Fierce Battle!

As soon as he finished speaking,

he sprang into action, running across the deck and bringing his blade down viciously on a pirate climbing aboard on a rope.

A cold flash of light swept past. The pirate's head split open, and he fell from the rope with a scream, plunging into the sea.

Splash! Water sprayed into the air.

Bang!

A blazing bullet suddenly pierced Old Via's skull through his left eye.

Red and white matter, mixed with fragments of bone, burst out.

Old Via's right eye bulged as his body stiffened and toppled backward.

Then he hit the deck with a thud.

His death was swift and clean.

A subtle expression flickered in Merlin's eyes.

Then his gaze found the pirate on the deck of the pirate ship, gun in hand, smoke drifting from its barrel.

"Blood Wolf Pirates' first mate, the sharpshooter Kaekashi. Bounty: eight million." Merlin spoke in a low, distant voice.

Then he saw the gunman shift his aim to the side. His gaze sharpened. He pulled a grenade from his pocket with his right hand, yanked out the pin, and hurled it toward him.

The distance between them—more than fifty meters—vanished in an instant.

BOOM! A violent explosion erupted beside Kaekashi on the pirate ship's deck, flames and shockwaves blasting outward.

In an instant, screams rang out across the pirate ship's deck.

For a moment, the clash between the two sides fell into an eerie silence.

"Bastards! You goddamn pieces of shit!"

After a few seconds of silence, the pirate captain, Blood Wolf Abyss, came to his senses. Seeing his first mate lying on the deck, badly wounded and missing an arm, he roared at the men beside him:

"Move your asses! Get aboard! Grapple the ships and fight!"

The fighting men aboard the passenger ship also came to their senses. They howled like they'd been injected with adrenaline and charged at the pirates who had already come aboard.

The battle began in an instant!

Gunshots, blades clashing, screams, and groans. In moments, the entire deck became a bloody meat grinder.

It was Merlin's first time taking part in a sea battle like this.

He felt small in the midst of it all. This wasn't an ambush in the alleys of Flevance.

Nor was it a hunt between man and beast in the forest.

This was a head-on battle against his own kind.

A baptism of blood and fire.

When paths crossed, the strong prevailed!

At that moment, Merlin stood motionless, as though he'd been scared stiff. A pirate with a savage, excited grin charged at him, gripping a cutlass and swinging it down.

"Got you! First one!"

As he shouted, spit flew from his wide-open mouth. Bits of meat clung between his yellowed teeth, and his breath reeked.

But at that moment,

Merlin's superhuman dynamic vision seemed to slow the pirate's movements. His pupils contracted sharply, as if focusing.

The blood pumped from his heart flowed through his body. Warmth shot from his tailbone to the crown of his head, and his scalp tingled.

Yet Merlin's body wasn't tense. Instead, he felt a powerful yearning for blood.

The lynx's hunting instinct.

At that moment,

Merlin quietly took a step back with his right foot and turned his body sideways. A blade flashed down right in front of him. His right arm darted down, and his hand closed around the hilt of the dagger at his thigh.

The familiar grip in his hand, Merlin was like a lynx with sharpened claws. As the dagger left its sheath, he raised his arm in an arc and slashed. With a wet SPLUT, he opened the pirate's throat.

A spray of crimson blood burst before his eyes.

Merlin stepped back again to avoid the spray, then paid the pirate no further attention.

THUD! The pirate dropped to his knees. Then, with a sharp CLANG, the blade fell from his hand onto the deck. Clutching his throat, his eyes bloodshot, he choked and spat bloody foam.

Even as he died, he couldn't understand how a mere boy had so easily slit his throat.

Taking the dagger from his right hand with his left, Merlin drew his sword from his left hip. He moved lightly and quietly behind a pirate who was slashing wildly at a passenger-ship sailor.

The sharp tip of his blade plunged into the pirate's lower back on the right. Then Merlin lifted his left foot and kicked hard into the pirate's left side.

With a dull THUMP, the pirate screamed and toppled sideways. At the same time, Merlin used the momentum to pull his sword free of the pirate's body.

The sailor's eyes still held a deep, startled fear, but he looked at Merlin with gratitude. Then his gaze suddenly froze, and the words slipped out:

"How can it be you?"

Merlin paid him no mind. Like a lynx prowling through the forest, he quietly searched for his next prey.

Using a sword took no fancy techniques. It was just a matter of being fast, precise, and ruthless.

Every strike left a smear of blood behind.

It was as though he were in his element.

Amid the brutal carnage and flying blood, Merlin didn't feel the slightest discomfort. Instead, his blood seemed to boil.

A few minutes later, Merlin had killed at least five pirates in the skirmish. With him joining the fight, the passenger ship's side had halted its retreat and begun to counterattack.

