NOVEL WEB Chapter 30: The door was broken.
Nick occupied the advantageous position at the doorway, cutting down the enemies that surged in one by one. The stragglers were dealt with by the ship's doctor and knight behind him. Nick unleashed all his skills, leaping and bounding like a living fish, swift and mysterious as a sea sprite. The square foot of space at the doorway instantly became a sea of blood.
Two, three, ten, twenty—corpses piled up layer upon layer in this narrow space. The slippery blood nearly tripped Nick several times. Both sides had their eyes red with killing, neither willing to yield.
However, human strength has its limits, and the weapons weren't the ones he was accustomed to using. The enemies attacked in wave after wave like a tide without rest. Nick's breathing became increasingly rapid, his steps more and more unsteady. Black spots danced before his eyes, the enemies were just blurred outlines. Since joining the pirate crew, he had never been so utterly exhausted. Unable to break through for so long, the knights brought large bundles of firewood, planning to burn the three of them alive in the prison chamber.
At the limit.
Nick took one last look at the corpses on the ground and spoke to somewhere in his heart:
"Uncle, the place where I die is called Santa Lucia."
At that moment, a tremendous roar that seemed to tear the sky apart exploded in the air. Thunder-like flames illuminated the entire small harbor. Two giant torches, a hundred zhang tall, blazed up in the bay—the sight of the Spanish escort ships stationed there after being attacked.
The hourglass had run out, and the angry lion finally roared.
On the waters of Santa Lucia, more than twenty large gunships flying black pirate flags surrounded the port like a wall. Cannon fire flashed from the dark sea surface from left to right. One volley, thousands of cannonballs mixed with dozens of tons of gunpowder sprayed toward the city. Flames soared skyward, the earth shook, and the smoke formed dark clouds that shrouded the entire Santa Lucia like a descending demon army, as if to tear this small port apart entirely.
The entire city burst into flames. People were terrified, scared out of their wits by the earthquake-like cannon fire. The cavalry's horses had never seen such a spectacle—they all reared up on their hind legs, neighing frantically as they galloped about in chaos, or trampled their masters under iron hooves. A powerful regiment that had ruthlessly ravaged southern Italy thus disintegrated in an instant. The cavalrymen grabbed their muskets but didn't know which direction to fire, running about like headless flies in the rolling smoke.
What had started as a routine mission had become so complicated. The Dragon Assassin Corps was trapped in enemy lines partly due to poor personnel decisions, but after repeated rescue attempts failed, Khair ad-Din was thoroughly enraged.
He was a calm, composed man, but first and foremost, this man was a pirate—a generation's hero who ruled the Mediterranean.
Khair ad-Din could maneuver among enemies for profit, could bribe with money and tempt with power, but he absolutely would not allow any person or force to take away something important from him.
Never again.
The first volley was the Pirate King's silent threat, aimed only at the city squares and open spaces. Everywhere were people and animals fleeing in terror. The city's nobles crawled out from under their beds, trembling, unable to find even a single servant who understood the situation. When the garrison reported that a large fleet of pirate ships had destroyed the escort vessels and completely surrounded the port, no one had any thought of resistance left, only fear that the pirates would massacre the city, from which no one could escape.
Khair ad-Din's message was immediately conveyed to land: Three people—return them to me intact.
The chief judge, using his brain for a moment, immediately understood who was behind the assassination of Pedro, but this background was outrageously arrogant—when the prison break failed, they actually launched a direct assault, using the lives of an entire city as leverage. The charred corpses from the Spanish escort ships drifted onto the beach with the waves. The judge was someone who understood how to assess the situation. He ran all the way to the prison to issue pardons, but was stopped by the cavalry regiment. The military men had their pride after all and were unwilling to simply submit to the pirates' threats.
"Release these three people, and the responsibility can be pushed onto the pirates. Don't release them, and forget about career prospects—you and I can both lose our lives to the sea!" The chief judge's earnest teaching made the cavalry commander suddenly realize the truth. Combined with the desperate pleas of life-loving nobles, the commander quickly made his decision, ordering the removal of the firewood and the release of the three people trapped in the prison chamber.
He really came, bringing thousands of troops.
Once again escaping from under Death's fierce wings, Nick gazed in intoxication at the city ravaged by flames, feeling for the first time so clearly the terrifying power of the captain's strength.
This was absolute power! This was force!
She had been tormented by fate and persecuted by authority, but precisely because of this, she particularly believed in the greatness of power. A small heart pounded in her chest, as if wanting to grasp from these flames the power to control her own destiny.
The pirates who came to escort them hadn't expected the three important figures from the ship to be in such a sorry state. The heavily wounded and unconscious vice-captain still gripped his notched sword tightly, his fingers impossible to pry open. The ship's doctor was pale and gaunt like a ghost, constantly looking back like a startled bird. Only Nick, covered in blood, was exceptionally spirited. Under the illumination of the flames, a pair of black pupils radiated an inextinguishable light of life.
The pirates respectfully cleared the way, full of awe. The sea witch's passage across the deck left a trail of bloody footprints.
Khair ad-Din stood at the bow with his blade, red hair flowing in the gunpowder-laden sea wind, stern as a deity, a statue—as if with him standing there, all troubles in the world could vanish without a trace, all enemies could be defeated.
Nick walked toward the captain, feeling more drowsy with each step.
The blood-stained clothes stuck to her body, her wrists ached with dull pain—she was truly exhausted. Long periods of poor nutrition, half a night of bloody battle, doing everything possible to care for her companions, struggling alone, fighting alone—both her body and spirit had reached their limits. And in this man's domain, within his powerful circle of protection, she could finally rest without worrying about anything.
"Captain, I'm back..."
The nerves that had held on until now suddenly relaxed. Nick's vision went black, her steps faltered, and she collapsed.
Khair ad-Din had originally had many things to say—to harshly scold her for poor performance, for losing sight of priorities, for costing him such a massive operation for rescue; he also wanted to dismiss the others and tell her that the mission's failure was also due to his own poor judgment in sending two burdensome helpers to drag her down; he wanted to give her five times overtime pay to comfort her for this hardship, and also wanted to dock half a year's salary to punish her for not listening to instruction.
But he didn't get to say a single word. Nick's expression was dazed as she swayed toward him. Khair ad-Din reached out to support her shoulder, but Nick clearly had no intention of standing on her own. Her knees buckled, and she slid softly downward. Khair ad-Din had no choice but to extend his arms and hold her in his embrace.
The little rascal, like a small beast utterly exhausted, fell into sleep during the process of collapsing. She pillowed her head on the captain's broad shoulder, unceremoniously smearing the blood and saliva from her face onto his very stylish cloak.
Here was power, here was safety.