Chapter 226: Opening Battle (part 2)
Half a day later, twenty-five sea miles outside the southeast boundary of the Fenrir Sea Area.
“Uro-ro-ro-ro!”
“What a bold move, Waldo Captain! You actually dared to touch my ship!”
“Are you prepared to die here?!”
Crack!
Gale winds howled, lightning thundered!
Above their heads, black clouds churned and swelled like a giant beast, as if about to devour the entire sky.
The sea surface below was no longer calm; tiny ripples gradually turned into uneasy surges, with waves curling up white foam edges like countless bared fangs.
The air became unusually heavy, every breath requiring full-body effort.
The New World’s ever-changing weather was on full display at this moment, like a goddess presiding over storms dancing to hype up the fierce battle about to unfold.
“Th-that’s what monster?!”
“How, how can it be so huge?!”
“You’re joking, right! There’s no way we can win this!”
“Waldo Captain! What should we do now?!”
Azure scales gleamed with a dim luster, ferocious giant horns held up the dome like iron towers, sharp claws tore through thick clouds…
High in the sky, an unimaginably colossal creature opened its suffocating, terrifying vertical pupils, pouring its pressure down onto the Wald Pirates below.
Not only that, beneath the writhing, coiling massive monster, an elite fleet of nearly twenty ships was glaring menacingly in neat formation, their black cannon muzzles uniformly locked on the pirate ship not far away.
It had to be said that Kaido’s Azure Dragon Form had top-tier oppressive presence in terms of sheer appearance across the entire sea.
Being targeted by such a terrifying giant beast, no matter how many numbers or how advanced the weapons, made it hard to feel any sense of safety.
This was an instinctive biological reaction—people fear monsters, isn’t that just natural?
“Bwahaha! You must be Kaido?”
“You want my life, huh… how arrogant!”
“Just a mere brat—”
“Heat Breath!”
Without letting the other finish his trash talk, Kaido directly unleashed a breath attack toward Waldo’s pirate ship.
“Mo Mo Fifty Times Shield!”
Seeing the breath attack descending like heavenly fire, Waldo snatched a shield from a nearby crew member and raised it, then activated his ability.
Boom!
The scorching flames crashed into the fifty-times enlarged shield, instantly melting it into ash, but Waldo and the others under its protection emerged unscathed.
“I see, you do have some strength.”
Casually tossing aside the charred shield remnants, Waldo pulled a silver firearm from his pocket—it was the revolver pistol produced by Beasts Heavy Industry that he had seized.
“Let you taste the power of weapons made by your own group!”
“Mo Mo Fifty Times Bullet!”
Bang!
The trigger was pulled, the hammer fell, and a clear yellow bullet utterly different from traditional lead bullets accelerated through the rifling and shot out, rapidly growing to cannonball size in mid-air!
“Bad Wind!”
Whoosh—
Kaido’s dragon maw opened wide, a green wind blade generated from its mouth instantly slicing the incoming bullet in two, then continuing forward unabated to cleave both ship and crew below!
“Tch! Mo Mo Ten Times Speed!”
As the massive wind blade approached, Waldo instantly teleported into mid-air, coating his arm in black Armament Haki and shattering the wind blade with a punch!
“Heh!”
Seeing his attack dispersed, Kaido showed no concern, made eye contact with Waldo in the air, then directly ordered to open fire.
“Men, open fire!”
“Sink the enemy for me!”
“Yes!”*n
Whoosh—boom!
Boom!
Boom boom!
With Kaido’s command, the fleet below immediately unleashed a barrage from all cannons.
The pirates, who had undergone long-term systematic training on their respective garrison islands, moved in perfect coordination.
Load, aim, fire… all actions flowed smoothly, executed in one seamless motion.
The improved breech-loading rifled cannons had qualitative improvements in both range and precision, instantly suppressing Waldo’s flagship so it couldn’t lift its head.
The Beasts Pirates’ fleet now had combat proficiency surpassing typical national royal fleets, even rivaling the Navy Headquarters’ elite fleets.
This was all thanks to Burufaruto; to fully motivate those guys below and prevent them from slacking off at their garrisons, he held competitions among the island garrison troops every few days.
Top performers got direct cash handouts, promises of priority allocation for Beasts Heavy Industry’s new weapons, and slots for the next “field mission”… for this, he specially went to apply for a dedicated reward fund.
For pirates, Belly equals combat power.
As long as the money’s there, no training is too tough, no hardship too hard… physical fatigue isn’t fatigue, metal fatigue is what really counts!
……
“Counterattack! Counterattack!”
Though prepared, the Wald Pirates’ flagship was still instantly overwhelmed by the saturation bombardment.
The violent explosions rocked the ship unsteadily, forcing Waldo to grip the fence and hastily order a counterattack.
“No good, Captain! The left-side cannon room was blasted apart!”
“Then turn the ship!”
“Can’t, it’s completely immobilized!”
“Then what do we do?!”
“I don’t kn—”
Boom!!!
“Helmsman, the helmsman is dead! The helmsman was blown up!”
“Captain!”
“Tch! Damn it!”
Unexpectedly, right from the first clash, his side was completely pushed into disadvantage; seeing the burning pirate ship, Waldo’s mind was starting to descend into confusion.
“W-Waldo, you focus on dealing with Kaido! Leave the rest to me!”
“Cough, cough cough!”
Bin Jack endured the choking pain in his lungs from the thick smoke, propping himself up from the ground with trembling effort to shout.
“Go quickly! Only by taking down Kaido himself can we escape alive this time.”
“Don’t worry, leave the rest to me.”
“…”
“Yeah, I’m counting on you, Boss!”
Waldo gave his boss a deep look, then nodded firmly.
Swoosh—!
“Kaido! I’m coming!”
“Mo Mo One Hundred Times Shotgun!”
Leaping into mid-air, Waldo pulled out a handful of bullets from his pocket and hurled them forcefully at Kaido in the sky!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless massive cannonballs slammed into Kaido’s dragon body, erupting in a chain of violent explosions.
……
“Cough, cough cough!”
“Cough cough cough cough cough!”
Seeing the two now locked in combat, Bin Jack finally clutched his chest and coughed loudly.
“First Mate!”
“I-I’m fine. You all hurry and adjust the ship’s direction. Once their cannon fire lets up, we counterattack immediately.”
“Cough~”
“But the Beasts Pirates don’t seem like they’re stopping!”
“Don’t worry, they’ll stop soon. Do as I say now.”
“…Yes!”
Countless past narrow escapes had earned the onboard crew considerable trust in this frail, barely standing first mate, so they carried out his orders without much hesitation.
“Cough…”
“Here, drink this quick.”
“Nai Qin, this is…”
“Chinese medicine to nourish the throat and lungs. If this keeps up, the smoke will damage your respiratory tract.”
“Thanks… cough! So bitter!”
Downing the pale green Chinese medicine in one gulp, Bin Jack immediately felt the burning pain in his throat and chest ease, a cooling sensation spreading through his body.
“Phew~”
Letting out a breath of relief, he looked toward the distant Beasts Pirates fleet.
“Not ready yet? Sebastian, Gai Ram…”
