Chapter Nineteen (Third update, dedicated to our Patron, Listening to the Sound of the Wind.)

Lyle collapsed rigidly onto the deck, his eyes wide open in unresigned death, a small trickle of fresh blood seeping from the edges of the bullet hole in his forehead. Accustomed to acting with unbridled arrogance within the Kingdom of Carnet, he could not fathom, even in death, why Mord had pulled the trigger.

Following Lyle's demise, the ordinarily well-trained soldiers were instantly thrown into a panic. They were not afraid of dying, but they feared that a failure to adequately protect the royal family would bring ruin upon their families.

On the warships flanking the royal vessel, numerous marines noticed the commotion erupting from the king's ship. A member of the royal family had been shot and killed. Yet, given the circumstances, there was little they could do about it. The pressure bearing down upon them from Mord and Laffitte, approaching from directly ahead, was immense.

Having cleanly executed Lyle, Mord swiftly stowed his flintlock pistol, then resumed the Moon Walk technique, heading toward one of the warships. The entire sequence, from start to finish, was executed in one fluid motion.

The marines on the warship fired a few symbolic shots before watching helplessly as Mord and Laffitte descended onto the deck.

With mobility in their favor, there was no need for Mord and Laffitte to divide their forces. Conversely, because the warships were underway, gathering the troops to a single point to counter Mord and Laffitte would require furling the sails, stopping the vessels, and deploying boarding planks. Even with maximum efficiency, this would take time.

In an encounter of this nature, that brief window of time invariably represented multiple vibrant lives.

Upon landing on the deck, Mord cast a calm, assessing glance over the assembled marines. Their numbers were substantial, and their spirit and vitality surpassed branch marines by more than a tier.

"As expected of the Levely, which occurs once every four years—enough to draw such heavy attention from the World Government."

"Fosfos, the troops from the other warship will be here to reinforce in about five minutes," Laffitte reminded him. Drawing upon his navigational experience, he had factored in variables like furling sails and stopping the ships to calculate an approximate timeframe.

While they spoke, the marines on the deck refrained from recklessly rushing into close combat, instead raising their rifles to fire at Mord and Laffitte.

Activating his Observation Haki, Mord easily dodged the incoming bullets and smiled. "Five minutes... that will be more than enough."

Laffitte let out a soft chuckle as well. Striding straight into the hail of gunfire with a slightly eccentric gait, he took the lead and charged toward the marines.

Realizing that firearms posed no threat to Mord and Laffitte, the marines hurriedly drew their standard-issue sabers. Laffitte plunged alone into the thick of the marines. Drawing his blade, he slashed. The flash of steel sliced through the air. Within a heartbeat, several corpses dropped to the ground.

The marines' expressions shifted. They swung their swords at Laffitte, only to strike empty air. As Laffitte twisted and turned his body, a few more sweeping strikes felled several more marines.

Yet this time, he deliberately left one alive.

Amidst such a battle of few against many, Laffitte was actually considering reserving targets for Mord. It was like sorting beans—screening them. Those deemed unqualified were simply killed outright; those deemed qualified were spared the full force of his blows. The measured, controlled strikes served as a side testament to Laffitte's formidable strength.

Through Laffitte's fierce onslaught, the marines were either killed or wounded. Those who did not die immediately lay on the ground struggling; naturally, they could not guess that Laffitte had intentionally held back.

Mord, however, was different. It took him only a moment to realize that Laffitte was purposefully leaving live targets. Without a doubt, these actions were meant to generate value for him—because Laffitte was the only one who knew about his Hunter's Notes.

"Honestly..."

Although Mord desperately needed the experience gains at this stage, he did not want Laffitte putting himself in danger to generate them. In a one-on-one fight, choosing to hold back slightly was fine. But this was a chaotic melee against superior numbers; every instance of holding back required a split second of diverted attention to regulate one's strength. A momentary lapse could easily disrupt one's rhythm and expose a fatal opening.

Once this battle concluded, it would be necessary to have a word with Laffitte. Leveling up could be done gradually, but he had no desire to lose Laffitte.

While pondering this, Mord raised his gun and fired at the marines. One lead bullet meant one marine. Mord's reloading speed had now been compressed to under a second, and with Laffitte drawing the enemy's fire, the destructive power of firearms could be fully displayed.

Rapidly reloading, Mord flicked his wrist and fired another shot. In an instant, yet another marine took a hit and went down.

