Debuff Master

Chapter 793

“Yippee!”

Siegfried could not help but feel overjoyed.

The boundless sea was full of countless islands, so finding those pirates was a grueling labor akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

However, they had appeared of their own volition, delivering themselves on a silver platter. For Siegfried, it felt like the pirates were offering themselves to him—a special delivery service.

“Hoho! You adorable fools,” Siegfried muttered.

A sly grin spread across his face as he made his way to the docks, where the pirate ships were closing in.

“Hey, you!”

Just then, an old fisherman grabbed Siegfried by the arm.

“You’re an outsider, aren’t you? What do you think you’re doing?”

“Hmm?”

“Run! The pirates are coming!”

“Ah, it’s fine. You should go take cover instead,” Siegfried replied with a calm smile.

“No, you don’t understand! I’m telling you, the pirates are coming! You must flee!” the old fisherman exclaimed.

“I appreciate your concern, but it’s alright. I was looking for those pirates, anyway.”

“What?”

Suddenly, the atmosphere grew tense.

“What did you just say? You were looking for the pirates?”

“So it’s you!”

“The stranger wandering around town was a spy sent by the pirates!”

“How dare you! You wicked scoundrel!”

The villagers erupted in anger upon being convinced that Siegfried was a spy working for the pirates.

In hindsight, it was an understandable mistake on their end.

Barnacle Village was a remote sleepy fishing village that rarely had visitors. In fact, most of the villagers had never even met an Adventurer before, and everything they knew of Adventurers was through rumors, making them mysterious travelers descending upon the world like legends in fairytales.

In their eyes, Siegfried’s sudden appearance was suspicious, and his words about how he was looking for the pirates had ended up adding fuel to the fire.

“Everyone! Please calm down! I’m not a pirate or a spy! I’m here to take down the pirates!” Siegfried exclaimed, attempting to explain.

Unfortunately, his explanation fell on deaf ears.

The villagers, armed with harpoons and fishing nets, had already encircled him.

“Die! You villain!”

One fisherman lunged forward, attempting to stab Siegfried with a harpoon.

“Ah, damn it...” Siegfried sighed, casually sidestepping the slow attack.

Then, with one quick move, he dashed toward the dock.

Fighting against these fishermen was not simply worth it. They were not soldiers, and even if he restrained himself, one wrong move could seriously injure—or worse, kill one of them.

Sometimes, the smartest move was simply to run away.

“Catch him!”

“Don’t let him get away!”

The fishermen shouted and chased after him, but they were no match for his speed. By the time they gave chase, he was already at the docks. They were stunned by his speed, and they reluctantly gave up.

With the pirate ships looming closer, they decided it was wiser to flee than risk getting surrounded by the pirates and getting enslaved by them.

Meanwhile, Siegfried casually sat down at the edge of the dock, watching the pirate ships appear.

“Huh?”

He frowned after noticing that the ships had stopped and turned broadside to the village. It did not take him long to figure out their intentions.

The pirates were preparing to bombard the fishing village.

Sure enough, the ship’s cannons were slowly being aimed toward the village, and it seemed that they were going to rain down death upon it.

“Tsk... Not on my watch,” Siegfried clicked his tongue out of irritation.

He was planning to wait for them to come ashore, but he didn't expect that they'd go so far.

“Damn it... They’re making this much more annoying than it has to be. Well, I suppose I owe them some courtesy since they showed up like this.”

Siegfried regretted not bringing Hamchi along as he spread his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit without any hesitation. Then, with a powerful kick off the dock, he launched himself into the air, soaring toward the pirate ships that were preparing to unleash a deadly barrage on the remote fishing village.

***

The three pirate ships of the Black Seagull Pirates were preparing to bombard a small fishing village, the Barnacle Village.

Of course, they had no intention of leveling the village to the ground. Their plan was quite simple—fire a few cannonballs into the hills behind the village, instilling enough fear to prevent the villagers from fleeing. Then, they would send in their crew to plunder and enslave the villagers without any resistance.

As the ships turned their bows in preparation to fire the cannons—

Boom!

A person suddenly dropped onto the deck of the flagship—the largest one among the three pirate ships.

“...!”

The pirates froze and stared at the young man who had seemingly fallen from the sky.

Still, their shock only lasted briefly, and they immediately drew their curved sabers and pistols—which were standard pirate gear—before charging at the intruder.

But...

Shwiiiik!

The young man, Siegfried, did not utter a single word. He responded by summoning a flurry of ice shurikens from his Blood Frost Orb. The frozen projectiles shot through the air before lodging deep into the skulls of the pirates with deadly precision.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Dozens of pirates collapsed dead on the deck, each with an ice shuriken embedded in their heads. Not one survived the onslaught, as their skulls were pierced and the icy blade was driven deep into their brain.

Siegfried glanced around the bloody deck without much expression. Then, he tightened his grip on his weapon, the +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp, and asked icily, “Who’s the captain here?”

The remaining pirates were paralyzed with fear, unable to move after realizing that the young man before them was far beyond what they could handle.

“A-An Adventurer!”

“Why is someone like that here?!”

They blabbered a bunch of cliche lines, but none of them answered Siegfried’s question. Growing impatient, Siegfried grimaced and asked once again, “I said, who's the captain here?”

Whoosh!

He swung his weapon down lightly but with enough force.

Boom!

The deck shattered from the force of the stroke, splitting the ship in two. The sturdy pirate ship tilted violently and started to sink into the sea.

