C18 Begin Action

"Bang!"

A gunshot echoed across the deck, narrowly missing a Water Clone's hair.

"Disperse!" Rodney commanded, and the Water Clones scattered, each darting toward a different Pirate Ship.

Rodney set his sights on the largest vessel.

The enemy had spotted him. After their initial shot missed, a relentless hail of bullets followed.

The Sharingan activated in his eyes, making the airborne lead bullets appear to move in slow motion. He used the Sharingan to track their paths, predict their trajectories in his mind, and then his body instinctively dodged, all in the blink of an eye.

"Trash! Trash! Shoot him! Turn him into a sieve!" Clique bellowed in fury.

"Yes, sir!" The terrified pirates, drenched in cold sweat, persisted in firing at Rodney and his Water Clones.

To their dismay, their shots were effortlessly evaded.

"Give me that gun!" Clique, enraged by his crew's incompetence, snatched a firearm and took aim at Rodney himself.

The distance was closing. A Water Clone hurled a kunai, rigged with an Explosive Talisman, onto the pirate ship.

"What's that?" A curious pirate leaned over the railing, eyeing the kunai.

The Explosive Talisman on the kunai suddenly ignited, and then...

Boom!

The explosion tore a gaping hole in the ship's sturdy hull, allowing seawater to gush in.

"Not good! We're taking on water! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

Without a second thought, the pirates leaped into the sea, swimming toward other vessels. The hole was too large to repair; abandoning ship was their only option.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions continued to rock the fleet. The Water Clones moved swiftly, attaching an Explosive Talisman to the underside of each ship they passed, blowing holes in the hulls and forcing the pirates to forsake their ships.

A fleet of over a thousand was effortlessly neutralized.

The Clique Pirate Group's main strength was their numbers, but at sea, ships are paramount. Without vessels, there's no sailing, and the ships of the East Sea weren't the sturdy craft built by the Seven-water Capital. Lacking special materials, they were quite vulnerable to being blown apart.

Suddenly, the sea was teeming with heads bobbing in the water as if dumplings had been dropped in a pot. Rodney was indifferent to the fate of these men. Their survival hinged on their own destiny. Having chosen the pirate's life, they should be prepared to die at sea. After all, how can one navigate treacherous waters without expecting betrayal?

They must face the consequences of their actions!

"Chief Clique! Save us!"

"Allow us on board, Chief Clique!"

"I'm not ready to die! Chief Clique, please let me board! I'm your most loyal follower!"

The pirates were desperate to board Clique's ship, as it was the last one afloat; Rodney had obliterated the rest.

Clique's vessel was their only hope for survival.

"Get off! All of you, get down! You're all worthless! Not one of you is getting on! Where did that cursed creature go?" At first, Clique had been willing to rescue some distressed sailors, but he soon refused to take on those he deemed useless, ordering his men to drive away those attempting to board.

Though the ship was large, it could not possibly accommodate thousands, and with more people, it would be harder to fend off the inevitable attack.

Loyalty was of no concern to Clique. He did not trust his crew; his rule was based on fear and wealth, not camaraderie. A stick for punishment and a carrot for reward were all he needed to maintain control.

The crew was expendable; new recruits could always be found. His priority was to eliminate the one who had inflicted such damage on his fleet.

"There he is!" one of his pirates called out.

Rodney had defied gravity, scaling the near-vertical hull with ease, and now stood confidently at the ship's rail. His eerie red eyes swept over the pirates, instilling a deep sense of dread.

"Fire!"

Clique was unyielding and merciless. At his command, his armed men drew their weapons and opened fire.

Their shots hit Rodney with precision, turning him into a liquid form.

Indeed, it was just a Water Clone.

Meanwhile, the real Rodney had burst onto the scene from another direction, accompanied by the two remaining Water Clones.

"Water Escape: Water Rushing Wave!"

The sea surged violently, sweeping a multitude of cannon fodder from the deck with its powerful waves.

"Fire Escape: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique!"

"Fire Escape: Gougakyu Technique!"

The Phoenix Immortal Fire set the sails ablaze, while the Gougakyu hurtled into the crowd and detonated, claiming numerous lives.

Oh no, the Gougakyu has taken lives!

"You're asking for it!" Clique's right-hand man, the top enforcer and captain of the Clique Pirate Group's combatants, Ghostman Ah Jin, brandished his twin iron crutches, each capped with an iron ball that could kill an ordinary person in a single blow.

He spun the iron crutches continuously, the centrifugal force amplifying their destructive power as he agilely charged at the real Rodney. It wasn't that he had seen through the clone technique; he was just lucky.

Clang!

The White Fang, enhanced with Wind Attribute Chakra for greater cutting power, clashed with Ah Jin's iron ball, sending sparks flying.

If Ghostman Ah Jin took a moment to inspect his weapon, he would notice a shallow gash on the iron ball.

White Fang effortlessly parried Ghostman Ah Jin's heavy, centrifugally boosted attacks. Rodney, with his exceptional insight, easily countered, using the Sharingan to track Ah Jin's movements and predict his actions, allowing him to deflect the attacks with minimal effort.

Ah Jin felt as if he were punching cotton, his efforts futile.

"How can this be? This guy is on par with our captain? He's too... too strong!"

"Captain, come on! You have to take him down!"

"Yes, Captain! We're the Clique Pirate Group, the strongest in the East Sea!"

A Water Clone nearby smirked and knocked out a pirate with a punch. "The strongest? Or just the most in number?"

"You..."

Stung by the truth, the pirates were at a loss for words and resorted to a blind offensive. Under their assault, the two Water Clones quickly dissolved into puddles of seawater.

The Water Clone was fragile, much like the Shadow Clone, with limited resistance to attacks.

Rodney alone was locked in combat with the Ghost Man.

Clique squinted his eyes. The Ghost Man was clearly losing ground. Clique pondered whether to take a shot, indifferent to the possibility of injuring the Ghost Man. In his view, sacrificing a subordinate to take down a powerful enemy was a good trade.

Yet, A-gin's usefulness was still considerable, so Clique held his fire for the moment and called out, "Barra, go assist Kim."

"Yes, Chief Clique, let me, Iron Wall Barra, teach this fellow a lesson in cruelty!"

A figure resembling a sandwich cookie rose to his feet, flanked by massive steel shields as tall as a man, both thick and heavy, encasing him like a cookie filling. The shields were adorned with intricate patterns, with a pearl the size of a small watermelon embedded in the center. Pearls dangled from his ears and topped his head, while smaller shields were affixed to his hands, elbows, and knees.

Iron Wall Barra, the man with the greatest defense in the Clique Pirate Group.

Clang.

His shields clashed together as Barra chuckled, "Since you've encountered me, consider your luck in the negatives today!"

Rodney: "..."

Am I in a pesticide game?

He resolved to end the fight swiftly. With the Sharingan, he pinpointed a vulnerability in Ghost A-gin's defense. The White Fang in his hand caught the brilliant sunlight, the wind-imbued Chakra on the blade was thin, yet possessed the force to slice through metal and stone!

With a burst of strength, he cleaved through Ghost A-gin's iron mace.

Ghost A-gin's eyes widened in disbelief, mirroring the shock of those around him, as if they had witnessed the impossible.

Just then, someone recognized him and exclaimed, "I know who he is! The recently emerged Pirate Hunter, Joestar J Rodney!"