Marcus continued on his way in the direction where his guards were fighting.
"Need any help?" Nexus asked from the stone.
"No. I am still quite confident in being able to take them. For the fight later, I might need to band with other people." Marcus said. "Where's Big Sister?"
"She's in the alchemy room. She's even a lot more determined to catch up to us now." Nexus wryly smiled. "You know this might be retribution. You didn't finish tempering for seven days so the gods brought the fighting to you."
"So you're saying it's my fault?" Marcus asked as he was running.
"Nope, I didn't say anything like that. It was implied." Nexus grinned.
"Fuck! Says the one who jinxed us!" Marcus scowled.
"Now you're blaming me?!" Nexus raised his voice. He was only watching tv the whole time, he didn't remember doing anything.
"No, the blame was implied." Marcus flatly said.
'Fuck!' Nexus silently cursed.
Marcus arrived in front of a scene where his guards were on the ground sprawling. They weren't dead nor were they close to it but it looked like they couldn't take their opponents. In fairness, they were able to take quite a few down. Marcus finished the rest. His guards stood up and ingested another pill and drank a potion.
"Go and change into these outfits," Marcus ordered pointing towards the clothes the pirates wore. He made sure to do as little damage as possible when he attacked them a while ago.
Since his men are not strong enough to deal with the fights head-on then he'll just fight together with them, trickster style.
He would want stronger people but right now the max rank he could control are rank 5 Elites.
He proceeded to go to where the economy class is.
'Fucking hell. All I wanted was to go to a 2nd rate country. Why send pirates my way? Is what Nexus said true? Is this really retribution?" Marcus cursed and started to wonder at the end.
As he arrived, Marcus saw people being taken as hostages. They were currently grouped up in the middle. Marcus halted his steps at a distance. He could see 8 people guarding. The captain was also there but he was separated from the people.
Marcus nodded at his guards. They understood what he meant so they went to him. Two of his guards grabbed his arms while Ley walked in front.
"We've found someone who tried to act like a hero," Ley said. They walked towards the 4 people who came to greet them. Of the 8 guards, the two who were at the Commander stage were with the 4.
The pirates have never heard of the red robed vigilante of Levi City yet. They were pretty busy planning and practicing for the raid.
"Who's this?" One of the two Commanders asked.
"We saw him killing our men in the hallway," Ley said. He nodded at his two mates.
The two guards of Marcus pushed him forward. Making him stumble in front of the two Commander stage pirates. As he was about a meter close, his hands turned red. Vermillion colored lightning danced around his arms as it went through the chests of the two pirates. They were totally caught off guard.
His three prized guards were not just standing. They went and fought the other two who were standing close. The remaining guards were ready to rush in and help but two people from the crowd jumped in and joined the fun. Spells filled the air as they clashed.
Marcus helped in finishing off the other two that were fighting with his guards. He ordered them to help in taking care of the rest. Marcus went towards the Captain and wondered why he wouldn't move.
The Captain just smiled and said "You can take care of the hostages first. They are the priority."
Marcus nodded and turned his back. He walked a step before the back of his head started to hurt and his vision started to get blurry. He looked back and saw the smiling face of the bald captain.
'I thought Asuras are supposed to be smart. Looks like their prince is pretty dumb.' Nexus thought.
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Inside the stone.
In the alchemy room that's littered with papers on the floor stood two figures. One was in front of a cauldron and the other standing at the side.
'Oh damn looks like that guy is in trouble.' Nexus thought.
Eva grabbed the pills that were in the cauldron and then looked at Nexus "How is he?"
"He's doing great. Amazing even." Nexus did a two thumbs up.
"I really wish we could help. I need to speed up my training." Eva said with determination.
Nexus shook his head. "A good foundation is more important. You don't have to rush. You will have a lot of chances to join the battlefield in the future."
Eva stayed silent for a while. She eventually nodded.
The tome 'Shining Holy Scriptures' is already in Eva's mind. She can access it anytime. She thought that she already practiced enough alchemy for now and wanted to train her holy and light magic.
Nexus stared at her for a while before going back to what he was doing before.
---------
Marcus slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry for the first few seconds. He thought back to what happened before he got knocked out. He remembered that he killed a few Commanders, saw the hostages, and he remembered how the Captain attacked him from behind. He could not react. His guard was down and plus he was not a legit Commander so his senses weren't truly awakened yet.
Marcus groaned. He looked around and saw that he was in a parabola shaped room. Him being in the corner, sitting on the floor. There was a chair in the middle that had controls near it. There were also controls close to the edges of the room. Wide windows were situated around 1 meter above the ground where you could see the vast space. The light blue colored room had 5 people in total. He has already seen 2 of them before. The 3 people who look like hostages were tied up bloody.
One was the Captain. His deeply sunken eyes looked toward Marcus. The other was the man he saw in the hallway. His helmet was worn. He has brown hair and downturned eyes.
"You're awake." The Captain. He was standing near the wide window. The other man turned his head towards him.
Marcus didn't reply. He just stared at the guy.
"Do you know what you did?" The captain asked. His tone had a hint of frustration.
"I Killed your men?" Marcus was nonchalant. He didn't give a rats ass. His mind was not here right now. He's currently thinking about how he was fooled. He's angry at himself. He didn't even have a clue of what was going on. 'If only I were stronger! If only I were wiser!' He thought.
He's also thinking of a way out. He could sense that the two in front of him were strong. The one beside the Captain is as strong as the one he recently fought. A rank 2 Commander.
The Captain looked at him. Rage was evident in his eyes. "You killed dozens of my elites and two of my Commanders! Do you know how valuable they are? " The Captain waved his arms downwards in front of him.
He doesn't know that Marcus also killed a few more of his Commander staged powerhouse and that he killed the third strongest in his crew.
Marcus felt something heavy pressing down. 'Is this his aura? No, it's different. Gravity magic? Oh, fuck me!'
Marcus tried to use magic. But as he moved his arms, he could feel that it was chained. He smirked. He then transformed into lightning and fled a few meters away.
Both the Captain and his subordinate were shocked. They have not seen anyone do that before. If they did, they would have used something else. As for the 3 hostages they were unconscious.
"Brat! who are you?!" The Captain yelled.
Marcus had a puzzled expression. He then touched his face and found that he did not have the mask on. His face was out in the open. He shook his head. He thought he was really being careless. He was not worried about them seeing his face. He's worried about how he didn't even notice that he was not wearing his mask.
This is why the Captain didn't suspect Marcus killing his other Commanders.
"Brat! I have a deal for you. Join my crew." The Captain proposed, but it sounded more like an order.
Marcus furrowed his brows. Join his crew? He doesn't even want to stand beside this man. Marcus was tricked by the bastard. He just wants to kill him.
"You know you only have two options. Join our crew or die" A sharp glint in the eyes of the Captain shone as he said this. He needed people to fill in his dead crew
"Join your crew? Hahaha, are you even worthy?" Marcus mockingly looked at the Captain.