Chapter 53 Are All Merfolk This Brave?
"Fire!"
When Jeka saw that the opponent had actually turned around to face him, he instead felt that he was the one being provoked. He immediately bared his sharp teeth and ordered the cannoneers to fire at Zephyr's warship.
A sky full of black cannonballs rained down on Zephyr's ship. The weapons in this world were not advanced; the cannons on both Marine and pirate ships were extremely primitive.
The power of these cannons made it very difficult to injure true powerhouses, and in reality, that was precisely the case.
The true targets of the cannon fire were the ships themselves. In battles on the high seas, ships are the primary carriers, especially in a world where Devil Fruit users exist; once a ship is damaged and enemies fall into the water, their combat power is greatly reduced.
Zephyr had the same idea. Before the ships drew close, he initiated a cannon exchange to attack the opponent's vessel. At the same time, the Marines aboard the warship began to act, using flying sword slashes to intercept the incoming cannonballs.
Zephyr did not personally intervene.
He was not yet a Marine instructor, but when encountering pirates, he certainly would not act alone to annihilate them all. If he did, the Marines under his command would not only lose opportunities for training, but also their chances for promotion.
Marine soldiers also need battle to improve themselves; otherwise, once his generation grows old, there will be no one capable of taking up the burden.
"Lord Ren, are we just going to watch?" Molly stretched her neck to peer ahead. The battle in the distance was extremely intense, and the cannons on both ships continuously roared louder than thunder, with cannonballs falling from the sky like meteors.
However, upon closer inspection, it was clear that the Marines had suffered far less damage. With Zephyr in command, it was impossible for those third-rate pirates to destroy the warship.
"Do you want to help?"
"Those Marines all look so arrogant…" Molly was clearly displeased with their intention to forcibly inspect her ship. From her tone, she seemed inclined to help the pirates sink Zephyr instead.
"Molly, some things cannot be judged by appearances alone. Although that Marine intended to inspect our ship, he did not harbor much malice toward us. On the contrary, the pirates' malice was directed at us from the very beginning."
Ren's Observation Haki had grown much stronger, partly due to his improvement during this period and partly due to the amplification from his Devil Fruit ability. The Yamata no Orochi Fruit made him somewhat sensitive to good and evil, and although he had not fully received the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, even a faint current provided some enhancement to his Observation Haki.
Therefore, Ren could clearly sense that the pirates aboard that ship had initially directed their malice at him. Their clash with the Marines was merely incidental.
He did not know where this malice originated. Perhaps it was related to the Night Fire Pirates he had defeated earlier, since aside from that incident, he had done nothing else during these 2 months of sailing that would make him famous across the seas.
He simply did not know what kind of grudge these people had with the Night Fire Pirates.
Ren had not yet fully obtained the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, so his Observation Haki had not reached the level where he could read an enemy's thoughts.
There is a significant difference between receiving a Devil Fruit and consuming one. If he had eaten the Devil Fruit, then with Ren's current strength, it would not have been impossible to raise its power directly to Eneru's level.
However, if it was received, he would have to wrestle with the fruit's consciousness within his mind space, which is an extremely long process.
Fortunately, Ren did not care about such trivial matters. Whether the other party had come because of the Night Fire Pirates or simply harbored malice toward him as a Pirate Hunter did not matter; in any case, they would soon be sent to prison by Zephyr.
Ren noticed a tall man on the pirate ship with a grim expression. It seemed he had begun to realize how troublesome this Marine force, which he had not taken seriously, truly was.
And this was with Zephyr not having taken action at all.
The Marines under Zephyr were not rookies; they were elites who had followed him from the bottom ranks upward. Their strength was not comparable to that of ordinary cannon-fodder Marines, and some had even given up promotion opportunities in order to remain under Zephyr's command.
For example, one of Zephyr's subordinates possessed the strength of a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral.
"Captain Jeka, our firepower simply cannot break through their defenses!" a pirate shouted, crouching to avoid the incoming iron cannonballs.
Compared to the Marines, the quality of the men on their ship was uneven. Some could only cower and flee under the bombardment. The deck had already been blasted with several holes, and even the mast had suffered severe damage.
"Crack!" Jeka leaped up in fury and bit apart a cannonball that was about to land on the ship. The steel fragments were chewed to pieces under his teeth as easily as chocolate balls.
He then spat the gunpowder-flavored iron fragments into the sea in irritation, as if spitting out phlegm.
"Stop exchanging cannon fire with them. Bring the ship closer. I'll tear them apart with my own hands!" Jeka roared.
As someone with Fish-Man blood, especially with half of his lineage coming from a Great White Shark-type Fish-Man, Jeka had always been extremely confident in his strength.
Aside from the monsters of the New World, whom he could not rival, in Paradise he did not believe he would casually encounter an overwhelmingly powerful enemy on any random warship.
A pirate like him, who had already established himself in the New World and returned to Paradise, should have been like a late-game monster arriving early in a beginner village, slaughtering freely. Yet they had fallen into a disadvantage during the cannon exchange.
'These guys are truly useless!' Jeka's cold gaze swept over his subordinates. In his view, the situation had arisen entirely because his men were too weak.
Most of the Marines could intercept the cannonballs they fired, while more than half of his own men could only dodge the bombardment. The disparity was immediately obvious.
As for top-tier combat power, Jeka did not believe he would lose to the Marines.
Before entering the New World, he had once enjoyed the title of "monster" for a time.
However, even among monsters, he still could not compare to those in the New World.
'Once I return to the New World, I will slaughter these useless fools. Damn it, if the Night Fire Pirates had been willing to submit, our current combat power would have increased significantly!' Jeka thought.
As for now…
"Men, charge! Let the Marines see what we're capable of!"
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