The jungle seemed to darken around them. That may have been the sun setting or simply his anxiety; Red didn't know. Vizim remained near the edge of the clearing, watching the other group of pirates. If the group reacted to the fight in any way, they would need to abandon all semblance of caution.
They approached the unsuspecting enemy in absolute silence. What planning they needed had already been done. There wasn't much they had time for but they hopefully wouldn't need much of a plan. Getting Derrin into the midst of the enemy was all there was to it.
The group moved slowly past a cluster of trees. Red watched through a gap in the underbrush, trying to gauge the strength of their opponents. Two of them had simple shockblasters strapped to their belts. The others were unarmed. That wouldn't matter, though. Those ones were likely more dangerous than the ones with guns.
Only one of this group appeared to have a stronger heart. Red eyed him carefully. His black hair hung to his shoulders, and he moved with a grace and power that made the others look up to him. This was their leader. He would be Derrin's target.
Derrin had vanished into the tree canopy. Red knew he was there waiting to pounce, but he still didn't like it. In the absence of bombs, he was now forced to be bait. As the pirates grew closer, Red readied himself. He silently drew one of the makeshift devices he had been crafting over the previous nights.
He had made a few different things with the minimal resources at their disposal while still leaving them just enough for another bomb. None of the items were special or even well-crafted; they just needed to serve their purpose. He didn't bother to glance at the item, but he felt the slight power he had ceded from one of the cores. It was dangerous to do something like that. Their last core had been left unstable. Not that it really mattered at this point. It was meant for a bomb after all.
Red breathed and then moved. The most dangerous part of the plan for him was now. He crashed out of the jungle with a stumble and immediately regretted his decision as two shockblasters were trained on him. It didn't matter.
"What the hell!" one of the pirates yelped.
He threw the palm-sized item with all his might and dove across the path. The pirates, being totally caught off guard, panicked. Two shockblasters fired where he had just been.
Red grinned as he rolled behind a tree. His own shockblasters were already drawn. With his back pressed against the tree, he shut his eyes. He had warned Derrin this would happen and hoped the man was prepared.
Firing the shockblasters had been a mistake, a mistake Red had counted on. The overpowering electrical energy missed the flying item. However, the power of the blasts was enough to overheat the simple device. It went off with a quiet pop. That's all Red noticed because his eyes were tightly shut.
The pirates, however, faced the full brunt of the pop. Red had originally created this item unintentionally. It had resulted in him being almost blinded for an entire day. He had been trying to make a basic lighting device, or more specifically, a miniaturized lighting device. The power had instantly evaporated and exploded into a blast of light. It wasn't powerful enough to do anything except create light.
In this case, the lighting device exploded in front of the pirates. A sudden blast of light in the gloomy jungle wouldn't have permanently blinded them. But, they didn't need permanent. All they needed was a few seconds.
Rising to his feet, Red opened his eyes and saw the faint afterglow of the lighting device. Hopefully, they hadn't seen it out on the beach. Red dashed forward, closing the space between him and the pirates. He didn't trust his aim from this distance, and with Derrin in the mix, it was too risky.
He finally caught sight of the group of pirates. It had been a group of pirates. Once. It was no longer. Two bodies lay on the jungle floor in a pool of blood. Red grimaced at the sight but focused on the survivors. The leader was being pushed back by Derrin. The moment of blindness had been far less effective on him, but it was still only a matter of time.
Red set his sights on the other three. All three of them were unarmed. Derrin had smartly removed the biggest wildcards from the fight. Two blind men firing, well, half-blind, was a very bad idea. Of the remaining pirates, one lay sprawled backward over a bush while the other two were stumbling around, rubbing at their eyes.
The first shot collided with one of the men's chests. He staggered backward by the sudden bolt of electrical power. From this range, a shockblaster would not be strong enough to kill. Another shot hit him in the shoulder, and he collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Unconsciousness was not out of the cards. The man wouldn't be rising anytime soon.
The two shots rattled the others out of their stupor. The one on the ground rolled to the side, preventing Red from getting a clear shot. The other pirate did something that gave him pause. She summoned a mistblade.
Red had heard of mistblades before. They were supposed to be one of the first skills that mist users were taught. The blade manifested as a wide, curved weapon that Red didn't immediately recognize. An ethereal teal glow echoed from it. The strength of a blade depended on the user. He doubted this one was very powerful, but that didn't matter. His plan of quickly removing the stragglers was over.
The other pirate would recover momentarily, and then it would be a two vs. three. Red could attempt to shoot the one with the sword, but she'd either dodge or deflect the blow. Even if he managed to hit her, it would only briefly stun her. He would need more than one shot to take her out. That left them at an impasse for a moment.
She wouldn't dare approach in fear of his weapon's strength. The closer she came, the stronger his blasts would be. However, that didn't mean Red could advance on the woman either. Her sword was inherently better in close range, not to mention the other pirate would rise in only a moment. He was truly in a troubling position.