“Wait, please! I’ll do anything you want, just spare my— Hrrk!”

  The pirate’s last words were cut short as Dulcina’s rapier pierced through his eye and into his skull.

  “That’s the last one,” Alvine said as she lifted her spear from the mangled corpse of another pirate. Her expression was uneasy. “Killing humans never gets easier.”

  “These scums are barely human. They are parasites who feed off the suffering of others,” Dulcina said. “Death is the least they deserve.”

  “Humans shouldn’t be killing each other. It’s wasteful behaviour, especially as our species wars against Hell itself for our very survival,” Alvine sighed. “But I suppose such an ideal world does not exist. The demons must be laughing at us, watching us fight among ourselves when extinction is right on our doorstep.”

  “Should we have let these men live, then? Allow them to roam free, so that they may continue to spread murder and rapine?” Dulcina asked, her voice hard. “You are not that naive.”

  “Cool it, heiress. I still killed these men, didn’t I?” Alvine shot back. “All I’m saying is our little group is a bit too enthused about butchering people the moment your demon brother gives the order. Funny how that works.”

  Dulcina ignored the spearwoman’s words. “The others must have already finished with their boats. We should go to the port. Eri might need our help.”

  “Hm. Guns on the ship still work. We can fire on the pirates’ position.”

  “We risk hitting Eri.”

  “Won’t that be a shame… Also, try not to be so focused on your ‘brother’ that you forget your own knight captain is down there too, heiress.”

  ~~~

  On the port, things were getting heated.

  “You damn brat, I swear we will skin you and your friends alive before we sell your remains to— Arrgh!”

  The pirate lieutenant could not finish before an impact grenade blew his arm off. The Gold-Core Chosen barely had time to bring his weapon up before Eri blurred before him. Two daggers were thrown point-blank straight into the pirate’s eye, before a third blade violently slashed his upper chest, cutting up through the collarbone before tearing out the man’s throat.

  Eri didn’t bother checking whether the pirate was dead. He simply kicked the body aside before tossing incendiary charges onto its chest. The metal powder ignited, superheated flames eating their way past the Gold-Core Chosen’s reinforced flesh and into his heart.

  There was no kill like overkill, especially when it came to higher-ranked Chosens.

  The rest of the lieutenant’s subordinates were swiftly cut down. Eri tossed concussive firesticks into their masses, turning them blind and deaf. The pirates’ abyssal accuracy with their firearms faired poorly against Eri’s speedy form, and those few glancing shots that did hit him failed to penetrate his armour or his mana-reinforced skin.

  A few dagger slashes and flaming fist strikes later, the band of outlaws were reduced to nothing but corpses.

  “Clear!” Eri shouted behind him. A second of hesitation passed before the group of dwarves emerged, clutching guns and handaxes.

  “You could have left some alive for us, Paragon,” the lead dwarf grunted. “This was our home. Vengeance is our right.”

  “If you wanted to kill them personally, then you should have done so earlier rather than hide in your chambers,” Eri shot back uncharitably.

  “We did,” the dwarf grunted, unaffected by the venom in Eri’s words. “Fought tooth and nail with everything we had. Thirty pirate ships arrived. Multiple corvettes and even a blasted frigate with them. We reduced their number to twelve. The shipyard’s automated defences took out three before they were shot down. Traded fire using our cannons for a full day after that — took out three more ships while it killed fifteen of us. Nine of us then gave our lives to swim out and rig explosive charges to take out another two.”

  Eri regretted his cruel words immediately. The dwarf didn’t notice; his expression turned wistful. “Then your dreadnought, the one we built according to your design… It wasn’t ready for sail, but the weapon systems you told us to build were semi-operational. It wasn’t our right, but we boarded the ship and got it firing back at the scum.”

  The dwarf gave a bitter laugh. “Your schematics… By Gjomfringdale’s beard, they worked like a dream! The damn girl fought like hell, despite being moored. Her armour took the enemy barrage face-on like a champ. Couldn’t last forever, though; She was a sitting target. Sank ten pirate vessels in under an hour. Even tore their flagship frigate to shreds. But the damage was too much. Had to give the order to abandon ship. Half the crew chose to sink with her rather than abandon the poor girl. Aren’t right for a ship that fine to die like that…”

  Eri sighed. “Good to know my design was sound, at least. I’m… sorry for your losses. Forgive my earlier words. They were thoughtless.”

  “No, Paragon. It’s we who failed you. You gave us everything we asked for: gold, medicine, even weapon schematics. And we repaid you with a destroyed ship. I’m sorry we couldn’t protect it. Your scorn of us is earned; We do not deserve to keep our pride.”

  “You have my apologies anyway. What is your name?”

  “Kazakor of the Throngdravi Clan. Just call me Kaz. With the port destroyed under my leadership, my name is worth less than stone now.”

  The group kept going. The artillery fire that had been bombarding the port was silenced — the others must have accomplished their goals in killing off the enemy crew.

  However, it was already far too late. The shipyard was utterly devastated. There was little left salvageable within the mess. At the very least, it was clear that the port would never be operational again, for the ancient and powerful machines that had given it life were all destroyed.

  What a waste… Eri seethed. This is pointless! Why would the pirates do this? There’s no profit to be made in this senseless destruction. There’s nothing left to even loot. They didn’t even bother trying to steal the ship!

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Eri hadn’t accounted for this. When he first made his plans, he thought for sure that no one would be senseless enough to attack the Throngdravi Shipworks head-on. As a neutral faction with a powerful shipyard, the dwarven port was deemed valuable enough by the Pirate Lords to retain their independence, even amidst the chaotic naval turmoil of the Slaver Isles.

  Even if one foolishly chooses to assault the port, the shipyard’s formidable defences should have been more than enough to destroy any lone vessel. For thirty warships to show up and just start bombarding the port without explanation…

  Something else is at play, Eri thought. The Duskcrowns, the Pirate Lords, or someone else?

  Those were thoughts for later. In the distance, Eri could hear the clash of fighting… as well as Captain Lauren’s curses.

  He’s still fighting the admiral. Good. Eri brought up his inventory pouch, pulling out a long-barrelled weapon. I could still let loose a little anger.

