It had to be said, Vane's two sentences had completely shattered Vice Admiral's" composure. As long as someone had a normal brain—and wasn't like the future Admiral Green Bull who treated the Celestial Dragons as gods—being called a Celestial Dragon's tool would never feel good.
If it were Green Bull, being cursed like that might even make him feel pleased.
Vice Admiral was clearly a relatively normal person. Moreover, the Marines were well aware of what had happened to Strawberry. Just because the Rocket Team Pirates casually mentioned that Strawberry had said there were many slaves on the Red Line—
The Celestial Dragons immediately came to arrest him. As if the fact that there were countless slaves on the Red Line needed anyone to point it out. What did the Celestial Dragons ride around on every day when they visited Sabaody Archipelago?
The Marines also knew this was the Rocket Team Pirates' open scheme. But they still insisted on arresting and putting him on trial. After Strawberry escaped, the World Government directly labeled him a traitor to the Marines and even placed a 100 million Belly bounty on him.
Vice Admiral: "Hmph! The world needs order, and you pirates are the ones who destroy it!"
Vane: "You serve nobles who trample over others' corpses, yet stand before the suffering and preach righteousness. Your justice is far too rigid."
"Shattering Fist!"
"Frostfall!"
Vice Admiral's fist collided with Vane's Cursed Sword. After a brief stalemate, the Vice Admiral could no longer hold on and was blasted backward.
His eyebrows and beard were coated in frost, and a gash had been sliced open across his fist.
My fist was coated in Haki…
The opponent could already infuse Haki into his blade. And his Armament Haki was no weak level.
"Among Marine Vice Admirals, aside from Garp and Tsuru, I don't put any of the others in my eyes."
This time, Vane grew serious. His blue wings flapped, and three extremely lifelike Vanes appeared in midair. This was the maximum number of high-speed "clones" he could maintain without exposing flaws.
Vice Admiral swept with Observation Haki and discovered that each one carried the aura of a real body.
Clang—Clang…
With Vice Admiral at the center, nineteen chilling sword slashes burst forth, every single strike landing on him.
His defense of Tekkai combined with Armament Haki allowed him to withstand thirteen hits.
The remaining six tore straight through his guard, sending arcs of blood spraying into the air before his body crashed into the sea, his life and death unknown.
The three figures merged back into one. Vane flicked his Cursed Sword lightly and said calmly,
"Before, I might have needed to expend some effort. Now? An ordinary Vice Admiral is no different from a weak animal before me."
In Vane's view, if anyone wanted to truly trouble him now, they'd need at least the strength of an Admiral candidate—or the first commander under a Yonko. In other words, someone on the level of the future Katakuri or King.
An ordinary Vice Admiral was just delivering himself up.
Vane called out toward the warship:
"Marines, I'm in a good mood. Leave your warship behind."
"Not a chance! We will never bow to pirates!"
"Marines would rather die than surrender!"
Their backbone was commendable.
"Then prepare to die."
Vane sheathed his sword. These Marines didn't require his personal involvement.
Tant, Dice, and Burgess had already leapt impatiently onto the opposing deck.
Let them witness the terror of a pirate crew filled with ability users.
Dice and Burgess each engaged a Rear Admiral, while Tant directed the other combatants in battle.
Whenever the situation grew especially dangerous, Tant rushed in to provide timely support.
As the scales of victory gradually tilted in their favor, Vane refrained from intervening again.
The Marines' defeat had been inevitable—from the very beginning, when the Gyarados submarine launched a sneak attack and destroyed one of their ships.
In the end, the Vice Admiral who had been fighting Moria led the battered remnants, along with Vice Admiral—who had somehow been fished out at some point—and fled aboard several vessels.
Vane's crew seized one intact warship and captured dozens of Marine prisoners.
Tesoro conducted the post-battle tally:
"Our first battle in the New World. One Marine ship destroyed, one captured. Forty-three Marine prisoners. Judging by the bodies at the scene, more than seventy Marines were killed. As for the wounded who escaped, too many to count."
If they had pursued, they might have wiped out the entire Marine force.
In Vane's words, this was still Marine territory near the entrance to the New World. Who knew which ancient Marine monster might be stationed nearby? Once you get the spoils, you leave immediately.
Venturing deeper into the New World to find stable territory was the real priority.
"Of course, we also suffered losses. Not counting the injured, four men were killed."
In large-scale battles, casualties were unavoidable. Tant had done his best to protect them, but death still claimed lives.
Perhaps if Vane had personally intervened, this might not have happened. But he couldn't protect everyone forever. This was something they had to experience.
Burgess and Dice had charged eagerly into battle against the Marine Rear Admirals. On the surface they seemed fine, but in truth they still couldn't truly defeat their opponents. They had only managed to fight evenly thanks to their Devil Fruit abilities. If the Rear Admirals hadn't been distracted by thoughts of retreat once the tide turned, Burgess and Dice would likely have lost in the end.
"Additionally, we found your bounty poster in their quarters."
More accurately, it was the bounty posters of the Rocket Team crew. But aside from Vane, everyone else only received a symbolic increase of ten million Belly.
After all, Shamrock had only seen Vane at the time—at most a cat and an unidentified flying dragon. No matter how one looked at it, Vane had clearly been the mastermind.
Thus, those who already had bounties received a token ten-million-Belly increase.
But the true culprit—the pirate who attacked Mary Geoise, inflicted massive losses on the Celestial Dragons—
Stella held up Vane's bounty poster and read aloud:
"Nation-Slayer Vane. Heinous criminal. Dead or alive… Bounty: 1.1 billion Belly!"
1.1 billion Belly.
More than a decade later, that would be the level of a Yonko's top commander. Among Kaido's three top officers, all surpassed one billion. In Big Mom's crew, only Katakuri did.
In the original timeline, Tiger had merely set fire to where the slaves were held and released them. Vane not only freed the slaves but also looted the Celestial Dragons' treasury and blew up their elevator system. The severity far exceeded Tiger's actions.
Coupled with his original 400 million Belly bounty, rising to 1.1 billion was perfectly reasonable.
"With more than a decade of inflation, this bounty of mine is about the same as what future Hancock or Crocodile would get."
After the Shichibukai system was abolished, both Hancock and Crocodile ended up with bounties in the billions.
"This is the mark of a genuine great pirate. Even in the New World, there aren't many with a bounty like this."
For now, fewer than ten.
But in the coming years, that number would likely grow by twenty or thirty more.
The Yonko's top commanders—and other major pirates—would see their bounties climb higher and higher.