Oulong began trembling furiously and dropped his sabre onto the floor with a loud clang. He knew that he'd fucked up terribly and that he was going to do die. Farmer couldn't bother himself to look at Oulong any longer and simply flicked his finger at the man.
The move was simple but carried with it boundless force. As soon as it reached Oulong, he was sent flying against the far side of the room; crashing loudly against some furniture. He lost consciousness instantly.
A few moments later, loud footsteps could be heard outside Farmer's door. Someone had heard the commotion and had come to investigate. Sighing to himself, Farmer ordered the pirate outside to summon Lampa to his presence.
While he waited, Farmer picked Oulong up, dropped him on a chair, and carved a sealing array on his body. When Oulong woke up, he would discover that his energy centre had become like a separate entity and that he couldn't draw out any energy from it. As soon as he'd finished, Lampa appeared through the threshold of Farmer's room bowing ceremoniously.
"What is it, captain?" Due to his bow, he hadn't seen the unconscious Oulong or he would have been able to guess what had transpired that night.
"Nothing much, just a mosquito trying to make me bleed." Casually answered Farmer. At his words, Oulong lifted his head to stare quizzically at Farmer. Before he met with Farmer's gaze, however, his eyes landed on Oulong and the sabre still on the floor and he immediately understood what his captain meant.
"This bastard!" Instantly, Oulong flew into a rage. "I should have killed him as soon as he spoke against you today! Captain, this matter is my fault. I beg you, please allow me to slice this man into a thousand pieces so that I may redeem myself!" At the end of his proclamation, Lampa kneeled before Farmer with eyes filled with apology.
"At ease, lieutenant." Pulled him up Farmer. "This matter is as much your fault as it is mine. Evidently, we both underestimated the extent of this man's resentment towards me."
"How should we deal with this?" Asked Lampa after he calmed himself down.
"I don't want the crew to hear of this matter just yet. Make sure no word of it escapes this room until I say otherwise. What I need you to do is to bring Serena and her entourage here. Right now. Make sure you don't tell them what's happened. I want to know if any of them had a hand in this."
"As you command, captain."
With that, Lampa left the room.
About a quarter of an hour later, he returned with the still sleepy Serena and her men. From the looks of their faces, they had all been startled awake and had genuinely no idea why they were being summoned at such a late hour. This relieved Farmer because most of his suspicions had been discarded with this fact alone. Nonetheless, he still intended to test their reactions.
As soon as they entered the chamber, Lampa lit up all the candles in the room and stood guard at the door. Serena was about to ask something but was silenced with a gesture by Farmer. Looking at them sternly, he revealed the still unconscious Oulong to the group. Instantly, the faces of Serena and the others darkened considerably.
Oulong looked horrible. His face was bruised, his hair dishevelled, and a long streak of dried up blood covered his forehead. Clearly, he had been beaten to a pulp.
"What is the meaning of this, Farmer?" Coldly asked Serena.
"Pray tell, what do you mean? Haven't I been generous enough not killing him?" Retorted Farmer as he carefully examined every expression and glance flashing on the faces of Serena and her subordinates. If he even had an inkling of a suspicion that any of them had a hand in Oulong's assassination attempt, he would slaughter them all and call an end to this voyage.
Taking in a deep breath, Serena turned to face him gravely. "His words were tactless, and it is true that he insulted you, but you're going way too far with this!" She pointed her finger at him. "If you had a problem with him, you should have come to me! What's this about kidnapping him in the middle of the night and hurting him like so? Are you truly the monster they say you are?!"
Serena was furious. Oulong had been beside her for the better part of a decade, ever since he became a guard for her family at the age of eighteen! It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she had grown up with him. To see him in this miserable state for no good reason broke her heart.
"I will ignore your insults on account of your anger to the situation." Nonchalantly commented Farmer. In truth, he was relieved. He didn't really want to slaughter Serena and her entourage. Quite the opposite, he enjoyed having her around. And, from her reaction and the enraged expression on the warrior's faces, he was confident that Oulong had been acting alone that night.
"And I will forgive you if you return this man to me this instant!"
"That, I cannot do. I will kill him. Publicly, and painfully." Replied Farmer as he sat down on his bed, kicking Oulong awake as he did so.
"Young Mistress!" Shouted Oulong as soon as he opened his eyes. Taking in the scene before him, he understood that his crimes were being exposed. "I'm sorry Young Mistress, I have failed you."
"At ease, Oulong, you did nothing wrong." Said Serena warmly as she moved to inspect his injuries. After making sure that his life was not in immediate peril, she turned to face Farmer as coldly as she could. "If you intend to kill him, then you must kill me as well."