  ~~~

  Lauren plunged his broken sword violently into the neck of the admiral. The stab was backed up by the power of his Core — an Artes that could sunder steel armour, delivered with lightning speed.

  It barely phased the pirate. The man gurgled a bloody laugh, fists hammering for Lauren. The knight captain leapt back in time, right as the meaty right hook smashed into an iron pipe overhead. The metal ruptured, gushing superheated steam all over the pirate.

  The man did not care, even as the skin of his face boiled and peeled off. “Come, little knight. Is that all you got?”

  Lauren pulled out a dagger from his greaves. “This is ridiculous. I thought the likes of Gunther were unique, but the Duskcrowns made more half-blood giants?!”

  Assuming it was a giant, and not some other unknown Eldar race. The admiral was large, but the black bile spilling from his wound gave doubt to Lauren’s theory.

  “This is merely the beginning. We are many. We are legion,” the admiral laughed wetly, foul liquids spilling freely from his lips. “The true rulers of the Aurelian Empire are making an army unlike any seen before. They cannot be stopped. We cannot be stopped!”

  The giant pirate attacked again, his two-handed axe cutting down in reaping whirls. Rather than dodging away, Lauren ran into the strikes, using his free hand to grab the shaft of the weapon before stabbing his dagger into the open gap between the admiral’s armour once more.

  He felt the blade biting deep into the flabby fat beneath. The admiral grunted — more in annoyance than pain — before moving to grab Lauren’s helmet.

  The pirate lifted the struggling captain off his feet, fingers crushing inwards as the helmet’s metal dented. Lauren pulled the dagger back and stabbed again, empowering his attack with Artes once more.

  This time, the dagger went through the admiral’s breastplate and into his heart.

  Putrid bile poured from the wound, but the admiral was still alive. The pirate tossed aside his axe and placed both hands on Lauren’s head — crushing, pressing, squeezing. Lauren felt his helmet crack. The strap snapped. An unholy pressure was building in his head…

  Lauren stabbed and stabbed again. It did nothing. The admiral’s laughter was barely heard over the blood rushing in his head.

