章 15: Chapter 15
Gin. If one were to summarize this man in one word, it would be "Krieg's dog." Carrying out every single order given by Krieg, no matter how inhumane it seemed to be; to the eyes of an average person, Gin was someone fitting the title of 'Man Demon.'
It was this maniacal trait of Gin that the Krieg pirates feared and respected. They, without a doubt, believed that Gin indeed deserved the position of Combat Commander in their crew.
Currently, a man of this caliber was rendered to one of the many corpses laid on the Ugly Adventure. And the tonfa that he took pride on—one that cracked the skulls of countless enemies—was being held by someone else... Rowan, the bounty hunter who's recently attained some degree of fame.
"GIN!!!!!" The man of iron plates, Pearl, revealed his horror. Screaming after a delay, the man rushed forward, seemingly attempting to launch himself toward Rowan out of anger.
However, Krieg then held his hand up, stopping Pearl from carrying out his rash action. With a strange calmness, Krieg opened his mouth,
"...Fire."
Krieg's eyes locked on Gin's motionless body. In a shaky tone, he stated,
"Forget the treasure... we'll salvage what we can."
This is when Rowan grimaced, realizing that having the cannonballs fired at this distance, will place Nami and Carina in great danger.
"Sink the ship—"
SWOOSH!
Therefore, Rowan moved immediately. Leaping himself to an adjacent ship before the Krieg pirates could react, Rowan smashed the tonfa into the head of one pirate, before lifting up a heavy cannon with his free hand. Subsequently jumping and dropping the tonfa, Rowan aimed the cannon in his hold, while airborne, toward Krieg's flagship.
BOOM! As he pulled the string, a cannonball was fired, and he was sent propelling back due to the force.
Krieg's eyes became bloodshot as he stared at the approaching cannonball, "W-what in the world—"
BOOM!
Though Pearl stepped in at the last moment and attempted to block the cannonball, it was to no avail. The figurehead of the flagship broke down, and the ship itself was set aflame. Pearl was blasted out of the ship, into the cold water below.
SPLASH!
"A-ahhh... AHHHHHH!!!!!" And Pearl, who realized that he was currently bleeding quite badly, lost his sanity in a pitiful manner.
'...A hemophobic?' Thought Rowan.
Simultaneously, the flagship was engulfed by the smokes. No one outside could see by sight, of what was Krieg's current condition.
"""C-CAPTAIN KRIEG!!!!!"""
The pirates shouted in panic. They quickly reached for the cannon, trying to carry out the order spoken by Krieg before Rowan's attack. However,
BOOM.
Rowan then threw the empty cannon toward another cannon sitting on another ship. Landing back on the Ugly Adventure, Rowan grabbed a random corpse and threw it toward another ship, where a cannonball was fired. Upon the cannonball crashing onto the corpse,
BOOM! It exploded in midair and produced a cloud of smoke, obstructing the vision of many.
"Huff... huff..."
Rowan quickly ran his thought while checking the surrounding ships,
'Moving from one ship to another is inefficient. Considering how multiples will be fired at once, actively removing those cannons contain too many risks.'
Another cannonball then appeared through the cloud of smokes, to which Rowan responded by throwing another corpse,
BOOM!
'So use these corpses.'
BOOM!
One by one, Rowan accurately sensed the approaches of the cannonballs. The more and more he used the Observation Haki, the more he was getting familiar with it—though he, at the same time, felt that mental exhaustion was gradually getting stronger.
BOOM!
The sky rained with blood, remnants of cannonballs, and sparks of fire as the corpses met the cannonballs midair. The smoke was getting thicker and thicker as this continued, with the panicky pirates aimlessly firing the cannonballs into the smoke.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
And eventually, all ships ran out of cannonballs, with them having fired them non-stop a few moments ago. The number of corpses on the Ugly Adventure has visibly reduced, and the bloody, crimson-coloured deck was exposed in Rowan's sight once more.
Swoosh.
In this state, Rowan sensed another projectile with his Observation Haki.
'...Another cannonball?'
Rowan lifted up another corpse and threw it,
POOF!
At the next moment, the projectile collided with the thrown corpse and exploded. However, it wasn't a smoke, but rather, a purple-coloured gas—
'...Poison!!!'
