Pirates on Rocks' Ship 996

“Okay!” Jin Guduo, who was tending to the campfire, nodded and stood up.

Soon the two led a team toward the center of the island, where there was a high mountain, the same direction Lakyo had left in.

But not long after Ace and Jingudo left, Reina sensed something approaching them, and there were quite a few of them.

"Everyone on alert...prepare for battle!" Reina put down the branch he was holding, stood up and shouted.

Upon hearing this, the members all stood up, grabbed their weapons, and looked towards the woods not far away.

rustling...

Sure enough, soon everyone heard sounds coming from the woods and saw the branches trembling, knowing that the enemy was about to appear.

"Who goes there...come out!" But after waiting for a while, not only did the other party not show up, but the previous commotion also disappeared. A member who was closest to the woods shouted loudly as he approached the woods with a weapon in hand.

"call out!"

Just as he approached, an arrow suddenly shot out from the woods.

"Clang!" Reina appeared in front of the member, shielding him from the arrow.

"Everyone be careful!" Reina glanced at the arrow in his hand and shouted to those behind him.

The arrows were just ordinary wooden arrows, even the arrowheads were made of wood. Although they were somewhat sharp, if the opponent only had this kind of offensive equipment, then they would definitely not cause too much trouble for Lakyo and his men.

But now, not only is Lakyo nowhere to be found, but there's also no news of Kingdo and Ace, which makes Reina more cautious.

"boom!"

Just then, a pillar of fire suddenly shot into the sky from the depths of the forest.

Reina's eyes narrowed; he knew this was Ace's flame.

"Hyōrinmaru!" With Reina's voice, Hyōrinmaru appeared beside Reina.

"Protect everyone, I'm going in to check!" Reina said to Hyōrinmaru.

After seeing Hyōrinmaru nod, Reina took a step and rushed into the woods.

When he entered the forest, he had already activated his Sharingan with three tomoe. His eyes darted rapidly in their sockets, and in an instant, he could see the situation in the forest clearly.

The attackers were a group of savages dressed in leaves and grass, and the bows, arrows and spears they carried were all made of wood. These things would be no match for Reina and his crew, let alone ordinary members of the Whitebeard Pirates.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..." As soon as Reina rushed into the woods, all the savages fired their weapons at him.

"Swish swish swish..." Reina swung the Senbonzakura in his hand, and a pile of broken wooden weapons appeared on the ground.

"Why are you attacking me?" Reina stood still, not retaliating, but trying to communicate.

The other side are the natives here; they are outsiders. Reina doesn't want to hurt them unless necessary.

"Who...who are you?" One of the savages hesitated for a moment before asking Reina's question.

The other person's accent was a bit strange, but Reina could still understand what they were saying.

"I am the vice-captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. We are just passing by this island and will leave tomorrow after a short rest. We have no intention of being your enemies!" Reina sheathed his sword, indicating that he had no malicious intent.

The savages looked at each other, and then the savage who had spoken to Reina earlier stepped forward and asked Reina, "Really? You're not here to destroy our home?"

“Really! I’ve never even met you before, why would I destroy your homes? And you were the ones who attacked first, weren’t you? By the way, I had a few companions who went into the woods earlier, did you see them?” Reina nodded and asked.

Upon hearing Reina's words, the leader of the savages nodded and pointed to the mountains in the center of the island, saying, "I know, they've gone into the mountains! We discovered them, so we followed their tracks here!"

“But… I have two groups of companions coming. Have they all gone into the mountains?” Reina asked, frowning.

“No, there’s another person who can conjure fire. They went to our village!” the savage said, shaking his head.

"Ah~ you mean Ace? Now that you've encountered them, why did you still attack us? The pillar of fire just now was from him, but didn't you say he was in your village? Did something happen to your village?" Reina continued to ask.

The savage leader looked at Reina and fell silent, not saying anything more.

"Why don't you continue?" Reina said with a light laugh.

Judging from their reactions, Reina knew that the other party was 90% lying to him.

"Gentlemen... we really have no intention of being your enemies. If you use the same words to deceive my companions, then you'd better pray that nothing bad has happened to them, otherwise..." Reina didn't finish his sentence, but it was full of threat.

After Reina finished speaking, the savages looked at each other, and then the leader of the savages said a few words in a gibberish, and they immediately began to flee in all directions.

Reina didn't stop them, but instead kept a distance from the savage who had spoken to him earlier, wanting to see what the other man was up to.

Chapter 338 The So-Called Demon

Secretly following Reina, the leader of the savages, they soon discovered that the savages had met up by a small lake and were heading towards a valley not far away. Judging from the location, it seemed to be the place where Ace had released the pillar of fire earlier.

After thinking for a moment, Reina followed them into the valley. Although there was still no news of Laco and the others, they should be able to find clues about Ace and the others here.

However, when Reina followed the group of savages into the valley, he was immediately discovered by them.

"How could I have been discovered by such a simple trap!" Reina was speechless. There were some scattered branches at the entrance of the valley. Reina didn't notice them and walked straight up to them, which is why he was spotted by the savage on lookout.

"It seems we have no choice but to take action!" Having dodged the sentry's attack, and seeing more and more savages rushing out of the valley, Reina was ready to launch a full-scale assault.

"First mate... wait!" Just then, Ace and Kingdo emerged, surrounded by a group of savages.

"Ace? Kingdo? Are you alright?" Reina breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that the two were unharmed.

If he brought a few people out and something happened, he really wouldn't know how to explain it to Whitebeard.

"We're fine, don't fight, it's just a misunderstanding!" Ace stepped forward and explained to Reina.

