The Accursed Man And His Skill

His grip loosened, and I collapsed to the ground, able to breathe slightly better, even with my cracked ribs. I may be badly injured, but at least I managed to defeat…

“Yaharhar~ you are truly interesting,” the decapitated head of the Administrator laughed. “Had that been someone with low stats or skills, that may have actually killed them.”

The skeleton body wandered over to the laughing head and picked it up before placing it back on the body of the undead pirate.

“Too bad for you, my unique skill is immortality.”

Seriously? Immortality? Why the hell would the system create such a broken skill?

“Immortality, huh? No weak spots you’d care to share?” I asked as Pippa scrambled over with my blade in her mouth.

“You did catch me by surprise, but I’m afraid you’ll have to do much better than that if you want to defeat me.”

He pulled out his rapier. The blade was shorter than average, but its ominous, pitch-black colour compensated for it. A darkness that was broken only by a hand guard etched with blood-red gemstones.

“I don’t suppose that you withdrew your blade as a gift to me?”

“I’m afraid not. This is where I must get serious. Though I must admit I’m surprised you’ve survived this long, skill-less one.”

“Spite’s a hell of a survival tool.”

“Yarharhar~ Even when I kill you, I will remember you. What is your name, lad?”

“It’s Lark Trüestrike, you despicable Administrator.”

“Well, Lark Trüestrike, I will remember your name after I kill you.”

He vanished once more. The speed at which he was moving was too quick for my brain to process, though I had seen this trick several times already, and so I instinctively responded.

Our two blades collided, and the force sent me skidding along the deck. My arm burnt from the friction as I rolled across the deck and crashed into some barrels.

Pippa darted out from them, clearly startled, and rushed towards another set further down. It seemed I disrupted her hiding spot. Still, a part of me wished she would use some of her spells. Hell, I would even take her just chewing on his leg at this stage.

“Well done, you managed to block that.”

Although I was in poor shape, I had begun to understand his fighting style, and that meant I had a plan for his next strike.

He moved once more, vanishing from my sight. I responded as I did before by blocking with my blade. However, unlike before, I reached for his hand guard with my other arm and latched on with my hook. He momentarily flinched as I yanked with all my might and disarmed the undead captain.

“How’s that? Now you are weaponless.”

“Am I?” He grabbed his two lowest ribs and snapped them off. The sound of the snap made me wince. “My bone daggers are much stronger than the rapier.”

Well damn. That didn’t quite go as planned. How the hell was I supposed to defeat him?

“You don’t have a weakness you’d be willing to share?” I asked, sarcastically. Although I was secretly hoping he would actually reveal something. I was pretty desperate at this point.

He didn’t respond verbally, but instead by closing the distance and swinging the bones at me. I managed to block one, but the other collided with my side, and I went flying into the railing. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs.

I coughed up some more blood.

“Seriously? Throw me a bone...” I was cut off as one of the broken rib bones came flying at me. I barely managed to dodge out of the way with a last-minute roll.

“When I said throw me a bone, I didn’t mean literally!”

“Yarharhar~ I haven’t had this much fun for a long time. Crew, you may eliminate everyone but this lad.”

The motionless skeletons began to clamour once more and slowly approached my crew.

I gripped the railing and forcibly pulled myself to my feet.

“Don’t you dare think I’ll let you lay a hand on my crew.”

“You’d be much stronger if you were by yourself. Your crew is just going to get in your way.”

An arrow shot forward towards the unconscious Túta. I reached forward to block it. I felt the familiar sting of a weapon piercing part of my body. In this case, it was the centre of my hand.

Honestly, it was getting pathetic how familiar this pain had become.

I glanced sideways to see another skeleton with his blade raised above his head. I reached out with my hook, managing to deflect it away from the unconscious Melody.

Another lunged forward with a spear, pointed at Elora. Again, my body became a human shield as the spear went through my leg.

“Why risk everything for them?”

“Someone who killed their own crew would never understand.” Another arrow lodged itself in me. “They’re my everything.”

I spun around as several more arrows pierced my flesh. I took one step forward to collect myself before a spear went through that, too.

“Yarharhar~ You think I wanted to kill my entire crew?” he asked with a hint of anger in his voice. “I had no intention to do so. But that sneaky bastard betrayed me.”

I listened on as I deflected another attack away from Viola. Another attacking skeleton was thwarted by Pippa, who had shot a mini fireball from her new hiding spot within the captain's chambers.

“That scurvy dog turned out to be another Administrator. That sly bastard, S. He somehow turned my entire crew against me. He called a mutiny with a twisted smile, before vanishing back to the shadows.”

Spears and blades pinned me, piercing my arms, legs and body. An arrow was still sticking out of my hand, and several more covered my body from every direction.

I screamed at my limbs to move. But no matter how strong my resolve, my body had reached its limit.

“That’s why you can’t rely on a crew. They’ll just get in your way. And with the accursed gem, they’ll live on for eternity anyway. Look at you, you are on death's door…” He stopped speaking the moment I glanced at him. He flinched and took a step back.

“I may be knocking on death's door, but you haven’t been able to land a single hand upon any of my crew.”

The captain remained silent for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Yarharhar~ I suppose that’s true. Very well, I’ll respect your wishes and spare them for now.”

He waved his hand, and the skeletons fell to the ground.

The former Administrator stepped forward and grabbed a cluster of my blood-soaked strands of hair. With a yank, he lifted my head to force me to stare into his endless, red, glowing eye sockets.

I continued to look defiantly at him as I spat at him.

His boot slammed into my chest, forcing a gasp from my lungs. The wound on my chest opened back up. I felt the pressure increase as he put more weight into it.

“Any last words?”

“You'd better kill me, because if you leave me, I’ll lop off your head. You may be immortal, but I’ll definitely find a way to kill you.”

“A way to kill me? Yaharhar~ I like you, you may be weak, but you have grit.”

The pressure on my chest eased slightly before a fireball blazed past my cheek.

The undead captain jumped out of the way, landing several meters away.

“Don’t hurt Lark anymore!” Screamed Pippa, who had returned to her human form.

One of her arms was outstretched as if she were trying to shield me, the other firmly grasped the undead captain's rapier. Although she was putting on a brave front, I couldn’t help but notice her entire body was trembling.

“So, you can turn into a humanoid creature.”

“If you try to hurt him, I’ll use my full power to destroy you,” she warned, although I could see how she was still trembling.

Without a word, the undead captain took several slow steps forward before vanishing and reappearing next to her.

“You are almost as interesting as this lad, little creature.” He smiled cruelly.

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End of chapter 26