The bridge was currently covered in darkness, but through the thick stench of blood Alex could smell at least a dozen attackers. He didn’t rush to the middle of the scuffle, but stopped for a moment, mapping out the positions of everyone by smell and the few shadows he could discern.
Then, after slowly exhaling, soundlessly darted towards the nearest attacker, from behind poked him once in the neck, then stepped towards the next and did the same. After repeating this action two more times, Alex fell back, but that was already enough. The balance of this particular fight was broken and before Alex reconvened with his own team, officers cleaned the rest of attackers from the bridge.
It didn’t matter how many lifetimes passed. Alex felt that the ‘Bond’s style’ was long burned in to his bones and he would never forget the teachings of his older brother. His earlier attack was done exactly how Bill taught him, except for a couple improvements Alex made by himself for larger skirmishes and, even though he was not a Qi warrior himself, he could still sneak attack and kill one, in this case – four, if needed.
The next part was the easiest. After loosing their strongest fighters, attackers immediately lost their will to fight as well, especially when ‘Aisha’s’ Qi warriors joined the recruits on the main deck. A minute later no one dared to crawl on the ship anymore and the stressed out recruits let out shouts of joy celebrating their victory cursing the attackers and their families to no enc.
“Oh, sh*t!” Alex heard Uwe exclaiming loudly.
He turned to look at the guy, but then noticed him pointing towards the left side of the ship. There, in the distance of hundred, hundred fifty meters the ‘Halil star’ was burning in bright flames.
“Troublemaker! With me!” Before Alex could react, sergeant’s shout startled him and out of the habit he followed the scarred face man who rushed to the side of the ship and immediately jumped over.
‘Wtf?!’ Alex watched him drop in the water, but then crawling in one of the boats attackers left behind.
A couple of others were already there and immediately helped him in. Alex sighed and followed the suit.
‘Don’t tell me tell me they intend to pursue those guys.’ Alex thought while he was pulled in the canoe.
He glanced around. Besides the sergeant, there was the second mate, sail master and the fat cook, Caden, already inside and the moment Alex was pulled in, they immediately began to paddle towards the burning ‘Halil star’.
It seemed unlikely for this weird crew to be on a rescue mission, especially since the light canoe was already basically full.
“We need to see what’s the situation on ‘Delila’. The ‘Halil star’ is obviously done for and if there are any survivors, will pick them up after the sunrise.” The second mate noticed Alex’s furrowed brows and guessed his thoughts.
Alex nodded in understanding. It made sense – both were Armenidian battleships while the merchant ship was from Sarani kingdom. It was the work for their ministers to think about diplomatic consequences, but sailors cared for their own.
Since the surprise assault on ‘Aisha’ failed, it was unlikely another one would immediately follow. Therefore the captain and the first mate were enough to take care of the situation on the ship while four strong Qi warriors were sent to scout and, in case of necessity, help. That is, four strong Qi warriors and Alex who currently sat in the middle of canoe and felt the sergeant’s burning stare on his back.
Five minutes ago on the ship he had a choice to remain low key and risk everyone get killed, including him, or gamble and help out. Unfortunately these guys were not born yesterday and noticed who was the one to tip the scales.
“Alright, Troublemaker!” As expected sergeant Nur was the one who couldn’t hold back his curiosity, “It’s good you noticed them, but how the hell did you do that? Even the captain who was on the bridge at that time had no clue someone had sneaked on the ship.”
To this Alex already prepared an answer right when they left the cabin with the seventh team.
“I woke up and needed to hit the head …”
“… splash!” Sergeant hit the water with his paddle and sprayed seawater on Alex. He, of course, was already wet so didn’t care, but for the sergeant to not actually hit his head meant the man’s hart had softened a little.
“Sigh … you guys stink.” Alex said, but hearing a couple of angry inhales on both sides, he rushed to explain, “No, no! Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not cursing you. Everyone on our ship has this characteristic stench. But these guys compared to us were like noble ladies, except for the perfumes, of course.”
“Alright, I’ll buy it.” The cook nodded, “But what about the bridge?”
“What about it?” Alex was confused.
“How the hell did you know who their two leaders were?” Sergeant shouted in his usual tone.
“What leaders?” Alex asked, still in confusion, but then sergeant’s words slowly registered, “You want to tell me I killed their two leaders on accident? Hahaha!”
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Alex found it hilarious. It sounded too unrealistic to be true, but the faces of the four men reflecting the flames from the burning ‘Halil star’ were completely serious.
Sergeant only mumbled something under his nose that sounded like ‘damned troublemaker’ and for a minute they paddled in silence.
“Ok. Let’s assume you got lucky.” This time the second mate spoke, “But why did you sneak on our ship, Alex Brooks?”
“Huh?” Alex made an innocent face, “What are you asking? My name is Jack Sparrow and I already said back then to sergeant Nur – I got lost.”
The second mate looked at him, but then sighed and turned back to paddling. If he was tortured, Alex would definitely gladly tell his story, but these men were in his debt and in the worst case scenario would just throw him over board. In addition, they asked him to join on their mission on their own and the questioning was done out of convenience while they had free time and, possibly, to secure a plausible deniability for their captain.
But one thing Alex had to note – these people were not idiots. Apparently already some time ago they figured out his true identity, but the question was – what will they do with this information and if anything, then – when?
After circling around the burning ‘Halil star’, the group of five finally caught the sight of ‘Delila’. The bow was on fire and Alex could see people actively fighting on the deck. ‘Aisha’ would’ve probably suffered a similar fate if not for Alex noticing the attackers.
