Pale arcs of light tore through the dimness of the ship, like falling moonbeams, effortlessly ripping through flesh protected by armor.
Shattered pieces of broken plate and sprays of blood crossed through the air, scattering into the darkness like stars, glittering beneath sword trails as brilliant as a galaxy.
The surviving pirates stared at the scene before them in terror. Endless shock and wordless horror clenched at their lungs, leaving even these hardened killers trembling in their souls.
It should have been a scene of death that inspired fear, yet in the hands of the figure dancing lightly amid the mountain of corpses, it had been adorned with a terrible, exquisite beauty.
As Gaia swung the longsword that fit her hand so perfectly, she felt a strange joy.
This bizarre blade possessed a sharpness that left her amazed. Even the heaviest armor was cut before it as easily as the thinnest sheet of paper.
More than that, she realized that, whether because the blade suited her better or for some other reason, after such a fierce battle she did not feel the slightest fatigue.
Before, she had always been able to ignore the negative effects of exhaustion piling up, but she could still feel them.
Now, even after cutting down more than half the boarding pirates, she only felt a slight warmth spreading through her body.
In other words, her blue bar seemed to be gone.
At that thought, the corners of Gaia's mouth could not help but curl upward.
And her delight became the surviving pirates' greatest nightmare.
Not far away, the senior deckhands supporting Gaia with ranged fire could not help breaking out in cold sweat.
Even knowing she was one of their own, no matter how many times they saw this, it still left their hearts pounding.
Which was only natural.
Because when Gaia entered combat, she looked exactly like the sort of person who would butcher the enemy and then turn around and butcher her allies too.
...
"Don't shoot, don't shoot! I know important intel!"
After seeing the companion in front of him, who had tried to negotiate with nothing but words, get sent away by a single las-shot, a pirate with three large gold teeth dropped to his knees with a thud, clasped his hands over his head, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
Commissar Horne frowned and stopped the sailor who had been about to feed the man a nice helping of dragon fruit, then said in a low voice,
"Talk."
Goldtooth cracked one eye open a sliver and glanced sideways at Horne before cautiously speaking.
"If I talk, can I buy my life with it?"
Horne considered for a moment.
This was Solomon's ship after all. He was only the temporary authority over the lower decks.
By rights, something like this ought to be left to Solomon to decide.
So, with complete honesty, he said,
"That depends on the captain."
The moment he heard that, Goldtooth felt reassured. His attitude immediately hardened, and he bellowed:
"Then I want to see your captain!"
Horne shook his head.
"You can say it here."
Goldtooth refused to back down and roared self-righteously,
"You're not the one in charge, so telling you is useless!"
"What I know is extremely important. I'll only talk to your captain. Otherwise, go ahead and kill me right here if you've got the guts!"
He played the hardened thug to the fullest, and Horne found himself at a loss.
Under normal circumstances, he would not have wasted a word on this kind of man and would have executed him on the spot.
But now, all he could do was have the pirate detained and wait for Solomon to decide his fate.
At that moment, however, Solomon had no time to deal with a prisoner from the lower decks.
While the bloodthirsty pirates launched their boarding assault, the three raiders surrounding the Spear of Destiny were also piling on the pressure.
Through a series of precise maneuvers, Solomon did everything he could to minimize his own losses while still landing effective damage on the enemy hulls.
Unfortunately, the enemy's coordination was too tight. The three raiders' overlapping fire formed a three-dimensional net, not only narrowing the gap in heavy firepower, but steadily eroding the advantage Solomon held as a commander.
And these pirate bands, steeped in the Warp for years, had all sorts of dark tech or xenos technology aboard their ships, things the Imperium officially classified as profane.
In other words, they were better suited for fighting in the Warp.
This difficult close-range struggle dragged on for a long time, until at one instant one of the Infidel-class raiders suddenly faltered during an ascent.
It was one of the two ships that had attacked House Hayek's transport earlier. Its ascent engines had been badly damaged by one of the Spear of Destiny's precisely placed deep-dive torpedoes.
Although it had rerouted backup lines and carried out emergency repairs afterward, under the strain of this brutal close-range engagement, it had finally started to show problems.
A sharp light flashed in Solomon's eyes.
"Target the raider with the unstable drive output. Full speed. Ram it!"
As the Spear of Destiny's engines erupted, her dark yellow streamlined hull truly seemed to become a spear piercing the void. With unstoppable momentum, she smashed her reinforced ram head-on into the raider, which had no time to react.
A violent shock ran through the prow. Amid the scattering storm of metal fragments, a massive裂口 opened in the raider's flank where it had taken the direct hit.
If a ship suffered that kind of damage in the Warp and did not receive immediate aid, then the fate of everyone aboard was already sealed.
At the same time, the other two raiders, having long since failed to receive the expected signal from their boarding teams, understood exactly how things stood.
If they kept fighting, they might still be able to destroy this destroyer.
But the price would be that one of their ships, maybe even two, would have to die with it.
They had already paid a heavy price because of their bad estimate of the situation, and now, with the conflict against Black Shark at such a crucial point, every sensible consideration told them the same thing:
cut their losses.
"Damn it, this one hurt. I'm remembering this ship. Next time we see it, they won't get off easy."
The Darkstar pirates burned the Spear of Destiny and her mysterious captain into their memory.
Under his command, this destroyer's combat power was nothing like that of other ships in her class.
After circling around and carrying out a feinting attack, the two surviving raiders skillfully fled at the same time in two completely different directions.
Watching the pirates retreat, Solomon let out a long breath.
At the same time, a note of doubt crept into his mind.
Were there not a few too many void battles lately?
Back when he had served in the Navy, even when he had specifically been assigned to patrol and suppression duty, he did not remember fighting two consecutive high-intensity space battles in just over a month.
Stroking his chin as he looked at the damage on the ram, Solomon muttered,
"Could it be... there's something unclean on this ship?"
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]