Towards the end of his story of what motivated him into committing identity fraud and aboarding the Admiral Joe Fowler, Ren was interrupted by the bramble of gunfire from down below the main deck. Freezing up with his mouth agape, the eleven year-old narrowed his eyes while the white-haired boy across from him looked back at him with an excited, yet curious, expression.
"Well, well, well; sounds like there's quite a commotion going on downstairs, doesn't it~?" The unbothered boy remarked playfully, before letting out a disappointed sigh as they reached down beside their pile of dirty dishes to pick up his sleek, black helmet.
"Couldn't even have the decency to wait until you were done….! How inconsiderate of them…!" Luca muttered to himself, as he plopped his helmet over his head full of white hair— pushing it down, before activating its sealing protocol with a flip of a sliding switch.
Following suit quickly after, Ren grabbed a hold of his own helmet before pressing it down over his head— turning the ivory knob to seal it around his neck, before looking up at the white-glowing slits along Luca's intimidating mask and asking, "Do you think it's a scuffle?"
Chortling, Luca shrugged his shoulders while Ren grabbed a hold of his leather cuirass from his duffel bag. "Sounds like helluva lot more than a mere "scuffle", Gobbie!" Luca retorted, and ushered the bewildered eleven year-old with a curled finger, before nonchalantly offering him, "Here, let me help you with that— it'll save us some time."
Behind his tinted face-shield, Ren had one eyebrow raised as he stared blankly at the gloved hand Luca was offering him. "… Did you just call me "Gobbie"?!" He asked with a tone of disbelief in his flat voice, before reluctantly grabbing a hold of the boy's hand.
"Yeppers— I sure did!" Luca replied in a jovial voice, before effortlessly pulling Ren up to his feet faster than the eleven year-old was expecting. "Hehe, haha~! Sorry 'bout that!" Luca apologized with an amused tone, before grabbing a hold of Ren by his hips.
Getting tugged back and momentarily lifted up off of the ground, Ren quickly founds his footing while feeling somewhat embarrassed as Luca quickly began tying the the laces of his leather cuirass to his sides.
"Right then, so… Let's talk strategy while we're…?!" Ren began speaking, before trailing off as he looked across the circular platform of the crow's nest. With his built-in headlamp still active, Ren was able to see the light reflecting off of a short barrel that was emerging from the otherside of the half-wall that was across the crow's nest from where they were standing.
Ren didn't hesitate to reach into the leather pouch of his crossbody bandolier— taking out his fully loaded snub nose revolver, and taking aim at the flintlock that was just beginning to take blind aim at them.
Popping off a shot and blasting the flintlock out of the attempted murderer's hand, Ren lowered the short barrel of his firearm— taking a guess at where the hidden person's body was, before firing two shots at where he figured their chest was.
Hearing a faint gurgle before whoever was on the other side of the half-wall presumably lost their grip on the knotted-rope ladder, Ren felt Luca giving his cuirass another tug for good measure— letting out a childish giggle, as the two of them heard a loud, wet thud down below.
"Fuwaha, haha~! Aahhh…! They tried to pull a sneaky on us, didn't they~?!" Luca playfully remarked, before gently pushing Ren forward by his hips toward his unzipped duffel bag. "Nice shot, by the way— I'd love to take a gander at the "menagerie," once we kill everyone else on board!"
Kneeling down to get the rest of his armor pieces, Ren attempted to cool the barrel of his snub nose revolver by waving it in the air— letting the smoke rise out from its chamber, as he turned his head over his shoulder to look back at Luca's glowing eye-slits.
"Killing EVERYONE…? That… Seems a bit unnecessary, doesn't it?" Ren asked with a cautious voice, and paused momentarily before sliding his revolver back into its leather pouch across his chest armor. "I can't imagine that EVERYONE aboard needs to die— especially the adventurers."
Shrugging their shoulders again at him, Luca chuckled before arguing with Ren, "Who's to say that WASN'T a member of the guild who you just shot dead, hmmm~?"
Having not thought of that possibility, Ren tensed up for a brief second before shaking his head, and gathering the rest of his armor. "That could have been, yeah… But still, that would be highly unlikely— considering that they would have known we were here in the first place, it was probably the guy who let me eat here in the first place," Ren reasoned, before letting out an exasperated breath the moment he saw Luca teasingly beckoning him back with a finger.
