We finally arrived at the ritual site. Carnage greeted us.
Ulysses, Miao Song, and Zephyra killed one cultist after another.
Ulysses fought like a beast, scything them down as if harvesting wheat. Even the E3 monsters—identical to the one I had faced at the outer anchor—fell in two or three sword strikes.
Miao Song relied purely on magic: bursts of fire incinerated some, while razor-sharp wind blades sliced others apart.
Zephyra wielded ice with lethal precision, freezing cultists into brittle statues. She didn't hesitate to close the distance either, shattering frozen skulls with brutal fist strikes.
"Where are you going?" I asked Sebastian as he stepped forward.
Both he and Matthias turned to me, confusion on their faces.
"They're handling it just fine on their own," I said with a shrug.
I nodded toward the five cultists standing near the altar. "Use this time to recover. We'll still need to fight the real battle against them."
I gently tugged them back and resumed channeling healing magic into their wounds.
"Thank you, Mr. Zoro," Matthias said, gratitude clear in his voice.
"Thank you, Mr. Zoro," Sebastian echoed, respectfully.
"By the way, Mr. Matthias," I called as I healed them and watched the battle.
"Yes, Mr. Zoro," Matthias said, turning to me.
I pulled out the crumpled letter I had found earlier on the outer anchor guardian from my inventory.
"If possible, please send this to the wife of the original Governor assigned here," I said, passing the letter to him.
Matthias's face turned solemn. "I will, Mr. Zoro," he nodded with utmost seriousness and carefully tucked it into his inner coat pocket. "You have my word."
I nodded and resumed watching the fight.
The fight was nearing its end. Most of the low-level cultists had already been slaughtered, and their captain clearly wouldn't allow Ulysses and the others to continue the massacre unchallenged.
While the last stragglers fell, I took a moment to assess our true opponents.
Name: Elias Crowe
Codename: Captain
Rank: D2
Name: Flynn Macready
Codename: First Mate
Rank: D2
Name: Thorne Bellamy
Codename: Surgeon
Rank: D1
Name: Felix Drayton
Codename: Navigator
Rank: D1
Name: Kane Graves
Codename: Quartermaster
Rank: D1
This is going to be hard.
The five stood near a large stone altar. Atop it sat a half-meter-high idol depicting a humanoid figure with a grotesquely bulbous head and writhing tentacles sprouting where a mouth should have been.
On either side of the altar were two large groups of people—hundreds in each—bound and battered, standing inside ritual circles. The markings glowed faintly, illuminated only by the ring of burning torches encircling them. At the front of each circle stood smaller Bone Cairn Totems, similar to the one I had destroyed earlier, but crowned with ram or goat skulls instead of human ones. Grey flames danced in the empty eye sockets.
"Avast, ye bilge-rats! Enough!" Elias roared across the clearing. "Fall back."
As expected, Elias couldn't let any more of his minions die in vain.
The remaining cultists, still a few dozen, backed off and stood near the tied prisoners. By the way, the total number of these pirates was much higher than what the initiate said. That meant there was a high possibility that even he didn't know the true strength of the pirate crew, since he was just a newbie, or maybe he was lying.
"Ye pox-ridden heathens think ye can stand afore the comin' of our dark Lord?" Elias sneered, voice dripping contempt. "Delusional lubbers! Our Lord will damn ye all for yer insolence!"
"Let's go," I said in a low voice to Matthias and Sebastian. They nodded, and we joined up with the rest.
"I'll show ye the fate o' any fool what dares spit in the face o' our great Lord," Elias snarled, drawing his cutlass with a flourish. "Cut 'em down, ye swabs! Send these dogs to Davy Jones!"
Elias took a step forward, and then the four of his officers joined him.
Flynn pulled two cutlasses. Thorne, with a crazy smile, pulled out a bone saw in one hand and a lancet in the other. Felix walked empty-handed, but the wind started picking up around him. Lastly, Kane thrust his hands into some kind of darkness and pulled out two flintlock pistols from them.
"Captain's mine," Ulysses declared with a smirk.
He ran towards Elias, brandishing his sword, and hit him with his sword. Elias blocked Ulysses's attack with his sword. The first exchange was over, and no clear winner was decided.
Even though the captain was D2, like his first mate, I had a feeling he was hiding something.
"Then, let me take on his right-hand man," Miao Song said, looking serious. He shot two wind blades at Flynn, but Flynn easily parried both spells with his blades.
