle.
The rest of the 50 who were physically incapable of even acting as a meat shield, had stayed behind, willingly or not.
They were all unarmed.. or atleast they originally were. Azdin had struck first while they were still unaware, aiming to take down as many as he could before the ships Awakened even noticed what was going on. His goal wasn't to take them all down on his own, rather it was for their weapons.
It was just a small amount, but atleast a handful of them were now armed.
This gave them a head start in the battle.
A strange tension filled the air as both sides looked at eachother warily, waiting for the other to make a move first. Although the rebels had greater number which made the crewmates feel intimidated, they were still the weaker of the two forces.
Whatever happened next though, was unknown to either of them as a warriors cry echoed between them both. Who let it out was a mystery, but nonetheless it was a signal.
The bloody battle began.
**
Drewey stood firm, his cutlass low but ready and it's edge steady despite the tension in his shoulders. Opposite to him was Azdin, holding onto the twin pairs of the Azure Sabers, both crossed loosely before his chest.
While blood already began to shed from the battle around them, none of them dared to interfere, nor even get close to the Awakened. The mundanes knew very well, that they'd only get in the way of their respective side after all.
Speaking of Awakened, both sides were missing a large chunk of their own. Even just having one more would've been a massive advantage.
'We sent someone back after Hugo while we pushed our own plans forwards, so those two will sprint up here as quickly as possible.'
Which meant that for now, he was all that was stopping these people from being annihilated by the enemy Awakened. Until then, he could not afford to fall.
'There should be 3 other Awakened on board.. are they absent for some reason?'
They were nowhere in sight, but it was likely that they would appear soon enough. As for Azdin himself, he was in no condition to fight another one back to back.
'I ate everything before coming up, but I'm still low on soul essence. I'm not even at half.'
Drewey on the other hand, had very similar thoughts brewing in his own mind too.
'Joel and Yeolk should be resting in the barracks, they must've heard the commotion by now...'
It was required that two Awakened be present on the deck aside from the Captain, for security reasons. It was a practice taken in by many ships of awakened crews, which allowed them to cycle in-between breaks.
'Damnit, where the hell is father in law?? Can't he hear what's going on??'
Right now though, he had a job to do. The longer the fight went on, the more his men ended up having to kill their captives. The more that died, the more at risk he fell into falling out of the War Empires quota.
'Catching a few more Mundane will be easy, so it's okay if they die. But I can't afford to kill this Awakened, that guy will get pissed.'
In the end, they both arrived at the same ultimate conclusion:
'I'll finish him off quickly!'
And thus began Azdin's first clash against another Awakened.
One of Azdin's Sabers left his hand in a sudden blur, spinning through the air as it cut across the distance in just a moment. Drewey's eyes snapped towards the flash of steel, surprise breaking through his guard as his own blade flashed forwards.
He quickly thrusted his cutlass to block it, but simultaneously, Azdin was already running forwards at the same time.
A loud clang rung as the blue blade was flung up into the air, but that didn't mean he was out of danger, he could already imagine Azdins second weapon piercing through his neck in just a few moments.
Keeping his cool, he staggered back by a single step, boots kicking against the deck, widening the distance between the two ever so slightly.
The moment the Azure Saber reached its peak in the air, the gap between them had closed to zero. Steel flashed as Azdin continued his offensive, his weapon piercing forwards and aiming right at his throat just as he predicted.
But thanks to taking that step back, Drewey was able to buy himself just a beats worth of time to reset his own guard.
The sharp sound of steel clashing rung through the air once more, as the two blades clashed again, with a single spark igniting in-between them.
But they didn't stop there, they retracted them back and swung once more, again and again and again, allowing them to collide in rapid succession. Both Cutlass and short saber alike, scrapped against eachother as several more sparks snapped free with each swing.
'Somethings off about him...'
Azdins swordsmanship was strange. It wasn't refined, but neither was it sloppy, it wasn't particularly skilled, yet he was easily capable of holding his own. It conformed to basic common principles that anyone could figure out, but it subtly tweaked itself to try adjust to Drewey's own.
The War Empire privateer himself was no average man when it came to wielding a blade... He was even greater than the captain himself in that regard. So overwhelming this seemingly young awakened should've been easy, and yet...
