Chapter 44: The Counterattack of Death

Just when the Unicorne was about to be overrun by papercraft people, a piercing screech echoed from afar, causing the papercraft people aboard the Unicorne to abruptly halt.

Charles struggled to look towards the distance, where Audric had transformed into a giant bat and was now hovering above the wooden ship, the sallow sails violently shaking from the force of the sonic waves. The entire wooden ship began to tremble incessantly.

Seeing his crew turning the tide, Charles could no longer hold on, his body slowly descending to the ground, grazing the ship's hull.

The crew immediately noticed their Captain's condition and gathered around him, each face tense with anxiety.

"Captain! Who did this?" the Second Officer asked, looking at the protruding knife wound in the chest, his face filled with bewilderment.

"Never mind me... hurry... go and deal with those papercraft people..." Charles said intermittently as his vision darkened.

The Second Officer nodded hastily and led the sailors towards the trembling enemies.

The darkness before Charles's eyes grew deeper, and he could no longer hear the sounds around him.

Watching as bunches of torches were lit on the deck, a thought flashed through Charles's mind. "Am I going to die?"

The world seemed to brighten, and the pain in his body quickly receded.

As death loomed, Charles found himself calmer than he had imagined, "So I'm finally dead... I wonder if I can go back..."

The First Mate, who had disappeared moments ago, squeezed through the crowd to Charles's side, dragging two people with him.

One was a new sailor with a slash on his neck, while the other was Deep, who had been shot. The sailor's injury was not fatal, and Deep's gunshot wounds had missed the vitals; neither had died.

Charles could see the two, panic-stricken, saying something to the bandages, but he couldn't hear anything now.

The bandages laid the two side by side on the ground, glanced deeply at Charles, and then took the Black Blade from his hands.

Charles wanted to ask the bandages what they were doing, but his colorless lips quivered and could not open.

Holding the blade, the bandages quickly drew a blood Array with three points on the deck, filling the gaps with twisted inscriptions.

"Pfft!" The sharp blade pierced the sailor's chest, and disbelief filled the eyes of Charles and the surrounding crew alike.

The bandages laid the sailor's body into the Array and then raised the knife towards Deep.

"Ssst," a deck nail stuck in the First Mate's knife-holding hand.

Looking at Charles's angry eyes, the bandages silently put down the knife and crouched on the ground, murmuring something softly.

The sailor's blood seeped into the Array on the deck as the bandages' chant grew louder.

A transparent octopus tentacle made of seawater rose up from beyond the ship's side; the bandages' chanting intensified.

The tentacle's tip touched the sailor in the center of the Array, and the corpse with wide open eyes swiftly slid out through the interior of the tentacle.

The blood-soaked tentacle quickly toppled towards the adjacent Charles, turning back into blood water and splashing onto him.

Drenched like that, the dying Charles screamed hysterically.

His body emitted white smoke, contorted and trembled like a snake. The knife inside him was rapidly expelled, and his wounds began to heal.

At that moment, Charles felt as if a thousand knives were stabbing into him, the intense pain nearly causing him to pass out.

Within seconds, Charles, lying in the sea water, had completely healed.

Bandages calmly walked over and helped the soggy Charles to his feet. "Captain, only half the sacrifice has been paid... Your wounds haven't fully healed."

Panting heavily, Charles gave his first mate a complex look and, without saying anything, turned his head to look at the distant battlefield.

By now, the screeching had ceased, and Audric, covered in blood, was clumsily being attacked by a swarm of black paper figures.

Charles quickly rushed to the deck gun and fired directly at the wooden ship in the distance.

Perhaps due to the long distance, Charles fired several shots but missed every time.

Charles turned his head to look at the crew members on the deck, "Bandages, you take the helm, James, overload the furnace directly, everyone else get ready with weapons, we must catch up to it!"

Everyone immediately sprang into action, and Unicorne, which had been stationary for so long, began to move once again.

The wind blew Charles's black hair constantly, his expression frosty behind the mask, but the hatred in his eyes couldn't be concealed.

Seeing Unicorne getting closer, the wooden ship seemed to want to escape, but in terms of speed, it simply couldn't compete, and the distance between the two ships rapidly closed.

The deck gun tilted under Charles's control and fired again, water columns erupting around the wooden ship.

"Crack—" The wooden ship's mast was smashed, along with the sails it fell onto the deck, drastically slowing down the ship's speed.

"Don't slow down! Charge straight at them!" Charles's angry roar echoed across the deck.

Unicorne's speed increased further, and under everyone's gaze, the bow of Unicorne plunged deep into the belly of the wooden ship like a spear.

Looking at the figures on the ship, Charles didn't care about anything else, immediately turning the gun muzzle and bombarding the opposite deck relentlessly, the cannon fire roaring. The wooden ship instantly turned into a mesh of holes, with chunks of bloody corpses flying everywhere.

A few more blasts would surely sink the ship, but Charles did not continue; he needed to find out who was behind this ship.

"Board them!" Charles led his crew, charging towards the opposite ship from the bow.

Crossing the riddled deck, Charles and his crew reached the wooden ship's cabin.

Just as he came down the stairs, a cold light aimed a slash at Charles's face, Charles's body shrank, and his Black Blade rapidly hacked the paper figures in front of him into several pieces.

But this was just the beginning, an endless stream of black paper figures again surged forward, attacking the enemies incessantly as if driven by madness.

"These things seem to be controlled by someone! Hold them off! I'll go deal with their master first!"

After speaking, Charles charged at the paper figures in front of him. At this moment, his body was like an eel, swiftly sliding forward between them.

The paper figures seemed desperate, surging forward, trying to keep Charles outside.

Charles was like a small boat in a violent storm, constantly in jeopardy, but never capsizing.

However, the more there were, the more Charles's human agility came into play, whereas the dense crowd of paper figures, swinging their weapons, frequently hit one another.

Seconds later, his view suddenly cleared, and in the dim cabin, a human wearing a black Captain's Uniform murmured to himself, surrounded by four sky-blue candles.

Upon seeing Charles wearing the mask, the man's face immediately showed panic. He quickly blew out the candles; in the pitch dark, he hurriedly ran towards the window along the corner of the wall.

This little trick was utterly useless against Charles, who possessed Dark Vision, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger directly.

Blood precisely bloomed from the man's limbs. Before he could react, Charles's Black Blade was already pressed against the man's neck.