Hitman with a Badass System

After leaving Kane castle, Michael came directly to the Southern Continent. He spent a day meditating. Meanwhile, Elidyr was completely drowned in creating a teleportation array. Corey helped him with supplying the required Arch energy crystals. Surprisingly, Elidyr and Corey became closer than anyone would expect. At first, Elidyr was annoyed by her curiosity. But, after spending a few hours, he found out that he liked explaining how the runes and arrays worked. Once they became close, they both lost track of time. When the sun rose the next day, a five-meter radius chakra glowed on the surface of the blue ocean. Corey and Elidyr watched their handiwork from the upper deck of a frigate.

"You can now contact the Dark Lord," said Elidyr. Although he didn't show any expression, he was extremely proud of his work.

"Shouldn't we check if it's working first?" asked Corey.

Elidyr chuckled.

"It'll work," His eyes brimmed with confidence. Following his answer, Corey did not question him. Instead, he contacted the Dark Lord.

"My lord, the array is ready,"

"Gather the attack team," she heard the Dark Lord's words in her head.

It took Corey almost thirty minutes to bring all the ships together. Finally, she ordered the crews to board the leading frigate. As they were waiting for the Dark Lord, he appeared out of nowhere with the Dark Queen.

"My lord," All of them bowed their heads. Some had fear, and some had absolute reverence in their eyes.

"You explained the plan to them?" Michael asked Corey.

"Yes, my lord," she nodded.

"I will go through it again, just to be safe," said Michael. His gaze swept across the crew. They planned to send eight ships to attack. Since they were not going to sail back to the southern continent, Michael ordered Corey to put the least crew possible in each ship. Hence, the total number of crews in this operation was ninety-six. Twelve crew members for each ship.

"Listen, you will all be teleported to the Ozer continent. Your target is Golden Port," the crew members gasped in shock when they heard they would be teleported. These simpletons had never experienced teleportation or any magic in their life. They only heard about it.

"Your mission is simple. When you see the port, fire the cannons but do not sink any ships docked there. When you fire several volleys of cannonballs, the Golden Port naval army will arrive. Fire at them and use the teleportation scrolls given to you. Unless you want to get sunk with the ships, don't try to be a hero,"

The pirates bopped their heads up and down.

"Now go have fun," Michael dismissed the crew. After the pirates left the ship, Corey looked at Michael for her next order.

"Assemble our fleet and tell them to be ready. We will go to war any second from now on. You will know the details later,"

"As you wish, my lord,"

"Any problem building the mortars?" asked Michael. After fitting Big Bertha with mortar, Michael ordered Corey to build more mortars and fit them in every ship in his fleet. He was still thinking of a way to improve the mortar in Big Bertha. He wanted it to be the best of the best. After the Thusian war, Michael decided to spend his time, improving Big Bertha in every way possible. Only one thing stood between him and upgrading the ships to their full potential and beyond: the Blacksmith trait.

"Just a few hiccups in procuring the materials. Other than that, everything is going smoothly, my lord,"

"Coordinate with the twins and let them get the materials,"

"Already talked to them, my lord,"

Michael was pleased by her answer. Corey was taking the initiative as he told his subordinates to. Once he finished his war, he could finally focus on making them stronger. The Cosmic stream would help him achieve his goal.

"Good," Michael patted her on the shoulder. Excitement coursed through her veins. After dismissing Corey, Michael, Elidyr, and Gaya leaned on the rails, taking a look at the glowing array on the ocean.

"Gaya, go to the Golden Port with Nightmare and wreak havoc," Michael reminded Gaya of her part in the plan. Their plan was to bring out the Thusian naval army instead of a Fusion stage cultivator. If the Golden Port dispatched one to take care of the pirate ships instead of their warships, this plan would fall apart. Hence, Michael decided to send Gaya and Nightmare. This way, even if the Golden Port dispatched a Fusion stage cultivator, he or she would be occupied with Gaya and Nightmare. The Thusians would be forced to bring out their warships at that time. Once Michael had learned where the warships were coming from, he could destroy them and ensure his victory in a naval war between Thusia and him.

"Meet you there," Gaya nodded as she disappeared from their sight.

"You're doing this huh?" said Elidyr.

"Yes, but before that, I have to go meet Mugashuku,"

"Why?" Elidyr creased his brows. He couldn't think of a reason why the Dark Lord wanted to meet the dormant hydra in stormville mountain. Why would anyone want to meet that terrifying existence? Elidyr questioned himself.

