Emotionless Swordsmanship Genius

Episode 77: Fogus (4)

The woman, trembling, led the way through the maze-like cave with surprising confidence.

The deeper they ventured into the darkness, the calmer Karon felt.

Dark and quiet places were his favorite environment.

Though she could have been leading him into a trap, he didn’t mind.

If there was a trap, it likely guarded something valuable.

Suddenly, she stopped. Ahead was an even narrower passageway.

“This is as far as I can guide you,” she murmured, seemingly afraid.

Karon briefly met her gaze before silently moving past her.

Then, from behind him, she spoke again.

“You should be careful. The path to the leader’s hideout is filled with traps.”

It seemed she hadn’t intended to lead him into danger after all.

Karon paused, tilting his head slightly as he replied.

“Get outside with the others. The Imperial soldiers should be there.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the woman hurried back the way they had come.

Once she disappeared, Karon turned his attention back to the narrow tunnel.

It looked unremarkable, but traps could spring from anywhere.

Of course, Karon wouldn’t let that stop him.

He slid into the narrow passage, heightening his senses and focusing intently. Gradually, he started to sense his surroundings in the dark cave.

The sound of water droplets hitting the walls helped him measure distance, and faint air currents guided his way.

He stopped abruptly.

The faint smell of wood and gunpowder was new.

Looking at the ground, he noticed cold air seeping from a gap in the artificially cracked floor.

Karon bent his knees and leapt forward without hesitation.

He landed precisely where he intended, then continued to jump, swiftly passing through the narrow passage.

He navigated the passage, tight enough for only one person, without so much as brushing against the walls.

Once he exited, the surroundings brightened, revealing a chamber-like area.

The space was filled with gold, silver, and various artworks.

In the center was an ornate bed surrounded by the collapsed bodies of several women.

They showed no signs of life, indicating they were likely dead.

Karon moved quickly to a narrow crack in the wall where sunlight poured through.

The morning sun was starting to rise, casting strong beams of light.

For most people, it would take time to adjust to the brightness outside, but Karon looked out without hesitation.

The crack, just big enough for one person to slip through, opened onto a sheer cliff.

A rope dangled there, and below, someone in a small boat was moving away from the island.

It seemed they had prepared the rope and boat for a quick escape.

As Karon grabbed the rope to descend, he sensed something strange.

Focusing his vision, he noticed the pirate in the boat didn’t have an eye patch.

Karon released the rope and slipped quietly back inside.

As he took a step, he instinctively tilted his head.

Just then, a streak of light flashed past his nose, narrowly missing him.

If he had been even a second slower, it would have pierced his skull.

“Impressive. You made it through the traps and even realized I hadn’t fled,” a deep voice echoed, shifting from one side of the room to the other.

Karon didn’t turn toward any direction, keeping his gaze straight ahead.

If he looked one way, an attack would likely come from the other.

“It seems you’ve used a demon’s gem,” he thought.

Even Karon’s sharp senses couldn’t detect any presence, indicating some external power was at play.

But Karon remained unfazed.

“Don’t expect to leave here alive. If you’d gone down the cliff, you might have survived,” the voice continued, reverberating like an echo in Karon’s mind, though it did little to rattle him.

As Karon stood still, betraying no anxiety, the man grew intrigued.

“Who are you? And why are you after me?” he asked.

“The Blue Ravens,” Karon replied bluntly.

A tense silence filled the air, and the atmosphere shifted.

It seemed his words had struck a nerve. Karon continued, unfazed.

“Where did you take them?”

“You’re in a rush to meet your end…”

Whoosh—

Suddenly, a black curtain fell from the crevice, plunging the room into pitch darkness.

A gray beam shot toward Karon once more.

The leader was confident his attack would succeed.

People needed time to adapt to the darkness, and he wielded the powers of the demon’s gem.

But what should have been a straightforward kill turned into something inexplicable.

Swish! Slash!

Despite two, three, then ten successive strikes, Karon dodged each one as if he could see the attacks.

Initially, he barely avoided them, so the leader sped up his strikes, only for each one to miss as Karon continued to evade with ease.

As exhaustion set in and his muscles strained, the leader’s frustration erupted.

“Who…who the hell are you?!”

In that instant of emotional vulnerability, Karon’s claw-like hand seized his neck.

Grab!

“Gah!”

How had Karon pinpointed him so precisely in this darkness?

