The fight was bound to enter its bloodiest, most brutal stage: close combat.
Xia Lun drew the Short Sword from the strap on his right side. Holding it in a reverse grip, he bent his knees, lowered his waist, and pressed himself against the wall.
For a moment, he seemed to become one with the darkness.
Boom!
Thunder cracked. A flash of pale lightning shot through the round porthole and lit up the corpse Xia Lun had propped against the wall.
Footsteps outside grew clearer. They were about to come in!
The lightning faded, plunging everything back into darkness as deep as a moonless night.
Bang!
The wooden door flew open under a kick. An instant later, a spinning two-handed axe hurtled inside and smashed the head of the corpse against the wall!
Blood sprayed everywhere!
"Die!" the First Mate's brother howled, his eyes red as he charged into the room. He rushed toward the headless body on the floor, with the other two close behind.
But in the next instant, an inexplicable unease seized him.
Before he could think, a gust carrying the smell of rust swept at him from behind!
A large, bony hand clamped onto his left shoulder. His body lurched downward, and a cold blade plunged into the side of his neck!
Squelch!
Bright red blood spattered across the tabletop, staining the curled edges of the Sea Chart.
At the sound, the First Mate whipped around.
In the darkness, his brother stood rigid as a puppet, a Short Sword lodged in his neck!
Fear and defiance still glimmered in his brother's eyes. Behind him stood a man with blood all over his face. Expressionless, the man stared straight at the First Mate with pitch-black eyes.
It was the captive who had shot his younger brother dead!
He had been hiding in the corner all along!
I was careless!
The First Mate's eyes widened with fury. He jerked his gun up, but the man ducked behind his brother. At the same time, a flintlock pistol appeared from the side, aimed straight at his face.
The First Mate froze. He instinctively sidestepped, but the man did not fire.
"Let him go!"
"Don't move!" Xia Lun said coldly. "I pull the blade out, he dies."
"A Demon! He came out of the shadows. We're done for..." the pirate whose mind had broken choked out.
The three of them now stood in a triangle. Xia Lun had little room to maneuver behind him, and warm blood ran down the hilt, seeping between his fingers and dripping onto the floor.
The First Mate seemed to notice something. He drew his Short Sword and lunged forward, but Xia Lun gave the hilt in his hand a slight twist.
"Hrk..." The First Mate's brother's eyes rolled upward, and a dying rasp escaped his throat.
"Stop," Xia Lun said grimly. "One more step, and he dies."
The First Mate stopped short. He glanced at the pirate whose mind had broken, then slowly edged left. The pirate seemed to understand and shakily edged right.
"If he dies, you die with him," the First Mate threatened as he moved. "Put him down, and we can talk about everything else."
As though trying to narrow the angles he had to defend, Xia Lun backed away slowly. "Sure. Put down your weapons, and I'll let him go."
"You think this is a joke?" the First Mate asked, his voice growing darker.
A hint of amusement entered Xia Lun's voice. "Don't you?"
Without warning, he pulled back the Hammer of his flintlock pistol.
Click.
The sound made the First Mate flinch. He slid sharply to the right, but Xia Lun still did not fire.
The First Mate sneered, convinced he had found the limit Xia Lun would not cross, and continued moving left.
Soon he reached the wooden table, while Xia Lun had backed up against the wall. The pirate whose mind had broken looked worse by the moment.
"Go on. Keep backing up."
"Any farther, and your brother dies," Xia Lun said, his voice growing calmer. "He's your last brother, isn't he?"
As he spoke, he twisted the hilt again.
The muffled sound of metal cutting through flesh was unnervingly clear in the cramped, dark room.
"You yellow-skinned Monkey, what the hell do you want?!" The Black First Mate seemed to have reached his limit. Breathing hard, his eyes bulging, he looked like a vengeful ghost. "Push me again, and I'll shoot you both! Ten seconds. Put him down!"
"I don't believe you." Xia Lun laughed twice, then his voice turned cold again. "Don't wait ten seconds. Shoot now—if you dare."
The First Mate's face darkened. He truly did not dare gamble with his own brother's life.
They fell into a stalemate. No one could move. In the stale air, only their increasingly heavy breathing and the patter of dripping blood remained.
