Alex moved cautiously through the ship, the C- rank sword a reassuring weight in his hand.
He actually had something to defend himself with now, other than just having to rely on pure brute force to deal with all his problems.
The corridors twisted and turned, and despite the ship's enormous size, it was eerily empty.
He hadn't encountered any more aliens since the three he had dispatched near the airlock, and the silence was unsettling.
'Where is everyone?' He wondered.
On a ship of this size, there should be hundreds, if not thousands of crew members bustling about.
Yet the only signs of life he found were the four dead alien pirates he had already killed.
It felt like a ghost ship.
His first priority was to find an escape pod, but his initial search had been fruitless.
He had checked the areas where escape pods would typically be located on freighter class ships, noting that the layout was similar to the human designs of freighters he had seen before.
Yet, there was nothing.
The emptiness of the ship gnawed at him as he continued to explore.
The corridors once full of potential threats, now seemed to stretch endlessly with no purpose.
He began to piece together a theory.
'This ship is probably stolen, considering these guys are pirates. Probably a piece of loot these guys have taken along their travels. That has to be the only explanation.' Alex mused.
It made sense.
The pirates had likely intercepted the freighter on its trade route, killed the original crew, and were now using it as their base.
But where were the rest of the pirates?
He had only encountered the four aliens, which was hardly enough to crew a ship of this size.
After a thorough sweep of the rear end of the ship, Alex came to a frustrating and worrying conclusion.
This was the area where the living quarters were kept, and Alex made sure to sweep each and every last room for any signs of life.
Considering the long periods of time it takes to get from A to B with space travel, he wouldn't be surprised if there were some sleeping aliens in any of these.
And he was right in thinking this.
'Movement!'
Alex sensed movement that only slipped into his 20 metre range for just a split second, but it was more than enough time for him to get a good visual of the originator of this movement in his head.
'There really was an alien in this area!'
Alex paused to a halt as he turned around and moved closer to the door of the room he sensed the movement in.
'It's... cooking?'
Alex had no idea what it was cooking, probably some alien slop, but he was even more confused about why it was so calm.
The other aliens should have known by now that he was roaming about the ship, hunting their comrades, as not only had the first alien he had encountered been killed, and shouted for help across its communicator before its neck was snapped.
But Alex had killed the other three aliens that had been sent after him as well.
So the message for help had clearly gone through.
'Have they just given up on me?'
'But why the hell would they do that??'
Alex didn't let his confusion get the better of him though, as he focused on observing the alien in the living quarter even further.
He knew it was part of the alien pirate crew, as it was wearing the same uniform as the others he had come across, obviously being of the same species too.
Alex crouched low, every muscle tensed as he prepared to ambush the alien.
It had its back turned towards the door, which was thankfully open, leaving Alex the perfect opportunity for a sneak attack.
He moved silently, making his way inside with zero noise being produced.
His spatial perception indicated there were no more life sources nearby, so he didn't hold back any longer.