With the two of us back on the boat, along with an extra person, we sailed past the three lifeless battleships as we continued nearing the Islands port in the distance; however, while approaching the main island, I spotted numerous rows of cannons lining the edge of the dock and a few seconds later, an explosion was heard followed by a puff of smoke as tens of dark spots suddenly became visible in the sky.
"Is it just me, or is this place even more guarded than Karate Island? I suppose Baterilla isn't just an average island." Said Diddy with a grin as he clutched his bow-staff and jumped into the air, approaching the rain of cannonballs.
Nearing the fastly approaching cannonballs that threatened to rain down upon our ship, I swung my bow-staff at the incoming cannonballs, causing many of them to divert off their original path, while the ones that wouldn't have hit my ship in the first place were left alone as they sank into the ocean and exploded.
Unfortunately, while we were relatively close to the island, it would still take a few minutes until our ship arrived at the docks, so until then, I would be forced to stay in the air and protect my ship, something I found to be very tedious and annoying as they didn't lighten their downpour of attacks one bit.
'Ugh, alright, I'm done with merely protecting the ship; I'm not the type to be so passive.' Thought Diddy with a smirk as he reached forth and, instead of deflecting the cannon balls, he caught one.
Catching the hot cannonball with my hand, I reeled my arm back before powerfully hurling it to the senders, and the instant the cannonball hit them, it erupted into a massive fiery explosion that caused a chain reaction as its explosion erupted all the other cannonballs, resulting in a firework show in the middle of the day.
"Hehe, I didn't anticipate that." Remarked Diddy with a smirk as he viewed the fiery explosion, which carried a tint of red from the sheer volume of blood within it.
Although I had detonated nearly the entire dock with my one attack, I stayed floating in the air just in case they were still able to retaliate, yet after a few seconds passed and seeing no cannonballs being launched toward me; I returned to my ship, which had caught up to me.
"Well, that was surprisingly easy." Said Freyja while sitting at the helm as she glanced between Diddy and the destroyed dock, which was now being ravaged by flames.
"Hehe, it's their fault for keeping armed cannonballs right beside each other; they had it coming." Replied Diddy with a chuckle as he holstered Naga-sa and landed beside Freyja, the two completely ignoring their terrified passenger.
Without any cannon fire, the rest of the way toward the island was relatively mellow and uneventful; once we finally arrived at the port, we didn't dock all the way and instead just wrapped a rope around one of the wooden support pillars before jumping onto the dock. Looking back, I saw Freyja floating over while carrying with her the man whose name I had forgotten before tossing him on the pier.
"Y-You two, w-what are you g-going to do!?" Asked Clove as he stood up and blocked the path before unsheathing his sword while pointing it at Diddy and Freyja with a hardened expression.
"Huh? Isn't it obvious? We're pirates, after all, so we must play the part accordingly; we will kill, pillage, destroy, kill, and some more killing before eventually leaving this island. Since we are a newly formed pirate crew, we've got a quota to fill." Replied Diddy with a smirk while eyeing the man whose face morphed into anger at his words.
"I-I may not be powerful enough to stop you two, but as a Marine Officer, I must always uphold justice! So if you wish to get to the town, you mu-" Stated Clove passionately with anger as he attempted to attack Diddy, though all of a sudden, he instantly came to a halt as his trembling eyes, full of fear, looked at Diddy.
Smirking at the man who was motionlessly standing before me while profusely sweating as I blasted him with my full-on bloodlust, I approached the terrified man and looked him dead in the eye; yet not even two seconds later, the man dropped his sword and fell to the ground as he looked at me with eyes full of terror.
"Hehe, to always uphold justice? Your will isn't strong enough to uphold justice." Said Diddy with a deranged smile while eyeing the trembling man before reeling in his bloodlust and walking right past him.
"M-M-Monster." Muttered the now hysterical Clove while trembling in fear on the ground.
"Unleashing your blood-lust might not have been the best move; he seems to have gone crazy, and asking a crazy man to describe a series of events isn't exactly trustworthy." Mentioned Freyja as she glanced at the man before ignoring him while following Diddy.
"Welp, it seems like we'll need to keep another witness alive." Said Diddy as the two exited the dock and entered the deserted town.
While walking through the port town, I raised my eyebrow at how desolate the place seemed; there wasn't a single person on the streets, well, except for the occasional homeless person that inhabited dark alleys, but other than that, not a single person was present.
