Chapter 8:Movement and Confusion
Translated by: Chua
Edited by:I and Elkassar
Sheyan wasted a total of 2-3 hours using his insight ability to retrieve information. Presently, he still had about 2 pound sterling on hand, and thus, he decided to find a bar to grab a drink. At the same time he could fish for any news, and finally because of his accomplishment counter of his drunkard milestone was just 11/100. Since Sheyan already landed a job, he did not mind spending all his excess cash on rum.
After an hour, Sheyan’s drunkard milestone counter reached 22/100, in contrast his cash spiraled to a single digit. Suddenly, Sheyan heard a commotion from the outside, looking out from the bar he could see a small ruckus happening on the street. The port surrounding patrol guards were hurrying to that direction.
Previously mentioned, Tortuga is a neutral port, therefore, its patrol guards did not possess much power, but was supported by the private powers who ruled this island. After Bernard Fokke turned over a new leaf and constructed this neutral port his personal guards possessed great influence. However, right now the port’s patrol guard’s influence were deflated like a decompressed pregnant woman’s boobs after breastfeeding.
Sheyan walked to the entrance of the bar, he didn’t even have to raise his head but could already see Tortuga Port’s highest castle enshrouded with thick black smoke! The entire port had become extremely chaotic, people running about like a swarm of ants being threatened by a smashing rock. This place had been thriving for an entire 70 years, minus the citizens, above 99% of the remainder are pirates!
They were not a bunch of law-abiding citizens, once Tortuga Port was thrown into chaos, these pirates “gentlemanly” behaviour died off as their underlying wild beast unleashed. Cruel and hungry, they started plundering and even rob each other’s money pouches!
“Wu…” There were few who were as chill as Sheyan. He gently caressed his chin as he looked far towards the already engulfed in smoke castle in deep thought and did not have a single notion of violent behaviour in his mind.
Suddenly, a loud sound emitted from the castle once again, yellow smoke and dust spiralling up 20-30 metres into the air, and formed a mushroom cloud shape. People with amazing vision could see that several horse carriage wrecks were being flung out, disintegrating in mid air, and even the flesh of the horses were mixed into the mess along with the smoke. It splattered down like rain, leaving one a bitter taste of tragedy and disgust in their mouths. Several pirates standing beside Sheyan had their mouths wide open. One of them wearing a greyish wide bandana against his bald head exclaimed out in shock:
“Good grief, those sons of bitches must have more than a hundred buckets of gunpowder.”
Although this brat used the term “sons of bitches”, his vulgarities were not scoldings but just a form of expression. Looking at his appearance, he looked like the kind of crew member who constantly patted his crew members and would say “You F**ING did well mate.” After listening, Sheyan knew that this guy was a pirate expert in using gunpowder and cannons. However, his attention immediately focused onto the fogged up castle and the earth shaking explosion that just happened.
Maybe within the castle and the black smoke there was a storyline character causing the explosion, however, this was such a large scale explosion scene. It was not realistic when compared to the technological developments of this Pirates of the Caribbean era. Just taking that cannon expert’s saying, there must be at least a hundred buckets of gunpowder! In this era, most things were made with oak, and the total amount of gunpowder would exceed a hundred kilograms. Therefore, to a person that have not operated a bulldozer or excavator before, to move a hundred buckets of gunpowder would require exceedingly huge construction equipment or something like that. Unless all the patrol guards in Tortuga were blind, they would definitely have spotted such huge equipment.
Hence, this should be caused by a contestant. Only a contestant would be able to use such immense powerful explosives, and only a contestant would dare to ruin the peace of a neutral land like Tortuga which had experienced 70 years of peace. Thus, he must have triggered such an explosion to satisfy his personal goals. Currently, Sheyan had a flicker of inspiration in his mind, as though he had found the key to a particular question that was bugging him. But just as he found the answer, he actually forgot the question.
Presently the port was a sea of confusion and chaos, a few hasty and urgent figures scampered over like a pack of frightened mice running from a cat. Those should be contestants that committed the act, as a group of Tortuga patrol guards were pursuing them with weapons raised.
