Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: Fall of Drake
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Shrieeeeeek!
Cheryone urgently raised his sword to block the iron rod crashing down from above.
Claaaaang!
The shockwave from deflecting it with his blade caused the deck to shatter with a grinding crunch.
"Urgh!"
A groan escaped him involuntarily under the immense weight that felt like it would crush his bones—no, his very organs.
...But.
It wasn't beyond his endurance. No, if it had been his strength alone, he wouldn't have lasted even ten seconds—normal clashes like this would have turned him into a bloody pulp and sent him flying.
Yet the auras of his two steadfast superiors supporting his back allowed him to hold on somehow.
"You filthy vermin!"
Drake couldn't believe it. Not even a vice-captain of a proper fleet, but mere trash barely fit to captain a minor pirate crew had blocked his strike.
This absurd reality made his blood boil in reverse.
Hummmm!
Ice shards floating around the young upstart whose blood hadn't even fully dried in his head.
Once these knight bastards unleashed their joint formation and those ice shards appeared, dealing with them had become exponentially trickier.
No matter which one he targeted, it felt like facing the combined might of all three knights.
Drake had risen to his position as deputy leader through countless battles. He had quickly realized what this phenomenon was.
Remote Power Transfer.
A supreme technique allowing those in a joint assault to exchange power among themselves.
Even the famed knight orders of the continent's prestigious houses invariably included the subtleties of Remote Power Transfer in their joint formations—it was that crucial to combined attacks.
Drake himself had faced knights using joint formations in the past.
Of course, not a single one of those knights' heads had survived intact against his iron rod.
No matter how perfectly the cats coordinated their pounce, they could never defeat a tiger.
Joint formations laced with Remote Power Transfer were indeed an exalted art, but surprisingly easy to shatter.
The brief gap before their auras could transfer between them.
Strike that gap, crush the recipient before the power arrived, and it was over.
That's why Drake hadn't worried even as the knights prepared their joint assault.
To a powerhouse like him, the interval for Remote Power Transfer felt eternally long.
But.
Boooom!
"Grraaagh!"
Again.
This time, Ravins blocked Drake's kick.
The Remote Power Transfer is too fast.
These three knights' transfers happened almost instantaneously with their thoughts.
Even Drake struggled to exploit the gap.
And that wasn't the only problem.
It went beyond mere proficiency in joint assaults.
These knights moved as if they shared a single mind, reading each other's intentions perfectly. It was astonishing how such flawless coordination was possible.
Slash!
A cold blade grazed past, slicing Drake's chest open long and spraying blood.
While attacking Ravins with a wide kick, he'd exposed a flaw—and it hadn't been missed.
That was Beskin's handiwork.
A member of the Hexagon and one of the knights Lord Jerome trusted most.
Another reason these foes were so troublesome: one of the cats had exceptionally sharp claws.
Sharp enough to threaten even this tiger's life if he wasn't careful.
Drip! Drip!
Red blood trickled in fine streams from the gash across his chest, staining the deck.
"......"
Drake silently stared at the wound, then slowly checked the other cuts marring his body.
Shallow, but definite slashes glowing faintly red.
A hollow laugh escaped him at the unexpectedly pitiful sight.
"...Ha, haha! When was the last time I took a wound like this?"
He could barely remember—it had been after battling the Pirate King Ballak for supremacy over the archipelago.
"Fine. I acknowledge you."
Shooting Star. A name so arrogant it bordered on childish bravado, more fitting than "shooting a star."
They seemed skilled enough in joint formations to back up such hubris.
Rummmble!
"!"
The three knights encircling Drake tensed up sharply.
The overwhelming aura pouring from his body began pressing down on their shoulders.
I'll sweep you all away.
There were two ways to break a joint formation. The first: defeat them individually before the subtleties fully manifested.
But now that shattering it pre-transfer had failed, he had no choice but the second.
Unleash overwhelming power in one go to crush them all at once. No amount of Remote Power Transfer mattered then.
Exactly like this.
The three knights read his intent as well.
What monstrous aura for a mere pirate.
Beskin swallowed a groan at the aura emanating from Drake.
For a pirate, it was crushingly heavy and savage, like the great sea itself.
I admit it. You're stronger than me.
Strong enough to have claimed dominion over the archipelago if he'd refused to serve under the Pirate King.
But.
To hunt monsters like you, we've trained relentlessly over the long years.
Whoosh!
Beskin raised his sword. Ravins and Cheryone mirrored his stance.
Vreeeeee!
The ice shards encasing their bodies spun at high speed, further condensing their mana.
Soon, the shards grew larger.
A tense standoff as they drew up their powers against each other.
Drake moved first.
"Die, all of you!"
Boooom!
A colossal pressure bore down from his shoulders, erupting from his iron rod.
It was heavy.
Beyond heavy—an unknown terror like facing the endless abyss of the deep sea.
Drake's signature ultimate technique: Black Sea Bombardment.
"Haaaap!"
Craaaaaack!
Beskin and the two knights didn't stand idly by.
Ice ramparts rose in layers around Drake, as if to seal him away.
Frozen Fortress. The Blizzard Knight Order's ultimate joint linked technique for subduing the strong.
Ruuuuumble!
The ship's deck couldn't withstand the full-powered auras of the four and vanished entirely. Naturally, their bodies plummeted below.
The deck hadn't merely broken—it had disintegrated.
The raging black sea battered wildly. The ice walls staunchly held back its fury.
