Hagoku!

The Blood Skull Pirates.

"What!?"

Seeing Mongge leap off the ship and run toward the island, stepping on the air, the pirates aboard the Blood Skull Pirates' ship nearly popped their eyes out.

"How can that guy fly?"

"That's White Wolf Moger, right?"

"Oh no, Captain! White Wolf Moger's getting away!"

"..."

Farrell kicked aside the pirate making a fuss and cursed, "Get lost! I know that without you telling me."

"Full speed ahead!"

In the New World, being able to fly wasn't anything unusual, but not everyone could learn the skill of "flight."

At the very least, Blood Skull Farrell couldn't.

So, furious, he could only order the helmsman to steer toward the island where Mongge was.

"Captain Farrell, what about the ship?"

Seeing the ship engulfed in flames after being hit by cannonballs, the young pirate who had revealed Mongge's whereabouts couldn't help asking.

"Who cares about that?"

Farrell looked annoyed. At their current speed, it would take them nearly half an hour to reach the island. By then, Mongge would have been resting there for who knew how long.

They had kept up the bombardment in the first place to wear Mongge down.

And now an island had suddenly appeared?

"Damn it!"

An exhausted Mongge and a fully rested Mongge were two entirely different opponents. Even if Farrell could fight him while fresh, he wasn't remotely confident he could trade blows fairly with a pirate legend like that.

In his foul mood, Farrell even started looking at the young pirate with displeasure.

He said maliciously, "Since you're so worried about that ship, why don't you go take a look? Maybe you can even put out the fire."

Farrell had noticed someone else aboard Mongge's ship besides Mongge himself, apparently his helmsman. But Mongge had run off on his own, which showed he didn't care whether that helmsman lived or died.

Farrell wasn't surprised. Weren't pirates all like that?

When disaster struck, everyone fled for themselves.

Mongge's actions fit Farrell's stereotypical image of a pirate perfectly.

"All right!"

But Farrell hadn't expected the young man to grit his teeth and actually jump overboard, swimming toward Mongge's ship, which was already ablaze.

Farrell had only one word for that.

Idiot!

An unnamed island.

After running more than ten kilometers in one go using Geppo, even Mongge couldn't help panting. His old injuries had already healed with the system's help.

After all, he was old.

"Now that I've run off, those idiots from the Blood Skull Pirates shouldn't keep chasing my ship, right?"

How much could an old, rickety ship be worth?

On these seas, pirates fought each other either for fame or for profit. Who would do something with nothing to gain?

Right now, those pirates should be doing everything they could to pursue him.

Because with every passing second, his stamina was recovering. Once he had recovered completely and taken refuge on the island...

It would be hard to say who would be chasing whom.

But if something went wrong...

"Just consider Rocks unlucky. The other guy's a pirate with a bounty of 160 million. A few decades from now, with inflation, he might be worth over a billion."

That was also why Mongge hadn't recklessly charged onto the Blood Skull Pirates' ship.

Come on, he was seventy years old!

If he wanted to take on a whole crew by himself, he should've done it twenty or thirty years ago.

Who knew that his idiotic system would stir up trouble again at a time like this?

But this time, as Mongge looked at the information on the system panel, his somewhat cloudy eyes suddenly blazed with unprecedented intensity.

[When brave men meet on a narrow path, the braver one wins. Running away is the choice of the cowardly. When facing an old pirate nearing the end of his life, you should bravely fight back instead of constantly running away.]

[Mission: Defeat Blood Skull Farrell head-on.]

[Reward: Conqueror's Haki potential, slight increase in Cellular Activity!]

Conqueror's Haki potential!

Mongge hadn't expected the system to be so generous over the mere matter of dealing with the Blood Skull Pirates.

In the New World, people with Conqueror's Haki were as numerous as fish crossing a river.

But this sort of thing...

You either had it or you didn't.

Not having Conqueror's Haki meant losing your ticket to the pinnacle of this world. No matter how exceptional your other two types of Haki were, it was still difficult to defeat the top Conqueror's Haki users.

That was because top-tier Conqueror's Haki could suppress Observation Haki, and Conqueror's Haki coating was even more powerful than Armament Haki coating.

Unfortunately, Mongge didn't have Conqueror's Haki.

So, no matter how hard he fought, he had no way to reach the pinnacle of piracy.

How much water a barrel could hold depended on its shortest stave.

And now, he had a chance to make up for that shortcoming!

"Blood Skull Farrell, huh?"

The old pirate licked his lips. As he watched the pirate ship draw closer, a fierce expression appeared on his face for the first time.

"If the system's going to be this generous, then for my sake, you can die!"

In this era, oars hadn't yet been completely replaced on sailing ships. At Farrell's urging, a group of pirates rowed with all their might, cutting what should have been a half-hour voyage down to twenty minutes.

In other words, Mongge had reached the island only fifteen minutes before the Blood Skull Pirates.

"In such a short time, there's no way you could've fully recovered!"

Farrell planted one foot on the bow and stared at the island with a grim look. What worried him most was that Mongge might have hidden somewhere on the island. If that happened, he'd have to spread his men out to search for him.

That would completely undermine his original plan.

His plan was to have his crew attack Mongge together and wear him down, then finish him off himself.

He had used this method to defeat countless opponents stronger than him.

If Mongge hid, they risked being picked off one by one.

"Are you going to hide, White Wolf Moger?"

Suddenly, Farrell's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and a smile appeared on his lips.

He'd actually spotted Mongge standing on the beach!

"Hahahaha! White Wolf Moger, if you're in such a hurry to die, then I'll grant your wish!"

He would kill White Wolf Moger and make this legend of the old era his stepping stone!

"Fire!"

Farrell shouted, ready to make his move at any moment.

But even before his shout, Mongge slowly began walking toward the Blood Skull Pirates.

He kept going until the seawater washed over his ankles.

A terrifying aura surged from Mongge. Ever since he'd set out to sea at eighteen, he'd trained day after day, constantly honing his skills.

Mongge had long since mastered his techniques.

And the Giant Tribe's battle technique, Hagoku, was the pinnacle of technique combined with strength.

White mane began to grow.

His thin frame began to swell.

A gale sprang up.

The air compressed.

In that instant, the space around Mongge seemed to be drawn into a vacuum.

Unlike the earlier time aboard the ship...

This time, Mongge would give it everything he had and truly reproduce this ultimate technique.

"Hagoku!"

With a low growl, Mongge swept his blade outward.

A shock wave of compressed air shot out like a giant cannon blast. Even Rocks, far away aboard the ship and still desperately trying to put out the fire, saw it.

With that single strike,

the sea was split in two.

Every obstacle in its path was utterly destroyed.

The Blood Skull Pirates' ship.

It was no exception.

Under that devastating slash, the brand-new sailing ship shattered into pieces. The countless pirates aboard had no chance to struggle before the terrifying shock wave blasted them into dust.

With one strike,

Mongge destroyed the Blood Skull Pirates' ship and all the blood, sweat, and toil Blood Skull Farrell had poured into it over the years.

In that instant, Rocks forgot even that Mongge had tricked him earlier. Beneath his messy black hair, his long, shoehorn-shaped face flushed bright red.

"I have to learn that move!"