These guards probably received a kill order, persistently tailing these contestants. As those figures ran over, at about less than a hundred metres to Sheyan, suddenly, from the side transmitted a long neighing sound. This sound sounded like a horse, but weirdly, the people who heard this simultaneously shivered up as though someone had pour a bucket of ice water over them and their blood vessels all streamed with chilliness.
A wooden house at the side suddenly imploded within, as wood splinters exploded out disorderly, and a huge horse leapt out of it as though it was soaring in the sky. This horse was as tall as two people, its muscles bulging and swelling up as though it was going to tear through its own skin. Its eyes were covered with a black eye patch, its mane and tail swayed gently displaying a trail of blue cold air, spiralling up slowly like the smoke. There was a flaming red saddle on its back, as bright as the red cloth used in ox duels.
The horse rider looked roughly 40 years old, he was extremely stable and did not need to hold onto any straps. He had a small moustache that looked like that of spanish nobility, but his chin was shaved clean. Wearing a black western-style hat, he had a pair of sharp yet grim eyes, staring over he pulled out a short land musket!
Present time firearms were the basic primitive manual muskets with a fire string that is ignited with a match, to release one round, it required a long time to prepare. However, once this rider pulled out his musket, the fire string on his automatically ignited and the spark went into the black barrel. “Boom!” The carbon fumes rose from the barrel, and Sheyan could feel the hairs on his back slowly stiffening up. His eyes popped wide open, witnessing the first contestant trying his best to evade but after the gunshot sound, a part of the top half of his body exploded and was badly mutilated!
This scene was like that of a huge watermelon exploding in an instant, as his flesh and bones miserably fragmented into small pieces. The surrounding people/objects/shops in a 7-8 metres radius were all covered with a layer of red which gave off a fishy smell!
What was strange was that the contestant’s lower body was perfectly untouched, as his legs further ran a few more steps after its other half’s explosion before losing its balance and collapsing onto the street. Blood flowed out everywhere, gradually forming a crimson blood pond.
After witnessing this horrific scene, it was unimaginable what the other contestants would feel. Taking a glance at each other, they cried out frantically as they dispersed to escape. Two of them after running to a nearby shore, immediately started pushing out a small vessel. Feeling anxious like a stray dog, they frantically paddled out to sea, obviously, they understood the weakness of the horseman, that he was unable to enter the water. That horse galloped rapidly, however, when he reached the shore, the boat was already 50-60 metres and still rowing away.
When everyone else all thought that the rider was now helpless in the face of circumstances, he actually tightened his reins! That horse stood upright on his back heels like a normal person, letting out a mournful neigh, he sprayed out an icy blue cold air from his nostrils. Under the brilliance of the afternoon sun, the cold air was sparkling and translucent, it seemed like it was emitting light giving one an awful frosty feeling.
Following that, the horse kicked off with strength, leaping into the sea! Its hooves were the size of a washbasin, when it came into contact with the water, the area solidified into a light blue icy layer. It was so clear that the flowing waters below could still be seen. The horse had started to break into a frenzy charge, beneath it hoofs it left a trail of icy white fog, causing the surrounding 2-3 metres to freeze up. As the horse charged by, the layer of ice behind would quickly melt away. Viewing from far, it was like a pathway of white ice was forming towards the not so far escaping boat.
Just a mere 10 seconds was enough for the horse to catch up to the two appalled contestants. Yet, they still had surging willpower in them intending to resist, however, that rider drew out his sabre, swiftly raising it high and slicing down with the destructive force of a thunderbolt! The two contestant’s actions momentarily stagnated followed by a blood bath, they were like grass that was being shred apart by that sabre!
“Ah!!!!!” The rider let out a murderous bellowing, as the sound echoed into the entire port. “Receive the full wrath of the Fokke family!! Scum and maggots!”
“That is Little Fokke?” Sheyan overhead a nearby pirate talking to his comrade. His comrade seemed to be pretty knowledgeable, lowering his tone he spoke out:
“That’s right, he belongs to the third generation of the Fokke family, that horse is named Momore. Rumours has it that a demonic spirit resides in it, and it was Bernard Fokke’s horse. Only people from the Fokke family are able to tame and be its master.”