Lin Qi faced Hector. Drake faced the Anne & Mary duo.
Asterios was locked in a contest of strength with Eric. Euryale was using her bow and arrows to harass Blackbeard.
So, the question arose: whose actions were completely unhindered right now?
"Of course, it's us!"
"Just like the Boss predicted, no one's paying us any mind at all!"
The pirates seemed quite excited.
Because Blackbeard's ship was a Noble Phantasm, it actually had no normal crew. Everything, including the cannons, steering, and acceleration, relied on Blackbeard alone to operate.
It seemed troublesome, but as long as Blackbeard was alive and the ship wasn't destroyed, it could function normally.
And just like playing a game, Blackbeard's control over the warship was quite flexible, even more effortless than controlling the fully-crewed Golden Hind.
This characteristic, which could be considered an advantage in many ways, ultimately became a disadvantage.
After Lin Qi and the others supplemented their combat strength, the side with fewer available combat units logically became Blackbeard's.
"Woo-hoo! It's time to give that Blackbeard a big one!"
"Let's use this!"
The pirates brought out the Rune cannonballs Lin Qi had made.
"Hehehe, if we put all these cannonballs on the enemy's ship, they're gonna make a real pretty bang, right?"
The pirates couldn't help but reveal perverted smiles.
"Then what are we waiting for? Charge!"
As the first pirate, holding a Rune cannonball, took the lead and jumped onto Blackbeard's ship,
the other pirates swarmed over like a hive, scrambling aboard one after another.
"Wait! What do you think you're doing?!"
Blackbeard, seeing the horde of pirates flooding onto his ship like zombies, immediately sensed disaster.
Being a Servant, he easily recognized the cannonballs the others were carrying as the type that could explode into flames, and his head even began to throb with phantom pain in response.
Realizing this, Blackbeard flew into a rage. He was about to raise his firelock and shoot these pirates.
But in his peripheral vision, a pink-blue mana arrow suddenly appeared, shooting straight for his head.
He dodged this arrow narrowly, but his attack had to be halted for now.
"My, didn't you say you loved my arrows? Why did you dodge?"
Euryale, standing safely behind Asterios, gracefully lowered her bow, covering her mouth with a light laugh.
Blackbeard was furious and flustered, but as an otaku-type Servant, he couldn't bring himself to get angry at Euryale.
He could only shout loudly at the pirates who were already scurrying around his beloved ship like ants:
"Don't you guys know it's very rude to suddenly board someone else's ship?!"
Upon hearing this, the pirates looked at Blackbeard as if he were an idiot.
"Come on, we're pirates, and right now we're enemies. At a time like this, you're telling me to be polite?"
"You're talking about manners to us, people who never have any?"
"Gotta say, that's the funniest joke I've heard all year."
"Right, guys?"
Bambi said, looking around at his fellow crewmates, winking and making faces at them.
The other pirates, seeing this, cooperatively burst into uproarious laughter.
For a moment, laughter filled the entire Queen Anne's Revenge.
Blackbeard reddened with rage again, not just because of the pirates' direct taunting,
but also because these pirates, while mocking him, hadn't forgotten to wreak havoc on his beloved ship.
"Fuck! This deck is really damn hard!"
Some were hacking at the wood of his ship with their knives.
"You idiot! Don't just chop at it! Use your brains, like this!"
Some were using their knives to pry up the planks.
"One... two... three—!"
Splash!
"Perfect splash!"
Some were gathering in small groups, lifting the cannons from his ship and throwing them into the sea.
Others ran into the cabin, doing who-knows-what, only the sound of clattering and banging could be heard...
And that wasn't even the worst of it!
The worst was this bastard right here!
Blackbeard looked in one direction, filled with grief and indignation.
"What are you looking at? Never seen someone with good teeth?"
Noticing Blackbeard's gaze, this pirate, while chewing on a piece of wood, looked back at Blackbeard with dead-fish eyes and made a scoffing sound.
When his teeth bit down, one could vaguely see the pirate's golden tooth.
Since when is having good teeth used for this?!?!
"You push me too far! I'm going to lose it!"
Blackbeard roared, activating his Noble Phantasm, deciding then and there to teach these insignificant foot soldiers who didn't know their place a lesson!
"Boss! The mark's getting tough, brothers, retreat!"
One pirate was very cunning; noticing something was wrong, he immediately called for his brothers to retreat, then took the lead scrambling back onto the Golden Hind.
The other pirates weren't about to be outdone, each putting in the desperate effort of a hundred-meter sprint to run back to their own ship.
The flashier ones even pulled off a sliding tackle.
Blackbeard, having just activated his Noble Phantasm, found the ship completely empty and stood there, stunned.
A slightly cool sea breeze blew past, making the scene seem somewhat desolate.
"Caw... Caw... Caw..."
A seagull happened to pass by, emitting a strange cry, as if mocking the two-meter-plus giant.
Before Blackbeard could regain his senses, the Rune cannonballs the pirates had moved over finally took effect.
With a series of consecutive explosions, Blackbeard's ship was enveloped in large clusters of flames.
The deck, the cabins, the sides...
Who knows how the pirates placed them, but almost everywhere, one could see bursting flames.
Just as Blackbeard was struggling to deal with the combined efforts of Euryale and the pirates,
the battlefield between the two Berserkers was the first to see a result.
Asterios had taken to heart the words Lin Qi had emphasized repeatedly before the battle.
From the start, he unleashed his full strength, using his top-tier A++ Rank Strength to relentlessly pummel Eric, never giving him a chance to fight back.
"Not let you, use Noble Phantasm!"
Asterios's eyes were fierce as he raised his twin axes and brought them down on Eric.
His terrifying Strength was such that even Eric, a Berserker with a not-low parameter sheet himself, could only grit his teeth and barely hold on.
Asterios's own Noble Phantasm wasn't suited for direct combat, so the battle plan Lin Qi prepared for him was simple: just like this, use continuous fierce attacks to prevent the enemy from activating their Noble Phantasm.
It just so happened that Asterios's melee combat ability was backed by his parameters; in this entire Singularity, probably only Heracles could completely overpower him.
And because Blackbeard's side was tied up by the pirates, the least pressured Euryale could even support Asterios from time to time.
So, it took almost no effort at all.
Under the final twin-axe assault from Asterios, Eric ultimately failed to block and was brutally struck in the chest.
The attack, nearly cleaving him in two, left little doubt about the outcome.
Amidst the flowing blood, golden spirit particles drifted away.
Eric — Exit!
…