Crack!
Parts of the ice walls cracked and crumbled.
The small fissures swiftly became massive cracks, and the black sea surging through them first engulfed Ravins.
"Gahk!"
Ravins, fully exposed to the violently churning energy within. His sword snapped helplessly.
"Vice-Captain! Damn it...!"
Cheryone tried to rush to Ravins's aid in his crisis.
"Don't move, Cheryone!"
Even as he warded off the foe with his broken sword, Ravins blocked Cheryone's action amid the blood spraying from his mouth.
"Hold... your position. The fight isn't over yet."
"......!!"
Ravins's resolute words. Cheryone wanted to defy the order surging up in him, but he bit his lip and suppressed it.
He knew the purpose of the Frozen Fortress they'd raised against Drake's assault.
Cheryone's gaze shifted to the opposite side from Ravins.
There was Beskin, calmly focusing on his sword.
Decision made, Cheryone squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
"Don't die on us, Vice-Captain!"
"......"
No reprimand came about his crude wording, as usual.
He must have already fallen. Whether unconscious or for some other unthinkable reason, Cheryone couldn't know now.
No—he shouldn't dwell on it. With one-third of the Remote Power Transfer collapsed, his duty was clear.
The black sea raged even more ferociously as one face of the fortress crumbled. The tidal surge eroded toward Cheryone's position.
Bam!
"Eek...!!"
Cheryone gritted his teeth in resistance. He couldn't beat this monster. But even if he couldn't break it, buying time was something he could do.
No, not could—he had to.
Crack! Craaaackle!
The endless black waves piled on more pressure. Finally, Cheryone's wall crumbled too.
Gush!
Blood poured madly from his eyes, mouth, and nose.
Yet he didn't give up.
Pop! Splurt! Splurt!
His skin began bursting under the unrelenting force.
Yet he didn't give up.
Craaaaaang!
In the end, regardless of his will, both wall and sword shattered to powder.
But Cheryone could fall smiling.
The rest... is up to you, Captain.
He'd bought the time he needed.
The energy remaining in Cheryone's body flowed slowly along the shattering ice to the one still standing.
To the finest knight of Olivia.
* * *
He was an inadequate man.
Even when appointed to the Hexagon of the prestigious Shield Family in such a short time, his confidence had pierced the heavens. Everyone else seemed inferior.
Thus, he believed no one but his lord could contain him.
Ironic, then, that the one he chose as his liege was the "worm of the Shield Family."
He'd shown considerable promise, so as a future lord, he'd thought proper guidance would shape him into an excellent figure.
Even that was arrogant. The inadequate one wasn't his lord—it was himself.
Unlike him, stalled in place, his lord advanced with every step, shattering norms into the realm of the miraculous.
The liege he'd chosen needed no guidance; he was already complete.
That young lord had now grown enough to battle the monster on the distant throne.
Then what of himself?
He couldn't even take a single step forward.
While he stagnated, his young lord surged twenty steps ahead.
So he discarded it.
His arrogance, his self-indulgent narcissism.
He sought only to become a single sword worthy of serving his lord.
He didn't have to be the only one. If needed, alongside his subordinates was fine.
Thus, casting aside impatience and hubris.
Only by accepting his limits could he finally tear down the wall that had blocked him for so long.
"......"
Even now, fallen below the deck amid lapping seawater, Beskin maintained his serene poise atop the surface.
The surrounding water had long frozen into a floor.
A bone-chilling cold emanated from his body. As he gathered it fully into his sword, the auras of his two comrade-like knights joined it.
For a moment, he worried for their safety upon feeling their energy flow in, but he quickly banished the thought.
As they trusted me, I trust them too.
They're not the type to die helplessly in a crisis like this.
Thus.
My task is to honor their trust and faith.
He slowly opened his half-closed eyes.
The sturdy ice walls Ravins and Cheryone had erected.
Now, that ferocious, unyielding energy surged toward him.
At its forefront stood the archipelago's second-in-command.
Vreeeeee!
Frost gradually blanketed his beloved sword in white.
Aura bloomed from the blade, where cold gathered so purely it shimmered like light. Strand by strand, it coalesced into form.
"It's over!"
Boooom!
The black sea filled the surroundings. Amid it, he seemed fragile as a leaf adrift on ink-black currents.
But this was enough.
"Ice Flower."
Flutter!
The energy on the blade's surface softly formed petals, drifting gently toward Drake.
"What do you think that'll do with such feeble power?!"
Drake scoffed. Compared to his savage Black Sea, the petals manifesting from Beskin's sword looked tiny and pathetic.
But.
The flowers of cold bloomed from the sword rode the Black Sea's waves softly, steadily closing in on Drake.
Sizzle!
"......!!"
With a faint hiss, the black sea that had swallowed everything subsided.
From the receding aura waves emerged the sight of Beskin's longsword piercing Drake's heart.
"...I... to mere... whelps like... you..."
Drake's bloodshot eyes. He still couldn't accept this outcome.
As he glanced around, blood frothing at his lips, he spotted a head pierced by an arrow.
It was his vice-captain, Avery's head.
"...Damn... you."
"Farewell."
Slash!
As Beskin's longsword withdrew, Drake's body collapsed.
This was the moment the deputy leader of the Gadik Pirates—who had terrorized Osiris Kingdom's seas for decades—breathed his last.
Gadik Pirate Crew Deputy Leader, Drake. Fallen in Battle.