Calling him over like one would do with a cat, Luca remained visibly unfazed as the sound of ten gunshots took Ren by surprise— causing him to flinch, which made the white-haired boy giggled at his expense.
"Quite the gambit you're taking there; especially considering that you don't know just how many people the ACTUAL Goblin Slayer crossed in his past," Luca said with an audible smug smile across his concealed lips, and began assisting Ren with tying the pieces of his reinforced leather armor to his body— starting with his forearms— before cynically musing, "Real talk though: I'm more than fine with killing the members of the guild; they all knew what they signed up for, and no one becomes an adventurer unless they're willing to die for it."
Frowning at what Luca had just said, Ren narrowed his eyes while extending his arm out to allow the boy to tie up the rest of his armor pieces along his limb. "Just because they knew what they signed up for, that doesn't mean we have to murder them."
"HA, HA! LIKE YOU'RE ONE TO TALK!" Still finding humor in their grim discussion, Luca cackled quietly to himself, before retorting, "Trying to talk from an imaginary high horse with all that blood on your hands, Gobbie~?!"
"… What's that supposed to mean?" Ren asked, while tilting his head ever so slightly to one shoulder, while the masked boy before him shrugged.
"You don't care about saving lives; you're just reluctant to kill only the adventurers, cause you bought into that "brave hero" bullcrap they get praised for," Luca elaborated, and let out a childish giggle while finishing up with Ren's arm. "Not that I care, mind you! If you wanna get killed by someone who reminds you of a childhood hero of yours, then be my guest!"
Opening his mouth to protest out of offense, Ren paused as he took a moment to reflect back on his sole advocating for the safety of the guild members— something that Luca quickly picked up on, and snickered at him while tugging the laces of his shoulder padding.
"See, I knew it! You've got a hard-on for the Adventurers' Guild! All those sailors who've got families waiting for them though?! You couldn't give a damn what happens to them, could ya?!" Luca teased condensingly, and let out an even louder laugh the moment Ren tugged his arm away from them out of frustration. "Now, now! There's no need to get uppity with me; I was just pointing out your hypocrisy— keeping it real with you, ya know~?"
Not responding to them at first, Ren glared infuriatingly at Luca— growing irritated with him, to the point that he needed a moment to collect himself, before speaking calmly, and concisely, to the seemingly carefree boy.
"Let's… Let's focus on targeting only the ones who are actively trying to attack us, for now— whether they're sailors, or… Or if they're adventurers," Ren said reluctantly, and immediately felt a sense of conflict welling up inside him, while Luca chuckled as he got down on one knee.
"Now you're putting that noodle to use, Gobbie! Let's kill them— every single last one of them~!" Luca cheered jovially, before briefly pausing while beginning to tighten the laces of Ren's thigh guards.
"Tch…! Fine, fine— whatever…! I'll play nice then…" Luca muttered in a disappointed tone— sounding as though they were pouting their bottom lip, as their hands moved their way down to fasten the rest of Ren's armor. "Just don't come crying to me if some moron makes the mistake of getting in my way, though…"
Nearly at his wits end before the battle even began, Ren had to take another moment to silently collect himself while finishing up with the last piece of his armor.
"… Duly noted," he uttered in a cold voice, while glaring daggers at them, before turning away quickly to retrieve the deconstructed parts of his scoped rifle.
Arising from the bowels of the boat, the ten sailors stepped foot onto the aged timber of the main deck— the salty air filling their lungs, even as their breath sharpened, the moment their strung eyes caught sight of the body lying below the mainmast.
"B… B-Bloody hell, mates…! That be the body of poor Richter, innit?!" One of the sailors said aloud in an uneasy voice, as his dirty fingers gripped the wooden handle beneath his flintlock rifle's barrel.
Another sailor who was closer to the corpse than the last shrugged his shoulders subtly, before muttering to his crew mates, "Aye, it might be— hard to tell, with how fockin' dark it is, lads…"
"Well no point in pussyfootin' it, Jean; go on then, and take a peek at his mug, why don't ya…?!" One sailor behind the leading crew mate suggested, to which earned him a scornful side-stare from Jean.
