Chapter Five: Overwhelming Force

Under the ferocious barrage from the English cruiser, the pirate ship’s mast finally gave way, shattering completely and taking with it the lives of several unfortunate wood elves. The pirate ship’s cannons had been silenced; it seemed that the English merely needed to board to claim the spoils of war.

Faced with the nearly immobile pirate vessel, the English cruiser drew alongside with ease. Chains and ropes flew from her deck, latching onto the pirate ship’s railings. The few remaining wood elves, wild-eyed like desperate gamblers, rushed forward with blades drawn, intent on severing the lines. But the English musketeers were already in formation, and at the command to fire, a volley rang out, felling a row of wood elves. After three rounds of disciplined fire, the wood elf pirates understood that no matter how many fell, they could not prevent the English from boarding. Forced to retreat, they took cover behind the ship’s debris, awaiting the final, desperate struggle.

With a crash, the two ships were locked together by the combined efforts of the English sailors. Musketeers and marines surged across makeshift planks onto the pirate ship. The wood elves, crouched behind broken timbers, howled and charged. The English musketeers stood firm, unleashing another volley that sent the elves reeling, then drew their swords and followed the marines into the melee. With a single charge, the wood elves were nearly routed.

“It seems your men can’t hold out. Let me help you. Don’t forget you owe me a favor,” said Sun Li, intercepting Su Yunyun as she prepared to enter the fray herself. With a rakish grin, he blew her a kiss before she could protest, then vanished in a blur, his unnatural strength carrying him straight into the heart of battle.

Sun Li, wielding a plain iron sword, moved with the grace of a master fencer, weaving through the English ranks. Wherever he passed, Englishmen crumpled to the deck, clutching their throats.

Su Yunyun and her subordinates, poised to join the battle, stopped in stunned silence. They watched, wide-eyed, as the battlefield—on the brink of collapse just moments before—became a stage for one man’s massacre.

With a clang, the sword of a shocked wood elf clattered to the deck. The fight aboard the pirate ship was over; every Englishman who had boarded now lay dead by Sun Li’s hand. The English still on the cruiser dared not step across the planks, paralyzed by fear. Their commander, seeing such a martial monster appear on a pirate ship, hastily formed his musketeers into a defensive line on his own deck. To engage in a brawl now would be nothing short of suicide.

But Sun Li had no intention of letting them go. With a mighty leap, he vaulted onto the cruiser. The English, for all their discipline, met him with a volley the moment he landed. Sun Li raised his sword to shield his eyes, his entire body blazing with brilliant battle-qi, conjuring a protective aura.

The sharp ping of lead striking steel rang out—the musket balls were deflected by the dense energy. Sun Li withdrew the glowing shield, mindful of its toll on his stamina, and swept his blade in a wide arc. A blade of battle-qi, more than ten meters long, sliced through the English ranks.

When the radiance faded, the deck was awash in blood and viscera, littered with the severed bodies of English sailors. Sun Li, indifferent to the carnage, pressed on toward the survivors.

“This…this is the battle-qi of a Grand Knight! By the Light above, what sort of monster have we provoked?” The cruiser’s commander, well aware of what a Grand Knight could do in the cramped confines of a ship, abandoned hope of resistance the moment he saw the display of martial power. He could only pray that such a noble warrior would spare a humble officer. If he survived, he swore never to serve in the navy again—a Grand Knight hunting down a mere cruiser was madness.

Anyone familiar with the power of a Grand Knight knew that in such close quarters, they were invincible. Sun Li embodied this definition, cutting down the English with ruthless efficiency.

“Chief, does this mean we’ve won? Did we also capture a cruiser?” blurted one dazed wood elf, asking a foolish question. Yet none of his kin laughed at him; all gazed at Sun Li with awestruck admiration.

Su Yunyun watched the slaughter with a complex gaze. She never expected that the arrogant, frivolous, and lecherous young master would turn out to be a Grand Knight—and so young! Since when were Grand Knights so common? She owed him a debt far greater than she could repay. Recalling his lingering glances at her chest, she suspected she would never be free of it in this lifetime.

Seeing how besotted he was with her, perhaps she could promise him her twin sister; after all, they looked identical—surely that would satisfy him. For the survival of her people, Su Yunyun was already plotting her innocent sister’s future, knowing that to the wood elves, a Grand Knight was nearly unstoppable. If one fought for them against the English colonizers, the peace in Jinzhou would be shattered, and unless the enemy sent an army or another Grand Knight, such a warrior was almost impossible to kill.

Despite Sun Li’s many flaws, he was kind at heart and treated women with respect—he had acted the gentleman even after her harsh treatment. Her sister would not suffer in his care. In a flash, Su Yunyun resolved to bargain away her own flesh and blood. For her, the survival of the wood elves outweighed all else, and she would pay any price to drive out the colonizers. Of course, Sun Li alone was not enough to turn the tide, which was why she had not offered herself; she would never admit that her pride would not let her bow her head to him.

Truly, she was a proud and headstrong queen.