“Damn it...” Siegfried muttered, realizing that he had become much stronger than before, so even a light swing was no longer the same as before. Unfortunately, he realized that a tad bit too late.

“W-We’re sinking!”

“Abandon ship!”

“Save yourselves!”

The pirates scrambled in panic, some grabbing lifevests while others frantically ran for the lifeboats.

Siegfried shrugged and leaped onto the next pirate ship without any difficulty. Within moments, he subdued the entire crew and pinned down the man who appeared to be the captain.

The supposed captain was a fat man, and he was trembling before Siegfried.

“Are you the captain?” Siegfried asked, staring him down.

“N-No, I’m not!” the man stammered. Then, he suddenly said, “Wait! I mean, yes! I’m the captain of this ship but not of the entire pirate fleet!” @@novelbin@@

Siegfried raised a brow and said, “Oh? Is that so?”

The captain nodded frantically, “Yes! The boss of the Black Seagull Pirates is back at the base! I’m merely leading this expedition! I swear!”

“Okay. Take me to him.”

“I... I can’t do that. He will—”

Boom!

Siegfried unleashed Splitting Heaven and Earth on the third pirate ship.

Rumble!

The sea erupted as the ship shattered into splinters, reducing it to nothing in an instant.

Having sunk two of the three ships in the blink of an eye, Siegfried turned back to the captain and asked, smiling like a saint, “I’m not threatening you or anything. But what do you think?”

The captain turned ghastly pale before quickly showing a wide nervous grin. “I-I will guide you there! Right away!”

The captain’s loyalty to the pirate leader evaporated instantly like a water droplet hitting a hot surface after seeing his crew and ships obliterated in the blink of an eye. His survival instincts kicked into overdrive and overwrote all of his reason and senses.

Siegfried gave a satisfied nod before walking to a hammock strung on the deck.

“Wake me up when we get there,” he said before lying down on the hammock.

With that, he closed his eyes, seeking rest after numerous sleepless nights.

The pirates glanced at each other, utterly dumbfounded.

“W-What do we do now...?” one pirate whispered.

The captain shot him a glare and growled, “What do you think?! We take him to the boss if we don’t want to end up as fish food!”

“But... what if the boss—”

“You moron! Do you really think the boss can defeat him?”

The pirate’s eyes widened after realizing something.

“Ah...?”

“Our pirate crew is finished. Better focus on surviving and think about which pirate group to join next,” the captain muttered bitterly. Then, he yelled at his crew, “Hoist the sails! We set sail now!”

“Aye, aye! Captain!”

Thus, the pirate ship set sail toward the pirate base with Siegfried as its VIP passenger.

***

Siegfried lay peacefully in the hammock, deep in slumber, when an uproar roused him from sleep.

“Aaack!”

“Aaaah!”

He opened his eyes to the deck in chaos. Pirates scurried in every direction, their screams filling the air.

“What the heck is going on now...?”

He rubbed his eyes and glanced around, confused at the whole commotion, until something caught his attention.

“What the hell...?” he muttered as his heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened.

Approaching the pirate ship was a fleet of nearly twenty ships, an armada rivaling the naval power of a small nation.

‘Is it the navy?’ Siegfried wondered.

At first, he assumed that this was a fleet sent out by a kingdom to eradicate the pirates, but he quickly realized that he was wrong.

Flap! Flap!

On the flagship of the massive fleet was a flag with a black background emblazoned with an emblem depicting a white whale. It was a flag design used by pirates.

“W-What the hell? Why the hell are pirates sailing around with a whole fleet?!”

The sheer absurdity of a pirate band sailing around with twenty ships made Siegfried yelp. Pirates were, after all, nothing more than criminals preying on the sea, indulging in pillage, murder, and all sorts of crimes targeting those weaker than them.

Even the most formidable pirate crews typically had only a few small warships at best, but this was nothing completely absurd. There was no way a mere band of pirates would possess naval strength comparable to that of an actual nation.

“Damn it! Our rotten luck! It’s the Orca Pirates!! the captain cursed as he frantically hoisted the white flag used for surrendering. Their ship was a small one armed with only five canons, while the rapidly approaching enemy fleet wielded the power of a small navy.

In other words, there was no chance of winning, running was impossible, and their only option was to surrender.

“Oh well, I guess I’ll just hijack their ship,” Siegfried muttered with a shrug.

He decided that once the Orca Pirates’ fleet was close enough, he'd hop over to their flagship and seize control of it. It did not matter whether it was the Orca Pirates or the Black Seagulls Pirates.

His sole objective was to find Mischa’s father and return to Barnacle Village with him.

Unfortunately, his plan was dashed before he could set it into motion.

Boom! Boom!

Despite the raised white flag, the Orca Pirates unleashed a barrage of cannon fire at them.

“Hey! We’re surrendering! We surrender!” Siegfried shouted furiously at the oncoming firestorm. However, his protests fell on deaf ears, drowned by the thundering sounds of cannon fire.

The Orca Pirates mercilessly bombarded the Black Seagulls' ship, clearly intent on sinking it. There was no room for negotiations, mercy, and especially survivors.

“Argh! Damn it!” Siegfried groaned in frustration. He spread out his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit and prepared to fly straight to the enemy fleet.

“If they don’t want to play fair, then I’ll just have to take them out myself," Siegfried muttered and was to take off when...

Boom!

One of the Orca Pirates’ ships exploded.

“...What?” Siegfried froze in midair, bewildered that one of the enemy pirate ships had just blown up without warning.