The Captain of the guard gritted his teeth and roared orders for a counterattack, but the merchant ship only had two old cannons mounted at the stern.
The shells fired by the panicked gunners all fell into the sea, without even grazing the pirate ship.
Within minutes, the pirate ship had pulled up alongside them, and hooked ropes were thrown like rain, firmly latching onto the merchant ship’s gunwale.
“Men!
Charge!
The treasure, the women—it’s all ours!” Hal laughed maniacally, being the first to leap onto the merchant ship’s deck via a rope.
His Serrated Greatsword swept out with a whistling sound, cutting down two charging guards before they could even parry.
From the very beginning, the battle was a complete slaughter.
Most of the merchant ship’s guards were retired Marine recruits or obscure bounty hunters.
While they might have been enough to handle petty thieves, they were utterly defenseless against these pirates who lived their lives on the edge of a blade.
Relying on his brute strength and ruthless swordsmanship, Hal rampaged across the deck.
In just three moves, he shattered the guard Captain’s saber and cut him down into a pool of blood with a backhand strike.
Blood splattered everywhere on the deck.
The clashing of weapons, dying groans, and the pirates’ wild laughter formed a chaotic cacophony.
The guards retreated step by step, falling one after another.
In just twenty minutes, only a few remained standing to resist.
Driven into a corner at the stern, their hands shook uncontrollably as they held their blades, their eyes filled with nothing but despair.
The battle was completely over.
Stepping on the guard Captain’s corpse, Hal spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground and barked out orders: “Search everywhere!
Move all the gold, silver, and cargo from the cabins onto our ship!
Tie up the men as slaves, and don’t let the women and children go either.
They’ll fetch a fortune at the Sabaody Archipelago!”
The pirates dispersed with boisterous laughter, kicking open the cabin doors and rushing inside.
The screams of women and the wails of children erupted instantly.
The entire merchant ship was reduced to a playground for the pirates, the scent of despair drifting across the sea with the ocean breeze.
The wooden cabin doors were smashed to pieces by the pirates’ kicks, splinters flying alongside the screams.
The entire merchant ship had truly become a floating hell on earth.
On the deck, the few remaining guards who had surrendered had their hands bound behind their backs, forced to kneel in the thick pool of blood.
A pirate with a missing front tooth grinned as he swung an iron rod, smashing it hard against their knees.
The crisp sound of bone snapping echoed, followed by heart-wrenching screams.
One by one, the guards collapsed, twitching in agony.
Yet, the pirates stepped on their heads and dragged them to the side of the ship, tossing them into the sea like trash.
The seawater instantly churned with a blinding crimson, attracting schools of sharks that circled the ship.
The pirates leaned over the railing, laughing uproariously at the sight, even pulling out pistols to fire randomly into the water, treating human lives as a game for their amusement.
Hal leaned against the doorframe of the Captain’s quarters, playing with a gold-inlaid pocket watch he had just looted.
His foot was planted on the old merchant Captain, whose hands had been brutally crushed.
Blood bubbled from the old man’s mouth, but he still glared at Hal with deathly intensity.
Hal’s grin grew even more sinister as he ground his foot into the man’s broken hand.
Listening to the piercing screams, he nonchalantly instructed his men: “Search thoroughly.
Don’t leave behind so much as a needle if it’s worth anything.
Anyone caught hiding things, chop off their hands and throw them to the fish.”
The cargo hold was already in a state of utter ruin.
Wooden crates filled with gold and silver coins were smashed open, bright coins rolling all over the floor.
The pirates stuffed them into their shirts like madmen, cramming whatever they couldn’t fit into their pockets.
To snatch a pigeon-blood ruby, two pirates even drew their blades and hacked at each other on the spot, blood splattering onto scattered silks and precious spices.
Barrels of grain were kicked over, white rice spilling across the floor only to be ground into the filth by their boots.
Casks of rum were smashed open, the liquor mixing with blood on the floor.
The pirates held the barrels and drank wildly; once drunk, they casually smashed the barrels against the walls, letting the expensive alcohol flow wastefully.
The scene in the passenger cabins was even more unbearable to witness.
The families of the merchants huddled in corners, the women shielding their children in their arms, trembling like leaves in an autumn wind.
A white-haired old merchant tried to protect his teenage granddaughter, only to be kicked in the chest by a burly pirate.
The sound of his ribs snapping was clearly audible.
The old man spat out a mouthful of blood and slumped to the floor, unable to move.
The pirate grinned and reached out, brutally tearing the pearl earrings from the girl’s ears.
Her earlobes were ripped open, and blood trickled down her neck.
The girl wailed in terror, but the pirate grabbed her by the hair and slammed her hard against the wall.
Those who resisted were cut down on the spot, and even those who didn’t could not escape the abuse.
The women’s jewelry was violently snatched away, their hair left disheveled.
Any hint of disobedience was met with a barrage of punches and kicks.
The men were tied to pillars, forced to watch their families being humiliated.
They roared until their eyes nearly split, but it only invited more wanton mockery and beatings from the pirates.
A child of only four or five had his rag doll snatched by a pirate.
He wailed in fear, but the pirate just grinned, threw the doll to the ground, and crushed it under his boot.
He then grabbed the child’s face, forcing him to watch his only toy turn into a pile of mangled stuffing.
Blood splattered everywhere on the ship; cries and screams were constant, as were the pirates’ unrestrained laughter and foul language.
They unleashed the darkest, most despicable greed and brutality of human nature upon these defenseless people, turning a merchant ship full of livelihoods and hope into a sunless hell.
The burly pirate grinned and grabbed the woman by the back of her collar, slamming her onto the deck like a rag doll.
The floorboards let out a dull thud.
The woman groaned in pain, and before she could even try to crawl up, the pirate pinned her to the floor with his foot on her back.
“Nina!
Stay back!” she screamed to her daughter huddled in the corner.
Before her voice could fade, her husband lunged forward with bloodshot eyes, clutching a broken oar and swinging it with all his might at the pirate’s head.
But in the next second, a cold light flashed.
Hal’s Second-in-command swept his Serrated Greatsword out, instantly slicing the man in half at the waist.
Dark red blood mixed with internal organs sprayed across the deck, splattering all over the little girl.
“Papa!!
Mama!!”
Nina, only eight or nine years old, lunged forward frantically and hugged her father’s still-warm upper body.
Her small frame shook like a sieve as tears mixed with the blood on her face.
Her once clear eyes were now filled with overwhelming despair and terror.
…Dear Reader,
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