Ariel, Wallace, Steven, and Cynthia paid no attention to his clamoring.
They stood at the ship's railing, looking at the floating ship wreckage in the distance and the sea stained red, falling silent for a moment.
Wallace's face was a bit pale; he hailed from Sootopolis City, a place that valued elegance and art, and had experienced countless battles, but this was his first time witnessing such a direct and brutal massacre.
"I never thought that one day I would... kill so many people."
His voice was dry, and his handsome face was filled with complex emotions.
Steven's reaction was much better; he merely glanced indifferently at the wreckage, his tone calm.
"These people are parasites of the League, tumors attached to the shipping lanes. Every year, countless merchant ships and Trainers go missing because of them. No matter how many we kill, it's not enough."
Cynthia did not express an opinion on the killing itself; her gaze shifted from the sea to the few people tied up on the deck, and she raised a practical question.
"So, how should we deal with these people?"
As her voice fell, both Wallace and Steven looked at Ariel simultaneously.
This action was very subtle.
Of the four people present, each one had an incredibly powerful background.
Logically speaking, any one of them could make the decision on how to handle a few pirates.
But now, they were subconsciously waiting for Ariel's decision.
Ariel did not answer immediately.
He was thinking.
Now, how should he deal with them?
Kill them directly?
That would be simple and save the most trouble.
But doing so in front of the three of them seemed a bit disrespectful and could easily arouse unnecessary vigilance.
You have to know, during a battle, how you kill pirates or how you counterattack is all reasonable.
But right now, the few pirates had become hostages and had no power to resist; killing them at this point would seem a bit bloodthirsty.
A "good, sunny" new-era Trainer with a League background, upon encountering such a thing, should probably hand them over to the League, right?
Ariel pondered.
Although he didn't care, it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble; there was no need to turn potential partners into objects of caution.
The best way was to squeeze out their remaining value.
Just as Ariel was weighing the pros and cons, One-Armed Shark on the ground, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, began to chatter incessantly, trying to add drama to his own situation.
"Back in the day! When I first went out to sea, I was also a passionate Trainer! If it weren't for a Gym Leader cheating me out of my Pokémon, I wouldn't have walked down this path! Let me tell you, that Gym Leader..."
"And another time, in the Orange Archipelago, I fought an Elite to a draw! If it weren't for his Charizard being able to fly, I would have long since..."
"..."
One-Armed Shark's voice buzzed in Ariel's ears like a fly, interrupting his train of thought.
Ariel felt very annoyed.
Very annoyed.
He needed to think quietly, not listen to a loser bragging about his insignificant past here.
So, he walked over with an expressionless face.
Seeing Ariel approach, One-Armed Shark thought the other party wanted to hear his story, so his voice grew a few decibels louder:
"Kid, you're just lucky, if it were me... Ugh!"
Before he could finish, Ariel had already arrived in front of him.
Without a single wasted movement, he raised his foot and kicked squarely into the spot between the legs, right below One-Armed Shark's constantly flapping mouth!
"Bang!"
A muffled sound.
The world went quiet instantly.
One-Armed Shark collapsed on the deck in pain.
This vicious strike made Steven and Wallace, who were standing nearby, instinctively cover their own groins.
They felt a phantom pain...
Just then.
A piercing siren shattered the silence on the sea.
From where the sea met the sky, four or five white speedboats were cutting through the waves, the red and blue police lights at their bows flashing alternately, appearing particularly stark under the blood-colored sunset.
Officer Jenny on the lead speedboat raised her binoculars, and when she saw the scene in this area of the sea, she almost dropped them.
"Headquarters, this is Patrol 07, we... we may have discovered the... wreckage of the One-Armed Pirate Crew."
Her voice was transmitted back via radio, carrying a tremor she hadn't even noticed herself.
The other end of the radio was silent for a few seconds before an uncertain voice replied:
"...Wreckage? 07, please confirm your report, the scale of the One-Armed Pirate Crew..."
"I confirm!" Officer Jenny interrupted Headquarters, her voice rising slightly, "There are ship fragments and... corpses everywhere here, the seawater... is all red."
The roar of the speedboat engines gradually faded as they slowly approached this slaughterhouse.
The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood mixed with the salty dampness of the sea, making one feel nauseous.
The young Jennys turned pale, looking at the severed limbs and broken ship planks floating on the sea, their stomachs churning.
"My god... how many people must have died here?" a new recruit covered her mouth.
"Look at the flags on those ships... it's definitely the One-Armed Pirate Crew, they... they were completely wiped out?"
"Who did this? Could it be a secret Navy operation?"
Just as they were in shock and uncertainty, their line of sight crossed the wreckage and finally locked onto that undamaged behemoth—the poseidon.
The setting sun burned the sky into a magnificent orange-red, the light outlining the silhouettes of the four people on the deck.
They stood there quietly, their shadows stretched long, their bodies marked with dark, uneven stains that made them look like messengers from hell in the twilight.
The murderous aura that hadn't yet dissipated after such a brutal slaughter, even from dozens of meters across the water, still made these well-trained Jennys feel a sense of trepidation.
"There are people on that ship!" the lead Officer Jenny became alert immediately.
"Who are they? Survivors? Or..."
No one answered, because the posture of those four people was too calm, so calm that it didn't seem like they were in a slaughterhouse.
The lead Officer Jenny took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart, and displayed high professional standards.
She drew the pistol from her waist with standard, steady movements, even though her palms were already covered in cold sweat.
"Approach that big ship! Everyone stay alert!"
The speedboats cautiously approached.
As the distance closed, Officer Jenny saw the faces of the four people, and also saw that the marks on their bodies were not shadows, but dried or semi-dried bloodstains.
Her heart constricted violently.
These four people were too calm.
"Raise your hands! Who are you!"
She mustered all the courage of her life and shouted in the loudest voice possible, her gun pointed steadily at the four people on the deck.
Ariel felt a bit helpless.
He had long since noticed the Jennys' speedboats, but he was just too lazy to move.
Cleaning up the battlefield was best left to the professionals.
However, it seemed that, looking like this, they were indeed easily mistaken for villains.
He didn't move, nor did he speak.
At a time like this, letting Wallace and Steven, who were officially recognized as "good guys," handle the negotiations would be most effective.
As a newly promoted Gym Leader, his fame wasn't as widespread as the other three; if the other party didn't recognize him and ended up shooting him as a pirate, that would be hilarious.