Chapter 18:Thousands cannot pass!
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: I and Elkassar
Once Cuaron forcefully regained his footing, the wielder of this giant twin axe stood out. The already tattered cabin wall shattered into fragments, he was a huge man with a black bandana on his head. Reaching at least 2.2 metres in height, both his hands were wearing black cortex gloves. A distinct stitched up scar distinctly hung onto his bare skin, and what was bizarre that 10 cm long blood stained metal spikes extended out from the periphery of his body. He looked as if a parasite was living in his body, causing these metal spikes to poke out of his skin!
This gigantic man let out a beastly roar, dragging his terrifying weapon as he charged towards the pirates. He looked like his body was the shield while these terrifying weapons were the real objects he was protecting. A bad odour emitted from his body, the kind of odour a boiled rotting corpse would produce, causing a nauseous reaction. An experienced and old pirate frighteningly shouted out:
“Decaying undead!!! It’s the voodoo cult decaying undead!”
Voodoo cult was the most infamous evil cult in the Pirates of the Caribbean. Blackbeard was proficient in such black witchcraft, in Pirates of the Caribbean 4, his core members were revived as undead. The decaying undead was another extremely sinister existence, it was created with the strongest organs and body parts of dead corpses, stitching together to form this monster. Once created, it would not live very long on this earth, however, while it lived it did not know pain nor fatigue. Under the control of a voodoo sorcerer utilizing various treacherous magic to infuse into it, once it made its appearance, it would start on a campaign of blood and death.
Two other persons appeared behind the decaying undead, the first one was a black old man whose brush-cut hair and beard had turned white. A red cloth circled his waist like a belt, on his face were two coiled serpents drawn with white powder. His walking pattern was peculiar, moving forward while in a half squat position, he looked extremely strange and unstable. Beside him was sturdy young man wearing an ash-grey bandana, his face brimming with vitality. Breathing heavily, he held onto an eccentric curved blade, he is Captain Guatas of the main ship under Fernandez. Suddenly, from the other passageways, a huge amount of fully equipped seamen charged to them roaring out loud with weapons raised.
This was obviously a meticulously devised trap.
The merchant Fernandez had long ago predicted that pirates would engage them in close battle, because no greedy pirate would foolishly sink any ship without looting it first. Hence he had prepared a few venomous voodoo sect arch sorcerers to set up these snares on the merchant ship, laying down countermeasures against any aggressors! Instead, Ammand felt the danger but not at risk, because earlier on when fighting his way in, he had detailedly clear up all the enemies in his path. Thus, his retreating route was clear and he could easily turn around and return back to the Bell and Mug.
Besides Ammand was a future Pirate Lord, once back on his own deck and after ordering his men to cut off the binding ropes, Ammand would be able to command the flexible Bell and Mug to swiftly sail away with his incomparably decisive captain skills. This semi-wrecked heavy merchant ship would have no chance of chasing them. When that had happened, separated by the vast sea, no matter how strong the decaying undead was and how elite the mercenaries were, they would be rendered powerless and be toyed to death!
“Retreat!” Ammand decisively ordered. As the proverb goes, defeated troops are like a landslide, although the pirates were fairly experienced in escaping, some were still heavily injured put the price they paid was still acceptable. When Ammand stepped out onto the deck, he immediately noticed 3 lifeboats were leaning against the Bell and Mug, and the Spanish Paragon fleet soldiers were like ants swarming up! He felt an icy chill enveloping over his body, the enemy’s pitfall held such ruthlessness, planning beforehand to cut off his escape route!
“Not good! I need to immediately return to the Bell and Mug, once the Spanish captures our deck, this will be our graves!” After experiencing a hundred battles, the grim Ammand made this resolution.
He signalled to the injured crew head Cuaron. Cuaron snapped out of his daze, both eyes turning red he roared out crazily turning around without second thoughts, leading a group of loyal elite pirates to block up the door to the ship’s hold. Trying their best to prevent the deadly decaying undead from rushing out. Bluntly speaking, they were sacrificing themselves, buying a few precious minutes for their captain.
With a sunken expression, Ammand marched towards his own pirate ship. From the merchant ship’s edge window, a vigorous figure leapt out without hesitation, that was the captain Guatas! Following, a few more mercenaries holding onto their blades with their mouths, leapt out to block Ammand’s retreating route! Pressing his left hand on his chest, Guatas gave a humble slight bow like an elegant gentleman, however, his right hand remained steadily near his waist on the hilt of his sword. There was a gap of 12 metres between them, and this gap in that moment was like a dreadful moat to Ammand.