Rowan's eyes widened as the poison gas rapidly rushed toward him,
before a pair of hands pulled him back, into the doorway that led to the downstairs of the Ugly Adventure.
Bam!
Then, the door was shut. As Rowan huffed while staring at the door in front of him, Nami, who was holding the back of Rowan's shirt, sighed in relief.
"Ha... haha..." Carina, who was sweating profusely from the intensity of the situation, muttered, "...I don't think you were this strong when you went against Mad Treasure a few days ago."
"Huff... huff... I think the same," Said Rowan as he briefly took a breather. Smiling in thanks for the support, Rowan then quickly moved down the stairs. As Nami and Carina—exhibiting confusion—immediately followed after him, Rowan went past the dining room, few filthy beds, and other features, before finally reaching the foul-smelling bathroom.
As Nami and Carina held their noses in disgust, Rowan opened a wooden board below, revealing a square-shaped hole where the rippling water lied below.
"What an interesting ship," Carina muttered, "One incidence of a crash, and the ship might as well sink. Seriously, just a single layer of wood just above the water..."
"Hu..." Rowan took in a deep breath, inflating his lungs. Nami, watching as he did so, asked,
"...What's the plan?" Nami was evidently worried, "You are running out of stamina, and there still are thousands of them remaining. This ship is currently surrounded, and if they have freaky weapons like that poison bomb, who knows what else they got."
"Sounds about right, but this encounter did suggest one thing to me... that sometimes, having an advantage in number can serve as a hindrance instead."
Rowan faced Nami and spoke out of confidence,
"I need some more of your help."
...
SPLASH!
Without any further wait, Rowan dove underwater, and rapidly swam across the part below the Ugly Adventure, toward the bottom of the flagship.
The sea was dark due to the presence of multiple ships above, and horrifying, with the countless corpses and remnants of many broken-down ships.
'...Truly the ugly adventure.' Rowan grimaced as he gazed above, where the atmosphere seemed to have cleared without any trace of that purple gas. Latching the bottom of a ladder attached to the flagship, Rowan then rapidly shot his body upward, out of water.
"H-HUH?!!"
"CAPTAIN KRIEG!!!!"
As most of the pirates were busy nervously eyeing the bloody Ugly Adventure, some of them managed to notice Rowan who abruptly appeared right above the flagship. Losing the upward momentum, Rowan began to fall at an accelerating pace.
"Ha?!!" Krieg, who was bleeding by the corner of his lips, raised his head up and expressed panic—
BOOM!
"Kurgh...!"
Rowan then crashed onto Krieg with a kick, breaking the deck and sending the both of them into the inner floor of Krieg's flagship.
"""GAAAAHH!!""" As the other pirates on the flagship were busy trying to maintain their balance, Krieg quickly pushed his body up from the lying position,
PUK!
only for his face to be mashed by Rowan's follow-up punch. His nose exploded in a bloody mess, and the back of his head was slammed against a nearby chair from the force behind the punch. However, it wasn't enough for Krieg to lose consciousness. Disregarding his bleeding nose, Krieg swiftly detached his shoulder plate and wielded it like a shield.
As Rowan dashed at him with his fist cocked back, Krieg grinned, before,
BANG BANG BANG!
multitudes of bullets were fired from the surface of the shield—
PUK!
"—GAHH!!!" Krieg let out a pain-filled cry as Rowan, with the combination of incredible reflex and Observation Haki, dodged all bullets and slammed his fist on Krieg's already-broken nose.
SWOOSH! Krieg wildly threw his fists as he was suffocating from his own blood, trying to prevent Rowan's approach. Rowan, sidestepping and weaving with ease, ensured that not a single one landed, and,
BOOM!
upon landing a kick on Krieg's face—hitting it for the third time—the wooden wall behind Krieg broke, and the water began flooding into the ship.
"W-w-what do we do?!!" One of the pirates, watching the fight from above, tried to aim his rifle at Rowan, but couldn't shoot out of fear that he may injure Krieg instead. Others too, couldn't afford to go in and aid Krieg, not only because they may hold Krieg down, but also because Krieg has zero regard for the lives of his crew.
