Chapter 162: Head-On Engagement
How tall was Sardine, that giant?
Ian had never measured it, and he didn't know exactly, but he at least knew that Sardine was far taller than Kuma!
The shield Sardine held was specially modified for him by the ship's carpenters. It was made by piecing together six door panels and covering them with iron plates. Even so, when Sardine held it, it still looked quite small.
However, when Sardine stood at the bow holding this shield, almost all the cannonballs flying in from the front were blocked by him alone!
The Marine warships had dense cannon fire, so naturally many shells came from the front. When Sardine used his shield to block, cannonballs hit his shield one after another and exploded. If it had been anyone else, they would have been blown away long ago. But Sardine only shuddered from the explosions, steadied himself with a slight push of his feet, and easily held his ground.
His immense strength left Ian amazed. As long as the shield didn't fall apart, Ian didn't need to worry about Sardine not being able to hold out.
Ian also hid behind Sardine. His task was to destroy the cannonballs that Sardine missed. Some shells passed over Sardine's body and headed toward their mast and sails. Ian's job was to jump up and slash these shells apart.
Their ship currently had four cannons, all of which had been moved to the ship's side. Under Sardine's cover, they fired at the Marine warships.
With such limited firepower, it was unlikely to cause much damage to the Marine ships. Marine vessels were famously sturdy; even if hit by cannonballs, they probably wouldn't suffer much harm.
However, Ian had never planned to win against these Marines through a cannon duel from the start.
He only had a superficial understanding of naval combat, and his ship's firepower was inherently weaker than the Marines'. So from the very beginning, his plan was to engage in boarding combat.
In the lower deck, many sailors were frantically rowing oars. The sails of Ian's ship were fully billowing. The sailor at the helm constantly turned the wheel, zigzagging to avoid cannon fire. But even so, overall, Ian's ship was charging straight toward the Marine warships.
Even though it was their first time cooperating in battle against the Marines, all members of Ian's Dragon Hunter Pirates showed remarkable proficiency.
In fact, for those who had been slaves at Mary Geoise, their first hatred was for the Celestial Dragons, their second for the World Government, and their third, naturally, for the Marines. Don't forget, when they escaped back then, it was because the Marines were deployed to chase them that many who couldn't keep up were recaptured.
Now that they finally had a chance to engage the Marines head-on, everyone brought out their ferocity. The entire pirate ship, with an unstoppable momentum, charged toward the Marines.
Rear Admiral Morny, commanding the Marine patrol ship, could naturally sense this momentum. For a moment, he was intimidated by it. He couldn't understand why this pirate crew had such a maddening drive.
Shocked as he was, Morny was not afraid. The presence of a giant on the enemy ship was somewhat unexpected, but precisely because of this, Morny began to take them seriously.
"They want to board. All soldiers, get on deck and prepare your muskets!"
Morny issued the order swiftly.
He was familiar with naval combat, and boarding was a common tactic, especially among pirates fighting each other. But the problem was that the Marines were not comparable to pirates. They had a large number of firearms; practically every Marine soldier on the ship had a musket.
As long as they could determine which side of the ship the pirates would board from, they could line up, fire a volley of shots, and inflict massive casualties on the pirates.
This patrol ship, when fully loaded, could carry over 800 Marine soldiers. This huge number was the Marines' advantage.
With Morny's order, a large number of Marine soldiers poured out from below deck and began to line up on the deck. The Marine warship also started to slowly turn, exposing its starboard side to lure Ian's crew to board from there.
The Marine soldiers held their muskets, the front row crouching, the middle row standing, and the back row ready, preparing to deliver a devastating blow through rotating attacks.
By now, the two ships were relatively close. Ian immediately saw the enemy's formation and was startled.
The Marines were indeed the Marines. With such a setup, if Ian's crew charged in recklessly, who knew how many would be sacrificed.
Ian's entire ship, including himself, now had only 76 people. He didn't want to see any casualties among them.
His eyes darted, and he quickly came up with a countermeasure. He went to Sardine's side and shouted up to him, "Sardine, can you throw me over?"
"I can, but Captain... there are too many of them. Are you sure you're okay?" Sardine looked down at Ian.
"Don't worry! I'll just disrupt their formation!" Ian showed him his Enma sword. "Once the formation is broken, you all jump over!"
