Six Souls [Isekai/LitRPG] [B1&2 complete, B3 in progress]

A foot bounced off my head, and I snatched it up in my right hand. A swift yank not only helped pull me to my feet but also threw the man onto his back. Pelip screamed and cursed me in a language I didn't understand as I squeezed until I heard bones snap.

There were another ten or so of them spread out in a loose half-circle around me. They flinched back at the yells of pain and stood transfixed as I brought my foot down lightning fast to snap Pelip's knee against the hardwood of the deck.

"Glimpse, I think we just found you some eyeballs, bloke," I said aloud, and was answered with a happy caw. Seeming to get over their shock, the front rank charged me, wooden cudgels held over their heads.

A punch to the solar plexus knocked the breath from the first one to get close before his club had travelled half the distance it needed to in order to reach my skull. I was still a bit low on mana from all the healing I had done, so this would have to be done the old-fashioned way. Besides, I really didn't want to set the ship on fire.

The man staggered back and got tangled with the two men next to him, throwing off their attacks. I let the cudgels whiff past my face, then stepped back in, sliding my front foot into position so I could lash out with both fists at the same time. Ribs cracked as my blows landed, and they crumpled, forming an impromptu but effective barricade.

"What the fuck?" snarled Bargip as the violence disturbed his beauty sleep. He babbled something in Juntian and was met with what sounded like scoffs. "Mond, they're going to–" He squeaked and cowered back under the stairs as the pirates renewed their assault.

One threw a knife, which I snatched from the air and returned to sender with a flick of my wrist, burying it up to the hilt in his left eye.

Normalis Humano slain x1

Ten Souls gathered.

It was hardly worth killing them. I needed big battles with large masses of targets to grow now. Still, every little helps. With a shrug, I went on the attack, driving them backwards, each blow intended to take one of them out of the fight.

A swarthy sailor pulled a dagger and lunged at me while I held one of his compatriots off the ground by his neck. They were panicking now; their goal had probably been to take me alive, but that had gone out of the window as I fought them to a standstill. The dagger sank a centimetre into my flesh before stopping. It stung a bit. A thin trickle of blue and gold dribbled out from the wound, and then it healed almost as soon as the blade was withdrawn. He snatched at my tunic as I punched him off the side of the ship, and my left sleeve was torn away, revealing the god-mark of Aresk.

The five men left standing backed away for a second before grinning broadly at me. Oddly cocky considering I could toss them around like toddlers.

"Enough, friend Mond. I know you steppe savages consider blood ties to be above all else. Don't make me spill your fellow tribesman's. Surrender now." I half turned, doing my best to keep one eye on what remained of my original assailants, and shot a quick glance behind me.

Bloody Bargip. Literally, in this case. Bright red trickled from a blow to the temple that I assumed had been caused by the pommel of Talon's curved shortsword. The first mate currently held the dazed man with one arm wrenched up behind his back, and the inner edge of the curve of his blade was held to Bargip's throat.

I started to laugh. It was a slow chuckle at first that built into a guffaw that echoed out onto the moonlit waters that surrounded us. Talon looked confused, then angry.

"I will kill him. Then I will kill you if you do not submit. Now, on your knees, barbarian."

"You think I give a shit about a man who beats his whores? A warrior of the people who gets taken captive by an insignificant piece of shit like you?" I muttered between chuckles. "You fuckers should have just stuck to the deal. All I wanted was a ride."

"Well, now you can ride to wherever you animals go when you die!"

This came from one of the men behind me. It was amateurish in a way I found deeply offensive. If you're going to sneak attack someone when they're distracted, don't fucking declare your intentions. Too dumb to live, I would be doing the human gene pool a favour by removing this specimen from it.

I spun in a circle, snatching the wrist of the hand driving the dagger toward my back. I heaved him off his feet and held him over my head for a second, my off hand just so happening to catch him in the groin and take his weight through his delicate parts. Then I slammed him into the deck and stamped my right foot down on his skull. It burst like a watermelon dropped off a bridge.

Normalis Humano slain x1

Ten Souls gathered.

Take Talon's eyes while I finish off the rest, I sent to Glimpse. A flurry of feathers descended and attached itself to Talon's face. One set of claws gripped his nose, sinking deep into the skin and cartilage, while the other sank into an eyeball, gripped, and pulled. His beak flashed forward and took the other eye as the man screamed and dropped his sword to swat at the bird. Glimpse was stronger than the man and ignored the blows as the ocular organs were transferred to his stomach. Bargip brought shame to his family by scurrying back under the stairs with a whimper.

I no longer simply moved. When I wanted to, I blurred, too fast for normal eyes to track. Even without using Enhancement, the fight was no challenge. Four broken arms, a dozen or so cracked ribs, and three legs crushed beneath my heels later, and they were done.