Felix and Zephyra took each other as their opponents. Felix sent a gust of wind at Zephyra; it left tiny cuts wherever it passed. Zephyra summoned a wall of ice, effectively stopping the attack. She countered by summoning multiple ice picks and throwing them at him.
"I will take the gunner; you both can have the crazy guy," I said, taking out two flintlocks from my inventory.
"Take care, Mr. Zoro," Matthias said, checking his crossbow.
Sebastian also nodded and unsheathed his bastard sword.
Thorne laughed maniacally and ran towards Sebastian. Sebastian first looked at Thorne with a solemn expression while standing in a stance, then took a step and started running towards Thorne. Bone Saw and Bastard Sword met in the air. Spark flew as the blades separated. Sebastian noticed he had actually taken a step back. In this exchange, Thorne had the upper hand.
"Let's go to the side and give them some space," I said calmly to Kane, then started walking towards a spot away from the other fights.
"My thoughts exactly," Kane agreed, nodding calmly, and followed me to the spot.
But before we could reach there, both of us shot at the same time. Both of us jumped to the side to dodge each other's bullets.
"Ye treacherous cur," Kane said, grinning wide, dropping his pistols and once again pulling out two new ones from the darkness.
"My thoughts exactly," I said with a smile, likewise dropping mine and pulling out new ones from my inventory.
The final battle had started, and the battlefield was divided into five parts.
Miao Song vs. Flynn
(Third-person limited – Miao Song POV)
The ritual clearing had been carved from the island's dense tropical forest into a rough oval, where tall mahogany and silk-cotton trees formed a natural barrier. Kapok trunks rose like cathedral columns, their massive roots snaking across the ground like exposed veins. Broad leaves rustled overhead, filtering moonlight into shifting silver patches. Vines draped from branches like ropes; fallen logs and thorny bushes created natural barriers and trip hazards. The humid air carried the scent of damp earth, resin, decaying leaves, and the faint smoke from the ritual torches.
Miao Song stood at the edge of the clearing, hands open, feeling the humid air currents flow against his skin. Fire and wind were his elements—swirling potential in each palm. The first mate rushing toward him, however, was no ordinary duelist.
Flynn Macready moved with the fury of a storm given legs. Twin cutlasses gleamed in his fists. Dark veins throbbed beneath his sun-darkened skin, and his eyes flickered with a faint green-black hue—the mark of the Great One's ritual. His speed was extraordinary; his strength even more formidable. Among the officers, he was the strongest, second only to the captain.
Flynn closed the gap in three powerful strides. His cutlasses whistled in a crossed X-pattern that would have split Miao Song in half if he hadn't sidestepped. The blades gouged deep into a nearby mahogany trunk; sap bled out like dark blood. Miao Song countered with wind—two razor-sharp blades of compressed air slicing horizontally toward Flynn's chest. The pirate twisted mid-stride and parried both with crossed cutlasses. The impact sent a shockwave that flattened nearby ferns.
"Ye think a breeze can stop me, mage?" Flynn snarled, voice rough with pirate gravel. "The Lord's given me the strength o' a hundred men and the speed o' the wind itself. Yer spells be nothin' but a tickle!"
Flynn lunged again, blades spinning in a relentless blur. Miao Song retreated, summoning a swirling vortex of fire around himself as a protective shield. The flames surged outward, forcing Flynn to skid to a halt on the mossy ground. The pirate laughed savagely and charged straight through the wall of fire. His coat smoked, but his skin remained unharmed; the ritual enhancement ignored the intense heat.
Flynn closed in and struck low, aiming to hamstring. Miao Song leaped back, landing atop a fallen log, and unleashed a point-blank gust of wind that slammed into Flynn's chest like a battering ram. The first mate staggered, boots carving deep furrows in the leaf litter, but he recovered faster than any ordinary man could.
"Too slow, sorcerer!" Flynn roared. He planted his feet and swung both cutlasses in a double overhead chop.
Miao Song crossed his arms, blocking with a wall of hardened air. The force knocked him off the log and into the underbrush. Thorny vines tore at his robes as he rolled, already forming a fireball in his palm. He hurled it forward. Flynn met it head-on, slicing the sphere in half with crossed blades. The two halves burst against the mahogany trunks behind him, setting bark ablaze and sending sparks drifting upward like fireflies.
Flynn charged through the smoke, relentless. Miao Song met him blade-to-magic—summoning wind blades to parry while fire whips lashed at the pirate's flanks. Flynn's speed let him dodge most, but a whip of flame scorched his left arm. He snarled in pain and fury, then countered with a brutal shoulder charge that sent Miao Song crashing into a silk-cotton buttress root. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs; his ribs creaked ominously.
