Nicola: "What, this makes me furious! Uncle Haisier, fire the cannons and blow them all to the sky!"
Sang was patient and wasn't provoked by a few words. She pulled the struggling Nicola behind the others: "Alright, stop being angry. It's just a few words, isn't it? You are a strong person."
Nicola kept trying to pull away while saying, "Fine, fine, I won't be angry. Don't pull me back, I need to shout back."
Sang could only comfort and coax him along.
The pirates also saw the four cannons. They brought out the two cannons from their own ship: "Hahahaha, you won't surrender? Then let's start fighting! Brothers, grab your weapons and kill all the men, leave the women!"
"Captain, well said! Charge!"
The pirates were completely unreasonable. They started attacking when they were still nearly a hundred meters away. The fuses were lit, and the dark muzzles roared. The cannonballs landed about ten meters short of the ship with "Bang, bang" sounds, kicking up two splashes of water. The pirates jumped into the sea one after another and swam toward Haisier's side.
At this moment, Raiden Ei had already retreated to the side, holding an ordinary long sword taken from a nearby rack. She activated her Observation Haki to sense any fatal attacks aimed at Haisier and the others.
Haisier had just finished adjusting the angle of all the cannons when the pirates jumped into the sea and swam toward them. He had no time to think: "Everyone to your stations, fire!"
The fuses were lit, and with four cannonballs soaring into the air with "Boom, boom, boom, boom," they flew directly toward the pirate ship, landing in the sea and causing explosions. "Bump, bump, bump, bang" made the sea around the pirate ship churn, and blood surfaced.
Haisier didn't care how the subsequent cannonballs would explode or how many pirates they would kill. He mechanically commanded, "Load, fire, load, fire." The pirates' cannonballs also descended from the sky, shaking their ship violently.
After several rounds of continuous bombardment, the 4 cannons completely overwhelmed the 2.
Haisier heard silence from the opposite side: "Stop. Let's assess the situation before firing again." When the splashes subsided, all he saw was a wrecked pirate ship and corpses floating on the sea. The turbulent water made it impossible for him to see anything clearly on the surface.
So many pirates had jumped into the sea earlier; there must be some who weren't killed by the explosion. Under the turbulent sea surface, no one knew how many there were.
Nicola placed his hand in front of Sang: "Look, my hand is injured."
Sang looked and saw that it was indeed injured, likely from loading the ammunition. She touched it: "Does it hurt? I'll load the next time!"
Cyrus and Maiga, standing nearby, couldn't help but laugh: "Sang, my hand is injured too. Can you touch mine as well?"
Nicola pulled his hand back from Sang's and cursed: "Get lost! Sang isn't yours."
Everyone else laughed, and Haisier's grave expression eased considerably.
Haisier: "Alright, enough joking. There are important things to handle now. We can talk about this after we're done."
"The enemy pirate ship has been destroyed, and many of the pirates who jumped into the sea were killed in the recent cannon fire. However, there are definitely survivors in the water. Our next task is to search for them and not let a single one escape. Let's divide into groups next. There are ten of us in total, so let's split into groups of 3, 3, and 4."
Nicola excitedly picked up the flintlock pistol lying on the deck: "I want to be in a group with Sang and Geer!" He pulled Sang over to Geer.
Haisier didn't mind: "Then I'll be in a group with Gatt and Mina. You four brothers can be a group."
Maiga looked utterly dejected: "No way! I've been with them for ten years, why can't I switch teams?"
Cyrus chimed in: "That's right! We've grown up playing together, why can't we change teams?"
Haisier: "Fine then! Mina and I will join you guys. You two can team up with Gatt."
Gatt didn't pay much attention; any combination was fine.
Maiga, Cyrus, Bia, and Mandi all had 'rejection' written on their faces and said in unison: "No, let's just stay as the four of us in one group."
Haisier: "Alright then! Be highly vigilant from now on, let's move out." The ten people turned and walked in different directions.
Searching for the pirates was essentially just looking around the ship and on the surface of the sea before nightfall; it wasn't very effective.
During the bombardment, Raiden Ei had been observing the pirates' movements with her Observation Haki the entire time. Under such intense concentrated cannon fire, the pirates who jumped into the sea were already killed by the shock in the ocean and washed away by the turbulent currents.
The pirates who remained on the ship, after taking a few direct hits, hid in the bottom of the ship and were still there now, but the searchers hadn't noticed them.
Haisier and the others searched until dark and then went to find Raiden Ei. It was pitch black now, and they couldn't see anything: "Miss Shogun, are all those pirates dead?"
Raiden Ei stated directly: "No, there are still 4 left."
Nicola stepped forward with his gun, looking curious: "Where? Where are they?"
Sang was a little helpless; why was he always so impatient?
Raiden Ei thought for a moment and then told them: "They are still in the bottom of the pirate ship."
Everyone else: (≖_≖ )
Maiga looked a bit nervous: "What do we do? It's dark now; they'll definitely escape later."
Haisier: "Should we bombard them again with cannonballs? If we use up too much, we won't have any left for next time."
Gatt: "Should we sail the ship over there?"
Raiden Ei didn't quite understand their hesitation. If they wanted to do something, they should just do it instead of deliberating: "You guys decide. I said I'd leave it to you; I won't interfere until the last moment."
Geer thought for a moment and suggested: "Let's sail the ship over there!"
Seeing that both of them suggested it, Haisier agreed to the plan. The others had no objections; they would go wherever the path led. After deciding on the next steps, they sailed toward the pirate ship, which was only a few dozen meters away.
The four hiding in the bottom of the ship heard the sound of the ship cutting through the sea surface. They all became tense. One of them raised a hand to stop their panic.
Another pirate asked: "Captain, is there a plan?"
This man was Glock. He was the last one to jump into the sea. Because he had taken several cannonballs, several of his bones were broken. He was no longer as arrogant as before.
Glock: "They only managed to injure us this badly using cannonballs. They aren't truly formidable people, or they wouldn't have needed so many cannonballs."
A pirate cried: "Captain, then lead us to take revenge!" His younger brother had been blown into pieces by the earlier cannon fire; he had to kill those people to avenge his brother.
Glock burst out laughing: "Good, worthy of being my brother! I can hear the ship is very close. Let's go and ambush them!"
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