SEVEN ADVERSARIES

"Good day. Goodbye..." Hardy's fiery fist rapidly fell onto Lirzod's chest like a meteor crashing down with belligerence and dominance. "Hardy Hit!"

KA BOOM~~!!

The moment Hardy's attack landed with a crunching sound, a scorching, bright flash leaked out of the tiny gaps in his fist, and in a trice, his fist blew up, causing a reverberating sound that shook the entire hall. Hardy himself got blasted away by the crushing blast wave, and the arisen flames which together devastated him further into losing his form, and all the five brothers got sent packing in different directions.

In parallel, Sariyu's eyes widened at the sudden blast—which looked like an explosive breakup of a badly chosen cooking stone—and a destructive gust of flaming winds blew against her and in every other direction. Many people couldn't stay on their feet and got blasted away into the walls, but Sariyu ran straight toward the outbursting energy that oozed out waves of blazing heat.

All the remaining glass windows in the hall got blown to bits, whereas the wooden benches cracked and splintered all over the place, and even the barrels of rum, whatever was left of them after the storm, now shattered, and alcohol spilled everywhere. Fueled by the drink, the flames greedily endeavored to lick every inch of the hall, not sparing any entity.

In the twinkling of an eye, chaos outstripped everyone's schemes and congested dread extensively in the hall. Plumes of flames soared toward the ceiling and unilluminated it. The sounds of explosions infrequently breathed more fire to various parts of the hall and swallowed those who were trying to scramble away to safety.

Surrounded by confusion, Sariyu was on her way to Lirzod, despite the strong pressure of the heat lighting up her skin. Though the flashing waves forced her to back-off twice, she drove herself unswervingly through the stretch of enraged darkness until her eyes caught sight of the one she was looking for. He was right where he was supposed to be, fully covered in blackened blood, with one of his eyes open, and his skin gone at various places and both flesh and muscle exposed, yet he endeavored to lift his hand.

She got to her knees with a face full of worry and placed her palms above his bleeding chest. "Stop it." She tried to breathe some energy into his chest, but nothing was happening. A deep frown formed on her face. She gently clutched Lirzod's face, "Okay, okay. It's nothing. I will first move you to a safer place. Don't give up on me, or I'll never forgive you, yeah?"

She couldn't even tell if Lirzod could hear words or not, but given how close he was to the blast, it was highly unlikely that his ears would be working just fine so soon. Even the only eye he kept open was slowly closing. She carefully picked him up and hurried toward the exit, even if it meant walking straight through the field of scattered flames, choking smoke, and burning men. Had the rum barrels weren't in the hall, the blast probably wouldn't have been as destructive. Amidst all sorts of cruel, crackling sounds and upsetting howls, she kept her feet moving, also not minding the burns on her body.

Meanwhile, four of the five Hardy Brothers also looked battered but nowhere near as grave as Lirzod. Fimbry, however, had burnt marks all over his legs that exposed his flesh and bone at places. Still, the brothers didn't take much time to regroup, put on ill-gotten underwear, and then scheme to catch Sariyu. Though they were left in perplexity regarding the explosion, they had no time to ponder on it as they chose to go after Sariyu, who was taking Lirzod away.

"To think that girl could run through flames like that without getting her burned…" Aziz's eyes didn't like what they had witnessed. "She's probably using—"

However, soon after they took two steps, strange noises came from behind, and when they turned, there were seven silly but also scary-looking drill monkeys making drilling sounds with their throats. All of them had small, semi-cone-shaped yellow crystals protruding out of their foreheads and also had multiple weapons hanging by their waists. These crystals looked to be half-developed.

One of them was holding a small wooden board that had a sentence written on it. "You do not have the right to murder on this ship."

Another one of the monkeys held a different board that read, "Dishonor anything but your duty."

But the board a third monkey held in its hand made them appear all the more intimidating, and the third board read, "We are shy, but mess with us, and we will make you cry."

"What the hell are these things?" Divas said, puffing a little.

"If I'm correct," Aziz replied, with a frown on his face, "they are the Seven Silver Drills, ones who teach with fists to those who disobey the rules on this ship."

"Like an imitation of the Fists of Law," Divas snorted.

"Who cares?" Centry dashed forth at the drill monkeys when the seven of them split, and only one monkey stood right where it was, but it began to hop on its legs as if it was exciting. "Hmph, go do your monkey dance elsewhere!" he thrust his fist at the monkey, which was in midair, but it arched its back and easily dodged his fist, startling him. (It evaded my punch in midair?) Centry had a look of disbelief, but before he made another move, he felt something hit him in the face, and the next thing, he was on the ground near his brothers. "W-What happened?"

"You won, Third Brother," Fimbry said.

Centry looked at Divas hoping he'd correct Fimbry's words, but Divas wasn't in the mood for such trivial things. He observed the drill monkeys' physical proportions. With a powerful physique, vivid orange eyes, and seven-inch canine teeth, the drill monkeys simply looked fierce. (To think they can send one of us flying with a punch. These scamps will weigh over 200, no, even 250 pounds, and there are seven of them staring right at us.)

Betts clenched his fists and said, "Where did these piece-of-shits pop out from?"