"M-Mate, it don' fockin' matter if it's Richter, or not— look at the bleeding uniform! It's not like it's gonna be fockin' His Majesty laying belly down in his own blood n' shite, now innit?!" Jean retorted, as he turned around to give his crew mate a look of frustration.
The alcohol in their system soon got the best of the men, as nearly all of them began shouting over one another— pointlessly arguing about their crewmates' death. Before their drunken rage and paranoia could get the best of them, a loud whistle echoing from the main deck of the boat caught their attention.
Staring back at them with the light of the full moon cascading down on his darken form, the glowing white slits along Luca's face radiating menacingly at the dumbfound sailors— causing them to take immediate aim at him, even as he struck a playfully dancing pose at them.
With their attention and guns drawn on them, Ren finally got his answer as he adjusted the crosshairs of his scope on the top of Jean's skull— turning his headlamp on, and causing him and the rest of his crew to divert their attention away from Luca, and up at the crow's nest.
"I fucking knew it too…!" Ren muttered under his breath, before pulling the trigger— sending a bullet whizzing through the leading sailor's forehead, and spraying the insides of his head all over the main deck.
Although he had a superior firearm and better armor, the half-wall of the crow's nest left him vulnerable to the other nine men who were collectively firing up at him in a panicked state— resulting in one bullet getting lodged half-way into his the left side of his rib cage, and another getting mostly caught by his reinforced shoulder pad.
Cursing under his breath, Ren continued to blow the brains out of each sailor who were all reaching into their pea coats for their flintlock pistols— using the top of the shot-up half-wall to support the bottom of his barrel, while the adrenaline and frustration pumping through him allowed for the boy to continue to take shot-after-shot at the crew.
With the sounds of gunfire alerting the rest of the intoxicated sailors from down below, it was only inevitable that started to emerge from both the quarterdeck, and whatever porthole they could think to use, in order to ambush whoever they needed that was on the main deck of their vessel.
Motivated by their own bloodlust and selfish desires to engage in the slaughter, Luca giddly leaned forward while getting into a wide battle stance— smiling sinisterly behind the mask of their helmet, as they observed the way the accumulations crewmates gawked in horror at the three jet-black arms, that were emerging from his lower back.
Stretching their nearly five-meter long appendages behind him in several different directions, Luca tightened his fingers into fists as his eye slits glistened at the closest sailor that stood frozen in horror at what he was bearing witness to.
"… It's not polite to stare," Luca uttered mockingly in a heavy, deranged voice— cackling sadistically, as they made a spectacle out of the sailor by lifting him up with two arms. Grabbing a hold of his chest and thighs, Luca sadistically sprayed the men around him in the visceral innards that shot out of the sailor's abdomen, after they had ripped him apart from the midsection with no effort— throwing the pieces of his still moving body at the large group of sailors that Ren had been firing up.
Rightfully unnerved by what he had just seen transpire, Ren forced himself to shake the shock off, in order to best capitalize on the opportunity presented before him— still feeling a sense of pity for the shell shocked sailors, as he put them all out of their misery with a bullet to their heads.
Unlike the eleven year-old perched up in the crow's nest, Luca fought with the intention of inflicting the most pain as he could to their opponents— choosing to dismember and disembowel their targets with two of their jet-black arms, while using the other two magical limbs to protect themselves from those who had enough nerve to take their shots at them.
Those who were either brave enough— or drunk enough— to charge the androgynous boy with their cutlasses and axes were met with similar fates; those who weren't eviscerated by the Luca's dark arms managed to get close enough to the four-foot tall boy to test their metal against his fists.
Staying true to his preference for gore, Luca either ripped their hands off before killing them with their own weapon, or would pierce their hands into their body to fatally tear out a handful of organs— leaving them to succumb to their wounds, after collapsing onto the floor around him.
In only a few instances did a lucky sailor manage to land a hit on Luca's fully armored body— resulting in their blades sparking, as their edges dented against their suit's sleek metal plating.
