Chapter 195: A Gimmick Boss
"There are tsunamis in the sea... so why the fuck is there a tsunami on the mountain?!"
"Boss, you've got it wrong. This should be called a mudslide."
"How can it be called a mudslide without water?!"
"You idiots... never mind what it's called! Just run!"
The churning wave of earth swept toward the group of pirates. Seeing that some of his men still had the mood to debate the semantics of the disaster, the leading pirate felt a profound sense of despair.
Facing this natural disaster-like attack, he didn't have the luxury to argue. Or rather, his reaction was the normal one.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, wildfires, thunderstorms... To Mother Nature, these might just be sneezes, but to humanity, they were devastating, apocalyptic events.
This was also one of the reasons why Logia-type Devil Fruit users experienced a massive spike in strength in such a short period. Aside from turning into their element to dodge attacks, their large-scale elemental assaults were essentially insurmountable natural disasters for those lacking sufficient strength.
And when the entity creating this disaster wasn't even human, but a literal monster, the intimidation factor multiplied.
Because the Neptune Army had chosen to flank from both sides, they hadn't caught up to these pirates yet. The massive Genbu, however, had completely drawn the pirates' attention.
Without a doubt, if they didn't kill this monster, they wouldn't be able to move forward.
"Kill that monster!"
Before he could even finish his sentence, a pirate next to him hoisted a bazooka onto his shoulder, aimed at the Genbu, and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
Before the smoke even cleared, chaotic shouts erupted across the battlefield.
"Fire! Everyone, open fire!" the pirate leader roared.
Dozens of flintlocks spat tongues of flame, pouring a torrential rain of lead bullets onto the unknown behemoth. However, the only response they received was the crisp, futile sound of metal clashing.
Those lethal projectiles, capable of tearing human bodies apart, struck the Genbu's gray-green shell and bounced off like pebbles thrown by a child. Aside from sparking a few embers, they couldn't even leave a scratch.
"Out of the way! Let me handle this!"
A five-meter-tall brute swung a massive battleaxe at the Genbu. Veins bulged on his heavily muscled arms, and the axe blade was coated in pitch-black Armament Haki. The weapon tore through the air with a low howl, viciously cleaving toward the Genbu's neck.
CLANG—!!
The piercing sound of clashing metal made everyone's eardrums ache, but the result remained completely unchanged.
That giant axe, which had survived countless battles and been stained with God-knows-how-much blood, instantly shattered into pieces. A fragment ricocheted backward, grazing the brute's own cheek and leaving a bloody gash.
Meanwhile, the target of his desperate assault merely yawned, not even bothering to move. It even cast a helpless, exasperated look at the red snake coiled around its body.
[Why are these guys only hitting me and not you?]
The rock tortoise couldn't understand it. It was clearly covered in a much thicker shell with far superior defense. No matter how you looked at it, aiming for the red snake had a higher chance of success.
Coincidentally, some of the pirates were thinking the exact same thing.
"Forget the big turtle! Aim for that snake! They should be connected!"
However, changing targets was utterly meaningless. If a human had eaten this Devil Fruit, the defense of the snake scales would indeed be somewhat weaker than the tortoise shell.
But for a Genbu constructed entirely out of a Poneglyph... whether it was the tortoise or the snake, both possessed the absolute strongest defense on the sea.
All these attacks aimed at the Genbu ultimately amounted to nothing but wasted effort.
Conversely, whether the Genbu manipulated the earth element for sweeping area-of-effect attacks or simply used its colossal body to bulldoze through the crowd, it inflicted staggering casualties.
There were indeed some decently strong individuals among these pirates, but not a single one of them could even scratch the Genbu before them.
With the arrival of the Neptune Army led by Sebastian, the pirates—who had already exhausted a massive amount of stamina—suffered catastrophic casualties in an instant. The ambushing Neptune Army never even revealed themselves, maintaining their active camouflage.
Their clothing was woven from a special fabric unique to Fish-man Island. It could change color in tandem with their mimetic skin, so there was no need to worry about fighting naked.
However, this Fish-man ability was ultimately not the power of the Clear-Clear Fruit. While it could turn their bodies invisible, it couldn't do the same for their weapons. Therefore, they relied entirely on the Fish-man Karate technique, Uchimizu (Water Shot), for ranged attacks.
The vast majority of these pirates, who had marched with Fish-man Island as their ultimate target, were sent to the afterlife without even seeing the faces of their executioners.
Nereus himself did not intervene. Compared to the virtually casualty-free naval warfare, terrestrial combat posed a significantly higher risk to the Fish-men, but this was unavoidable.
You cannot forge elite warriors in a greenhouse; to become a formidable military force, they had to be tempered in blood and iron sooner or later.
Aside from their lack of practical combat experience, the Neptune Army's performance was quite commendable. And the Genbu, too, proved to be an exceptional asset on the battlefield.
Although it was slow, it was practically indestructible.
If you ignored it, its physical charges and terrain manipulation would wreak havoc on the battlefield, inflicting devastating blows on ordinary soldiers.
If you tried to deal with it, you couldn't. Having perfectly inherited the indestructible nature of a Poneglyph, pouring attacks into the Genbu only drained the attackers' stamina. It was a headache among headaches—a true gimmick boss that relied purely on broken mechanics.
This war...
Or rather, it couldn't even be called a war. In the eyes of renowned pirates in the New World, this was simply a group of idiots courting their own destruction.
They never doubted the final outcome. No matter how the situation evolved, the victor would undoubtedly be Nereus.
This was an insurmountable chasm of martial prowess. A nine-figure bounty might sound intimidating, but to Nereus, pirates whose bounties had just crossed the hundred-million mark were nothing more than speed bumps.
If this were underwater, they wouldn't even qualify as speed bumps.
Rather than this preordained outcome, everyone was far more curious about how Ochoku, who had been dragged into this mess, would resolve the situation.
Yes, most people believed Ochoku had merely been dragged into this. Arrogant subordinates trying to prove their loyalty only to bring catastrophic trouble down upon their boss's head—such things were not uncommon in the New World.
In fact, many had experienced it firsthand.
This was why pirates placed such paramount importance on their Jolly Roger. It wasn't just a pirate tradition; it was the foundation of survival in the New World. Using a flag without permission was tantamount to trampling on it. In pirate circles, this usually resulted in a feud that wouldn't end until one side was dead.
Logically, even if Nereus didn't lift a finger, Ochoku had every reason to personally eradicate this crew.
The problem was that these people had definitively set sail from Hachinosu. Ochoku couldn't possibly convince everyone that they had nothing to do with him.
If he disciplined them, it was bad. If he didn't, it was also bad. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
However, while the Neptune Army was still outside cleaning up the battlefield, Ochoku himself had already arrived at Fish-man Island.
The mountain of treasure overflowing from his ship's hold made his stance crystal clear: he hadn't come to Fish-man Island for anything else. He was here to completely surrender and beg for mercy!
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