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Alyzia noticed Bermuda staring off into space after Eagle destroyed him mentally. Her blue and brown eyes darted throughout the boot, noticing whispers among his mercenaries. To her sides were Zak and Charles, wearing magic-suppressing collars just like she wore, and their hands were cuffed like hers.
The mercenaries watching them whispered to themselves as Bermuda stood motionless, likely contemplating the harsh reality of his situation and how his greed blinded him to his kingship delusion. Left of those mercs was her belt with the grappling gun still in its sheath and her combat knife still sheathed, the only obstacle was her handcuffs.
If Alyzia had a hairpin in her hair, she could use that no problem, but no luck. Bermuda ensured she had no more tricks up her sleeves before taking her and Zak and Charles on the boat. She took a deep breath, darted her eyes to the mercenaries beside her, looking at their belts for anything she could snatch.
Daggers, canisters of water, swords sheathed, nothing she could pick a lock with.
Bermuda shook his head, tightened his grip on the machete, and backed towards her and the other prisoners. “No, no!”
Alyzia’s heart skipped a beat as Bermuda grabbed her and held the machete to her throat.
“You may not care about the hostages, but I have one you absolutely can’t let die—The Princess herself!” Bermuda shouted.
Eagle said, “I never knew the princess was a young boy.”
Alyzia growled. “Screw you, Eagle, you damn well who I am!”
“Listen to that voice, he even sounds like a prepubescent boy.”
“What the hell are you even doing here, Eagle?” Alyzia asked. “I thought you were retired.”
“Yes, yes, I was retired from the battlefield and was content to office work for the remainder of my days, but when I heard that Princess Elizabeth Diphridias was kidnapped by Bitch King and Bloodshot Pawn, Ethan Hank, oh, I just had to see this for myself.” Eagle pointed to her. “I came out of retirement just to see the look on your face that it was me that would rescue you!”
Bermuda’s face reddened, but Alyzia noticed beads of sweat dribbling down his head. Despite knowing he had been an expendable asset of the Grey Family all along, Alyzia surmised that he was struggling to hold onto whatever power he had left. Would his mercenaries abandon him? Absolutely, but the other boats were too far to have heard Eagle’s words, so only the loyalty of Bermuda’s allies on the boat with him were in question—and Alyzia noticed those mercs indecisiveness in their eyes.
The druglord spoke, “I am not going down without a fight.” He pushed Alyzia towards the front of the boat, holding the tip of his blade to her back. She heard him stutter in a whisper before speaking boldly, “You came to rescue the princess, huh? Well, if she dies, then your mission is a failure!”
Eagle shouted back while pointing at Bermuda, “You’re still here? Man, shut up, Bermuda, this doesn’t even concern you! This is between me and that lost child you’re claiming is the princess.”
Alyzia’s eye squinted as an arrow flew from the Sacred Guard’s boat—from behind Eagle—straight towards her. Twisting her body to the side, the arrow flew past her, forcing Bermuda to dodge, and Alyzia’s eye flickered as she noticed the purple glowing ribbon on the arrow.
Clever, old man. Her mind raced to piece things together and her thoughts were so fast that it seemed as if time had frozen. At some point prior to his arrival, Eagle charged two of his arrows with alchemic magic to trigger a portal. Eagle must have suspected that we could be used as hostages, therefore, he planned for this outcome. First, he tore apart Bermuda’s empire and made Ethan Hank doubt his power—forcing him to make a rash decision of which would likely be illogical.
By riling me up, Eagle would appear as to see Bermuda as merely a minor inconvenience, further bringing the mercenaries questioning their proclaimed druglord’s power—after all, they had witnessed Eagle’s analysis of Bermuda’s insignificance. If Eagle is fighting me when he returns from the portal, then the mercenaries will be thrown into confusion, unsure whether to defend a drug manufacturer after all the doubt Eagle’s words put into their minds or attack us, giving us ample opportunity to eliminate them in their confusion as Eagle and I fight each other.
The portal opened from the arrow where Eagle stepped through, shoving Bermuda out of the way like how one brushes aside a curtain covering a doorway, and the druglord went overboard from Eagle’s superhuman strength while the old man got in Alyzia’s face. He pointed to her and raised his voice, “How did you let this little dipshit capture you in the first place?”
“I was drugged,” Alyzia answered.
“Even after nearly dying from a Bloodshot high, you still continued taking the thing? Wow, I guess you really are the princess…the princess of being an idiot!”
“Know your place, Eagle, you are still a mere servant of the Sacred Guards!”
Eagle yelled in her face and in the corner of her eye, Alyzia noticed the mercenaries staring at each other, unsure what to do. “You know what your problem is?”
“The only problem I see is that ancient hairball standing before me.”
