Chapter 75: Templars vs The Navy III
On the HMS Gravelroad Navy Ship...
As the HMS Gravelroad Navy Ship continued delivering an onslaught onto their two pirate enemies who sailed in brigantines, Lieutenant Roland couldn’t help but smirk to himself.
He was a standard-looking man in his mid-twenties with a frail build, messy black hair, and a snow-white double-barrelled shotgun on his back.
"Commander Chestnut’s plan was phenomenal," he explained to his Executive Officer. "This is practically a two-against-one, as that brigantine with the flowers on its ship isn’t putting up a fight at all. It lets us focus all our attention on that Templar, Lionheart. Who are those other guys anyway?"
The Executive Officer, who was a much younger man, stood by the railing with his Lieutenant. His name was Harry, and he responded with the utmost respect and urgency.
"They are the Redflower Pirates, sir! Their captain, ’Roseus,’ is the son of that infamous pirate, Redeye."
As Executive Officer, it was his job to keep up with the less important information, such as reading the Fresh Bounty Weekly papers.
Lieutenant Roland’s eyes suddenly went extremely wide, as though he had just landed sight on the greatest treasure.
"You’re telling me that there is a prodigy on that weak little ship?" he asked.
"Yes, sir."
"What is his bounty?"
As he asked the question, he had already begun removing his snow-white double-barrelled shotgun from his back, loading it with equally bright pellets.
"According to the last papers, his bounty was 15,000. There are also two other pirates on board. Blodwen, whose bounty is something near 50,000, and Dawn, daughter of Stellar. Her bounty is something like 10,000."
Lieutenant Roland no longer cared about the details. All he heard was the sound of golden Halos clanking together in his mind. He was desperate to make that sound come true.
Wasting no time, the man snapped his double-barrelled shotgun shut now that it was loaded with its pellets. Afterwards, he aimed down its sights, pointing it towards the ship that sneakily hid behind Lionheart’s ship.
"The Redflowers, huh?" he said, licking his lips greedily. "I will claim the rewards for myself. I refuse to let Lieutenant Nimitz claim anything for him—"
Roland’s words were suddenly cut off, as he could no longer hear himself. This was due to a deafening crash appearing somewhere beside him, creating such force that his body became stiff and the entire ship rumbled.
He almost dropped his shotgun, but barely managed to keep hold of it.
"Hmm? What the—"
The man turned around to see what had caused such power. He wondered whether Lionheart had managed to produce some sort of cannonball that could destroy his ship in only a few strikes.
What he saw made the hair on his arms stand up.
There, Executive Officer Harry lay on the deck, still as a corpse. His clothes were tattered and ruined, and his body had been charred black, with a few bits of pink skin that managed to hang onto him stubbornly.
He felt the breath catch in his throat, as he wondered what in the eight oceans could have done such a thing.
He knew that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
If the enemy possessed powers that could do such damage in such a short amount of time, killing his second-in-command so swiftly, then this was not a fight he could take head-on. He needed to retreat and join with the Destroyer, where he would be much safer.
As for his ally who currently sailed a ship beside him, he did not care. Lieutenant Roland was always a man who believed that one should focus on their own wellbeing first before worrying about others. Such was the path to power.
With stuttered words, he called out to his men.
"Retreat! Regroup with the Commander!"
As the crew members had seen what had happened to the Executive Officer, they had no complaints with the decision.
The men swiftly prepared to make the subsequent manoeuvres to escape from the battle.
Then, that sound came again, followed by a bright golden light descending down upon them.
Crash!
The men looked around after the deafening sound faded away. They were desperate to see who had fallen victim to that terrible lightning strike.
When their eyes landed on Lieutenant Roland, they saw that the man was in a terrible condition.
His clothes were in a similar state to the man who had just fallen before him. His white-and-gold suit, along with his cap, had been completely ruined, as the fabrics now slowly fell from his charred body.
His black hair had been zapped, slowly falling from his head as though he were an old man. His skin had become pink and black, as the smell of burnt flesh spread throughout the ship.
However, he was not yet dead. Being a Salt-Blood, he had a resistance far greater than the Executive Officer, Harry, who was only a Deckhand.
Lieutenant Roland was barely able to form a thought; however, one thing was certain to him.
He had been given another chance at life!
Since the Navy were prohibited from worshipping the sea gods, their skills were limited to those given to them by the Sailor System. These skills were beneficial, but they were not otherworldly, like the Supreme System sometimes appeared to be.
Due to this, they often had to rely on treasures.
Lieutenant Roland ignored his double-barrelled shotgun and turned his attention towards his other most useful treasure: Fish Swap Charm!
This was a pendant that allowed him to temporarily take over the body of the nearest fodder fish, and once he ended this procedure, he would swap places with said fish.
Wasting no time, the burnt-bodied Lieutenant activated the charm and found his vision taken over by the Translucent Sea as he possessed the body of the nearest fish.
Soon afterwards, he swiftly regretted this decision.
That was because the nearest fish just so happened to be trapped within the whirlpool created by Commander Chestnut.
As he severed the connection between himself and the fish, it was already too late.
Roland’s body was swallowed into the abyss of the Translucent Sea.
