East Blue,
Some said the sea was like a fickle woman—calm and peaceful one second, hysterical the next!
Roman had never seen the sea in his previous life, but in this life, he deeply agreed.
Even after drifting and fighting at sea for three years, he still had to grip the rope beside him to keep from being thrown into the ocean.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, while the fierce wind made the Jolly Roger crack and snap. Waves rose and fell one after another. Simply watching their surging momentum gave one the sense of an irresistible power and majesty between heaven and earth.
From above, the four-hundred-ton pirate ship, the Wave Rider, capable of carrying fifty people, looked like a fallen willow leaf, rising and plunging through the boundless ocean as though any wave might swallow it whole.
Just then, a massive flash of light flickered in the distant sky, and nature's might crashed down.
Under that lightning, the skin of everyone aboard the Wave Rider was coated in a sheen of light, while the blades in their hands gleamed with particular brilliance! The lookout atop the mast was already shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Target spotted!"
"Three o'clock direction, twelve nautical miles away!"
Standing at the bow, straight as a spear despite the wind and waves, was a middle-aged man wearing a dark black tricorne hat. With a sharp clang, he drew the rapier at his waist and gave the order:
"Hard to starboard! Raise the triangular sails, full speed ahead!"
Under the command of the eagle-eyed middle-aged captain, the Wave Rider truly lived up to its name, slicing through the sea and shooting forward like an arrow. Not even the raging waves could slow it down.
Before long, the pirate ship's target appeared before them: an armed merchant vessel. Though its sailors kept tossing barrels and debris into the sea, the Wave Rider, holding the speed advantage, gradually caught up from behind.
"Ready~~~~fire!"
The middle-aged captain raised his rapier again.
With a forceful downward swing, the Wave Rider suddenly tilted to the left, while several tongues of fire burst from its right side!
Amid the spreading white smoke, several cannonballs howled toward the merchant ship ahead to the right! But an armed merchant vessel bold enough to sail the seas was naturally not an opponent that could be easily taken down by solid iron balls.
In truth, the attack was meant more as a test than to inflict damage.
A test to see whether the other side had any "experts" capable of intercepting cannonballs!
After firing several volleys and confirming that the enemy had no such "experts," the middle-aged captain lifted his chin and directly ordered them to accelerate and close in, preparing for boarding combat!
For pirate captains, this was their favorite approach. If they won a boarding battle, they could not only Milton as much wealth as possible, but also seize the entire merchant ship. Of course, the risks and sailor casualties in boarding combat were equally staggering.
Though towering waves churned and white foam rolled, the Wave Rider relied on its incredible speed to quickly sail parallel with the lumbering merchant ship to its right.
As grappling hooks flew over and caught on the enemy's railings, the sailors aboard the armed merchant ship fired back continuously, but the terrible weather severely hampered the use of flintlock guns.
The pirates aboard the Wave Rider were already shouting wildly in excitement, quickly setting up gangplanks to begin the close-quarters fighting. But then—
Whoosh—
A figure had already taken the lead, leaping across the distance between the two ships and landing with a boom behind the defensive line formed by the merchant ship's sailors.
"Who are you?"
Amid the startled cries of the merchant sailors, the youth who had landed behind them... yes, despite his well-proportioned build and the defined muscles visible beneath his thin sailor's uniform, his handsome face made it clear:
He was definitely a youth.
And that face of his... under different circumstances, the sailors might have mistaken him for some noble young master out on an excursion. But now, with a Sailor's Knife in one hand and a shield in the other, he did not look like a good person no matter how they looked at him.
"Kill him!"
At the command of a merchant convoy leader, the surrounding sailors immediately charged at the youth. Several Sailor's Knives came chopping down at his head without hesitation! Yet at such a critical moment, inappropriate laughter rang out from the Wave Rider.
"Hahaha, they're dead—"
"They actually dared attack Captain Roman,"
"Wonderful..."
Amid the pirates' unrestrained laughter, the surrounded youth softly "muttered to himself":
"You struck first,"
Clang!
The metal shield in his hand... no, a circular object more than three centimeters thick could no longer be called a "shield." It was a steel plate. With a casual sweep, it immediately smashed the three incoming Sailor's Knives back!
Before that overwhelming force, the three Sailor's Knives instantly shattered into fragments. Like three bombs exploding, pieces carrying immense kinetic force shot in every direction with piercing shrieks!
Pfft, pfft, pfft,
Even the thick deck was instantly sliced and gouged by the fragments, long scars carved into it amid harsh cracking sounds!
Even worse off were the sailors who had launched the attack. Under this shotgun-like "attack," their bodies were slashed by high-speed spinning fragments like torn rags, and jets of blood instantly sprayed behind them!