"Young Mistress!" Exclaimed her warriors in unison as they drew their swords. Even if they knew they had no chance at victory, they all intended to lay down their lives for her. Oulong was tearing up at this gesture; completely misunderstanding Serena and thinking that she was condoning his actions. Lampa and Farmer, however, glanced at each other knowingly.
"What do you say, will you release him?" She asked Farmer, giving him a final chance to redeem himself in her eyes.
Instead of Farmer replying to her, it was Lampa that spoke up. "So this is how the aristocracy works. They try to assassinate their host in his sleep and then threaten him when he doesn't want to let the assassin live. Truly impressive."
Lampa's voice was completely serious, without a shadow of a chuckle in it, and his words landed like a ten-tonne slab against Serena's ears. She felt her knees threatening to buckle beneath her because she understood that this was the truth. With Farmer's power capable of defeating a draconic being, why would he hurt Oulong without good reason? It was simply debasing himself if he did so.
"Oulong, is this true?" Was all she could bring herself to say.
"Young Mistress… I…" For a moment, Oulong considered lying. However, he knew that Serena would be in trouble if he did, so all he could do was tell the truth and pray to Naosh for the best. "Young Mistress, this lowly pirate has bewitched you! I was merely trying to release you from his malicious grasp! I've always loved you, Young Mistress, I would never do anything to hurt you! What I did, I did for y…"
"Be silent!" She cut him off. "I don't wish to hear any more from you. I am truly, and irrevocably, ashamed of you…" She said with difficulty.
Serena turned to face Farmer. All her pride and cold demeanour was gone. In its stead, was a look of profound shame and sadness. Shame because one of her subordinates had been so despicable so as to try to harm him. Sadness because she understood that Farmer had been testing her and her warriors. How could she not know this? She was no fool.
Under his gaze, she had felt small. Small, yet safe. Now, however, those violet eyes held a hint of hostility in them that made her heart skip a beat. Oulong's actions that night had dug a trench between them that would take a long time to surmount.
"What are your orders?" She asked after some hesitation. Even though part of her wanted to plead for Oulong's life due to their shared past, she understood that Farmer had no other choice but to publicly punish her subordinate.
"Tomorrow, at sunset, I will execute him." Explained Farmer in a voice that admitted for no retort.
"Will it be painful?"
"Yes. Excruciating."
"Then allow me to not take part in it."
"This is something I cannot allow. For your sake, Serena, you need to show my crew that you repudiate Oulong's actions. The best way is for you to observe the execution as it takes place. If you're not there, some of my crew might think you had a hand in the matter and may seek out revenge against you."
Serena sighed, nodded softly in agreement, and let two tears flow down her cheeks. The logic in Farmer's words was undeniable. In fact, the Law said that when a guest tried to kill a host, then the entire visiting party should be executed. Farmer was showing how magnanimous he was just by allowing her and the rest of her men to live. And yet, the sadness in her heart couldn't be expressed in simple terms.
"Good. Lampa, escort Serena and her warriors back." Without shifting his eyes from Serena's he added, "Oh, and take Oulong with you. I'm sure he would want to spend the last few hours of his life between friends."
"Captain, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course. He can't hurt them as he is now, and they will not let him escape. Actually, if they could, I would be very interested in knowing how." There was a hidden meaning in his words. He was telling Serena: if you let him escape, I will never trust you; but if you bring him to me at sunset, then I will forget this horrid ordeal and things will go back to the way they were before.
Serena bowed her head to Farmer acknowledging that she had understood his message. Then, she and her men followed Lampa back to Serena's quarters, where her men spent the rest of the night and most of the day chastising Oulong for his foolish actions. Serena herself was unable to even look at Oulong. In her heart, her subordinate was already dead.
--
The following day, at sunset, everyone on board Alana's Regret was summoned to stand before the helm of the ship without knowing what was going on. No one was an exception as even the prisoners were brought up, much to the surprise of everyone. However, none dared question their captain's orders.
Serena and her men were also there, albeit further in the back. They all had dark bags under their eyes, indicating that they hadn't been able to sleep at all since last night.
On the helm, Farmer was standing with his back to everyone. His blood-red hair glistened in the setting sunlight with deathly magnificence, and his leather armour shone with some arcane property. With the captain in front of them, everyone kept silent and waited for him to speak.
After some time, Lampa appeared dragging Oulong behind him. Without uttering a word, he pushed the people on deck to the side and created a large enough gap in the crowd for three grown men to stand side by side with their arms extended.