“Well, if you think I’m such a problem, then how about you do something about it,” Eagle poked her, “come on, hit me, you spoiled brat!” He turned his face sideways to her. “Hit me, come on, I dare you!”
Alyzia raised her hands, shaking the cuffs. “My hands are still bound, old fart!”
Eagle yelled in her face. “What a surprise? An excuse! I expect nothing less from a cowardly princess that’s always running away from her problems!”
Alyzia growled, noticing Bermuda climbing back into the boat. With her hands still cuffed, she made two fists and swung at Eagle’s head. The archer grabbed her wrist with one hand and her shirt with the other. He crushed one of the handcuffs with his grip before tossing her like a ragdoll across the boat, where Alyzia crashed into the side, elbowing Bermuda in the nose and knocking him back into the water.
She removed the broken handcuffs. “Mistake, old man.”
Alyzia rushed Eagle, jumped and spun in the air before delivering a jumping back kick to Eagle’s head. The archer caught her leg and spun around, knocking one merc off the boat as Alyzia kicked his head with the leg Eagle didn’t catch, and the archer threw her to the opposite end of the boat where she struck two mercenaries, staggering them into the railing before they fell out of the boat.
The princess rose to her feet, scoffed, and Eagle taunted her, “You gonna let an old man throw u around like a ragdoll?”
Alyzia scoffed, touching her magic-suppressing collar. “I would destroy you if I had my magic.”
Eagle laughed while folding his arms. “There you go again with more excuses.”
Alyzia rushed Eagle, throwing a flurry of rapid punches to his face and abs, but Eagle didn’t even react to those strikes when they hit him. The archer grabbed Alyzia, lifted her off her feet with one hand, and crushed her magic-suppressing collar just as Bermuda went to climb back into the boat from behind the archer. Eagle threw the broken collar behind himself, striking Bermuda in the forehead, knocking him back into the water.
Eagle grunted as he threw Alyzia across the boat, knocking another merc overboard. She hit the railing and grunted before leaping to her feet. The archer drew his axes and threw one, but Alyzia dodged and the axe flew past her, striking one merc in his head. Eagle threw his other tomahawk and Alyzia dodged, but as the merc behind her went to dodge, Alyzia slid her feet—causing the merc to slip backwards and fall into the axe.
Alyzia’s right arm became encased in ice armor from her knuckles to her shoulder—the ice was thick like that of a glacier. The princess punched the deck of the boat, cracking it, and she said while rising to her feet, “You should have more respect for your princess!” The ice around her right hand rapidly grew, freezing the oxygen in the air around her knuckles, forming the end of a mallet.
Alyzia rushed Eagle, dodged his grab attempt, and smashed her ice hammer straight into his nose—staggering Eagle back. She stepped towards him as he staggered, bashing his face with a loud thud on each hit, until Eagle staggered near the railing of the boat where a merc stood behind him.
Growling, the archer cocked his arm back for a punch only to elbow the merc directly behind him, knocking that merc off the boat, before he threw a punch to Alyzia. She sidestepped his punch, jumped on him, and wrapped her legs around his neck before jerking her body to the side—throwing Eagle into the side railing of the boat with the strength of her legs and some momentum.
He grunted on impact and shook his head, clearly dazed as Alyzia stomped on deck, encasing her entire body in armor of ice that covered everything except for her eyes. Eagle let out a breath, extended his hand to a nearby merc, and the mercenary actually grabbed Eagle’s hand to help him up where the archer threw the mercenary overboard, knocking Bermuda into the water yet again as the druglord tried climbing back in.
“Respect for you, huh?” Eagle raised both of his hands, showing three fingers in his left hand and two on his right. “You should have more respect for your elders.” He cracked his knuckles. “Time to end this fight and show you exactly who the superior one is.”
“I agree.” Alyzia froze three spikes that protruded from her ice armor on the left side of her back, then formed two on her right. She let out a grunt as her armor shattered, shooting the five spikes of ice behind herself, where it impaled the remaining five mercenaries on the boat.
Alyzia looked back as the mercenaries collapsed, rapidly freezing from the ice that had impaled them. She walked to her belt lying across from Zak and Charles and latched it back to her waist, touching the handle of her grappling gun on her left hip and hilt of her combat knife on her right thigh.
Eagle broke the handcuffs and magic-suppressing collars on both Zak and Charles. Alyzia turned to her allies, noticing Bermuda pulling himself onto a boat further away. Charles let out a chuckle. “That was incredible! You had perfect teamwork and all without uttering a single word.”
“I figured out Eagle’s ploy rather quickly,” Alyzia said.
Zak let out a breath. “Eagle, tell me, is Myra safe?”
Eagle put his hand on Zak’s shoulder and smiled. “Yes, she’s safe. Once we’ve conquered Bermuda’s Fortress, you’ll be reunited with her.”
