Hitman with a Badass System
chapter-854

The fierce sun beat upon the seemingly never-ending Southern continent sea, reflecting the light into a blinding patch of shine. The sea was calm, pulsing, and breathing rhythmically. In the calm sea, a brig sailed with the wind, patrolling the seas. The ship squealed while the sails tightened and leaped forward, away from a tiny island with a couple of coconut trees. The tame lapping of ripples against the hull rang out across the bay. As the sail with a skull painted on rose higher and higher, the glistening reflection blinded captain Fairbank, casting a dark shadow down the ship's upper deck.

Slowly it blended with the calm and sparkly, orange-shaded water. The sail calmly swayed from side to side and occasionally flapped in the morning's ocean breeze. The stench of salty air gave the crew a kick of boost to tackle the day ahead of them. In the distance, a gust danced and twirled across the water's surface. The ship slowly glided forward through the mirror-like water. The puff ever so slowly crept closer as if it was the predator and everything else was the prey.

"Look alive men. We have rich fat merchants to milk!" Captain Fairbanks roared. The soft breeze streamed through his red hair and oval face with blue eyes. His loose white shirt fluttered in the wind, exposing his hairy chest. Fairbanks and his crew terrorized the sea under Pirate Lord Vance until the Dark Lord decided to kill Vance and many of his pirate captains for refusing his offer to join him. Fairbanks was one of the lucky ones who were spared by the Dark Lord's wrath.

"I have a report saying the phoenix manor merchants are on their way to Gisal for gem trading. So you men know the drill. We intercept, check their goods and make them pay their taxes," Fairbanks laughed out loud. A year ago, he wouldn't have spoken these words even if someone had put a blade against his throat. He used to pillage merchant ships to the bones and sink them for fun. Most of the pirates lived like this, and as a result, merchant ships rarely ventured into their seas. During their best days, they pillaged one or two ships every three months and went without pillaging for the rest of the year. Sometimes, two pirate groups would fight each other for a crate of rum or less. But everything changed when the Dark Lord conquered the seas and took over the pirates. He struck deals with the merchants and ordered the pirates to stop pillaging them like madmen. Instead of pillaging, the Dark Lord ordered the merchants to pay a percentage to the pirates every time they ventured into the Southern continent for trade.

Many pirates hated the idea of collecting taxes and not pillaging. But they did as they were told anyway because the pirates knew better than to mess with the Dark Lord. Those who did were brutally murdered and thrown to the sharks in front of the other pirates as a warning sign. Fairbanks was one of those who wanted to avoid ending up being shark food. At first, Fairbanks and his crew were skeptical about the Dark Lord's unconventional order, but the number of merchant ships coming to the Southern continent gradually increased. Within six months, there were more merchant ships than pirate ships on the seas. As a result, the pirates were able to make more coins as their cut from the tax than they ever did pillaging. The pirates who felt skeptical and hated the Dark Lord for preventing them from pillaging quickly changed their minds about him.

Under the Dark Lord, the pirates thrived and lived their golden age. For Fairbanks, this was just another relaxing day at the sea. His task was to intercept the merchant ships and tax them according to the goods they were carrying. After all these times, Fairbanks could do the tasks in his sleep. As he was sailing on the calm sea, his quartermaster, a dark-skinned man with nose piercing, rushed toward Fairbanks.

"Captain, we have spotted a ghost ship," The quartermaster said. His dark eyes contained a sliver of fear. Fairbanks had the same fear in his eyes as he heard about ships with no symbols or crest on sails attacking the pirate ships and disappearing. Rumor had it that the Dark Lord's naval army has lost five pirate ships to these ghost ships.

Fairbank's hands reached for the spyglass dangling on his waist and looked in the direction the quartermaster was pointing. Through the spyglass, Fairbanks saw a lone ship heading in their direction. There it was, a frigate with no symbols or crest on its gray sails. As soon as Fairbank spotted the ghost ship, a strange bell echoed through the calm sea. It sounded like a cry, a cry mixed with both anger and sadness.

"What are your orders, Captain?" asked the quartermaster.

