"First squad, prepare."
The thirty men of the first Vulcan machine gun squad all flicked off the safeties on their weapons.
They had long since used this terrifying weapon. One burst could shatter stone into gravel and cut massive trees clean in half—who knew how many had fallen to it.
"Fire!"
Thirty Vulcan machine guns almost simultaneously spat out tongues of flame.
Even in broad daylight, one could see thirty streaks of bright white light, like lines of rain, shooting straight into the charging ranks.
Immediately after, the thirty machine guns began slightly shifting their muzzles, and the straight "rain lines" started to interweave.
The Tree-Tree Fruit user had already stepped in front of one of the firing lanes the moment he saw the attack coming from a kilometer away. Clang, clang, clang—the bullets struck his body, leaving numerous pits across him.
The Tree-Tree Fruit gave his swollen body a thick wooden outer layer. Its defensive power was quite impressive, especially against blunt attacks.
The Vulcan machine gun's bullets were pointed. They continuously shattered his hardened exterior, but it was difficult to truly injure him in the end. After all, he was a great pirate with a bounty of 500 million. As long as his stamina was abundant, the firepower of a single machine gun could not genuinely harm him.
As the muzzles swayed slightly, the bullets formed a true storm of gunfire. No matter how strong those at the front were, they would inevitably have gaps in their defense. The pirates behind them continuously burst into sprays of blood.
1,000 bullets were fired within a single minute—twice the speed of a hand-cranked Gatling gun.
Half of them were blocked by the powerful pirates in front using various methods. The rest tore straight into the ranks. Those with strong physiques might only bleed from a single hit. Those of average constitution being shredded apart was nothing unusual.
This was only because people in the pirate world were famously low in offense but high in defense. If it were the neighboring ninja world, where offense was high and defense was low, a single bullet might pierce through several people.
"Damn it! How can there still be such terrifying weapons?"
One Vulcan machine gun was equivalent to dozens of musketeers. With thirty firing together, wasn't that comparable to a firing squad of over a thousand men? And the power of those muskets wasn't even considered particularly strong.
One round of sweeping fire resulted in over a hundred more deaths, bringing the total to two or three hundred who had lost the ability to continue attacking.
That single minute felt unbearably long. Most terrifying of all, after the first wave of machine guns stopped spinning, another squad of gunners immediately followed up.
"The casualty count is about to break one thousand! The formation will collapse!"
What had originally seemed like a one-sided victory suddenly turned into a battle of heavy losses. Worse still, they hadn't even reached the enemy yet. If given another chance, Ochoku would never have chosen to have everyone charge head-on like this.
When Whitebeard attacked a naval base back then, he had employed all sorts of strategies—using coated ships to sail directly into the bay and catch the Navy off guard.
He had long anticipated that the ship might be sunk, so he had kept a coated ship hidden beneath the sea, waiting for the crucial moment to burst out of the water and carry everyone into the Navy's interior.
It could only be said that different opponents greatly affected one's combat mindset. Whitebeard's opponent had been the world's most powerful military organization on the surface—the Navy. No amount of caution was excessive.
But Ochoku's opponent was a rookie pirate. No matter how high that bounty was, it wasn't higher than his. In terms of numbers, they still held overwhelming superiority.
When poor, rely on tactics and maneuvering. When rich, rely on firepower suppression.
Ochoku had clearly considered himself the wealthy side—or rather, everyone had thought so. And thus, the situation had turned into this.
Seeing that the second wave of firepower was no less effective than the first, even pirates with bounties exceeding 100 million were being injured if they were careless under the overwhelming fire.
Being strong didn't mean being immune to gunfire.
Ochoku knew it was time for him to act again! This time, he would directly charge their position!
"Black Tide!"
Ochoku released a massive amount of black liquid, blotting out the sky with a terrifying effect.
He stepped onto the crest of the black wave and surged forward, descending from above.
At that moment, an ice-blue beam shot out from the direction of the docks and landed upon the black liquid.
The liquid froze noticeably slower than water, but it was still within the realm of liquids, so overall it froze fairly quickly.
After releasing the freezing beam, Vane flew out from the docks. Drawing Lilith, he slashed at the frozen black mass as he approached it.
Buzz! Slash!
The enormous slash split the frozen black substance in two and continued toward Ochoku at the top.
At that instant, Vane caught a sharp, pungent smell—one that was rather familiar.
"The smell of oil!"
He understood. The opponent's fruit ability was oil!
In the real world, it was the most important energy source—so vital that in some places, wearing a cloth on one's head either made one the richest or associated with terror.
Yet in the world of pirates, it seemed to have vanished. There were all sorts of strange energy sources, but oil had never been seen.
The two closest fruit abilities to it were probably the revolutionary Karasu's Soot-Soot Fruit and the Gas-Gas Fruit in Vane's possession.
And the Oil Fruit was undoubtedly a Logia-type Devil Fruit. After all, even the Soot-Soot Fruit was Logia.
No wonder it had been so difficult to freeze. Even ordinary oil had a freezing point dozens of degrees lower than water—let alone petroleum.
"That's right. I am a Logia Oil-Oil Fruit user!"
Ochoku spread his palm, and a large amount of viscous oil poured out once more.
The sticky oil continuously contracted, finally condensing into a long-handled blade resembling a guandao. Armament Haki coated it, and a weapon that was essentially made of oil took shape.
"What a pity. Such a good fruit—using it just for fighting is a waste."
Even if Vane defeated him, at most he would obtain a fragment of a Blue Orb. Killing him would only cause the Devil Fruit to reincarnate; he couldn't directly acquire this excellent fruit.
Ochoku pointed his blade from afar.
"Nation-Slayer, since you dared charge into Mary Geoise, you're at least someone of note. I'll give you a chance to join me."
As he spoke, two streams of black oil shot out from behind him. The heads of the oil masses formed into ferocious Western dragon shapes, hissing continuously at Vane.
"You want to be my boss? Do you dare charge into Mary Geoise?"
Nonsense. Of course Ochoku didn't have that kind of courage. If he had, perhaps the Four Emperors of the future would have become Five Emperors.
There was nothing more to discuss.
"Black Oil Breath!"
The two dragon heads behind Ochoku opened their mouths and spewed out large amounts of mist-like oil. The next second, the oil mist ignited, turning into two terrifying streams of flaming breath!
There was nothing strange about oil developing into fire. After all, even Big Mom's subordinate, the cream minister named Opera, had managed to develop high-temperature cream.
The theory that the Flame-Flame Fruit was useless was still being tested.
"Blizzard Spear!"
Whoosh—
A horizontal tornado of blizzard snow appeared and collided with the flaming breath. The clash of scorching heat and extreme cold continued relentlessly, explosions erupting one after another above everyone's heads.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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