The five people in the canoe grew increasingly serious and Alex could feel how the for Qi warriors began to paddle more energetically. He himself never cared for the concept of camaraderie, but it was obvious the four had some friends on the ship and were worried.
As they came closer, they could hear the sounds of fighting up on the deck and see several people guarding the boats at the right side of ‘Delila’. Before Alex thought of a good approach to the situation, the second mate already leaped from the small canoe propelling it several meters backwards, but the rest, except Alex, seemed to be prepared for that, held on and immediately made a burst almost instantly closing up to the ship.
“Up!” Sergeant commanded and Alex instinctively grabbed one of the ropes dangling from the deck that apparently was used by the attackers earlier.
While quickly climbing up, he glanced at the second mate already bathing in blood of the clueless attackers who didn’t have a chance against him in a direct fight, to not speak about such sneak attack.
A couple of seconds later Alex was at the deck’s level, but before climbing on, he carefully looked around. No one was fighting in a direct vicinity so Alex got on the deck only to see Caden, the fat cook, following him like an agile monkey with sergeant and the sail master coming up right after.
“The bridge!” Sergeant said and the two men rushed ahead, while sergeant turned to Alex and said, “Stay back and look for an opportunity to take out the strong ones one by one.”
Not waiting for Alex’s reply, he also darted towards the bridge and on the half way began to roar loudly as if he was a whole squad of elephant cavalry.
Alex had no clue how he should help this time. The fire on the ship’s bow was growing and illuminated not only the main deck, but the bridge as well. There was no chance he could sneak up to an expert like it happened on ‘Aisha’ and hoping for a smoke to cover him was delusional. In addition, the sergeant’s shout alarmed the attackers and they knew that for some reason sailors got reinforcements, and were on guard.
After wrecking his brains for a moment, Alex made a quick decision and using the cordage secured at the side of the ship, climbed the main mast. He didn’t get to the top, but only till he reached the mizen top-mast stay. Then, cursing his own ‘idiotic idea’, grabbed the halyard stretching towards the mizen mast and cut it at the spot where it was secured near the main mast and with a Tarzan-like swing flew over to mizen mast.
Luckily Alex managed the ‘landing’ to be silent enough and no one noticed his acrobatic performance. But now, few meters below him, at the stern of the ship, Alex could see five people desperately trying to fend off over ten attackers. And the worst part was that three of those five were from his own crew.
While protecting ‘Aisha’, the defending Qi warriors barely got a scratch, but now all three of them had cuts all over their bodies. One didn’t have to be a genius to understand they got them while protecting the two exhausted ‘Delila’s’ officers who were still somehow standing, but if it went on like this – attackers would win in a couple of minutes.
After quickly analyzing the situation, Alex simply dropped from above on one of the attacking Qi warriors. The huge man had a curved blade in each hand and while his hits were relatively slow, the reaction of the defending party was becoming worse as well and this guy could cleave someone in halves at any point.
Alex nicely landed on the man’s shoulders and sunk his sword up to the hilt in his torso. The man waved the blades a couple of times in inertia and fell face down, but Alex left his sword behind and already jumped towards another attacker at the side, plunging his dagger in the man’s neck.
After the second attack, Alex immediately fell back, but the thing he feared the most happened. From above he noticed one particularly agile attacker who alone was dealing with sergeant Nur and one of the officers from ‘Delila’. Earlier Alex decided against attacking this man because he doubted the attack could be successful with how quick the man was. But now, after Alex killed the two guys in a sneak attack, he drew attention of this man and without saying or shouting anything, the man immediately dashed at him like a silent ghost. Alex could swear he saw the man’s eyes burning with hatred, but probably that was only deflection from the fire at the bow of the ship.
This guy was at least as fast as Alex’s former brother Bill and Alex didn’t intend to compare skills with an expert of such level. He immediately dashed towards the side of the ship with intent to jump in the water, but after few steps he heard the voice of ‘Aisha’s’ first mate.
“Troublemaker! Get my weapon!”
Just in case, Alex dashed to the right evading a potential slash at his neck, but when he looked back, the previously agile man lie on the deck face down, with a sword sticking from his back. Apparently this was the weapon the first mate was referring to, because he himself was currently fending off another attacker with a knife. Luck was on Alex’s side again. The first mate got on the ship at the crucial moment and from a distance took out the man who charged at Alex.
Alex didn’t let his officer wait for too long. It took him a split second to realize what transpired and another to arrive at the attacker’s side who currently pressured his savior. The man noticed Alex approaching, but when he intended to parry a stab to his neck, he realized the sword had penetrated both his thighs at the same time.
This weird attack was something new to the first mate as well, but contrary to the attacker he was not paralyzed from pain and kicked the man in the chest, and then immediately stabbed his heart while the body lifelessly fell on the deck.
Meanwhile sergeant and ‘Delila’s’ officer went to help others and a minute later only Armenidian sailors were left standing.
“The kids!” One of the officers shouted and, despite bleeding all over, ran towards the burning bow of the ship.
Others, including Alex, wordlessly joined him.
Several minutes later four canoes were on the way to ‘Aisha’, but only two men paddled each. The ‘cavalry’ managed to save some of ‘Delila’s’ sailors, but all were severely wounded and required immediate assistance. The mood was heavy and Alex guessed they had lost their captain and most of the men, but there was nothing he could do apart from bandaging up the three recruits who were lying unconscious in his canoe.