1085 I Come In Peace, I Swear
A golden light slowly began to shine from one of the men in the distance.
"We thought we could defy your authority. We're wrong! We couldn't. We shouldn't. We mustn't!" Ash said in a hurry and banged his head against the floor.
"Correct answer." The young man smiled in appreciation.
Ash's shoulders relaxed and he was about to breathe out when a golden light flashed.
The captain's two arms were severed and blood flowed out of his shoulders like water bursting out of pipes.
"He didn't answer." The young man clicked his tongue in regret and waved to the two men.
They expertly checked every nook and corner of the ship, taking away anything and everything valuable.
Ash kept staring at his uncle with nervousness the whole time. He only came to his senses when they took away his storage ring and left the ship.
"Uncle!" Ash screamed and rushed for the emergency kits. To his dismay, even the basic healing potions were taken away.
"C-Cough!" The man with no arms coughed as he lay in a pool of blood.
His injuries were closing but not fast enough. The energy in those attacks was rending his efforts to prevent further bleeding useless.
He's a level 8 Body Awakener. But at this rate, he wouldn't survive for one more hour.
"W-Wait a minute! We'll go to the spaceport!" Ash screamed as he tore his own shirt and bandaged the wounds, slowing down the bleeding as much as he could.
The captain lay powerlessly as Ash started the spaceship.
He regretted being so confident to think he could even escape the Havos pirates. But at least…at least, he'd be aliv—
Screech!
The door was once again opened forcibly and the familiar footsteps rang again.
"Um, thinking back, while your answer was correct," The young havoc scratched his cheek. "I never asked you. Isn't it also a sin to answer out of your turn?"
"W-Wha…" Ash stared at the young man, likely a teenager and someone his age, with a look of absurdity and fear.
What does this madman even want?
"Ah, the fear…I can smell it." The young havoc took a step forward and sniffed like a hungry beast.
Ash shivered and instinctively moved closer to his uncle. But feeling the warm blood tickle his skin, he realized that their roles were reversed.
Gulping down his fear, he shielded his uncle and said with trembling lips. "P-Please ask."
"This is our route, if you travel this path, you have to pay half of your goods." The young havoc thinned his lips. "Is just another half enough of a punishment for deceiving me, Natchez, the future patriarch of Havocs?"
Ash's face paled and his breath stopped.
"Seems like you know the correct answer." Natchez's lips curled up. "Spill it out."
A tense silence ensued.
Natchez frowned slightly and a golden light lit up behind him.
Ash felt like he fell into a freezer. His hands grew cold, his vision blurry and his throat dry.
"Spill. It. Out." Natchez spat.
Ash gritted his teeth and stared at his uncle for one last time. Then, he opened his lips and said. "O-One—"
—BOOM!
Something crashed into the golden spaceship nearby and it exploded into pieces.
The young havoc as well as the two men with him tensed up and stared at it with confused gazes.
In that numbing silence, an annoyed voice finally sounded.
"0.00001% margin of error, my ass! I crashed into a fucking plane!"
"My ship…" Natchez finally muttered in a heartbreaking voice before his eyes bulged in anger and he snarled at his underlings. "Why didn't you stop him? "It's my father's gift, a premium customized model, not your factory model, fuckers!"
The two Havocs looked at each other in confusion before one, an old man sporting a golden beard, stepped forward. "The space fluctuation was too sudden to react."
"Oh yeah?" Natchez sneered. "We'll see it after we return."
The old havoc's face paled and he shut up like a puppet. The havoc tribe didn't have a very lenient justice system.
"The squad should've already captured him by now." The younger havoc guard spoke up, trying to rescue his senior. "The one who did this should beg for death."
He succeeded as the young master's attention turned back to the scene of the explosion.
While his ship exploded, the other two were intact. The pirate squads from each ship broke into the smoke, debris, and fire at full force to catch the criminal.
Netchaz smirked when he sensed that they all surrounded this new 'presence'. But his smirk broke when a violent shockwave suddenly swept out.
The two spaceships nearby were literally blown away into a few miles while the pirates that entered were all thrown into space, each with a twisted limb or two.
The smoke had cleared and the debris disappeared, revealing the perpetrator.
It was a young humanoid male. His hair was black, and so were his eyes. A very handsome face, but even more catchy was the unbridled, almost ridiculous confidence he exuded.
Netchaz disliked him for that more than even blowing up his spaceship.
That look in his eyes…it was something he had and only he must have. No one else should dare to have that look and courage in his presence.
The young man turned to him and their eyes met.
For a split second, Netchaz felt a chill down his spine, as if he's dropped in a freezer before his body suddenly started sweating.
"I come in peace." Varian raised his hands in a harmless gesture.
Right when his words were finished, some parts of the spaceship that were blown away caught fire and exploded, almost killing a nearby havoc member.
"…I didn't mean it." Varian insisted.
An unconscious havoc member bumped into a sharpenel moving at high speed. It pierced right through his chest, just beside his heart, narrowly missing from killing him.
"A-Accidents, haha. I do not intend any har—"
BOOM!
The two spaceships collided with each other and sparks flew.
Varian was speechless and felt the deep malice of the world. But to prove his innocence, he still insisted.
"I really came in peace."