“What an elaborate trap…..” Sheyan leaned on the main mast, tilting his head in deep thought towards the opposing merchant ship.
“Utilizing the lifeboats to deal a fatal blow, this sort of attacking tactic could definitely be ranked at the top of all tactics in the past 4 centuries. Thinking from this perspective, there should probably be contestants that have infiltrated the ranks of the Spanish Paragon fleet. Furthermore, his status and reputation should be pretty high, and thus was able to materialize his battle plans into reality. Ammand, ah Ammand, in terms of combat style yours seem to consist of great skill and strategy in addition to your graceful demeanor, yet the greedy nature of a pirate has already lodged deep into your bones. That was why others could successfully predict your move.”
“They have more men than us.” Sheyan gently squinted his eyes, focusing his gaze 7-8 metres away onto the Spanish Paragon fleet soldiers that were prepared to assault. Then he shifted it to the ashen-faced, clueless pirates on deck.
“Their weapons are better than ours.” Sheyan once again glanced at the fine swords hanging against the soldier’s waist, and then towards the trembling hand of an old pirate. He was holding onto a deficiently short kitchen knife, as his hand trembled with fear.
“Their morale is overwhelming.” This could be easily deduced from the soldier’s enthusiastic shoutings.
“But….”
“But they are not carrying any long range weapons!”
“Under this story’s weather, crashing waves would easily tower over and flood the hold of the lifeboats. Therefore, the drenched muskets were rendered useless! Furthermore, the height that they had to climb up to the Bell and Mug was close to 3 metres! Hence they had to use climbing ropes with hooks to successfully scale the ship!”
In a flash, the first spanish lifeboat had contacted the hull of the Bell and Mug. In a short span, a few strands of rope hooks were tossed up firmly hooking onto the rails of the ship. Several huge soldiers were starting to climb up the ship.
At this moment, Sheyan had already walked to the edge of the ship where the spanish soldiers were scaling, grinning evilly. His cool and composed look was a stark contrast to the horrified pirates. Sheyan lifted up a heavy hatchet, this dual-handed hatchet had chopped deeply onto the floor board during the previous combat, he then tied a hawser* around the tail of the hatchet. This was at least close to a 100 kg, but Sheyan’s mighty 11 points of strength was barely enough to lift it with one hand and rested it on his shoulder. Although it could not be compared with the freakish decaying undead, it was enough to successfully command the attention of those pirates on board this deck.
(*Hawser is a thick rope used for boats)
Two spanish soldiers had just managed to climb aboard using the climbing ropes! Sheyan suddenly spinning in his position, roaring loudly as he let loose the 100 kg dual hatchet. The hatchet surged forward horizontally with an oppressive whistling! The two soldiers had just stumbled aboard and were still trying to get a foothold, all of a sudden they were faced with an attack of such ferocity. They did not even have time to scream as they were swept away with great force, finally letting out their miserable groans as they crashed into the sea! Looking at their comrades flying, this sign pointed to disaster!
Following that several other spanish troops had managed to climb aboard and charged forward, swinging their sabres viciously, flesh rolling as blood splashed everywhere. Simultaneously, 5-6 red long wounds appeared on Sheyan’s body! Blood gushed out, dyeing half of his body in a blink of an eye. Yet the dual-handed hatchet once again flew forward horizontally generating huge winds around it. Any planks of obstacles in its path were reduced to dust and fragments, as the few soldiers were once again swept out of the ship’s railings. Frantically waving their limbs in mid air, they crashed into the water as their miserable wails died out!
One facing the multitude, nevertheless a total victory!
Such grandeur, such was the craziness of the moment! If one man holds the pass, ten thousand cannot pass!
Yet Sheyan did not retreat, not even by half a step!
The wind was raging in full force, as huge waves soared, crashing down into a million fragments behind him! Sheyan remained stable by the side of the ship, ignoring the 7-6 lines of wounds, he tore off his tattered shirt. Clenching tightly onto that semi-cracked hatchet with one hand, raising it to the heavens and he let loose a crazy, thunderous roar!
“Come on, you morons!!”