It's been a week or so, and I've finished this rather short chapter. It's pretty fast-paced, and there's very little dialogue, so it's a pretty short one.

Chapter 30: Confrontation

Jack crossed blades with the dark entity one more time. He had to somehow direct its attention to something else so he has time to get the dagger from Zi, who was on the shipside opposite to him. From beneath, he could feel the Pearl rumbling while they were fighting on the deck. The pirates on board were busy fighting their undead counterparts, with the sounds of gunshots and the clashing of blades roaring into the distance.

The Pearl continued to rumble.

"It's…sinking," Zi noted. "It's swallowing up this ship, Jack!"

Jack looked down and his eyes widened. "Quick! Hand me that dagger!"

Zi stared at him for a moment, wondering if she should throw it to him.

Will and Elizabeth were distracting it, but it was drawing closer to them by the second. Will leaned on the high rope and held a decoy chest in his arms, luring it towards him, while Elizabeth stood on the far end of the ship and watched frantically. She drew her pistol as it grew denser in size, like a large beast. Firing off a shot, she caught its attention but hardly grazed it, as it only grew angrier.

Immense in size and unlimited in fury, the Necromortalis sprouted two horns on its head that curved outwards and was close to falling through the ship.

"Throw it to me or we will all die!" Jack yelled. Zi's hardened face began to soften and she eventually delivered it to Jack, turning away from the scene.

Jack raised the silver dagger in the air and it sparkled with a sharp sound, calling for the Necromortalis. The monster turned around and spotted it in Jack's hand. A large roar emerged from its lungs, an ear piercing shockwave that severely crippled those around it. Jack, who covered his ears, walked up to the tall beast and gripped the shiny dagger.

"The Dutchman is mine," he smirked.

The beast snatched Jack into the air with its hand and looked into his eyes. Slowly raising him into the damp air that was starting to die out, it glowed subtly as it stared into the captain. Jack suddenly felt a rush of fear that crawled up his spine, and almost overwhelmed him. The images of failure ran through his mind, and he was almost motionless. After a moment of paralysis, Jack shut his eyes and focused. Successfully breaking the spell, he lifted up the dagger and drove it downwards into the Necromortalis's hand, causing the monster to shriek loudly in pain. As the grip loosened, Jack managed to pull himself up onto the hand, which started to freeze into a metallic silver, just like the dagger. Will, Elizabeth, and Zi watched hopefully, awaiting the end of the beast. The process began to spread through the beast, but it was not quick enough. Jack sprinted clumsily up its arm and eyed the chest, where the logical spot to strike was. With a little shred of hope left, he leapt towards the chest and shoved the dagger into it, falling downwards, while simultaneously cutting the monster as he hung onto the weapon on the way down. Finally dropping to the ground, he looked up at the chest of the Necromortalis and backed away to the shipside, noticing the large rip he had left on its chest. The beast shrieked one last time as it completely turned into silver, frozen.

The dagger in Jack's hand emitted the glow once again, and the metallic silver began to detach from the Necromortalis. The metal coating on it disintegrated into dust and the dagger began to swallow it completely. The dust was completely gone along with the dwindling of the dagger's glow. Staring down at it in his hand, Jack noticed that when the dagger's glow disappeared, it reverted back into its original color. He assumed that the deed was done, and now it was time for the chest.

But at that moment, he looked up from the dagger and noticed the beast still in front of him. It shrunk back into its normal size and stared at him heartlessly, seemingly unharmed. What sorcery was this? The Necromortalis then sprouted a large blade from its arm and roared at Jack, most likely wanting to take back the dagger. Jack was motionless.

A gunshot fired not too far away that caused Jack to frighten.

Jack looked at the monster's remains. The face was completely blown off, and all that remained was a few shreds of the neck. As the part that was blown to pieces turned into dust, the body twitched just slightly before collapsing. Almost immediately, the body, too, disintegrated into dust, carried off by the short breeze. The undead pirates disappeared, the ships were gone, and the conflict was over. There was no celebration yet, however, though the navy and the pirates could call it a day. The rain that lightened up nearly stopped, and the clouds turned lighter as the sun was beginning to break through the sky. Footsteps approached, and they turned to see the Falcon carrying his trigun walk across the deck.

Tsau looked up at them without words; without explanations. He raised his gun upwards and fired a round at Jack. Jack raised both of his arms up to brace himself for the impact of the shot, but the dagger miraculously deflected the bullet, diverting its path into the air.

