The captain of the escort guards gritted his teeth and shouted orders for a counterattack, but the merchant ship only carried two old cannons mounted at the stern.
The panicked gunners fired round after round, yet every cannonball splashed harmlessly into the sea without coming close to the pirate ship.
Within minutes, the pirate vessel had closed the distance completely.
Hooked grappling lines rained through the air and latched tightly onto the merchant ship’s rails.
“Charge, boys!
The treasure and the women are all ours!” Hall roared with laughter as he was the first to leap onto the merchant ship by running across a rope.
His serrated broadsword whistled through the air in a sweeping slash.
Two guards who rushed forward didn’t even have time to raise their weapons before they were cut down in a single strike.
The battle was completely one sided from the very beginning.
Most of the merchant ship’s guards were retired Marine recruits or obscure bounty hunters.
They could barely deal with ordinary thieves, but against pirates who had spent years living by the blade, they stood no chance.
Hall relied on nothing but brute strength and ruthless swordsmanship as he rampaged across the deck.
In only three moves, he shattered the guard captain’s sword before cutting him down into a pool of blood.
Blood splattered across the deck as weapons clashed together.
The dying groans of the wounded mixed with the pirates’ wild laughter, turning the battlefield into pure chaos.
The guards were steadily pushed back.
One after another fell.
In barely twenty minutes, only a handful were still standing, cornered at the stern with trembling swords and despair filling their eyes.
The battle was over.
Standing on the escort captain’s corpse, Hall spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the deck and barked his orders.
“Search everything!
Move every piece of gold, silver, and cargo onto our ship!
Tie up every man and sell them as slaves.
Don’t spare the women or children either.
They’ll fetch a good price in the Sabaody Archipelago!” The pirates burst into laughter and scattered in every direction, kicking open the cabin doors as they rushed inside.
The screams of women and the cries of children immediately echoed throughout the ship.
The merchant vessel had become the pirates’ playground.
Despair drifted across the sea with the salty wind.
The cabin doors were smashed apart one after another, wood splinters flying alongside terrified screams.
The entire merchant ship became a floating hell.
On the deck, the few surviving guards who had surrendered were bound with their hands behind their backs and forced to kneel in thick pools of blood.
A pirate missing his front teeth grinned viciously as he swung an iron club into their knees.
The sharp crack of breaking bones was followed by heart wrenching screams.
The guards collapsed onto the deck, their bodies convulsing in agony, only to have the pirates stomp on their heads and drag them to the ship’s rail before throwing them overboard like garbage.
The seawater quickly turned crimson.
Schools of sharks gathered around the ship almost immediately.
The pirates leaned over the railing, laughing hysterically as they watched before casually drawing pistols and firing into the water, treating human lives as nothing more than a game.
Hall leaned against the doorway of the captain’s cabin, casually turning a newly stolen gold pocket watch in his hand while stepping on the old captain beneath his boots.
The old captain’s hands had been crushed, blood continuously pouring from his mouth, yet he still glared at Hall with hatred.
Hall’s smile only became more twisted.
He deliberately ground his boot into the captain’s shattered hand, savoring the old man’s agonized scream before lazily ordering his men, “Search carefully.
If it’s worth even a coin, take it.
Don’t leave behind so much as a needle.
Anyone hiding valuables loses a hand before they’re fed to the fish.” The cargo hold had already been completely ransacked.
Wooden chests filled with gold and silver coins had been hacked apart, glittering coins rolling across the floor.
The pirates stuffed as many as they could into their clothes, shoving the rest into their pockets.
Two pirates even drew their blades and hacked at each other over a single blood red ruby, spraying blood across scattered silk and expensive spices.
Barrels filled with grain were kicked over, white rice spilling across the floor before being trampled into the mud beneath muddy boots.
Casks of rum were smashed open, the liquor mixing with blood as it flowed across the floor.
The pirates hugged the barrels and drank themselves drunk before casually smashing them against the walls, letting the expensive liquor pour away without a second thought.
The passenger cabins were even more horrifying.
The merchants’ families huddled together in corners as the women desperately shielded their children, trembling like leaves in the wind.
An elderly merchant with gray hair tried to protect his teenage granddaughter.
A pirate with a face full of flesh kicked him squarely in the chest.
The sound of ribs breaking was unmistakable.
The old man coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor, unable to move.
The pirate only sneered before grabbing the pearl earring from the girl’s ear and tearing it away by force.
Her earlobe ripped open as blood streamed down her neck.
The girl burst into frightened sobs.
The pirate grabbed her by the hair and slammed her against the wall.
Those who resisted were cut down on the spot.
Those who surrendered suffered no less.
The women had their jewelry ripped away, their hair pulled into a mess.
Any resistance earned them fists and kicks without mercy.
The men were tied to wooden pillars, forced to watch their families being humiliated.
They roared until their eyes were bloodshot, but all they received in return were louder laughter and harsher beatings.
A little boy no older than five had his cloth doll snatched away.
He cried loudly.
The pirate grinned, threw the doll onto the deck, crushed it beneath his boot, then grabbed the child’s face and forced him to watch his only toy become a pile of torn rags.
Blood covered every corner of the ship.
Cries, screams, filthy curses, and the pirates’ unrestrained laughter filled the air.
They unleashed the darkest and most despicable parts of human nature upon these defenseless people without holding anything back.
A merchant ship that had once carried livelihoods and hope had become a living hell.
One burly pirate grinned wickedly as he grabbed a woman by the back of her collar and flung her onto the deck like a rag doll.
She hit the wooden planks with a heavy thud.
Groaning in pain, she tried to crawl away, only for the pirate to pin her down beneath his boot.
“Nina!
Don’t come over!” she screamed toward her daughter hiding in the corner.
Before she could say another word, her husband charged forward with bloodshot eyes, gripping the broken half of an oar and swinging it with all his strength at the pirate’s head.
A flash of cold steel.
Hall’s first mate swept out his serrated broadsword.
The man was cut cleanly in half at the waist.
Dark red blood and scattered organs splashed across the deck, covering the little girl from head to toe.
“Dad!
Mom!!” Only eight or nine years old, Nina threw herself forward and hugged the still warm upper half of her father’s body.
Her tiny body shook uncontrollably.
Tears mixed with the blood covering her face.
The bright innocence that had once filled her eyes had vanished, replaced by overwhelming terror and despair.