When Richard and his covert team finally charged down the mountain and entered the base, the entire facility was permeated with the sickening, coppery smell of blood.
Out of over a thousand Marine soldiers originally stationed there, more than two hundred had already been slaughtered in their sleep, leaving fewer than four hundred who were currently in any condition to regroup.
Many of the soldiers who had survived the initial massacre were so terrified they simply fled the base like madmen, desperate to reach the town and cling to life just a little longer.
Richard paid absolutely no attention to these scattered deserters.
He focused entirely on the panicked Marine personnel still inside the courtyard who could actually be organized.
"Time for us to get to work."
Richard drew the gleaming military cutlass from his waist.
Now was the perfect moment to rally the broken forces.
"Kill them!"
The sudden, coordinated appearance of fresh reinforcements left both the fleeing Marines and the bloodthirsty pirates bewildered.
Six figures of unknown origin had suddenly joined the battle, brandishing shining blades.
The terrified Marine soldiers grew suspicious, hesitating to engage.
The pirates, however, cared little about who these new arrivals were. After the earlier bloodshed, they were already completely blood-crazed.
"Still daring to fight back?! Seems we haven't killed enough of you dogs!"
"Brothers, charge! Chop these bastards to pieces!"
The pirates rushed forward with twisted, manic expressions.
"Rokushiki: Soru!"
Richard vanished from his spot, instantly reappearing beside a charging pirate. His military sword flashed cleanly in the moonlight.
A severed head tumbled into the dirt.
The headless body stood dumbly for a split second before blood gushed from the neck, staining Richard's crisp uniform crimson.
"You dare kill Seventh?! I will make you pay with your life!!!"
Seeing their comrade beheaded in an instant, the surrounding pirates erupted in absolute fury.
In all their killing tonight, Seventh was the very first pirate to lose his life.
The pirates' eyes turned blood-red again as they abandoned the cowering Marine soldiers nearby and howled as they charged toward Richard's small group.
"Stop your howling. You will all get your turn soon." Richard casually flicked his sword, shaking off the warm blood, and calmly watched the charging pirates.
He now declared this battlefield officially under his team's control.
Some of the stunned Marine soldiers finally began to regain their senses, staring dumbfounded at Richard and his five companions fighting with lethal precision.
A confused Marine soldier voiced the question on everyone's mind.
"Commander... that looks like Richard and his squad of new recruits."
The Marine officer referred to as Commander wiped the sweat from his eyes and peered intently at the valiantly fighting squad.
"Yes... that's right. It is Richard's group."
Several Marine soldiers tightened their grip on their rifles and asked nervously.
"Commander, should we advance or retreat?"
The Commander took a deep, shaky breath.
Watching the blood-soaked fighters holding the line, his cowardly resolve finally began to solidify.
"Advance. The pirates have slaughtered so many of our brothers tonight. Even if we retreat now, there is nowhere safe to fall back to. Besides... if we run now, we would be branded as deserters."
The Commander was actually quite hesitant internally—he desperately wanted to flee.
But given the current situation, he realized he had no other choice.
Fleeing would guarantee a court-martial.
Moreover, their branch commander, Dyer Webb, was nowhere to be found, making the Commander the perfect scapegoat.
If they escaped, the blame for this devastating defeat would inevitably fall squarely on his shoulders.
But if they joined forces with Richard and somehow won this fight, then Captain Dyer Webb would ultimately bear the punishment from Headquarters—after all, the Captain was the one who abandoned his post during a raid.
"Charge! Help Richard's group eliminate all these pirate scum!"
With his conviction finally firm, the Marine Commander led the remaining sailors in a desperate counter-assault against the pirates.
This time, the pressure on them was much lighter than before.
Although the corrupt Marine soldiers had neglected their training for years, their basic physical conditioning and ingrained combat instincts remained.
Following their officer's command, they attacked the pirates from behind Richard's established frontline.
The pirates, who had previously focused all their attention solely on Richard's deadly six-man team, suddenly felt tremendous pressure from all sides.
Just moments ago, they had been dominating the base with overwhelming momentum, cutting the Marines down until they scattered like frightened rats.
But now that the Navy was actually fighting back, the pirates found themselves losing ground.
Though the Marine soldiers still cowardly avoided one-on-one confrontations with the pirates, they were now fighting in a relatively open area of the courtyard where five or six sailors could easily surround a single pirate.
No matter how ferocious a pirate might be, facing synchronized spear and sword attacks from six Marines left them overwhelmed.
In less than five minutes, seven or eight pirates had already fallen to the mob.
Richard decapitated another pirate with one fluid swing of his blade.
He grabbed the severed head by the hair with his left hand, held it high, and roared:
"Brothers! Their line is breaking! Now is the time to claim your military honors! I have already taken five heads—that is enough for several promotions!"
Richard's words contained considerable, calculated exaggeration.
The situation on the battlefield was far more perilous than Richard claimed, but the panicked Marine soldiers didn't know this.
All they saw were the once-ferocious pirates now falling beneath their naval cutlasses.
And Richard himself had consecutively taken several pirate heads, tossing them around like bloody sandbags.
The deep shame of being chased around by pirates earlier, combined with the sudden, greedy incentive of military promotions, had completely restored the Marines' morale.
"Raaaaaah! Die, you scum!"
One Marine soldier took advantage of a pirate's distraction to violently slash at his shoulder.
Though the blade was blocked by thick bone and didn't cleave the pirate in two, the sudden attack dealt a severe blow.
Before the pirate could react, four or five naval cutlasses simultaneously struck him from behind, instantly carving him into bloody pieces.
A cold smile spread across Richard's face.
Under his deliberate leadership, these utterly useless Marine soldiers had slowly begun to awaken their bloodlust.
Though the gap in individual strength remained significant, this was, after all, the Navy's home turf.
Numerical advantage proved highly practical in low-level East Blue combat.
Bang! Bang—!
Standard-issue Marine rifles suddenly sparked in the darkness, the lead bullets mercilessly piercing the pirates' bodies from a distance.
Earlier, the darkness had been too thick and the chaos too absolute—the Marine musketeers couldn't distinguish friend from foe and were completely scattered.
Now that they had regrouped into a firing line, they naturally became a lethal killing machine.
"This is tougher than expected!"
"Fall back to the gates and wait for the Captain's return!"
The lead pirate in the courtyard, seeing his comrades falling left and right, raised his cutlass high and commanded a tactical retreat.
With both Captain Ogden and the Vice-Captain currently away hunting the Marine Captain, he had assumed command of these hundred-plus pirates.
He had been completely confident they could crush this pathetic Marine group.
At the very least, he expected to shatter their morale, rendering them incapable of resistance.
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