Life and Death Battle

The vice captain rushed towards Red, who kept changing directions while shooting bullets to stall him. The battle kept covering the entire large area of the navigation room with bullets flying everywhere and the vice captain deflecting them or dodging them. Red sought to keep the battle one of long range, while the vice captain constantly sought to make it about close combat.

Red was tensed. He had wanted to sneak attack this man in the very beginning. From the moment he had entered the cruiser he had realized that this vice captain was the strongest person on the ship, and without any martial arts, in an open combat Red was a sitting duck. Luckily fate had accompanied him so far and he had managed to take down everyone else so he could focus on this man alone, yet now that the vice captain had revealed his power, Red was immediately at a disadvantage.

The vice captain suddenly jumped aboard a panel and bounced off directly entering Red's neighborhood and managed to succeed in converting the battle into a close combat affair. He used a powerful martial art to strike the dagger straight into Red's heart, but Red had immediately activated his superior perception and simulated the trajectory of the blow. He parried the blow with his gun in an extremely awkward manner, bending his hand at an angle that he thought would almost break. The force of the blow threw him onto a wall and he spat out blood because of the impact.

Red had no time to worry about his wounds though, he quickly checked his gun and sighed in relief that it hadn't suffered serious damage. The vice captain suddenly used a movement art and rushed his way to Red, but Red had once again create distance and began shooting in bizarre angles, preemptively gauging the vice captain's moves he began shooting at areas where the vice captain would appear. He wasn't able to do it really well though, but good enough to disorient and break the vice captain's momentum.

Fusing his senses had given him superhuman perception, but he hadn't yet had the analytical and predictive capabilities to fully utilize it. At this moment he suddenly realized the possible direction he could focus on with threading. But now was not the time. He kept on shooting in places he anticipated the vice captain to step next and that froze the vice captain who for the first time felt real pressure. His weapon, the dagger had been deflected and thrown to a corner. It was almost as if Red could see his body inside out. He decided to use his most powerful trick and finish it off in one go.

The vice captain suddenly started emitting smoke and his body suddenly started becoming a bright blood red. His body started swelling like a balloon and a long rhinoceros horn grew out of his forehead. His teeth suddenly became large and sharp like a carnivores and his breath gave put fumes. When Red saw this he was shocked. "What the...? You are an Ashura!" He yelled, which showed how shocked he was.

The Vice Captain laughed. "I am half Ashura and you will die." He moved but it was almost as if he didn't. He was so fast that he simply disappeared from where he stood and suddenly appeared in front of Red. "This is easily the second realm of strength." Thought Red. He was really at his wits end now. The sudden twist of the vice captain's identity had wrecked the plans and he had to improvise or he would die today. However, the vice captain didn't give him the chance to think, he suddenly appeared beside Red and punched him hard in the stomach which threw him far into the wall.

The pain was so intense from the punch that Red could not stand up. Red was still a common person with an unusual physique, but beyond that he was ordinary. This punch would have killed any other person, but he somehow managed to get up, yet he couldn't stand straight. No matter what, he didn't let go of the gun.

The vice captain who was now revealed to be an alien laughed maniacally as he rushed towards Red. He was only a half blooded Ashura and could not actually maintain this form for more than a minute, but a minute would be more than enough to deal with this young man, he thought. Red saw that the vice captain had made another move again and reflexively kicked the wall ending up in a corner and managing to dodge the vice captain's lariat. Tired and unable to bear the punch he slumped down in that corner which made the Vice Captain laugh and assume that the young man had given up.

The vice captain too was running out of time now in this form, but he wasn't worried anymore. With the boy having given up, he had basically won, now he just had to give in the finishing blow. He didn't have the energy to rush anymore, but he didn't worry anymore, he used a movement art and rushed towards Red anyway. In despair, Red threw the only thing in his hand, the gun he had tightly held till now towards the vice captain who waved his hand casually to hit the gun that flew up in a slow arc behind him. His eyes were coldly smiling seeing that Red had given up.

But suddenly knife appeared in Red's hand and a powerful gleam appeared in his eyes as he threw the dagger with as much power as possible, aiming for the vice captain's neck. The half ashura was shocked by the sudden viciousness of the boy who acted like he had given up, but he was still much more powerful and managed to closely dodge the dagger which grazed his neck. Angry he rushed to kick Red to death.

Just then his Ashura form ended but he was still strong enough to kill Red, yet a gun suddenly shot him in the back of the neck. With horror, he turned around to see who shot him, but he fell unconscious with the hating look when he realized there was no one else there. The dagger Red had thrown had grazed past the Vice Captain's neck and cleanly struck the trigger of the gun which had been flung into the air by the vice captain's casual hand flipping shooting him in the back of the neck. Red jumping to the corner, slumping down in defeat and everything from then on was a tactic to lower his guard and shoot him from a direction where he wasn't prepared to defend from. It was also serendipitous that the vice captain had lost his Ashura form at the right moment, for Red wasn't sure if the bullet could have penetrated an Ashura skin.

Sighing in relief, Red attached another chip into the navigation control panel, handing over control to Buckley whose pirate crew soon appeared to take control of the ship.