The three-stage bombardment was practically an uninterrupted shelling. Although the destructive power might be about the same, the continuous, relentless artillery fire was an enormous blow to the enemy's psychological defenses.
"First time, no experience. I'll pay attention next time, meow."
This round of bombardment wasn't as effective as the first, but it still wounded and killed many pirates, and created a gap in their formation, disrupting the coordination between the front and rear.
"Keep charging! I'll block the next round of shells!"
With such a short interval between bombardments, by the time they reached close range there might be six or seven more rounds. Even if each round cost him dozens or hundreds of fighters, that was a loss Ochoku was unwilling to bear.
According to their original estimates, the total casualties should have been minimal. Yet before they had even reached the enemy, they had already suffered so many losses from the shelling.
Someone had to stop the bombardment from expanding the damage further, or morale would plummet drastically.
The promise of a great pirate with a 2.4 billion bounty still carried weight. Everyone continued charging forward.
Sure enough, after advancing more than two hundred meters, that terrifying cannon fire sounded once again.
Two rounds of bombardment had already killed over two hundred—nearly three hundred—of them. There were also those who had lost mobility, gravely wounded and unable to move. In total, more than five hundred were out of action.
Ochoku absolutely would not allow this round of shells to fall into the crowd again.
His Observation Haki spread out, and he quickly locked onto fifty shells heading toward the center of the formation.
Ochoku leapt high into the air. A thick, black viscous energy poured from his palm, forming a massive black spider web.
The shells that fell into the web all made soft, rubbery sounds. There was no violent impact, and no explosions occurred.
The black spider web rapidly contracted, retracting back into Ochoku's palm. The shells stuck within it were swallowed into his body as well.
From afar, Vane, who had been observing the entire time, saw the black substance continuously emerging from and retracting into Ochoku's palm, and formed a judgment.
When gathering intelligence on Hachinosu Island, there had been a dedicated section regarding Ochoku.
In his early years, Ochoku had dominated through pure physical prowess. But in recent years, he had obtained and eaten a Devil Fruit.
However, there was very little information about what ability that fruit granted.
Vane had frozen their ships earlier. One of the secondary purposes was precisely to use long-range firepower to force out at least a glimpse of Ochoku's Fruit ability.
"It looks somewhat like Blackbeard's later Dark-Dark Fruit… No, it absolutely can't be the Dark-Dark Fruit."
Blackbeard had pursued the Dark-Dark Fruit his entire life aboard Whitebeard's ship. If Ochoku had eaten it, there was no way the Whitebeard Pirates would have ever obtained that fruit.
After all, when Blackbeard became a dual-ability user, he had fought Ochoku and seized Hachinosu Island. Judging from the final outcome, Ochoku had still managed to escape.
"Either a Logia… or a special Paramecia."
A special Paramecia referred to types like Katakuri's—Paramecia abilities that could reshape the body during combat to evade damage, appearing almost like a Logia.
The difference was that Logia elementalization was effectively passive, while a special Paramecia's body transformation was an active skill.
Vane: "Meowth, change the firing angle. Target their ships… but remember not to blow them all up. At most, destroy half."
With Ochoku providing cover, bombardment was useless against the advancing force. But the rear guard was a different story—they hadn't suffered focused attacks yet.
Vane understood the effect of forcing someone into a desperate last stand. He couldn't let these pirates develop a do-or-die mentality; that would give him a serious headache.
This adjustment took much longer than the charging pirates had expected. Since Ochoku had blocked one round for them, they weren't panicking at all.
They weren't panicking—but Ochoku was. He hadn't seen shells falling toward them. Only then did he vaguely realize that this time, the shells weren't aimed at them at all, but at their ships!
"Damn it!"
He wasn't some Glint-Glint Fruit user. At this moment, they were two kilometers away from their ships and about one kilometer from the dock.
By the time he realized something was wrong, the shells were already descending. There was no time to rush back and help.
On the side of the frozen ships, some people were chiseling at the ice in an attempt to free their vessels. But they quickly discovered that the thickness of the ice far exceeded expectations—the progress was painfully slow.
"Not competing doesn't seem entirely bad. Those two groups got bombed pretty badly."
Some of the pirates left behind stood at the railings, witnessing the two consecutive bombardments firsthand. They accepted it quickly—this was an island that produced firearms. Wasn't it normal for its firepower to be strong?
Besides, the bombs hadn't fallen on their own heads. It was easy to talk when you weren't the one getting hit.
Whoosh—
A sound of objects falling echoed overhead.
The pirates left behind quickly stopped smiling.
One ship at the flank became the main target of the bombardment. Of the fifty shells, more than half fell directly onto that ship, and the rest exploded around it.
Boom—boom—boom—
The pirates guarding the ship and those chiseling ice below were instantly blasted senseless.
In an instant, the vessel became a tattered "ghost ship," and raging flames spread uncontrollably.
"Damn it! Why are they bombing the rear?!"
"Defend! Defend! We're the ones getting bombed next!"
Those left to guard the rear were certainly weaker than the attackers. They had never expected to come under attack themselves.
Meowth strictly followed Vane's orders, selectively bombarding certain ships. If a ship was unlucky enough not to have sufficient experts defending it, it would quickly become burning wreckage.
Ochoku had no good solution. The distance between the two sides had already shrunk to within one kilometer; a decisive battle was about to erupt. If he returned to rescue the ships, he would essentially be handing his crew over to Vane to slaughter.
If someone capable of freezing the sea on such a scale charged into their ranks, their forces would suffer catastrophic losses—perhaps even lose the will to fight entirely.
Forget it. As long as they charged into the enemy formation and destroyed the artillery array, the attacks would naturally cease.
Losing a few ships was still acceptable… even if it hurt.
"Kill! The dock is right in front of us!"
"Wealth and women—once we take the island, they're all ours!"
The pirates, stimulated by the bombardment, grew wildly excited at the sight of the dock "within reach."
But they would soon learn what it meant for the times to have changed.
"Machine guns, prepare."
"First squad, open fire."
"Second squad, stand by to relieve them. Reload immediately after the first squad finishes."