One piece: I,Akaino will not die easily

Makugai remained exceptionally calm: "Tell the brothers upstairs not to charge down yet. Use the terrain advantage to suppress the enemy from above." He drew his combat knife, "Who are the enemies? How many are there?"

"It's unclear! Captain, the 15 crew members we stationed at the bar on the first floor have all lost contact!"

"Tsk, they've already taken the first floor?" [Thunder Lord] touched his iconic long nose, analyzing in his heart: Those crew members couldn't even sound an alarm, this enemy is not ordinary. Makugai looked at the cadres gathered around him: "Everyone else, follow me, let's see what's really going on."

The pirates, led by their backbone, orderly formed a defensive formation and went downstairs to investigate.

Downstairs, there was only one person, draped in a navy coat, but what sent chills down the spine was the six spider-like limbs protruding from his robust body, more than an ordinary person.

The ferocious-looking navy officer, with a cigarette slanting in his mouth, stepped on the body of the pirate crew's navigator with his right foot, slowly exhaling a puff of white smoke. Like a giant spider perched on its prey, spitting silk, waiting for the next victim.

Seeing the crowd descending, Onigumo revealed a cruel smirk: "Not too slow to react." His six arms nimbly twirled a knife flower, single-handedly meeting the slashing blade of a pirate cadre. Parrying, deflecting, Onigumo's long arm drew a bloody line across the pirate's chest with a knife, then the other arms wielding combat blades held off the rescuing pirates, forcing them back.

A pirate cadre, who was close to the navigator killed by Onigumo, wiped the blood from his chest wound with his thumb, glaring fiercely at Onigumo ahead.

"You're no match for him, fall back!" Makugai's judgment was swift and precise.

"Oh? I'd like to see why you're called [Thunder Lord]!" Onigumo rested a military knife on his shoulder. Prior to this, the rear admiral had sneaked in through the hotel's back door, launching a solo assault on more than a dozen somewhat lax pirates gathered around the bar. Unfortunately, unlike ordinary rabble, before the navy could fully set up on the first floor, the pirates, sensing something amiss, had already keenly come downstairs to investigate, thwarting Onigumo's stealth plan.

Makugai tapped his toes, his legs suddenly exerting force to dash forward, slashing down at the navy officer blocking the way, "You'll find out soon enough!"

"Clang!" Their combat knives collided, and before Onigumo could swing his other military knives, the buzzing of electric current sounded between them.

"Crackle!" The powerful electric current from Makugai's blade conducted through the metal to Onigumo. Instantly, Onigumo felt his arms go numb, the electric current causing his muscles to stiffen.

"Huh?!" Taking advantage of the pirate captain's powerful slash, the rear admiral, having suffered a minor setback, pushed off the ground with his feet, sliding backward.

"Electric shock?!" Onigumo glanced at his dry, split black arms behind him, somewhat startled.

"Open fire!" Onigumo decisively ordered. He wasn't alone on this mission, and although the first-floor fire net wasn't fully set up, it was sufficient to separate the two.

"Watch out!" Makugai retreated, the spot where he had just stood was riddled with lead bullets, splinters flying.

The pirates, with no place to hide at the stairway entrance, the capable cadres swung their weapons to block the flying bullets, but the ordinary pirates weren't so skilled, and thus met their misfortune.

"Ah! Damn it!"

"Damn, I've been hit!"

"Huh! Boss, what do we do?" A pirate close to Makugai looked anxious. "Brothers are being used as target practice here!"

"Fall back first," [Thunder Lord] said solemnly. If they rushed out recklessly, who knows how many navy ambushes were outside.

"You go up first, I'll cover the rear," Makugai swung his sword, repelling the advancing Onigumo, and said to the rear.

The navy's flintlock rifles still suffered from the common issue of long reload times for muzzle-loading guns.

Most flintlocks required pouring in black powder after each shot, and when loading the bullet, the bullet had to be placed at the muzzle, forcefully hammered with a ramrod to push the bullet from the muzzle into the barrel. Even skilled soldiers took about a minute to reload.

And at sea, fighting pirates, time is life. Many navy soldiers opted to use bullets wrapped in oil-soaked linen or leather pieces, inserted into the muzzle, reducing friction, not only speeding up the reloading process but also serving as a gas seal, improving accuracy and increasing range.

The pirates, however, preferred another method. Since reloading a single gun took time, they simply carried several short-barreled flintlock pistols pre-loaded with ammunition.

While increasing killing efficiency, the extra weapons also gave the ever-precarious pirates a greater sense of security.

Taking advantage of the navy soldiers reloading, the pirate captain quickly retreated to the second floor to regroup with his companions.

Once upstairs, his subordinates crowded around him, bombarding him with questions about the next steps. "Captain, are you injured?"

"Captain, what do we do? We're trapped!"

"Captain..."

"Alright, quiet!" Makugai, annoyed by the noise, silenced them all.

Looking around at the now quiet crowd, the highly respected [Thunder Lord] nodded in satisfaction and said, "Since the first floor has been taken by the navy, it's likely that the hotel's back door is also ambushed by enemies."

"Then what do we do? Captain, should we charge out from the front? There are only about twenty navy soldiers on the first floor, and we have over three hundred men. We could break through in one go, they couldn't possibly stop us," suggested the pirate crew's second mate, who, as the leader of the pirates' frontal assaults, was always brave and fearless, but this time the captain did not take his advice.

Makugai shook his head: "We don't know what kind of forces and firepower the navy has deployed outside the front door. If we charge head-on, we might suffer heavy casualties."

The clear-thinking pirate captain suddenly remembered the navigator's earlier warning about the decrease in pedestrians outside the window. "We'll climb out the window, it's only the second floor, and the hotel's windows are on the sides. Even if the navy has an ambush, there probably won't be too many waiting there."

He turned and was the first to leap out the window, his booming voice echoing in the room: "Let's go! Take them by surprise!"

"Roar!"

"Charge!"