Flynn loomed over him, cutlasses raised for the killing blow. "Time to end this farce," he growled.
Miao Song smiled thinly through the pain. He slammed both palms to the ground. A perfect ring of fire erupted outward, igniting leaf litter and vines in a blazing wall. At the same instant, he channeled wind beneath himself and shot upward, propelled like a rocket into the lower branches of a kapok tree.
From above, he rained fireballs—precise, searing orbs that forced Flynn to weave and dodge through the burning underbrush. The pirate's coat was now aflame, but he laughed through the smoke.
"Ye can't hide forever!" Flynn bellowed, leaping upward with enhanced strength. He grabbed a low vine and swung, cutlass flashing as he aimed to cut Miao Song from the branch.
Miao Song met him mid-air—wind gusts shoving him sideways as a focused lance of fire struck Flynn square in the chest. The impact hurled the pirate backward; he crashed through branches and landed hard on the forest floor, rolling through smoldering ferns.
Flynn rose slowly, coat in tatters, skin blistered, but his eyes still burned with power. Blood dripped from his mouth. "Not bad," he rasped. "But I've still got plenty left in me."
Miao Song landed lightly on a thick branch, breathing hard. The flames below were spreading, eating through vines and leaf litter. Smoke thickened in the humid air. The fight was far from over.
Zephyra vs. Felix
(Third-person limited – Zephyra POV)
Zephyra planted her boots on the uneven moss and thrust both hands forward. A storm of ice picks—each the length of a forearm—shot toward Felix like frozen arrows, glinting in the torchlight.
Felix remained unmoved. The pirate navigator tilted his head, a relaxed smirk forming on his lips. He casually flicked his wrist, and a vortex of wind swirled around him. However, this was no ordinary gust. The air turned a sickly green-black, filled with faint whispering voices that seemed to claw at her mind—strange words in a language that made her skin crawl.
The ice picks shattered mid-flight as if they had struck an invisible barrier. Worse, the corrupted wind reversed direction, hurling the frozen shards back toward her like a swarm of deadly glass hornets.
Zephyra dove behind the thick buttress root of a kapok tree. Shards slammed into the trunk, blackening the wood where they struck. The massive root groaned as the eldritch chill ate inward.
"Ye'll have to do better than that, wench," Felix called over the rising howl, his voice layered with an unnatural echo. "The Lord has shown me the true currents o' this world. Every path, every gust… they all bend to my will now."
Zephyra didn't bother replying. She rolled out from cover, frost already creeping up her forearms like living gauntlets. She sprinted low, using the uneven ground—exposed roots, fallen logs, and patches of fern—to mask her approach. Felix tried to track her, but the dense undergrowth and shifting torchlight turned her into a flickering shadow among the vines.
She closed to ten paces.
Felix snarled and slammed both palms down. The wind exploded outward in a radial blast. Trees at the edge of the clearing bent violently; branches snapped like gunfire. The force rushed toward her in a wall of black-green energy, carrying leaves, dirt, and the stench of decay.
Zephyra dropped to one knee and raised both arms. A curved wall of ice surged up from the forest floor—thick, translucent, veined with blue-white light. The corrupted gale slammed into it with a sound like shattering glass. Cracks spiderwebbed instantly. Frost spread backward across moss and roots, turning the ground brittle. She poured more power into the shield. The wall held—just.
Felix laughed, the sound warped by the wind. "Ye fight like winter itself. But even the hardest ice cracks under the right pressure."
He raised one hand skyward. The canopy above twisted unnaturally; branches curved inward as if pulled by invisible ropes. A writhing surge of black-green energy gathered overhead—hundreds of tiny voices screaming in unison—then plunged straight down toward her shield.
Zephyra clenched her teeth. She couldn't hold the wall forever. She unleashed her magic outward in a freezing nova. The ice barrier shattered into a blizzard of razor-sharp flakes that sliced toward Felix.
He raised both arms. The drill reversed direction mid-fall, becoming a swirling shield that shredded her counterattack into harmless snow. But the effort cost him: blood trickled from his nose, and the green-black glow in his eyes flickered.
Zephyra seized the moment. She charged through the fading blizzard, frost trailing from her ice-covered fists like comet tails. She leaped over a fallen log, closed the last few feet, and delivered a double-fisted hammer blow to Felix's chest.
Ice cracked across his ribs. He staggered back two steps, boots skidding on frozen moss. For the first time, the smirk vanished.
