ushernet Chapter 210: THE RED BONES — FIRST BLOOD (2)
Chapter 210: THE RED BONES — FIRST BLOOD (2)
The captain struck Alex in the chest — directly into F1’s channel. Third time at the same point.
[Alex HP: 496,100 → 461,800]
[F1 Corruption: 97.5% → 98%]
Alex fell to his knees.
Two points in three strikes.
*At one hundred percent in the ocean,* he thought.
*The Trench taught us what happens with corruption amplified by an energy field. Without the Trench but with open ocean, the captain still has the entire water volume to amplify the Mark.*
*If I reach one hundred here, there’s no Emily to bring me back like in the corridor. No Raven with memories. Just the ocean and eighty pirates waiting.*
The captain stood over him — without pause.
"Seraph," said Alex without raising his voice.
"What."
"How long do you need to finish yours?"
"I’m already done."
Alex looked at her.
Seraph’s pirates were in the water, lifeless because she had thrown them there so there would be no mess on the boat.
Forty‑four seconds.
"Then—"
"I already saw it." Seraph looking at the captain. F2’s scythe still active. "You handle the captain. I’ll cover the flank."
The captain evaluated Seraph.
Evaluated F2’s active scythe.
Evaluated Raven with sixteen skeletons and four pirates neutralized.
Evaluated Kira with her bow aimed at him from the crow’s nest.
*Six pirates neutralized in less than two minutes,* the captain calculated. *I have six more on the boat. And eighty on the other three ships waiting for the signal.*
*But if I escalate, the bearer will activate more than thirty percent.*
*And if he activates more than thirty percent and the corruption is already at ninety‑eight—*
The captain looked at the numbers in Alex’s signature.
Ninety‑eight.
*Two more,* he calculated. *I just need two more strikes to the channel.*
He lunged.
---
Alex saw him coming.
He didn’t dodge.
He oriented F4’s scythe — not to block the physical strike. To intercept the Mark’s channel on the ocean’s spiritual plane where the Mark drew water to amplify itself.
F4 found that channel.
And closed it.
Not completely. But the strike arrived without the ocean behind it. Only the captain’s level‑82 physical strength.
Alex absorbed it.
[Alex HP: 461,800 → 447,200]
The captain processed what had happened — his eyes on F4’s scythe.
"How—?"
"F4 operates on the ocean’s spiritual plane." Alex stood up. "So does the Mark." A pause. "You’ve been building something on my plane of work for twenty years."
The captain didn’t answer.
"Withdraw your men," said Alex.
The captain’s eyes on Alex’s corruption — still at ninety‑eight, still dangerous. If he could provoke two more strikes to the channel—
Kira fired.
The maritime arrow found the Mark in the captain’s palm.
The arrow’s enchantment blocked the channel at its entry point in the palm.
[Depth Mark — channel interrupted — 8 seconds]
The captain looked at his hand.
Looked at Kira in the crow’s nest.
Looked at Raven with sixteen skeletons oriented toward him.
Looked at Seraph with full F2 five meters away.
Looked at Alex standing with both scythes active and ninety‑eight percent corruption that had not yielded.
"Retreat," said the captain.
His remaining six men climbed down to the boat without asking.
The captain followed them — but before climbing down, he turned toward Alex.
"You have two days before we reach the blockade zone." The captain. "By then the bearer will be more tired. The Fragments closer to the limit." A pause. "The ocean always runs in our favor."
He climbed down to the boat.
The Red Bones’ three ships withdrew toward the north.
---
The team on deck.
[Alex HP: 447,200]
[F1 Corruption: 98%]
Emily activated Purifying Light immediately.
[Alex HP: 447,200 → 468,500]
[F1 Corruption: 98% → 97.6%]
"Are you okay?" said Emily.
"Yes." Alex looking at the northern horizon. "They know exactly how to fight bearers. The strikes were going directly to the Fragment’s channel."
"I saw." Emily without taking her hands away. "If he had gotten two more to the channel—"
"I know."
Seraph:
"They didn’t leave. They reorganized." Her voice without emphasis. "They’re going to wait for the right moment and come back with everything."
"How much time do we have?" asked Kira, climbing down from the crow’s nest.
"The captain said two days until the blockade zone." Seraph. "Which means in two days they will escalate to all eighty."
