The Hijacked Merchant Ship

The Guard Corps captain gritted his teeth and roared orders for a counterattack, but the merchant ship had only two old cannons mounted at the stern. The panicked gunners sent every shell splashing into the sea, not one even grazing the pirate ship.

Within minutes, the pirate ship had pulled in tight against them. Hooked ropes rained down and snagged firmly onto the merchant ship's rails.

"Men! Charge! The treasure, the women—they're all ours!" Har roared with laughter as he became the first to leap onto the merchant ship's deck along a rope. His sawtooth blade swept out with a piercing shriek, and before the two charging guards could even raise their weapons to block, they were cut down in a single stroke.

From the very beginning, the battle had been utterly one-sided.

Most of the merchant ship's guards were retired Navy recruits or obscure bounty hunters. They were barely enough to handle a few petty thieves in ordinary times, but before these pirates who had spent their lives licking blood from their blades, they were completely outmatched.

Relying on his brute strength and vicious swordsmanship, Har rampaged across the deck. In fewer than three moves, he severed the Guard Corps captain's saber and, with a backhand slash, sent him sprawling into a pool of blood.

Blood sprayed everywhere across the deck. The sharp clash of weapons, the muffled groans of the dying, and the pirates' wild laughter blended into one chaotic din.

The guards retreated step by step, with more falling every moment. In barely twenty minutes, only a handful remained standing to resist. Driven into a corner at the stern, their blades shook wildly in their hands, and nothing but despair remained in their eyes.

The battle was over.

Har planted a foot on the Guard Corps captain's corpse and spat a bloody glob onto the deck. Then he bellowed, "Search the ship! Gold, silver, cargo—haul it all aboard! Tie up all the men and sell them as slaves! Don't spare the women or children either. Sell them at the Sabaody Archipelago, and that'll bring in another fortune!"

Laughing boisterously, the pirates scattered and kicked down the cabin doors as they rushed inside.

Women screamed and children wailed at once. The entire merchant ship had become the pirates' Paradise, and the stench of despair drifted over the sea on the wind.

The pirates kicked the wooden cabin doors to pieces. Splinters flew amid shrieks, and the entire merchant ship became a floating hell on earth.

On deck, the few guards who had surrendered were bound with their hands behind their backs and forced to kneel in thick pools of blood.

A pirate missing his front teeth grinned viciously as he swung an iron bar down hard on their knees. The crisp crack of breaking bones rang out one after another, mixed with heart-rending screams.

The guards collapsed one by one, their bodies convulsing in agony. Yet the pirates stepped on their heads, dragged them to the railings, and tossed them into the sea like rubbish.

The seawater immediately bloomed scarlet, drawing schools of sharks to circle the ship. The pirates leaned over the rails and burst into laughter at the sight. Some even pulled out pistols and fired wildly into the water, treating human lives as a game for their amusement.

Har leaned against the captain's cabin doorframe, turning a newly stolen gold-inlaid pocket watch in his hand. Beneath his boot lay the merchant ship's old captain. The old man's hands had been crushed beyond repair, and blood constantly spilled from his mouth, yet he still glared at Har with all his strength.

Har's smile only grew more savage. He raised his foot and ground it hard onto the old man's broken hand. Listening to his agonized scream, he casually ordered his men, "Search thoroughly. Don't leave behind a single needle if it's worth anything. Anyone caught hiding something gets their hands chopped off and fed to the fish."

The cargo hold had long since been reduced to a mess.

Wooden chests full of gold and silver coins had been hacked to pieces, bright coins rolling across the floor. The pirates stuffed them madly into their clothes and pockets, and whatever they could not fit, they grabbed by the handful. To seize a pigeon-blood ruby, two pirates even drew blades and hacked at each other on the spot, their blood splattering across scattered silk and costly spices.

Barrels of grain were kicked over, white rice spilling all over the floor and being ground into the mud beneath their boots;

Barrels of rum were smashed open, liquor mingling with blood across the floor. The pirates hugged the barrels and drank greedily until they were drunk, then casually smashed the barrels against the walls, letting the expensive liquor flow freely away.

The sight in the passenger cabins was even more unbearable.

The accompanying merchants' families huddled in the corners. The women clutched their children tightly to their chests, trembling like leaves in an autumn wind.

An elderly merchant with graying hair tried to protect his teenage granddaughter, only for a pirate with a face full of flesh to kick him in the chest. The crack of his ribs breaking was plainly audible.

The old man spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed, unable to move. The pirate merely grinned and reached out, brutally tearing the pearl earring from the girl's ear. Her earlobe split open, blood streaming down her neck.

The girl was so terrified that she could only sob soundlessly, but the pirate grabbed her by the hair and hurled her hard against the wall.

Those who resisted were cut down on the spot, while those who did not could not escape abuse.

The women's jewelry was violently stripped away, their hair yanked into disarray. Any slight defiance earned them a beating;

The men were tied to pillars and could only watch as their families were humiliated. They roared until their eyes nearly split, but received only the pirates' even more unrestrained mockery and blows.

A child of barely four or five had his cloth doll snatched from his hands by a pirate. Frightened, he burst into loud sobs, but the pirate grinned and threw the doll to the ground, crushing it beneath his boot. He even pinched the child's face and forced him to watch his only toy turn into a pile of ruined stuffing.

Everywhere on the ship, blood splashed. Everywhere, there were cries and screams. Everywhere, there was the pirates' unrestrained laughter and filthy language.

They unleashed the darkest, most despicable greed and brutality of human nature upon these unarmed people without restraint, turning a merchant ship laden with livelihoods and hope into a sunless hell.

The pirate with the fleshy face grinned viciously, grabbed a woman by the back of her collar, and hurled her onto the deck as though she were a rag doll.

The planks gave a heavy boom. The woman let out a pained groan, and before she could climb back up, the pirate planted a foot on her back and pinned her firmly to the deck.

"Nina! Don't come over!" she screamed hoarsely at her daughter cowering in the corner. Before her words had faded, her husband charged forward with bloodshot eyes, clutching a broken oar and swinging it at the pirate's head with all his strength.

But in the next instant, cold light flashed.

The second-in-command under Har's command swept out his sawtooth blade, and the man's body was instantly severed at the waist.

Dark red blood and entrails splashed across the deck, spattering the little girl from head to toe.

"Dad!! Mom!!"

Only eight or nine years old, Nina lunged forward as if she had gone mad and embraced her father's still-warm upper body. Her tiny frame shook like a leaf, tears mixing with the blood on her face as they streamed down. In those once-clear eyes, nothing remained but overwhelming despair and terror.