The skeletal wings of the Bone Dragon beat against the smoke-filled sky, churning the sea breeze.
Chase, riding comfortably atop the Curse of Dragon, drifted down toward the merchant ship’s battered deck.
Below him, Ina, her two companions, and the surviving crew members scrambled with magical extinguishers, desperately fighting the lingering flames.
Through their frantic efforts, the raging inferno had been beaten back into scattered, hissing embers.
Chase rested his chin in his palm, adopting a solemn, almost nostalgic expression.
“Not bad at all.
There’s really nothing quite like the feeling of fighting side by side with everyone.” Ina, her fair face smeared with soot and sawdust, finally snapped.
She threw her hands up at the sky.
“This kind of ‘fighting side by side’ is not what we signed up for!” “Oh, my ship!
My precious cargo!” Captain Lambert, who had spent the entire morning boasting about his vessel’s indestructible hull, squatted on the scorched planks and wept bitterly.
The rest of the crew, who by all rights should have been cowering in the lower cabins, stood on the open deck.
They stared at the chaotic aftermath with exhausted, ash-stained faces.
Yet, despite the menacing pirate fleet still looming on the horizon, the suffocating despair that had gripped them earlier had vanished.
Chase’s casual banter had effortlessly shattered the tension.
“Cheer up, Captain Lambert.
Battles will always cause a little collateral damage, won’t they?” Chase offered a bright, unapologetic smile.
“Don’t sweat it.
Once I haul those pirates in and collect the bounty, I’ll have your ship fixed up in no time!” Even though this entire ambush was Marshall’s conspiracy, if Lambert hadn’t agreed to let Chase board, the pirates might never have attacked.
Chase wasn’t unreasonable, nor did he lack a sense of responsibility.
He simply hated fighting with restrictions.
Holding back was a chore.
Besides, back at the Fairy Tail guild, Natsu and Gray were constantly leveling entire towns, leaving Master Makarov to weep over the apology letters and repair bills.
Chase had earned the moniker ‘Fiore’s Destroyer King’ through sheer, unadulterated property damage.
Fortunately, unlike the rest of his guildmates, his pockets were deep enough to cover the fines.
Lambert blinked through his tears, his chubby face blank.
Then, his eyes widened in sheer terror.
“Watch out behind you!” “Damn Fairy Tail!
Go to hell!” A lone pirate, having narrowly survived the earlier barrage of Hellfire thanks to a set of magical armor, lunged from the shadows of the mast.
He raised a massive, cold-steel saber, aiming a lethal strike right at Chase’s shoulder.
Chase didn’t even flinch.
He remained seated on the Curse of Dragon, having sensed the straggler minutes ago.
Buzz.
A pre-set Trap Card materialized in the air.
Spellbinding Circle!
A glowing golden hexagram expanded outward, projecting a localized stasis field that instantly locked the pirate in mid-air.
The brute’s saber halted mere inches from Chase’s neck.
“Friend, when declaring an attack on an enemy, you really ought to check their face-down cards first,” Chase advised with a grin.
The immobilized pirate’s eyes darted wildly, utterly terrified and completely failing to comprehend the strange terminology.
Chase didn’t give him time to figure it out.
He vaulted high off the dragon’s back, magic power surging through his veins and pooling into his right leg.
“Eat this!
Chase Kick!” With a sickening crunch, Chase’s heel slammed into the pirate’s abdomen.
Ribs shattered on impact.
Riding the immense forward momentum, Chase used the pirate like a battering ram, rocketing through the air and crashing directly onto the deck of the distant pirate ship.
Boom!
The massive impact violently rocked the galleon.
The pirate crew immediately drew their weapons, going on high alert.
Thick smoke billowed across the deck.
As the sea breeze slowly tore the dust cloud apart, a silhouette emerged.
Chase stood casually atop the unconscious, white-eyed pirate, his oppressive gaze sweeping over the surrounding mob.
Finally, his eyes locked onto the man sitting at the rear: Cluny Blood, the guild master of the Dark Guild, Deep Mire.
“Good afternoon, scum.” Chase’s lips curled into a brilliant, dangerous smile.
“Are you going to tie yourselves up obediently, or do you want me to beat you all half to death first?” The offense and defense had officially switched.
“The aerial unit was merely the weakest branch of my crew.
You don’t honestly think eliminating them guarantees your victory, do you?” Cluny lounged in a massive chair draped in beast hides, leisurely fingering a skull necklace around his neck.
He let out a cold snort.
“Are all the mages of Fairy Tail as arrogant as the rumors say?” Chase kicked the unconscious pirate aside and casually dusted off his coat.
“That’s right.” “You—!” The sheer, unapologetic honesty made Cluny’s mouth twitch.
His carefully rehearsed villainous monologue died in his throat.
“You’ve got thick skin, I’ll give you that,” Cluny sneered, recovering his composure.
He flicked his eyes toward his men.
“But I wonder what you plan to do against an entire army?” The pirates took the cue.
They tightened their grip on their cutlasses and staves, slowly circling Chase.
Though the skeletal dragon circling overhead terrified them, their absolute numerical advantage—and their guild master watching from the rear—bolstered their courage.
A Fairy Tail mage?
We’ll just capture him!
“This is a bit troublesome,” Chase murmured, glancing at the encroaching mob.
He casually flipped a Spell Card between his fingers.
“Assuming these guys can actually move, that is.” Spell Card: Swords of Revealing Light!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
A blinding, holy radiance erupted in the sky.
Three colossal swords of pure light descended from the heavens, stabbing into the air around the pirate ship in a flawless triangular formation.
A sacred, sealing pressure washed over the deck.
The pirates froze mid-step, their expressions twisting into absolute horror.
Their bodies were locked down by an overwhelming, invisible force.
No matter how hard they strained, they couldn’t twitch a single muscle.
Even Natsu struggled to break free from this specific sealing magic; there was no way a bunch of third-rate Dark Guild grunts could overpower it.
Chase had a dozen ways to instantly vaporize these small fries.
But the commission explicitly demanded they be captured alive.
Plus, even if Marshall tried to weasel out of paying the bounty, Chase could just dump these living pieces of evidence on the Magic Council’s doorstep and demand his money directly.
Cluny’s gaze darkened as he stared at the glowing blades hovering around his ship.
“A card magic that restricts movement?” He planted his hands on his knees.
A terrifying storm of magic power erupted from his body, creating a suffocating pressure that made Ina and her companions on the distant merchant ship gasp for air.
Slowly, Cluny forced his hunched back straight.
Feeling the restriction shatter, he let out a wild, booming laugh.
He stomped his boot, splintering the wooden deck beneath him.
“In the face of absolute magic power, your little parlor tricks are useless!” Cluny roared, beating his chest.
“You can’t control me!” Chase looked up, offering him a mild, unimpressed glance.
“Oh.
I just didn’t restrict your movement because I needed to confirm something with you.” …
The casual, deadpan delivery instantly murdered the tense, dramatic atmosphere.
Caw.
Caw.
A crow flew over the pirate ship, only to fly right into the spell’s radius and freeze solid in mid-air.
Cluny’s wild grin stiffened.
His fists trembled, and a thick vein throbbed violently against his forehead.
In that exact moment, the fearsome guild master felt like an absolute clown.
[Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?