Chapter 61

"Kacha! Kacha!" Crackling sounds erupted amidst the chaos, as both ships vibrated violently from the intense collision! The sharp bow of the Bell and Mug was made with a special and unique legendary material. Upon collision, it radiated out a piercing white ray, like a hot knife through butter, it stabbed into the enormous merchant ship.

From a bird's eye view, the Bell and Mug resembled a toxic sharp sword, deeply penetrating into the merchant's abdomen!

The crouching pirates cried out excitedly, waving their prepared lassos as they casted them over in succession; thereby binding the two ships together, and at the same time, forming a netted bridge. Unsheathing their broadswords, sabers and muskets, they charged over!

The opposing merchant ship quickly organized men to welcome the pirates with a wave of gunfire, instead, the sparse burst of bullets only found 5-6 pirates. This subsequently triggered their bloodlusted nature. Even one-eyed Cuaron was proving why he was crew head, with his tremendous showing of strength. He charged forth alongside the first wave of attacks; blood splashing over his entire body, as he swung his saber and cut down 5-6 enemies. This boosted the pirates' morale, as they boldly advanced to clear the opposing deck.

In a side-to-side hand-to-hand naval boarding battle, capturing the opposing ship's deck would give one an upper hand. However, if the enemy's resistive willpower was stubbornly strong, the pirates would have to go through the arduous battle of battling through individual channels of the ship's hold and the different cabins. Furthermore, this merchant ship's volume was more than a kiloton, its interior was probably segregated into three levels. Each level would have roughly 20 plus -30 rooms, if the members hid themselves, camping with their weapons, this sort of situation would waste a big deal of effort. It was like a hard bone that was tough to chew on.

At this moment, Ammand stood out, his face grim yet his eyes flashed with a bloodlusted excitement, and his body posture remained absolutely straight. Pressing down onto his sword hilt by his waist, he sauntered down the stairs of the merchant ship's hold with graceful strides*. As his body disappeared beneath, the pirates frenziedly yelled out, raising their weapons and charged in.

(TN: A ship's hold is a space that carries cargo, normally there will be stairs down to it from the deck for larger ships)

Below the stairs, a resisting line of 10 congregated opponents received them. Leveraging on the narrow channel within the hold of the ship, their front wave comprised of several gunmen aiming with their muskets as they high kneeled on the floor. "Bang! Bang!" They released their trigger.

As Ammand's prominent body structure and aura exposed him as the leader of the pirates, most of the bullets were fired in his direction! Yet Ammand's face leaked out a sinister sneer, unsheathing his silver sword in the nick of time.

Unleashing a captivating and dazzling slashing tempo, with an unparalleled speed unable to be captured by the naked eye, traces of silverish lines formed and circled around Ammand. Following that, the incoming bullets were abruptly deflected, and penetrated deep into the surrounding wooden walls.

Ammand's advancing pace did not drop, as he strode towards the mini fort, constructed by these few sailors at the last minute. Faced against him, the sailors revealed horrified expressions as they stood rooted in their positions. After a brief moment, their throats, faces and chest were vandalized with blood and wounds, as they collapsed like dominoes. Even after death, they casted horrified gazes with their frozen pupils at the already distant Ammand; who consistently maintained a graceful, imposing and upright figure!

The few pirates following Ammand were not at all surprised by this common sight. With a glance full of admiration to their captain, they surged forward. Offering no chance, they mercilessly stabbed at the corpses, looting personal items before using the dead men's clothes to wipe off the blood on their hands. Finally, they lifted and tossed these motionless and bare corpses into the sea.

By this point, Sheyan wanted to rush up and follow suit. Nevertheless, after seeing Ammand's frightening monstrosity, and the manner at which the pirates cleared up after him, he instantly halted in his tracks after perceiving a fact.

"By following them, even if I get to loot a little, I will be despised by the pirates." One must never forget, he was still holding a side mission within his chest - he had to raise his reputation amongst the pirates. Such small matters was something he would never take part in. Yet the greedy and foolish Chris upon observing this lucrative opportunity, wagged his tail and charged forward.

The murderous shoutings gradually vanished deeper into the ship, obviously, Ammand also could not keep up with his incredible one man against a thousand show. Without a doubt, under his leadership, the pirates would exhibit their maximum potential and strength. Instead, Sheyan remaining on the Bell and Mug deck; with both his hands folded on his chest, as he received numerous looks of disdain from the surrounding pirates.

