Chapter 74: THIRD POV.

Jacob, feeling rushed and desperate to keep control, leaped forward to meet the multitude of blades with his bare hands.

He didn’t have a weapon, so he used the only thing he had.

He reached out to swat the swords away before they could reach his chest.

CLANG!

The sound wasn’t the wet thud of metal hitting skin. It was the sharp, ringing sound of metal hitting metal.

Both Jacob and the pirates stared in total disbelief.

Right before their eyes, small, shimmering black scales had emerged over Jacob’s hands and forearms.

They were thick and hard, appearing just at the moment of impact to shield him from the sharp edges of their blades.

"What in tarnation..." a pirate muttered, his jaw dropping in bewilderment. He looked at his sword, which had bounced off Jacob’s hand as if he had hit a stone statue.

’Well, that’s a first,’ Jacob thought, his own mind racing. To think his body on land even had this function!

He knew he changed forms when he went into the water, but he hadn’t known his body could react like this while he was in human form.

It was like a built-in suit of armor that only showed up when he was in danger.

Jacob obviously didn’t let the opportunity pass him by.

He saw the confusion and the fear in the pirates’ eyes, and he knew this was his moment to break their spirit.

His lips curled upwards into a mocking grin, a look that was more shark than man.

He reached out and clenched his fists around the group of swords held in front of him.

With one firm, crushing grip, he squeezed.

The steel groaned under the pressure of his scaly fingers. Then, with a series of sharp snaps, the blades all shattered. Shards of metal fell to the floor, tinkling like broken glass.

The frightened pirates quivered. Their bravado was gone, replaced by a deep, hollow terror.

They took unconscious steps back, their hands shaking as they held onto empty hilts.

They looked at Jacob as if he were a ghost or a demon climbed up from Davy Jones locker.

BAM!

Jacob didn’t give them time to recover. He delivered a swift, powerful blow to the face of the pirate closest to him.

The man didn’t even have time to blink before he was knocked flying.

His body went airborne, thrashing into several of his crewmates and sending them all tumbling down like bowling pins.

"A SUPERHUMAN?!! How’s he a superhuman?!!" the first mate screamed from the top of the stairs.

His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in shock. He gripped the railing so hard his knuckles turned white.

In this world, people knew about superhumans. They were warriors who had pushed their bodies past the limits of normal men, but they were rare, and they usually worked for nobles or high-priced mercenary groups.

Never did the first mate believe the young man he had called a "nuisance" and "merchandise" to be this formidable.

He had thought he was just fishing a lucky survivor out of the sea; instead, he had invited a disaster onto his ship.

"W-What are you fools waiting for? Open fire!" the first mate yelled in a panic.

He watched as Jacob began rapidly climbing the stairs, stepping over the fallen bodies and defeating their men with nothing but his fists.

Every time a pirate tried to stop him, Jacob moved like a blur, tossing them aside as if they weighed nothing.

"B-But sir! What if we hit the merchandise?" one of the pirates standing next to the first mate stuttered.

He was looking at the group of slaves huddled at the bottom of the stairs. To the pirates, those men were gold coins walking on two legs. If they started shooting wildly, they’d be throwing away their profit.

SMACK!

The pirate was answered by an unexpected slap to the face. The first mate hit him so hard the man was knocked down onto his feet, clutching his stinging cheek.

"You idiot! If this bastard makes it up here, there won’t be any merchandise to keep! We’ll all be dead!" the first mate roared. He glared at the men around him, his face red with fury. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Kill him! Now!"

The pirates trembled beneath his gaze. They were caught between the monster coming up the stairs and the angry officer behind them.

With shaky hands, they nervously grabbed at the heavy flintlock pistols tucked into the waists of their pants.

The clicking of the hammers being pulled back sounded like a chorus of death in the quiet moments between the fighting.

’That’s not good,’ Jacob thought. He had just smashed a pirate’s head against the wall to clear his path, but he stiffened when he saw so many pirates grabbing their guns.

He was amazed by his scaly defense, the black scales had protected his hands from the swords, but that didn’t mean he was willing to test its limits by putting his life on the line against lead bullets.

A sword was one thing, but a bullet carried a lot of force in a very small point, not to mention this many.

He didn’t know if his scales were thick enough to stop a shot from close range, and he wasn’t exactly in a hurry to find out.

He glanced back at the group of men behind him. The captives, who had been following him with newfound hope, all displayed looks of pure fear on their faces.

They were crowded in the narrow hallway, trapped with nowhere to go. It seemed even they were disturbed by the sight of the guns.

They knew that if the pirates started shooting, they were the ones most likely to get hit in the crossfire.

Jacob then looked back at the pirates at the top of the stairs. The first mate was pointing a pistol right at his head, his finger tightening on the trigger.

It seemed like a lot of time but Jacob had done this in a split second.