  “Is this the sum of you, little Spartan?” the pirate taunted. “How disappointing.”

  Lauren heard a crackling noise in his head. His vision was blackening.

  He saw red.

  “You…” Lauren hissed. “Fucking annoyance… Just DIE ALREADY!”

  [Spartan Artes, First Form — Memoirs of a Red Angel]

  The captain pulled his dagger back one last time before stabbing into the admiral’s chest again. This time, his blade reached much deeper, so much so that Lauren’s entire forearm plunged right into the man’s torso. The dagger bit the back of the admiral’s spine, but Lauren didn’t care for that.

  Within the wet warmth of the man’s chest, Lauren released his hold on the dagger. He worked his arm further, twisted hard as he sought the source of the powerful tremors within the giant’s body.

  Fingers arching with violence, his hand grasped the beating heart of the pirate and, in one motion, tore it straight out of the man’s chest.

  The pressure crushing his head relented. Lauren fell to the ground, heart still beating in his hand, as the admiral staggered back.

  He didn’t fall, however. The giant still breathed.

  “Foolishness… You cannot kill me!” the pirate roared. He held both fists above his head, ready to hammer them down on the knight captain.

  There was the sound of a metallic click, followed by a flicker of light behind the admiral. Thunder roared in Lauren’s ear. A blinding flash forced the captain to close his eyes.

  When he opened them a second later, the top half of the pirate’s head was gone. Only his nose and mouth remained.

  To Lauren’s shock, he saw the man’s lips still move.

  “F-foolishness,” he mumbled, brains spilling from the missing top of his head. “You cannot… kill… an Elder soul…”

  “Considering that the Elder races all fell more than two thousand years ago, I’ll say that’s factually untrue,” Eri said as he came up from behind, reloading a smoking miniature cannon in his hand. He placed the barrel right up against the man’s back. “Die now, please.”

  Another explosive roar echoed across the port. The bright flash forced Lauren to close his eyes. He felt a rain of thick, oil-scented warmth spray all over him.

  “Oops. Sorry.” Eri apologised. There was a series of heavy, wet thuds as the corpse of the admiral slumped to the ground in sticky chunks.

  Lauren groaned as he wiped the gore from his eyes. “With all due respect, Young Master, if you had a firearm that could kill Ruby Core Chosens, why couldn’t you have given one to me before I was left to duel the Admiral alone?”

  “It’s not as effective as you think. Like most firearms, it only works on Chosens at close range, and even then, the target’s magical Core has to be overtaxed before the projectile can penetrate the natural mana shielding surrounding their bodies,” Eri explained. “In that sense, it’s far less effective if you hadn’t, say, reached into their torso and ripped their heart out first. Good work, by the way.”

  Lauren stood shakily. Eri helped him up and pressed a healing ampoule against his neck. The captain felt better almost instantly. “Thank you, Young Master. Did you manage to find what you came for?”

  “Found the dwarves,” Eri grimaced. “Or what’s left of them. Not as many as I hoped. We were too late.”

  “And the dreadnought is destroyed. Young Master, I know you do not want to hear this, but we should abandon our mission and head home,” Lauren tried. “Without the firepower of a capital warship, our cause is lost.”

  “Your pessimism is wearing on me, captain…”

  “Someone has to curb your enthusiasm before it gets you killed, Young Master. And I mean that with utmost respect.”

  “Fair, I suppose,” Eri sighed. “Sorry to rain on your parade, but we are not done with this place just yet. Assuming Deyara and Peythra worked their Lifeweaver Artes properly, we should have a war-worthy vessel to sail with soon. There’s just the ethical conundrum we need to ignore…”

  “The… The what?” Lauren had a sinking feeling he knew what his Young Master was talking about. He had seen the cruel Arts of the Fleshweaver Twins before.

  The sight of Maelric Halsworn’s animated head still chilled him each time he saw them ‘playing’ with it.

  “It wasn’t like I wanted to do it, but needs must, unfortunately.” Eri winced. “Not all of my contingency plans are that great. Let’s hope the crew is comfortable sailing on a living, screaming flesh-ship for the next few months.”