Victor felt the entire place grew even darker as the twisted human dashed toward him like a rabid dog.
The boy immediately looked to the side and then grabbed one of the broken chairs. Right at the same time, the monster lunged on him, only to get hit right in the face.
*Bang*
The chair was broken into pieces as the man fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from his head. He stopped moving completely.
'That should be enough. He won't wake up from that concussion for a while at least.' Victor thought to himself as he sighed.
"What curse was he talking about? 'Spare me from the curse inflicted upon the other?' What the hell is that?" As he repeated those words, Victor frowned visibly.
Something was telling him that all his suspicions were completely wrong. This man was apparently the sole survivor of this ship. Or at least the only one that didn't die yet.
He seemed to have suffered some kind of illness which was inflicted upon his crew mates. Whatever gave him that curse was certainly the problem. Victor hadn't forgotten yet that whatever happened to this ship, it probably happened very recently so the threat could very much still be around or even.
'Or even on this very ship right now...' Looking around him, the boy pursed his lips. That possibility gave him a chilling sensation.
The entire place was very dark so he can't see clearly. 'I'm fighting the unknown... great.'
Shaking those thoughts away, Victor looked back to the left.
"Judging from his attire. He is probably not someone of a high position." The boy muttered as he inspected the man from afar. Even when he was sure that hit was more than enough to end him, he still didn't want to get too close and risk getting attacked again.
That illness seems to have given the man more energy in the place of his sanity.
'What should I do now? Should I leave? But, my guts are telling me that this isn't the end of this.'
So far, Victor's intuition was one of the key things he relied on to survive. It never misses even when he is facing something unknown.
This situation was no different as he was feeling a very cold, ominous dread wash over his entire body.
Meanwhile, the sound of the storm outside was intensifying. The lightning was growing louder and louder, hitting the violent sea around him.
Everything felt like it was pressuring Victor into leaving and yet, his guts were telling him that leaving now will make him regret it greatly. He had to know what is happening if he wanted to cross this treacherous stretch of water.
"The... Curse...."
At that moment, he noticed that the cursed man was starting to move. The amount of blood seeping out of his injuries wasn't small by any means and yet he didn't seem to have died or at least lost consciousness due to it.
'He's resilient.' Victor thought to himself as he picked up a sharp wooden stick and started approaching the man.
A part of him wanted to ask more about this curse but he knew this man probably had no brain in him left to actually say anything.
As he struggled to stand up, Victor stood in front of him before stomping on his back, sending him back to the ground with a loud thud.
"...The curse... The pain... I'm tired..." The man muttered in a weak, almost inaudible tone.
Victor's eyes flashed with a calm glint before he said. "I'm going to spare you your misery. You have struggled enough."
Even though the entire time the man didn't seem to understand Victor, those words have reached him as for the first time, a relieved smile appeared on his face.
"... Thank... You..." He muttered. A tear welled up in his left eye as he closed them.
Victor didn't move for a second as if he was taken aback. Then look on the man's face felt oddly familiar and it hit him hard. But, he shook those thoughts away. Then, he took the wooden stick in both hands before stabbing down, piercing the man's back cleanly.
A loud groan leaked out of his mouth before he stopped moving completely.
The boy stood there for a moment, staring down at the dead man. Then, he sighed and turned around.
"Let's see what's left of this place." He muttered in a very cold tone.
After that, Victor explored the rest of the kitchen before moving to the second floor. There, he found more rooms.
However, these ones looked particularly more luxurious than the ones he had been in so far. They had more high quality furniture and a generally more aesthetic design.
Even the corpses of the dead there were clad in expensive clothes. Inside each room, Victor found a surprising amount of jewelery, gold coins, and even some expensive food that had sadly been ruined by seawater.
But, Victor didn't care. This was a very valuable find.
"Well, this is my lucky day." He muttered as he opened a wooden box, only to find it filled with coins. From copper to silver and even a few gold coins.
This was by far the most coins he found in a single room. The rest had a handful of coins at most.
'I don't know how much this money is worth but it's better than nothing. I won't have trouble with money whenever I reach the next island.' He thought to himself as he pocketed as much of the coins as he could.
He didn't want to get too greedy and end up killing himself because he carried too many coins with him.
After that, he finally turned around to walk out of the room only for his eyes to fall on something interesting.
From the hole blown into the room, he had a view on the sea, and a view on the other side of the deck too that he didn't explore yet.
There, he saw broken door that led down some kind of stairs. The building it belonged to was detached from every other building around it.
'Hmm...' Victor hummed as he looked down. Then, with careful yet agile steps, he descended down till he ended up in front of the door.
"This one looks surprisingly more intact than the others.'
'Did whatever invaded this place not reach this area? With how hidden it is... That's probably the case.' He mused as he looked down the dark stairs.
He could hear the sound of water dripping om the hard wood down into the chamber which indicated that it wasn't completely submerged in water yet.
After taking a few more looks, he finally started descending into the darkness carefully. The entire place made him feel blind with how dark it was.
'This is no good. I can't see anything.'
Even though his vision was obstructed, he could still use his sharpened senses to feel his surroundings to a certain extent.
Eventually, he reached the end of the stairs and found himself in a small room underneath the deck.
The entire room was barely a few feet in width and length.The entire place reeked of mold and other unpleasant smells that reminded him of a solitary confinement jail cell. It's location didn't help either as it was far away from any human contact.
A place like this would render any human insane in a few days.
He had been in one of those before and they were one of the more unpleasant things he had to experience.
'This one feels much worse though.'
At that moment, however, he felt something move a few feet away from him as suddenly, a pair of red eyes opened in the darkness, sending a chill down his spine.
A//N: If you liked the chapter, support the book on your way!