But before she could press the advantage, the wind around them stirred again. Tentacle-like streams of corrupted air lashed out from the trees themselves—coiling around her wrists, ankles, and throat. They burned with unnatural cold, trying to force their way into her skin.
Zephyra roared and flexed every muscle. She detonated another nova, this time at point-blank range. The tentacles shattered into black mist that drifted upward, poisoning the leaves overhead until they curled and blackened.
Felix wiped blood from his mouth and straightened. "Not bad, ice-witch. But the Great One's currents never truly stop flowin'."
He spread his arms wide. The entire clearing seemed to breathe with him. Wind howled down from the canopy.
Zephyra felt the pressure mounting—like the forest itself was about to crush her.
Sebastian & Matthias vs. Thorne
(Third-person limited – Sebastian POV)
Sebastian placed his boots on a bed of moss and leaf litter, holding his bastard sword high in a guard stance. His ribs still throbbed from earlier wounds; Zoro's healing had closed the worst cuts, but each deep breath tugged at the half-healed tissue. Matthias stood to his left, holding a crossbow in one hand and a bastard sword in the other—his movements a bit delayed, pain etched on his face.
Thorne came at them like a rabid beast given steel.
The surgeon cackled—a harsh, jagged sound echoing off the mahogany trunks—as he charged. Bone saw in his right hand, lancet in his left, both blades already dark with old blood. His eyes were wide and feverish, veins pulsating black beneath skin stretched too tight by the eldritch ritual. He was quick. He was strong. And he was utterly, gleefully insane.
"Two against one? How generous o' ye bastards!" Thorne shrieked, voice cracking with excitement. "Come on then—let's open ye up and see what color yer souls bleed!"
He exploded forward with impossible speed.
Sebastian met the charge head-on. Bastard sword clashed with the bone saw in a screeching collision, sparks flying. The impact jarred Sebastian's injured shoulder; fresh blood trickled warm down his arm inside his sleeve. Thorne's strength was monstrous. Even with inferior technique, the enhanced pirate shoved Sebastian back two full steps, boots skidding across moss-slick roots that cracked beneath the pressure.
Matthias didn't hesitate. He aimed the crossbow and fired at close range as Thorne overextended. The bolt hit the surgeon's thigh but didn't go much deeper.
Thorne barely flinched. He ripped the shaft free with his lancet hand and laughed louder, blood spraying slightly from the wound onto the nearest kapok root.
"Tickles!" he howled, spinning wildly. The bone saw whistled through the air in a wide arc that could have opened Sebastian's throat. Sebastian ducked quickly; the blade instead struck a fallen log, splintering it and showering them with wood chips, while splinters stung his face.
Sebastian countered instantly—two precise cuts, high then low—targeting the openings in Thorne's reckless guard. He made a shallow slash across the pirate's ribs. Matthias darted in from the side, thrusting his bastard sword toward Thorne's exposed flank.
Thorne moved with unnatural speed, parrying Matthias's attack with the lancet while kicking Sebastian directly in the chest. The force lifted Sebastian off the ground and slammed him into a kapok tree's buttress root. Pain erupted in his ribs; he tasted copper and heard the trunk groan as his back hit the ridged wood.
Matthias fought alone for three intense seconds, their blows resonating in the humid atmosphere. But Thorne was too fast, too strong. A backhand from the bone saw caused Matthias to stumble, and a new cut appeared on his forearm, immediately dripping blood into his sleeve.
Sebastian pushed away from the root, breathing heavily. "Together, Master!" he shouted.
They coordinated once more—Sebastian kept Thorne occupied with a flurry of textbook strikes while Matthias circled and shot another crossbow bolt into the pirate's shoulder. Thorne roared in delight rather than pain.
"More! Give me more!" he screamed, eyes bulging. "The Lord loves the taste o' blood!"
He lunged again, faster than before. The bone saw and lancet whirled in a frenzy. Sebastian blocked, parried, and riposted, but each impact sent fresh agony through his half-healed wounds. Matthias attempted to flank Thorne, but a back kick caught him in the knee. He went down with a grunt, rolling desperately as the saw whistled past his face, gouging a deep furrow in the mossy ground.
Sebastian was breathing heavily now, vision blurring at the edges. They were being pushed back. Despite being two against one and despite their superior combined skill, Thorne's ritual-enhanced strength and speed were overwhelming them. Every exchange left them bleeding more, slower, and weaker.
Thorne licked blood from his lancet and grinned like a demon in the flickering torchlight, shadows dancing across his face from the swaying vines overhead.
"Ye're breakin', ye sorry pair!" Thorne howled, eyes wild. "I can smell it!"