"Leave him be, Glimpse." The bird had moved from eating Talon's eyes to diving in and ripping strips of skin and muscle from him before flapping back a short distance to feast.

Tasty.

"I'm sure. But also kind of gross." I ignored the men crawling away from me and moaning in pain and picked Talon up by grabbing him under one arm. His fists and feet flailed against me, but loss of blood had already weakened whatever feeble strength he had been able to muster before.

"Where's Jasper?" I asked pleasantly. "I will let the bird eat the rest of you if you don't start talking. Starting with your balls."

He started gabbling away in a language I didn't recognise, but a couple of firm shakes snapped him back into speaking Sykareskyn.

"In his cabin," Talon gasped after a stream of whimpering and invective.

"And where is that, please?"

"I'm blind, you bastard!"

"And soon you'll be a eunuch if you don't tell me what I want to know."

"The aftcastle, you son of a bitch!"

"Thanks muchly." I tossed him over the side of the boat and turned towards the door on the landing halfway up the staircase that Bargip was currently scrambling out from beneath. It seemed as likely a place to start as any.

"Lord! I swear to serve Aresk's Champion for the rest of my days." Bargip's voice was earnest and sincere. I sighed. I'd been planning to toss him over the side of the ship while we were out at sea. Rule one: don't hurt innocents, and whatever you might think of her profession, Gawlo hadn't deserved what he'd done.

There was no rumble of divine aura, so maybe I could still jettison this stain on the name of the tribes off the ship?

"You're a coward and a weakling. Stay back and don't get in my way," I snapped at him, and he bridled, puffing himself up and opening his mouth. But he caught my look and deflated like the pompous balloon he was. He had been away too long from his people, and all that was left of their reckless courage was arrogance.

I climbed the steps, snivelling worm of a tribesman in tow, and pushed at the door. It was locked. No, it was barred. I produced my sword, four feet of silvery metal that could slice through stone, earning a stumble of shock from Bargip as he bounced off my shoulder. I sliced through the door where I estimated the bar would be and tried again. Still stuck. I stepped back and put the boot in, launching the door away in splinters.

Inside was a spacious cabin with a single bed down one side. The room was dominated by a table covered in charts and leatherbound books. Several oil lamps hung from the roof, throwing shadows that swayed in time to the rocking of the ship.

"Now!" Jasper leapt at me from a shadow, blade first, and sank the sword into my chest. Or he tried to, at any rate. The blade skittered along my ribs, leaving a thin blue-gold line across my side. At the same time, the man I was rapidly coming to think of as baggage was swarmed by half a dozen sailors who tumbled him off the stairs to the deck below and leapt after him. Bargip landed with a loud thud, followed by the quiet patter of the agile sailors following him.

I grabbed Jasper's wrist and squeezed until he dropped the sword. This was becoming tiresome.

"Why?" I asked.

"What else moves men to risk their lives?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Patriotism?" He smirked, but I drove him down to his knees using his wrist and elbow as leverage, and the smile turned to a grimace.

"Money, fool. And necessity. It ain't safe for your sort to book passage on a ship anymore. It ain't safe to sail unless you've made promises to the Kentanii."

"There's a price on the tribes?"

"Spies for the Warlord. The Sea King wants them dead or captured and passed to his men." He grunted in pain as I tightened my grip. What was it with us exiles? Were the old myths of the madness of the Shikrakyn more true than I wanted to admit?

"He serves Hadesti, not Poseidon."

"The Lady of the Waves loves him. She came to me in my dreams, and all the other captains I've spoken to."

"Aresk, is that bitch cheating again?" I asked the air, and a brief sense of shields slamming together spread out around me. "Huh. War God says yes. Fucking gods. Let's play a game of pretend. I'll pretend you've captured me. You can pretend to give the orders on where you'd take me. Sounds like fun?" I squeezed again, and fractured bones ground against each other in Jasper's forearm, eliciting a hiss of pain.

"There's a party ashore. They're expecting us to row over and hand you over. Talon was their man," he hissed.

"You've been very helpful," I said as I dragged him out of the cabin. "Good luck swimming with a broken arm!" I threw him over the side as well. I was beginning to see the appeal of life aboard a ship.

I jumped down to where Bargip must have fallen, but there was no one there anymore. I headed towards the oarslaves and tried a friendly smile.

"Any of you speak this language?" I asked, earning confused looks and head shakes as they backed away as far as the chains allowed. "Great." I sliced through the nearest chain and backed away. "You're free, I guess. My friends and I will deal with the rest of the crew, then I need to be rowed ashore."

"Friends?" asked a timid voice. The skinny kid I'd seen loading the ship.

