"On the battle stations!"
"Pirates on the starboard side!"
At the front of the ship, Siegfried used a spyglass, looking over to the pirate ship. He caught the silver sails and the pirate flag flying high in the wind.
"It is Silver Hunt pirates!" Siegfried shouted. "Bounty posters, please!"
"Yes, Vice Admiral!" A sailor soon came with a stack of bounty posters and went through them quickly until he found the one he was looking for.
He handed it over to Siegfried.
"Hmm…" Siegfried looked at it and said. "Ambrose Galemaul, Middle Stage Martial King, his bounty was updated about a week ago. Thus, the information should be accurate."
"Get slightly closer, and start blasting them with cannons!" A captain-ranked navy officer shouted.
With the wind on their side, their ship quickly approached the pirate ship, and after confirming that they were close enough, the captain gave the command to fire.
The cannonballs flew out of the cannons, going through the air in an arch, and headed towards the pirate ship's deck.
"Hahaha!" Ambrose jumped on the pirate ship's railing. "I wonder who that battleship's commanding officer is. He must be quite bold to attack us !"
The pirates laughed rowdily, showing their missing teeth, and waved their swords in the air.
"They don't seem scared." Julian said while pressing the cap down to hide his face. "Those cannonballs are about to hit us."
"…" Kiernan narrowed his eyes. 'Show your ability, Ambrose!'
"Hahaha!" Ambrose laughed, and then the pupils of his eyes turned narrow, looking like cat's eyes, and then silver fur began to sprout from his skin.
Within his nails, long, dangerous silver claws extended out, and his legs turned multi-jointed with his human flesh disappearing under a heavy layer of silver fur.
With his human face disappearing, a ferocious snout formed in its place, completing his transformation into a silver-furred tiger.
"Physical Transformation: Silver Tiger!"
"Physical-type Martial Ability!" Julian exclaimed.
"I didn't know Physical-type allows one to turn into an animal." Kiernan said with a look of surprise. "I guess there are a lot of things I still didn't know about this world."
"Because it is rare!" Julian said. "While this is Physical-type, I guess it is better to call it as Transformation-type. In truth there are only five types of Martial Abilities, and turning into animal is part of Physical-type, but it is commonly called as Transformation-type."
With the cannonballs heading in their direction, Ambrose jumped towards them and cut through them with his silver claws.
The cannonballs exploded all around him.
With his strong leap, Ambrose jumped straight towards the navy battleship with a loud roar.
The navy officers paled and screamed in shock as they saw the ferocious monster heading in their way.
"Huh!" Siegfried drew his sword, jumped at Ambrose, and clashed his sword with his silver claws.
The sparks flew in all directions.
"Who might you be, rawr?" Ambrose asked while revealing his sharp fangs.
"Name's Siegfried, Navy Vice Admiral." He said. "Surrender or die, pirate scum."
"Hahahahaha!" Ambrose laughed as if he was having fun. "Rawr, I'd rather die as a free man than die as a captured coward!"
"Hmph!" Siegfried released an energy wave from his sword. The energy wave pushed against Ambrose's silver claws and pushed him back to his ship.
As Ambrose landed back on his ship, he licked his face with his long tongue.
"Kinetra-user?" Ambrose wondered. "No, haha. That power is coming straight from that sword. He is Conjuration-user!"
"…" Siegfried landed onto the navy battleship, his katana-typed sword shining under the moonlight.
With his coat hanging from his shoulders, it flapped behind him like a cape, making him look like a hero of some fairytale.
"Men!" Ambrose shouted. "Prepare for the battle. Either we will die, or we'll sink that battleship to the bottom of the sea!"
"Yeah!" The pirates laughed and raised their swords high in the air.
"Prepare for a battle!" Siegfried screamed.
The battle-hardened navy officers drew their weapons and prepared for the bloody battle. It wasn't their first fight, and it certainly wouldn't be their last.
As the two ships collided, the screams filled the air as the pirates jumped over the small distance and boarded the battleship.
The swords swung, and the blood spilled like a bucket of red paint over the deck of the ship.
"Rah!" Julian, as an unarmed combatant, punched a couple of the navy soldiers in the mouth.
"Reigning Fallow!" Kiernan punched through the rows of navy soldiers.
A couple of swords came towards his head.
With the sides of his hands, he redirected the swords away and then smashed his fists through the navy soldier's faces, leaving them breathless and bloody.
In the skies above the battleship, Ambrose and Siegfried exchanged blows. The silver claws and the katana sword clashed amidst sparks of lightning.
At that moment, a large wave crashed against the side of the ship, and while most of the pirates, and navy soldiers seemed alright with Sea Steps, Kiernan stumbled to the side.
It completely broke his posture.
Immediately after, a sword stabbed towards him and grazed his waist, but he barely managed to dodge it. It could've pierced through his waist if he hadn't moved out of the way.
"Shit!" Kiernan's expression looked ugly. 'Sea Steps is very important!'
"Haa!" The navy soldier chased after him with the sword.
"Tch!" Kiernan weaved past the swinging sword and chopped his hand at the back of the navy soldier's neck.
The navy soldier turned unconscious and collapsed on the ground.
"I see the Silver Hunt pirates have gained new members!" A slightly older navy officer walked over to Kiernan and Julian. "Let me guess, you two think that pirate life is all games and treasure hunts?"
"Heh…" Julian licked his lips. "My name is Jason Leonhardt; better remember it. I will make a name for myself, y'see. And here is my good ol' pal, Tobias Reiner. Fucking remember it!"
Kiernan rolled his eyes.
'Now we will definitely get bounties. At least I hope it will be with our fake names…'
Without anyone realizing, a strange green mist started to come from below the water. It seemed eerie and poisonous, spreading quickly across the surface and towards the two ships.