Chapter 8 - The Fishing Trip (2)
"Now then, let's put down some rabid dogs." Raiden murmured impassively.
"R..Raiden? Wh..how did you..." The fisherman was staring at Raiden with his mouth hung open.
"Shh. Go and hide. And make any noise." Raiden shushed the boy, which was pretty comical considering the age difference.
The fisherman nodded, eyes wide with fear and confusion. Raiden ignored the boy as he scrambled to hide. He scanned the area, searching for the weaker pirates whom he could exploit.
Raiden silently moved across the deck and closed in on a pirate who was busy rifling through a crate. With a swift motion, he jammed his dagger into the pirates throat, killing him before he could even realise what happened.
[Pirate Buckteeth killed. 20 AP received.]
Not wasting anymore time, he approached the next pirate, Raiden could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
'This rush...it is so addictive!' Raiden thought with a grin.
He was more than ready to fight. This pirate was standing guard near the edge of the boat, completely unaware of Raiden's approach. Raiden grabbed him from behind, slicing his throat in one fluid motion. Blood sprayed out, but Raiden was already moving, shoving the body into his inventory before it hit the deck.
[Ding! Pirate Ray killed. 20 AP received.]
The pirates were falling one by one, completely oblivious to the silent predator among them. He took down another pirate who was tormenting a fisherman, dispatching him with a quick thrust to the heart.
"Go and hide." Raiden whispered. The fisherman looked at Raiden with a mixture of fear and awe before heeding his earlier advice and hiding.
Raiden quickly scanned the deck, noting the positions of the remaining pirates. There were still a few more left, and he needed to act fast. He silently made his way towards another group, this time planning a more strategic approach. He observed their movements, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
The pirates were clustered together, laughing and boasting about their supposed victory. Raiden crept closer, his dagger ready. He targeted the pirate at the edge of the group first, swiftly dispatching him and dragging the body away before the others noticed. Or that's what he wanted to do.
"Hey! You brat! Wha-" Raiden cut the man off with a quick thrust and threw his body into the sea.
"Damnit!" Raiden cursed under his breath. He wanted to clean the fodder off without much noise and then deal with the bigger fish. Unfortunately, the group was alerted and we're already onto him.
"You damned brat! How dare you kill Kaito!" One of them yelled.
He was much slower than Raiden, so he quickly used his smaller size. He quickly ducked under the horizontal slash the pirate performed, quickly stabbing him into his stomach.
"Ugh! Y..you dam-"
"Shut up, you damn pig." Raiden growled in annoyance, and slashed his throat, ending his futile struggle.
The third one of the group was too scared to even approach Raiden, so he was quickly dealt with too.
He was not done. Raiden darted towards the next pirate, who seemed to have seen the carnage, dodging a clumsy swing of a cutlass and slicing the pirate's Achilles tendon. The man fell, screaming, but Raiden silenced him with a quick stab to the throat.
.
.
.
It was only after more than twenty pirates fell, when the remaining pirates finally realized something was wrong. The ruckus had died down, much to their surprise.
"Oi! Go and find out what is going on!" Cutter commanded one of his men.
"Aye, boss!" Two pirates responded, and hurried to have a look around.
Cutter waited for the duo with folded arms and an annoyed look over his face. "These damn fuckers! All of them are fucking useless." He stomped his foot in anger and decided to take a look himself.
It didn't take long for him to find the two corpses of the men he had sent out. Cutter was immediately on high alert and shouted, "What the hell is going on? Find the bastard and kill him!" His crew scattered, searching for the unseen threat.
"Gotcha." Raiden whispered. The only reason he didn't store these two bodies, was the fact that he expected these pirates to scatter and search for him. No way he could have defeated them if they were together.
Raiden was already on the move, using his speed to strike from the shadows. He had used observe on one the pirates he killed, and was sure that most of these were at F ranked when it came to speed. He leaped onto a pirate who was standing near the edge of the boat, quickly stabbing him in the back and kicking him overboard before the man could react.