The pirates in the adjacent ships too watched sinking flagship with panic, wondering what they should do. Then, one shouted,
"DAMN IT!!!" That one pirate grabbed a rope and launched himself into the bloody Ugly Adventure, "Might as well raid the ship then!!!"
"""...FUCKING GENIUS!!"""
Knowing that Rowan was bound by Krieg, the pirates other than the ones on flagship resumed their charging. The doorway broke open by their aggressive kicks, and they flooded the inner section of the Ugly Adventure.
Creak—.
"W-whoa..." One of them reached the room where a good deal of treasures were stored, and expressed amazement. His eyes flashed in greed, and quickly forgetting the fact that his captain was fighting, he began pocketing as many gold bars as he could.
"Man, no wonder captain Krieg wanted to get this dude!! He's strong, but the risk is worth it!!"
"Poopoopoopoo!!! This can't be real!!"
"Gin... your sacrifice will be remembered by us... don't worry! We'll enjoy more in your stead!"
""HAHAHAHA!"" / "POOPOOPOOPOO—"
BOOM!
The laughing pirates froze as a loud noise of explosion suddenly blasted in. Panickily running their ways out, they found,
"Beeeh!" Carina, standing on top of one of their own ship, pulling her eyelid and extending her tongue out in a mocking fashion. Then, she pulled a string and fired cannonballs at the adjacent, pirate-filled ships.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
And the enemy pirate ships couldn't retaliate. They've run out of cannonballs, and the ones that Nami and Carina are using were the ones brought out from the storage of the Ugly Adventure. Previously, after Rowan's surprise attack, the two of them sneaked out through the same hole of the ship, and carrying a bag of cannonballs with a mild difficulty, successfully reached the ship nearest to the Ugly Adventure—one where no one remained on top of.
"RAAAA!!!!" The pirates, trying to prevent all their ships from getting destroyed, quickly moved the remaining ships. They tried to slam their ships into the one hijacked by the girls, however,
"Heh, as if! Why do you think I chose this ship in the first place?!" Nami, who was taking hold of the steering wheel, shouted while making a sharp right turn. And below, the water current was moving in favour of them, slowing down the remaining pirate ships who tried to catch up.
BOOM!
"...F... uck," Muttered one pirate as he fell to his knees, staring at one cannonball that was approaching toward him, "We were outplayed."
"Idiot! Quickly jump into the water!"
And just as another pirate grabbed him by the hem of the shirt and dove into the water, the ship exploded.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One by one, the ships became wrecked. With Rowan not only having sank many, but also having damaged all of them, the fifty ships of Krieg pirates couldn't stand Nami and Carina's counterattack, and were eventually reduced into two: the slowly sinking flagship where an intense battle was still ongoing, and the hijacked one that Nami and Carina were standing on top of.
The thousands of pirates desperately attached themselves to the sinking flagship and the Ugly Adventure, and though unbelievable... it seemed that Rowan, Nami, and Carina were on the winning side.
...
SWOOSH!
"Vahahaha... what's wrong, Krieg?" Rowan, leaning back to evade a strong punch from Krieg, said with a grin, "Is your 'Foul Play' not working as well as it should?"
"C-captain Krieg..." The pirates above couldn't do anything but watch as their situation has quickly become desperate. They nervously looked back and forth between the hijacked ship and Krieg.
Click. Even their firearms have run out of ammo. It was ridiculous; thousands of bullets and cannonballs were fired, and yet, not a single one among the three was killed.
BOOM!
"AS IF!!!"
Krieg roared in the midst of his shortness of breath, as his punch blasted through another wooden wall, creating an even bigger hole that increased the rate of water flooding in. Furthermore, the pirates who were attached to that side of the wall were knocked out by the same punch.
"Huff... huff..."
The fact that Krieg's nose was broken and clogged by the dried blood, was preventing him from making a rational thought. His eyes were red, and he currently had one goal only: to murder the black-haired bounty hunter in front of him, as brutally as he could.
"Huff... huff..." However, Rowan too was at his last straw, having run out of energy. Sweating profusely and breathing rapidly, he knew that he had to end this quickly.
Briefly eyeing the water that was now at their ankle level, Rowan and Krieg once again charged at each other,
BOOM!
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