Second Assault

~~~🔥~~~

The air of the Harbor District was thick with bitter lament. When Rei, Ettor, Nessus, and Leonoris arrived, they saw dozens of people gathered in the main square. Just a couple blocks from the docks. Crying dominated the streets, children clung to their mothers’ skirts, and the elderly gazed helplessly toward the sea, from where a group of pirates advanced, plundering everything in their path.

“Sylve! Sylve!” The desperate cry of an old woman rose from the front of the crowd.

“What’s going on?!” Ettor exclaimed as he pushed his way through the crowd for himself and the rest of the group.

"Enlightened Ettor!” A young man had his hands on his head, powerless. “They’re taking Sylve!”

“What?!”

Rei poked his head through the people and saw how bad the situation was. The square looked devastated, like a tornado had swept through. But no one seemed able to worry about that now.

"Move!"

Ahead, four pirates dragged a young woman with her hands bound behind her back. Her dark hair fell over her face, and though some tried to stop them, she offered little resistance, obeying with eerie passivity.

“Damn it!” Nessus growled, his sister visibly shaken. “She’s one of the city’s bakers. Why are they taking her?”

Rei clenched his fists, a knot tightening in his stomach. He had seen this before—the pirates humiliating the people while no one could act. But this was too much. He couldn’t let them kidnap a girl right before his eyes. Gorō would never have allowed it, just as he hadn’t allowed the bandits to hurt his little brothers. Rei stepped forward, the others close behind him, and whispered:

“These people need us. Cover my back.”

The four of them stared at his neck, realizing the moment they had been waiting for had arrived. The Hero had made his decision. They nodded without hesitation, lining up behind the young inventor. Ettor placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, Nessus swayed impatiently like a horse ready to bolt, and Leonoris closed her eyes briefly, seeking calm in the faint light glowing within.

Rei drew a deep breath and raised his voice.

“Let her go right now!”

The pirates turned slowly, first surprised, as was the rest of the crowd. There were four of them, menacing but ragged, not enough to inspire true terror. The first was short and fat. Shirt open showing a scarred belly that looked like a cruel joke. The second, tall and bony, had sun-leathered skin and a tilted hat that made him look ridiculous instead of tough. The third, with tangled beard and one eye covered by a scrap of leather, reeked of rum. Could barely hold the rusty machete in his hand. The fourth, younger than the others, wore a greasy ponytail and flashed yellow teeth in a crooked grin, and juggled two short knives like he was trying to impress, though he only looked clumsy.

"And who the hell are you?" snarled the yellow-toothed one. "Some toy hero?"

Their cruel laughter rang out while the woman glanced at Rei from the corner of her eye, silent. Her gaze was empty, like the incident had drained all life from her.

Rei swallowed hard, but did not retreat—he swore he never would again. With a swift motion, he revealed his sleeve, and the next instant, a sharp whistle cut through the square until a metallic cylinder struck one of the pirates. The man flew backward, crashing into a barrel with a choked cry.

“It works!” Rei was visibly thrilled that his tiny launcher functioned. He hadn’t had time to sharpen the metal projectiles, which meant he hadn’t taken anyone’s life—and that brought him relief, even if he still feared the possibility.

The silence lasted only a second.

“Son of a—”

The tallest pirate tried to draw something from his side, but he never got the chance. Ettor moved instantly, gliding forward, his katana gleaming in the sunlight. He didn’t swing to kill, but each blow was precise, harsh, like the one he had once struck at Rei in his fury. The back of the blade and the hilt struck unerringly, breaking defenses, disarming two men in what seemed like choreographed movements.

The pirates, who moments before had been laughing, now cried out in pain and rage.

“Bastards!” the fourth one shouted. “You’ll pay for this!”

They tried to regroup, but Nessus came whirling in. He had snatched a chain hanging from a cart and spun it skillfully, making the air whistle. He leapt at them with a crooked smile.

“Going somewhere?”

The chain cracked hard against the last pirate, knocking him into one of the men still trying to fend off Ettor. Nessus’s eyes sparkled with mischief, as though he were savoring the chaos.

The whole square had turned into controlled mayhem led by those four young fighters. The townsfolk watched wide-eyed, silent, hardly believing anyone dared to challenge the pirates openly.

But desperation gives even cowards strength. One of the bandits, blood streaming from a gash on his forehead, raised a metal horn and blew a piercing whistle. Instantly, the faint hum of an engine sounded from the nearby docks.

“Orson! Start the brigantine!” the tall pirate shouted, tossing a metal sphere into the fray.

“Watch out!” Ettor cried, not knowing what it was and sparking panic among the onlookers.