Ulysses vs. Elias
(Third-person limited – Ulysses POV)
Ulysses moved like a predator born for battle.
His greatsword, nearly as tall as a man, sang through the humid air as he pressed forward. Elias Crowe — the pirate captain and the strongest of his crew — was already on the defensive.
Elias swung his cutlass in a vicious arc, enhanced strength behind the blow. Ulysses parried with casual power. The clash rang out like a blacksmith's hammer, sparks flying into the nearby ferns. Elias staggered back a step, boots slipping on moss-covered roots.
"Not bad for a ritual puppet," Ulysses growled, a feral grin splitting his face. "But you're still too slow."
He stepped in and delivered a heavy overhead strike. Elias barely managed to cross his cutlass in defense, but the force drove him down onto one knee. The pirate captain's arms trembled under the pressure.
Elias snarled and tried to counter with a quick riposte, aiming for Ulysses's side. Ulysses twisted his torso, letting the cutlass whistle past his ribs by a hair's breadth, then slammed his pommel into Elias's jaw. The crack echoed through the night. Blood sprayed from Elias's mouth as he stumbled backward into a tangle of vines.
"The Lord has chosen me!" Elias bellowed, voice distorted with fanaticism. "I am His vessel! Ye cannot—"
Ulysses didn't let him finish. He lunged forward, greatsword swinging in a wide horizontal arc. Elias ducked under it at the last second, but Ulysses immediately followed with a brutal kick to the chest. The captain flew backward and crashed hard into the ridged buttress root of a kapok tree. The impact shook leaves from the canopy above.
Elias coughed up blood and pushed himself upright, breathing raggedly. He was fast and strong — stronger than any of his officers — but Ulysses was simply on another level. Every exchange ended with Elias giving ground. Every clash left him breathing harder while Ulysses looked almost relaxed.
"You talk too much," Ulysses said, circling slowly. His boots crunched over leaf litter and broken twigs. "If your Lord really chose you, he picked poorly."
Elias attacked with renewed fury, swinging his cutlass in rapid, successive strikes. For a brief moment, he seemed to regain momentum, forcing Ulysses to defend with three quick parries. But on the fourth strike, Ulysses caught the cutlass on the flat of his greatsword, twisted, and wrenched it from Elias's grip. The weapon spun through the air and embedded itself deep into a mahogany trunk with a solid thunk.
Disarmed and desperate, Elias roared and lunged forward bare-handed, black-veined fists swinging with monstrous power. Ulysses met the charge head-on. He dropped his greatsword, seized Elias by the throat with one massive hand, and slammed him against the kapok trunk.
The tree shuddered. Bark cracked under the impact.
Elias clawed at Ulysses's forearm, drawing blood, but Ulysses only tightened his grip, lifting the pirate captain slightly off the ground.
"You're strong," Ulysses admitted, voice low and cold. "Stronger than the others. But strength alone isn't enough."
Elias's eyes burned with hatred. He tried to speak, but only a choked gurgle escaped.
Ulysses leaned in closer. "Tell your 'Lord'… he chose the wrong champion."
Just as Ulysses prepared to deliver the finishing blow, something shifted.
"No…" Elias whispered, voice trembling with rage and fanaticism. "I will not fall here. Not to you. Not to anyone."
Black smoke erupted around his body. He kicked Ulysses hard in the chest with both legs, using the momentum to break free from the vice-like grip. He rolled backward and came up on one knee.
Black veins surged across his neck and face like flowing ink. His eyes rolled back, turning completely black. A guttural, inhuman sound tore from his throat as his body began to convulse.
Ulysses paused, lowering his greatsword slightly, watching with genuine interest.
"Ulysses!" Zoro shouted from across the clearing, still fighting Kane. "Why are you letting him finish the transformation? Kill him now while he can't fight back!"
"Don't worry," Ulysses replied casually, waving one hand without taking his eyes off Elias. "Everything is under control." A savage grin spread across his face. "Besides… I'm curious to see what he's going to do."
He ignored Zoro and turned back to the convulsing captain.
Elias's spine arched violently. His skin split open with wet, tearing sounds. Bones cracked and elongated. His jaw unhinged and stretched forward into a wide, fang-filled maw. Thick, ropey tentacles erupted from where his mouth had been, writhing and dripping dark ichor. His limbs bulged grotesquely, muscles ripping through his coat as his hands transformed into massive, clawed talons. The cutlass, pulled back by an unseen force, warped and fused with his flesh, becoming a jagged, bone-like blade protruding from his forearm.
