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At the very top of a mountain with an enormous cave, lies five men who rush outside the antre. The wind is as ferocious as the climb up the steep elevation - with the five having lost a number of men on the journey to the cave.
Liebig and his team camp behind a row of shrubs, readying themselves for a violent discharge to transpire just a few metres away inside the cave. They cover one another, in anticipation of a bomb so wide-ranged that even the shrubs might be swept off their roots.
"Brace for impact!" Liebig shouts out before smashing the big blue button on the detonator in his hand.
Seconds later, silence ensues, with only the whistle of the wind being louder than their hitched breaths. He peeks his eyes over the shrubs - staring at the golden pedestal covered with explosives - in confusion. He sits back down, hitting the button again after pugnaciously shaking it.
"What's wrong?" Alex emerges from a bush slightly further from the rest. "Yeah, what's taking so long?" Fred asks as well, glancing back at Liebig.
"You're asking me? Graham made this thing over here, so he should check it out," Liebig hands Graham the device, and follows him.
Graham sighs from the slight hindrance, walking up to the golden pedestal with Liebig. From his speculation, if they blow the inhumanely heavy pedestal out of the way, they can finally reach the real treasures below it.
The five of them can then rescue 'the sixth piece' from imprisonment for Alex to continue his journey of recruitment. According to the vague man, he requires a team of six, to defeat a foe he so desperately needs to face.
The crew aim to steal these treasures to obtain expensive canons for their ship, all to overthrow Gingerbeard of the Fifth Sea - the most prominent pirate worldwide.
"What's taking you so long? You made the thing, right? Without even using the Liebig's help. Our second-rate genius," Theo ridicules the poor man, chuckling to his own josh. "Second rate? At least I have both my eyes."
"Yeah Theo, let the men work, you loud-horn." Fred retorts.
"Hey, hey. You three, focus. Gingerbeard knows of our plans, so we must be on the lookout before he arrives with his men." Alex reprimands before unsheathing his sword. Fred, Theo and Liebig all fall into line, following his lead.
Fred then unravels his leather whip, as Theo readies his bow and poison-tipped arrows. One lost his right leg during a covert mission, and the other is a skilled archer who lost his left eye during war, Alex ponders as he looks at his two teammates. He then glances back to Graham in thought, then there's him. Part of the lineage but has not lost . . . anything in particular - perhaps I got in time before Thrasher did.
A number of voices echo beyond the mountain's crest, rusted and informal. To the five, it must be Gingerbeard's men, on their way to stop them and most likely steal the treasures below the golden pedestal.
Alex, Fred and Theo guard the entrance, readying their weapons in preparation to fight the massive group of ruthless men. Graham and Liebig continue fixing the detonator, for they do not necessarily hold any physical prowess, same as how the other three barely have swift hands with fixing things.
A huge hand grabs onto the ledge of the mountain, as an enormous silhouette of a man emerges. Followed by a swarm of men, who hold swords and rush themselves up the crest of the mountain.
"These men aim to attack us! How dare they challenge me, Gingerbeard?!" the biggest and tallest of the rest shouts aloud with his deepened voice as he points his lengthened sword toward the bunch holding their ground. "Attack!"
Theo begins shooting a number of arrows at a time, ensued by the falling corpses of those in the forefront. Some manage to slip in through the falling bodies between Theo's pauses as he draws more arrows from his collection. Fred steps forward, readying his whip as he mumbles a few incantations that he learnt from his elders within the AHA.
He lashes his whip, with the contact it makes being as powerful as a hill's backhanded smack - sending the pirates who come into contact with it off the face of the mountain with its potency. As Fred holds his ground with his ranged weapon, a number of the men evade him using the sacrifice of the unfortunate who die instantly with a mere stroke. They rush up to Alex, who stretches his arms in preparation, displaying a smirk filled with immense confidence.T
he men charging towards him realize his cockiness, and they feel abated and weak; fuelled by anger and irritation. The first pirate swings his sword to him, to only find his vision swaying mid-air, looking down from the sky he falls back from. With only a single and stylized swing from Alex, the pirate finds himself afloat in the blink of an eye. His thoughts stutter in fear as he falls back down to the ground before meeting his inevitable fate.
All the pirates suddenly come to a stop, noticing their fellow comrade's bloodied body, disfigured and dismantled beyond recognition. They hesitate, pondering whether to continue or not, and so, they look back to their superior.
"What is it? Continue, you cowards." They hesitate once more, looking at one another before swaying back to their boss. "They cannot be humans," one of the pirates mentions before rushing back down the mountain.
Another follows and the rest trail one another in trepidation. Before Gingerbeard knew it, he had been abandoned by his entire deck who pledged their lives to him. Except, he had brought them to a group so inhumane that dying by their hands would be swift, yet unimaginably excruciating.
"Cowards," he spits to the ground. "Looks like I'm going to have to deal with these things alone." He draws his blade from its sheath, being the size of an entire man, for it is suitable a beast his size.
Theo readies five poisonous arrows, shooting them before the big bearded man could do anything. They all perfectly jab into his forehead, sending his head aback a bit. Yet, he still stands.
Fred rushes up to him, lashing his whip to his abdominal area, supposedly to send him off the ledge as his whip has the ability to move hills at a time. The leathered whip simply bounces back with no aftereffect - and so, he still stands.
"My men have lost their lives to these little toys? I must have made them weak," the English man glints his yellow teeth, stained with gold.
"Toys? Then you clearly have not met him, huh?" Fred smirks.
"Hmm? Met who?" Alex emerges, standing below the big pirate's feet.
As some of Gingerbeard's men descend the mountain, a violent discharge occurs at the very top, causing the entire mountain to quiver. And before their eyes, the pirates notice their captain's sword fall down from the mountain top.
