Death and Battle

Boom!

A violent thunderclap suddenly tore across the sky, and the silvery-white lightning made Xia Lun squint slightly.

At that moment, Monster's entire body was burning. Raindrops struck it one after another, immediately turning into layer upon layer of scalding steam.

It limped and writhed. With a casual shake of its enormous body, the battered remains of the reinforced door exploded outward completely. Countless fragments, mixed with blood and fire, clattered down before Xia Lun.

The next moment, the sea-cucumber-like main body of Monster suddenly opened a narrow, scarlet eye—using its supernatural regenerative abilities, Monster had regrown an eye. It could see again!

Xia Lun drew a flintlock pistol from his weapon belt and raised it at Monster's eye. Yet the instant Monster saw Xia Lun, it immediately shut its eye and waved its ribbon-like tentacles in front of itself as a shield.

Bang! The muzzle roared, and the lead shot slammed into the tentacles, splashing up a mass of slime.

Monster let out a triumphant shriek. Then its enormous body suddenly bore down on Xia Lun like an out-of-control train!

A gale carrying blazing fire rushed toward him. The blisters burned into Monster's flesh crashed toward Xia Lun's face like heavy hammers.

There was no way to evade!

In the instant Xia Lun changed his mind, he immediately activated Heightened Focus for the second time.

In an instant, it felt as though he had entered another world. The chaotic, deafening noises by his ears seemed to have been dragged into the deep sea, silently vanishing.

His pupils dilated slightly, and the entire world became extraordinarily vivid. He could clearly catch the faint disturbances in the air, the tiny sparks flying toward him, and his own face reflected in round raindrops.

Countless streams of information flooded into his mind at tremendous speed and were processed in an instant. Relying only on his swordsmanship instincts, Xia Lun found the best route to evade the attack.

The next moment, he sharply tightened his core, stomped hard upon the deck, and charged straight at Monster!

Hummm—

The silver-gray blade reflected the firelight, then flashed past.

Along with a crisp hum came the sticky, sluggish sound of soft flesh being cut by metal, followed immediately by a pained shriek!

Scalding slime mixed with cold rain flew down the blade. Xia Lun's expression remained calm as he slid past Monster's side like a shadow, stirring up a gust of wind and sparks.

This was only the beginning.

The next moment, Xia Lun came to an abrupt halt. The momentum of his charge became terrifying impact force through that sudden stop, traveling upward from his ankles through his spine.

He rotated his left foot outward by half a step to reset his stance, then raised his shortsword into the standard preparatory stance for a rage strike.

Under Heightened Focus, he could clearly feel power transferring through his muscles and joints. When the impact force reached his arms, he violently pushed off the ground, twisted his waist, and spun out with his sword in a slashing arc!

Slash!

In an instant, black slime erupted, and one entire tentacle of Monster was severed!

Xia Lun abruptly stopped again, then used the speed from his sliding step to push off and twist his waist once more, delivering another devastating spinning slash!

Slash!

Amid the rain filling the sky, silver-gray sword light flashed by once more. Monster wailed as the branch-like tentacles supporting the balance of its main body were instantly shattered!

Plop.

Only then did Monster's severed tentacles fall to the ground, twitching faintly.

Driven utterly mad by the agony, Monster frantically swept its tentacles around its sides. Yet Xia Lun clung to it like a parasite on bone, continuously moving clockwise around it. No matter how it struck, its tentacles could never even touch the edge of Xia Lun's clothes.

The next moment, Monster suddenly stopped turning on its own, and Xia Lun, just as it expected, rushed before it.

It shrieked and thrust out five tentacles in a forked formation, but the next instant—

Click.

It heard the hammer being cocked.

Bang!

Xia Lun suddenly raised the second flintlock in his hand and shot Monster in the eye!

Monster was blind again!

After doing all this, Xia Lun abruptly threw himself backward. Due to exhaustion, he also exited Heightened Focus.

Monster shrieked in pain and staggered backward in every direction like a traveler who had lost his way. Yet a few seconds later, it suddenly raised one tentacle, and a compound eye split open on it once again!

It had grown another eye!

By now, part of the pirates' reinforcements had arrived. The old man had reached the edge of the battlefield with the tripod heavy musket.

—Rather than a musket, the tripod heavy musket was more like a small cannon. Its caliber was horrifying, and during the Borland Kingdom's civil war, this weapon had even achieved the feat of piercing an entire infantry formation with one shot.

Monster clearly recognized the weapon as well. When it saw it, it visibly froze for a moment. Then it directly abandoned Xia Lun, who was close at hand and clearly slowing down, and charged straight at the old man in the distance!