"You speak their language?" The boy was peering at me from behind the central mast as the slaves began to tentatively pull on the chain that tied them all together. I cut the other side free while keeping an eye on the kid.

"Yessir."

"Tell them what I just said. Then go stop in the captain's cabin if you want to survive what comes next."

I mentally reached into my storage device and pulled Bob and Wilson back into reality.

"Threat assessment calculated. Slave revolt in progress–"

"Shut up, Bob. The slaves are fine. Go find the crew and kill them. You too, Wilson… what the hell, Wilson!"

The overgrown wolf had backed away into the nook under the stairs and was shivering slightly.

"It's just water. You can easily swim to shore." The sound of a hatch being torn from its hinges by the war-golem covered what I assumed was a quiet whine from the wolf. A sense of fear came down my link to the wolf.

Wilson doesn't like not being on land. Glimpse supplied helpfully.

"Thanks, Glimpse. Where did they drag Bargip? C'mon boy. How about a treat? You aren't living up to your rep as a terrifying god-beast here, bloke." The wolf ignored the chunk of jerked meat I offered him and shied further into the shadows under the stairs.

The main hold. Bob seems to be following them closely.

"Probably should have mentioned not to kill Bargip yet."

I don't think it matters.

The bird was probably right. Still…

"BOB! Don't kill them all! And don't kill Bargip if you can help it!" I yelled.

"Sir. The slaves want to know what to do?" asked the kid who had approached me until he saw Wilson, bronze fur reflecting what moonlight filtered through into the animal's hidey hole. Then he'd stopped and currently appeared to be calculating how high his odds of swimming to shore would be.

"Tell them the ship is theirs. They can sail, or row, or whatever to a port and sell it if they want. Just need to hook up with the assholes on shore so I can get some directions, then I'll be out of their hair."

"They all have shaved heads?" I hadn't bothered to notice that detail before.

"It's an expression. It means I'll be gone, and I don't care what they do afterwards. I won't hurt them."

"They will hurt me," he said very quietly. I looked at him. Skinny, late teens, maybe less. Sharp eyes betrayed his intelligence, but he was otherwise nondescript. "Have you ever considered working as an assassin kid? It's a dirty, dangerous job, but with the right tools and attitude, you could go far."

"My father sold me to the captain. Couldn't afford to feed us all, and I got old."

"Shit. Look, kid, talk to the wolf for me; he won't hurt you, he's just a big baby about water. I need to deal with what's left of the crew."

"Yessir." He took the slab of meat from me and held it carefully away from his body. "Who's a good boy?" he asked, kneeling down and sliding the meat towards my cowardly mount.

I headed down into the hold through the splintered hatch. There seemed to have been a running battle. Half the slaves were catatonic, shivering in place, and the rest were desperately clawing at their bindings, ripping off fingernails or choking themselves in the process.

Blood and bits of bodies lay scattered about, showing where some idiots had tried to fight the murder-machine. Very few intact corpses were left. Most were in at least four pieces.

"Everybody, stay calm, it's all ok. I know you can't understand me, but just try and relax!" A wash of divine aura went out, but it wasn't Aresk's. There was no sense of shields slamming together. Nor was it like Velkit's, a hammer striking an anvil, or the tidal pull of Poseidon's. It was like a blade sinking into flesh. It helped, in a way. Instead of tearing at the ropes around their throats or trying to dig their fingers into solid wood to free the iron hoops that bound them, they stared at me like rabbits in the headlights.

I followed the trail of dismembered bodies down a floor and found much the same as above, but this time Bob was there, gleaming bronze with two sailors held by their throats with his tentacles. His spider legs clicked across the decking to bring them closer.

"Did Bargip survive?"

"Confirmed. Unconscious. He will need to change his loincloth, I believe."

"Who are they?"

"Second mate Bawd and tillerman Lamcuxtis. The highest ranks that were left after the death of the captain and the first mate."

"How did you know their ranks?" The two men gripped the tentacles that were wrapped around their necks and tried to heave them away, or pull their body weight onto their arms, rather than the almost-choking grip the golem maintained around their necks.

"They speak a Juntian dialect, one that is bastardised by the many local languages the sailors of that nation visit."

"You can translate for me?"

"I speak and understand every language on Urth." The warbot sounded slightly hurt that I hadn't already known this.

"Put them down. But keep a ha–tentacle on them just in case."

The bot obeyed. Each man got the pincers that tipped Bob's tentacles around the back of their necks, and though they tried to sag to their knees as they caught their breath, they were forced to stand upright by the grips.

"You know about the drop on the shore?" I asked once their breathing returned to normal. Or close to it. They were still borderline hyperventilating. Bob had that effect on people who'd never seen anything like him before.

"We don't know anything!" Bob translated for me. "You're a horse fucking savage who will be nailed to a mast before the next new moon, you raper of pigs."