Fairbanks lowered his spyglass and turned his gaze back to the quartermaster.

"Man the cannons and prepare for a battle," said Fairbanks. His voice was loud enough for the entire crew to hear him. Soon, they all grabbed a spyglass and scanned the horizon.

"Ghost ship spotted!" At that moment, a pirate manning the crow's nest shouted, pointing at the horizon.

Almost everyone on the upper deck heard and saw the ghost ship. It was too late for panic control.

"Prepare the cannons!" the quartermaster roared as his order swept across the deck. The pirates panicked and stood still like statues for a few moments. They spent too long collecting taxes and enjoying life without battle, so when they were ordered to prepare for battle, their bodies refused to move. It took them a few moments to realize the danger they were in.

"We will bring their heads to the Dark Lord!" Fairbank shouted.

The moment the crew heard the name of the Dark Lord, they snapped back to reality because the fear of the ghost ship was nowhere close to the fear they had of the Dark Lord. The crew quickly reached the cannons, and some ran down to the lower decks to convey the battle order to the crew down there. While the crew was preparing for a battle, Fairbank raised his spyglass to take a look at the ghost ship again.

"What the?" to his complete shock, he saw no ship through the spyglass. He frantically moved the spyglass left and right, trying to locate the ship.

Looking at Fairbank, the quartermaster looked through his own spyglass and was stunned by the sight of an empty horizon. The ghost ship was nowhere to be found.

"Do you see the ghost ship?!" the quartermaster shouted at the pirate standing atop the crow's nest. But before he could answer the quartermaster, the pirate fell down from the top and splattered all over the deck, painting the floor red. The crew was stunned by what had just happened. In their shocked state, they failed to notice the iron arrow on the floor, covered in the pirate's blood and flesh.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ghost ship appeared closer to Fairbank's ship. The crew and the captain were caught off guard. They had no idea where it came from.

"Take cover!" Fairbank shouted as every fiber in his body screamed at him to lower his head and duck. He was a veteran and had enough battle experience to guide his crew out of thick situations. However, his battle experience was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the ghost's ship. All the fifty cannons on one side of the hull exploded at the same time and bombarded Fairbank's brig. Nine out of ten times, a brig had no chance of winning against a frigate. Unfortunately for Fairbank, his ship was too close to the frigate and unprepared for return fire.

Fairbank ducked down and held the helm as tight as he could. When he slightly raised his head, he saw his quartermaster stumbling around the deck with a large hole in his chest. One of the cannonballs went straight through his chest. Blood oozed out of his mouth, and before the quartermaster could hit the ground, another cannonball took his head clean off.

A loud whistling sound kept ringing in his ears, preventing him from thinking straight. Most of the crew were either thrown off the deck or dead by the cannon fire. When the ghost ship was reloading its cannons, Fairbank stood up and rotated the helm as fast as he could. The ship had taken too much damage. The main sail poles were barely standing, and one or two cannonballs fire away from breaking down. As a captain, it was his task to save the ship and the rest of the crew. He frantically rotated the helm to sail away from the frigate. While trying to escape, Fairbanks looked at the ghost ship and saw the hostile crew. They were all dressed in some kind of silver robes with pointy hats. None of their faces were exposed as they covered themselves from head to toe.

"FULL SAIL!" Fairbank shouted. He knew it was too late for them to return fire. The only hope they had was escaping the frigate before it reloads its cannons.

Boom!

Out of nowhere, a giant arrow hit the front deck and split opened the brig in half. Fairbank failed even to see where the arrows were coming from. More arrows rained down upon the deck, impaling everyone and everything. With the front half slowly sinking down, there was no chance for Fairbank to escape the frigate that had almost finished reloading its cannons.

"I AM NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" Fairbank roared as he unsheathed his cutlass. He ran toward the rope they used to board the hostile ships and tried to swing to the frigate. He could have escaped if he had let go of the rope and jumped into the water. However, he was a pirate through and through. He may have let go of pillaging, but he would never die without putting up a fight. When he was about to land on the deck, he heard another volley of explosions. Suddenly, everything turned dark around him. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain in his head; then, his whole body felt light.