“I didn’t like you from the very beginning.” King Red’s voice sounded, “The fact that you somehow managed to sneak away from Enrico proves your skill, but did you really think that putting a cheap drug in the alcohol will disable everyone and then you will free those Qi masters to finish us off?”

Nick saw king Red coming out from tree shadows and around ten men were following her. He was certain they were not watching before, but only just arrived. All of them were present at the feast and ate the stew and Enrico probably was the headless one on the floor in king White’s residence.

‘She managed to find the alcohol? So she probably switched those barrels under the water as well. How I didn’t notice that? But may be it is better this way – looks like they think that poisoning alcohol was my grand plan.’ Nick thought.

Then he gave a sigh, got up and slowly walked towards the pirates while calculating time, ‘Weakest ones probably will start showing symptoms in ten, may be fifteen minutes. Another fifteen minutes later most of them should be dead.’

“What is it? Not so arrogant any more? Hahaha!” King Red laughed, “Come, I want to see White’s face when he’ll hear of this.”

In their eyes Nick was just a ‘regular’ person, so they didn’t tie him up or hold by hand. Several of the men escorting king Red were Qi masters and others were strong fighters as well, so no one thought this kid could run away or provide any resistance. Even more, he seemed to accept his fate and slowly walked along with a dejected look on his face.

Pirates were still drinking and singing at the docks and when they saw the strange procession they stepped aside to allow king Red to proudly pass by.

When they stood in front of king White, king Red victoriously laughed, “I caught this little thief trying to release our captives.”

She dropped the big bomb right away and everyone around gasped in shock. Not because it was brave or dangerous, but because it was unbelievably stupid – there was no use of releasing prisoners other than to get killed by these two thousand seasoned pirates!

“And earlier he tried to poison our alcohol!” She added and looked at Nick, “Are there any last words you want to say?”

Nick calmly looked around at the shocked faces of pirates, then straight into the angry eyes of king White. He was already preparing for his next Oscar nomination during the last few minutes while they were slowly coming back from captives.

“You said it yourself – you didn’t like me from the beginning.” Nick said to the still grinning king Red, “From the very first meal I cooked for king White until this magnificent feast, I always did my best to make everyone happy and satisfied. The sole reason for my existence is creating the food that brings joy and health to the people. I am an artist and I don’t care for whom I cook, be it commoner or a king – what I take my pride in is the look at the happy faces when people consume my meals!”

He took a short pause to increase the effects of his speech, “You, on the other hand, have been jealous of king White having me by his side from the moment we met and now even want to kill me!”

Tears fell down his cheeks as his speech neared its end, “But I’m an artist! Even if I have to die, I will choose myself how to do it! Heavens will curse those who try to kill the cook!”

And in that instant in front of over two thousand pairs of eyes, he dashed towards the water and dived in from pier. It happened so fast, that nobody, including normally extremely fast and agile king Red, could react.

After few seconds she finally commanded, “Quickly, get him!”

Several her assistants jumped in the water to look for Nick. During the day the lagoon was of beautiful turquoise blue color, but during the night waters naturally turned dark. And with Nick’s experience in diving and ability to hold the air, there was no way for anyone to catch him.

“I want an explanation!” King White angrily barked at king Red.

“I told you already! That kid poisoned the alcohol and tried to release the captives! I caught him myself.” She defended.

“Red! I don’t like him, but where could he get the poison from? And what use is there to release those half-dead people? He is not that stupid! Or do you think I am?” The more he spoke, the angrier king White became.

“What alcohol?” King Black tried to mediate. This situation had heated up too fast. Normally they didn’t fight openly, but when they did, it would be at least a fair duel. This kind of scheme was more suited for palace and not Paradise city.

“Those barrels, over there.” King Red pointed at almost twenty barrels stacked at the side, “But it is not really a poison, he added some weak ingredient that can make a Qi master dizzy. I think he wanted to incapacitate us and then get the prisoners to finish the job.”

One had to give her credit, she was not stupid at all and her guess was quite accurate.

King Black went over to the barrels and broke the lid on one of them, then took a handful of alcohol and sniffed it.

“I’m telling you, I checked before, the thing inside barely can induce some dizziness to a regular Qi practitioner. Qi master almost wouldn’t notice it.” King Red confidently said.

King Back dipped his finger in and licked it, then tried a mouthful, “I’m not sure if there is anything added in here. What is the fuss bout?” He said in confusion, but when he looked around he saw countless stupefied faces looking at him.

“Whats wrong?” King Black asked.