The transformation finished in seconds.
What rose from the ground was no longer Elias Crowe.
It was a towering monster — taller and bulkier than Ulysses — with a bulbous, tentacled head and eyes that burned with wild, fanatical devotion. Grey flames flickered along the edges of its corrupted form, mirroring the totems at the ritual circles.
The monster unleashed a deafening, gurgling roar that shook the leaves overhead and sent birds exploding from the canopy.
Ulysses tightened his grip on his greatsword, a savage grin slowly spreading across his face.
"Now we're talking."
Zoro vs. Kane
After the first exchange, we both swapped our spent flintlocks for fresh ones. I kept moving toward the open patch we'd chosen as our battlefield and fired again. Kane shot at the exact same moment. His bullets struck mine mid-air with perfect precision, sending both pairs ricocheting harmlessly into the trees.
I didn't let the shock slow me down. We fired a third time the moment we reached the clearing. Once again, he intercepted every shot in flight.
What kind of bullshit skill is this?
I checked. His other stats were enhanced, but not as much as his companions'. However, his Perception stat was off the charts.
I moved slowly in a circle. The humid night air smelled of smoke and resin. Kane stood twenty paces away, as calm as ever, with twin flintlocks already in his hands. The bastard was pulling them straight from those swirling patches of darkness that seemed to appear near his hand and then vanish once he drew his pistols. I raised both pistols and fired.
The shots fired almost simultaneously. Kane didn't even flinch. His eyes flicked up, tracking the bullets mid-flight as if they were moving in slow motion. He quickly pulled out his pistols and fired in the span of a heartbeat—two sharp cracks. The bullets burst into sparks and lead fragments.
"Nice try," Kane said, his voice smooth and almost friendly. A new pair of flintlocks was already sliding out of the dark portal into his hands.
Fuck your nice try.
As I replaced my pistols, I noticed he didn't do it himself.
Is he out of more pistols?
Just as that thought came to my mind, my Danger Sense flared a warning. I felt a tingle on the left side of my neck. I hurriedly bent backward as a cutlass streaked past my face. I looked to my left, and a bigger patch of smoky darkness had appeared in the air.
My Danger Sense flared again as I saw another cutlass shooting out of the darkness.
Fuck.
I hurriedly turned and ran. The cutlass was embedded in the ground behind me. I ran faster as more and more weapons came shooting out of the dark portal. Cutlasses, axes, knives, and harpoons rained at me one by one—every time I saved myself by a hair's breadth from the ever-changing angle of the falling weapons.
My gaze fell on Kane. He had a friendly smile on his face as he shot to his right without looking. Before I could question his confusing action, I saw the bullet going inside a small patch of darkness that appeared to his right, and disappeared once the bullet went inside. I felt a tingle at my back and hurriedly dived to the side. The bullet passed the area I was at, hitting the ground in front. Looking back, I saw a small, dark portal behind me, which disappeared soon after.
I looked at Kane. He smiled and shot in a random direction, and the bullet went into a dark portal.
Oh, shit.
An axe came from behind me, and a bullet from my side. I hurriedly dived in front, lying prone on the ground as both passed over me. My heart was already beating faster.
I felt another tingle and pulled myself forward just as a knife was embedded between my legs, barely a few centimeters from my crotch.
"Getting slower, lad?" Kane laughed.
His words irritated me, so I fired both pistols at him. He looked calm, darkness swirled around his hands, and two pistols appeared. His shot at the same moment I shot, our bullets colliding in mid-air.
The attack failed as expected, but I noticed something interesting. When the two darkness portals appeared around his hands, the attack behind me paused. From the corner of my eye, I looked back slightly and saw that the portal was no longer there.
Once the attack was over, the portal appeared again behind me, spewing weapons one by one. I started running again, dodging them. But now, I was analyzing Kane's power.
I looked at Kane, and only one portal appeared near his hand, and he pulled out a pistol. The portal disappeared. He shot to the front, but a portal appeared, and the bullet disappeared inside. I felt a tingle on my face. I dodged to the right as a portal appeared just in front of me, the bullet passing through the area where my face had been. The portal disappeared. All the while, a portal remained behind me, weapons constantly flying out of it.
To confirm my hypothesis, I observed his attack once more. After dodging another sword and bullet, I was sure. The bastard could only open at most two portals at a time. Of course, he could be purposely only opening two portals to trip me, but that was the risk I had to take.
Once I realized that he could only open two portals at a time, I suddenly relaxed. The situation felt in control. Then a crazy idea came to my mind.
How about using this situation to train my Danger Sense?