Rei, who had nearly subdued one of the smaller pirates, couldn’t tear his eyes from the sphere as it burst with a bang. Metal shards flew everywhere, burning into his arms as shallow cuts, while thick, dark smoke swallowed his vision.

“What the hell?!”

He had no time to react before a kick slammed into his face, throwing him to the ground with a cry. Cobblestones dug into his skull as he heard his quarry flee toward the ships.

“Rei!” A figure emerged through the haze—it was Leonoris, who had held back from the fighting. “Are you—”

“Where are they?” Rei’s willpower drove him to grab her arm and pull himself back to his feet.

“Rei! They’re escaping this way!” Nessus’s voice rang from the other side of the smoke.

“Let’s go!” Rei grabbed Leonoris’s wrist and pulled her toward the others.

Outside the haze, he spotted Nessus and Ettor chasing the pirates, who were dragging the woman by one arm. She struggled faintly. Rei frowned but had no time to wonder if fear had drained her that completely.

“Everyone alright?” Rei released Leonoris, letting the four of them sprint in near formation. He was surprised at their physical prowess.

“Yes!” Ettor replied. “But they’re running off with the girl.”

“I’m not blind yet, thankfully,” he added dryly. “By the way, what was that smoke?!”

“Eh?” Nessus looked just as baffled. “You’re the inventor! Never seen that before?”

“They’re like the grenades the army used at Weihaiwei. But those didn’t make smoke—they did far worse than these cuts.”

The pirates dashed for the harbor, covering each other as the engines of their small flying brigantine—about twenty meters long—rumbled louder.

“Shoot them with your magic arm!” Nessus shouted.

“I can’t.” Rei instantly knew he meant his new launcher, but he shook his head. “I could hit the hostage.”

“Here!” Leonoris tossed him an Ether crystal. “Try summoning Solaria. Nessus, the phrase!”

“Repeat: ‘Solaria, guide my shot with your grace.’”

Rei stopped, revealing again the launcher strapped to his forearm. It was a crude metal frame bound with hardened leather straps, gears clicking harshly at the side, a tense spring running to a lodged cylinder. Each motion of his arm produced the creak of metal and the dry snap of teeth locking—a primitive mechanism, but strong enough to hurl a projectile with brutal force.

“Solaria, guide my shot with your grace.”

A glow began to envelop the cylinder, surprising Rei as he opened his eyes. It was working. Time to fire. He aimed at the ship, where pirates were forcing the half-resisting woman aboard. His target was the pirate dragging her up—if he struck him, she’d fall, and they would escape without her.

He fired. The cylinder sped toward the pirate’s head, closer, closer—

Whack. A dock post.

“Damn it!”

“Shit!” the man yelled. “Let’s go!”

With all of them aboard, the pirate ship, black sails flapping and a weathered hull, rose sharply, leaving a trail of purple and black smoke. The engines buzzed unevenly but strong enough to lift them out of reach.

“Damn…” Ettor growled, his manners holding back a full shout.

“Sylve…” Leonoris’s voice broke. “Why?”

Rei panted heavily from the exertion. His face throbbed from the kick, his lip bleeding again. But worse was the ache in his soul, knowing he had failed once more. He wanted to scream and cry with rage—this was going to be another long night…

Or so the Rei who had first come to Sylvaterra would have thought.

“Nessus! Can we catch them in that boat?” But this was what the new Rei said.

He pointed to a small fishing boat, barely larger than a canoe with a patched sail, much like the one they had stolen from a fisherman their first time in port. The others stared in surprise.

“Well… it’s light, but not very powerful.”

“Are you half as good with boats as you are with horses?”

Their eyes met, and Rei saw the fire of excitement grow within Nessus, brighter than he’d ever seen, even in the blond youth himself.

“Twice as good,” Nessus declared.

“Then we’ll catch them.” Rei turned to the others. “Are you with me?”

Ettor and Leonoris exchanged baffled looks. To them, the plan seemed insane—but it was exactly what they had wanted from him all along. This was Kashiwa Rei’s moment. They both nodded in unison.

~~~⛵~~~

In less than a minute, the four had boarded the little fishing boat. It was a simple craft of pale wood, its patched sail hanging, its tiller barely larger than a cart’s. The hull was worn, but in its center glimmered a small Ether core, set in as a rudimentary engine.

“All ready!” Nessus shouted. “Igniting the core!”

Rei watched as Nessus placed a hand over the crystal heart at the base of the tiller, and the boat began to hum and leave a faint white trail, buzzing like a noisy little bee.

“Time to fly, ladies and gentlemen!” the young captain called with glee.

“Understood!” Ettor and Leonoris nodded, as if they already knew their roles.

Rei never took his eyes off the fleeing brigantine, its black sails stark against the clear sky.

“Run as far as you want…” he murmured. “We’ll catch you.”

Anger, pressure, and determination blinded Rei to the fact that he had never once left the ground—until the bow of the boat rose and began to climb into the sky.