“Black, you …” King White pointed at him and stuttered. In front of the shocked crowd blood started seeping from king Black's eyes and nostrils.

King Black touched his cheek and looked at his fingers just to see some blood when his vision turned blurry and he fell on his knees and started to spasm. Several other weaker pirates in crowd started having similar reaction.

“What did you do to our king?” One of king Black’s officers shouted at king Red as he drew his sword.

King Red was as stunned as everyone else around her. Several hours ago she personally checked the alcohol and it was, as she said, more like a pranksters joke. But now the king Black was dying in front of her. She was so stupefied that didn’t notice others who were having similar symptoms.

“I knew that allowing a woman to become a king will break the balance and cause mutiny at the end!” King White drew his sword and roared. It was an obvious trick from this bitch, all was just a scheme, “So master Sten found out you wanted to poison us and you killed him as well?” He loudly questioned.

His closest followers were already behind him and bunch of people in red bandannas formed defensive circle around king Red.

“No, I …” She tried to defend herself, but what happened next sent everything into total mess.

“You bitch! You killed our captain!” One of the king Black’s followers drew his sword and attacked the crowd protecting king Red and others immediately followed. They had served their king for years and been through thick and thin, but this woman killed their captain with despicable means.

A chaotic skirmish started as the three sides clashed.

Meanwhile Nick was almost at the cages with captives again. In the darkness he could discern a crowd of people holding weapons and looking back over their shoulders as if waiting for something. Nick knew he could be taken for a pirate if he approached like this, therefore he sneaked around towards the cage where the Qi masters were previously kept.

Since there was someone with incredible senses, he whispered already from afar, “Clayton!”

“Nick? Come here, we are preparing the attack.” Clayton’s voice sounded and Nick quickly ran over.

He saw that Qi masters were gathered in a small circle and Steven was squatting beside Clayton. They probably were discussing the attack plan. It seemed like everyone was released, but Nick saw that there were still few weapons on the ground.

Answering his questioning look, one of the Qi masters explained, “Not everyone is capable of lifting a weapon, not to speak about being helpful in the attack. Quickly report the situation and give us the locations of the kings.”

‘A military man, good!’ Nick grinned.

These people were brought here directly from ships and didn’t have the chance to see the layout of the grotto. They didn’t know how many pirates were there, but knew there were many and the most dangerous, of course, were the pirate kings.

“Alright. All the pirates are gathered in the docks and almost every single one is poisoned, may be even all of them. They should be starting to die off at this very moment.” Nick looked at the stupefied faces of Qi masters who were preparing to fight to their deaths, “All we need to do is finish them off. Be careful of the Qi masters – they will be resistant to the poison, especially the kings.”

“Are you sure?” Clayton asked after a moment of silence, “How did you pull it off?”

“I’ll explain later. We have to let captives kill some pirates to recover their spirits – people need to vent. And then we’ll leave this island before some other pirate ships return. Although most of them are here, there are definitely many who are on the way as well.” Nick quickly spoke his thoughts, “Oh, right, after we deal with the situation in the docks, we need one to take charge there and the other Qi masters should separate into pairs and stealthily kill the guards that are left on the ships. I doubt there are any tonight, but we still need to check. Clayton, you’ll come with me, we have a something to discuss. Steven, you’ll stay on the pier and you’ll have the most important task – don’t let anyone eat or drink anything that is still there, no matter how harmless it looks, otherwise people will just die. They have to hold on for an hour or two more and we will feed everyone after I return.”

Steven nodded and, although Clayton Evans found it really weird to follow command of a young teen boy, he nodded as well. The Qi master with the military background waved for everyone to set off and they approached the several hundred people who were impatiently waiting.

“Our person inside has weakened the pirates and all we have to do is to finish them off. Be careful of the strong ones – leave them to our Qi masters. Also, after we finish, don’t eat or drink anything – all the food and drinks around the docks are poisoned! Now, move out! Silently!” The military person gave quick orders and people passed it further down the crowd. The armed force of several hundred captives quickly informed each other and were excited to charge – they were not running just to die – there was a real hope!

‘Who the hell is this man?’ Nick thought while leading the way, ‘He has almost the intelligence of king Alexander Maxwell. If he fights that good as well, he alone would suffice to clean up this mess. How in the world did he get caught?’

Nick knew that pirates should finally start showing the symptoms and die soon after. The amount of poison paste he mixed in wasn’t the small bit that could cause addiction, rather a guaranteed overdose for anyone who ate the stew. And even though potatoes were the main ingredient, they still won’t be able to prevent the poison absorption for a longer periods of time.