Hard-Fought Battle at Sea

Huo Shaoshan's military boots crushed through viscous blood, carving five bloody trails across the violently tilted deck.

When the third armor-piercing shell exploded off the starboard side, he tore off his burning cape and flung it toward the sea, sparks tracing a dark red arc across the night sky.

The instant a chunk of the watchtower wreckage pierced his left shoulder, the cigar-clenching man with the ever-present grin actually tore open a first-aid kit with his teeth. Smoke-stained gauze and broken teeth were spat onto the rusted iron deck.

His right hand never left the helm, blood seeping between his fingers and sketching an eerie totem across the bronze spokes.

"Move the powder kegs to the second-level gun emplacements!"

His roar drowned out the thunderous crack of the mainmast breaking. The mangled corpse of a signalman still hung beside the speaking tube.

"Let those bastards born with golden spoons in their mouths see what it means to be a mad dog that never lets go once it has your throat!"

Before his words had faded, an incendiary shell exploded inside the medical bay, and bandage-wrapped wounded soldiers screamed as they leaped into the sea.

Doberman suddenly burst into wild laughter, his bloodstained canine teeth gleaming coldly in the firelight.

"Good! It has to burn fiercely enough to deserve their funeral!"

When the blast wave flung the trainee staff officer to his feet, Huo Shaoshan saw the young man's pocket-watch chain embedded in his Adam's apple—the watch contained a yellowed family photograph.

Something cold churned in his stomach, more searing than the World Government's liquid gunpowder.

The smoke of the North Blue orphanage from twenty years ago suddenly replayed across his retinas. The girl clutching half a piece of black bread as soldiers dragged her away now overlapped with the twisted