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Her first instinct was to pull Laura away to safety. And that's exactly what she did.
There wasn't an ideal safe place in a tavern full of short tempered miscreants but as soon as Camila saw Tyrone the Nightmare throw the first punch at some random bearded guy while cackling, she immediately pulled Laura in her arms and down under the bar counter. The girl may be a skilled archer but Camila couldn't risk to find out if she's any good at close contact combat.
Things like this happen occasionally in the tavern. Sometimes it's some group of bandits crossing it out with another group of bandits. Other times, it's some mercenary showing off their fancy killing techniques at some random drunk person. And in other occasions, it's the drunkards fighting over some whore who's already doing the horizontal greased-weasel tango with somebody else.
But most times, it's the pirates.
Pirates of every kind. Human or otherwise. Easterners or Westerners. Northmen or the Southern seafarers. Drunk or sober.
Isla de los Muertos is, afterall, an island in the midst of the wide open ocean. The common playground for every sailor.
"What the hell just happened?!" The girl exclaimed.
There was a lot of noise going around the tavern. It comprises mostly of grunts and yells and cursing and clashing metals and smashing bottles and tables overturned. There was the occasional trash talk but was always quickly replaced by a pronounced smacking sound.
The tavern is quickly becoming a nice little warzone for the delinquents. There'll be dead bodies to be burned by the end of the daylight. And it's nothing new to the boss herself.
But for the guest, let's just say it's quite an enlightening experience.
Camila was both amused and a little bit surprised when Laura pulled out a shiny altair short blade as soon as they ducked themselves underneath the safety of the bar counter.
"Do you even know how to use that?"
"Of course I know how to use it! Just stick it at someone's throat, duh!!" Laura replied, offended by Camila's remark.
And as soon as Laura finished her words, a tall hulky pirate jumped right in front of them, each hand holding a scimitar.
Camila knew instantly that Laura was about to prove herself to her but she quickly decided she won't let her. She won't allow her to fight this much bigger guy, risk anything terrible happening to this pretty girl. She'd rather be the one to challenge this seven foot tall moron screaming at their faces and make sure that Laura will remain unscathed. She won't risk any harm to befall on the girl at any cost.
She doesn't know how or when or why exactly she cared this much for the Arcadian but she really can't think about that right now.
Besides, breaking someone's bones is quite an effective way to release the tension that's been bothering her lately.
So, with impossibly quick movements, Camila maneuvered herself to stand, kicking the much bigger man hard on his shin as she did so, making him lose his balance and focus. The crack of bone echoed clearly on impact, and as Camila stood, she threw a quick punch on his throat, cutting off his airway. Then, she easily took the scimitars out of his grasp.
Then, she swung around, pivoting on the inner ball of her foot. Very swift and smooth, she slashed the much bigger opponent's throat with his own weapon, the force of the blow almost chopping his head off of his shoulders, blood was oozing, dripping like honey but with the rich color of rubies.
Then, there were another couple of men who noticed her and made their way towards her, swords swinging, yelling like the uncivilized imbeciles that they are. But they didn't get much further as Camila threw both scimitars that she was holding right at them, landing smack in the middle of their heads, stuck right through their skulls, almost splitting them vertically in half by their heads.
"Tyrone!!" She then calls out.
All movements stopped at her commanding voice.
The man in question turned to her. He still have his arm wrapped around another man's throat in a tight headlock. He looked around and saw that most of his men are on the ground, either dead or playing dead just to desperately cheat death.
The other men who wasn't part of Tyrone's gang of pirates knew better to save their asses and scampered away from the tavern.
Dinah had one of his men pinned to the wall, her longsword ready to slash his throat.
Normani had another one trapped in a guillotine choke.
Ally had three of his men lying on a profusely bleeding heap, with swollen and busted faces as if a swarm of wasps casually partied there, groaning in absolute pain by her feet. And she has another two struggling from her deathly tight grasp on their necks, both also had swollen, bloody faces.
And Simona was just casually sitting with her legs crossed on top of a very stout man who passed out on the ground for a pretty much unverified reasons, sipping on her glass of whiskey. Watching everything play out like some dramatic stage play.
"What is this all about?"
Camila's eyes were dark, her tone was dripping with danger.
Everybody who has been to Simona's Tavern knows well that the barmaid rules the place. Simona the old woman might own everything else in writing, the declared proprietor of said establishment, but Camila's the one who calls the shots, shots that has nothing to do with drinks. And everybody who has messed around the tavern, causing trouble and shit, knows full well that the barmaid can twist their intestines into a tight french braid and inside out of their bodies very easily.
Many who challenged the barmaid ended up dead on the spot. Well, there were some who ended up as shark grub but still dead so . . .