Then came the rustle of a monster slithering outside the room. The sound grew steadily clearer.
The pirate whose mind had broken began trembling like a leaf. His grip on his gun weakened.
The gunshots had drawn the monster here! That horrifying thing from the abyss was prowling nearby...
At the same time, a noise came from the ceiling. A few specks of bloodstained dust drifted down.
Xia Lun's eyes shifted toward the table behind the First Mate, then toward the crack above it.
He spoke first. "First Mate, there's no personal grudge between us. Your younger brother's reckless behavior caused all this. I respect you, so I have a proposal."
"Say it!" the First Mate ground out through clenched teeth.
The monster's slithering grew louder outside the door. Wet smacks echoed down the corridor as tentacles struck flesh and wood.
"Let's settle this in a fair duel with bladed weapons, instead of giving the monster an easy meal," Xia Lun said with a smile, sounding sincere. "I count to three. I release the hostage, you put down your pistol, and we fight one-on-one with swords. What do you say?"
"Fine." The First Mate licked his cracked lips. His eyes were dark and unfocused. "Didn't think you had the guts."
He had no intention of keeping the deal. The moment the man let his brother go, he would shoot him.
Of course, the man would not keep the deal either. It would come down to who fired faster.
If he was quick enough, his brother might still be saved. If he was too slow, all he could do was avenge him.
But he had never lost a contest of reflexes.
The First Mate's gaze darkened further.
Xia Lun's words brought some color back to the face of the pirate whose mind had broken. He tightened his grip on his flintlock pistol.
"One."
Xia Lun adjusted his angle slightly, pointing the sword's hilt toward the pirate whose mind had broken.
"Three!"
Without warning, he yanked out the Short Sword and shoved the First Mate's brother toward the pirate whose mind had broken!
Blood spurted in bursts from the wound. The hot spray struck the pirate square in the eyes!
The First Mate roared in anguish and raised his gun to aim. Almost at the same instant, a searing pain tore through the flesh behind his knee, followed by a sudden yank!
Bang! The pull sent him stumbling. Off balance, he fired the shot he had been so sure of—and missed completely!
The First Mate looked down in disbelief and saw a bloodstained dagger and the grinning face of the female captain.
He spun and drove his sword into the captain's back. She grunted but kept a death grip on the dagger!
"Let go!"
Xia Lun had already finished off the pirate, whom the blood had briefly blinded, with a clean thrust and slash. He pushed off the floor, twisted at the waist, and lunged at the off-balance First Mate, bringing his Short Sword down toward his face!
"Die!"
The blade gave a cold hum, followed by a burst of sparks!
Though off balance and unable to see the attack, the First Mate had blocked it through sheer Swordsmanship!
As their blades met, the First Mate flicked his wrist, turning his block into an upward cut. His vicious counterstrike slid along Xia Lun's blade like a snake, slicing toward his fingers!
Sliding Strike!
If it landed, all four of Xia Lun's fingers would be severed. If Xia Lun dropped his sword to save them, the First Mate would regain the initiative.
The First Mate was a Swordsmanship master through and through.
Xia Lun pulled the trigger with his left hand.
Bang!
At such close range, their locked blades also left the First Mate little room to dodge.
A point-blank shot!
In the dazzling muzzle flash, the lead ball slammed into the First Mate's skull. Blood and torn flesh burst outward, spraying across the wall behind him like an abstract painting.
Thud.
His corpse, half its head blown away, hit the floor like a sack of rags. Water splashed high, and scarlet blood slowly spread through the puddle.
The fight to the death was finally over. The First Mate was dead.
All his formidable Swordsmanship and exceptional strength had come to nothing against a single lead ball.
A cry of alarm came from the ceiling. An instant later, footsteps retreated from the crack above the table. The men coming to reinforce the First Mate had been scared off by the brief but gruesome fight.
Xia Lun did not lower his guard. He quickly made sure every corpse was dead.
A few seconds later, several wisps of gray mist burst from the pirates' bodies and flew straight toward Xia Lun like insects.
[Slaughter! You killed 6 pirates and gained 170 Memory Points!] [Current Memory Points: 800!]
Before you continue