"Thanks, Bob. Maybe just summarise? I don't need to know the details of their bullshit." The men yelped as Bob tightened his claws.

"Let's try again. Where on the shore do I need to go to meet these pirates?" Bob repeated my words in Juntian. The second mate started cackling before another squeeze reminded him of his situation.

"They say that if you want to go meet the Wind Lords, they're only too happy to help, or words to that effect. The cove that is shaped like an arrowhead has a small beach on it. Talon was planning on dropping you there."

"Wind Lords? Jesus, bloke, Marwan ought to be better at names than that. Fart Huffers would be better."

Another rattle of conversation between the bot and its prisoners ensued.

"The captains of his ships and the leaders of their marine troops chose the name," came back in Aresk's voice from the droid.

"I didn't really care. So, off to see the Wind Lords, I guess. Break that one's arms and chuck him over the side when we get up top. Keep the second mate to point out the cove we need."

Bob's human-formatted arms came forward and twisted the screaming navigator's arms into pretzels as the golem followed me back through the ship. I stopped to slice through the chains holding the slaves on the second deck in place and had Bob give a speech explaining that they wouldn't be harmed and the ship was now theirs to do with as they wished.

Once we were back under the moons, I got the kid and the second mate to explain how to lower the long boat over the side and had a dozen of the oarslaves who were willing to help out climb down ropes to man the oars.

"C'mon, boy. Back into storage." Wilson whined at me. "You can't go in the boat, first of all, you'll be right next to the water and more importantly, you'll be a massive bronze wolf sitting in the boat. It will kind of blow our cover." Five minutes later, and after Glimpse explained he wanted to be let out on the shore to run around for a bit once we got there, I had the wolf back in storage, and I climbed down into the long boat.

"Bob, mate, you need to go back into storage as well. You're too heavy for this paddle boat."

"Eighty per cent probability the Wind Lords are Soulbound Servants. High-risk encounter likely. I should remain available for combat."

"I figured as much. We won't bait them out if you're standing in the middle of the boat like a massive neon sign saying 'something ain't right here'!"

"Confirmed. I will walk." The bot used two tentacles to pull its body off the longboat without tipping everyone out by clamping onto the Windspite's hull, then dropped down into the water to sink into the murky depths.

The second mate scrambled for a dangling rope, but the kid jumped forward and tackled him into the belly of the boat. I let go of the rope holding us to the ship and moved to pick them both up by the scruffs of their necks.

"Thanks, kid. But I've got this." I let the boy go as I shoved the mate down onto his arse. The man babbled something. "Kid, tell him to guide us to the cove for the meeting, or I'll feed him to the fish one inch at a time."

The boy babbled away in Juntian as I glared at the mate who suddenly became far more docile. He pointed off into the night to the moonlit coast when I asked the kid to prompt him again and bent over to bring my face close to his.

The slaves heaved on the oars, not needing a drumbeat after gods knew how many years aboard ship. We slipped across the waves with no more noise than the rhythmic splash of the oars.

The rocky crags reached out into the sea, creating a V-shaped alcove that was shielded from the worst of the weather. The trees quickly became taller and thicker as I scanned inland. The rocky protrusions were covered in scrub at best, but soon the land was thick with bushes, and beyond the stony beach, a dark forest shrouded us in shadows.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"He says, we wait. If they are nearby, the Kentanii will come."

"Fun. Everybody get on the beach. I'll pull the boat onto the shore."

The slaves, the kid and the mate jumped into the water and waded ashore after the boy translated for me. I took the rope tied to the prow of the boat and dragged it up onto the beach, earning winces from the slaves as the wood scraped against the rocks.

"What?"

"Not good for the boat, sir."

"It'll be fine." I could always fix it with the Shape Vegetation spell if needed. I was pretty sure I could warp wood with it. "Now we need to get set up." I rubbed my hands together with a glee that didn't last very long.

I made it clear to the mate that Bob was just out of sight under the waves, and then had the galley slaves loosely tie ropes around my wrists and put a hood over my head. It took some persuading; they were terrified to even touch me. I leaned back against the longboat where I'd beached it and was left with the rough scratching of hessian cloth and the smell of salt while we waited. I closed my eyes and watched courtesy of Glimpse as he circled above.

There they are! I sent.

You see their levels? The crow replied.

"These guys are pretty tough, kid. When things kick off, you and the slaves just hide, ok?" I called out.

"Tough, captain?"

"Magic. And I'm not your bloody captain. Just stay out of the thick of it; they'll be here in a few minutes."

The blood, no longer red, in my veins hummed at the thought of the coming fight. Two dozen men, four of whom had A-ranked body stats, and three with A-ranked mind stats. And I had the drop on them. Easy meat.