'He's still holding on. How?'
It was all so strange. He didn't like it.
Curious, Drewey pressed forwards with raw force, now beginning to enhance his blows with his Soul Essence, aiming to tire out and subdue Azdin quickly.
At the same time Azdin could feel his blows having less of an effect. Every clash with their blades seemingly growing more tedious, the impact of his short saber abruptly freezing against the cutlass before being pushed back a bit more than before.
'Even if I tried to use Soul Essence, I don't think I'd win.. is his Soul Core fully saturated?'
Aside from his slightly larger build, that was the only major difference between the two he could think of. His own wasn't even halfway saturated, while Drewey's should've been maxed out.
Azdin could see himself losing, atleast if he kept fighting in this manner.
In the middle of a clash, he twisted his wrist as the blade spun around the palm of his hands, finding itself in a reverse grip. The shift broke the pattern Drewey began to understand, making him falter for just a moment.
As Azdin's blade came rapidly close to slashing his neck once more, Drewey already knew what he must do. He took another half a step back to narrowly dodge, but this time, he was able to take this even further ahead.
Pivoting his foot, he swung his whole body left as Azdins blade graciously swung past his neck. And at the same time, he swung his own cutlass forward with it's backside flipped forward, preparing to strike the rebellious Awakened right in the neck.
This way, he could subdue him easily without killing him.
But as for the blow, it never connected.
Azdin dropped down low instead, surprising the privateer. It was a completely disadvantageous move that made him even more vulnerable than before.
Between them though, the short saber that he had deflected into the air earlier came spinning back down from it's wild arc, now falling right between them.
Holding both his hands to the ground, Azdin's foot swung upward, as his back heel rammed into the butt of the flying blade abruptly sending it forward.
Completely caught off guard, Drewey barely dodged as it sliced across his right cheek, drawing his blood as it passed before clattering away across the deck. He recoiled with a hiss, still startled.
But Azdin didn't finish, still lowered from his earlier drop, his entire body coiled tightly before releasing all at once. His foot drove forward, before slamming square into Drewey's stomach with crushing force, the impact blasting air from his lungs as he was sent flying backward.
By the time he finally regained his bearings, Azdin had already risen, still calm and composed while he was struggling to drag breath back into his burning chest.
He then muttered to himself in a quiet tone, one that Drewey was able to hear nonetheless.
"Aw, that looked better in my head... Should I have used Soul Essence instead?"
It didn't make sense, it was just a few moments ago that he was struggling, but now it was like a completely different person was standing before him.
He considered it being an Aspect ability, but he dismissed that thought.
The movements replayed again in his mind, still seeming wrong yet deliberate. He frowned through the wound of blood on his cheek, trying to understand what had just happened.
'Did he plan kicking the sword from the beginning?'
It was then that he asked,
"What kind of unconventional Sword play is that? What school did you learn it from?"
Rather than receiving a proper answer, or even a dismissive response, Azdin replied with a..
"Pardon?"
He.. sounded just as confused as himself.
It was then, that he finally understood.
"I see.. I underestimated you."
Azdin was a complete novice with the sword, and even more so in real combat. On the island, he had only ever fought one real battle, and even then it was against the Awakened Demon. It wasn't a fight that tested the limits of his swordsmanship, so he didn't see a real reason to improve himself back then.
The thought of fighting other Awakened had never even crossed his mind.
But now, fighting against a fellow Awakened, the path forward had been opened for him. The fundamentals that he loosely understood were becoming more clear, and by dissecting Drewey's own swordsmanship, it only acted as fuel for him to develop his own even faster.
It was this frightening talent, that was responsible for the sudden change.
Even right now he was still learning, constantly changing and improving the longer the battle went on.
Wiping the seeping blood from his cheek, Drewey forced his breathing back into something steady. He lifted his cutlass once more, tightening his grip as he settled into a firm grounded stance.
With his untrained eye, Azdin could still tell at once. The privateer had grown much more lethal.
"Taking you back in alive isn't an option anymore..This time, I'll make sure to kill you!"
With renewed lethality, he prepared to take Azdins life. Reaffirming his own resolve, the battle between the two begins to reach it's climax.