He caught the Hydra on his way to Gaya. She was throwing up blood because of the backlash of the clash between Michael's fist and the golden barrier. Fortunately, she had her APD filled with a 90% pure healing potion to heal her organs immediately. Otherwise, she would have suffered more than just coughing up blood.

"Impressed now?

" Michael wrapped his arm around her shoulder with a gentle smile on his face. He himself never expected his power to reach the Core Strengthening stage in his complete Lucifer form. Apparently, after activating the cloud of darkness and the eyes of darkness, he could fight head to head with a Core Strengthening stage warrior and even defeat them.

Even without taking his full Lucifer form, no one in the Core Formation stage could inflict a wound on him let alone defeat him. By breaking Gaya's golden barrier, he grasped the extent of his current powers except for one thing. Gradually the fire in his eyes and the dark cloud around him disappeared.

"When did you bastard reach the Core Strengthening stage?

" she said, spitting out the remaining blood in her mouth.

"I didn't. It's just my full Lucifer form temporarily boosting my power to Core Strengthening stage

"

After wiping off the blood on the corner of her lips, she gave him a friendly punch in the gut.

"Give them to, you have enough op stuff as it is

" she swooped the hydra off of his hand.

"Don't you think we should name them,

" Michael asked. If they didn't name the hydra, the system would keep bitch about it and never accept the hydra as Michael's familiar.

"I'll come up with perfect names for these little fellas

" she playfully rubbed each of the hydra's heads. Except for the Silver head which nudged her hand with love, the white and the blackhead tried to chew her hand with their tiny little teeth.

"Quit chewing my fingers little **ers

" she chuckled. Just by looking at the way she was looking at the hydra, he could tell that she has taken quite a liking to the hydra. He could imagine these two fighting with Nightmare every single day after they return home.

"Hey look over there

"

As they were hovering in the air, the white said, raising its voice. Michael removed his hands from Gaya's shoulder before noticing three warships moving towards the direction of Ross's ship.

From the distance, it seemed they were moving in a triangle formation. The ship moving in the front was slightly bigger than the two behind it. The moonlight illuminated their white flags with the symbol of two red swords in 'X shape. All three ships were galleons fully fitted with powerful cannons to do some nasty damage to any hostile ships.

"Are those pirates?

" Considering she knew very little about pirates in the southern continent, she didn't recognize ships by the flags. His crew would have if they were floating higher in the sky with them. The three ships were too far to get noticed by the normal human eyes. Plus, the night made it extremely harder for Michael's crew to spot the ships on the horizon.

"We should follow them,

" Gaya said what he just thought in his mind. He wanted to see where the pirates were going in the middle of the night. Somehow he had a feeling that they weren't sightseeing.

"Before we do that

" he began to descend from the sky towards the Silent Reaper. He didn't want to step on the stinking ship until they clean the heck out of it except now he had to warn them before following the three ships. Otherwise, there might be a chance of some other pirates ambushing the Silent Reaper while he's away. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't think his crew was smart enough to survive an ambush even with a ship like the Silent Reaper. They obviously didn't understand its full potential or value, otherwise, they would have at least kept her clean enough to be inhabited by normal human beings.

"Captain, that was awesome

"

"You too lady captain

"

"Ow, what in the hell is that beast?

"

"Shhh

"

They almost forgot the task in the hand in the excitement of seeing Michael unleash his powers.

"Hmm, why am I not seeing a clean ship? I bet something's wrong with my eyes

"

The pirates looked at each other while scratching the back of their heads like clueless chickens. Their silly faces reminded him of the crew of Captain Barbosa in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He could never get mad enough to break pirate bones.

"Gibson

" he enhanced his voice through Arch energy so Gibson cleaning the below decks could hear him.

After a few minutes he called Gibson, he ran to Michael's side with a couple of pirates. Michael was happy to see them drenched in sweat and covered in soapy bubbles.

