His strength temporarily restored by the sheer, volatile force of the alchemical draught, Caster reached into his waistcoat with a trembling hand and pulled out a second, glowing vial.
He yanked the cap off and drank it down in one desperate gulp, wiping his mouth with the back of his glove as some of the glowing fluid spilled down his chin and neck.
Despite the influx of energy, the black-and-purple discoloration from the blade was still aggressively crawling up his throat, desperately trying to cover his entire face.
"I've recovered all my mana... thankfully."
Caster wheezed, a manic, dangerous smile breaking through his marred features.
Reaching back into his pocket, he drew a handful of metallic spheres.
imbuing them with a massive surge of energy until they glowed white-hot, before hurling them to the ground once more.
He leaned against his remaining stone golem, breathing heavily.
"That poison you used... must be some exceptionally high-level toxin... ha... ha...! I used my highest-grade alchemical potion... and yet... the effects are still visible."
He locked his sharp violet eyes onto the pirate captain.
"Tell me... how much time do I have left before it reaches my brain?"
The pirate boss narrowed his eyes, tracking the purple veins pulsing on Caster's face.
He answered truthfully.
"Not long enough. I'd say you have about twenty to thirty minutes at best."
"Perfect!"
Caster barked, his voice cracking with a chilling, desperate laughter.
"That's plenty of time."
The ground beneath the square convulsed violently as a dozen new golems violently erupted from the shattered cobblestones. But Caster wasn't done.
He raised his hand, gesturing sharply, and the stone constructs began to slam into one another, building and fusing together in a chaotic storm of debris.
The rocks ground against each other until a single, towering colossus—five times the size of any normal golem—loomed over the town square, its massive shadow eclipsing the burning ruins.
"I think I can easily deal with both of you in those thirty minutes."
Caster sneered from his perch on the monster's shoulder.
Lennie and the pirate boss both looked up at the towering monstrosity, the sheer pressure of its presence kicking up a gale of hot dust.
The giant captain took a slow step closer to Lennie, his cocky attitude completely replaced by a grim, life-or-death seriousness.
"What the hell is he doing?"
Lennie asked, her eyes never leaving the colossus.
"I don't know a damn thing."
The man growled, his hand resting tightly on the hilt of his cutlass.
"Only that in the state he's in right now... he'll kill us both if we try to fight him individually. It pains me to say this, but... Truce?"
Lennie ground her teeth, a wave of hot fury washing over her at the man's sheer audacity.
Just minutes ago, he was trying to capture her.
"That dagger your man stabbed him with... what exactly was it? I sensed an alarming amount of poisonous energy radiating from your dog earlier."
"You mean Jax, the mohawk guy? Yes."
The captain muttered, keeping his eyes on the descending shadow of the colossus.
"It's a high-tier magical artifact—a King-Grade weapon. The moment it cuts you, the poison takes effect. If the victim has immense magical power, it fights back, but eventually, the toxin takes over your body, feeds entirely on your mind, and you die. There is no cure."
"So he really doesn't have much time left."
Lennie reasoned, her mind working rapidly.
"We just need to stop him, or at least survive until those thirty minutes are up. Can you run?"
"I don't have enough magic left to escape this perimeter."
The boss admitted with a rough, self-deprecating chuckle.
"Believe me, if I could, I would have tried already."
"I expected no less from the scummiest pirate in the harbor."
Lennie said with a sharp, humorless chuckle.
She took a deep breath, her mismatched eyes flashing.
"Okay. Let's do it. I don't have enough reserves to shatter that thing by myself either. So, as much as it pains me... I call a temporary parley."
The pirate boss's eyes widened, and he let out a sharp bark of laughter.
"You idiot... now I can't say no."
An Accord was a sacred, blood-bound tradition among the seafaring factions.
When a pirate calls a parley, no matter how bitter their past blood-feuds or how extreme the immediate danger.
Bign parties were physically and honorably bound to abide by it until the agreed-upon task was completely finished.
To break it meant absolute execution by the rest of the underworld.
"Fine by me."
The captain sneered, drawing his massive cutlass as the giant stone fist of the colossus began to descend upon them.
"Let's bring this bastard down."
Before the captain could let his boiling rage blind him, the colossal shadow of the mega-golem loomed directly overhead.
A massive rocky fist descended like a falling meteor.
Working in perfect tandem despite the sudden revelation, both Lennie and the pirate boss violently dove to opposite sides, dodging the crushing impact by mere inches.
They scrambled to their feet, instantly locking back into their combat stances.
Lennie used the momentum of her dodge to launch herself high into the air, rocket-propelled toward the very top of the towering colossus.
Her target was clear: Caster, who was perched triumphantly near the monster's stone crown.
She reeled her fist back, channeling her remaining crimson energy into a devastating strike.
But right before her knuckles could connect with his skull, she slammed into a shimmering, transparent sphere of absolute force.
*A barrier?!*
The kinetic backlash violently deflected her strike, knocking her completely out of the sky.
