The Thousand Mask Warrior

Jala Jangkung

"Do we need to prepare cannons to attack that ship, sir?" said one of the crew who came with Ireng and Siam to King Nio.

King Nio raised one hand. "Prepare it, but we must not attack first. There cannot be any spark without my cue unless they attack first. We don't know who they are yet even though my suspicions are pretty strong. Just hope and pray my guess is wrong," the crew nodded in understanding. He rushed away. Siam and Ireng were still standing staring at the skipper.

"You prepare our sailing boats. You guys come with some warriors to get off chasing that ship. This Jung won't be able to catch up to that medium-sized ship. I am a little familiar with the knowledge and character of the Pranggi people ...,"

"So, you mean, the indigenous ship contains the Pranggi people?" cut Siam.

"I don't know for sure, Siam. But looking at the ship's movements, Pranggi's knowledge is quite clear."

***

Lopes Francisco de Paula was about to close her eyes while listening to the sound of gunfire and gunfire as her door was knocked from the outside. A crew and swordsman Toba from Balige titled Babiat Sibolang which means Tiger Loreng. He and his three associates were employed by Pranggi under de Paula.

Babiat Sibolang wearing a cloth covering the bottom along the eyes of the feet and a sling that covers part of his chest was still standing in front of the door of the ship's room of the leader. One of his hands was placed in the headwaters of the mashed pepper, as a custom. Three fellow Toba people were standing some distance away from him. They wear clothes that stand similarly. However, in addition to tucking mashed pepper or piso - in Malay it is simply a knife - they also grasped the spear rods called hujur siringis.

The spear-shoots were extremely slender, made from light yet strong wood. Its use is excellent when thrust quickly or thrown as a javelin. 

With a slight murmur, de Paula opened the door and saw Babiat Sibolang standing in front of the door. The body of the native swordsman is slender but loamy by muscles and darkened by sunlight.

"What's Babiat?" tanya de Paula's.

Babiat Sibolang gave a sign to one of his colleagues who immediately came carrying a binocular. Babiat Sibolang then gave it to de Paula.

"Please see sir. Jung niaga that we trap now leads to our ship alone when the Johor and Jambi ships are now attacked by two of our ships" said Babiat Sibolang.

De Paula took the binoculars from Babiat Sibolang's hand. He walked quickly to the edge of the field and looked in the direction indicated by the warrior crew.

Pranggi smiled shortly. "I was looking at the skipper who was also looking at me with his binoculars" he said, chuckling. "It looks like he's from Nusatenggara. Either Timor, Flores or Larantuka. Interesting ... He deserved to understand and suspect that this ship was involved in fighting these ships," he continued more to himself.

"Lantas, what should we do, sir?" ask Babiat Sibolang.

"The merchant will not be able to catch our ship. Although they had cannons and weaponry, the jung was more designed to defend against enemy attacks, like pirates for example."

"Don't! We can't get involved in this battle. Don't let anyone understand that this ship has weapons. It will attract the attention of others, although clearly the captain of the ship suspects us. After all, the jung will not be able to chase this ship," replied de Paula.

"Wait!" de Paula said suddenly. He was shocked by what he saw. "Jung took down two sailing ships to chase us."

De Paula laughed out loud. "They had no soldiers like the Jambi, Johor, Bugis and Minangkabau people. They only have a few guards. And I didn't see the bodyguards go down to that yacht" he continued.

"Good, Babiat. Prepare our warriors. Don't stop them from getting on this ship. I don't want to attract the attention of other ships. In fact, we made it easy for them to get on the deck. I want to see who's desperate to find trouble with us and overconfident it. Finish them off on the deck of the ship and keep them away from their ship as fast as possible."

Babiat Sibolang and his comrades instantly turned around and carried out the orders of their master. The Pranggi smiled. Felt there would be some interesting incident on the deck of his ship today.

***

King Nio saw clearly the figure of the male bule. Clearly, as expected, that person must be a Pranggi. From the science of shipping, all the movements of the ship used, even though disguised as a mere archipelago, still characterized Pranggi. Not to mention the weapons used.

"That guy challenged us. He deliberately slowed down his ship a little so that most likely our yacht could catch up to him but not this jung. What game is he playing?" said King Nio.

Jayaseta was a little worried because he had to ride on a yacht with Katilapan, Narendra, Ireng, Siam, some crew and Datuk Mas Kuning. Initially the ship's guards were about to come down, but these warriors were considered to be enough to solve this matter.

"Do you want me to come aboard the yacht, Jayaseta?" king Nio asked, seeing the obvious concern printed on Jayaseta's body language, even though his entire face was still covered in a mask.

"Don't, King Nio. I can do it. I can't keep getting carried away by this weakness of mine. You must take care of my wife and this ship. A skipper must not be far from his jung," Jayaseta replied.

King Nio nodded and smiled, "Alright, Jayaseta. We're gonna find out who's behind this. For that, as a swordsman choose a match, you get all the trust from me," said the skipper.

***

Three Acehnese warriors prepare their weapons tucked in the waist. Several Bugis and Mangkasara people stood on the edge of the deck with four Toba people. The former slaves of the Nias people and warriors from Bali take care of the rigging of the ship and set the sail. However, their hands were also ready in the upstream of the weapon. The Ambonia and Flores gunners lined up neatly at the stern of the ship. Their hands held the bedil, pointing at the sailing ship that was speeding towards their ship, but it was not fired in accordance with the orders of the leader, de Paula.

De Paula himself is now in the main room with the skipper, a Javanese man from Semarang who has a soft face but has dark and unknown sides that look calm. He even seems to enjoy this. The name of the skipper is Jala Jangkung. Obviously this is not his real name. I don't know what meaning depends on the title pinned on the skipper.

Lopes Francisco de Paula and Jala Jangkung share the same thin smile. They were already completely ready to welcome the arrival of the distinguished guests from the reckless junks into their ships. A trap was prepared carefully.

It's just that, they did not expect at all, did not cross their minds, that there was the figure of the Thousand Mask Swordsman whose name was famous throughout the archipelago, present with the chosen warriors also on a simple sailing ship that was speeding towards them.