The sounds of Derrin's blade vibrated through the trees. Red hoped they hadn't revealed themselves to the other group. Vizim would have warned them, but it was still concerning. However, he currently had more pressing concerns. The other man stumbled to his feet. He had yet to summon a weapon of his own.
So, Red shot him…or tried to at least. His companion moved just in time to block the electrical blast with the flat of her blade. The energy rippled down the weapon before dissipating harmlessly against its guard. The mist within the weapon had simply countercharged against the energy from his gun. A crooked smile fell across the pirate's face. Red only sniffed.
Well, he had expected as much. Once the other man summoned his blade, they'd move on him at once. When that happened, he would be run down and killed before getting another shot in. In his current circumstances, he was as good as dead. Unless he ran right now and abandoned Derrin. All of that was true for someone unprepared.
Fortunately, Red didn't come into this fight unprepared. If everything had gone to plan, he wouldn't even have needed to draw his guns. One never assumed everything would go to plan. That ended in explosions and possibly mental trauma. He'd experienced both.
He slowly raised his gun again and twisted his body to hide his other hand. Dropping his shockblaster into its holster, he removed another palm-sized device. He grinned and lobbed the item at the pair with all his might.
Their eyes went wide, and the woman let out a wild curse. She raised her sword to defend against the item, and the pair slammed their eyes shut. Red fired a quick pop shot that whisked between the two harmlessly. Stifling a curse, he slid behind a nearby tree and crouched into the jungle's foliage. Red could have gone for another shot, but it would have alerted them to his deception.
The device sliced harmlessly into pieces against the woman's sword. There was no explosion, no noise, no sudden flash of light. There was nothing. It was a dud. Of course, it was a dud. He had made it a dud on purpose. Nothing like throwing your enemies off with a fake bomb.
That moment had given Red a bit of insight, though. It had allowed him to learn more about his two opponents. What he had thrown could have very well been an actual bomb. In that case, they both would be dead. Both of his opponents were straightforward fighters. They weren't suited for his gadgets and strange forms of deception. That suited Red perfectly well because he wasn't suited to their form of direct combat.
The sounds of shattering branches suddenly filled the jungle, followed a moment later by a scream of pain. Red paused for a moment behind a tree. That was likely Derrin activating his sword's ability. It was risky to use it with his back to the other enemies. For some reason, that filled Red with a sense of pride. The Montrelan trusted him. Why, he had no idea, but here they were.
The pirates had just realized the gadget was a distraction. Red acted. Moving silently as he had learned over the past few days, he raised his shockblaster and fired at the woman's face. His weapon connected, sending her careening over in a fit of shaking, her sword dropping from her hand and vanishing into a swirl of mist.
The other pirate's eyes widened in shock, and he abandoned his companion. He once again returned to his position beneath the underbrush. Red fired another shot into the downed woman. Just like that, only one combatant remained.
He could distantly hear the fight between Derrin and the other pirate winding down. Red gritted his teeth. He wanted to take down this last opponent before Derrin returned. He had no doubt Derrin would return. The other pirate may have been strong, strong enough to contend with Derrin for this long at least, but in the end, he was in bad shape from the light explosion. No matter how skilled or strong he was, it didn't help when he was half blind.
Red began closing the distance between him and the remaining pirate. A teal glow burst into existence from within the jungle in front of him. What a way to make things easy for him. Red almost wanted to laugh. That seemed like a beginner's mistake. He raised his weapon and paused.
This seemed too easy for his first proper fight. The gearborn had been an escape attempt and not a real fight. Before that, he had never needed to fight anyone and had simply practiced his shooting skills for fun. He was worried that this first fight might get to his head.
Dashing around a distant tree, Red raised his shockblaster and froze. A teal blade was stuck from the center of a tree. It was shaped slightly differently from the woman's blade but with a similar style. However, what wasn't present was the last remaining pirate.
