BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Four ships lined up along the coast, their broadside cannons thundering as they shelled the dunes. Hot cannonballs rained down, causing the sand to erupt in pillars of fire and grit.

Whistle—

A shell shrieked through the air, heading straight for a cluster of pirates. To the horror of the Marines, the pirates didn’t even flinch. They kept charging as if the shell didn’t exist.

"Get lost!"

Just before impact, a burly pirate roared and leaped high into the air. He swung an iron club like a baseball bat, CLANG, and sent the cannonball flying dozens of meters away into the empty sand.

BOOM!

The shell exploded harmlessly. This scene repeated across the battlefield; pirates with abnormal agility and strength were swatting away cannon fire, effectively neutralizing the long-range support.

Soon, the two forces collided. The sand was instantly stained crimson as the massacre began.

Binz spotted Arlan cutting through their ranks and felt a surge of fear. During the raid on Alvis Island, he had been nearly killed by a single strike from this man. Even though he hadn’t used his full power then, Arlan had shattered his defense of ten giant vines and nearly ended him. The gap in their strength was a chasm.

"Punch Burst!"

Arlan grinned savagely as he punched a Neo Marine.

KABOOM—!

A violent explosion erupted. Fire and black smoke swallowed the soldier and a dozen others nearby. When the smoke cleared, the man Arlan had hit was gone, with nothing left but charred fragments scattered across the sand, smelling of burnt meat. The surrounding soldiers lay blackened and lifeless.

"Grow! Grow!"

Seeing his men slaughtered, Binz gritted his teeth and began to twist his body in a bizarre dance.

As he danced, dozens of sprouts burst through the sand. In the blink of an eye, they grew into massive, python-like vines that coiled toward Arlan.

Sensing the attack, Arlan used Geppo to step into the air, easily dodging the constricting vines.

"Vines?" Arlan looked down, bewildered. This was a desert dune, where were giant vines coming from?

Then he saw him: a man in a flashy ninja outfit dancing nearby.

"The Grow-Grow Fruit user... the gaudy ninja I trashed before," Arlan recognized him instantly.

"Grow! Grow!" Binz shouted, swaying his body as the vines chased Arlan into the sky.

"Oi... with those ugly moves, are you trying to bore me to death? You flashy ninja!"

Arlan strolled through the air as if it were solid ground. He casually dodged the vines while lighting a cigarette.

Puff... He exhaled a ring of smoke.

"Breeze Bomb!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Without warning, the air itself seemed to explode. The vines dancing in the sky were blown into hundreds of charred pieces. A massive shockwave swept the area.

"Damn it!" Binz crossed his arms, forced back several meters by the blast.

Smythe Betilla leaned to the side, dodging a stray rock. "Hey, Arlan! You bastard, keep the noise down!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Arlan shrugged without an ounce of sincerity. "Explosions are the funeral bells of the dying. Naturally, they’re a bit loud!"

"Getting this guy to be quiet is impossible unless you kill him first. More-More: 10x Shotgun!" Dimitri reached into his pocket and tossed a handful of small steel balls forward.

Under his invisible power, the tiny balls expanded ten times in size, forming a lethal black net of iron. They tore through four or five Neo Marines, leaving them riddled with holes like honeycombs.

Squelch! Slash!

Gleaming blade light flashed through the crowd. Blood and limbs flew as a crimson mist settled over the dunes.

"These guys have some backbone," Enrod remarked, his long blade dripping with blood as he stood amidst a pile of mangled corpses.

"They’re the elites hand-picked by ’Black Arm’ Zephyr. It’s only natural they have some skill," Galan said calmly, pulling the trigger of his large-caliber revolver.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Each shot blew fist-sized holes through the chests of his targets.

"Return!"

A sharp cry rang out as three spheres of peach-colored "ghost fire" flew toward them.

"More-More: 10x Gun!"

Dimitri frowned and fired his flintlock. The bullet expanded tenfold mid-air, shrieking toward the peach flames. However, the moment the massive bullet touched the "ghost fire," it instantly shrank back to its original size, turned into a lump of inert iron, and fell uselessly into the sand.

"So that’s the Return-Return Fruit? Terrifying!" Dimitri’s eyelid twitched. He looked at the sea-blue wavy hair of the female officer ahead.

"There she is. Neo Marine Vice Admiral Ain. The Return-Return Fruit user!"

The other Chris Pirate executives turned their attention toward her.

"A dangerous ability like that... it would be better if we were the ones holding it," Galan suggested. "The Doctors would love to study this. Better take her alive."

Shing—

Betilla slowly drew her famous blade, Silver Rain, eyeing Ain with interest.

"She looks fun. You men are too crude. A girl this beautiful should be handled by me."

———————

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