A burly man was looking through the aim of a gun with one eye closed. He lingered for a moment and held back his gun, his breath softly blowing at the smoke coming out of the barrel.
He reloaded the gun while his eyes stayed stuck to the presumed position of the pitch black ship ahead.
Once ready, he aimed back his gun, his eyes never blinking and shot again.
Bang!
…
Bang!
Shokai immediately jumped down. He did not know what exactly had happened, but he had to save himself first.
The bullet flew above his head, missing him by a moment.
Scarn's unconscious body lay in front of him.
He slowly crawled towards the lieutenant making sure not to expose himself to the sniper.
To his great surprise. Scarn was alive. The bullet tore through his ear but the man kept his head.
Sho Kai was relieved.
He was merely dazed and not entirely unconscious, soon he was gaining back some clarity.
But after concluding his senior was safe, Sho Kai's expression turned grave. He wanted to believe he could win without taking risks, but that possibility was foregone.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to test his last contingency once more.
He was more or less sure about everything, but his instinct told him to double check.
He looked around and noticed a splinter coming out of the wooden deck. He immediately slammed his finger onto the spike and it penetrated his skin. Blood poured out for a moment and then the splinter did too, soon, blood stopped coming out of the wound.
Sho Kai gave a forced smile. Well, better than the worst at least…
Soon after, Scarn woke from his dazed state.
The first thing he saw was his junior preparing to fire another cannon while crawling as bullets flew around the ship, some even hitting it directly.
"Finally awake?" Sho Kai asked nonchalantly.
Scarn nodded. He soon realized where he was and the situation started to clear up. The sound of the bullets flying got louder and louder until it hurt his ear drums. The constant splashing of water made him feel as if he was a step away from drowning. It was a miracle the ship didn't have holes through its body leaking with the dark sea water.
Scarn grew tense.
He immediately asked, "What are we going to do?"
His junior replied without a noticeable tone, "Get closer obviously, beat Terror with courage I said remember?"
"Stop with that nonsense, just at this distance I was inches away from getting shot through the cranium." He replied angrily.
"What's your deadlift PR?"
"What's my what?" Scarn asked, confused and annoyed.
Sho Kai narrowed his eyes. 'I should be more careful with my language.' He thought.
"I mean how much weight can you lift?"
What Scarn said left Sho Kai shook.
'Isn't that 2500 kilograms?!'
Sho Kai didn't say anything, he had to be careful with everything. Measurements of this world included.
So instead, he directly asked the question in his mind.
…
Scarn pondered. "Maybe." He replied.
"Good enough. So let's make that change to the plan then, we'll need to get closer obviously."
"Alright, might as well try before we die." Scarn nodded with whimsical melancholy.
With that, Sho Kai turned to look to the side, and glared at the green pillar of light that was approaching him.
But this time, his eyes showed no fear, just pure determination.
Both of them hid under the black cloth cover once again. Their bodies were intangible to the light.
They were going to do the same thing they did before. But now, the result was going to be much more dangerous. They were going to go deeper into the pirate ship range. The chances of getting hit by a bullet will increase exponentially.
But they forgot to hesitate.
Sho Kai's eyes were locked onto the incoming pillar or emerald light, and just as it was about to come into contact with the ship. He ignited the right cannon.
The light fell upon the crew of two, and the cannon erupted again. This time the ball was aimed straight at the man who shot Scarn.
The cannon ball carreen towards the burly pirate but hit man dodged and one of his companions in crime lost his neck to the mental sphere.
At the same time the recoil from the shot acted upon the ship, but under the green light's influence, the propulsion was inverted and caused the black ship to move forward instead.
The ship careened forward as the two marines held on to the base of the cannons for support.
'These cannon's recoil is really damaging the deck, especially the left cannon. It's on the verge of breaking off its drilling in the wood.'
But there was no time for thoughts. As soon as the acceleration stabilized. Scarn jumped out of the cover and hugged the barrel that contained the most important part of their plan.
After getting hit by the cannon ball, the pirate crew was dazed for a moment, and couldn't immediately shoot the now noticeable Scarn.
The marine did not waste this opportunity and picked up the barrel above his head. He gritted his teeth and ran forward to the front of the ship.
Just as he took the last step at the bow of the ship. Just a moment before he would fall off the edge, the man planted his foot, and turned his body to propel the barrel into a marvelous throw.
The barrel left his hands as wind howled around the man. The front of the ship partially sank under the weight of this force and the barrel cut through the air towards the pirate ship.
The burly man with keen eyes instantly noticed this move. He was aiming to shoot Scarn but at the last moment he chose to change his target.
While the barrel was still in mid air the man with the scar running down his face fired his gun and the bullet hit the bullseye.
Lead tore through the barrel and destroyed its structure, but it could not stop its momentum.
The barrel imploded and its contents fell out. Dozens of bottles of rum flew above Terro's crew.
Most of the bottles landed on the tall mast erected in the middle of the pirate ship. The glass immediately broke out into a cacophony of shard shattering.
Most of the red violet rum fell out and doused sails painted with Terrors jolly Roger. Meanwhile some fell lower and fell on the pirates who were covering themselves to avoid getting hit with glass shards.
Once the chaos was given a breather, a pirate suddenly tasted the liquid that fell from the broken bottles.
Immediately he questioned, "Why are they throwing rum at us?"
The burly man who was observing the scene pondered his crewmates words for a moment, and then… his heart sank.
…
On the other side, Scarn opened the rum bottle with his thumbnail and poured a little of its content on a cloth. Then he inserted the rum doused cloth inside the half full rum bottle and tied it in place.
Once satisfied, he immediately turned his hand towards his companion and spoke one word, "Now."
Sho Kai didn't linger for a tenth of a moment and used his ignition stick on the cloth that stuck out of the rum bottle.
'Molotov cocktail!' He thought to himself like a child excited to see a new toy.
The sparks made the alcohol doused cloth catch fire.
Scarn didn't let a heartbeat skip, and took a step forward. His hand drew an arc and the Molotov flew straight to the mast like a flaming laser.
In the next instance, hell broke open.
...