Maya from the lower deck:
"I already calculated it. If we speed up on the north route for two and a quarter days, we avoid the blockade zone."
"What if they follow us on the north route?" asked Raven.
"Also calculated." Maya coming up with the map. "The migration current we avoided earlier crosses the north route in a day and a half. The Red Bones won’t cross an SS‑rank creature migration route with their ships."
Kira looked at her.
"When did you calculate all that?"
"While you were fighting." Maya spread the map on the railing. "That’s why I’m here."
---
Viktor from his position at the railing.
His coffee still in his hand — cold by now, but Viktor hadn’t noticed.
Raven dissolving the marine skeletons. Sixteen units, plus the four she had constructed from the pirates’ materials during the fight. Twenty total at the end. She had started with sixteen.
Viktor looked at that number.
Max beside him.
"Do you see what I see?"
"Yes," said Viktor.
"She built four new skeletons from enemy materials during active combat." Max. "Without interrupting the other sixteen."
"I saw."
"Did you expect that?"
Viktor considered the question honestly.
"I expected her to try it eventually." A pause. "I didn’t expect her to already be proficient at it."
Raven finished dissolving the skeletons and oriented herself toward the north where the Red Bones’ ships were disappearing.
Not toward Viktor. Toward the north.
But Viktor had known her long enough to know she was aware that he was there.
"Are you going to say something to her?" asked Max.
"No." Viktor. "No need."
Max looked at him.
"When was the last time you told her you were proud?"
Viktor didn’t answer immediately.
"Parents who say it with words say it because they have no other way." Viktor looking at Raven. "I have other ways."
Max processed that.
"That’s the oldest you’ve sounded in twenty years."
"I know." Viktor finally looked at the cold coffee in his hand. "And I’m still right."
"Aww, how cute."
Max and Viktor turned toward the voice.
"Jessica, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you have been helping?"
Jessica looked at them with a smile.
"No, no, they could handle it. Besides, I didn’t want to miss this moment of connection and memories — something worth noting."
Max and Viktor sighed, knowing Jessica was Jessica.
Yet, strangely, on one of the three pirate ships, almost the entire crew lay lifeless in very unpleasant ways, and the only living person was the one steering the ship, trembling.
"That bitch is insane..." He remembered how a girl had finished off the entire crew in seconds. "She just laughed and massacred everyone without mercy, and the way she drank one man’s blood... Ugh, shit, I’m going to have nightmares about that young woman."
---
Kira reached the north railing.
She leaned two meters from Raven — the usual distance, the one neither of them had explicitly established but that existed anyway.
Both looking north.
"Twenty skeletons," said Kira.
"Sixteen plus four new ones." Raven. "The four new ones took longer than they should have."
"They were unfamiliar materials."
"That’s why they took longer than they should have. With land skeletons, I could easily have made more than fifty in seconds."
*Always the same standard,* Kira thought. *Raven never counts what she did. Only what was missing.*
*I understand it.*
"Next time it will be in normal time," said Kira.
"Yes." Raven. "Next time."
The two Red Bones ships were no longer visible.
But Kira’s Predator’s Sense still read them — forty kilometers to the north, parallel to the team’s route.
Following them.
"They’re still there," said Kira.
"I know," said Raven.
---
Grim on Alex’s shoulder.
His crimson flames looking at the northern horizon.
**"Master."**
"What."
**"Corruption at ninety‑eight."** His flames. **"The highest since the Academy corridor."**
"I know."
**"And?"**
Alex looked at the team — Emily finishing the healing, Kira and Raven at the railing, Maya with the map, Seraph evaluating the situation, Jessica taking notes, Max at the helm, Viktor with his cold coffee.
**"What are you thinking?"** said Grim.
*That I dragged them all into this,* Alex thought. *And none of them are where they started. They’re stronger, faster, more dangerous than six months ago.*
*Because of the danger I brought them into.*
*And they’re still here.*
"That we have two days before they come back with more than eighty per ship," said Alex.
**"And the other thought?"**
Alex looked at him.
**"The one that came first. Before the tactical one."**
Alex didn’t answer immediately.
"That I don’t deserve them to be here."
**"That is incorrect,"** said Grim without hesitation. **"They decide where they are. Not you."**
"I know."
**"Then stop thinking about it and focus on the two days."**
Alex looked at the northern horizon.
"Yes, I suppose you’re right."
**"Good."**