Chapter 66

"Chapter 66: Adrian Smashes Big Brother's Bowling Ball"

Facing around thirty armed pirates, the combination of two women, one man, and a cat seemed outnumbered.

As the surrounded party, Adrian was currently... helping Tom adjust his clothes.

Tom had changed into a denim suit, and Adrian adjusted his hat for him. Then Tom pulled out his revolver and twirled it, looking very cool.

Taking the knight sword that Adrian handed her, Rui Mengmeng held it with both hands, still feeling a bit uneasy.

Artoria held the Invisible Air, the Oath of Victory, but she didn't activate her magical armor. She didn't feel that this pirate with a bounty of 76 million Berries was particularly strong.

Blak felt like he was being underestimated. There were thirty-two of them surrounding Adrian's group, so what were they doing?

The women holding weapons were practically wearing the words "Easy Target" on their faces. How much combat strength could they have?

The man over there was playing with a cat? He was even holding a folding stool. Adrian hadn't noticed earlier, but was that the stool he had been sitting on when fishing by the shore?

The golden-haired girl was even more amusing. Her bangs were blown by the wind, swaying back and forth, yet she maintained a serious expression on her face. Could those bangs really be pulled out and used as a weapon? It seemed like she could poke us with them.

Blak fired a shot into the air: "Go, my underlings! Bring me the Berries!"

"Oh~" Thirty-one lackeys rushed forward.

"Hey~ They're coming!" Rui Mengmeng saw the people charging towards her and instinctively swung her sword.

With a clank, the sword clashed with a knife. The unfortunate pirate hadn't expected this seemingly weak woman to possess such strength. The knife was knocked out of his hand, leaving a deep cut across his chest.

"You're useless!" Another pirate quickly followed up, waving a large knife menacingly at Rui Mengmeng's head.

"So fierce! So scary!" Rui Mengmeng's face bore an expression as if she might burst into tears at any moment. However, her body agilely sidestepped the attack, and she countered with a sword thrust into the back of the attacking pirate.

It seemed perilous but was actually quite stable.

Adrian, following his principle of giving Adrian and Rui Mengmeng more combat experience, was openly swatting the water with his paddle. He casually took a folding stool in one hand and knocked out two pirates who lunged at him. He was practicing with improvised weapons, as the attack patterns of these small fry were hardly worth his attention.

Smashing one pirate in the face with the folding stool and whacking another on the back of the head with a frying pan, Adrian even took out a bowling ball and hurled it.

This bowling ball was quite bizarre. Although it wasn't heavy, it seemed to easily bury people into the ground upon impact. The poor soul looked as if he might not be able to crawl out for a while.

[Tom's Bowling Ball: Tom once used this to bury Jerry's big brother under the floor... Although he later suffered a tiny bit of retaliation.]

Blak, watching from behind, started to sweat cold bullets. What were these people doing? Three against thirty-odd, and they were still gaining the upper hand?

No, that's not right. It wasn't just three of them; that cat was acting oddly too. Tongue hanging out, it held two pistols, firing away cheerfully.

Strangely, while it often hit its targets, none of its shots seemed to draw blood. Plus, those pistols should only have six rounds, right? How come it had fired over a dozen rounds and still wasn't done?

Tom's marksmanship was pretty average. When he used a shotgun to hunt ducks, it took eight shots just to hit one little duck wing. At other times, he'd usually bring bad luck by merely pulling out a gun.

However, at such close range with so many enemies, he could simply keep shooting as long as he didn't hit his allies.

As a result, people were frequently shot in the foot by Tom. Clutching their legs, they hopped around, screaming in pain. Eventually, Rui Mengmeng, who seemed to have been scared by the sight, finished them off with her sword.

In no time at all, the lackeys had been cleared out. Adrian then turned his attention to the still motionless Blak. Could this pirate with a bounty of 76 million Berries really hold his own?

Adrian glanced at Artoria, who nodded. "Go ahead and try; I've got your back."

Blak was getting nervous now, watching his subordinates fall one by one. He realized he might be in trouble. He started to retreat stealthily, preparing to make a run for it.

"Hey! You over there!" Since Blak had only mentioned his own bounty but not his name, Adrian didn't know what to call him.

"What's this?!" Blak heard Adrian's shout, instinctively turned his head, and then saw a lamp post—or rather, a lamp post-like object—come crashing down on him, pinning him to the ground.

Even when he fully passed out, he couldn't figure out why there was a lamp post here.

But as he lost consciousness, Adrian also couldn't figure it out: "Does this guy really have a bounty of over 76 million? Or is it because my lamp post is actually a Noble Phantasm?"

After all, the intro said that Gilgamesh's throne was among the items one could draw.

"No, that's just an ordinary lamp post, and it's broken." Artoria shattered his illusion, "It was so easy to deal with because he's just weak."

All the pirates had lost their ability to resist. Adrian silently retrieved the various items he had thrown out, including the lamp post. Swinging it felt pretty good, and with his current strength, he could control it just right. "Let's tie them up first; I want to check out their ship."

The pirates were tied up in various ways, with Adrian learning from Artoria's methods. Tom preferred to coil people up into caterpillars, and finally, tie a neat bow.

The four of them paddled, pushing the small boat through the waves toward the large ship.

It was Adrian's first chance to closely observe such a ship. He was quite excited. And as if responding to his anticipation, the ship fired a cannonball from its port.

Indeed, there were people left

on the ship!

"Gale King's Hammer!"

The compressed wind was released from Artoria's sword and struck the cannonball, detonating it at a distance—she chose a safe long-range attack due to uncertainty about the explosion's power.

Afterward, Artoria jumped down from the small boat and dashed across the water's surface. Approaching the large ship, she leaped onto it, knocking down two pirates preparing a second shot.

"Why can she run on the water?" Rui Mengmeng asked in astonishment.

"She was blessed by a lake fairy, allowing her to walk on water." Adrian explained.

As soon as he finished speaking, Tom leapt into the water with a splash, sinking beneath the surface. Acting on instinct, Adrian reached out and pulled him back up.

Holding Tom by the back of his neck, Adrian lifted him to eye level and locked eyes with him. "What are you up to this time?"

Tom stared innocently with large eyes, pointing at Artoria and then at himself, miming running in mid-air.

Adrian quickly grasped his meaning. "You want to learn how to run on water like her?"

Tom nodded.

"Forget it; she has a unique buff. You can't replicate it... um... well, I can't say for sure. You're a cat that can unconsciously stroll through the air, after all. That's not entirely impossible."

Let him do as he pleases. After all, Tom could swim. Adrian and Rui Mengmeng continued rowing while Tom repeatedly jumped into the water and climbed back onto the boat. Whether he'd learn to run on water was a different story, but he seemed to be having a lot of fun.