His mind was flooded with questions, but he had no time to process them.

The strength of Karon’s grip left him gasping for air, his body rigid and immobilized.

As his eyepatch slipped off, the grayish eye embedded with the demon’s gem came into view.

“Missing an eye, huh? So you implanted a demon’s gem.”

“H-how did you know?!”

The gem allowed him to hide in darkness and attack Karon undetected.

Though it came with the drawback of being unable to step into the light, he had reigned supreme in the shadows.

Karon grabbed the gem embedded in his eye with his free hand.

The leader dropped his sword, grabbing Karon’s arm with both hands and pleading desperately.

“No! Please! Don’t take that out!”

“The Blue Ravens.”

Karon’s tone was flat, but the leader’s voice turned desperate.

“Alright! Alright! I’ll tell you! I dropped them off at the port city of Kolhel in the kingdom of Kolima!”

“Tell me everything you remember about them.”

“The blue-haired one! He’s their leader, known as Christopher! And the big one—Big Stone! And there were about thirty of them! And…there was a Chakran tribe girl among them!”

From his detailed knowledge, it seemed he wasn’t lying.

Finally, Karon learned the leader’s name. It was likely an alias, but it was a start.

“Where can I go in Kolhel to track them down?”

“There’s a tavern at the west end of the harbor called Mill Pub. All transactions go through there. You can find information about them there!”

“Anything else?”

“That’s everything I know, really! So please…”

Rip!

“Argh!”

Karon yanked the gem from the leader’s eye.

The gem immediately turned to dust, slipping through his fingers.

The one-eyed leader bled from his eyes, nose, and mouth, dying instantly.

It seemed he’d received a low-grade gem from the Blue Ravens, and keeping it in his eye had corrupted his body.

“Did they purposely leave that out?” Karon wondered.

Perhaps so.

Kslash!

With a blank expression, Karon raised his sword and severed the leader’s head.

He figured it would be wise to hand the Empire some proof.

Holding the head, Karon quickly exited the chamber as he had entered.

* * *

Meanwhile,

Hinshan’s group, surrounding the island by ship, captured all the pirates trying to flee in terror.

The Imperial forces had already secured the large ships, making escape by rowboat impossible.

Most of the captured pirates had been guards, and they were too shaken to be coherent, babbling about a demon on the island.

Even the Imperial soldiers were spooked by the talk.

The heavy fog only heightened the ominous atmosphere.

However, Shong and Hinshan knew exactly why.

“Couldn’t he take it easy for once?” Shong muttered, biting into an apple.

“Let’s head in now,” Hinshan said calmly, readying his bow and sword.

Shong tossed aside his half-eaten apple and hid his rapier beneath his cloak.

Hinshan, Shong, and the Imperial forces led by Sylbella boarded rowboats and made their way to the underground cave they’d identified.

Inside the cave, an eerie silence hung in the air.

They pushed some of the captured pirates ahead to guide them in.

The trembling pirates led them toward the central chamber.

As the smell of blood grew stronger, it was clear they were almost there.

When they reached the enormous chamber, they found countless pirate corpses scattered everywhere, and the floor was soaked in blood.

“This is…” Sylbella muttered in disbelief, grimacing at the scene.

She’d never witnessed such carnage in her life.

But Shong and Hinshan seemed unbothered, sifting through the bodies, searching for any useful clues.

“What kind of people are they…?”

“Here! The captives are still alive!” a soldier shouted.

Suppressing a wave of nausea, Sylbella glanced at the two men, shook her head, and quickly left.

It was better to help transport the freed captives than remain here.

As the sun fully rose, Karon appeared in the chamber.

“You’re here. Well done, Karon,” Hinshan greeted him respectfully.

“Is that Fogus’s head?” Shong pointed to the head Karon held.

Whether he meant the leader of Fogus or just the head itself was unclear, but Karon nodded slightly.

“Yes, I’ve got it.”

“Did you get any intel?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here. This place is creepy,” Shong said, shivering as he quickly left the chamber.

Thanks to Karon’s advice, the captives left in the cells were safely transferred to rowboats.

Karon also boarded an empty rowboat.

Across from him, a young woman among the freed captives gave him a slight nod.

Karon returned her greeting with an indifferent look and turned away.

Meanwhile, one of the freed captives, an anxious-looking man, clutched something to his chest and kept glancing nervously around.

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