Due to Erik's exit, the faint glow that had been subtly clinging to Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge noticeably weakened a bit.
Lin Qi knew that this was exactly like in the game – Blackbeard's Noble Phantasm level had dropped!
Everything was proceeding according to their plan. Bloodaxe King Erik had become the first on Blackbeard's side to exit the battlefield.
However, Lin Qi did not let his guard down because of this. Instead, he faced Hector with an even more serious attitude.
Knowing what kind of bastard Hector was, he understood that the more critical the moment, the more he couldn't relax, and the less he could give Hector an opportunity to cause trouble.
On the other side of the battlefield, Drake was fully demonstrating the strength expected of a Holy Grail holder.
Her agility was ridiculously high.
Under the combined assault of Anne and Mary, she continuously darted back and forth on the ship, actually seeming somewhat at ease.
"Ugh, isn't that a bit unfair?" Anne narrowly dodged a cannonball, rubbing her temple with a slightly troubled expression.
"Is it? Isn't this kind of fighting style pretty normal?" Drake dispersed the cannon shimmering with golden light beside her, feigning confusion.
But the curve of her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth betrayed her true thoughts.
"Pulling out a cannon anywhere, anytime... it's annoying..." Mary said expressionlessly.
In the time they had been fighting Drake, she had closed in on Drake more than once, only to be forced back each time by a cannon that appeared the moment Drake turned around.
To be honest, it was a bit frustrating.
"Yeah, yeah. And does the Holy Grail really boost a person that much? Clearly, our captain showed almost no change before and after getting the Holy Grail." Anne nodded repeatedly in agreement, her tone carrying a fair bit of disdain for Blackbeard.
"Maybe it's because my Holy Grail is male, and his is female?" Drake raised an eyebrow, joking.
Anne & Mary: "..."
Did anyone ever tell you your jokes are actually pretty lame?
Just as both sides were speaking, they simultaneously saw pirates frantically scrambling back from Blackbeard's ship, fleeing in panic.
Seeing this, Anne and Mary were somewhat surprised.
But before the two could figure out what was happening, they heard a series of explosions coming from their own ship.
A wave of slightly warm air rushed past, accompanied by towering tongues of flame. The Queen Anne's Revenge was already engulfed in a sea of fire.
Misfortunes never come singly.
The two also made the startling discovery that Erik was also being steadily pushed back under the combined attacks of Asterios and Euryale, almost at the exact same time as the explosions, he was bisected at the waist by Asterios's axe. The bloody scene was hard to miss.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the originally favorable situation instantly collapsed.
This greatly shocked even the battle-hardened duo.
"Surprise is surprise, but you can't forget the fight, right?"
Knowing that everything was going according to plan, Drake, of course, didn't lose focus. Seizing the moment when the two were distracted, she decisively launched a sneak attack.
When the two shifted their attention back, they saw that Drake had somehow already set up her cannon again.
The two pistols in her hands were also aimed at them.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Boom!"
This time, Drake didn't include both in her attack area, but specifically targeted only Anne.
The reason was simple: after fighting back and forth for a while, Drake could tell that, compared to Mary, Anne's movements were noticeably slower.
And slower movements meant she was easier to hit!
The bullets were meant to seal off Anne's escape routes, while the cannon was for the lethal strike.
The precise attacks had already factored in Anne's retreat paths.
Mary, realizing Drake's intention, gritted her teeth secretly. Her body, which was about to dodge, halted abruptly, and she instead rushed towards Anne's position.
Anne blocked several bullets with her own pistol, but her movements were consequently stalled.
Just as the cannonball was about to hit her point-blank, Mary suddenly dashed in front of Anne, blocking the cannonball's path with the cutlass in her hand.
"Ugh..."
A tremendous force transmitted from the blade, something Mary's meager Strength stat found difficult to withstand.
If it were just an ordinary shipboard cannon, even using rune-enhanced shells made by Lin Qi, Mary wouldn't have found it so strenuous.
But on the contrary, this entire set of equipment was created by Drake using the Holy Grail.
Even if it looked similar to ordinary cannons, its power and speed were beyond comparison.
Knowing this, Mary used the momentum to redirect the force, letting the cannonball scrape past the cutlass in her hand, thereby changing its trajectory.
The cannonball shot out and struck the mast of Blackbeard's ship.
Having just barely dealt with this attack, the two cast icy stares at Drake.
They saw Drake, looking completely relaxed, whistle at them and gesture with her chin towards their rear.
Realizing the battlefield had unknowingly grown much quieter, the two seemed to understand something, their bodies instantly stiffening.
They slowly turned to look behind them.
The first thing that met their eyes was the large figure of Asterios. In the distance, they could also see Euryale drawing her bow and aiming at them.
Finally, there was the crowd of pirates surrounding them.
"It seems our pirate career is about to end again..." Seeing this, Anne remarked with some emotion.
"So lame. Unhappy." Mary's eyelids drooped.
...