"From the higher decks, obviously," Aziz said, "and it looks like we can't get away without dealing with them." He couldn't help but frown on the inside. (We are already quite exhausted, but we can't let some monkeys mentor us!)

"Let's show them how high the skies are!" Five of the seven silver-haired drill monkeys attacked the five brothers.

Like dogs preying upon their chosen victim, the brothers unleashed all their spite that built up from having fought with Lirzod till then, but still, the agility of the drill monkeys was too much for the heavy-footed brothers to even land one attack. On the other hand, there was nobody to stop the monkeys from pounding the pot-bellied brothers, hitting in their nuts, slamming on the back of their heads, elbowing on their backs, bringing them to their knees and doing all sorts of monkey-things.

Everything that was taking place was more than what one could imagine. By the time those five brothers were thrashed to defeat, they were rolling on the ground, and they were left with countless bruises and every inch of their body exposed, for their underpants were either torn or snatched.

Everyone else in the hall, who made it out of the fire spots safely, just watched things unfold with stupefaction, and it included even Sean, who had just arrived with three of his pupils and stopped beside the watchdog after noticing his badge. "You shouldn't have called those things."

"I didn't have any other card to use, sir," the watchdog said. "If only you got here quick..."

"I agree that I was at fault, but look at their knee-jerk punishment," Sean said, with a visible disgust toward what the monkeys were doing to the brothers. "This isn't how we handle culprits on this deck. Now, these brothers will get away with just this little humiliation instead of spending some time in prison and brooding on their mistakes. If we don't punish the criminals properly on our deck, new wrongdoers will proliferate like weeds on a spring day."

"He called those things for the reward, Commander!" Jehez quickly walked over to the scene with a tense look on his face.

"Reward?" Sean raised his brows as if demanding further clarification.

Jehez hurriedly explained everything that happened, and Sean then glanced at the watchdog. "Did you call those things for the 10% share you get after I ratify his Hollow Mandate."

After a momentary silence, the watchdog replied, "I'm going to retire soon. Given my health, I'm not sure if I can even get a waiter job. You can't live a peaceful life with empty pockets, sir."

"Hmph, no matter which corner of the world you may go to, money can at best give you some amount of freedom, but I'm not so sure about the peace it can provide."

"Well, whichever land's air I maybe breathing, anything goes as long as I abide by the local rules, so please stop your lecture, sir. I'm twice as old as most of your pupils." Saying that he made some distance and resumed to watch the drill monkeys do their ritual.

Sean sighed and then glanced at Jehez. "This will be your last day as the referee."

"C-Commander, what did I—" Jehez's face paled drastically.

"At least do your best with the remaining time you have," Sean said and began to walk away.

"P-Please, Commander. At the very least, assign me to the foster hall," Jehez fell to his knees and begged.

However, Sean didn't even turn back and just walked toward the location where the cat home previously was at. Now there was nothing but rubble in that place. "It hasn't been long since this room was rebuilt, but why does this keep happening to this place?" Stooping down, he picked up a broken piece of wood, but to his surprise, a cat was lying unconscious underneath, a hairless one that looked as ugly as ever. "The legs seem broken." He placed his fingers near its neck. "There's no pulse, either, but… I'm not sure if it's dead or not." After a moment of thinking, he whistled. His cat, Gray came hurrying to him. With a few nods, he interacted with the cat, which then took Leggy and beetled off. Sean looked back at all the rubble and frowned, "How many more of these things got caught in this mess?" he moved the debris around, and his pupils then supported him.

The seven silver drill monkeys, in the meantime, were over and done with thrashing the five brothers in indelicate ways, for as long as the monkeys didn't kill a convict, they could function with impunity.

"Even a thousand soldiers may not be able to beat a single one of these monkeys," Muttia, who was watching from afar, looked satisfied. "Seven such raw drill monkeys which are probably at bogbeast level are taking on five denuded piglets. The world provides the opportunity to sell clothes even to your enemies. How enigmatic, and at the same time, exciting!"

Meanwhile, Sariyu was hastening toward a secluded location, holding Lirzod in her arms, but a group of seven men came out of the blue and blocked her path, four from the front and the rest from behind. All of them had copper-coated knuckle dusters on both their hands.

"Who are you guys?" Sariyu asked in haste. "What do you want?"

"Who are we?" one of the men snickered. "Although you look like shit, you are definitely the red-haired girl with a long braid we've been told to take care of. Not many girls roam these lower decks, after all. So you must be the one." All the burns, dust, and smoke on Sariyu clothes made her look silly, so she looked worse than a roadside beggar at the moment, but the one she was holding looked much worse. "Luckily, we found you sooner than expected. For breaking a good man's leg just for asking you out, we were sent here by the same man to break your legs and cripple you for good. However, if you don't want that to happen, then let us escort you to our client right away."

Sariyu frowned. "We can settle this matter later. My friend is in danger now. Please let me through."

"Your friend sure looks like a mess. He must've gotten caught up in that explosion we've just heard. It's too bad that you were the one who got to him first. Now, he can't even die peacefully because of you." As they sneered, rage rushed through her blood and tried to swallow up her sanity. "So why don't you stop acting and start worrying about yourself. You seem to have forgotten that you were only given two options, miss!" All seven men attacked her at once.