Red stared out at the jungle from the massive stone plateau. The structure had been their refuge upon their first arrival, and it would be once again. The cave system wasn't that large, but it was big enough to house everyone with plenty of room to spare.
The tunnels also led to the surface of the strange structure, which gave them easy access to defend the top. They didn't quite know what the attacking force would look like, but they needed to be prepared regardless.
"We can use this point to hold in case we lose ground," Derrin was saying.
Red didn't really pay much attention to the intricate details of their discussion. His gaze instead rested on the figure at the far end of the room. Silas sat in the shadows of the cavern, unmoving despite Derrin seemingly taking charge of the discussion. Despite the need for him at the moment, the soldiers' leader had pulled in on himself and left control to everyone else.
"Terrible time for that," Red muttered under his breath.
Silas's inaction and the knowledge of the surrounding jungle only made him more uneasy. He had no idea how they would survive an attack against a hundred pirates at once… or worse, the damned pirate king.
They were coming. They knew that with certainty now.
While the trek through the island had been mostly uneventful, on the second day, the scouting soldiers had reported the reappearance of the pirate presence. They had begun to survey the island beyond the regions by the fort. It wouldn't be long before their forces spread out across the entire island.
The pirates were hunting, and it wasn't hard to guess what that was.
With Silas remaining silent, that had required Derrin to pick up the slack. His friend could handle it, he was sure, but the soldiers clearly didn't respect Derrin even if they agreed to his requests.
There was still that unease of Montrelan blood that they feared.
However, the other issue was Silas himself. The man was a soldier through and through, and any information and ideas he had would be useful.
Red had no idea what they could do without putting everything in the hands of the pirates. With Derrin and the other soldiers, they could definitely wreak havoc across the island. Maybe that was still his plan if they weren't discovered. Nevertheless, it was far too dangerous now that Zara was gone. If the Pirate King retaliated, there would be no surviving.
Until he was dealt with, they were forced to remain on the defensive.
Derrin had been judging what they knew about the pirate's leader. If he attacked with his entire army, their only hope would be to escape. If he let his subordinates lead now that there was no fort, they still had a chance.
Everything was hinging on the decision and choices of the Pirate King. Red ground his teeth together as the meeting came to a close. Derrin gave a few of the soldiers instructions that were strangely phrased as questions, and everyone went about the day.
The Pirate King. The simple fact that he controlled the entire situation was aggravating Red to no end. If he came himself, there was nothing they could do to guarantee themselves a victory. Even if they somehow beat him again, he would simply escape. It all seemed hopeless.
Unless, of course, he could find some way to stop the bastard from running.
While he figured out a solution for that, he and Vizim had been hard at work creating defenses. They had a hefty set of supplies and had been crafting a collection of various devices. In addition to Vizim's makeshift cannon, they had also created nearly a dozen bombs. Even the sailors had wanted to help in whatever way they could.
Red had a streamlined system to get them to craft basic bombs of their own. It was simple once one understood the process and structure, and they were going at it. Each element was slowly coming together, and Red planned to line the entire jungle with hidden bombs by the end of the day. However, all of this was worthless if the Pirate King simply wandered in first.
He spotted Derrin sharpening his sword nearby and went to meet him. "Do you think we'll win this?"
Derrin glanced up from his work with a sigh, his hands pausing on the edge of the blade. "It is possible. This is a heavily defensible location at least. Nowhere else on the island can we find this much cover without leaving our backs exposed."
Red hesitated. "...and what about the Pirate King?"
He paused and glanced down at his blade. "That, I can't say. Powerhouses like him are incredibly hard to kill, and it doesn't help that he can simply escape and come back whenever it gets too difficult."
"Then is it even possible? Surely there is a way to get around his stupid teleporting ability."
"Maybe. He is at the same stage as Zara and seems to mainly wield the power of Valencia and Montrel. The Valencian one we fought against. It allowed him to do minor teleportation within the range of his body. Obviously, that is an extremely difficult ability to combat, but it's not impossible to overwhelm him. We've already seen that clearly enough."
"The Montrelan ability is where things get truly difficult. The powers of Montrel are based on marks, and that allows the wielder to put a tiny amount of mist into another person's heart. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who is doing it, really. In the case of the Pirate King, it only seems to benefit him."
"But is there a way to counter it?" Red asked, "I know we dealt with the camp being infested with his marks before, but that isn't feasible in our current circumstances."
Red had seen how the marks were removed originally, even if he himself hadn't been marked. Those infected had been forced to drag all of their mist out of their hearts while leaving it in their body. Then they needed to drive their mist through their heart like a crashing wave and expel it all.
The process was supposed to drag the unwanted mist out as well. In practice, it became more difficult the stronger the enemy mist was. All of those who had removed the Pirate King's mark had been left incapacitated for over a day while their hearts recovered from the stain.
There was nothing like that to help them now. The process was too long and time-consuming, and there was obviously no way to get the pirates to do it willingly. So their options were exceedingly slim.
"There have been numerous ways to counter marks in the past. The main one is obviously to just get people to cleanse themselves. However, it is also possible to block the transfer of the ability. There needs to be a direct connection between the person marking and those marked. By blocking this connection, it is possible to prevent a person from activating the marks."
"How would we even go about doing that?"
Derrin shook his head. "I am not sure that it is even feasible. Usually, it requires a massive setup, and even then, all he would need to do is leave the area."
"Is there anything else we can do? Anything at all?"
"Maybe overwhelm his heart when he activates his marks. That is possible, but very hard to do. Perhaps… no, if you wish to try something, then this is really the only option. We don't really have a way to test anything without another person with marking abilities, though."
Red considered this possibility. Despite the information Derrin had given him, he still didn't fully understand what marks did or how they acted. Those sorts of things were far more connected to the user, and unless he actually experienced them, it wouldn't do much to help him.
He could, however, envision a possible scenario where he created an overwhelming attack that served as both a danger to the Pirate King's life and, beyond that, was strong enough to disrupt any actions he might take.
Finally, he asked the question that had been most heavily worrying him.
"Do you think Zara's still alive?"
"I doubt they'd kill her so quickly." Derrin glanced away, and his voice trembled slightly.
"We need to get her out of there. You probably know no more about what they can do than I do… but there is no way we can just leave her trapped."
Derrin didn't say anything for a long time.
Eventually, he smiled, "I think so too. But for now, we need to survive first."
Red looked away. "No, first we need to kill that damned Pirate King."