"You missed, mate," Jack said.

Tsau reloaded his weapon. "My mistake."

At that moment, caught off-guard, Jack was not ready for Zi's nimble move as she sprinted past him and snatched the dagger from his hands along the way. She jumped on a rope and let herself down onto the docks below. Tsau pointed the gun at Jack one more time, but decided to pursue Zi, because the crowd was celebrating below and it would prove difficult to spot her. He effortlessly hopped down to the docks without assistance and sprinted after her.

Jack rushed up to the helm of the ship. "Hoist the sails, men! We're following the perimeter."

With little time left before she escaped his line of sight, Tsau tackled and shoved people out of the way, knocking over beggars, merchants, even guardsmen as he rushed to gain higher ground. Finally, he managed to hop up to the short roofs of the merchant stands and leapt on to others nearby to avoid the crowd below.

Zi was running out of breath. She slipped past a few more people before taking a turn to hide in one of the merchant crates. Immediately, she heard a thump nearby, and peeked through the small cracks in the crates to see the nearby assassin tracking her down. The White Falcon watched his surroundings, knowing that Zi couldn't have gone far. She shivered because she had no jacket on, and the wind was picking up though the light drizzle persisted. Finally, Tsau walked past the crate and Zi hopped out, spotting a large blanket nearby. She snatched it and kept her hat low, throwing the blanket over her back to make it seem as though she were a poor commoner. Zi walked back into the crowd and saw Jack's ship nearing from the far end of the beachside. She had to be discreet and make it to the ship before Tsau catches on.

Treading carefully through the crowd towards the end of the dock where the Pearl would be at, Zi kept a close eye on her surroundings, noticing that there were quite a few people dressed in white attire similar to Tsau's. A rush of tension washed her completely. Any one of these people could've been Tsau. Her breathing quickened, her vision thickened, and her mind felt washy. Fighting her sudden change in condition, Zi struggled to keep herself from having a breakdown. She could sense something following her from behind. It was getting closer by the second, and her instinct was telling her to sprint away quickly. Before she knew it, a hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

"Come, quickly," Elizabeth told her.

A sign of relief revitalized Zi completely as she exhaled a sigh. "Yeah."

Quietly, they snuck past the crowds and got closer to the Pearl. It was out on a far deck where very little commoners roamed, still wondering what had happened a few minutes ago. Elizabeth grabbed the large rope connecting to the Black Pearl and hopped down to the small rowboat, planning to pull herself and Zi to the ship.

"Get in, Zi—"

Her dialogue was cut off as a gunshot fired and barely missed them. Tsau shot again, but the commoners accidentally ran into him and redirected his shot. Aggressively, he shoved them out of the way and ran out onto the larger dock plank that Elizabeth and Zi were located. Shoving people into the water and clearing his path, he shot his last bullet and hit the end of the rope that was tied to the small rowboat. The people nearby scrambled away and cleared that entire section of the docks. Tsau eventually stopped to watch them for a moment, knowing that they were going nowhere without an oar.

He drew closer to them and reloaded his weapon. The dagger was going to be his. Zi and Elizabeth got out of the boat and stood behind a few stacked crates. There was a large cloth that hung next to the crates, too.

"What do we do?" Elizabeth asked her quietly with death drawing nearer with each breath.

Zi shook her head, frightened. "I-I…I don't know…"

Elizabeth watched as Zi reached to grab the trigun that Tsau had given to her. She had exactly three bullets. The young lady loaded the bullets and shivered from fear. The wind was picking up, and the cloth sheet began to move.

"I thought he could change," she said. "Somehow I always felt that it would come to this."

"No!" Elizabeth exclaimed in a whisper. "Don't—"

Zi stabilized herself. "I hope he misses."

Tsau's footsteps could be heard now. He held his trigun up and fixed his eyes onto the nearby crates. The cloth nearly blocked the crates now, and the line of sight. The wind was strong enough to hold it up.

"Izzi!" he yelled, stepping forward. "I do this for a living!"

Taking a breath, Zi hoped that the cloth would give her an advantage. She could see his feet, though, and he could probably see hers, too, when she moves out.

Elizabeth gave her one last look. Zi handed her the dagger with a nod.

She took a breath and stepped out to confront Tsau, hidden behind the blowing cloth.

They each unloaded their bullets.

RRGH, I know you hate me. Hehe. Stay tuned, folks!