Far away from the red ship was another smaller vessel floating through the ocean. From top to bottom, it was completely covered in pitch black paint, indistinguishable from the dark waters in the night.
On its deck stood two marines side by side. One was young with a head full of dark orange hair, and the other was a middle-aged man with brown hair and grey sides.
The older man grunted while holding a black plate in his hand, "I pride myself on having perfect aim, even at such a great distance between our and that wretched Ter's ship, almost every plate landed perfectly beside the mother of blood. But my age is finally catching up to me, I guess. The last throw was slightly off, it ended up landing on the deck instead of the side of the ship… It might have alerted the pirates.'
Quietly listening to him, the young man beside him was tense. His hands trembled as he carefully lit the fuses below the black plate.
As soon as he was done igniting the last fuse, he sighed with relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Then he said in a casual tone, "Doesn't matter if they got alerted, it's too late for them."
The older man scoffed with a subtle smile, "Guess so…" Then he gripped the plate tightly and rotated his entire body back.
Heavily grunting, he rapidly unfurled his posture and threw off the black plate with the power of his whole body. The pitch-black plate flew through the air while staying close to the surface of the ocean, its colour indistinguishable from that of the night, and its bright sparks hidden within its interior.
Its trajectory curved through the air as the plate spun at great speeds. The sparks underneath reflected onto the sea, projecting a fiery halo because of the rotation.
The dynamic frisbee flew for a long time before finally colliding with the ocean and stopping beside its intended target—the grand red vessel.
As it did, the younger man with dark orange hair walked back to the rear of his ship, lay down, and looked ahead. His face carried a subtle but insidious smile.
Through that smirk, he whispered a single word to himself:
"Bang…"
…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
Starting from one side and travelling around the ship's edge to reach the other, an uncountable number of fiery explosions went off in a chain reaction.
For a moment, the night erupted into sparks.
Light gazed at the sight with a subtly amused expression, his hair camouflaged in the bloody lights coming off of his fireworks.
It was as if the ocean itself was burning with crimson flames, a great part of it illuminated in red and orange.
After that came the many shockwaves of the blast, which travelled through the ocean and air alike. Light and Scarn held on the pitch black ship tightly as the arial shockwaves passed through their bodies—temporarily deafening them—while the aqua wave passed beneath their boat, making the ship sway up in the crimson water.
'What are this world's explosives made of? I didn't expect the explosion to be this powerful."
As the shockwaves travelled to nowhere and the chaotic waters somewhat died down, the two passengers carefully looked forward at the burning ship, which was previously known as the mother of blood.
Smoke obscured their gaze, but not for long. In a few moments, the fire and smoke covering the ship receded, and they could make out somewhat of what was happening.
To the dismay—but not surprise—the boat was still somehow floating, albeit barely.
It entirely depended on the middle and front end of the ship to keep above the waters, because the back half was mostly blown to smithereens, and what remained was nothing but an ashy semblance of a frame.
'The ship still endured the assault far better than I expected… It seems that as the ship was travelling forward, the plates that were at its sides got swept to the back, causing the ship's rear to face most of the impact.'
"Oi!" Scarn's voice tore through Light's reverie. "Did ya forget we got a pirate to hunt?"
Light smiled without holding back, "No, sir, let's get to it."
After this, Scarn sat down and took control of some paddles while Light walked forward and stepped up while stretching his hands to unfurl the pitch-black ship's sails properly.
'The shockwave will cause all of the air to get pushed away, and as the pressure lowers near the spot where the explosion happened, the higher pressure air far away will rush towards the epicentre of the explosion, just the perfect wind for our sails.'
After making sure the sails were set up just right, Light stepped down and walked to the storage crawl space under the deck and pulled out a big box.
He slid it to the surface with some struggle and then dropped it onto the deck.
He looked at Scarn, who was hard at work paddling the ship, his muscles bulging under the windbreaker as the veins in his arms pumped him with strength and speed.
With the wind supporting the sails and the strong seniors paddling, they were getting closer and closer to the burning ship and were soon going to be in range. In range for-
"Wha- What ya lookin' at, brat! Load those babies up! WooHoo!" Scarn replied excitedly, huffing on air while paddling.
"Yessir!" Light subtly saluted and looked down.
His lips curved up and nearly reached his ears as he opened the box beneath him.
As the lid fell open, the shiny sight inside the box lay bare naked to his eyes.
"Would've never thought I would be excited looking at a box of cannon balls, but here we are."