Seemingly unfazed by attacks that still would have damaged their muscles to some extent, Luca would always return the favor to their baffled assailants by reaching down to rip a handful of their genitals off— laughing maniacally at their screams of agony, even as they force-fed them their own mutilated testacles, and leaving them to die by painful asphyxiation while turning their attention to their next opponent.
With how accurate of a shot Ren was, paired Luca's furocity and agility, it wasn't long until the majority of the sailors laid dead on the main deck— with some in more pieces than others. Those who threw their weapons down and raised their arms up in surrender were spared only by the gunslinging eleven year-old— Luca showed himself to be far less merciful than Ren was, when he chased after those who had tried to flee with their lives.
Had it not been the several bullets that were partially lodged into his body, Ren would have felt sympathetic of the men who were getting their jaws ripped clean off down below the shot-up crow's nest. Deciding to leave the rest of the sailors to their gruesome fates, Ren knelt down beside his duffle bag— wincing in pain, as he used his mostly intact arm to reach inside, to retrieve his medkit.
Using the butt of his rifle for support, Ren began the painful process of removing each bullet from his body with a pair of tweezers— pulling small pieces of his own shredded muscles out with it, before dropping them onto the hole-ridden platform he was kneeling one knee on.
Practicing slow breathing techniques to regulate his body's oxygen intake, Ren reached up with one hand to unseal his helmet— grabbing a hold of it from his crimson tussel, and pulling his decompressed headgear off. Setting it to the side, Ren popped the bottle of grellsvice before downing it with a hearty shot of a healing potion— grimacing at the taste, before quickly chasing it with a gulp of purified water, from his canteen.
Taking a deep breath, Ren collected his belongings before putting his helmet back on. Not wanting to wait for the effects of his painkillers to kick in, Ren made due with his sore muscles as he descended down the rope ladder that was connected to the mainmast— groaning the entire time, as he forced his body to cooperate while it was still in the process of healing.
Trotting his stuffed bag slung over his shoulder, Ren made his way into the bowels of the ship— stepping over the bodies of over sixty men who he had a hand in killing, all while ejecting the three empty casing from his revolver's chamber. Seeing the looks of frozen horror and extricating agony upon the faces of those who still had recognizable facial features, Ren found himself questioning whether what he had done was the right thing.
On one hand, he gave the crew aboard the Admiral Joe Fowler a chance to prove their innocence, and only began retaliating once it became a matter of self defense.
On the other hand, despite how needlessly vicious he thought Luca was, Ren knew that he wasn't that much better than them; never once did he think to shoot to stop them— instead, he had been aiming solely for their heads, with the intent of ending their lives over neutralizing them.
Most troubling for him, was the grim realization that not only did he not regret killing those sailors, but that he found himself feeling just as exhilarated as he did, when he ended the lives of both the bandits, and tribe of wolves— back in the Equipoise Forest.
Any sort of sense of disgust for himself that he would have had for coming to terms with that dark revelation were soon cast aside, after stumbling upon not only the corpse of the young warrior, but upon the galley full of unconscious adventurers; some of the women having their bottoms partially pulled down while laying on flat on the ground, while luckily still having their under garments in tact— as if though their would-be sexual assailants didn't have enough time to partake in their vile acts.
By the time Ren kicked down whatever was left of the captain's door, Luca had already gotten to the older man in charge— his fingers and pieces of his limbs scattered across the blood-stained floor, while he laid gurgling on his own blood, upon the shattered remains of his once beautiful study table.
With no further need of them, Luca's jet-black arms began disintegrating into the air— leaving no trace, as the armored boy turned around to greet Ren with a concealed smile. "Well that was pretty fun, wasn't it~?!" The boy said childishly, while watching curiously as Ren made his way closer to the limbless body of what used to be the captain of the ferry.
Staring down at him with conflicting feelings, Ren watched coldly as the grown man choked on his final breath— his back seizing up, before what remained of him became deathly still.
"So like… You made sure to interrogate him first, yeah? You didn't just go straight into torturing him to death… D-Did you?" Ren asked cautiously, while part of him was already anticipating the worst.