As soon as this was done, Farmer jumped and pirouetted into the centre of the gap. Turning to eye everyone seriously, he narrated the events of last night wherein Oulong had tried to assassinate him. Instantly, loud jeering exploded from everywhere and Lampa had to struggle to keep the men from rushing forward and devouring Oulong up.
"Silence!" Ordered Farmer, causing things to quiet down swiftly. "This man will die by my hand! He will die because he hasn't only wronged me and the young Lady he swore loyalty to, but because he has wronged the sanctity of this ship! Bring him to me!"
Lampa pushed Oulong to kneel before Farmer. "Do you want to know how you will die?" Asked the pirate lord with a strange gleam in his eyes and with a smile that wasn't a smile on his lips. "My master was a wanderer and he saw much of the world during his travels. Once, he told me a tale of a place far up North. A land with strange customs but powerful warriors. I won't bore you with the gory details, but I will tell you this much, they really know how to kill a man there. Oh, yes, they do. According to my master, they had this method called the blood angel. Well, that's what I'm going to do to you. Just remember, when you go to the Thirteen Hells, to tell everyone how you got your wings and who gave them to you."
"Wings…?" Asked Oulong in a trembling voice. There was something in Farmer's expression that terrified him beyond measure. In truth, there was a good reason, he just didn't know it yet.
Pulling out a wooden platform from Naosh knows where, Farmer stuck two large swords in it. Like they had rehearsed it previously, Lampa pushed Oulong between the two swords and tied each one of his hands to a sword hilt.
Farmer took off his leather armour and revealed his naked torso for all to see. The hideous wounds on his chest had yet to heal completely, and many took in a breath of cold air when they saw the grievous injuries. Farmer acted as if he didn't know they were there. He drew his treasured jewelled dagger from his chest and paced around the terrified Oulong a few times.
Stopping at Oulong's back, he raised the tip of the dagger towards the setting Sun and then lowered it to point at Oulong. With a flicking motion of his wrist, Oulong's clothes were torn to shreds, dropping down and leaving him completely naked except for his undergarments. However, Farmer was nothing if not skilled, and not a single cut was left on Oulong's body.
"What… What are you going to do?!" Asked Oulong amidst hurried breaths.
Farmer covered Oulong's mouth with his empty hand and shushed him gently. "Don't worry. I'm doing you a favour, really. If you don't scream in pain whilst I kill you, the Heavens will open up and grant you the highest of rewards in the afterlife. You can't cry out, though." He said sinisterly.
Before Oulong could reply, Farmer set into motion. With slow and steady movements, he started pealing the skin off Oulong's back. Oulong himself was in agony, but he remained strong in front of this pain. He wanted to show the bearing of an aristocrat at the time of his death!
This didn't last long. With a final, jerking, motion, Farmer ripped the rest of Oulong's flesh away, revealing the man's bones and muscle tissue. Oulong screamed out and begged for Farmer to stop as tears streamed from his eyes and snot ran down his face.
Serena paled where she stood. Never had she heard of executing someone like this before!
She wasn't the only one affected. Some of the less steadfast members of her entourage couldn't even hold down the contents of their stomachs and vomited loudly. Little did they know, however, that the execution had only just begun! Before Farmer were to finish with Oulong, a few of them would end up fainting.
With fluid moves, Farmer used his dagger to saw through each of Oulong's ribs. With each new snap of bone, a horrendous cry was made by Oulong until he could cry out no more. On deck, there were several pirates who felt their heart clenching tightly. This was the side of their captain that they feared the most. Only Lampa stood completely upright, unfazed by the scene before him.
Acting as if he couldn't notice the looks of horror from the people surrounding him, Farmer continued cutting out each one of Oulong's ribs and tossing them to one side as if they were trash. When there were no more bones to sever, Farmer reached out and grabbed one of Oulong's lungs, pulling it over his shoulder and nailing it to his extended arm.
Despite Oulong's torn vocal chords and lost voice, he started screaming once more. His cries caused many a man's back to flood in cold sweat and hairs to stand on end. This was the cry of true, unimaginable, agony. Against all odds, he doubled his screeching when Farmer repeated his actions with his second lung.
To everyone's bewilderment, they could actually see the lungs fill up with air with each one of Oulong's struggled breaths. He was still alive!
Turning around the half-dead Oulong, Farmer sat down right in front of his face and smiled in a manner that made him look like a demon.
"Congratulations, you're now a blood angel." He said, rubbing some of the gore on his hands on Oulong's chest. "Don't worry, you won't die right away. You get to enjoy your wings for a short while before you go to the Thirteen Hells."