A few marines noticed Mord firing and skirted halfway around the ship's superstructure to flank him from behind. Just as they were about to launch a sneak attack, Mord abruptly spun around and drew his blade.

A flash of steel swept past. Those marines were decapitated on the spot, their corpses slowly sagging to the deck. Mord flicked the blood off the blade of Chidori, quickly sheathed it, and, acting as if nothing had happened, resumed raising his gun to harvest the marines on the deck.

In less than a minute, over forty marines were sprawled across the deck. Among them, a dozen or so were still breathing, though thoroughly incapacitated. These were the targets meticulously handpicked by Laffitte. Once the battle ended, he could use his hypnotic abilities to extract relevant intelligence from them.

This further demonstrated the exceptionally high compatibility between Mord and Laffitte. Confiding the existence of the Hunter's Notes to Laffitte was perhaps not merely a matter of complete trust, but also a way to elevate the utilization efficiency of the Hunter's Notes to a whole new level.

With Laffitte blocking the vanguard, Mord outputted damage from the rear without any pressure. While swinging a blade to cut down enemies possessed a visceral thrill, picking off foes with gunfire also felt remarkably satisfying.

Suddenly, a red glow flickered within Mord's eyes.

An index finger thrust forward from behind, aiming straight for the back of Mord's head. Mord squatted down without the slightest warning. The index finger grazed right over his hair, stabbing into the empty air ahead.

It was Rankyaku!

The attacker attempting the sneak attack was a marine captain with an afro. Having first closed the distance using Soru, he had launched a Rankyaku at maximum speed, intending to skewer the back of Mord's head.

"I was cautious enough, yet he still sensed it..."

Seeing Mord evade, the afro-haired captain felt a jolt of shock, though it did not disrupt his next move. Since the surprise attack had failed, he would simply switch to a fierce bout of close-quarters combat!

The afro-haired captain prepared to retract his technique.

"Slap!"

Instead, Mord raised his left hand, precisely seizing the captain's elbow.

"Hm?"

"Crack!"

With his bare hands, Mord snapped the marine's arm bone.

The afro-haired captain let out a miserable shriek. He only knew Soru and Rankyaku among the Six Powers, rendering him incapable of using Tekkai to defend against Mord's physical strength. But even if he did know Tekkai, it would not have stopped Mord's Haki. Ultimately, the result made little difference.

Mord swung his left arm upward, hurling the afro-haired captain heavily onto the deck before him.

"Bang!"

The deck splintered. Landing flat on his back, the afro-haired captain gasped and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Filling his vision, however, was the pair of entirely expressionless eyes belonging to Mord.

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

Mord cleanly stomped down and snapped both of the afro-haired captain's leg bones. To ensure the captain successfully lost consciousness, Mord followed up the bone-breaking stomp with a vicious kick aimed straight at the captain's groin.

Bang!

Crushed jewels!

The afro-haired captain's eyes rolled up, revealing vast swathes of white as he passed out cold on the spot.

"This fellow's quality is decent."

Anyone capable of using the Six Powers naturally possessed a physique far from weak. Mord glanced down at the unconscious afro-haired captain and, just to be thorough, lifted his right foot, preparing to crush the captain's only remaining intact left arm.

Before his foot could even descend, Mord sensed something. He retracted his foot, leaped forward, and used the Moon Walk to spin around in mid-air.

A blade glowing with sharp light swept right past the spot where he had been standing. The one who had launched the attack was the buck-toothed rear admiral who had rushed over as reinforcement from the other warship. Having no mastery of the Moon Walk, he had expended considerable effort to cross over Carnet's royal ship.

After forcing Mord back with a single slash, the buck-toothed rear admiral cast a swift glance at the wretched state of the afro-haired captain, the chill in his eyes intensifying exponentially.

Suspended mid-air via the Moon Walk, Mord gazed down at the buck-toothed rear admiral clad in a marine trench coat.

"Tch, do you marines love sneak attacks that much? Truly commendable."

Mord genuinely praised this behavior on the part of the marines. When dealing with enemies, executing them with maximum efficiency was the ultimate truth.

Yet Mord's praise struck the buck-toothed rear admiral as little more than mockery.

"Bacard Moord! You are truly audacious—how dare you shoot and kill the prince of the Kingdom of South Carnet!"

"Oh? So he was a prince, then... Tell me, is the king on that ship as well?"

"Hmm?"

Hearing Mord's words, the buck-toothed rear admiral's expression shifted slightly.