Chapter 135: You Want To Play With Me?!
Chapter 135: You Want To Play With Me?!
The sound of massive footsteps drew closer, signaling a surging crowd heading in their direction. Undoubtedly, they had been discovered.
Similar to the captures made earlier, soldiers dressed in similar attire gathered outside the city. Their leader held several wanted posters in his hand and shouted as he approached, " 'Disaster' Norton Sage, you are under arrest!"
"Do I know you?" Sage smiled at the group of soldiers. "When did a bunch of soldiers start acting like the Navy?"
Although these soldiers had not all gathered yet, their numbers far exceeded Sage's group of five hundred pirates.
However, this did not intimidate the pirates.
After all, they were following 'Disaster' Sage, and they also had the additional support of 'Magician' Hawkins.
So what if they were outnumbered?
Hawkins, on the other hand, furrowed his brows slightly as he observed the confident expressions on the pirates' faces.
Even the executives seemed unconcerned, none of them worried about the sheer number of soldiers.
However, in a normal battle, even with the high strength of these executives, such numbers wouldn't be easy to overcome.
After all, they were all just normal humans. A single hit would cause injury, and Sage's Haki, no matter how strong, was not infinite.
If a fight broke out, even if they won, not many of them would be left standing here.
Their primary objective was robbery, and a decrease in numbers would render their victory useless.
This was why pirates usually didn't invade kingdoms. Setting the Navy aside, even the kingdom's soldiers were not opponents that normal pirates could handle.
Hawkins took out his tarot cards to divine the outcome of this battle and was surprised by what he saw.
The probability of victory in this battle was 99%, and the survival rate of his crew was infinitely close to 100%.
Not a single one would die? Why?
Even Sage couldn't guarantee that he could protect everyone in a fight, could he?
Just as Hawkins was thinking about this, Sage took a step forward and walked straight ahead.
Defeating these soldiers was well within Sage's capabilities without sustaining any injuries. His Haki was not something these weaklings could break through, and even in a normal fight, he could easily take them all out.
However,
That would be too slow.
"Kill them!" The soldier leader raised his longsword and charged towards the pirates with his men.
They had received news from above that they had encountered pirates, and not just any pirates, but a large group!
Just the bounty on these people's heads was already high. If they could defeat them, not only would they get a reward, but the king would also promote them.
As for losing...
With most of the defensive power of the king's city here, how could they lose?!
Hum!
However, just as they took their first steps, the surroundings suddenly fell silent. The soldiers who had been running suddenly went limp, their eyes rolling back as they fell to the ground, unconscious.
Only the leader remained standing, his body trembling as he knelt on one knee, staring at the white-haired man walking forward in astonishment. But he couldn't hold on for long, and soon he collapsed as well.
"This is..."
Hawkins' pupils contracted as he stared at Sage's back in disbelief. "Conqueror's Haki? Is he a man with the qualifications to be king?!"
Although Hawkins had joined Sage, the latter had never revealed that he possessed Conqueror's Haki.
This guy was a man with the qualifications to be king.
With that thought, the imbalance he felt in his heart lessened a little.
"Ohh!"
The pirates roared as they charged into the king's city with their weapons drawn, engaging in battle with the remaining soldiers who were rushing towards them.
These soldiers didn't know if they were lucky or unlucky. Lucky because they hadn't been affected by the Conqueror's Haki, but unlucky because they were about to face true death.
Being knocked out was still better than being killed.
In the massive king's city, the civilians lived in stone houses. They watched in horror as the vicious pirates approached, screaming and running for their lives. But soon, they realized that the pirates weren't targeting them at all. Ignoring the stone houses, the pirates rushed towards the mountain in the distance.
According to the usual rules, the closer one lived to the royal palace, the richer they were.
It was evident from the houses here that these people lived in two or three-story stone buildings. However, closer to the mountain, there were large estates, and the stone architecture was more exquisite than that of the common folk. There were even vines hanging from some buildings, wooden structures, and areas where the ground had been dug up and covered with soil and plants.
In this stone kingdom, those who could afford such architecture were undoubtedly wealthy!