Zak smiled, even chuckled a little.
Eagle said, “And Drebin made it too. He reunited with Myra and they’re both safe on the ship on Atlas Island.”
Alyzia looked away from Zak and Eagle’s conversation, setting her sights on the docks of Phu Quoc and the cannons on the cliff. She squinted her eyes as she saw Bermuda shouting at the mercenaries on the boat he climbed into, causing some boats to retreat to the docks—the boats carrying his elite crewman as well as Vivian and Berg Grey.
Now that he knows the truth about the Grey Family’s manipulation, what shall he do? Alyzia wondered as she watched them all disembark on the pier. Grabbing a pair of binoculars one of the merc’s her ice impaled, Alyzia looked at the crew on the docks. Bermuda, Stefan, Berg, Vivian, Larry Oak, Better Run, and Seth Rudra. All of them entered a passageway beneath the cliff except for Better Run and Seth.
The sub-human used the wind to boost his jump as he leapt to the top of the cliffs before disappearing from sight. Better Run paced around the docks, rallying mercenaries to make a last stand—at least, that’s what she figured.
Alyzia lowered the binoculars, tossed it on the ground, and looked at the Sacred Guard’s boats. Her tongue rolled around in her mouth as she became lost in thought—looking back to Phu Quoc where she let out a hum. “We cannot advance unless those cannons are eliminated, correct?”
Eagle turned to her. “What’s that?”
Alyzia turned to the old man. “Going deaf, old man?” She put her hand on her hip. “I asked if you had a plan.”
“Of course I do. Captains Kyle Forlorn and Lisa Caspara went to a cave on the other side of the island with a small squad. Those caves lead through an intricate tunnel system going to all the major places of this island, so they’ll come out at the docks and take out the cannons from land.”
Alyzia pointed. “You mean the passage beneath the cliff Bermuda retreated through?”
Eagle raised his binoculars, saw the door for the passageway, and let out a “huh.” He lowered his binoculars and shrugged, “Well, crap.”
“Tell me, did Father bring my equipment?”
“He did, matter of fact.”
“Excellent, that will expedite this process.”
“What are you thinking, Princess?”
“I shall eliminate the cannons by infiltrating behind enemy lines undetected.”
Eagle looked at the line of boats Bermuda’s army had waiting for them, the mercs and archers on the docks, the mercs clearly inside the lighthouse overlooking the battlefield, and the cannons lined up on top of the cliff. He chuckled, “How exactly do you plan on doing that?”
Alyzia gave Eagle a faint smirk, unusual for her, but it was a smirk that screamed superiority. “Don’t tell me the legendary Eagle with all his experience lacks the tactical mind to figure this out?” She walked towards the rear of the boat, drawing her grappling gun where she spun it on her finger. “Watch and learn how a tactician operates, you old fart.”
She jumped on the railing, fired into the boat where Eagle’s marauders were, and was pulled to it where she leapt on the railing of that boat. Running on the narrow railing, she leapt off at the end of the boat, grappling to another, then another, and kept repeating till she reached General Keith Diphridias’ boat.
Her eyes darted to the gorilla puppet as she spun her gun with her finger before dropping it into the holster. Keith stepped towards her and managed a smile, but she didn’t believe that smile was sincere—not from him. “You and Athena spin your guns the exact same way, you know that.”
He went to hug her and Alyzia pushed her dad away. “You never showed me affection before, Father, do not insult me by faking it now.”
Keith sighed and shrugged. “I’m really happy you’re okay.”
Alyzia scoffed. “Please, we both know Athena is your favorite.”
“Look,” Keith paused to rub his eyes and let out a sigh, “I know I was hard on you growing up, but ask yourself, would you be the great warrior you are today if I was soft?”
Alyzia folded her arms. “Do you have my equipment or not?”
Keith hesitated as he looked into Alyzia’s eyes, then answered in another sigh, “Of course.” He walked to the center of the boat, opened a chest, and lifted a khaki bag—the same kind that Alyzia had strapped to her belt before Bermuda had captured her—and Keith also took out another custom-tailored leather vest.
Though Alyzia was thrilled to see her equipment again, she kept her emotion hidden before her Father. She removed her shirt, standing on the boat in only a bra, as she tossed the shirt taken from Bermuda’s Fortaleza into the water before grabbing her khaki bag and snapping it to her belt—right hip. Taking her vest, feeling the weight of the fifty throwing knives sheathed inside—all hidden—she put it on.
The top design of the vest showed some cleavage, but Alyzia didn’t care. While walking to the edge of the boat, she unbuttoned the three bottom buttons, letting her stomach go bare as the wind blew against the vest. “Father,” Alyzia said while looking over the battlefield—at the stand-still since the cannons were out of range and the Sacred Guards were not advancing, “I have a plan to reach the cliffs.”