Raiden then confronted two pirates who had spotted him. They rushed at him with swords drawn, but Raiden easily dodged their attacks, his movements a blur. He ducked under one pirate's swing, stabbing him in the gut and spinning around to slit the throat of the other.
[Ding! Pirate Scar killed. 20 AP received.]
[Ding! Pirate Riku killed. 20 AP received.]
"Use 5 AP to restore my stamina." Raiden whispered, giving the system a prompt.
[5 AP used. The host has been restored to his best performance.]
"Nice." Raiden muttered with a grin.
The rat and mouse game continued for the next 5 minutes, and Cutter was getting more and more restless. The ship was massive with multiple places to hide. The problem was the fact that he and his men were the ones looking out for the assailant.
Unfortunately for them, Raiden had already achieved what he wanted. Cutter turned a corner and came face to face, with what he could only describe as hell.
Cutter's eyes widened in disbelief as he saw Raiden wipe out the last of his men.
"B..boss...run." The man barely rasped out, before Raiden slashed his throat, ending his life.
"You...You little brat! I'll kill you myself!" he roared, charging at Raiden brandishing massive axe.
Raiden's eyes widened a bit, 'He's fast'. He hurriedly ducked down to evade the attack. The axe smashed into a drum behind him, shattering it to pieces.
Cutter's attacks were heavy, and the man was already blinded by anger. Raiden capitalised that and lunged towards his feet slashing open his achilles tendons.
"Agh! You. Fucker!" Cutter screamed in rage as hobbled over to try and land a hit on Raiden. But at this point, both of them knew that the battle was over.
Cutter's movements became more sluggish as Raiden landed more and more strikes on him.
"Y..You think you c..can beat me?" Cutter growled through his gritted teeth, swinging his axe in a wide arc.
Raiden ducked under the swing and delivered a powerful kick to Cutter's knee, causing the pirate to stumble. Raiden took the opportunity to leap onto Cutter's back, slashing wildly at his neck. Cutter managed to throw his off balance, deflecting the strike from his neck to his back.
He roared in pain and fury, trying to throw Raiden off, which he was able to achieve with a final, desperate swing. Cutter managed to dislodge Raiden, sending him sprawling onto the deck.
Breathing heavily, Cutter advanced on Raiden, axe raised for a final blow. But Raiden was already back on his feet,his eyes cold and focused. He had sustained next to no damage during the entire battle.
As Cutter brought his axe down, Raiden sidestepped the blow and drove his dagger deep into Cutter's side, twisting the blade. The man let out a gurgling cry, dropping his axe as he fell to his knees.
"P..please! Don't kill me." He began pleading, as a final show of struggle.
Raiden kicked him in the face and pressed his head down brutally with the sole of his shoes, staring at him menacingly. "Dude, you're kidding right? You know you were going to kill us." He said slamming his foot down on the bloodied pirate.
"You wanted to give us hope and then kill us all. You think I'd let you live after that? You've got to be kidding me." Raiden said bringing his foot down once again.
At this point, the fearsome pirate was left a bloodied mess, barely holding onto his life.
"Try and be a better person in your next life. If you get a chance, that is." Raiden stood over him, yanking the dagger free and delivering a final, merciful strike to the heart.
[Ding!]
[Vice Captain Cutter killed. 100 AP received.]
With Cutter's death, the remaining pirates, who seemed to have saved themselves from Raiden's rampage, lost their will to fight. They scrambled to escape, some jumping overboard in sheer panic. The fishermen, seeing their tormentors defeated, cautiously emerged from their hiding places.
Raiden, breathing heavily but unscathed, watched the chaos with a calm gaze. The deck was littered with bodies, but the fishermen were safe.
But he didn't feel good. He felt...dirty.
The fishermen, who were rejoicing in the fact that they had survived, all froze when they saw the remnant of the carnage that had taken place on the ship. The ones with weak stomachs began puking.
