When Fang Yi woke up, it was already the day after the battle ended.
Even though he had woken up, he still ached all over, and his stomach was also growling with hunger.
Fang Yi turned his head and saw that Shanks and Bucky were sleeping beside him. They still had some bandages on them. It seemed that the two of them had been taking care of him.
"Yo! You two fellas, is this how you take care of people?" Fang Yi smiled slightly and whispered.
"Hmm...? Brother Yi, you're awake? Are you feeling better?" Shanks heard Fang Yi's voice and immediately looked up and woke up. After seeing Fang Yi who was already awake, he said happily.
"Cough... I still feel a bit weak all over, and... I'm so hungry!" Fang Yi said with a light smile, "How's the situation outside? Where's Teacher Yamon?"
"We've escaped from the Navy's encirclement. Thanks to your strike at that time, it really helped us break through! Teacher Yamon is also okay!" Shanks quickly came to Fang Yi's side and said, "I'll go to the cafeteria right away to see if there's any food!"
"Yeah! Thanks. After you bring me some food, go and have a rest too!" Fang Yi saw the bloodshot eyes in Shanks' eyes, nodded with a smile and replied.
Presumably, Shanks hadn't had a good rest because he was taking care of him.
"I'm fine!"
Shanks smiled and then walked outside. At this time, Bucky was still snoring away, showing no sign of waking up at all.
Not long after, Shanks came back with food. Along with him were Yamon and Jaba.
"Teacher Yamon, Teacher Jaba!" Fang Yi didn't have the strength to get up at all, so he could only greet them with a bitter smile.
"You boy, are you being too reckless? According to Bromarin, you were so exhausted at that time that you won't be able to get out of bed for a few days!" Yamon plopped down on the edge of Fang Yi's bed, waking up Bucky who was still sleeping.
"What the hell's going on?" Bucky fell off the chair and looked up blankly. Only then did he notice that there were two more people in the small room, but no one paid attention to him at this time.
"Hehe... I didn't know that move would require so much physical strength! I just had a sudden inspiration and did it." Fang Yi said somewhat embarrassedly.
In fact, he had no way to explain how he suddenly knew the area-of-effect move Flame Dragon Blast, so he could only explain it like this as a sort of account.
"Alright, glad to see you're good. Have a good rest these few days. If you have anything, just ask Bucky and Shanks for help!" Jaba smiled and said to Fang Yi.
"Okay, Teacher Jaba!" Fang Yi nodded and replied.
After the two of them left, Bucky muttered to himself and went back to his chair, planning to continue sleeping.
But before he could start sleeping, the door was opened again.
"Woof woof..." This time, it was Wangzai who came in.
"Alright, alright... I'm fine!"
"Stop licking! I can't take a bath right now. Your slobber all over my face makes me really uncomfortable!" Fang Yi said to Wangzai, who was constantly sticking out his tongue to lick his face, with a smile.
"Woof... woof... bark!" Wangzai seemed to bark discontentedly, but it was still very obedient and didn't continue. Instead, it sat aside, seemingly planning to guard Fang Yi here.
"Hey~ You stinky Wangzai! This place is already small. Don't stay here! Hurry up and go out!" The room was originally small. With Wangzai in it, Bucky had much less space to sleep. So after seeing that Wangzai had no intention of leaving, he immediately got up and planned to drive Wangzai out.
"Okay, Bucky. You've worked hard too. Go back and rest first!" Seeing this, Fang Yi shook his head and said to Bucky.
"Eh? Since you said so, then I'm really leaving!" Hearing this, Bucky immediately said cheerfully.
But when he reached the door, he turned back and asked Fang Yi, "You really told me to leave! It wasn't my intention to go!"
Fang Yi rolled his eyes and said, "If you don't want to go, you can stay. I'll let Shanks go and rest first!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Bucky disappeared from the door. That kid just ran away quickly.
"Hehe... It seems I can only trouble you, Shanks!" Fang Yi said with a helpless smile.
"No problem! I've had a rest before!" Then Shanks sat on the edge of Fang Yi's bed. After helping him sit up, he fed him some food.
"Find a place to rest too. The room is in a mess. Don't mind!" After eating some food, Fang Yi finally felt like he was alive again. But he also knew his current physical condition, so he didn't dare to eat too much.
One day later, with Shanks' help, Fang Yi could already get out of bed and move around, but he couldn't walk very fast. Seeing this, Wangzai directly let Fang Yi sit on its back and carried him to the deck.
"Yo~ Xiao Yi, are you feeling better? But... What are you doing? Riding a big dog?"
