Fierce Battle!

As the words fell, He suddenly moved, running towards the other side of the deck, fiercely slashing down at a pirate who was climbing the rope to board.

A cold arc of light flashed, and the pirate's head was instantly split open. He fell from the rope into the sea, screaming.

Splash! Water sprayed up.

Bang!

Suddenly, a searing lead bullet pierced through Old Via's skull from his left eye.

Red and white mixed with bone fragments sprayed out.

Old Via's right eye widened, his body stiffening as he fell backward.

Then, with a thump, he crashed to the ground.

He died quickly and cleanly.

Merlin's eyes, however, showed a subtle shift.

Then his gaze found the pirate on the deck of the pirate ship, holding a gun, smoke still drifting from its muzzle.

"Blood Wolf Pirates' First Mate, Sharpshooter Kaekashi. Bounty 8 million." Merlin said with a distant look.

Then he saw the gun barrel shift to the side. His gaze sharp, he took a grenade from his pocket, pulled the pin, and threw it forcefully towards his position.

The distance of over fifty meters between them vanished in an instant.

Boom! A violent explosion, accompanied by a blast of fire, erupted beside Kaekashi on the pirate ship's deck.

Instantly, screams of "Ah! Wah!" echoed across the pirate ship's deck.

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

"Bastards! These damn scum."

After a few seconds of silence, the pirate captain, Blood Wolf Abyss, reacted. Seeing his first mate lying on the ground with a severely injured arm, he roared at his subordinates, "All of you, speed it up! Board the ship, close-quarters combat!!"

The combat personnel on the passenger ship also reacted, roaring like they were on steroids as they charged towards the pirates who had already boarded.

Combat erupted!

Gunshots, the clash of swords, screams, and wails. The entire deck instantly turned into a meat grinder.

This was his first time participating in such a sea battle.

Merlin felt incredibly small. This wasn't an ambush in the alleys of Frevanz.

Nor was it hunting beasts in the deep forest.

This was a direct confrontation with his own kind.

A baptism of blood and fire.

When paths cross, the strong rule!

At this moment, Merlin stood frozen as if stunned. A pirate with a ferocious, excited expression, wielding a sailor's knife, charged forward and swung:

"Gotcha! First one."

As he yelled, saliva sprayed from his gaping mouth, and remnants of meat still clung to his yellowed teeth. His breath was pungent.

However, at this moment.

His superhuman dynamic vision slowed the pirate's movements. His pupils contracted sharply, as if focusing.

Blood pumped from his heart, flowing through his entire body. A warmth surged from his tailbone to the top of his head, his scalp tingling.

But Merlin's body wasn't tense. Instead, he felt an intense craving for blood.

The lynx's hunting instinct.

At this moment.

His right foot quietly stepped back. Merlin's body naturally turned sideways. A cold glint followed, slashing down in front of him. At this moment, his right arm deftly reached down, his right hand grasping the hilt of the dagger on the outside of his thigh.

With a comfortable sensation, Merlin, like a lynx with sharpened claws, drew the dagger. His forearm rose in an arc, swinging the dagger. With a swish, it sliced open the throat.

A spray of crimson blood gushed out before his eyes.

Merlin stepped back again, dodging the flying blood, and then paid the pirate no further mind.

Bang! The pirate knelt on the deck. Then, with a crisp clang, his knife fell onto the deck. Clutching his throat, his eyes bloodshot, he gurgled, spitting blood foam.

Even in death, he couldn't comprehend how such a young boy could have so easily slit his throat.

He took the dagger in his left hand, drew his sword from his left hip with his right hand, and Merlin, with light steps, quietly appeared behind a pirate who was furiously hacking at a passenger ship's sailor.

The sharp blade pierced into the pirate's lower back on the right side with a swish. Then, his left foot lifted and forcefully kicked his left side.

With a muffled thump, the pirate screamed and flipped to the side. At the same time, using the momentum, he pulled the katana out of the pirate's body.

At this moment, the sailor's eyes still held a deep panic, but he looked at Merlin with gratitude. Then his eyes suddenly widened, and he blurted out:

"How could it be you?"

Merlin ignored him for the moment, instead moving like a lynx in the mountains, constantly and quietly scouting for prey.

His use of the katana required no elaborate techniques; it was simply fast, accurate, and ruthless.

Every strike was often stained with blood.

It was like a fish in water.

Amidst the brutal slaughter and splashing blood, Merlin felt no discomfort. Instead, his blood boiled.

A few minutes later, in this skirmish, no less than five pirates had fallen to Merlin's blade. Furthermore, with Merlin's intervention, the passenger ship's losing momentum had halted, and they had begun to counterattack.

"Ahhh!!! Damn it, damn it! Captain Abis! There's another formidable guy on this ship, our brothers are suffering heavy casualties!!"

