Stris twisted his body to avoid the Representative's hand, but he only managed to lessen the effect of the Representative's touch. The hand shrouded in grey void magic brushed against Stris' side. Although it barely touched, that was all it took for the void attribute spell to take effect.
The defensive enchantments on Stris' clothes were completely unable to withstand the spell, and the clothes faded into dust that spread with the nonexistent wind. However, the spell's effects didn't end there as the magic spread to Stris' body.
Stris felt a haunting pain as his skin and flesh followed in the footsteps of his clothes. He rushed his martial energy to the area affected by the spell in order to purge it from his body. Despite Stris' quick reflexes, the spell still had time to dig out a fist-sized hole in Stris' sides.
While the spell still clung to his body, all the blood turned into nothingness, but as soon as the spell's effects faded, blood poured out of Stris' wound like a fountain. Stris tried using his martial energy to seal the wound while distancing himself from his three opponents. But they wouldn't let him focus enough to close the wound, especially not Red Hook, who constantly tore open the wound with her blood magic.
Due to Stris' level and solid martial energy, Red Hook couldn't do much more than affect the already gaping wound, but just that put enough pressure on Stris to allow his three opponents to corner him.
However, Stris learned from his previous mistake and didn't let them coordinate and land another injury on him again. The most they could do was nick him here or there with an axe or a hook. And since the Representative's spell required physical touch, he mostly worked on dissolving Stris' energy and depleting his martial energy reserves.
With his gaping wound and the Representative's interference, Stris headed for a slippery slope of exhaustion, and if things progressed too far, it would be difficult for him to survive.
Thankfully for Stris, he wouldn't have to compete with the three crew leaders by himself anymore.
Stris used another Crust Breaker to distance himself from his opponents. During that window, all four of them noticed the imminent change in the Void around Pirate Haven.
The change made Stris smile triumphantly while the other three frowned.
It was practically common knowledge that Stris had connections with the Starsling Kingdom. However, no one knew how deep those connections ran until now.
An entire fleet of Starsling Kingdom vessels surrounded Pirate Haven.
It wasn't the first time a kingdom tried to subdue the rampant pirates. However, any such attempt had only resulted in the pirates uniting and successfully fending off the kingdom's navy.
But with the current situation where the pirates were caught in the middle of an internal argument, the Starsling Kingdom's navy's arrival had devastating effects.
The ships unloaded barrage after barrage of attacks on the city, the pirate islands, and the pirate ships.
The pirates who were caught with their pants down suffered tremendous losses due to the surprise attack. The Starsling Kingdom even attacked the Blue Lounge League of Pirates, their supposed allies. The only place that remained relatively intact was the Pirate Meet island, where Stris was.
The navy's deliberate avoidance of the Pirate Meet island made it clear that the Starsling Kingdom valued Stris and didn't want to harm him by accident.
After the first few rounds of attacks, the navy's ships stopped firing. None of the remaining pirate ships were in a state where they could even think about retaliating.
The three biggest ships approached the Pirate Meet island, after which the three captains hopped off the ships onto the island. The captain of the largest ship was dressed in an exquisite uniform, and the other two captains followed a step behind them as the trio walked toward Stris and the three crew leaders.
The admiral smiled as he closed in on Stris, completely disregarding the three pirates.
"Brother! Have you been well?"
The admiral, who, upon closer look, shared similar features with Stris, embraced his brother in a hug.
The Starsling Kingdom's arrival had bought enough time for Stris to seal his wound. Red Hook also stopped interfering since she was more worried about the fleet of ships surrounding Pirate Haven.
"Well, I've suffered worse, but this shit still stings."
The admiral backed away as he looked at the gaping hole on Stris' right side.
"True. I still remember when we were young, and you came home after trying and failing to court the princess."
"Oh, shut up."
Although the admiral acted playfully with his brother, his gaze was filled with fury as he turned to look at the three pirates responsible for his brother's injury.
Wulf, Red Hook, and the Representative all felt a chill run down their spine as the Starsling Kingdom's admiral eyed them. One glance was all they needed in order to realize that the admiral was stronger than any one of them. And the two captains behind him weren't any weaker than Stris.
They didn't know when things had gone so wrong or why the Starsling Kingdom deemed it necessary to use one ninth level and three eighth levels just to take down a void pirate city. And they felt like sitting ducks as the admiral pondered on what to do with them.
Eventually, the admiral opened his mouth.
"Who did this?"
Dristel, the admiral, pointed at the wound on his brother's body as he looked at the three pirates in turn. Naturally, none of them were fearful enough to answer the admiral's question just like that.
Part of being a pirate was loathing law and order. An admiral was a representative of order. There was no way the three would just bow down and admit defeat just because he was a little stronger.
Dristel sensed their rebellious attitude and their stirring mana. He pitied his brother, who had willingly consorted with such brainless fools. Dristel was about to show them the meaning of discipline when the world around him disappeared and was replaced by an infinite expanse of darkness.
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