"For now, the southern continent is his world. We need his support and permission to claim it as ours," said Michael. In other words, Michael wanted Mugashuku's backing against the Skyhall. After revealing himself as the Dark Lord, the Skyhall would finally make their move and bring the full wrath of the place down on Michael. To survive this, Michael needed to fall back to the Southern continent. Michael doubted the Skyhall would dare to piss off something that could end this world in a few hours,

Unfortunately, Michael had to spend almost all the badass points he received by slaughtering the thusians to find the Queen's soul piece's location. Nevertheless, he hoped it was enough to get Mugashuku's backing.

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

(A hour later)

Yagnar, General Bryce, and Prince Davarius were waiting for Ghost on the outskirts of Golden Port. The Golden Port was built on the banks of a carefully crafted harbor. It was truly a fully modernized trade center. Its allure was matched by the backdrop of an elegant dockyard and forest of colorful maple trees. Unfortunately, the snow blanketed the city and ruined the colors with its puffy white. But when spring arrives, the Golden Port would be a marvelous sight to behold. The total trade of Thusia happened through the Golden Port. Despite the winter, countless merchant ships arrived at the port to import and export goods.

"I see everyone's here," Yagnar's body jerked in shock. They turned around to see Ghost flying toward them. They gathered above the clouds to discuss their plans.

"You guys picked who's going to board the Thusian ships?" asked Michael as they all nodded.

"Good. The attack ships will arrive when we say so,"

They still couldn't believe Michael that he had a fleet. Moreover, as far as they could, there was no single ship on the horizon. So they wondered how these ships would arrive when they gave the order. But they didn't question Michael.

"Shall we start the attack?" asked Michael.

Yagnar took a deep breath. General Bryce sighed and looked like he couldn't wait to get this over with, while Davarius seemed excited.

"I want to see the ships you told us about," said Davarius.

"Send them in,"

The trio saw Ghost placing his hand on an ear and talking. They wondered who he was talking to. But to their shock, the saw ships appear out of nowhere on the horizon. It was too shocking. The trio slowly flew forward to take a closer look at the ships. They couldn't believe their eyes.

"Where did they?"  General Bryce's eyes went wide.

"You teleported them here," Yaganr was an orc. So he was familiar with teleportation more than the others. So when the ships appeared out of thin air, he realized that Ghost had teleported the ships from somewhere to here. The cannons fired with a thunderous roar. Fire and smoke gushed out of the cannons as they rained down cannonballs upon the Golden Port. Michael noticed the people carrying on with their daily lives on the port, screaming and shouting. They dropped everything they were carrying and ran away as fast as possible.

In a few seconds, the calm atmosphere in the Golden Port was completely thrown into chaos. Several armed soldiers rushed toward the port. As Michael instructed, the pirate crew didn't aim for the merchant ships docked at the port but just close enough to think they were attacking the ships. The thusian soldiers were in utter shock. The attack was so sudden. Some of them flew away to inform the Golden Port Duke.

As the city was getting bombarded by pirate ships, Yagnar noticed a large shadow in the sky. The clouds quickly dissipated. Soon, they saw Nightmare soaring through the clouds in his true form. Nightmare circled around them before diving down to rain down fire. The pirates stopped firing the cannons for a moment in utter shock. They were startled by the appearance of a dragon.

"Tell them it's friendly," Michael contacted Corey and conveyed the message to the pirates. Even from a distance, he could see the pirates scared shitless. They shivered uncontrollably.

Nightmare's terrifying roar echoed through the air. The people screamed as loud as they could before running deeper into the city away from the port.

"Where are you hiding your ships, Maxim?" Michael mumbled. His gaze swept across the Golden Port. To this moment, he hadn't seen a single warship of Thusia. Instead, he heard another mighty roar. Michael's gaze immediately turned in the roar's direction. To his shock, he saw another large shadow in the clouds above Nightmare. It was a dragon, only thrice the size of Nightmare.

Michael immediately sensed a threat. The dragon above Nightmare was a Fusion Stage beast. He was about to fly toward Nightmare when a giant mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth came down through the clouds to bite off Nightmare's head. But a powerful blast of wind pushed the dragon away from Nightmare. Instead, Michael saw Gaya standing atop Nightmare.

The hostile dragon roared as the battle between Gaya and a Royal Dragon finally began in the skies of the Golden Port.