Ars after picking the sand, also took out a small blade that he kept with him and hid in a few bushes, waiting for his pursuers to arrive and come closer to him. The idea was to ambush them and at least kill one before getting into a big fight, so he can increase his odds of getting out alive.
A few seconds after he hid 3 thugs appeared, realizing he wasn't in sight and probably hid somewhere nearby, they agreed to separate to search faster. Seeing this Ars smiled because now he might actually be able to get rid of them one by one if everything goes right.
The first thug he would like to target was the strongest looking one, he was searching below a large wooden anchorage between the wooden pillars, Ars looked at the other two, one was going in the direction of smallwood house, probably a toolshed, the other was searching in between a few groups of boxes. Unfortunately his target was the furthest one from him so he had to change his target, so he decided to go for the one in between the boxes.
Moving as stealthy as he could he managed to get near the boxes, he grabbed a small rock and threw it on a box filled with metal items, in the opposite direction from himself, that caught the attention of the thug, who started moving to check if the boy they were chasing was hidden there. The thug passed right by Ars hiding place but was distracted by the sound, and considering Ars was hidden quite well, the thug passed just a few steps away when Ars left his hiding place and stabbed the back of the thugs head with all his strength, the thug instantly died.
Ars quickly as he could, took all the money he could find, his weapon, a damaged saber and a blood sample, by now he was used to trying to get blood samples any chance he got. After that he checked on the other two, his initial preferred target was still looking and the other had just arrived at the house. again stealthy as he could he moved in the direction of his original target, he realized that by the time he arrived at a position where he could strike, the thug would be almost done searching the place so Ars climbed one of the anchorage pillars and waited for the thug to come back and pass below him. The thug started coming back after not even a minute passed and when he got close enough Ars jumped with a saber and cleaved the thug head, and half of his upper torso in half.
After picking what he could, Ars thought 'I dont have the time to reach the house unseen, so how can i get rid of my enemy?', no matter how he looked at the situation, he wouldn't be able to kill the last one, and that would mean the thug would most likely run and comeback with reinforcements to search for him, the thug knew his face so if he had a gang they wouldn't let it go unless they were forced too, they also had the advantage of knowing the island better, besides the fact that he had no idea of who to trust, who knew who could be an informer or even a gang member that didn't look like it made things even harder. So he had to kill the enemy but…. how? The best case scenario would be that the thug would come to investigate the body.
Ars hid hoping that the best case scenario would happen but on the way to the place where he was hiding the thug noticed the body and started going on the direction of the boxes, there he found another body, Ars as a last resource showed himself hoping that the thug would come to attack him, but the thug broke out running.
Ars not surprised by this decided to follow him as stealthly as he could, but lost him along the way, instead slowly moved in the direction the thug was going, luckly after a few minutes of walking he saw the thug leading a large group of thugs out of a big storehouse. The thugs were going in the direction of the beach where he killed the other two.
Ars hid himself starting to plan how to destroy the enemy, he looked at the storehouse, and decided to sneak in and try to set up a trap. Once all the thugs left he carefully approached the storehouse, the door was looked but there were windows already broken on one of the sides, Ars started making a makeshift ladder, and after he was done he entered through one of those windows. Almost all of the thugs left to search for him but one stayed, Ars saw him working on a boat, he looked around and realized there were more than one boat but the one being worked on was the biggest, but one of the other boats caught his attention simply because it was usable by one single person.
Ars started making plans on how to get it. Ars got close to the thug preparing himself to kill the enemy in one strike but then he heard a loud scream behind him "Kyaaaaa!!!" The thug, startled by the scream, looked back, and saw Ars with the small blade in his hand and he connected the dots, " You are the 'bastard' those guys were screaming about, but what are you doing here? ".
Before Ars could respond, a young child rushed out from a small fortress made of wooden boxes, Ars didn't pay attention to it because it was too small to fit an adult, but now that he observed the thug from the front, the thug was an old man… He wasn't a thug at all, and now for the first time since arriving on the island, Ars was feeling confused, he didn't want to kill the old man and the child, but he needed them gone so he could execute his plans.
Ars decided to knock them out and then put them away on his new boat, and finally come back to what he was doing, and continue his plan, and that was exactly what he did. Once he was back, he gathered gunpowder and hid it inside boxes, then set tripwires near the ground as traps, he also poured all the alcohol he could find in the storehouse, he put all the berries he could find on his boat, and after that he got his new boat on the ground and slowly pushed it towards the water that happily wasn't too far, carefully he left the storehouse behind, then finally he went to check on the old man and the child on his new ship.
A few hours later the thugs came back, Ars had made the traps near the center, so it wasn't triggered instantly, only after all the thugs came in and one reached a place with traps, that the storehouse went up in smoke with a huge explosion. Ars rushed in ignoring most of the flames and used one of the sabers he stole from the thugs to stab the heart of all thugs he could find.
Most looked dead but to make sure they were dead he went around and made sure of it, and by doing that he also collected blood samples from all the thugs. Most of the thugs were pretty normal, but their boss was actually decently strong, he had survived the explosion and was wounded heavily, but wasn't in any life danger until Ars came and stabbed him.
With all of the thugs dead he went back to his new 'home', the ship he stole from the thugs, when he arrived the old man was awake and was calmly waiting for him, Ars didn't know how to react to that…..
"You know you could have runned…." Ars says with an amused expression. The old man just shrugs it off" Maybe, but run where? There was a reason that nobody helped us even though they knew that this child's life was being threatened and we were forced to work to survive, even the marines ignored us." the old man now looking straight at Ars eyes.
"So tell me… Run where?" Ars was shocked, he didn't expect such an answer, but now he was curious… So he decided to bite and asked "Why are you unwelcome in this city?".
The old man looked down at the sea "My son and a marine officer got into a drunken brawl, it got really bad, and the marine fell in a bad place and hit his head on some broken glass…. He didn't make it. After that my son had to run and became a pirate to survive, and we stayed behind but were shunned by everyone. That was until recently these thugs found out I used to be a shipwright, then we were accepted, we didn't want to be accepted by them but we had no choice in the matter."
Ars now understood, he thought about it and he thought about his plans he intended to get GAIA create a hidden island, and then he would hid a portal that would lead to a new planet, created by him using GAIA, there he intended to create a new kingdom, so getting people even if ahead of his plans wasn't so bad, and with that thought he looked at the old man asked "In that case why not come with me to see a new world!?"