Once the thought occurred, it refused to leave. I decided to act on it.
I dodged his attacks while occasionally attacking him. I left my safety completely to my senses and my Danger Sense skill.
While dodging the attacks, I also started paying attention to the other fights.
Zephyra and Miao Song were doing ok. They nearly matched their opponents. It would take some time to decide the victor in their respective fights.
On the other hand, Thorne was continuously pushing back Sebastian and Matthias, injuries piling up on their bodies. Thorne was also somewhat injured, but the crazy fucker laughed off each of his injuries.
Lastly, Ulysses was the only one pushing back against his opponent and clearly winning. Just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, something happened, and the captain freed himself of Ulysses's grip. Black smoke swirled around his body, and it started convulsing. Ulysses stopped attacking and looked at the captain with interest.
What the fuck is this fucker doing?
Why the fuck is he standing still and letting the boss transform? It looks like some cheap CG cutscene where the hero freezes while the boss powers up.
"Ulysses!" I shouted, dodging another axe. "Why are you letting him finish the transformation? Kill him now while he can't fight back!"
"Don't worry," Ulysses replied casually, waving one hand without taking his eyes off Elias. "Everything is under control." A savage grin spread across his face. "Besides… I'm curious to see what he's going to do."
He ignored me and turned back to the convulsing captain.
This motherfucker.
The captain soon completed his transformation.
Name: Elias Crowe
Codename: Captain
Rank: D3
Elias and Ulysses clashed again, but the captain was no longer pushed back as he matched his opponent blow to blow.
As I dodged the attacks, I thought about the actions of these pirates. Ideally, after finding out that we had destroyed the anchors, they should have run away. Even if they wanted revenge, they shouldn't stay for so long. For fanaticist fools like them, revenge should never be the number one priority. But still here they were, fighting. But why?
Without the anchors, they couldn't absorb the energy of the ley line nexus to fuel their ritual. So, technically, the ritual was as good as abandoned. But they still stayed here. There was also the fact that I didn't receive a mission completion notification. The mission only needed to stop the ritual and didn't require killing the pirates. That meant there must be a way they could continue the ritual.
Do they have some kind of backup?
Backup? That's when it clicked. The battered and tied prisoners. The ritual circles. The totems.
The prisoners are the backup battery!
This time, instead of pulling out pistols from my inventory, I pulled out a grenade. After lighting its cord, I threw it at one of the totems. The grenade fell, rolled, and stopped near the totem. I pulled another grenade and threw it towards the second totem after lighting it.
"NO!" The pirate captain screamed at the top of his lungs, but it didn't stop the two blasts that tore the totems apart.
"You dare, heathen," the pirate captain bellowed, looking towards me.
Ulysses responded in my stead, slashing his chest while his focus was on me. Black ichor oozed out of the wound.
"Eyes on me, pirate," Ulysses smirked and jerked his sword to flick away the black blood.
"You are a troublesome fellow," Kane said, his smile gone. "But you also made the mistake of looking away."
I was slow to react because my focus was still on the grenade I threw. I dodged, but not completely, and a lead pellet tore into my shoulder.
I held in a gasp as I continued dodging the weapons. Kane was completely serious as he increased the attack's intensity.
But I didn't have to suffer for long. After a few minutes, I got the notification I was hoping for.
Danger Sense Level Up (Novice-> Apprentice)
Suddenly, the difficulty in dodging the reduced. I got what I wanted; now it was time to finish the fight.
But I only got better in dodging; hitting Kane, and even killing him, was another matter. His constant barrage wouldn't let me close the distance, and he would just shoot down every bullet I fired.
There was a way I could end this fight swiftly using the new skill I was learning. But I hadn't even reached the novice level in it; just practicing it was extremely taxing. If I were to use it forcefully, it might cause some serious damage to me. But there was no other way.
I pulled out two flintlocks again. I fired the first one normally. For the second, I swept my arm in a wide arc and jerked my wrist at the last moment.
The moment I was ready to shoot, Kane had also drawn his pistols and shot as well. The first bullet easily struck my first bullet mid-air.
Kane was stunned as he missed the second. The bullet, instead of traveling in a straight path as it should, followed a curved path. His brain short-circuited for a moment when he saw something that he thought shouldn't be possible.
With his ridiculous perception, he could've still dodged the bullet, but because he was too stunned, he reacted late, and the bullet hit his head. He died with disbelief in his eyes.
I felt mentally exhausted after that one shot. Moreover, I felt my arm muscles pull and start to hurt.
But it wasn't in vain.