"Hey... It seems quite interesting! Xiao Yi, get off and let me have a try!"
After seeing Fang Yi riding Wangzai, the crew members were all very curious and surrounded him to watch.
After Fang Yi explained it to them, they dispersed with smiles. However, Yamon, holding a wine bottle, walked over with a big smile on her face.
"Teacher, is your injury completely healed? You should still be in a state where you can't drink alcohol, right?" Before Yamon could speak, Fang Yi frowned and said.
"You little rascal! You think your old lady is like you? Having to lie in bed for a few days? That minor injury has long since healed! Glug... glug..." Hearing this, Yamon immediately said unhappily.
Moreover, as if to prove that she was right, she took two more sips of wine.
Fang Yi twitched the corner of his mouth and didn't say anything more.
The humans in this world seem to have very strong constitutions, especially those powerful ones. So Fang Yi also knew that this little bit of wine shouldn't affect Yamon. Otherwise, the crewmates on the ship would have stopped her long ago.
"It seems that we suffered heavy losses in the last battle!"
Fang Yi looked at the faint traces of battle on the deck and the bandages on most of the crew members and said with some emotion.
"It's not a big deal! The Navy fared much worse than us. I heard you managed to knock out one of their three warships?" Yamon said with a big laugh.
"I don't have the ability to sink a warship. I just set their deck on fire. The situation was extremely chaotic at that time. It seemed there was no commander on that warship, so the fire spread!" Fang Yi shrugged and said.
Hearing this, Yamon took two steps forward, came to Wangzai's side, patted its head, and asked, "I really didn't expect Wangzai to grow so big in the blink of an eye! Have you ever thought about fighting together with it?"
"Fight together?" Fang Yi tilted his head, looking puzzled.
Wangzai also looked up at Yamon.
It actually wanted to fight with everyone. However, since battles were very dangerous, the crew would always send it back to the cabin before each battle and wouldn't let it participate.
But at this moment, it clearly understood what Yamon said.
"Right, fight together with it! It's not strange to have a partner to fight with among our jungle warriors. I don't have a battle partner now because I've become a pirate. But back then, I had a black panther that grew up with me by my side!" Yamon nodded and said.
"Teacher means... to make Wangzai my battle partner and teach it fighting skills?" Fang Yi's eyes lit up and he said.
"Right, and your weight is well within Wangzai's carrying capacity. Your current way of cooperation... is very good! Let the fast - moving Wangzai be in charge of movement, and you, with stronger attack power, be in charge of attacking! If you cooperate well, you'll be more than the sum of your parts!" Yamon nodded and said.
Yamon's words stunned Fang Yi. Wasn't this a mounted archer?
The biggest advantage of a mounted archer is high mobility. Thanks to the mount, the archer doesn't need to run on their own.
But this is only for long - range combat. In close - range combat, an archer would be more flexible moving on their own.
Moreover, mounted archers have higher requirements for the archer.
Of course, these are just ordinary mounted archers. Fang Yi isn't an ordinary archer, and Wangzai isn't an ordinary mount.
So what kind of effect could he and Wangzai achieve if they paired up?
Yamon's words made Fang Yi fall into deep thought.
Although Wangzai hasn't experienced a real battle, judging from its performance in hunting, it does have the potential to be Fang Yi's mount.
Beasts are naturally stronger than humans in terms of physical strength and sensitivity to danger. With Wangzai's help, Fang Yi can ignore ordinary attacks in battle, as Wangzai will take him out of harm's way.
Moreover, Wangzai has one great advantage, which is the ability to survive underwater. Combined with Fang Yi's underwater breathing pills, their tactics could have more variations, making it easier for them to retreat or pursue.
Although he was eager to have a try right now, because of his physical condition, he couldn't use a bow and arrow at the moment. So he had to get used to the feeling of riding on Wangzai's back first.
Wangzai was also extremely excited. It had long been eager to fight alongside everyone, but they just wouldn't allow it. Now that it got this chance, it was naturally very happy.
So in the following days, Wangzai carried Fang Yi around the ship, running around everywhere. Both the man and the dog needed to get used to this new way to enhance their tacit understanding. However, this made the other crew members extremely envious, especially Roger and Bucky. They also wanted to experience the fun of riding.
It's a pity that Roger was already an adult, and as for Bucky... his relationship with Wangzai was just okay.
As Fang Yi recovered physically, he began to practice shooting while moving on Wangzai's back. However, it seemed more difficult than he thought.
One day, as Fang Yi was training with Wangzai as usual, Yamon suddenly walked up to Fang Yi with a big smile and gave him a wanted poster.