Struggling to his feet from the explosion, Krieg knelt on the shattered deck, his golden armor covered in cracks, dust and smoke swirling behind him. His face was savage, the veins on his forehead bulging, and he stared at the three figures standing quietly in front of the restaurant in the distance.
"There are only three of them!!! We have thirty ships!!!" Krieg roared, as if he had gone mad, and suddenly waved his arm. "Fire the cannons!! Fire the cannons for me!!!"
"BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!!!"
The thirty pirate ships opened fire almost at the same time. Hundreds of black cannonballs, like a dark cloud, rained down on the seafaring restaurant, Baratie. The sky was for a moment covered by the black iron rain, and a giant shadow, as if of the apocalypse, enveloped the restaurant.
In the air, Ace's pupils suddenly constricted. The flames on his arms exploded, and he suddenly spread his arms. "FLAME NET!!!"
A scorching wall of fire rapidly spread out in mid-air, becoming a giant flame net that blocked the sky above the Baratie. The cannonballs exploded one after another, dozens of them swallowed by the flames and turning to charcoal in the air. But dozens more still passed through the gaps in the flames, carrying the power of death as they headed straight for the Baratie.
On the restaurant deck, Sanji gritted his teeth and managed to stand up, his face pale, but he still forced himself to stand in front of Zeff. Zeff, on the other hand, gripped his peg leg, his gaze fixed on the several incoming cannonballs, and said in a low voice, "It seems this old life... is going to end here."
Just then—
"Snap!"
A crisp snap of the fingers, unusually clear amidst the sound of battle. Roy slowly raised his fingers, snapped them lightly, his expression as calm as water.
"Swish—!"
The cannonballs in the sky that were about to hit the Baratie suddenly vanished in mid-air. The next second—
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!"
A deafening explosion rang out continuously from the pirate fleet. The "vanished" cannonballs had reappeared on the decks of the warships that had fired them. The explosions spread like a chain reaction, and one warship after another was violently shaken, burned, and disintegrated in the firelight.
Flames soared, and wood splinters flew. The sea was like a boiling hell. "Ahhhh—!!!" The pirates screamed in terror as they jumped into the sea to escape. Some didn't even have time to throw away their weapons, and others were directly swallowed by the flames and turned to charcoal. The once-dense formation of warships was now a ruin of explosions and a sea of wailing people.
Krieg's face instantly turned pale. He knelt on the deck, trembling, his voice shaking. "Wh-What?! How could the cannonballs...?"
Gin, lying in a crater on the Baratie's deck, his eyes fixed on the indifferent Marine Vice Admiral, cold sweat dripping down his forehead. "That guy... what kind of monster is he?!"
Seeing this, Ace grinned, and his two fists ignited with scorching flames as he took to the air. "FIRE RAIN: METEOR!!!" His two arms became giant wings of fire, and dozens of fireballs, like falling meteors, trailed flames as they rained down on the remaining warships.
"BOOM!! BOOM! BOOM—!!!"
The fireballs exploded one after another, and a sea of fire engulfed the entire sea surface. The remaining pirate ships were completely unable to resist and were shattered and overturned in the flames. The pirates cried out as they jumped into the sea to save themselves.
At the same time, Luffy on the restaurant deck also moved. He transformed into his man-beast form, his body suddenly swelling, his entire body covered in pink dragon scales, his pupils golden-red, his tail swinging like a steel whip. The next instant, the ground shattered, and he charged into the remaining pirate soldiers like a thunderbolt.
"BANG! BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG—!!!"
Each punch accurately hit a vital point of an enemy ship. Masts broke, decks shattered, and pirates were sent flying by the force of his punches, thrown into the sea like broken-stringed kites.
The iron-walled Pearl, holding a giant shield, roared and stood in front of Luffy. "Kid! Don't be too—" Before he could finish, Luffy's dragon tail suddenly whipped out, as if with the force of a thunderclap.
"BOOM!!!"
The iron-walled Pearl was sent flying back like a cannonball, crashing through two layers of the deck and rolling into the sea.