Although it was wounded, Monster's speed suddenly increased enormously. The entire ship jolted beneath its charge.

Monster crashed down on the pirates like a collapsing mountain range!

The pirates instantly scattered in all directions, but the old man suddenly raised his head to look at Monster.

Boom!

Lightning split the night sky, illuminating the pools of water gathered upon the deck.

Under the heat, the puddles seemed to be steaming. The murky water reflected the old man's indifferent face.

Facing Monster's charge, he neither dodged nor flinched. He merely watched Monster with extreme coldness as he calmly and swiftly loaded a measured charge of gunpowder and a projectile.

He only needed one shot. Monster would be severely wounded, and then this beast would no longer threaten his family on the island!

The old man gripped the gun's handle tightly and aimed at Monster!

At that moment, his two white eyebrows furrowed coldly like blades. Acidic rain slowly dripped from their edges...

Monster closed in suddenly!

"Die!" The next moment, the old man's rigid indifference suddenly vanished. Savage killing intent instantly filled his eyes, and everything in the world seemed to be stained red with blood!

The old man opened his mouth full of rotten teeth wide as Monster's tentacles lashed toward him like lightning. "Aaaaaah!"

His finger violently pulled the trigger!

Bang! Bang!

The dull, thunderous gunshot came from afar. Xia Lun, nearly exhausted, suddenly raised his head and saw a blinding burst of muzzle flame.

With the shot, Monster seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer. Wailing, it slid two steps backward, then staggered back several more meters. Countless streams of slime trickled to the ground like a suddenly punctured water balloon.

Xia Lun let out a breath of relief, but the next instant, his gaze sharply tightened.

Before Monster, the old man and the heavy musket had already been cut in two by a bloodstained tentacle!

The one-eyed old pirate fell backward toward the sky, bright blood spraying into the air and dyeing his wrinkles red.

The old man was dead!

Xia Lun's heart immediately sank, but this was no time for grief.

Without the slightest hesitation, he ran straight toward the Gunpowder Barrel filled with nails.

—The old man's final attack had sent Monster directly into a dying state. Now, all it took was this final heavy blow to kill the horrifying evil completely!

As the old man died violently, the main force of the pirates' reinforcements had also arrived. Led by Geliide, nearly ten pirates charged rapidly toward Monster.

Perhaps because victory seemed within reach, the pirates charged while making howls like wailing ghosts and shrieking wolves. Cackles, jeers, and roars echoed through the rain, sounding terrifying and grotesque.

Severely wounded, Monster seemed to have lost its courage entirely. It did not dare engage them at all, retreating continuously until it soon backed up to the main gangway of the forecastle.

"Commodore!" Geliide's tone was grim, her scar-covered face brimming with killing intent. "Prepare to die!"

The flames at the forecastle had not gone out. Fanned by the gale, they swayed wildly, their orange-red light revealing Monster's enormous, dejected form—pursuers before it, flames behind it. It had nowhere left to retreat. It had reached the end of the road.

Suddenly, the weakened and dejected Monster began shrieking again.

"I never expected that after preparing for so long, I would still have to come to this." There seemed to be a trace of emotion in Monster's shriek. "Since everyone is here, let this all come to an end."

From above, Xia Lun, Monster, and the pirates happened to form a straight line.

Xia Lun stood at the bow, while the pirates were on the deck near the stern. Monster, like a hunted beast, was trapped between them.

Hearing Monster's strange words, Xia Lun could not help looking up at it.

The next instant, he frowned slightly.

—Near the sterncastle gangway, where the pirates had not noticed, several horrifying Walking Corpses covered in flames suddenly crawled out!

Their peeling skin was covered in burns. Pale-white bones and flesh had nearly melted and stuck together in the heat—they seemed to be clutching something in their arms.

Xia Lun narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to see more clearly. The next moment, his pupils suddenly constricted!

Gunpowder Barrels!

Those Walking Corpses were all carrying Gunpowder Barrels!

Monster had moved every Gunpowder Barrel from the ship's armory level!

If those Gunpowder Barrels exploded on the deck, the consequences would be unimaginable!

As his thoughts raced, Xia Lun sharply drew his gun and shouted a warning, "Enemies behind you! Gunpowder Barrels!"

Geliide in the distance froze for a moment, then immediately looked behind her. The next instant, her short, forceful curse rang out. "Fuck! Get down, it's going to blow!"

"Too late!" Monster shrieked in delight. Amid the piercing sound, the flaming Walking Corpses directly ignited the Gunpowder Barrels in their arms!

This is over. Xia Lun's heart turned cold.