Thud, thud, thud,
Then came the sound of bodies collapsing limply, followed by:
Swish—
A silver flash of blade light spun around the youth, and several sailors' heads flew into the air. Their bewildered eyes had not yet understood what happened when their attacker pounced toward the merchant sailors nearby like a cheetah.
A tiger among sheep!
This was combat... no, it could no longer even be considered combat.
Whether in strength or speed, the youth the pirates called "Captain Roman" far surpassed ordinary people. Every swing of his lightning-fast Sailor's Knife and hundred-pound shield sent another merchant sailor flying backward with a scream... or without even being able to scream!
"Ooooooh—"
"Move, move, move!"
"Don't let Captain Roman kill them all by himself~~~"
As Roman instantly cleared a large section of the deck, the pirates of the Wave Rider howled as they crossed the gangplanks. After another Bald Combat Captain chopped down more than a dozen merchant sailors in one go, the merchant side's morale collapsed, and they yielded the deck.
Thud,
"Good work, Roman."
At that moment, the middle-aged captain also crossed the gangplank. He first nodded at Roman, who held a blade in one hand and a shield in the other, before turning toward where the merchant sailors had fled: the Captain's Cabin!
It seemed they had not given up resisting...
"Follow me."
The middle-aged captain, his body straight as a spear, placed a hand on the hilt at his waist and strode toward the stairs leading into the Captain's Cabin with composed elegance. The pirates behind him howled as they raised their weapons and rushed in after him.
The moment they descended the stairs, they faced a defensive line formed by more than a dozen merchant sailors. Using the narrow cabin passage to their advantage, the gunners in front knelt on the ground while those behind stood and leveled their flintlocks, forming a dense, layered formation. The instant they saw someone enter, they pulled their triggers without hesitation.
Since the middle-aged captain walking at the front clearly looked like the pirate leader, nearly every lead ball was fired at him!
Yet a cruel, bloodthirsty grin appeared on the middle-aged captain's face. Facing the whistling bullets, he instantly drew the silver rapier at his waist and slashed and thrust through the air at a dazzling speed!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
He moved so fast that he had exceeded the limit of the human eye. To most of the pirates, it looked as if silver lines had suddenly appeared around the middle-aged captain! Then the lead balls flying toward him were knocked away with sharp clacks, embedding deeply into the surrounding cabin walls.
A sword cutting bullets, a blade blocking firearms!
In this world, that was no fantasy, but—
The mark of someone "above ordinary men"!
The middle-aged captain did not slow down at all, directly striding through the temporary position the sailors had built.
Behind him, the dozen or so merchant sailors wore expressions of terror and disbelief!
They stood frozen in place. A few seconds later, blood suddenly spurted from vital points such as their throats, brows, and chests before they slowly collapsed.
"Captain is mighty—"
"Captain is invincible!"
"Hahaha, they actually dared oppose our captain with a thirty-million bounty. I truly admire their courage!"
"And Captain Roman, with his ten-million bounty..."
The pirates behind them were already used to such a sight. They first cast a reverent glance toward their captain, then swarmed forward and professionally searched and looted the corpses. They casually wiped the blood from their weapons with the dead men's clothes before dragging the bodies onto the deck—
And tossing them into the sea to feed the fish!
Roman and the other Bald Combat Captain followed the middle-aged captain ahead. Every bit of resistance along the way was as fragile as paper before the three of them.
The captain attacked at high speed and killed, the Bald Strongman used his immense strength to tear apart the terrain, while Roman defended tightly and blocked incoming damage—
Thus, the three of them smashed their way to an ornate door.
Boom!
The Bald Combat Captain kicked the door flying, then strode inside and raised his blood-dripping axe at the merchant captain wearing a tricorne hat.
"You can't kill me!"
The captain clutched a small chest tightly, his face full of despair as he attempted to "threaten" the thugs who had burst in.
"I'm with 'JOKER'—"
Splurt!
The Bald Combat Captain brought his axe down, instantly forcing the merchant captain's remaining words back into his throat.
"What did he say?"
Roman, the last to enter, frowned.
"He said..." The Bald Strongman rubbed his shiny, slick scalp and answered uncertainly, "He said he was a clown?"
"Nothing but the barking of a defeated dog."
The middle-aged captain waved it off and casually stepped forward to pick up the box from the ground, opening it. The other two present were both his trusted men, so even if there was treasure inside—
Click,
As the box opened, a purple fruit came into view.
Its surface was covered in spiral patterns, making it look like:
A Devil Fruit!
In an instant, the air inside the Captain's Cabin froze.
Before you continue