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Chapter 18: Start Action

Bam!

A gunshot rang out on the boat, grazing Rodney's hair.

"Scatter!" Rodney gave the order, and all the Water Bodies dispersed, with only one running towards the other pirate ships.

Rodney, on the other hand, set his sights on the largest main ship. The opponent had already spotted him, but he evaded a single shot. After that, a dense hail of bullets followed.

His Sharingan appeared in his eyes, and the speed of the bullets seemed to slow down in the air. Through the Sharingan, he captured, predicted, and calculated the trajectory of the bullets in his mind. Then his body instinctively reacted and dodged, all in the blink of an eye.

"Trash! Useless! Shoot him! Turn him into a sieve!" Krieg roared angrily.

"Understood!" The sweating pirates continued to shoot at Rodney and his water bodies, but unfortunately, they were easily evaded.

"Give me the gun!" Frustrated with his crew's ineffectiveness, Krieg grabbed a musket, aimed at Rodney, and started shooting.

As the distance closed in, one of the Water Bodies threw a kunai with an Explosive Tag attached, plunging it into the pirate ship.

"What's that?" a curious pirate poked his head out from the side of the ship, looking at the kunai.

Suddenly, the Explosive Tag on the kunai burst into flames, causing a powerful explosion. A large hole appeared in the relatively strong hull, allowing seawater to pour into the breached area and flood the cabin.

"It's bad! The ship is taking on water! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!!"

The pirates didn't hesitate and jumped into the sea, swimming towards the other pirate ships. With such a significant breach, repairing the ship was not an option. They had no choice but to abandon it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Continuous explosions erupted around the fleet as the Water Bodies swiftly moved. Each time they passed a ship, they placed Explosive Tags near the sea surface, causing the ships' hulls to rupture and flood with seawater. This forced the pirates to abandon their ships.

In this way, a fleet of thousands of people was easily dismantled.

The Krieg Pirates' biggest advantage was their large numbers, and ships were vital at sea. Without a ship, they couldn't even venture out. The ships in East Blue were not sophisticated vessels built by Water 7. They lacked special equipment and were made of relatively simple materials.

For a moment, it looked like dumplings being tossed on the surface of the sea, with human heads bobbing in the water.

Rodney didn't care about the life or death of these men. Whether they survived depended on their own abilities. Choosing to be pirates meant they had to accept the risks of dying at sea. They were responsible for their own actions!

"Captain Krieg! Help us!"

"Let us come aboard, Captain Krieg!"

"I don't want to die yet, Captain Krieg! Please let me aboard! I'm your most loyal subordinate!"

The pirates desperately wanted to board Krieg's flagship because it was the only ship left. Rodney had blown up all the other dozen or so ships. Krieg was their only chance of survival.

"Stay down! Stay away from me, you bunch of trash! Where did that damn thing go?" Krieg accepted some distressed crew members at first, but he refused to take on those he deemed useless. Instead, he ordered them to stay away and prevented them from coming aboard.

Although the ship was large, it couldn't accommodate one or two thousand people. Besides, Rodney would find a way to kill him if there were too many people. It wouldn't be easy to fight in such crowded conditions.

As for so-called loyalty, he didn't need it. He didn't trust his crew. Fear and wealth were what governed his crew, not loyalty. Fear was a powerful motivator. As long as the crew feared him, he didn't need anything else.

If he ran out of crew members, he could always recruit more. But first, he needed to eliminate the bastard who had severely damaged his fleet!

"There he is!" one of his pirates shouted.

Rodney defied gravity, stepping on the almost vertical hull with the agility of a cow rising from a coffin. He ran up the hull and stood firmly on the side of the ship. His strange red pupils glanced over the pirates, making many of them feel intimidated.

"Shoot!"

Krieg gave the ruthless order, and his men aimed their guns at Rodney and opened fire. The bullets hit Rodney's body, turning him into liquid.

Yes, he had turned into a water body.

Meanwhile, the real Rodney rushed into the battle from a different direction, accompanied by the remaining two water bodies.

"Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"

The sea suddenly surged, and under the powerful waves, many cannon fodder on the deck was washed overboard.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

The Phoenix Sage Fire Technique ignited the sails, rushed into the crowd, and exploded violently, claiming many lives.

"Seeking death!" Krieg's deputy and top thug, Gin, wielded two iron crutches, each with an iron ball at the end that could be lethal to ordinary people.

He continuously spun the iron ball crutches, using centrifugal force to increase their destructive power. He charged at the real Rodney with vigor. It wasn't that he saw through Rodney's clone technique; he simply got lucky.

Clang!

Rodney's wind attribute chakra enhanced his White Light Chakra Sabre, increasing its cutting power. When it clashed with the iron ball crutch, sparks flew. If Gin took the time to inspect his weapon, he would have noticed a not-too-deep cut on the iron ball.

White Light Chakra Sabre easily parried Gin's attack. Each of his strikes carried immense force, amplified by centrifugal force, far surpassing his own strength. Rodney had no trouble dealing with it.

His perception was unparalleled. The Sharingan captured Gin's movements, processed them in Rodney's brain, and predicted his every move. With ease, he countered the attacks, using the least amount of effort to neutralize Gin's strikes.

It made Gin feel like he was punching cotton—his attacks were rendered weak.

"How is this possible? Is he as strong as the captain? Too...too powerful!"

"Come on, Captain! We must kill him!"

"That's right, Captain! We are the Krieg Pirates, the strongest pirate group in East Blue!"

On the side, Rodney sneered and knocked out cannon fodder with a single punch. "The strongest? Or just the largest in number?"

"You..."

The pirates were at a loss for words but continued their assault, attacking blindly. Under their relentless attacks, the two water bodies quickly dissipated, turning into pools of seawater.

Only Rodney remained to face Gin alone.

Krieg squinted his eyes. It was clear that Gin was at a disadvantage. He contemplated whether to intervene. As for whether Gin would get hurt, he didn't really care. From his perspective, the enemy's loss was his gain.

However, Gin still held some value to him, so he hesitated for a moment and shouted, "Pearl, go and help Gin."

"Sure thing, Chief!" A burly figure stepped forward. He wielded two steel shields, each as tall as a person and incredibly thick. He positioned himself between the shields, resembling a sandwich cookie. 

The shields were adorned with intricate patterns, and a small pearl the size of a watermelon was embedded in the center of each shield. The man also had pearl earrings and a pearl on top of his head. In addition to the two larger shields, he had two smaller shields attached to his hands, elbows, and knees.

Pearl the Iron Wall—the man with the strongest defense in the Krieg Pirates.

Clang!

The two shields in Pearl's hands collided with each other, and he laughed, saying, "Since you've encountered me, your luck has run out!"

Rodney thought to himself, "Am I playing with pests?"

He decided to end the battle quickly. Using his Sharingan, he pinpointed the flaws in Gin's movements. The White Light Chakra Sabre in his hands refracted the dazzling sunlight, and Wind attribute chakra enveloped the blade, creating a thin layer of gold that could crack stones. With a sudden burst of force, he sliced through Gin's iron ball crutch with a single strike.

Gin's eyes widened in disbelief, as did the people around him. They witnessed something incredible. 

At that moment, someone recognized Rodney and exclaimed, "I know who he is! He's Joestar J. Rodney, the pirate hunter who's been gaining fame recently!"