Chapter 21: Human Tank
“Lads, charge with me!”
“Kill! Tear Bai Ye apart limb from limb!”
A large group of pirates ran through the streets of the royal capital. When the civilians in the capital saw this scene, they screamed and fled in all directions.
As the pirates charged toward the royal palace, some ruthless ones began setting fires along their path.
Outside the city, flames shot into the sky, and soon thick smoke billowed within the city as well.
Su Xiao moved through the night, quickly overtaking the pirates and arriving at the royal palace ahead of them.
In the world of pirates, the Goa Kingdom was merely a small nation, so the royal palace was nothing more than a castle with a modest footprint.
Concealing himself near the palace, Su Xiao began waiting for the Krieg Pirates.
The royal capital was divided into three areas: the outermost was the civilian district, followed by the central street, and the innermost was the royal palace district.
Outside the royal palace district stood a wall, but it wasn’t very tall. The Krieg Pirates would soon breach it and storm into the palace grounds.
The guard corps within the palace district had already deployed in full force. Before long, the sounds of battle rang out.
Su Xiao continued to wait. Based on his understanding, the guard corps of the palace district was nothing but a paper tiger. Those guards, who had rarely seen real blood, were no match for the pirates.
And so it proved. Within just half an hour, the palace guards were beaten back, retreating to the front of the palace.
These guards were in a sorry state, panicked and haggard, with heavy casualties. Some of the less capable ones even fled on the spot.
“Lads, the palace is right in front of us. Let’s loot it!”
Krieg had already gone berserk. First deceived by Su Xiao, then fighting his way all the way here, this pirate had completely lost his mind.
“Kill! Leave no one alive!”
At Krieg’s command, the several hundred pirates behind him charged at the palace with wild shouts, clashing with the guards.
The bloodiest close-quarters combat began. Gunfire crackled like popping beans, blood splattered, and severed limbs fell one after another.
Inside the palace, the king, who had already retired for the night, was startled awake by the noise outside the castle.
The king of the Goa Kingdom was a man in his late sixties, with a full head of black hair and a thick beard. Thanks to his luxurious diet and the palace’s top-tier physicians, he showed few signs of age.
“What’s going on outside? Why is it so suddenly noisy?”
King Philip Herbert rose impatiently, while the queen consort beside him sat up in confusion.
“Your Majesty, those sound like gunshots outside. What’s happening?”
The young queen consort, timid and frightened, nestled into the king’s arms.
“Someone come!”
The bedroom door was pushed open, and a burly man rushed in. Across his face was a deep scar that spanned his entire visage, making him look particularly ferocious.
“Housen, what’s going on outside?”
This burly man, called Housen, was the king’s personal bodyguard.
But around Housen’s neck was a metal collar, iron-black in color, with intricate mechanisms at its joints.
If Su Xiao were present, he would have recognized this collar—it was a slave collar from the pirate world.
This man, Housen, was actually a slave, his life and death in the king’s hands. No wonder the king trusted him as a personal bodyguard.
Housen didn’t speak; he only made a few gestures.
Housen had lost the ability to speak—his tongue had been cut out by a slave trader. If not for his extraordinary physique, he might have been killed by that trader long ago.
“Pirates? How could there be pirates in the palace? Right Minister, send someone to deal with this gang.”
Though the king sensed something was off, he didn’t take it too seriously, apparently very confident in the palace’s security forces.
Housen stood motionless in the room. The slave collar around his neck bound his freedom—it could be detonated at any moment, and then he would die.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao was waiting for the right moment.
Now wasn’t the time yet. Though the fighting inside the palace was intense, it hadn’t reached its peak.
After about an hour of chaotic battle, the king inside the palace could no longer remain calm. He could clearly hear the sounds of battle drawing closer.
At that moment, the king finally realized the gravity of the situation.
With a bang, the door was slammed open, and the Right Minister, covered in blood, rushed into the bedroom.
“Your Majesty, this is terrible! That pirate gang has broken through! They’ve already reached the third floor!”
The king’s face turned ashen.
“Impossible! What about my guards? Weren’t they handpicked elites? How could they be beaten back so easily?”
The Right Minister knelt on the ground, his whole body trembling, not daring to respond.
The guards in the palace were never elite soldiers—just young men who had paid a hefty price for their positions.
“Housen, you go… Wait.”
The king’s face twisted with indecision. Housen was indeed powerful, but if he sent Housen out, his own safety would be compromised.
Yet if he didn’t send Housen, the pirates would soon be at his doorstep, and bullets had no eyes.
“Deal with those pirates as fast as possible, then come back immediately. Even if you’re injured, it doesn’t matter, understand?
If I die, you’ll be buried with me.”
Housen’s eyes showed no emotion. He nodded blankly and left the room.
Outside the palace, Su Xiao, still waiting, soon heard a loud crash from within. On the third floor, a large cloud of purple poison gas spread out.
“Finally, this moment.”
Su Xiao leaped up, clinging to the castle’s outer wall like a gecko.
Moving nimbly upward, he bypassed the third floor entirely.
The fighting was concentrated on the third floor, so the king couldn’t be below that level.
Reaching the third floor, Su Xiao peered through a window and saw two figures locked in combat—Krieg and that burly man.
But to Su Xiao’s surprise, Krieg was getting badly beaten. One arm hung limp, and it seemed he wouldn’t last much longer.
That burly man was a complete human tank. Every charge shattered large sections of the wall. If Su Xiao had to fight such a monster, he would lose in under two minutes.
His decision not to directly assassinate the king was undoubtedly correct. Fighting an enemy like that was nothing short of suicide.
This burly man, by conservative estimate, had a strength attribute exceeding 20 points.
Krieg was on the verge of collapse, so time was short. Su Xiao had to act quickly.
The palace had many rooms, and Su Xiao quickly checked them through the windows.
No sign of the king on the fourth floor, then the fifth, the sixth…
After a swift search, Su Xiao finally spotted the king through a window.
He wasn’t in any room but was fleeing down a corridor, apparently trying to reach higher ground to reduce the chance of being discovered by the pirates.
The continuous tremors from below had thrown the king into a panic.
Moonlight streamed in through the windows as the king hurried down the corridor.
“Your Majesty… huff… I… I can’t run anymore. Let’s rest a bit.”
The queen consort, following the king, collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
The king’s expression shifted rapidly. He still found this woman somewhat novel, so he wasn’t keen on abandoning her. But compared to his life, a woman meant nothing to him.
“Then, my dear consort, rest here.”
With that, the king turned to leave, leaving the queen consort sitting dumbfounded on the floor.
Just then, the glass window beside the corridor shattered with a crash, and a figure wielding a sharp blade burst through.