Lennie fell hard onto the cracked cobblestones below, rolling to absorb the impact as dust billowed around her.
Seizing the opening, the pirate boss leaped high into the air from the opposite side.
Roaring as he channeled his raw physical might into his cutlass.
He drove a massive, forced-imbued punch straight into the golem's torso, blowing a massive, gaping hole right through its stone chest.
But to his horror, the surrounding earth and shattered bricks from the plaza instantly magnetized toward the wound.
The colossus simply absorbed the surrounding debris, completely regenerating the damage within a matter of seconds.
"Damn it!"
The captain cursed, leaping frantically backward to dodge a sweeping counter-attack from the behemoth's left arm.
"Is there seriously no way to break this thing?!"
Lennie sprang back to her feet, dodging another falling stone fist.
She gestured sharply toward the head of the golem, where Caster sat protected behind his shimmering shield.
"We have to aim for the source! The barrier is tethered to him, and he's the one controlling the core!"
The pirate boss immediately understood the assignment.
Nodding tightly, he jumped backward just as another crushing blow narrowly missed his shoulder.
"Just give up, both of you!"
Caster screamed down from his perch, his voice cracking with a terrifying blend of manic desperation and agony as the purple veins pulsed violently across his face.
"Just accept your inevitable fate, just as I have! Let us all die together in the rubble, my dear Lennie!"
"Like hell I will!"
She shouted back, her voice echoing over the roar of the flames.
The battle was turning into a brutal war of attrition, and the tides were rapidly shifting.
The pirate boss was visibly starting to lose his stamina.
His heavy breathing grew ragged.
And his magical reserves were gradually depleting to zero.
Sensing the weakness, the mega-golem shifted its primary focus, its massive red alchemical eyes locking directly onto the exhausted captain.
"Watch out!"
Lennie shouted, her voice laced with sudden panic.
But it was already too late.
The colossus brought its giant stone foot down in a blindingly fast, horizontal sweep.
The massive heel brushed against the captain before he could fully raise his guard.
Bam-!
The absolute, terrifying force of the impact completely blew the surrounding air away.
Shooting the remaining cobblestones into a massive cloud of shrapnel and sending the pirate boss's massive frame hurtling helplessly through the smoke.
***
The pirate boss crashed heavily onto the shattered cobblestones, his massive body sliding through the dirt before coming to a complete halt.
*Damn it!*
He thought, his conscious mind violently fractured.
*Why did I let my guard down? Why now?*
A terrifying sensation began to creep through his limbs.
His body felt freezing cold and burning warm at the exact same time the telltale sign of internal bleeding and shock.
"I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die…"
He repeated.
"Not yet. I… still… have… I… st… h…
The thoughts began to splinter.
*Where the hell am I…?*
*This is so frustrating… If only I had been faster.*
*Then maybe…*
"N-No…"
*No excuses. I guess I'm just meeting you a little early, huh? Captain?*
A rush of long-buried memories violently flooded his fading consciousness.
He remembered that day with agonizing clarity.
He had been so young at the time.
He had been weak.
And every single day since, he had lived with the suffocating regret of not being strong enough to save him.
***
*"Fire!"*
The chaotic voices of the past echoed in his head as he drifted deeper into the darkness.
*"Go! Save yourself—"*
Slit-!
The memory replayed the horrific sound of tearing flesh.
*"Captain!"*
he had screamed.
He remembered staring in absolute horror a woman holding the bloody sword the very weapon that had taken the life of his dear idol.
*"Let's leave."*
Nova had said smoothly, wiping the blade.
*"They're already finished here."*
She had walked calmly along the splintered wooden passage back toward her own vessel.
A younger Lennie had stood right beside her, watching the perimeter with an expression of iron.
*That day...*
The captain he thought as the memory faded.
*I etched those faces into my mind.*
*I promised myself that I would rise up through the ranks, build the strongest crew in the harbor, and kill her with my own two hands.*
*But now… but now…*
The brutal reality finally hit him.
His body was completely broken.
He was dying… Saving the subordinate of the woman who had killed his mentor.
Why did I save her…?
His time was almost up.
*Was it perhaps a reflex…? No…! It couldn't be…?*
*Damn it!?*
*Although it pains me to say this but…*
Using the absolute last, microscopic fract of his remaining strength, his lips twitched.
He couldn't make a sound over the roaring flames, but he desperately mouthed the words into the open air:
"Kill… him…"
It took a agonizingly slow few seconds, but the captain's vision finally went pitch black.
The chaotic noise of the battlefield faded away, completely.
"…"
Replaced by an absolute, heavy silence.
Standing a few meters away, dodging a hail of falling debris, Lennie's eyes locked onto his face.
Through the thick smoke, she expertly read the final movements of his lips.
Her mismatched eyes one glowing crimson, one deep black hardened with an intensity that could cut through steel.
"Hmmm..."
She whispered, her voice carrying the absolute weight of the Accord they had struck.
"Don't you worry. I'll do it."