"There they are!" A pirate ship came close, spotting the wreckage and all of Kai’s crew in the river. They expected Kai and his crew to put up more of a fight, but after seeing the damage done to their ship as well as the injuries the crew suffered, they quickly changed their minds.
"Tie them up and put them on the ship. The captain wants to meet them. He’s super angry and wants to kill them himself for taking the lives of our brothers and sisters back on the previous island." Karlmine gave signals with his hand, and everyone moved out.
Kai and his crew were tied up and held on a ship that was designed to carry prisoners, and even though they were tied up, mana-canceling shackles were still placed on them.
’Shit! I should have had one of us stay behind and check out the base so they could come find us, get captured, then reveal that they got captured on purpose! That would have been genius!’
Kai didn’t dwell on the missed opportunity and instead used his x-ray vision to look beyond the ship’s walls.
Currently, they were still sailing in the river and were headed to the pirates’ base, at least he assumed they were, and there was nothing out of the ordinary, that was, until a massive rock formation came into view.
The massive rock was perfectly round, as if someone sculpted it to be that way. There were two openings on the rock, akin to eyes, that had lookout towers on them to survey the entire area.
Below it was another opening, one akin to a mouth, and there were tons of ships patrolling the area. Massive weapons such as cannons, balistas, traps, catapults, each of them with a magic variant as well, were plastered all over the outside of the base.
Even alongside the shore and cliffside, there were weapons and people there to operate them.
This didn’t even include what was on the inside.
"Holy fuck!" Kai whispered.
"What? What did you see?" Kyana already hated being in this position, and she was not going to allow Kai to have a reaction like that and not say anything.
"First, I wanna say that this place is cool as fuck. Second, there are a shit ton of people. Like I mean a SHIT TON!" He made sure to keep quiet even when emphasizing the number of people present.
"They have weapons for days. They’re literally built like a military unit. It’s insane!"
"I told you!" Barry still couldn’t believe that they were doing this. He wanted out right now, but he had no choice but to go with the plan.
"These pirates are not to be messed with, and you KILLED a lot of them."
"They came after us first. Want me to just turn the other cheek instead?"
"Yes!" Barry shouted. "Yes, I do!"
"Hey! Quiet in there!" A guard banged on the door.
"We’re gonna fucking die."
"Can you believe this guy?" Kai believed that Barry had to be stupid because he faced off against him, saw his true power, and still thinks that they are going to die against these little pirates.
’However, these pirates do seem pretty useful. Maybe I can get them under my control. Yeah, I’ll hypnotize them all, weed out the bad apples from the not-so-bad apples, then have Cornelia lead them as their new Captain! Genius. Patty and Iris can work with her as well.’
Kai was planning for when he would leave the island. He didn’t have a home here, so he would just turn this pirate base into it. This also meant that Cornelia would have to stay behind, but that didn’t bother him. He could teleport anywhere he’s been before anyway.
"Guys, I have a plan for the future. I’ll be right back, or I’ll still be here, but my other self will be right back."
Kai replaced his body with a clone and left the prison ship undetected. Since all of the Sweatii Pirates were here, this made things easier for him. In one fell swoop, he hypnotized every single Sweatii Pirate.
Like he said before, he weeded out the bad from the not-so-bad Pirates, marking the bad ones with an X on their head that was only visible to him or to others that he allowed.
He wasn’t able to hypnotize the Captain, though; he didn’t know why, but he expected to know why soon, other than the fact that his hypnosis color was red.
Kai returned to the prison ship, merging with his clone and relaying his plan to everyone. He also gave them the mental ability to see the people he marked and the people he didn’t mark.
The hypnosis he placed on all of them was that after he kills the pirate captain and slaughters the bad apples, the rest of them will pledge their allegiance to Cornelia, and she will be the new captain.
Cornelia loved this idea, and Iris and Patty were excited to work alongside her.
Barry wasn’t that optimistic about it since he wanted them to keep working with him, but Kai told him that it was for after they defeated the demon king, and Barry relaxed.
"Looks like we’re inside the base," Kai said as he looked around.
It didn’t take long for the guard to open the cell and order them to step out.
Everyone noticed that he didn’t have an X on his head, so they cut him some slack.
"Follow me, you filthy dogs." Another person had come for them, and this guy did have an X on his head.
"Are you taking them to the dungeon?" A pirate asked.
"Even better, the Arena." The guard who was handling Kai and his crew said.
"Ohh, the Arena? That’s gonna be fun. See you there."
"Heh, you bet!"
The man led all of them to a dungeon that was directly underneath a battle arena meant for entertainment. In the dungeon were tons of people who were locked up for who knows what.
"Poor guys. They must be new here." A prisoner said, feeling sorry for Kai and his crew.
"Looks like we’re gonna be seeing a lot more deaths soon." Another prisoner chuckled
"Get in there!" The pirate kicked everyone into a cell, unbound their ropes, but kept the mana cuffs, then locked the cell.