"Either the marines had warned them, or they witnessed the massive chain explosion, but it seems like the city's inhabitants are hidden away; it must not be their first encounter with pirates then." Remarked Freyja while observing the desolate city as they walked past numerous open shops.
"Hehe, it doesn't matter, does it? They can't escape from my senses; I can hear their ragged breathing and nervously beating hearts; this may have been somewhat effective against normal people, but not us." Stated Diddy with a smirk as he suddenly looked at a building to his right, only to spot a woman peering through the curtains to hurriedly hide once more.
In all honesty, although I had told the man we would pillage this island, I had no such intentions of actually doing so; what was the point of money? If I wanted something, I would take it through brute force, and if brute force wasn't an option, that just meant I wasn't strong enough.
'Violence: If it's not solving all your problems, you simply aren't using enough of it.' Mused Diddy with a smirk as he grabbed his bow-staff and suddenly turned around, heading toward the marine outpost in the distance.
"Freyja, gather everyone into one spot; it'll be much easier to kill them all when I don't need to search the entire village for them. I'm going to check up on the marine base; the Captain shouldn't have died from my last attack, and I'm sure he is probably still alive; hopefully, he's contacting Rear Admiral Hina, where ever she is." Stated Diddy with a feral grin as he jumped into the air and propelled himself through the sky.
"Fine, but I will feast on the men until you arrive." Replied Freyja with a shake of her head as she entered the building from which the woman was previously peering.
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Nearing the marine outpost, which was situated on a cliff just above the water, I noticed that except for the rows of now destroyed cannons, everything else was relatively intact; a few shattered pieces here and there, but other than that, everything was good.
Landing just before the building, I busted through the doors, and the instant I did so, I was bombarded with a shower of bullets and several cannonballs; this continued for nearly a full minute before everything eventually calmed down.
"D-Did we get him, Captain?" Asked a marine officer hesitantly who was manning a cannon while looking at the smoke before glancing at an injured man in the distance, though the instance he did so, a bullet hole suddenly appeared in his head.
"F-FIRE!!" Yelled the Captain, causing the numerous marines to continue their previous onslaught, yet as if their attacks were nothing but a joke, another marine would be killed every few seconds by a hole suddenly appearing in their head.
Their little ambush slightly surprised me, mainly because the entry doors were soundproof, which blocked me from hearing anything that happened within the base; though other than slightly surprising me, their ambush did nothing else. The rain of bullets was ignored by using tekkai, while I would slightly divert the numerous cannonballs from hitting me, and though they did explode, tekkai offset most, if not all, of the damage I received, only leaving me with a few patches of burnt fur.
"Hehe, I hope you didn't think this pathetic ambush was actually going to do anything?" Asked Diddy with a feral smile as he exited the dense smoke with his outstretched finger, using shigan from a distance while eyeing the few remaining marines.
Before they could react, I used shigan a few more times in quick succession, firing small bullet-like projectiles made of wind that pierced the heads of the remaining marines leaving only the wounded captain.
"Heh, it seems like I was right; my last attack wasn't enough to kill a Captain." Muttered Diddy with a smirk as he casually approached the captain, who was unsheathing his dual swords.
"Just because I'm wounded, pirate, don't think you'll kill me so easily! I've been allowed to learn the secret techniques of the Marines-" Said the man just as he was about to attack Diddy, though he stopped speaking when Diddy suddenly vanished from his spot only to appear before him, already in an attacking motion.
"Tekkai!" Yelled the man as he crossed his arms and hardened his body, hoping to block Diddy's blow.
Seeing the man use Tekkai, I was mildly surprised as this was the first human I'd seen use one of the Rokushiki techniques; however, his mastery over it was so pathetic that I found it almost demeaning he would actually use it to try and stop my punch.
Completely ignoring his hardened body, I landed a devastating blow on his abdomen, causing the man to spit blood before getting flung into the distance until he crashed into a wall; however, even though he was unconscious, he was still alive.
"Well, I needed to keep someone alive." Muttered Diddy as he holstered Naga-sa before ignoring the unconscious man embedded into the wall.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, also it works this time; I've reset it, https://discord.gg/eX83nz2q
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 147: Revenge?/ Volume 5, Part 1 End!) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 27: Lavenders Wrath) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 40: Raid On Briss Kingdom) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]