While there were few who were spared to spread the tale that no one should mess around the tavern or they're either be dead or wishing they were dead.
But when you're in a lawless place frequented by all sorts of lowlife thugs, brawls and slaughters are a regular scenario. And men like Tyrone the Nightmare will always be around just to stir up some gory chaos no matter what.
However, this is the only time that the captain of the pirate ship Mary Jane deliberately started a bloody ruckus in the tavern for no particular reason. He may have been known to be mercilessly brutal but he isn't really that stupid, a complete meathead, to test the barmaid. He has seen her fight, and he ought to know which battles to pick.
But then, he has been paid to cause this ruckus and it was good money.
It was worth losing a few of his men.
But it wasn't worth losing his own head.
And it's been known around the island that the barmaid has an affinity in chopping heads off. The dead hulky pirate by the bar counter can attest to that.
Satisfied that he had caused enough trouble, Tyrone pushed away the poor soul he trapped in a headlock, who subsequently crawled his way out of the tavern for a desperately needed fresh air. Slowly raising his arms, Tyrone the Nightmare spoke.
"Just having a bit of fun, sweetheart . . . Who's the new hire?" His eyes wandered off to Laura.
"Who sent you?"
And Camila isn't stupid at all either.
She knows better when something doesn't add up. She is well aware that in all of the time she lived in the island, Tyrone isn't the kind of pirate who is reckless enough to intentionally start a fight. The only time he caused this much bloodshed in the tavern was when another pirate double crossed him and he confronted the bastard.
Suffice to say, he lived by his name and showed everyone that day why he was named the Nightmare.
Today however, Camila saw right through his facade. Her gut instincts are telling her that there's more to this shitshow of a fight that he started.
"She looks . . . Delicious," Tyrone the Nightmare eyed Laura the guest lasciviously.
"You look like a dead man talking, Tyrone,"
Camila warned.
She had a deadly expression. Teeth and jaw clenching, as she sidestepped to block his view of Laura. Obscured from Tyrone's view, she cautiously pulled her own short blade from under the bar counter.
"Speak your truth now or never be able to speak ever again,"
As the boss uttered those words, Dinah, Normani and Ally simultaneously ended the lives of their captives. Dinah slicing a man's jugular veins in one clean swipe, Normani choking another one down to his last breath by skillfully snapping his neck, and Ally simply crushed another couple of pirates' necks with her bare hands, crack of bones was heard throughout the tense silence.
Then the three of them faced the pirate captain, another three sets of dark murderous eyes zeroed in on him like a bunch of predators caging in their prey.
Tyrone the Nightmare immediately sensed his impending demise. He quickly started weighing his options in his head, whether to bargain some truth for his life, or keep the deal he made to cause this trouble. He knew that without his men, he won't stand a chance with this combat skilled ladies.
And right now, he is literally the last man standing. If he doesn't play his cards right he'd be the next dead man very soon.
"Alright, alright . . . I'll speak my truth for a price," he started, "I want the delicious looking lady behind you in exchange for the name of who paid me nicely to cause trouble in your tavern,"
"You wouldn't want to touch the lady if I were you," Dinah growled in reply, raising her longsword with the sharp end pointing a fraction of an inch on the side of Tyrone's face.
Smirking, Tyrone turned to Dinah, "And why is that? Is she your lady?"
And before anyone can make any response to the question, a dagger flew past across the room landing four inches deep smack in the middle of Tyrone's gut. Then, Camila jumped over the bar counter quite effortlessly and walked towards the pirate whose face is in complete surprise.
She pulled her dagger from the man's stomach and he fell on his knees, his blood spewing out. He scrambled to put pressure on his wound so he won't bleed out but it wasn't as effective as he thought.
Then, Camila backhanded his face. She didn't like it one bit that this man had the audacity to even look at Laura. The anger in her veins are crawling like nasty critters on her skin and it takes so much in her to hold herself back from stabbing Tyrone in the face twenty thousand times just because he looked at Laura lecherously and implied that she's someone else's woman to own.
She doesn't like it one bit.
"Start confessing. Whatever deal you made, its no use anymore since you're about to die. You wouldn't be on your knees now bleeding your life out if you hadn't been stupid enough to mess around in our tavern,"
He knew he was dying.
And he knew Camila the barmaid is correct. All of that gold coins aren't worth losing his life. He doesn't want to die so soon but he knew he will absolutely die in the hands of this barmaid. He had his reservations about this deal he made but the ten thousand gold pieces and a legitimate map to a sunken treasure was an irresistible payment.
It's all useless if he's just gonna die here.
And since it looks like he won't be able to make use of that gold and the map, might as well rat out the person who sent him.
"A faerie woman! She has dark silk wings! She goes by the name Zara!! She paid me to start a fight in your tavern,"
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🙂