"Admiral Zephyr... we're finished." Staring at the towering figure, Red-Eye Squafo's face was grim, his crimson eyes filled with terror.
"To hell with this, retreat!" Raging Bull Fossum roared, scrambling back to his own pirate ship, ready to flee.
"Retreat? You think you can just walk away after killing so many of my Marines?" Zephyr's sharp gaze locked onto the leaping figure of Raging Bull Fossum. A flicker of anger crossed his stoic face. He took one step, then another, landing on the deck of the Raging Bull Pirates' ship.
Fossum's expression changed drastically. He spun around and swung his massive cleaver at Zephyr.
With a single hand, Zephyr caught the blade of the cleaver with lightning speed. No matter how hard Fossum pressed down, he couldn't move Zephyr an inch.
Zephyr's right fist shot out, slamming into Raging Bull Fossum's face. With a deafening crash, Fossum's body shattered the deck, plowed through the ship's bottom, and fell into the sea.
Zephyr looked down through the gaping hole at Fossum, who was floating unconscious on the surface. "You'll spend the rest of your life in Impel Down," he said coldly.
"He took down Raging Bull in a single blow... The Admiral is too strong." Red-Eye Squafo was terrified. He looked out at the vast ocean. As a Devil Fruit user, jumping into the sea was suicide, but if he stayed, Zephyr would surely defeat him. He was completely trapped.
"Damn it all!"
"All Black Shark Pirates, into the sea!" a roar came from the ocean. Morton had surfaced.
One by one, the Fish-Men of the Black Shark Pirates dove into the water.
"Create a maelstrom! I'm going to bury all these Marines in the sea!" Morton roared, his voice filled with killing intent, before diving back under. The rest of the Fish-Men followed.
The Fish-Men began to swim in a circle beneath the ships, trying to create an artificial whirlpool.
Normally, it would take a massive number of Fish-Men to create a whirlpool of this size. But for a fighter of Morton's caliber, who could manipulate ocean currents on his own, it wasn't difficult. And his crew was strong, all of them skilled in Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu, able to manipulate the currents as well.
As they swam at high speed, the surface of the sea began to churn and spin. Beneath the waves, a vortex formed even faster.
The sea's surface began to rotate, quickly forming a whirlpool dozens of meters deep. The warships and pirate ships crashed against each other as they were pulled toward the center.
One pirate ship capsized as it collided with a warship, sending all the pirates and Marines on board plunging into the sea, where they were swept away by the swirling currents.
Zephyr's expression was grim. He leaped into the sea, cutting through the turbulent water to find the Fish-Men at the center of the current.
He threw a decisive punch. The powerful force of the blow shattered the rotating current, and the massive displacement of water sent the Fish-Men flying. The current instantly stopped spinning.
The giant whirlpool quickly collapsed. The vast amount of water from the edges rushed toward the center, crashing against the warships and pirate ships, swamping them and washing even more Marines and pirates into the chaotic sea.
The underwater currents were a tangled mess.
Morton weaved nimbly through the chaotic water, rushing toward Zephyr, his eyes savage. With his right hand, he grabbed a handful of the current itself and threw it at Zephyr like a weapon.
Zephyr's Observation Haki was already active; he sensed every one of Morton's attacks. He turned and shattered the incoming current with a single punch.
"Fish-Man Karate: Arrow Shark Needles!"
Morton sneered, grabbing handfuls of water and throwing them. Each handful he threw transformed into a needle shaped like a miniature shark.
A dense swarm of these shark needles shot through the current toward Zephyr.
Zephyr threw another punch. The violent force of it created a surging wave that disintegrated all of the shark needles.
Morton circled Zephyr at high speed, constantly throwing projectiles of water, but he quickly realized his attacks were useless.
He spread his hands wide, gripping the currents around him and binding them in place.
"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Water Heart - Martial Shark Swarm Bite!" he roared.
He threw the captured currents forward. The two massive torrents of water instantly transformed into hundreds of black sharks that swarmed Zephyr.
"You never learn," Zephyr said, his face impassive. His right arm pulsed as he coated it in Armament Haki, the veins bulging. He pulled his arm back, and as the sharks closed in, he unleashed his punch.
With a tremendous boom, the sea was pushed aside by the terrifying force of his fist. The punch shot through the water, carrying the current with it, and the sharks simply dissolved under its power.
He threw another punch with his left fist, dispersing the remaining black sharks.
In the turbulent water, a black shadow shot toward Zephyr's back like a bolt of lightning. It was Morton, using a special Fish-Man Karate technique that allowed him to move at incredible speeds underwater, too fast for the human eye to follow.
Morton opened his mouth wide, baring his fangs. A shark's teeth were its strongest weapon. He bit down hard on Zephyr's neck.
He expected to tear through Zephyr's throat with ease.
But when his teeth made contact, they produced the sound of metal on metal, as if he were biting into solid steel.
No, it was harder than steel. His teeth could bite through steel, but when they bit down on Zephyr's neck, several of them shattered.
How can a man's skin be harder than steel?
Morton's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Your fangs aren't strong enough to break through my Iron Body defense," Zephyr said calmly. His Rokushiki Tekkai was fused with Armament Haki, making it unimaginably hard.
Zephyr's right hand shot out and grabbed Morton by the hair.
"Got you now."
Morton's eyes filled with terror. He slapped his right palm toward Zephyr. An endless amount of seawater condensed into a miniature water sphere in his palm. The sphere struck Zephyr and exploded, and the powerful impact actually made the Admiral stagger for a moment.
With his left hand, Morton used his sharp nails to cut his own hair, freeing himself, and then fled into the distance.
Zephyr immediately threw a punch after him. The violent blow shot through the water and struck Morton in the back, sending him deeper into the sea, coughing up blood.
Just as Zephyr was about to give chase, a series of explosions echoed from the surface. He looked up and saw explosions erupting on the water, shattering warships and pirate ships and sending figures falling into the sea.
Zephyr's face darkened. He shot up from the water and leaped onto a warship, just in time to see countless black cannonballs flying through the air.
He immediately threw a punch. The terrifying pressure from his fist detonated all the cannonballs in mid-air. He looked ahead and saw a fleet of about twenty pirate ships on the horizon. The cannonballs had come from them.
And they were still firing, intending to blast everyone, Marine and pirate alike, into the sea.