NOVEL NEXT Chapter 152 – Mercy is the Luxury of the Strong
"Moral justifications aside, those who actually shed their blood and risk their lives in the frontlines rarely had the time and luxury to grant mercy to others. It was far from uncommon for those in a fight for their lives to only have killing in their mind, and not stop until their enemy lay dead before them." - Wu Shang-Jun, General of the Huan Confederation, circa 12 VA.
As Aideen rose from where she fell on top of the unfortunate pirate, the sailors from her ship leapt down from the lower masts, their therian physiques allowing such physical feats without issue. The few human sailors slid down using ropes from the ship's rigging instead, as they couldn't afford to do the same leap.
One quick glance showed her that the pirates were caught by surprise, and were still preparing to board their ship. They had not expected to be boarded instead, and already the few pirates on their masts were slain and thrown down by the sailors there.
Some of the pirates by the railings still held long poles with hooks on their ends used to draw the ships closer together, and Aideen happened to land near them. Those poles were nearly useless as weapons in such a fight, unlike her adamant staff, which scythed past the group of surprised pirates the next moment.
Screams mingled with the noise of bones breaking as the heavy metal staff struck one pirate after another around chest height. The force of her blow was plenty to hurl those unfortunate pirate over the railings, and into the ocean, where they quickly sunk.
To be fair, those blows had probably shattered their ribs, and the broken ribs likely pierced into their lungs or even their heart if they were unlucky, so some of those pirates had likely died before they could even drown in the sea.
Most of the pirates and the sailors wielded shorter sabers and axes, with Aideen's staff the odd one out. When she considered the relatively cramped deck of the ship, she split her staff into its three-sectioned form, and flicked the inbuilt blades out as well.
A pirate rushed at her from behind as she did that, but she heard his footsteps on the wooden deck, and whirled around just as he swung his saber down. Aideen caught the blade of the saber between the blades of her right-hand staff, while her left one scythed through the man's throat, sending him to his knees, gurgling as he died from the slit throat.
As Aideen finished off that pirate, she went to help the other sailors, who were engaged with the rest of the pirates. The pirates outnumbered the sailors, but the sailors were more skilled, as many of them were trained veterans from the elmaiyan navy.
Aideen struck a couple of pirates dead before they noticed her, which freed a couple sailors to help others as well, but a man in what looked like an old dress uniform and a Bicorn hat pointed at her and shouted to the pirates. Five more pirates quickly found their way to her, with another three occupying the two sailors she just helped.
Five against one were tall odds for most, but Aideen wasn't worried in the slightest, since not like their blades could truly harm her anyway. She felt a little pity for the tunic she wore as it was a rather nice one, but still went on to forcefully finish off her opponents so she could help the others, taking blows where it allowed her to kill faster.
She took a couple slashes to her shoulder and chest as she drove the blade at the end of her staff into one pirate's throat. Another stabbed her through the stomach moments before a strike from her removed his head from his body.
One of the sailors looked at her with concern evident on his face, but she waved him off, and quickly dispatched the other three pirates with only a couple more wounds as the price. Aideen quickly healed up those wounds, then fell upon the three pirates that fought against the sailors.
Together they made short work of those pirates, and from the looks of it, the fighting had started to wane throughout the ship, as the sailors slowly but surely overwhelmed the pirates. The main point of resistance was at the quarterdeck, where the bicorn-wearing pirate from earlier had mounted a fierce fight with another ten or so pirates.
Aideen headed straight in that direction, where the sailors fought pirates at the two narrow stairwells at the sides of the ship, which lead to the quarterdeck. Instead of trying to push through the narrow stairwells, she beckoned the two sailors she helped earlier, who had followed her, and asked them to throw her onto the quarterdeck.
As the two men - or maybe women, Aideen still found it hard to tell, as they were from a breed that had no obvious telltale signs of gender like Artair's mane - had seen her fight earlier they had not needed much persuading, before each man cupped one of her feet in their hands, and together hurled her over to the quarterdeck.
She landed in the midst of seven pirates, including the one in the old dress uniform, which she now noticed walked with the aid of a crutch and a peg leg instead of his left leg. They wasted no time being surprised by her, and charged at her at the same time from every direction.
They were surprised when Aideen had not bothered to dodge and simply allowed the blades to pierce through her, while at the same time she used the blades at the ends of her weapon to end two of the pirates at once.
Aideen whirled around, which caused most of the blades to be ripped out painfully from her body - although one pirate lost their grip on the weapon instead - and her weapon struck the pirates unerringly, almost as if it was a living being.
Another three pirates fell down dead, throats torn out or downright decapitated, while the other two fell back with deep wounds on their chests. The pirate captain was one of the lucky two, but that luck soon ran out.
Instead of going after them, Aideen turned her back to those injured pirates and swung her weapon at its full extension, the blades scything through the back of the necks of the pirates that held the stairwells. Moments later the sailors they held back rushed up the quarterdeck and fell upon the few remnants still alive.