Sage used his Conqueror's Haki to knock out about a thousand soldiers, leaving the rest to his crew.
Although the number of soldiers rushing over still outnumbered them, the quality of his crew was evident.
Bellamy squatted, his legs coiled like springs, before surging forward with a punch that sent a soldier flying backwards, taking down several others with him.
Boom!
Without pausing, Bellamy continued his assault, creating a crack in the ground as he propelled himself onto a nearby building. The force of his step caused a chunk of the structure to crumble, and he used this momentum to launch another attack.
With each bounce, his speed increased, leaving only afterimages in his wake. The combination of his pace and force amplified the power of his punches, each one capable of knocking down several soldiers at a time.
Bellamy's talent for bouncing truly shone in areas with obstacles, allowing him to fully utilize his spring-like abilities.
"Hahahaha!"
Laughter, wild and arrogant, filled the air as Bellamy continued his assault.
Wearing his iron shield, Paru fearlessly faced the soldiers' gunfire and close-quarters attacks. With a wipe of his hands, the flintstones on his shield ignited, and he punched a soldier, causing more flintstones to scatter and set the surroundings ablaze.
"I am Paru the Flame!" Paru shouted.
"Woof!"
Miot brandished his large katana, slicing through several soldiers with a single horizontal swing. Like a wild beast, he charged through the crowd, cutting down anyone in his path.
The rest of the crew watched, not needing to join the fray just yet.
As the intense battle raged on, Sage, Hawkins, and the others strolled through the king's city as if on a leisurely walk, heading towards the center of the mountain. Even little Lass stayed by their side.
He didn't seem to have any qualms about robbery.
Lass was only eight years old this year, two years younger than Reneetie. He hadn't yet developed a reverence for bloodlines, and with his father executed, his emotions towards the Anuo Kingdom couldn't compare to his loyalty towards Sage, who had saved and fed him.
Sage was a good person in his eyes.
"Sir Sage, will you be disappointed if the Golden Kingdom doesn't exist?" Lass asked, his anxiety growing as they drew closer to their destination.
He had discovered the gold mine deep underground, but it was meager—just this one piece of evidence wasn't enough to prove the existence of the Golden Kingdom. Lass didn't want to disappoint Sage, who had treated him so well.
"There's no need for disappointment if it doesn't exist. My plan is just to rob them, and as long as that's accomplished, it's fine," Sage replied with a laugh. "Don't overthink it. It's great if it exists, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't."
After all, it wouldn't affect his overall plan.
The discovery of the cursed gold coin and this unique race had convinced him that the Golden Kingdom was real, and he believed that the king would provide him with satisfactory answers.
The group moved swiftly, even little Lass keeping up with their pace thanks to his sturdy physique and endurance as a member of a special race.
Sage was pleased with the boy's performance.
With a decade or two of cultivation, this child would surely grow into a powerful individual. Sage didn't have high expectations for him to become a top-tier fighter; as long as he surpassed ordinary people and grew into a capable officer, that would be enough.
After all, there were only a handful of those peak powerhouses in the vast ocean, and they weren't easy to find or cultivate. Possessing the strength of a high-ranking executive in a grand pirate crew would already be impressive.
Furthermore, if he had an eight-year-old Elephant King, Kaido, then he had an eight-year-old Lass! This was a good omen, signifying that he would undoubtedly establish a vast territory.
"Do we take the stairs or the elevator?" Sage asked as they reached the entrance of the stairs leading up the towering mountain.
To the left and right of the stairs were numerous elevators, which would undoubtedly be faster than climbing the steep mountain of conical peaks. However, these elevators were manually operated, and getting stuck halfway would be troublesome.
Sage could use Moonwalk, but he didn't want to carry the elevator up himself; that would be even more troublesome.
Hawkins pulled out his tarot cards and began divining, only to furrow his brows in surprise. "The probability of taking the stairs is 1%, and the probability of taking the elevator is also 1%. Something seems off, Sage."
Hiss!
Before they could react, the stairs at the entrance seemed to melt, transforming into a massive wave that crashed down on them.
"What is this?!"