Something warned him. He wasn't sure if it was some sort of sixth sense activating or simply his intuition. Regardless, Red jumped back at the same moment the remaining pirate exploded from the jungle beside him. He had managed to increase the distance between them just enough to prevent the man from immediately landing a punch. It was much too close if he wanted to shoot. If he didn't want to kill the man, that was.
Red cursed his damn mind. He had been cocky and overconfident. He had planned everything, and it all fell into place just like he had imagined. The pirates were as dumb as rocks, falling right into his tune. They'd allowed themselves to be led around the jungle like fish on a lure. He had manipulated all of them into the right positions to end the fight as quickly as possible.
So, what did it say about him that he had been so easily thralled into a sense of overwhelming intelligence? The pirates weren't dumb as rocks; they'd simply been caught off guard. They were surprised, and that had led them to make mistakes.
Similarly, Red found himself having been manipulated, and he didn't like it one bit. He had so easily fallen for the bait, just like the pirates and his fake bomb. He was now the fish on the lure. He had completely and wholeheartedly lost his advantage.
Red raised his gun. At this point, screw his idea of not killing anyone. This pirate was clearly aiming to kill him. It didn't matter. He knew it would come to this. It was just way sooner than he wanted. Way sooner than he would have liked.
The pirate slammed his fist into Red's wrist, causing him to grunt. His weapon tumbled to the ground. Then, the pirate slammed into him like a whale. They crashed through the jungle underbrush, all sense of orderly combat gone. Red felt himself hit the ground with a crunch beneath the grown man's weight. He was not in a good position. Not at all.
It surprised him then that he'd been able to maintain some semblance of rational thought throughout his current circumstance. He hadn't panicked as the man knocked the gun out of his hand. He had thought about it simply without emotion. Perhaps Derrin had been bright about his heart protecting him. It was why his first thought as they hit the ground was to grab his other gun.
Two hands closed around his neck as a knee pressed against his chest. Red reached for his shockblaster. It was trapped beneath them, wedged against his lower back and the earth beneath. There would be no drawing his gun. There would be no emotional event after his first kill. There would be no escape into the jungle after the fight was over. Not for him at least.
It was then that he finally panicked.
"You killed Cartha!" the man roared.
His voice sounded far away despite the loudness. A red fog was gathering towards the sides of his eyes. He was going to die. That was it. Red weakly slammed his fist against the man's chest. The pirate didn't budge; all he did was squeeze harder.
This was it.
This was surely the end.
Red swung again. This time with even less force behind it. The redness began to cover his vision, and he felt black spots appearing. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't even choke for breath. Bloody hell.
He had managed to keep a semblance of self during the first part of the ordeal. So, why was his mind racing? There was a solution to his situation. He knew it. He just couldn't think. He couldn't articulate it. It was as if all of his hard work was for nothing. Was this all he would amount to? Dying in some god-forsaken jungle on the side of the world to some random pirate, his ideas, designs, and plans all forgotten.
He would not die like this!
He refused to die like this!
Taking the last bit of strength he had, he punched again. The man gasped, momentarily releasing his grip on Red's neck. He rocked back, giving Red a moment of breathing room. The black spots vanished, but the redness remained. Red didn't hesitate and slammed his fist into the side of the man's head. This time, he went flying like a cannonball.
It wouldn't be till after the fact that Red would realize that his mist had acted on its own. There had been no mental force required as he lay there dying. It had acted with his body without warning, without preamble, without argument. It acted when he needed it the most without fighting back.
However, in his current circumstances, Red was in no position to contemplate the strange actions of his mist. The pirate staggered to his knees as blood dripped from his face. He turned on Red, his nose twisted at a wrong angle.
"I'm going to kill you!" he snarled and clambered towards him.
He didn't move more than a few feet before a bolt of electricity collided with his face. The pirate's unconscious form slumped to the overgrown earth. Red panted, trying to catch his breath. He slowly lowered his shockblaster and dropped back to the grass.
He was alive. Even if just barely.