A pirate grunt, having witnessed Merlin instantly dispatch one of their own sub-captains, frantically shouted towards Abis, who was currently pinning down a burly middle-aged man from the passenger ship at the ship's bow.

At this moment, although he could suppress the passenger ship's Guard Captain, Abis himself couldn't easily disengage. Abis suddenly swung his blade, knocking the Guard Captain back.

His gaze immediately turned fierce as he looked at the pirate. Following the pirate's finger, he saw Merlin pulling a dagger from another pirate. Abis's face instantly darkened like the bottom of a pot.

The sudden grenade explosion had incapacitated the first mate, who was an expert marksman. This had already put him in a foul mood, and now, an unexpected event had occurred.

"That damn useless Kaekashi, didn't he guarantee that the intel from the guy he bribed on this passenger ship was absolutely reliable? Weren't there no other strong characters on this ship besides the Guard Captain? Then what the hell is this?"

Abis's eyes were bloodshot, filled with killing intent as he stared intently at Merlin. At this moment, Merlin vaguely sensed a chilling coldness. Following the feeling, he abruptly turned his head and met Abis's gaze.

Frowning slightly, Merlin subtly backed away. But just then, a hoarse shout rang out:

"Little brother! Let's team up. Only by killing this Blood Wolf together can we survive.

This Blood Wolf is infamous, a murderer, arsonist, rapist, and plunderer who commits all sorts of evil. Any woman he fancies will absolutely not have a good end."

Guard Captain Rainer, who had been constantly wary of Abis, also noticed Merlin's presence. He had also witnessed firsthand how decisively Merlin had dealt with the pirate and heard the pirate's terrified exclamation.

His heart immediately lifted.

He hadn't expected the young man on the ship who was with the beautiful Miss Yol to be so strong.

He looked expectantly at Merlin. However, at this moment, Abis sneered viciously at Rainer, then turned his head and roared at the other side, where a bearded second mate was suppressing over ten men:

"Arthur, come block this bastard. I'm going to tear that mongrel apart."

Instantly, the short, stout, bearded man not far away spun, frantically swinging his axe to push back the men around him. He immediately looked back, then grinned wildly:

"Captain Abis, I, Arthur, told you earlier not to play with women, but you didn't listen. Now your legs are weak, huh?"

Abis's face darkened, his lips twitching in anger as he glared at Arthur. Seeing this, Arthur dared not tease further. He then took two stout strides, gripping his two axes, and charged at Rainer like a wild boar.

Rainer dared not be careless. He could only give Merlin a helpless glance before drawing his sword and charging fiercely at Arthur.

Merlin's eyes flashed. He noticed Abis sneering at him before stomping on the deck and charging towards him.

Gripping a large saber, he charged ferociously with a sinister grin. The ten-meter distance vanished in an instant. Abis reached Merlin, roared, and raised his saber high, aiming to cleave Merlin's head.

A gust of wind swept through.

The sharp blade wind stung Merlin's cheeks.

Merlin had no doubt that if this blow landed on him, it would split him in two instantly.

However.

Merlin didn't confront him head-on. Instead, he agilely shifted to the side. After his attack missed, Abis sneered, abruptly twisted his wrist, and then lunged forward with a horizontal slash at Merlin.

Merlin's eyes flashed. He slightly bent his body, knees bent, and crossed the katana and dagger in his hands to block forward perfectly.

Instantly, a dull clang of metal striking metal rang out.

At this moment, Merlin's eyes widened slightly, because the instant their weapons met, a brute force struck.

Simultaneously, the blades Merlin had used to block were instantly pushed back and pressed down towards his chest.

However, Merlin suddenly exerted force with both arms, and using that brute force, he pushed off with his legs and leaped backward.

In the blink of an eye, a full three meters separated Merlin and Abis.

At this moment, Abis's eye twitched. He hadn't expected his full-power attack, fueled by rage, to fail to take down Merlin.

Feeling his face lose all honor, he gritted his teeth and charged at full speed. Merlin, meanwhile, breathed steadily, his eyes fixed on Abis.

Although he was outmatched in strength, his current strengths were explosive power and agility. Since Abis couldn't crush him in the previous probing attack, Merlin no longer feared him.

Abis swung his saber to attack him up close again. Merlin's pupils contracted, and he clearly saw the trajectory of his swing.

At this moment, as Abis's saber fell, Merlin suddenly stepped forward to his right and forward. Simultaneously, the dagger in his left hand slashed sideways at Abis's saber. Clang! a sound rang out.

Although Merlin was not his equal in strength, he was not without the ability to resist.

This collision caused Abis's body to falter. At this moment, Merlin raised his left leg and violently rammed his left knee towards Abis's groin.