Time seemed to stop at that instant. He only had time to turn his back and throw himself down before a blazing white light suddenly bloomed behind him!

The intense light left Xia Lun briefly dazed. At that moment, the whole world seemed frozen—but the next instant, the entire ship began to shake violently!

The horrifying shockwave instantly became a blast of air. Sheets of rain seemed to collide with an expanding transparent eggshell, turning into steam in an instant!

Crack!

Amid a dull snapping sound, the middle of the deck seemed to have been split vertically by a giant sword. It instantly bent downward and shattered, sending the pirates and Monster alike plunging into the ship's interior amid the blinding white light!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Only then did the horrifying sound waves erupt, driving forth clouds of scalding sonic booms.

The world spun wildly!

Several seconds later, the tremendous shaking gradually subsided.

Tap, tap, tap...

Through the distant ringing in his ears, Xia Lun heard the sound of rain striking the ground again.

After remaining dazed for a moment, he realized that because he had been far away and had taken cover in time, he had not suffered much harm.

He licked the blood seeping from his gums, then pushed himself up and quickly walked to the hole blasted open by the massive explosion.

Orange flames roared fiercely, their terrifying light illuminating the hellish scene within the ship—pirates' severed limbs and charred corpses lay scattered throughout the interior, dotted with glaring pools of scarlet blood.

Within the scalding black smoke, the desperate and powerless groans of survivors drifted from every direction, only to be suddenly drowned out by the crackling of burning wood and Monster's pain-filled shrieks.

Because of the massive explosion, the hull, already unbalanced, began tilting even more severely. The angle of its tilt had now become visibly apparent.

Not far away, the pirates in the lifeboats seemed to be starting to hesitate as well. Once the ship sank completely, the whirlpool caused by its sinking would pose a serious threat to the lifeboats.

In other words, Xia Lun did not have much time left for a safe evacuation.

Xia Lun took a deep breath. The scorching smell of gunpowder smoke carried a few sparks with it—he turned his head toward the Gunpowder Barrel filled with nails that the old man had made on the deck.

—As long as he threw that Gunpowder Barrel down there and shot it to detonate it, everything would be over.

The benefits of doing so were obvious: the dying Monster absolutely could not withstand another blow. He could kill it without taking any risk.

The cost was negligible: those pirates, who deserved their fate anyway and whom he had only known for a short time, would be blasted to pieces.

Xia Lun stood at the edge of the hole, his expression uncertain.

The choice before him was not difficult. Anyone with basic reason should know which option to choose.

Scalding heat washed over his face. The next moment, he laughed, then made his decision.

Grabbing a grappling hook from the ground, Xia Lun tied it to a wooden post beside him, then jumped directly into the hole!

Thud.

The rope went taut, and Xia Lun crashed onto the ground, kicking up black smoke.

Amid the burning ruins, the severely wounded pirates stared dumbfoundedly at Xia Lun, who had descended from above.

"Those who can still move, get over here now," Xia Lun said in a low voice. "Climb up the rope. The lifeboats are still there."

Several pirates who could barely still move crawled out of the ruins. They repeatedly thanked Xia Lun, then frantically climbed up the rope.

Before climbing up, one pirate missing an ear turned back to look deeply at Xia Lun, then called out, "Lord Xia Lun, I'll keep watch over the lifeboats. Please rest assured!"

Xia Lun raised an eyebrow slightly. "All right."

After saying that, he turned back toward the seriously wounded men.

To Xia Lun's surprise, those pirates who were too badly injured to move did not seem resentful at all. They simply watched Xia Lun and their successfully escaping companions with calmness, even relief.

One severely wounded pirate who had lost half his body asked softly, "They've gone up. What about you?"

Unlike their former reverent tone, this time the pirate's voice held nothing but pure admiration.

Xia Lun gave a cold laugh. He slowly drew his shortsword, its icy blade reflecting his face. "Of course, I'm going to settle the score with Monster."

As soon as he said this, countless cobalt-blue messages flashed past the corner of his eye.

[Great Deed! You rescued allies in a desperate situation and gained 50 Memory Points!]

[Admiration! You gained widespread admiration and received 200 Memory Points!]

Xia Lun did not linger there. After confirming that everyone who could leave had gone, he removed the grappling hook and quickly headed toward the next room.

Monster should be ahead.

"This is completely backwards. I'm using cold weapons, while Monster has started using firearms." Xia Lun casually made a dry joke. "It's like picking up a dog to smash bricks, only for the bricks to bite your hand. Everything's upside down."

Just as his words fell, he suddenly heard a familiar but somewhat strained laugh coming from not far ahead.