It turned out that they encountered this group of savages not long after entering the forest. With their strength, they quickly defeated them. Especially after Ace used his fire ability, the savages immediately put down their weapons and knelt down before Ace, leaving Ace and the others completely confused.

Later, after their explanation, they learned that a group of demons lived in the mountains in the middle of the island. They often came down the mountain to hunt these savages. They had sent people out to investigate because they had discovered the appearance of demons. Otherwise, if the demons had found their place, the whole village would have been doomed.

That's why they only launched an attack the moment they encountered Ace.

As for why they knelt before Ace, it was because fire is what demons fear most, but these savages did not know how to make fire. Every night was the most difficult time for them. Now that they saw that Ace could use fire, they thought that Ace was a god, so they all knelt before him.

After the explanation was cleared up, Ace returned to their village with some of the savages, while another group of savages continued searching for the demon's whereabouts, the same group that Reina had encountered.

As for why they remained silent when Reina asked about Ace, it was because they were afraid that Reina would take Ace away. Now that Ace was their only hope, they naturally didn't want to say too much to Reina.

"So, that means Lakyo and the others went into the mountains, and their actions disturbed the demons in the mountains, which is why this happened?" Reina said, stroking his chin after hearing Ace's explanation.

“That’s right. I just taught them how to use fire and released a pillar of fire here. That way, even if there are their so-called demons around, they shouldn’t come over!” Ace nodded and said.

“Thanks to the gods for their blessing… With these flames, we should be able to escape the demons’ pursuit! Then we can call the villagers from the other villages over, and we can live a better life!” A rather burly savage came over and thanked Ace.

"It's alright! But now that you've learned how to use fire, I need to leave too. I don't know where my companions are yet, so I have to go find them!" Ace waved his hand and said with a smile.

The leader of the savages hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Since you want to go into the mountains, I'll have the village warriors lead the way for you!"

“No need!” Reina shook his head and said, “Are you sure our previous companions went into the mountains?”

Having witnessed the strength of these savages, Reina no longer took those so-called demons seriously. If these savages could fight against the so-called demons, then those so-called demons must be quite weak.

“That’s right. After they went into the mountains, demons came down from the mountains. They must have discovered them. Actually, you don’t need to go up the mountain anymore. Your companions have probably already been eaten by the demons!” Another savage stepped forward, nodded, and said with certainty.

"Oh ho~~~~"

"Boom boom boom~~~"

"Ah~~~ Oh ho~~~"

Just as Reina was smiling and about to say something, a huge roar suddenly came from the central mountain range, like a mountain collapsing, followed by some strange cries.

"It's a demon!" The savages all paled, looking extremely nervous.

"All warriors, prepare!" the lead savage shouted, silencing the panic among the rest of the savages.

With the burly savage in charge, the rest of the savages calmed down. The elderly, women, and children were led back to the village, while the remaining male savages split up into groups of a dozen or so.

"What are you guys planning to do?" Ace asked curiously.

“Those demons come down from the mountain every evening. To protect the village, we have to send warriors out to lure them away and prevent them from discovering the village! It's not time yet, but it's very likely that your companions disturbed them, which is why they are like this!” the leader of the savages said with a sorrowful expression.

Ace, Reina, and the others were stunned. Wasn't this just using people as bait? Using living people as sacrifices?

"You...haven't you thought about fighting them?" Reina asked after a moment of silence.

“No... We are no match for them at all. There were many villages here before, and many of them were wiped out in the battle. Only villages like ours... barely survived! But now that we have fire, the village should not be destroyed by them!” The leader of the savages said with a grin.

"Let's go, let's go take a look! Jingudo, you take the men back, be careful not to let anyone damage the ship, Ace, let's go!" Hearing the other party's reply, Reina began to be curious about what these so-called demons were.

"it is good!"

King nodded and led the members back to the shore, while Reina and Ace headed towards the mountains.

Fearing that Ace and Reina would get lost, the savage leader sent a team of "bait" to follow the two, acting as bait while guiding them.

They hadn't gone far in the direction of the mountains when they heard a series of thumping vibrations.

"It's those demons! They're coming, let's go!" The savage leading the way said to Ace and Reina, his expression changing.

"You guys hide first, don't worry about us. If we get eaten by those demons, you guys run!" Reina smiled slightly, and stood in place with Ace, waiting for the so-called demons to come. As for the savages, Reina told them to hide around.

"Ah~~~~ Oh ho~~~" Not long after, a giant gorilla, over twenty meters long, appeared before Ace and Reina.

"A gorilla?" Ace said with some surprise.

“It shouldn’t be an ordinary gorilla!” Reina shook his head and said.

Ah, I've seen it. It has a pair of blood-red eyes, long fangs in its mouth, a mane like a lion on its neck, and an arrow-like thing at the end of its long tail. It does look somewhat like the tail of a demon in legends.

"Oh~~ Roar!" After spotting Reina and Ace, the opponent seemed to be on steroids and pounced on them.

"I'll do it!" Ace stepped forward and said as he saw the gorilla approaching.

Reina nodded, showing no intention of making a move.

"Fire Fist!" A ball of flame appeared on Ace's arm and then began to condense on his fist.

"Oh ho~~?" The gorilla, seeing the flames in Ace's hand, abruptly stopped and turned to run away in terror.

"Want to run?"

Ace smiled slightly and threw a punch at his opponent, instantly engulfing the gorilla in flames.

"Boom!"

After the flames subsided, the gorilla, its entire body blackened and emitting black smoke, collapsed.

The savages hiding in the bushes looked at each other in disbelief. A terrifying demon had actually been killed by Ace? This left them momentarily stunned, as they had never imagined such a thing.

"Let's go take a look!" Reina and Ace walked towards the gorilla.