Active Skill Learned: Curved Bullets (Novice)
But that wasn't all.
Congratulations! Feat Achieved: Underdog!
Kill someone at least one rank above oneself.
Reward: Skill: Second Wind
Name: Second Wind
Type: Active Skill
Level: None
Description: Recover to peak condition instantly once a month without side effects.
Just the skill was enough to justify the torment I had gone through dodging those weapons left and right.
I sat down on the mossy floor to catch my breath and ease my throbbing head. A faint white light covered my right arm, healing my strained muscles. I was running low on mana, so I didn't know how long the spell could last.
I looked at the other battles. Miao Song and Zephyra had begun to gain the upper hand. While Ulysses was once again pushing back the pirate captain despite the captain's power upgrade. It wasn't so easy to gain an upper hand on the man with roughly ten millennia of fighting experience.
Matthias and Sebastian, on the other hand, were clearly losing, covered with numerous wounds. Thorne was also injured, but the injuries only made him more berserk.
I pulled out a flintlock from my inventory in my left hand. Aiming down the line, I shot.
Thorne howled in agony as he dropped to his knees, clutching his crotch. Blood trickled between his fingers. He stared at me with a mixture of pain and pure hatred.
"What?" I laughed. "Never seen anyone crazier than you?"
Sebastian looked between Thorne and me, momentarily stunned. I raised an eyebrow. "Are you waiting for him to grow it back?"
Sebastian blinked, then let out a short, pained laugh that quickly turned into a grimace. He turned to Thorne, who was still staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. Before the surgeon could say a word, Sebastian's bastard sword flashed once, and Thorne's head rolled.
"Thank you, Mr. Zoro," Sebastian said sincerely. Both he and Matthias bowed deeply despite their injuries and obvious pain.
I waved them over. "Come sit down. You both look like hell."
They nodded and collapsed onto the ground beside me, breathing heavily.
I looked at Ulysses's fight. The pirate captain looked more and more desperate. The death of the surgeon was likely a tipping point, as he attacked with a haymaker, but when it didn't connect, he backed off and created some distance with Ulysses.
"Ye think ye've won, ye scurvy dogs?" Elias snarled, voice thick with rage. Then the anger suddenly drained from his face, replaced by something far more unsettling. "But ye be wrong. No one — not a soul — can stop the arrival o' our Lord!"
He threw his head back and began laughing — a high, manic, unhinged cackle that echoed through the trees.
Oi, oi, oi. An evil laugh like that when the odds are completely against him is never a good sign.
I suddenly noticed that I still hadn't received a notification for mission completion after I destroyed the totems. I forgot about it when the bullet hit my shoulder, focusing solely on the battle. But now that I was free, I suddenly remembered it.
I looked around to see if I had missed anything. What gave the cult's high priest such confidence that, despite losing both his main and backup power sources, he was still so confident in completing the ritual?
But there was nothing here other than the pirates and us.
Wait a minute. Pirates?
"Kill the remaining pirates quickly." Both Maio Song and I shouted at the same time. It looked like he had also come to the same conclusion.
"Too late," Elias laughed eerily.
Then suddenly, all the pirates ignited in grey flames. No visible burn marks appeared on their skin, but most of the pirates started screaming in pain as they were being burned alive. Only the captain and the remaining officers didn't react; instead, they all showed crazed smiles while being burnt alive.
"Stay away from those flames," Miao Song warned hurriedly when he saw Ulysses about to punch Elias. Ulysses stopped and backed off.
We regrouped as the pirates burned for a minute, then they all collapsed, and grey energy balls appeared over them. Those energy balls also merged with the idol on the altar one by one.
"Can't we do anything?" Matthias asked in a weak voice.
"Now, we can't," Miao Song replied with a somber voice.
The idol glowed in grey light. When all the energy balls entered it, a grey pillar of light shot out from it. The pillar lasted for only a few seconds.
For a minute, nothing happened.
"Did it fail?" Ulysses asked.
A cracking sound answered his question.
We looked up. A jagged crack had appeared in the sky, like glass fracturing. It spread rapidly, and then — with a sound like reality itself shattering — a meter-wide hole tore open in the fabric of the world.
Beyond the hole was pure, suffocating darkness.
Then an eye appeared.
The eye was enormous. So massive that we couldn't even see its full size through the rift. The eye slowly turned and looked down at us — the way a human might look down at an ant crawling across the ground.
A cold wave of dread washed over me.
Finally, like a death knell, I received a notification from the system.
Mission: Extinguish the Drowned Lantern (Failed)