Each phantom was a manifested split of Ith's own personality. Losing one meant permanently losing a piece of himself.
"Bastard!"
He ground his teeth, book pages whipping under his fingers in a frantic blur.
But Bullet had no intention of giving him another chance.
The Black Dragon twisted through the sky, changing direction three times in a row. Every shift was precise, slipping past Marleen's blade auras from below and Ith's mental strikes from the side.
Then he locked onto the sixth enemy ship.
This one was different. Its sides were covered in metal armor plating.
Bullet dove.
The pirates on deck fired in panic, but every shell was either slapped aside by his wings or knocked off course by his tail.
Fifty meters. Thirty. Ten...
His wings came down like heavenly blades.
The edges of the wing membranes vibrated at insane speed, turning sharper than steel. They left a groove two meters deep across the armored hull.
Bullet did not stop. He hooked his claws into the cut and pulled.
With a shriek of tearing metal, the entire armor plate ripped free.
The wooden structure beneath was suddenly exposed and seawater began to rush in, but that was not what Bullet cared about.
Clutching the torn plate, he climbed away from the ship. As he ascended, his devouring ability flared to full power.
This time, he deliberately slowed it down.
He wanted to analyze the metal itself.
On a microscopic level, the armor's lattice began to crumble.
Iron, carbon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum... information from dozens of metallic elements was read, parsed, and recorded by his power.
When the plate was fully devoured, his resistance to metal attacks ticked up, and his scale hardness rose by another 0.3 percent.
As expected, special alloys converted more efficiently and strengthened him more cleanly.
The gain from one piece was small, but if he could devour enough high grade metal...
Bullet turned his gaze on the remaining ships.
Within his Observation, three hulls were radiating the same metallic signature.
Three more armored ships.
Target confirmed.
The sixth ship, with its armor torn open, was already taking water badly and beginning to sink.
Bullet ignored it and wheeled toward the seventh.
Another armored vessel.
"Stop him! Do not let him tear any more ships apart!"
Karl was roaring himself hoarse on the flagship.
Marleen and Ith lunged after Bullet again, but this time he changed tactics.
He did not tangle with them. Instead he exploited the aerial superiority of his dragon form, weaving at high speed above the fleet.
Every time he swept close to an armored ship, he tore away a chunk of plating with his wings or claws, then shot off again and devoured it mid flight.
Seventh ship, bridge armor ripped away.
Eighth ship, bow plating torn off.
Ninth ship, the entire side battery's protective shield sheared free.
In less than twenty seconds, all three armored ships were wrecked.
From devouring their special alloys, Bullet gained solid, tangible upgrades.
Scale hardness, total increase 0.9 percent.
Metal resistance, raised from low to medium.
And a fresh trait: Alloy Structure Insight, beginner level.
His perception of weaknesses in metal materials sharpened.
This was a qualitative shift.
Now, Bullet could actually feel the weak spots in any metal he touched.
Which meant that in future battles, he would be able to dismantle enemy armor and weapons far more efficiently.
"Enough!"
Karl finally snapped.
He shoved aside the men around him and seized his massive jagged metal pillar. His feet slammed into the deck.
Boom.
The flagship's planks caved in, leaving a crater beneath him.
Karl rocketed skyward like a cannon shell.
No ability, no tricks, just brute force. On strength alone he cleared three hundred meters in a single leap.
"Die for me!"
The metal pillar howled as it fell, tearing the air apart on its way toward Bullet's back.
The strike carried all of Karl's strength and Haki. Armament wrapped the shaft in ink black layers that seemed to swallow even the sunlight around it.
Bullet felt the danger.
He did not dodge.
He turned, raising his dragonized right foreleg. Black Scale Armament roared to life, the dark gold lines blazing so brightly they were almost painful to look at.
He met it head on.
Clang.
The impact sounded like two mountains colliding.
A spherical shockwave blew out from the point of contact, pressing the sea down into a hundred meter wide depression and capsizing several smaller ships nearby.
Bullet was driven thirty meters downward before a violent beat of his wings stopped his fall.
A dent marred the scales on his right foreleg.
It was the first real injury he had taken since the battle began.
Karl, too, was flung back by the recoil, crashing down onto the deck of an as yet undamaged ship and smashing its planks to pieces.
The two of them stared at each other across the air.
Karl's eyes burned with crazed bloodlust. Bullet's were cool and analytical.
"Your Armament Haki is very pure," Bullet said, his dragon voice a low rumble.
"But your release is too crude. You are wasting at least thirty percent of your power."
Karl froze for a heartbeat, then exploded.
"You are dead!"
He leapt again.
This time, Bullet did not take it head on.
He beat his wings and traced a smooth curve through the sky, sidestepping Karl's charge with ease.
As Karl's strength ran out and he started to drop, the tail lashed out.
Crack.
The blow caught him in the ribs. The sound of bones breaking was unmistakable.
Blood sprayed from Karl's mouth as he crashed straight through the deck and into the guts of the ship.
The tide of the battle seemed to shift.
At that moment, on the flagship, the ascetic Arohan - who had stood motionless with his eyes closed the whole time - finally opened them.
His gaze crossed sea and sky and settled on Bullet.
Then he stepped forward.
With only one step, he appeared in midair, fifty meters in front of the Black Dragon.
It was not teleportation. It was something subtler, as if space itself were laying down a path for him.
Arohan spoke, his voice calm as still water.
"Your rate of growth exceeds all expectations."
Bullet's scarlet pupils tightened to pinpoints.
This man was dangerous.
Far more dangerous than Karl, Ith, or Marleen.