After all, it was still only the end of 1504. It was not yet 1520, and the Marines had not expanded to the scale they would reach later.
For the Marines and the World Government to field a lineup like this now, calling it "extravagant" was no exaggeration.
"They really think highly of us!" someone said, anger showing on their face.
"No matter how many come, I can boil them all away!"
"Shut up. Listen to what the captain has to say." Gin rarely snapped back at Burgess, then looked toward Roy, whose expression remained completely relaxed.
"Yohoho. Captain, faced with a lineup like this, you must have a plan, right?" Brook said with a laugh.
However, Roy's next sentence froze the smile on his face.
"I don't have a plan. I intend to take them head-on."
Roy swept his gaze around the group, then continued, "Vice Admiral Borsalino is a Logia-type Glint-Glint Fruit user. As for those two rear admirals, one is a martial arts expert, and the other is a swordsmanship expert. The remaining four agents are all Devil Fruit users.
"With my strength, I have no problem facing Borsalino one-on-one. Of course, to put it bluntly, even if all of them came at me together, I could still handle them. However…"
Roy stopped there. The others thought for a moment, then understood the meaning he had left unspoken.
Burgess was the first to step forward.
"One of those Cipher Pol agents is mine. Those bastards relied on their numbers in the New World and chased me all over the place. This time, I'm going to use my boiling fists to send them flying!"
Roy's meaning was very obvious. Although your captain can crush them, if I have to personally handle every single thing, then what do I need you for?
Besides, this time happened to be an excellent training opportunity. It could be used to temper their strength.
And if they avoided this fight, what would they do when they encountered even stronger enemies later?
So the others gradually began dividing the opponents among themselves.
"If the two of us work together, we should be able to hold off three agents," Kasta and Chalcis said together.
"My strength has also improved quite a bit this year. I can handle one agent," Tiger said.
This year, he had trained hard in the manuals Roy had left him. He had also ingeniously incorporated Fish-Man Karate into the Six Powers.
One had to know that Tiger was Jinbe and Arlong's elder brother figure. If he did not possess enough strength to command respect, Jinbe and the others would never have respected him so much.
Tiger's strength could be seen from the fact that he had climbed up the Red Line with his bare hands and entered Mary Geoise. His stamina was definitely not weak.
"Although I haven't fought them before, with the power of my Mythical Zoan, I should still be able to barely deal with three," Laffitte said.
"I can support you with my marksmanship," Yasopp said as he stood up with a fishbone in his mouth. "I'd really like to see what these agents are like."
"Then I can take on one rear admiral," Gin said in a low voice. "I'll take the swordsmanship expert. I want to see whether his sword is sharper or my iron tonfa is harder."
"If it's swordsmanship, then I also want to see what a Marine swordsmanship expert is like," Daz added.
Gin glanced at Daz and did not say anything, tacitly agreeing.
"Then leave the martial arts expert to me. I also want to test the power of my Fish-Man Karate," Jinbe said last.
That settled it. The group had arranged the Marines and CP0 neatly and clearly.
As for Jero and Arlong's group, they would be responsible for clearing out the Marine soldiers.
They could not exactly be called small fry either. At the very least, they were elite soldiers from headquarters, different from the Marines of the Four Seas.
And so, without Borsalino and the others knowing anything about it, they had already been properly assigned. Roy's group had finished making preparations and was leisurely heading toward Little Garden.
"Wihahaha! The captain was right after all. There really is an ambush here!"
The group had only just disembarked when a large number of Marine soldiers carrying firearms emerged from the forest and surrounded them layer after layer. At the head of the formation were three men. Standing in the center was Borsalino, dressed in a yellow-and-white patterned suit.
"Oh my, so this is Roy-kun, the one this old man chased for two years before finally getting to meet. You really are excessively young. I thought it was just the angle of the photo, but it turns out young people these days really are this frightening?"
Borsalino, tall and thin, with a circle of facial hair and a pair of sunglasses, was currently looking Roy up and down while speaking with that ridiculous pursed-lip expression.
The two Marine rear admirals beside him were Kadar and Dalmatian.
Kadar, in the original story, was a subordinate of Vice Admiral Kizaru at G-2. He encountered the Sun Pirates at sea, received orders to bring back the rescued slaves, and launched an attack.
However, due to insufficient strength, he was sunk by the Sun Pirates. In the end, because Tiger was unwilling to become like the humans, he spared him. Kadar was considered a fairly skilled swordsman.
Of course, this "skilled" was only relative. After being spared by Tiger, there was no further news of him, which showed that his own strength was not all that impressive.
Dalmatian was a user of the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Dalmatian, allowing him to transform into a dalmatian. He was also skilled in the Six Powers.
Moreover, he had trained his fruit ability quite well and could maintain his human-beast form for long periods of time. In the future, he would be promoted to vice admiral. His potential and strength were far above Kadar's.
"One vice admiral, two rear admirals, and four Cipher Pol agents. The World Government and the Marines really do think highly of us."
Roy did not care about the surrounding Marines at all and still spoke calmly and leisurely.
"Have you trained your Observation Haki to an extremely advanced level?" Borsalino scratched his head. "Or is it an additional ability of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit? No matter which one it is, this is troublesome. How frightening…"
He said it was frightening, and then in the next instant, he waved his hand.
"Open fire!"
Bang, bang, bang!
Bullets sprayed out from the muzzles one after another. However, before they could hit Roy's crewmates, they strangely stopped in midair.
"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit ultimately possesses electromagnetism, one of the four fundamental forces of the world!"
(End of Chapter)
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