"Alright!" Sardine held his shield with his left hand and lowered his right hand for Ian to stand in his palm. Once Ian was steady, he hurled Ian toward the Marine warship!
His target was the group of Marine soldiers already lined up.
Sardine's movement was so large that the Marines, not being blind, naturally saw it. But they never expected that someone would be thrown directly at them.
"Enemy attack! Prepare to engage!" Morny shouted loudly.
But it was too late. Ian, mid-air, saw that the position was right, stretched out his body, and slashed down at the Marine warship!
A massive sword slash descended from the sky toward the ship. Before Ian even landed, he made his presence known.
Faced with this sword slash, the armed Marine soldiers didn't know how to respond and began to panic. Fortunately, Morny reacted. He dashed forward, positioned himself in the path of Ian's slash, drew his sword, and struck it.
Morny himself was a skilled swordsman in the Marines. To reach the rank of Rear Admiral, both merit and strength were essential. After his strike, Ian's sword slash was dispersed.
Even so, the force of the slash pushed Morny back several steps.
Just from that one slash, Morny sensed trouble. The person thrown over was clearly a formidable opponent.
Sure enough, after Ian landed lightly on their ship, without even a greeting, his figure suddenly vanished!
"Not good!" Morny hurriedly turned around, only to see Ian's figure already charging into the midst of the Marine soldiers. He darted back and forth among them. No soldier could withstand even a single move from him, and soon a large number were cut down.
Ian's target was these ordinary soldiers. Since they were enemies now, he naturally wouldn't hold back. He went for the weak first. With his appearance, the soldiers' formation naturally collapsed. They couldn't fire their muskets at close range in such chaos, so they could only hurriedly draw their swords, trying to surround Ian.
But how could these soldiers' swordsmanship compare to Ian's?
Clang! A relatively quick-reacting Marine soldier just managed to raise his sword horizontally to block Ian's slash, but Ian instantly changed his move, sweeping his blade across the soldier's waist.
A bloody wound appeared on the soldier's abdomen, and with a look of terror in his eyes, he fell.
Ian didn't even spare him another glance, charging toward the soldiers behind.
Speed! In the world of martial arts, speed is the only thing that matters—an eternal truth. When your speed can't keep up with your opponent's, any sword technique is useless.
This applied to ordinary soldiers, as well as the several Marine Majors mixed in the crowd. Their speed couldn't catch up to Ian, so when Ian took them down, it was no different from defeating ordinary soldiers.
Just as Ian was wreaking havoc, Morny finally couldn't hold back and intervened. He had initially thought the Marine officers could stop Ian, but after observing, he realized that wasn't the case, so he had to act personally.
Ian was about to cut down a Marine soldier with terror in his eyes when he suddenly sensed a wind from behind. Without thinking, he turned and raised his sword to block.
A clang of metal rang out as Ian blocked Morny's strike.
Face to face with his opponent, Morny said darkly, "I am Marine Rear Admiral Morny. Who are you? State your name!"
Ian wasn't wearing a mask at the moment. In this situation, Morny actually didn't recognize him. They had been tracking Ian based on his masked appearance, so by not wearing it, Ian inadvertently concealed his identity.
"Captain of the Dragon Hunter Pirates, Ian!"
Ian smiled slightly, then suddenly used his wrist strength to push Morny away.
After hearing Ian's name, Morny racked his brain but couldn't recall ever hearing it. However, he knew this wasn't the time to think about that. After being pushed back, he changed his move and thrust his sword sharply at Ian.
Ian noticed that the opponent's swordsmanship was quite refined, so he couldn't help but engage him in combat.
This Marine Rear Admiral didn't seem to be a Devil Fruit user, relying purely on swordsmanship and physical combat. Ian also wanted to gauge his own swordsmanship level, so he refrained from using other means of attack.
Clang, clang, clang... The continuous sound of clashing blades rang out as Ian and Morny fought at a fast pace, exchanging dozens of moves in an instant.
However, the longer the fight went on, the more alarmed Morny became. He realized that his speed was gradually falling behind Ian's.
While the two were fighting, Ian's ship also drew close to the Marine warship. Numerous grappling hooks were thrown, catching onto the crossarms of the warship's masts. Then, with strange cries, the sailors swung over to the warship.
Once they jumped onto the Marine ship, the battle between the Dragon Hunter Pirates and the Marines officially began...