Toz and the others stopped at the edge of the Bunglehoppers' base and looked at the open area in front of them, quickly being filled by the Blue Lounge League's henchmen.
"Wulf! Get the fuck over here!"
The crowd split open to make way for Stris. Stris had obviously spent the last few hours tidying himself, so he looked a lot more decent compared to Wulf and the other Bunglehoppers, who weren't as obsessed with their appearance.
"I'm already here, you bastard. What do you want?"
Wulf didn't let Stris and his pirates intimidate him as he glared at Stris.
"What do 'I' want!? What the fuck do you want?! If you don't give at least three good reasons and ample compensation for your attack on my base, I'll show you how much I want the Bunglehoppers gone."
"I could have given you five reasons if their corpses had been intact, but why should I? If you want a fight, let's fight!"
Wulf grinned and took out his great-axe. Stris clenched his teeth so hard that Toz thought he heard them crack. Stris responded to Wulf's provocation after two deep breaths.
"You razed my base to the ground because I sent a couple of scouts?"
Stris looked like he could barely restrain his anger as he glared at Wulf.
"Oh! That wasn't me. I only wanted to smack you in the face a bit. Destroying your base was all this guy's doing."
Wulf seemed totally unbothered as he unhesitatingly gave up the culprit for the Blue Lounge headquarters' destruction.
"You! What kind of grudge do you have against the Blue Lounge to have done something like that?!"
It seemed like Stris recognized Toz from when he ran past him.
"Who knows? Maybe the stars drove me crazy on the way here."
Toz smiled when he realized Stris understood the hint. Toz hadn't attacked the Ble Lounge for any specific reason. It was just a way for him to pave the way to become the Pirate King. The Blue Lounge League of Pirates just happened to come knocking at the wrong moment. However, after he learned that the Blue Lounge League was associated with the Starsling Kingdom, Toz didn't mind the opportunity to take revenge for Joan and her family. Stitches could do it for himself.
Since it was supposed to be a secret that the Blue Lounge worked for the Starsling Kingdom, Stris flinched when Toz mentioned stars, but he tried his best to act like nothing.
"Great, looks like another lunatic joined the Bunglehoppers. Well, since we won't solve this with words, let's duke it out."
Stris pulled out a spear from thin air as he prepared himself to attack. The Blue Lounge pirates behind him also pulled out their weapons or roused their magic as they got ready to bring down the Bunglehoppers.
Wulf looked at Hayar as the pirates streamed past Stris like an avalanche. Wulf didn't even have to say anything before Hayar conjured a green mist.
The charging Blue Lounge pirates flinched and looked hesitant to continue charging, but mages from the opposing side used several different means to protect the Ble Lounge pirates. Wind to disperse the mist, fire to burn it, and some unique magics to destroy or invalidate it. There were also mages who directly protected the fighters and themselves, using barriers to shield everyone from the green poison mist.
Some defensive methods were less effective than others, and Hayar's magic began corroding through the magic and reaching the pirates. But it was far from enough to halt the Blue Lounge pirates' advance, so she used her trump card.
The doors to the greenhouse swung open, and dense green fog with faint purple traces swirled out to cover the Bunglehopper base. The pirates, who had quickly started relying on the mages' protection, soon realized that the purple-lined fog was in another league.
The gusts of wind barely made the fog budge, the fog didn't catch on fire, and it refused to get affected by magic.
The new poison fog quickly spread out to cover the swarming pirates, and the pirates began dropping like flies. However, the pirates made more noise than flies. The poison burned through their skin, and each breath they took brought the fog directly into their lungs. Hoarse screams rang out from the dense fog. Since it was impossible to see through the mist, the pirates quickly lost their sense of direction, and even when they tried to escape, they only ran in circles until they died.
The first wave of Blue Lounge pirates was easily defeated singlehandedly by Hayar, and it left the still-amassing pirates behind Stris doubting whether they really could take down the Bunglehoppers, despite their numbers.
However, the fog returned to the greenhouse to reveal an exhausted and panting Hayar. Hayar's forehead dripped with sweat, and she sat down to rest. The Blue Lounge pirates, who hesitated, soon rallied each other to begin another attack, despite the corroded bodies of their comrades littering the ground.
There wasn't much camaraderie in a pirate crew as big as the Blue Lounge League of Pirates, but there would still be some resentment when so many fellow pirates died, and the second charge looked like it would be even more intense than the first one.
While the Blue Lounge pirates raised their spirits and began charging toward the Bunglehoppers again, Stris stood in the back and looked on coldly as several hundreds of his subordinates died in one go.
Since Hayar was temporarily not in a state where she could kill everyone with poison, the Blue Lounge pirates charged without as much preparation. But they were still vigilant when two of the Bunglehoppers stepped forward.
The big and hairy water mage, Vaner, and the average-looking dude with short hair and ice-cold fists, Frank.
Stris's eyes trembled as he saw Frank and Vaner step up to defend against the wave of low and medium level pirates. Hayar's strength as a high level mage wasn't a secret, so Stris wasn't especially surprised when she cleared away the first charge all by herself.
However, Frank and Vaner standing out like that could only mean they were going to do something similar.