Toma, too was staring at the hell in front of him with eyes widened in horror. His gaze shifted to the little boy, drenched in red, with a dagger dripping with blood, standing over the corpse of the Vice Captain of The Blood Fang Pirates.
Raiden felt their eyes on him. He knew what they saw: a young boy who had just butchered an entire crew of pirates. He couldn't blame them for their fear. He looked down at his bloodstained hands and felt a pang of guilt. Was this what he had become?
'How did I even do this? I didn't even flinch when I killed them.' Raiden thought with a troubled expression. He didn't want to become a psychopath. He hated even the thought of that.
The silence was deafening. The only sounds were the gentle lapping of the waves against the ship and the faint cries of seagulls overhead. The sun was beginning to set, casting an eerie red glow over the scene, making the blood on the deck shimmer like a macabre painting.
"A..are you guys all alright?" he asked, his voice cracked.
The fishermen nodded hesitantly, still too shocked to speak. One of the older men, his face lined with gratitude and fear, stepped forward.
"Thank you," he said, his voice trembling. "You saved us."
Raiden nodded, but the words felt hollow. He had saved them, yes, but at what cost? He looked at the bodies strewn across the deck and felt a heavy weight settle in his chest. He felt nauseous.
"Toss the bodies in the sea and clean the deck. Make sure not to leave a single spot." Toma ordered in a firm voice, snapping the fishermen out of their stupor.
The men quickly gathered the courage and began cleaning the deck. Raiden watched them go, a sense of unease gnawing at him. He had done what he needed to do, but the thrill of the fight was fading, replaced by a deep, unsettling emptiness.
"Come with me, Raiden." He heard Toma call him over, his voice heavy.
Raiden took a deep breath, trying to steady himself as he followed Toma to a quieter corner of the ship, away from the men who were trying their best to clean the deck off of the blood that had seeped deep into the wood.
"Sit," Toma instructed gently, pointing to a wooden crate. Raiden complied, his legs feeling like lead. Toma studied him for a moment before speaking. "You did well, Raiden. You saved us."
Raiden shook his head, his eyes filling with tears. "I killed them, Toma. I... I killed them all. I'm sure some of them could be redeemed right? I didn't even give them a chance. Their leader too. He was begging me to spare him. I...I just killed him, without even giving him a chance." His voice broke, the weight of his actions crashing down on him. "I didn't feel anything. I just... I just did it."
Toma placed a reassuring hand on Raiden's shoulder. "Listen to me, Raiden. Those pirates chose their path. They chose to terrorize, to kill, to destroy. They knew the risks, and they accepted them. What you did was necessary."
Raiden looked up, his eyes searching for Toma's face for any hint of doubt. "But I didn't feel anything, Toma. For a moment, I even enjoyed it. What does that make me?"
Toma's gaze softened. "It makes you human, Raiden. You're not a monster. You're someone who did what needed to be done to protect others. It's normal to feel conflicted about taking lives, even when it's justified."
Raiden's shoulders slumped, his body shaking with silent sobs. "I don't know," he whispered. "I thought I was doing the right thing, but now... I don't know. I feel so disgusting."
Raiden took a shaky breath, wiping his tears with the back of his hand. "I just don't want to lose myself in this, Toma. I don't want to become like them."
"You won't," Toma said firmly. "Because you care. Because you question. That's what sets you apart from them. They chose to embrace that evil, while you question it. That is what sets you apart. Remember that feeling, that doubt. It means you're still you."
Raiden nodded slowly. He still had his head down, trying to deal with the fact that he took so many lives. He felt the warm hand of Toma, ruffling his hair.
"Now go and get cleaned up. And try to remove the blood off your clothes." Toma said, as he stood up. "I'm going to make sure the boys are doing their job. Now get to it." He patted the boy one last time and left.
Raiden took a deep breath, feeling a sense of calm start to settle over him. The horrors of the battle were still fresh in his mind, but Toma's words had given him a sense of peace.
"Good thing I have a change of clothes." He murmured quietly.
_____
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