~Drrrrrr~~~~

The rain fell hard, making many yell every time they spoke.

The night was dark, wet with no stars above.

The pirates felt the impending tension in the air while searching for the rogue assassin and the boy.

One of the pirates around the edge of the group, was currently standing still, with his arms on his waist, while catching his breath and looking heavenwards.

~Whooh... Whooh... Whooh... Whooh~~

He had never run so much in his life.

And the most annoying thing was that they hadn't caught the assassin yet.

So were they going to be running like this throughout the night?

His lungs felt squished up as if they would collapse and give up any comment now.

This was ridiculous and damn well annoying.

With his face still facing heavenwards, he closed his eyes briefly to enjoy the wet rain falling on his face.

It was calming.

Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, and his pupils dilated all too fast!

~Swish!

A cold object swiftly moved across his throat. And soon, he saw blood spraying out wildly.

~Pffff

He wanted to scream and yell for help, but the large hand covering his mouth didn't grant his wish.

The heavy sounds of the rain drowned his mumblings.

And before he knew it, he found his weak, dying body thrown into the bushes.

He quickly found the strength within him draining away swiftly, so much so that he didn't have the energy to spit out the clogs of blood in his mouth.

Everything came all too suddenly.

Just like that, he was on his way to see the famous Old Burshark, The Pirate King of the dead.

Eh?

Another Pirate turned towards the direction where the dead pirate used to be and looked around in confusion.

Wasn't there someone just behind him a mount ago?

Or was he hallucinating?

He didn't even have time to think before he saw a cold object piercing the side of his neck.

~Pffff

What?

Looking at the blood spraying out, his heart sank as he tried to tell and fight for his life.

But sadly, his efforts were all in vain.

He trembled vigorously while being dumped into a bush that contained another dead man.

What the hell?

Seeing his dead pirate comrade, he instantly knew who the enemy was.

He desperately wanted to warn the rest to catch this rogue Morg assassin and slice his body into a thousand pieces.

But reality was just too cruel.

In just a few seconds after getting thrown into the bushes, he closed his eyes, never to wake up again.

.

Josh moved like a shadow, trying to kill as many people as he could.

He knew that it would only be a matter of time before they found out.

But he had his escape plan mapped out and was ready fairly confident in his dealings.

He also raided the dead bodies, taking their daggers too.

5 minutes... 10 minutes... 15 whole minutes went by before the pirates found the area where the footsteps stopped.

The skilled pirates stepped forward to analyze the scene.

"The Rogue wasn't alone."

"Crow Face, what do you mean?"

Crow face coached down and looked at everything around carefully.

"From the twigs snapped and the footprints, the Rogue was probably carrying the child up to this point, before letting the child down.

Even though the rain has washed a few traces of their footprints off, the pattern of their movements are still somewhat clear."

"As expected of Crow Face. He has always been one of the brains in the crew!"

Crow Face felt a little arrogant while recovering the many compliments from the rest.

Of course, his expression remained calm and assertive, as he continued analyzing the facts before them.

"Look! The footsteps lead up the big tree ahead.

So that means that the kid probably climbed up.

But here's the tricky part.

Do you see the big footsteps of the Rogue?

This shows that he turned around after keeping the kid up the tree."

"Then what are we waiting for?

Let's go up and take the kid!"

Crow Face shook his head at them: "Naive! Do you think that the kid would still be here? He's long gone."

"How?"

Crow Face got up calmly: "Didn't you hear what I said earlier on? The Rogue Morg wasn't the only one here!"

What?

Everyone felt like they had been struck by lightning.

They were all taken aback by the sudden turn of events.

What was going on?

Crow Face massaged his chin grimly: "No doubt about it, there was someone up the trees waiting to receive the boy. By now, they should be long gone, jumping from tree to tree. They might even have horses too far ahead that would take the boy out tonight! In other words, they had been prepared."

"But, Old Crow Face, how could they have a person out here all this time? Did they know of our coming?"

"No. Everything today shows that they didn't.

It appears that today, these Rogue Morgs had planned to steal the boy.

It was just that they didn't know or think that we would be arriving to get him today.

From their actions, it could be seen that they were also very shocked by our sudden appearance."

.

The information was too shocking for the rest.

While everyone was still feeling agitated, Crow Face, on the other hand, smiled calmly, as if everything was still under control.

"Tonight, they would definitely leave with the boy and head towards the nearby Coastal town, 5 days from here.

They probably have a ship ready to go any moment now."

"... But that's the place we docked our ships."

"Precisely.

So we need to hurry out fast.

Of course, another team will stay here and properly scout the area, while some of you will hurry back to the ships and inform the crew to keep a close watch on things.

We also need the Council members to search around the neighbouring towns, villages, towns and every other place, just in case they're still hiding somewhere.

Although, I'm more inclined to believe that with the boy, they would do their best to escape tonight!"

"So Old Crow Face, do we go now?"

"No... Not yet.

You see, we still have a few loose ends to tie up."

Eh?

Everyone looked at themselves in confusion before looking at Old Crow Face again.

Keeping up with intelligent people was hard.

"Old Crow Face, what do you mean?"

Crow Face smiled lazily with a cold glint in his eyes."Let me ask you all a question, how much do you hate the Rogue Morg we chased?"

Instantly, everyone's eyes burned with rage.

"A lot! I want to grind his bones and step on them!"

"Me? I want to pluck his eyes out and squash them with my palms!"

"The bastard deserves to be thrown into the belly of a Mantia (a giant sea worm the size of a baby whale with 29 different layers of teeth.)."

"F***! I hate that rogue!"

(*^*)

Crow Face chuckled: "So you all hate him that much?"

"Of course!"

"Oh? Then what if I told you that you still have a chance at getting revenge?"

"Eh? Old Crow Face, what do you mean?"

Crow Face calmly crossed his hands over his chest and grinned playfully.

"What I mean is simple.

The bastard Rogue Morg we've been chasing, the one you all hate so much... is here."