The captain quickly controlled his emotions and let out a long sigh.
The smug provocation from the rebellious prisoner had come as a surprise, sure, especially after getting a beating, but it’s not like this was the first time the captain had encountered some prisoners who thought a bit too highly of themselves.
However, being used to things like that, and letting things be, were two completely different matters.
The captain felt the expectant gaze from behind him. If he let such an insult slide in front of the rookie, he would lose all respect as a captain. Rumors would quickly spread and the image of the strong and dependable leader would shatter into pieces.
“So, you haven’t had enough, huh? Fine by me!” The captain walked forward after having considered things for a few seconds.
A few punches aren’t going to do it this time. I’ll have to teach this elder-forsaken bastard a lesson he won’t forget! The captain thought to himself as the air around his hands began to crackle and take form.
“...” Lawkey narrowed his eyes, realizing he might have bitten a little more than he could chew in his current situation.
He had already noticed that his sign was blocked for some reason, and he couldn’t even reach his arms down to scratch his nose, even though it had been a little itchy ever since the butterfly landed on it.
The only thing he could do was move his feet slightly. However, fighting back hadn’t been the reason he provoked the man, he just didn’t expect him to go so far as to use his sign on a chained prisoner.
Small shapes quickly took form around the captain’s hands and combined to make gauntlets of what seemed like a mix of rock and pure hardened earth.
“!!”
“Brace yourself!”
Although he gave him a warning, the Earth Manipulation Sign user didn’t waste a second and quickly swung his rock gauntlets at Lawkey.
“Ptagh!” That weird noise was the only thing the prisoner could make under the heavy barrage of punches landing on his body.
He quickly gritted his teeth and pushed his muscles to consume the damage, but to no avail. How long had he been without food now? He didn’t know, but his body was definitely in a much weaker state than normal. He couldn’t do anything but wait for the punches to subside.
He just needed one opportunity to take action.
Pah! Pah! Pah!
The punches continued, their noise quickly muffling the sound of clattering keys on the captain’s side.
Not being able to witness the scene any longer, the rookie unintentionally looked away and closed his eyes.
PAH!
As the last punch hit his face, Lawkey’s body began to stagger forward, but the chains quickly held him up, tugging on his arms and pulling his shoulders back.
Even with his head falling forward, he kept his smile wide.
Seeing that, the captain clicked his tongue and turned around as the gauntlets around his hands began to crumble and disappear. Whether the prisoner is smiling or not, the pain when he woke up would remind him of the lesson he just taught him.
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“Next time, steel your heart and don’t look away!” The man with the broad shoulders walked past the rookie, reprimanding him.
“Y-yes, captain!”
“Now go see if they’re done feeding the girl and chain her here with this filth!”
“Yes, captain!” The rookie quickly adjusted his posture and remembered his duties.
Lawkey could barely hear them as they left before he completely passed out again. His smile had quickly faded into a grimace, not quite amused about what he knew would come next now that his little companion wasn’t around anymore.
**👑**
Under the faint traces of the moonlight, the 50 meter long and 18 meter wide Galleon Ship Ariada continued to pave its way through the ocean waves.
On the surface of the deck, a few shipmates were still going around and taking care of their respective tasks.
In Tartarus where the sun doesn’t shine, people need to keep track of time and assign specific schedules for everyone. The Ariada crew were no different.
This way, the majority of the shipmates would sleep and recharge, while a few made sure everything continued to traverse as planned and to guard the ship.
And now was exactly that time of the day, so while some made the rounds, a handful of shipmates stood guard at multiple angles to cover every direction.
Two stood in the middle of the galleon, facing opposite directions, while another two shipmates stood at the front and back of the ship each.
CLASH! CLASH!
The waves continued to clash against the ship’s side, but one of the guards in the middle of the ship began to doubt his eyes as he saw some disturbances in the waves a few dozen meters away from them.
He quickly raised his arm and shaded his squinted eyes with his hand.
“!” His eyes quickly widened as he took a reflexive step back, “W-was that…?!”
“What’s wrong?” The other guard on the opposite side noticed his friend’s nervousness and called out.
“I think I just saw some movement in the water! It was a big splash!” He explained.
“Is it a Cetus? We recently passed Cravey Charybdis, they’re known to hang around that island so one might have followed us.” The other guard responded nonchalantly.
“I’m not sure, it wasn’t that big of a splash…”
“Well, keep an eye on it. I don’t think the merfolk from Sweet Scylla would follow us, but it’s a different matter when it comes to those who defected to Cravey Charybdis.” The other guard continued to ramble on, “They’ve been interfering with us a lot lately, they’ve become bold with the new weapons they got. Were you there when- !!”
Having noticed the unusual silence behind him, the talkative guard quickly turned around to check on his friend, but found an empty unguarded spot instead.
“What?!” He wasted no time and quickly ran to the other station to check, “Hey! Did you fall in the water?!”
Just when he made it, he quickly remembered something he hadn’t noticed.
“No, he couldn’t have fallen. I didn’t hear any splash-”
His thoughts were quickly interrupted again, this time, by a spear going through his chest.
“!!”
He cast his eyes downwards to follow the spear’s origin, only to notice a hand holding on to the edge of the ship and another holding the spear that stabbed through him.
As the perpetrator quickly removed the spear, the guard’s body simply followed the same direction and fell lifeless into the sea.
SPLASH!
As the wielder of the spear brought her weapon back to her side, she made sure that her other hand kept a firm grip on the edge of the ship.
Her body was still dangling down, but she didn’t need to only support her body, but the body of the first guard that had witnessed her too.
His head was currently between the spear wielder’s constricted thighs, his skull just moments away from being crushed by the muscles in her legs.
Having noticed his friend fall into the sea in front of him, the guard immidiately came back to his senses and began to resist. He quickly raised his hands and began pulling on the two thighs with all his might before they pushed deeper into his head.
“Ugh!!”
However, all his attempts were in vain. Even with his adrenaline at full swing, he couldn’t even budge the two thighs at all. Best he could do is somewhat slow down their progress.
Having had enough of his struggle, the spear wielder bent her body forward slightly and whispered in his ear.
“Don’t move~!” Her calm ethereal voice left her lips and invaded the senses of the guard she was holding onto, quickly forcing him to let go of all the tension in his body.
With his muscles having lost their vigor upon hearing her ethereal voice, the expression of the man changed from gritted teeth to one of ecstasy and bliss. He neither realized his whole body had been paralyzed, nor did he feel any pain as two rock-like entities closed on his skull.
Having finally achieved her goal, the spear wielder quickly let go of the dead man between her legs, releasing his body into the sea.
SPLASH!
Ignoring the sound, she quickly made a hasty jump into the air and landed skillfully on the ship’s deck where the first guard had been stationed.
The moonlight shone down at her, giving her long turquoise hair and smooth light skin a glistening effect.
She only had a simple half-dress on that could barely be considered a dress. It covered her front and back, but was too revealing on the side, leaving things completely open. The longest part of it was the flowing simple cloth behind her.
Her long legs were similarly completely open, with only some light armor on her feet and arms.
Despite it all, the most noticeable things about her were the fish-like ears sticking out of the sides of her head and the gills on her neck, the usual traits of the Undine Clan that was populated by the Merfolk.
This was the siren known as Riana Undine.
With her spear by her side, she took a quick glance around to study her surroundings. She saw another guard on the front of the ship and locked on him.
“I’ll make sure you all pay dearly for what you’ve done!” Her voice no longer sounded ethereal.
Instead, it carried a heavy tone within it, and it wasn’t going to get lighter until all her enemies on this ship were dead.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]