"You really did it. What exactly did you do?" Eman spoke, walking out of his cage.
It was now that Harley was seeing the man was even taller than him, standing at a height of 6'4. Harley currently stood at 6'1 and was mostly taller than most people around him.
He moved over to open the other cages, wiping his nose as Eman didn't smell nice at all.
Soon, the cages were all open and the group were free. Harley led the way, walking out of the basement.
He had planned this for these three days that he spent on this ship. These few hellish days.
He walked over to the door that was being guarded by Jin earlier and opened it with a shiny-looking key amongst the rest.
"Damn," Harley mumbled, seeing the amount of jewelries inside the small room.
Eman nudged him out of the way, making his way to a weapon that sat by the side. A short metallic rod that resembled a twisting root.
The top lit up, releasing a white light that immediately coalesced into the shape of a blade.
Harley let the others in with smiles, and it was now that he was able to see some of them fully.
The woman had blue hair; he didn't know because of the constant darkness nestling in the basement. There was a bulky man with bronze skin and tattoos all over his back.
The skinny man appeared even taller than Eman at a ridiculous 6'7. His own artifact was a single silver arrow.
And then there were two girls that looked like twins that picked up two identical swords. Seeing the faded makeup on them and their pale skin Harley minded his business.
The six of them came out, and the rest immediately looked at Eman.
This made Harley raise a brow as he looked at them confused. 'Are they double-crossing me?' He thought, making a shadow dagger behind his back.
Eman smiled at him, pointing his light sword at the sleeping pirates.
"Kill them all."
All hell immediately broke loose. The knights charged forward, wielding all sorts of weapons.
The lady with blue hair had a longsword that she used gracefully, connecting each slash with clean movements. It was as if she was sliding on the deck; it was more like dancing, rather.
The sword looked like a simple longsword, but he could feel that same essence flowing through him emanating from the weapon.
"The captain's chambers!" Harley shouted, pointing at the door on the other side of the ship.
Eman sprinted, jumping over the pirates, and he burst into the room. The captain was lying on the bed, and his yawn froze on his face when he saw the knight burst into his room.
"What the—?!" He picked up a cutlass beside his bed, raising it up to defend himself.
*Clank!*
The sword clashed with the cutlass, releasing sparks in the room.
Outside, Jin seemed to have stirred awake. Seems like he wasn't in too deep of a sleep.
The first thing he saw was Harley, who stood in front of him with a cold expression.
"What the hell is going on?" Jin asked as he noticed the people moving around in the background.
"Jin, you have amazing goals, and you can be an amazing person. But... I have to take this ship." He summoned a knife out of shadows and Jin frowned, making one too.
Before the two of them could engage in combat, a silver arrow fell from the sky, piercing Jin's chest all the way through.
Harley didn't let this time waste, piercing Jin's heart with the shadow dagger. He hugged the young man, shaking his head.
"It's either you guys or me, and I choose myself." He kicked Jin to the ground.
{You have killed a scheme 3 human.}
{You have gained a story fragment.}
{Your attribute grows stronger}
The melodious voice of the Oracle resounded in his brain, and he shook it off.
Looking up, Harley saw that the skinny man who was with the knight captain was already at the top of a mast.
The silver arrow detached from the body, flying back up to the man at the top of the mast, then he waved a hand, sending it to another pirate who was already getting up.
Harley picked up the locket which was still playing the memory of a man, a woman, and a kid.
He closed his eyes, ignoring what he saw before he actually closed the locket and wore it around his neck.
'It's going exactly how I planned.' Harley squinted, seeing the knights finishing off the rest of the pirates that were still crawling or moving.
'The captain!' Harley immediately realized that Eman hadn't come out from the room and he sprinted towards the door.
It wasn't until he got close that he began to hear the constant clashing of metal against metal.
Before he even got a chance to get closer to the door, it flew open, followed by Eman.
He landed softly on the deck, waving his sword and taking a fighting stance. The captain summoned two cutlasses made of shadows and he cracked his neck.
"I've killed hundreds of knights, and this ship has lived since I was a kid. I would not let it end with me!" The captain lunged forward, looking like he was sliding on the deck.
Eman met the cutlasses with his sword, clashing with the captain with skill. Despite the captain wielding two weapons, the handsome knight captain was not at a disadvantage.
Harley looked behind him, seeing the rest of the knights watching the fight.
'They must be waiting for another order.' he thought, looking at them one by one.
He couldn't help but think of them as loyal puppets with the way they behaved.
The captain was completely possessed by his rage that he didn't see the other knights or even Harley, who had snuck up behind him.
Eman punched the captain's chest, making a loud crack resound on the ship. As the captain took a step back, a black blade emerged from the front of his neck and his eyes were wide open.
Harley had snuck behind him, dealing a final blow before Eman could even react.
He pushed the captain, letting him fall to the ground. He wasn't moving at all.
{You have killed a scheme 9 human. You have gained a story fragment.}
{Your attribute grows stronger}
Harley let out a breath, looking up to the sky with stars. And then a smile spread across his face.
"Ha... Hahaha... Hahahahahahahaaaa!" He laughed loudly for the first time.
In front of the pirates, his hair began to change color rapidly, soon becoming a pure white. All of his hair, including his eyebrows and lashes, all turned white, which was a strange phenomenon.
{You have grown more attuned to your story. Mastery of illusions has increased, mastery of stealth has increased, mastery of mimicry has increased.}
The Oracle sang in his his ears.
{You have completed the second scenario with outstanding results.}
{A new tale is being woven}
Harley finally calmed down, still smiling. Hearing the last part of what the Oracle said he couldn't be more glad.
Takes were like achievements and can only be gotten by also performing specific feats.
All of a sudden the brown paper appeared in front of him and the ink moved across the paper again forming words that could understand.
[You have created a new tale, "Wolf in sheep's Clothing"]
[Tale: Wolf in sheep's Clothing
Tale content: A jester, scared and afraid, his from the very people who destroyed his home. The pirates spared his life, using him as a toy; but that was their biggest mistake, allowing Harlequin to live was their biggest mistake.
Under their gazes he made them see him as harmless, Harlequin killed a pirate to lure a dangerous creature to the ship, all to make the captain weak. Every step he took and everything that he knew, he used to his advantage. And at the end, he poured desert ash in the pirates beer and secured a clean victory.
He, a lost lone man in a foreign space managed to kill every single person. And even the knights should be wary of him, for he has a plan to deal with them if they cross the line.]
[Your tale has been registered in your world record. Rewards would be calculated after the trial.]
Harley looked back at the knights, dismissing the brown paper in front of him.
Eman turned to the group of five standing behind him on one knee. They all seemed to be looking at Harley with a confused expression and he also just shrugged.