"AAAAH! Damn it, damn it! Captain Abyss! There's another tough bastard aboard this ship! Our men are getting slaughtered!"

A pirate underling had seen Merlin take out one of their squad leaders in an instant. Panicked, he shouted toward the bow, where Abyss was pressing a burly, middle-aged man from the passenger ship.

Although he had the passenger ship's Guard Captain on the back foot, Abyss couldn't break away just yet. He swung his blade hard, forcing the Guard Captain to retreat.

His gaze turned vicious as he looked at the pirate. Following the man's pointing finger, he saw Merlin pulling a dagger from another pirate. Abyss's face darkened instantly.

The sudden grenade blast had taken his sharpshooting first mate out of the fight. It had already left him seething, and now another unexpected problem had cropped up.

"That damn waste of space Kaekashi! Didn't he guarantee that the information from the man he bribed aboard this passenger ship was absolutely reliable? Wasn't the Guard Captain supposed to be the only tough one aboard? So what the hell is this?"

Abyss's eyes were bloodshot, and they fixed on Merlin, brimming with murderous intent. Just then, Merlin sensed a chilling presence. He spun around, and his eyes met Abyss's.

His brows drew together, and he calmly moved farther away. But just then, a hoarse voice called out:

"Hey, kid! Team up with me. We'll only survive if we kill this Blood Wolf together.

"Blood Wolf has a fearsome reputation. He kills, burns, rapes, and plunders without a shred of decency. Any woman he sets his sights on is in for a terrible fate."

Guard Captain Rainer had been keeping an eye on Abyss. He'd sensed Merlin's presence too, and had seen him dispatch pirates with ruthless ease. He'd also heard the pirate's terrified shout.

His spirits lifted at once.

He hadn't expected the boy traveling with the beautiful Miss Yol to be so strong.

He looked at Merlin hopefully. But Abyss shot Rainer a vicious, mocking smile, then turned toward the bearded second mate, who was holding off more than ten men on his own, and roared:

"Arthur, get over here and hold this bastard off! I'm going to hack that little shit to pieces!"

In an instant, the short, burly man with the beard spun around, swinging his axe wildly and driving back those around him. He looked over his shoulder and gave a broad grin.

"Captain Abyss, I told you not to fool around with women earlier! But you wouldn't listen. So now your legs are weak, huh?"

Abyss's face darkened, and his mouth twitched with anger as he glared at Arthur. Arthur decided not to tease him any further. He strode forward on his thick legs, gripping an axe in each hand, and charged at Rainer like a wild boar.

Rainer didn't dare let his guard down. He could only spare Merlin a helpless glance before raising his sword and swinging it hard at Arthur.

Merlin's eyes flashed. He saw Abyss sneer at him, then push off the deck and charge straight toward him.

Gripping a huge cleaver, Abyss came rushing in with a vicious grin. The distance of more than ten meters vanished in the space of a breath. He reached Merlin, roared, and brought his blade down toward Merlin's head.

A gust of wind whistled through the air.

The icy blade wind stung Merlin's cheek.

Merlin had no doubt that if that strike landed, it would split him in two.

But

Merlin didn't meet him head-on. He darted sideways. After his first blow missed, Abyss sneered and abruptly twisted his wrist, then stepped forward and slashed horizontally at Merlin.

Merlin's eyes flickered. He leaned forward slightly, bent his knees, and crossed the sword and dagger in his hands to block the strike at just the right angle.

CLANG! A heavy metallic crash rang out.

Merlin's eyes widened. The instant their weapons met, a tremendous force suddenly struck him.

At the same time, Merlin's crossed blades were knocked back in an instant, pressing toward his chest.

But Merlin suddenly thrust out both arms and used the force to leap backward, pushing off with both legs.

In the blink of an eye, Merlin and Abyss were three meters apart.

Abyss's eye twitched. He hadn't expected his full-force strike, fueled by rage, to fail to take Merlin down.

Humiliated, he charged again, gritting his teeth. Merlin's breathing remained steady as he stared at Abyss.

Abyss had the advantage in strength, but Merlin excelled at explosive power and agility. Since Abyss hadn't been able to overwhelm him in their first exchange, Merlin wasn't afraid of him.

Abyss closed in again and swung his blade. Merlin's pupils narrowed as he followed its path with perfect clarity.

The instant Abyss's blade came down, Merlin suddenly stepped forward and to the right. At the same time, he swung the dagger in his left hand up and to the left, striking Abyss's blade with a CLANG!

Merlin might not have been as strong as Abyss, but he wasn't helpless against him.

The clash checked Abyss's momentum. At that moment, Merlin raised his left leg and drove his knee viciously into Abyss's groin.