Sage instinctively unleashed his Haki, striking out with immense force.
Boom!
The stone wave shattered into tiny fragments that rained down harmlessly.
A moment later, he froze as well.
Because aside from him, everyone else had disappeared!
A red dot flashed in Sage's pupils as he used his perception Haki to look upwards. Lily and the others' auras had not vanished but were surging rapidly upwards, already halfway there in the blink of an eye.
"Ability user?"
Bang!
Sage moved his foot, transforming into a residual shadow as he shot upwards. However, just as he acted, the long staircase above them seemed to melt, turning into a massive stone wave that crashed down towards Sage.
This time, Sage did not stop it, allowing the stone wave to engulf him.
Boom!
The ground at the entrance of the staircase shattered, and Sage burst out, gritting his teeth as he looked up. "You want to play with me?!"
His figure moved again as he continued to surge upwards, and the stone wave transformed once more, relentlessly rolling towards Sage.
A cold smile curved Sage's lips as he unleashed his fists like shadows, regardless of how the stone wave surged. With each punch, the wave shattered into tiny fragments, and Sage rushed towards the mountaintop with lightning speed amidst the wreckage.
On a balcony of the castle atop the mountain, a man with a golden-rimmed crown on his head and a longsword with a golden hilt at his waist shook his head and smiled. "If you don't want to come up, then don't come up."
He turned around and looked at the few people kneeling before him. "Bring that child here, and dispose of the others."
"Yes!"
...
Lily stared at the dim corridor in front of her, her brow furrowed.
In the blink of an eye, she found herself alone in this unfamiliar place, without any of her companions, not even Sage.
She looked down the corridor, where only torches hung on the walls, casting eerie shadows that made the place seem sinister. On both sides of the corridor stood stone statues of knights, each as tall as Miot.
Only castles had this kind of style.
Lily thought for a moment before striding forward. "If this is the castle's interior, there must be an end to it. I'll just keep going forward and break through until I find out where I am."
Just as she took a step forward, the two stone statues on either side of her trembled, and the three-meter-tall statues seemed to come to life as they raised their stone swords and stabbed towards Lily.
Clang!
A cold glint flashed amidst the torches as Lily's right hand gripped the sword hilt, sheathing her sword with a resonant sound. The two knight statues instantly split in half, their upper bodies falling to the ground.
"An ability user?" Lily's eyes turned cold.
In Sage's words, anything that couldn't be explained by common sense was the work of an ability user.
Moving stone statues and her sudden teleportation to this strange place—these were undoubtedly the doings of an ability user.
Rumble...
Just as Lily was thinking this, the two bisected stone statues began to writhe as if they were melting, fusing back together to form complete knight statues that continued to attack her.
At the same time, all the knight statues in the corridor came to life, raising their stone swords and charging towards Lily.
"Lightning Waltz!"
Clang!
Lily's figure flashed, turning into a bolt of lightning that danced through the corridor. Her swordplay wove a net of light, slicing the stone statues into irregular small stones that disintegrated.
Without pausing, Lily's sword slashed through the corridor's walls, and she surged forward towards one direction.
They were just stones, so of course, they could be cut.
Lily swiftly broke through several walls, her figure darting forward with incredible speed. However, just then, a gust of wind stirred above her head.
Lily's pupils contracted instinctively, and she halted her footsteps, turning around to block with White Lightning.
Clang!
A crisp, metallic clang rang out from the thin sword blade as a massive iron mace appeared before Lily's eyes.
It hadn't been cut apart?
The next moment, a tremendous force surged from the sword, forcing Lily's feet to stomp down and crack the ground beneath her.
Boom!!
The ground caved in, sending up shards and dust.
"Oh? You escaped?"
The massive iron mace retracted from the indentation, and amidst the dust, a towering figure slowly emerged.
Lily had already flashed to another spot, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the figure.
This person was about four meters tall, wearing a chest-baring fur garment with leather pants. On his back, a pair of pristine white wings extended.
An angel?!
No, that's not right.
Sage had talked about these features before.
"A Skypiean?" Lily asked, her voice sharp.
(End of Chapter)
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