The moment Noah passed through the gate, a feeling that he recognized deeply assailed him, giving him the impression that he was slowly being squeezed from all sides and then stretched out.

It was an odd feeling, to say the least. But it was also a familiar feeling, something very close to what he felt when he entered and exited the wormhole.

This was extremely mind-boggling, and he had a slight urge to barf as he appeared finally on the other side.

He was not even given the chance to breathe in when his sense of danger tingled.

Stepping quickly aside, Noah could feel a sharp wind caused by a blade moving past him.

“What…”

He did not let the one who attacked him a moment to breathe as he proceeded to lightly punch the chest plate.

Whoosh!

This was enough for the man to sail through the air before landing heavily.

Noah, though, did not care about this man. He looked around; his eyes moved quickly as he observed all the enemies in the surroundings.

“Four…”

Even though one of them had been beaten quite easily, the other four did not show much of a reaction, they did not even change their formation, quietly encircling him and making sure that he could not escape no matter what happened.

“You guys are different.”

He could immediately see the difference between these guys and the ones who had been left on the ship. They were on a completely different level, be it skills, strength and equipment.

“Who are you?”

They all leveled their rifles at him, ready to fire at the slightest twitch. He was briefly surprised about them not remembering him, then he remembered that he was far taller now than he was initially and he also had armor completely covering his features.

There was no way these pirates would associate him with the same young kid they completely disregarded for a few moments.

“You knowing who I am won’t change anything. I guess Omid decided to leave you guys because you were too weak?”

A few of them twitched, which prompted Noah to shrug, “Did I strike a nerve? It seems like whatever happened, you guys are the weak link. The ones who were cast out.”

“He is just messing with us. Don’t listen to him. Fire!”

Tsk~ I hate fighting people who are not swayed by emotion.

He immediately ducked down, but he was not completely able to dodge the bullet to his shoulder.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Shit! That one hurt!

He cursed as he felt the bullet spinning in his armor and sending a relatively weak lightning current through the cracks. Thankfully, the Queen was indeed not the kind to bluff, and the armor managed to easily withstand the attack before swallowing the bullet itself.

Crunch!

The sound of something being eaten was not pleasant in the slightest, and neither was the appearance of the mouth that appeared where the bullet hit was frightening, to say the least.

The pirates were confused. They did expect Noah to avoid this charge and they even had a plan ensured for this case. But what they saw was completely outside of their expectation.

They had indeed been put there as sentinels, but where Noah was wrong was that they were not sent by Omid but decided to stay in this place on their own because they did not plan to proceed further.

This place seemed clearly too dangerous to continue for some unknown rewards that would most likely go to Omid.

The others followed as well, but this did not matter to the five of them. Better be alive and well if you wish to receive something.

Once they realized that there was not much they could do, all of them, even the one who had been blasted away a few moments ago, attacked him in unison.

Interesting but…

“I only need two of you guys alive.”

He had no more time to waste with these scrubs. No matter how skilled they were compared to those he killed previously, they were still not worthy of being in his sight.

He could have easily ended them one after another, but he suddenly thought of the new possibility he could have with this armor, and he smiled behind his helmet.

Two long flexible whip-like blades came out of his hands as he simply twirled on himself; the blades were so sharp that this alone was enough to nearly bisect all of them immediately.

One of the five was unlucky enough to have his head fly off while a second one had this sad destiny happen to his arm.

The other three did not even have the time to react. The one attacking Noah’s back screamed in horror as a gigantic snake-like black creature came out from the back before swiftly biting more than half of his body off, armor included, leaving blood spraying all around.

“Heh…”

The last two who, while wounded, were not dead stopped. Fear froze them as they realized too late they were completely outmatched.

“So you two are the lucky ones.”

They watched as the monstrous snake-like entity vanished back into Noah’s back, and he nonchalantly walked toward the one who only had one hand left.

“Please! Wait! I…am sorry! I was just listening to orders!”

“They all say the same.”

Noah did not waste time in cleanly cutting his head off as well. He whistled quietly, truly happy with how good the weapons he could create were.

There was a world of difference between fighting bare-handed and having something nice and sharp in your hands.

Furthermore,

Nice save!

—This armor is basically a part of us. A simple command is enough, and there is zero latency.

He grinned; this would mean that he basically had two active minds working at the same time when fighting.

This would definitely come in handy in the future.

“Now then…I see you were smart enough not to attack me even though I showed you my back.”

The whip blades were pulled back as he approached the only survivors.

“No begging, no useless words. Deactivate your armor now.”

They nodded immediately and took them off without the slightest hesitation. At this point, hesitation meant death.

“Now I am going to ask, and you are going to answer.”

Threats and torture were like bread and butter.

You didn’t necessarily need them together, but goddamn did they make an awesome combo.