The warrior fell to the ground. His sword flew out of his hand. The warrior tried to get his sword but the emperor got in front of him. The emperor took the warrior's sword in his hand and walked towards the warrior. The warrior saw the sword in the emperor's hand and had to retreat. The emperor leaned over the warrior and pressed the sword to his throat.
"Your end has come, warrior," said the emperor. "You and your friends will not get out of this ship alive. You are the last pirates to stand against me. After I kill you, I will leave no pirate in these seas."
As the emperor was about to stab the sword into the warrior's throat, something happened. The storm had gotten worse. A wave shook the ship. The emperor lost his balance. The warrior did not miss this moment, quickly got up, and gave the emperor a hard shoulder.
With the effect of the shoulder, the warrior swung his fists one after another, trying not to give the emperor a chance to attack. The warrior, who was sure that the sword blows would come at any moment, grabbed both of the emperor's arms and headbutted the emperor.
The warrior, who destabilized the enemy with the headbutt, pressed the emperor's elbow, turned the direction of his sword in the emperor's hand to his shoulder, and pushed the sword with all his strength. After stabbing the sword into the emperor's shoulder, he pulled the sword and managed to get his sword back.
The invader, after taking his sword in his hand, gave the emperor one last look. The emperor, with a look of pain and anger on his face, shouted at the warrior. The warrior ignored the emperor's voice, raised his sword, and finished the emperor's job with a finishing move.
Just then, another wave rocked the ship again. The warrior stepped back to keep his balance. The emperor, on the other hand, fell into the sea with blood flowing from his wounded body. The warrior watched the emperor disappear into the sea. Then he looked around. The only person alive on the ship was Captain Grace. Captain Grace ran towards the warrior in a panic and said;
"A wave we can't escape is coming towards us."
The warrior saw the big wave coming and knew that the ships could not withstand this wave and that their deaths would be certain if they stayed here. The warrior's eyes caught a mechanism standing at the front of the ship. The broken sails had trapped the ropes carrying the weight. If he cut the ropes from the weight, he could throw them far enough to escape the wave.
He grabbed the captain's hand and tried to take her to where the ropes were. But the captain did not want to leave her brother on the ship behind.
"Warrior, where are you taking me? My brother and the ship are behind us!"
"They can't escape this wave." said the warrior with an all-serious tone. He knew how much this crushed the hopes and hearts of many, and especially Grace's heart. But he had no choice. He could only save her.
The captain did not want to believe the words she heard, she tried to get away from the warrior and return to her brother's side. With weak hands and tears in her eyes, she punched his chest, but it was futile. She knew her power was fading as she also realized there was nothing to do.
The warrior also knew the truth in her eyes, the raw grief and fury bubbling beneath. Yet, his mission demanded a choice, a brutal calculus of lives. Leaving her wouldn't save the others, only prolonging their agony. It was a choice fueled by hard-won cynicism, yet laced with the faintest echo of his wife's teachings.
"Hold on!" he roared, grabbing the captain's hand. Together, they sprinted across the tilting deck, adrenaline masking the sting of his decision. The ropes of the ship's anchor snagged their path, a tangled web of hemp and despair. With a surge of strength, the warrior hacked at the knot, severing the anchor and sending it plummeting into the abyss.
The wave struck with the force of a titan, throwing them skyward. The world dissolved into a frothing green maelstrom, the cries of the doomed crew swallowed by the ocean's roar. When the world solidified again, the warrior found himself clinging to a piece of driftwood, Captain Grace clutched tight in his arms.
They washed ashore on a deserted island, the storm's fury replaced by an unsettling stillness.
The duo, who safely got out of the Karun region, managed to fall into a calm sea away from the winds. There was a small island a little ahead of them. Silence descended, broken only by the distant roar of the storm. Grace turned on him, eyes blazing with accusation.
"You stole my choice," she spat, each word a dagger. "My ship, my crew, my brother...and my death."
"We made this choice." said the warrior, calmly walking away and not looking at the devastated souls and eyes of the captain.
"You let them die," she choked out, her voice raspy with tears. "My crew, my ship... you condemned them."
The warrior met her gaze, his own eyes shadowed with regret. "There was no choice," he rasped, the words heavy on his tongue. "The wave... it would have taken us all."
The captain could not hold herself and started punching the warrior's chest.
Grace recoiled, her hatred carving lines into her face. "You could have let me go!" she hissed. "Leave me to drown with my brother! With my life!"
He looked away, unable to bear the weight of her accusation. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.
The warrior didn't need the captain's words to know he wasn't the person he once believed himself to be. The sacrifices he'd made, the lives he'd taken, they clung to him like barnacles, a testament to the monster he was becoming. Each scar, each haunted memory, whispered a question that echoed in the desolate corners of his soul: "Was it worth it?"
The warrior remained silent in the face of these words and said nothing. But the captain looked into the warrior's eyes with watery eyes and continued her speech with a trembling and sad voice.
"I thought you were a good person and I was so stupid to like a monster like you." She calmly looked back at him, with only hatred and devastation filling her eyes, "You also deserve to die alone like me."
The warrior, who did not want to bother the captain who was in pain, silently said nothing and turned his back and left.
Kindness. His wife's voice, soft and insistent, whispered the word in his mind. Had he lost it? Was it that him, saving Grace was a sign of kindness, or his cold heart keep pumping as he left Samuel and others to lose their lives on the ship? Or was it a luxury he couldn't afford in this twisted game of time?
He turned away, unable to face her pain, unable to answer her question. Leaving Grace on the island, he carried the weight of her grief, the seed of doubt taking root in his soul. Perhaps, somewhere beneath the hardened shell of the warrior, the embers of kindness still flickered, waiting to be rekindled by the ashes of his choices.
The warrior, who completed his mission, moved to the next time period, but such events began to leave a mark on the warrior.