"At Least some of you've been doing the cleaning

" the pirates down below, fortunately, didn't hear the noises produced by Michael and Gaya testing his powers.

Gibson and the three behind him gawked at their fellow pirates with confused looks on their faces. They stared at the upper deck to see if they've done any works but everything is just as they were.

"Follow me to the south side of the island

" He ordered Gibson before taking off from the ship once again. Gibson wanted to ask why but Michael was already far away from a shout reach.

"You heard the captain, man the handle!

"

**************************************

Michael and Gaya were keeping a safe distance from the three ships. All three ships had a pirate on the crow's nest as a lookout. Even though they were flying in the sky above them, there was a chance of the lookout to spot them. First, he wanted to see what the pirates are up to before he approach them.

From the sky, he could see thirty heavy cannons, two mortars, a bunch of smaller cannons on swivel posts at various positions on the top deck on each ship. Plus, each of them had thirty-five crew members on the top deck and he could guess there would be at least another thirty in the lower deck.

In total, he might face almost two hundred pirates as well as ninety heavy cannons when or if they decide to pull a pretty stupid move and attack him.

After following them for another fifteen minutes, he saw a familiar shore, the shore he stepped on with Ross and his teammates. Ross's crew were still waiting for him to return without a clue about what happened to them.

Suddenly he saw the lookouts standing on the crow's nest whistling. Soon, the lanterns lighting the ships were put out by the pirates as they went dark.

"They're planning an ambush, aren't they?

" the white head asked as Gaya nodded. She looked at Michael to see what they should do next.

"Let's go a little closer

"

Since they put out the lights, he could move in closer without getting detected by the pirates. Not that he was afraid of them, he was just being careful as he always was. Michael silently moved towards the ship leading the formation because if there was an important figure leading the ambush, ninety percent of the time, he or she would choose the bigger ship to be.

When he was directly above the ship, he looked down to see a person wearing a huge maroon color hat manning the helm.

"My my

" Gaya raised her brows looking at the person at the helm. If not for the deep cleavage, she wouldn't have guessed that the person is actually a woman. The pirate woman stood at nearly 5ft 8inches tall and she would at least weigh 100kgs. She seemed like she could smother a man between her breasts to death.

"Stop

" Michael halted moving forward when the woman looked up at the sky. The pirate woman had a round face with a softly shaped jaw, a stubby nose, large ears, smooth cheeks, and big thick lips. Her azure eyes were large, and she had thick eyebrows. Her dark grey hair, lightly streaked with shades of brown, was short, straight, styled in decorative cornrows. She wore excessive foundation to hide her blemishes, pinkish lipstick, and pastel eyeliner. Even in the darkness, one could see the red coating on her lips. Other than the excessive makeup, she had a muscular neck, wide shoulders, big chubby arms, a long torso with very large breasts with a defined waist, wide hips, toned legs, and average-sized feet.

She just wore simple clothes, a white full sleeve shirt rolled up to her elbow with a black vest. Apart from the piercing on her left eyebrow, a couple of gold chains decorated her neck.

What made Michael interested in this woman was not the fact she might be the captain but there were no weapons on her body or anywhere near her.

"Interesting

" Michael mumbled. Although she had no weapons, his instincts told him this woman is a dangerous person. Because when she looked up, he saw her eyes, they were the eyes of a killer. She was practically masking the cruelty in her heart from showing up on her face with all the makeup.

"Captain Marina, that's the ship

"

Michael saw a man walking towards the woman, pointing at Ross's ship.

"Fun time

" the woman slowly put a pipe in her mouth as the man quickly lit a match to lit her pipe. The light illuminated the man's face, revealing his identity to Michael.

"So he brought friends

"

"Do you know him?

" Gaya asked,

"He was the pirate captain who lost more than half of his crew to me. Now it seems, he has returned to avenge them

"

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You know It would be nice if you guys and gals leave a comment after reading the chapter. Your comments are what drives me to write more!!!