He coldly gazed towards his front as the merchant ship ahead once again exposed a row of black barreled cannons. A strange feeling was faintly gathering in his heart, a negative feeling that the pirates' assault was going too smoothly.

"At present, the majority flock of pirate ships hasn't arrived due to their lack in speed. Still, a third of the assaulting force has already entered the fray. The Spanish fleet demonstrates a clear advantage. There is something that doesn't add up. If the Paragon fleet was so easily dealt with, why would the British Royal navy request aid from the pirates? The only explanations is.... There are hidden trumps that the Spanish merchant Fernandez had set up!"

As Sheyan stood at the bow of the ship while observing far, he noticed that one of the Paragon fleet ship, that was currently locked in battle with the Black Pearl, had suddenly changed direction! Ferociously bombarding the Black Pearl and forcing it to retreat, following that, Sheyan noticed that 3 jolly boats were lowered down from that ship!

The great sea era had already established for a century, shipbuilding techniques had advanced to an exquisite stage, even division of labour was considerably clear. Although the 3 boats lowered into the sea were only jolly boats, their capacity neared a hundred ton, and their sailing configuration was also pretty remarkable. Clearly seen atop the the boats, were fully equipped Spanish navy troops. Braving the winds and billows, they abruptly paddled like an arrow towards the Bell and Mug!

Under normal circumstances, those 3 boats could be described as 'having a deathwish'. Based on the Bell and Mug's high speed, it could easily lose them and crush them with their cannons! However, the current Bell and Mug was lodged into another merchant ship, and was even binded to it by the assaulting pirates. They had lost all mobility.

A grave problem was that at this moment, Captain Ammand had led his crew head Cuaron and a great batch of pirates to assault the merchant ship! Furthermore, Chief Mate Scarface Harry was injured and unconscious. Under such a situation, the ones that were left were the old, the sickly, or those that were gravely injured and were nursing their wounds. Merely relying on these people, how were they supposed to go against these savage wolves and ferocious lions of the Spanish Paragon fleet?

At this moment, the pirates that stayed behind were all lost in their thoughts. A sole notion welled up in their heart - "Captain! Hurry up and return!"

To Ammand, this was an unprecedented crisis throughout his entire pirate career!

Meanwhile, after leading his crew onto the merchant ship, Ammand had proceeded to clear the cabins and rooms; one enemy at a time.

Ammand was extremely meticulous, because previously, his father had missed an enemy member due to negligence during a raid. During the midnight partying, this enemy quietly crawled out and lit the entire pirate ship on fire while the pirates were drunk! Therefore, his father's entire 20 years of building up his crew had vanished in one night and was even burnt to death. That year, Ammand fortunately wasn't aboard, otherwise, it would have been hard for him to escape.

However, such meticulous searching had its flaws in terms of efficiency. As Ammand started to chip off his opponent's strength, to the point he could feel their resistance dying out, he had already left a huge trail of scattered gold coins.

The pirates were accustomed to unruly behavior, although they were brave and fierce in battle, their discipline was a total mess. Putting their self interest first, after affirming that their side had the upperhand, they immediately erupted into a wild looting frenzy. Some even started insulting each other as they split up their booties. If not for Ammand's threatening nature, they would have probably begun going at each other's throats.

The greedy and chaotic pirates followed the trails of gold coins, finally reaching an exquisitely decorated dining hall. Although One-eyed Cuaron took the lead in battles, he adopted the exact nature of pirates during plundering. With one glance, he noticed that the left passage had a pouch of Escudo gold coins (Spanish currency). With eyes radiating, he immediately pounced forward. Yet at this moment, Ammand's expression sunk, because he had smelled an unexplainably bad odour coming their direction.

"Kacha!" the broken wooden board splintered in all directions! A black and heavy massive twin hatchet chopped against the wooden partition inside this ship's hold. The axe head was broad and heavy, at least the size of a round table. If one were to calculate its weight carefully, it would be at least 200 kg!

Blood flowed down from the middle of Cuaron's eyes, as he forcefully raised his saber to fend off the attack. Instead, his saber was blown away. Following that, the horizontal huge axe flung him 5-6 metres away, as he crashed to the floor and rolled a few rounds before bouncing against the pillar. Coughing out mouthfuls of blood, just by looking at his state, one could tell he had probably broken a few bones!