Scoffing playfully at his sense of worry, Luca sassily waved their hand at him before gesturing down at the deceased captain with a chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about that— this isn't the first time I've done this little song-and-dance!" They stated proudly, while turning to stand beside Ren, as the two of them stared down at his handiwork. "I made sure to vivisect that little noodle of his, before ACTUALLY vivisecting him!"
"Ah, I see… So… Why'd he do it then?" Ren asked with audible disdain in his voice, as he turned his head over his damaged shoulder armor to stare back at Luca's glowing white-slits. "What would drive a man and his underlings into doing such heinous acts?"
Cocking their head to the side to convey a sense of perplexity, Luca couldn't help but to let out a soft laugh of disbelief while gently shaking their head at Ren. "Even after what you've supposedly seen happened to your friend, you still feel the need to ask that? Isn't the answer obvious enough yet?" Luca asked, much to Ren's exhausted frustration.
"Cut the shit, already; just tell me what he said, alright…?!" Ren demanded in a low voice, which earned him an amused chuckle from the armored boy that stood a few inches below the top of his head.
"Well "Mister Grumpypants," the plan was to drug the entirety of the guild by feeding them natural sedatives through their crap food to pacify them. From there, they were gonna nip their stuff, and sell it all to their buyer: "The Augusta Vanguard," who's actually on their way here, supposedly!" Luca said informingly in a cooperative manner— showing enthusiasm, by subtly swaying place, while still staring into the black abyss behind Ren's armored slits, that offered added protection to his face-shield.
"… "The Augusta Vanguard"?" Ren repeated back with an inquisitive tone, before asking Luca, "What are they? Black market merchants? Pirates?"
Shaking his head and blowing an amused raspberry at Ren's wild guesses, Luca nonchalantly raised an arm and grabbed a hold of the other boy's shoulder before replying back, "No sire, Bob! They're what most people would consider to be "technophile terrorists"— if you can believe such a thing actually exists!"
Stunned at how jovially Luca delivered that concerning response to him, it took Ren a few moments to gather his thoughts before finally replying to the boy standing beside him. "I… I see," he muttered, and paused again before reluctantly asking them, "So, uh… W-What are the chances that they can be reasoned with?"
"That all depends on whomst they're speaking to, Gobbie! Luckily for us, we're not actually associated with the members of the guild— so it's not like we've got any obligation to throw our lives away, trying to take them down for the "good of the kingdom"," Luca replied, while making air quotations with his raised fingers, before happily clapping his palms together. "Which means you and I have a solid chance of turning this mess around!"
"… What makes you say that, J-Joker?" Ren asked, while sounding unsure whether or not it was appropriate to address Luca by their alias.
Clearly entertained at his delivery, Luca chortled to himself before further elaborating with, "Because unlike these once merry band of seamen, the Augusta Vanguard isn't interested in raping and human trafficking— they're only interested in collecting artifacts, and high-end equipment!"
Crossing his arms over his chest, and watching as Luca suddenly knelt down to loot the golden cutlass from what was left of the captain's lower half, Ren began putting two-and-two together while the boy beside him rose to his feet.
"So what you're insinuating is that they can be bargained with then?" Ren asked with a suspecting tone in his flat voice, to which Luca nodded, while making his way to the large safe in the corner of the captain's cabin.
"Correctomundo! For the right price, I reckon that they'll not only not engage with us, but they might even be willing to transport us all to Port Catan! Even those dead-weight adventurers, who you've got a crush on~!" Luca suggested, before playfully teasing Ren while cracking up the safe— opening its reinforced door, and revealing a tower of stacked golden ingots inside of its compartment. "Oh, ho-ho-ho~! We might actually be able to pull this off, after all~!"
Although he was genuinely impressed with the accumulated wealth that the captain had been hoarding for himself, Ren kept his focus on their brainstorming session— acknowledging the gold bars' existence with a raise of his eyebrows, before turning his attention back to Luca.
"We can only hope so, can't we…?" Ren asked rhetorically, and paused briefly before segueing, "By the way… How do you know all about this?"
Pausing from counting the number of gold ingots stacked upon one another, Luca stared back silently at Ren— conveying an enigmatic sense of unseen smugness, as he finally broke his silence with a throaty chuckle.
"Like I've said, Gobbie: this isn't my first song-and-dance~!"