In just a few short minutes—the entire sea was a mess. All thirty pirate ships had been sunk. Wreckage and firelight floated on the sea, and the wails gradually subsided. The air was still filled with the smell of burning wood and smoke.
Krieg sat瘫 on the wreckage of the main ship, his golden armor shattered and fallen off, his face pale, his lips trembling. "This... is this a 'real monster'..."
"Just three people... wiped out my entire fleet?!" His eyes were filled with terror and despair, as if he had aged a great deal in one night.
On the Baratie's deck, Gin lay motionless on the ground, gritting his teeth, his fingers gripping the wooden planks hard. His breathing was rapid, his back soaked in cold sweat, his expression extremely complex. "...So this is 'real power'."
Seafaring Restaurant, Baratie
The battle ended, and the wind stopped. The sea was filled with a thick smell of smoke and charcoal, the scorching heat not yet dissipated. Inside and outside the restaurant, it was dead silent.
Zeff, Sanji, and all the chefs and guests stared blankly at the hellish scene on the sea in the distance. Over thirty pirate ships, in just a few short minutes, had been completely annihilated by two boys. No reinforcements, no cannon ships. Just two—"brats."
Luffy hummed a little tune, carrying Krieg's tattered armor, and casually tossed him back onto the deck like a rag. "Thud!" With a muffled sound, Krieg wailed and rolled a few times, collapsing into a pile of mud. Luffy's dragon scales slowly receded, and his man-beast form was released. He strode over to Sanji, his hands on his hips, a proud look on his face. "I'm awesome, right?!"
"My brother taught me."
Sanji's mouth twitched. He looked at the still-smiling boy before him and was at a loss for words for a moment. "This... what kind of monster is this guy?!"
Ace landed steadily from the air, the flames not yet completely extinguished, his steps leaving a slight scorch mark on the deck. He glanced at the pile of mud that was Krieg and then looked at Roy not far away. "Big Brother Roy, this guy... are we still keeping him?"
Roy stood quietly at the edge of the deck, his gaze indifferent, his cape fluttering in the sea breeze. He looked down at Krieg, his tone calm with a hint of undeniable authority. "Leaving him in the East Blue is not safe after all."
"He's a little too close... to Dawn Island."
The moment the words "Dawn Island" were spoken, Ace and Luffy's expressions instantly changed. The two of them composed themselves, their gazes darkening.
"Grandpa Roc... Grandma Elin..."
"They must not be threatened."
Krieg seemed to sense the danger and forced himself to get up, his face full of terror, his hands trembling. "W-Wait! Don't kill me! I can surrender! I can—!"
Before he could finish, Ace had already taken a step forward and grabbed the tattered armor on his chest. A scorching flame instantly wrapped around his arm and quickly spread over Krieg's body. Ace looked down at him, his eyes without a trace of pity. "Trash is better burned clean."
"BOOM—!!!"
The flame erupted like a tidal wave, and Krieg's entire body was thrown into the air by Ace. He struggled violently in the air, letting out a miserable and desperate scream. "Ahhhh—!!!" The next second, the flame completely engulfed him. That golden armor, along with his entire body, became a ball of fire, which exploded and burned away in mid-air, finally leaving only a piece of charcoal to fall into the sea. "Plop—"
A circle of black water ripples spread out on the sea. Inside and outside the restaurant, everyone held their breath. The guests and chefs who had witnessed all of this, even those old chefs who had once roamed the seas, were all pale and covered in cold sweat. They were not strangers to blood. But this kind of "trash-cleaning" efficiency and decisiveness, they had never imagined.
On the Baratie's deck, Gin was sitting on the ground, his shoulders trembling, his face as pale as paper, every muscle in his body tensed to the extreme. He had personally watched Krieg be "burned to ashes" before his very eyes but couldn't say a single word. His breathing became extremely difficult, each breath as if it were burning his throat. "There's no escape..."
"This person... is too strong..."
The flames had not yet been extinguished, and the sound of footsteps. Ace slowly approached Gin, each step as if it were stepping on the other's heart. He looked down at Gin, his voice low. "What about you?"
"How do you want to die?"
....
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