Pirate Pt. II

 As they looked at the standoff, the crowd could see the pirate stand still, away from Avis, but the boy seemed like he was fighting for his life, as he did, in fact.

 What happened was that during his speech, the pirate used his spirit to become invisible and leave a very realistic afterimage behind, as he began an all-out attack on Avis.

 "You are still weak! You just took me by surprise before!"

 "Your illusions won't work on me!"

 As the fight went on, trading blows, Avis was clearly on the losing side.

 'This is dangerous, I won't last for long like this, but if I stop using the spirit, I won't only lose the sword, but I won't be able to see through his illusions either! What a dangerous man! I…'

 The captain was simply splaying with Avis, his swordsmanship was lacking but his scimitar sword more than made up for it.

 Avis' sword was nowhere as strong as with every hit it cracked, making Maizy expend her spirit power to strengthen it, and the pirate realized it.

 "I wonder how long that little girl will last against me… You are too weak to stand up to me, your older friend back there would have made for a more interesting fight!"

 "Oh, you'll get the fight you want!"

 The eyes on his chest closed, and the sword he was holding disappeared, but by doing so, his spirit grabbed onto the hilt of the pirate's sword.

 "Whoa!..." Avis was surprised at the speed of the strike, despite his spirit's restraining, the man was still stronger than him.

 As he side-stepped the slash, Avis threw a punch at the pirate's neck, but the man was able to react, and tucked his chin in. In response, Avis kicked the pirate's one working shin, making the man stumble backward. But in the moment of pause, the man felt something holding onto his swords, but before he could slash the spirit Avis made it retreat.

 Another strike from the pirate, and Avis danced back, narrowly avoiding the strike. His heart was racing, calculating every possibility as the pirate's illusions started getting to him, shadowy men raced around, making him confused about the pirate's actual location.

 When the next strike came, Avis was unable to completely dodge, allowing a slice to appear on his hand, but he didn't waste the moment. Using his spirit, he grabbed an empty barrel that was nearby and hurled it at the pirate.

 The man wouldn't sit idly and let it happen, he created duplicates of himself, each with the same movement, but as Avis focused, he could see the real one raising his leg to step over some loose rope, and midair, he grabbed the barrel again, and using its momentum directed it at the real one.

 It managed to hit, throwing the pirate against a railing, his sword being dropped along the way. He hastily rushed for it, but Avis' spirit was faster, fetching the scimitar to him and making the pirate defenseless, or so he thought.

 The pirate raised his hand, and one of his crewmembers threw him another sword, with a smile on his face, the man disappeared behind the shadows.

 Avis was on guard, he knew the pirate would be revealed when he attacked, he just had to wait.

 Just as he reappeared, the pirate slashed at Avis' back.

 "Afgh!!" Avis screamed, but soon regained himself, with the adrenaline rushing through his body, he raised his sword and returned the strike.

 As steel met steel, the two were again locked in a sword fight.

 'At this rate, I'll die, I need to…' Avis saw his opportunity, but by taking it, he would again be disarmed, but left with no other option, he had to do it.

 He threw his sword at the captain's good leg, the pirate saw it and raised his leg to avoid it, giving Avis the actual chance to strike. In the moment the captain was sitting on his wooden leg, Avis kicked it, breaking it and making the pirate fall to the ground.

 Avis used his spirit to hold the captain's empty arm so he couldn't stand up, and rushed to the hand that was holding the sword, kicking it. 

 "Gruh!" The man let out a grunt, and as Avis descended onto him, throwing punch after punch, he began to slowly lose consciousness. He tried to wriggle free, but his every attempt was met with an elbow or a punch. "Let… Go of… Me… You prick!"

 The man activated his spirit, more intensely than before, and before him materialized a beautiful mermaid, he ordered it to strike Avis, but as it did, Avis didn't even flinch, either because he was blinded with rage or because he knew it was just an illusion, but it didn't matter.

 Punch after punch, the pirate began to recoil into a little girl, he began to ask for forgiveness, showing a shameful image in front of his crew, but he knew Avis wouldn't stop.

 "Please!..." *PUNCH* "Forgib!..." *PUNCH* "Me!" *PUNCH* "I-I'm sowwu!..."

 Avis didn't stop, he carved at the pirate's face until it became nothing more than a lump of flesh, even as the pirate was knocked out he didn't stop, he even began pounding with his spirit, weak as it was, but as the adrenaline began to lose its effect, his punches became sluggish, and he still wouldn't have stopped if his hands didn't stop moving.

 Only as he stopped to look at the man, the smell of blood and piss mixing together, did his thoughts become rational again.

 "Huf… Huf… I won… I won!"

 Silence overcame the crowd, everyone was looking at him with shocked looks on their faces, and only Maizy silently congratulated him.

 The man that signed the contract walked up to them, and pushed Avis away, kneeling and putting his ear against the pirate's chest.

 "..." He listened, moving his ear from place to place in case he missed something. "He has died." The man said.

 "Yeeeah!" "We're free!" The men of his crew cheered, only the older pirates having the decency to at least salute the captain under whom they served so much time, at least until they grabbed his corpse and hurled him over the railing.

 As the party began to die down, the representative finally approached Avis, now extending a hand to him. At this point, Avis was just staring into nothingness, the realization that he killed a man overcoming him like a cold shower, he expected to be insulted and beaten, but for the pirates to cheer for him was too much.

 'I just killed a man, and you are congratulating me? You say that you wanted to get rid of him? Is that supposed to make me feel better? You could have stopped me earlier and killed him yourselves, nothing stopped you… So why…?' Even as quilt and regret overcame him, Avis didn't let it show, he could barely focus on the moment.

 …