The Asshai's Bloodmage

 I look at Omar and the other 7 men, including the pirate captain Shang himself. A heavy atmosphere sets in and both sides are sizing each other up, even the knights don't have the confidence to get out of here in one piece, in this tense atmosphere I am the first to react. I raise my two unarmed hands and two balls with a blinding red glow come out of them flying towards the two knights:

Fireball!

With less than 10 meters between the two sides and wearing heavy armor they are unable to avoid the two flames that hit the chest of one and the groin of the other. Shang is the first to react after me, he draws his katana and shouts:

"Attack!"

His men do not hesitate. Omar is the last to react, but he draws the loaded crossbow from his storage bag and his attack is the first to arrive after mine. The one whose groin was hit feels his armor heat up quickly and ignores the heat advancing towards us like an iron tank. At the same time, the one who was hit in the chest is having trouble seeing when Omar's arrow hits his burning armor and he kneels on the ground. It is not known if the arrow pierced enough of his heavy armor. The second one, with his legs still on fire, attacks with the heavy sword that is deflected by Shang's katana towards the ground. He is smart and does not accept the heavy blow from the man in front, only changing the direction of the attack of the great sword. Shang's other men begin to surround the Knight and I react by throwing another fireball at the kneeling man. He falls, and I see that part of the armor in front is melted and his face is burned along with it.

When I look back at the men who surrounded the second Knight, I see that the flames have gone out and his armor is red in the groin area, but it has not melted like his companion's. He has already cut off the arm of one of Shang's men, but he has also been wounded in the leg by another arrow that Omar shot. I take out one of my loaded crossbows and shoot it too, but it's hard to hit with the men around and I miss the shot.

I take out the second loaded crossbow and shoot again, this time hitting one of his arms, which makes him lose his strength with the sword and weaken, the experienced pirates don't miss the opportunity, while one of them cuts from behind through the gap in his armor, another hits him with a heavy hammer on his back, making him kneel, and finally Shang pierces his throat through the gap in his armor with his katana. Everyone breathes deeply at the difficulty of the fight. Shang's men try to help the man who lost his arm. And I reload my two crossbows and put them away again, Omar does the same while we carefully search for more enemies inside the cargo area.

It doesn't take long and we finally get there, our eyes even shine with the huge amount of valuable cargo. I go to the drinks first and collect the most valuable wines and cognacs, filling half of my inventory. Before going to the valuable meats, I collect several steaks of a meat that I assume is the "Wagyu" that I ate at the inn. I remember that when I told Omar to buy it, he said that it was just an imitation. Not as valuable as the one in front of us. They even keep the meat cold in a magical item that I also take with me. I grab several boxes of what I assume is ham and smoked sausage and thus finish my first load.

I let Omar take what he wants from his bag and organize our medium-sized ship with more items, while I board a smaller one. It takes 30 minutes to go and return on this small one, but I leave the entire load on the deck of the Sigh of Valyria before returning again. This time I help Omar load the medium-sized vessel and he leaves satisfied with what is there.

I fill my inventory again and this time I take all the different drinks I can find, rare spices, bags of a rare type of grain similar to soybeans that only grows further north in Essos, some other smoked meats and lastly a lot of high-grade tobacco, along with some boxes of cigars. Only then do I see Shang leave on his first medium ship loaded with fabrics and tapestries that would be worth their weight in gold if sold in his homeland.

This time, with the cargo already in my storage bag, I go to a spot on the cargo deck and set the delayed fire. I use a candle in a can filled with flammable oil. As soon as the candle burns out, it will ignite a wick that I placed on a small wooden support on the side. I use 3 triggers in different spots in the ship's hold to be sure. Shang's men come back one last time to get some more cargo, but we only have less than 50 minutes left.

I set up another candle, this time close to the deck. The spot is well hidden. I put a lot of gunpowder in the place along with the wick before returning to the hold again and putting the flammable oil that I prepared all over the cargo deck and at the entrance where we fought to cover the blood as well as the bodies. The unconscious men were left tied up on a distant beach, and Shang's dead pirates are left on the cargo deck... After all, they are pirates, they prefer to carry more cargo than the bodies of their companions.

Having finished my part, I go to Shang and remind him not to let greed take over. When I go to take his hand to say goodbye, he surprises me by pulling me into a hug and calling me brother. After that, we wish each other a good trip. I was surprised by the hug... I smile, wondering if all Asians are like this in this world or if Shang is just different from the other people in Yi Ti.

When I leave on the small boat, Shang shouts to visit him when I go to his city and I tell him the same. I wave and the two boys, who are already quite tired from rowing on the other trip with me, start again. This time I also help so that we can go faster. When we return to the ship, I see Omar writing down the cargo on the open deck under an alchemical light, and I unload half of the other items this time. Before asking one of the men to call Jack before the agreed deadline. It doesn't take long for them to return. I ask if there was a problem and he says no. I finally breathe a sigh of relief, and with all the loot on board, as well as all the passengers, I tell the Captain that we are ready and he finally gives the order:

"Men, raise the anchor! We are leaving."

(Important Author's Note in the WebNovel!)