CHAPTER 406: THE CAPTAIN’S TECHNIQUE?

DUM!

Wooden splinters flew over everyone’s head as the ship began to turn and lean onto the other side.

The Captain stabbed his right hook into the wooden floorboards and watched as everyone around him slid down behind him.

Nearlo let out a scream as he tried to climb against the steep wooden floor before being caught by his bodyguard, who had managed to dig his fingers into the wooden planks.

This left only Viesta to fall back without any way to stop her descent. And as she rolled down, her back suddenly slammed into a hard object.

She glanced back and found herself up against a black and glossy surface. Viesta then became confused as she pushed herself off the surface.

Was there ever something like this on the ship?

Viesta then turned to the side and found Lillian leaning up against the exact same thing with a calm look on her face.

The white-haired girl gave the woman a small wave, "Heya~..."

As Viesta was about to answer, she noticed spears that closely resembled spider legs move in the corners of her eyes—they were also attached to the very same thing she was sitting against.

Right before the impact, Lillian had summoned the Beetle and ordered it to stick itself into the ground. And fortunately, she did, or else Viesta might’ve fallen off.

Once the boat stabilised its balance and was no longer leaning off to the side, the fog quickly surrounded them.

Viesta rubbed the back of her head, dazed slightly as she muttered, "What on earth was that...?"

Lillian chuckled and pulled the Cowgirl onto her feet before looking around, seeing that everyone had already gotten back up. She then looked across at the opposing ship.

Nothing besides the crowds of people on its deck and the black sail with a white skull illustration stood out to her.

These were pirates.

She watched as the person she remembered to be the captain of the enemy ship stood up and pointed their cutlass at their rickety ship.

"You there! I am Kirken, a member of the Neverron Pirates! Hand over all of your treasure and we’ll leave peacefully!"

Captain Righthook growled as he adjusted his hat. Then, with a stomp of his peg leg, he waved his metal hook at the enemy captain threateningly as he yelled:

"You bastard scoundrel! You just ran into MY precious ship! If you think that I’ll let you leave alive, then you should prepare to hand over all of your treasure, so it doesn’t sink when I destroy your ship!"

Seeing that any sort of discussion between the two ships was now futile, the enemy pirates climbed onto the bow of their ship and made their way towards them.

Viesta, who watched this with a bit of fear, looked towards Lillian, who had already geared up to fight. She sighed and pulled out her revolvers before asking:

"Do you think there would’ve been a possibility of there not being a fight?"

Lillian looked at her slightly as she wielded the Black Maw. She thought about it for a moment before shrugging casually, "Meh... If we kill these guys, then they’ll be less pirates for anyone travelling through to deal with."

"Kill? Seriously...?" Viesta muttered with a grim expression.

"Well—"

SWISH

.

Right before Lillian could answer, she morphed her body into water and allowed the curved blade of a cutlass to pass through her body.

The pirate widened his eyes in shock as he yelled, "They have a mage—ARGH!"

Lillian slammed her fist into the man’s solar plexus and watched as he folded over her arm. She then shoved him back before quickly delivering a horizontal slash with her Black Maw.

After her battle with the Alpha, the Black Maw had loosened up a bit of its weight to the point where she could use it with one arm. However, it was still incredibly heavy.

She then turned back to Viesta with her usual look, not caring that she had just killed someone and just said:

"It’s not like we have much of a choice, Viesta. They come at us with the intent to kill, so we gotta do the same. Plus, we have the upper hand, since I doubt they have many mages."

Before Viesta could respond, she watched as Lillian dashed off and began dealing with a large portion of the pirates herself.

She then glanced towards Nearlo and found him battling with a pirate with his cutlass. She watched as the weapon changed shape countless times and couldn’t help but be in awe before having to focus on defending herself.

After a moment of battle, Lillian threw Captain Righthook a glance and found him to be surrounded. However, she didn’t give him much concern for what happened next.

"Arrr..." The Captain growled as he summoned his trusty cutlass and began swinging it around.

The pirates laughed in mockery as they watched the bearded man swing in a clumsy manner before noticing something odd as the Captain suddenly took an experienced combat stance.

"[1st Technique of the Deep Sea Hunter: Tidebreaker Slash]!"

With a pivot on his back foot and with a powerful horizontal slash, he dealt out an attack that carried the weight of a crashing wave, which targeted those in a wide arc in front of him.

And not only did it carry the weight of a heavy tidal wave, but the swing had a speed far surpassing what the average person could.

These pirates were after all... Just regular people without any magic.

SWOOSH...!

Some pirates found themselves launched off the sides of the boat, while some flew back with a crimson slash mark on the centre of their chest.

The pirates, who managed to survive the Captain’s [Tidebreaker Slash], were instantly finished off by Lillian, who still didn’t feel much despite not wearing the Mask of Deceit.

She looked over the side of the boat and watched as more pirates continued to climb over to them.

As much as she wanted to sink the boat with a single attack, she knew that she would be greatly disliked by the Captain for doing such a thing.

But... She, too, would hate herself if she did such a thing as well.

"The chest filled with gold coins..." Lillian muttered, almost salivating at the thought as she remembered the glimmering chest.

Lillian marched over to the Captain, who had delivered yet another of the same technique, and found herself caught at the very edge of his attack. And because of that, the feeling of the Captain’s mana washed over her, and so did the illusory sight of a ferocious wave...

With her eyes wide in awe, Lillian slowly muttered inside her head:

’So that’s what a mana-infused technique looks like... That’s trippy...’

Although she had been consistently using her mana whenever she fought to boost her physical stats, she hadn’t ever used it for a technique.

Since... She didn’t really know any.

And whenever she used Marionette’s technique, it would always be truly incomplete since she had never seen the Assassin use her mana with the technique.

’Or I guess... She might not know how to yet.’

"Oi, matey!"

Lillian snapped out of her thoughts as she found Captain Righthook looking at her. She tilted her head and asked, "Yes?"

"I’ll be invading their ship, so protect dah ship for me."

And as he said that, he raised his right hook and aimed it towards the front of the enemy ship and...