After defeating Brogy, Mangu showed no sign of complacency. He simply stood calmly in the center of the arena, waiting for another challenger to appear.
However, no one stepped forward.
"Ten minutes have passed. I now announce that the final seat among the Four Heavenly Kings belongs to Mangu!"
Luo loudly announced the result once the time limit expired.
With the final seat decided, the Four Heavenly Kings—the highest-ranking cadres of the War Pirates—were now completely determined.
Their members were Neferpet, Luo, Mangu, and Klocke Dahl.
Kaito wasn't surprised by this result.
In fact, it was exactly what he had expected.
He was naturally very familiar with the strength of everyone in his pirate crew.
Neferpet, Luo, Mangu, and Klocke Dahl were among the strongest members of the cadres. It was only natural that they would successfully claim the four seats of the Heavenly Kings.
During the Four Heavenly Kings competition, the captains had been very self-aware and had chosen not to participate. However, Robin and the other cadres had all taken the field, and some of them had even suffered serious injuries.
Therefore, before beginning the competition for the Eight Tribes, Kaito still gave everyone another day to recover.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Once again, everyone gathered before the high platform overlooking the martial arts arena.
"Now, the competition for the Eight Tribes will begin. The rules remain the same. There are a total of eight positions, and anyone is free to challenge..."
Luo, who had now become one of the Four Heavenly Kings, continued serving as the host because he no longer needed to participate in the battles.
After explaining the rules for the Eight Tribes competition, he quickly announced the beginning of the martial arts tournament.
Compared with the competition for the Four Heavenly Kings, the battle for the Eight Tribes was obviously much more intense.
This could be seen from the behavior of the captains.
As soon as the competition was announced, before Robin and the other former cadres even had the chance to step onto the stage, the captains eagerly began taking turns entering the arena.
The first battle was between the captain who possessed the Spring-Spring Fruit and a former member of the original Sword Gang.
The two were evenly matched.
Although one possessed a Devil Fruit ability, the other had mastered both Observation Haki and Armament Haki.
Their battle lasted for more than an hour before a winner was finally determined.
In the end, the Spring-Spring Fruit user emerged victorious.
However, he wasn't able to hold onto his position until the end.
Even though he was given sufficient time to recover his strength and treat his injuries, he was eventually defeated by Sandy when Sandy entered the competition.
Of course, Sandy didn't immediately secure one of the Eight Tribes positions.
Other challengers continued to appear after him.
He defeated a total of three captains before finally securing the first position among the Eight Tribes.
Robin then entered the competition for the second position.
She was also challenged by several captains, but thanks to her outstanding development of the Flower-Flower Fruit, she successfully defended her position and claimed the second seat among the Eight Tribes.
Then came the third position.
Then the fourth.
And so on.
Although the captains were all outstanding, there was still a certain gap between them and the cadres.
After a total of two days, the Eight Tribes competition finally came to an end.
The eight members selected were Lafayette, Zoro, Sandy, Robin, Smoker, Dorry, Brogy, and Bunier.
That's right.
Bunier had not wasted the Bullet-Ant Fruit that Kaito had given him.
He was the only captain who had successfully risen to the ranks of the cadres.
As for Bowness, he had ultimately lost to Bunier.
After Robin and the others had secured their eight positions, the final battle was between Bunier and Bowness.
Although Bowness had been second only to Klocke Dahl within Baroque Works, that didn't mean his strength was close to Klocke Dahl's.
Compared with Bunier, who possessed both Observation Haki and Armament Haki as well as the Bullet-Ant Fruit, Bowness was still somewhat inferior.
However, although Bowness failed to become a full-fledged cadre, he still became a cadre candidate after defeating one of the brigade captains.
He chose to become a cadre candidate instead of a brigade captain mainly because it would give him more time to train.
Although cadre candidates didn't possess the same authority as a brigade captain who managed five hundred members, they enjoyed much greater freedom while receiving treatment equivalent to that of a brigade captain.
And Bowness wasn't the only person who chose this path.
Several others also became cadre candidates.
These people were the captains whose strength was second only to Bunier's.
Bunier's successful promotion had obviously awakened their ambitions.
They were willing to give up some authority in exchange for more time to train, hoping to improve their strength and rise higher during the next Great Martial Arts competition.
Kaito naturally didn't reject their choices.
If his subordinates wanted to become stronger, he had no reason to stop them.
Moreover, compared with managing a large number of subordinates as captains, cadre-level combat power could bring an even greater increase to the overall strength of the pirate crew.
The vacant captain positions were filled by adjusting the existing squadron leaders and squad leaders.
After everything below had been settled, Kaito, as the captain, finally took the stage himself.
Compared with the martial arts competitions that had taken place earlier, he simply allowed everyone in the entire pirate crew to challenge him.
The result, however, was obvious.
Not a single person in the War Pirates stepped forward to challenge their own captain.
Even Klocke Dahl was the same.
He wasn't stupid.
He knew that although he had recovered some of his strength, based on his experience from his previous battle against Kaito, even if he returned to his peak condition, his chances of defeating Kaito were still extremely low.
Rather than humiliating himself by challenging Kaito prematurely, he had obviously chosen to accumulate strength in secret.
He would wait until he was truly confident before making his move for the captain's throne.
Seeing that no one was willing to challenge him, Kaito didn't waste any more time.
He immediately announced the end of the Great Martial Arts competition.
The next step was resource allocation.
The first resource to be distributed was Devil Fruits.
Kaito had currently collected quite a few Devil Fruits.
There were nine in total.
They were:
Zoan, Ancient Type—Giant Ape Form!(Baoyu Bingshan)
Zoan, Ancient Type—Pteranodon Form!(Baoyu Bingshan)
Zoan, Ox-Ox Fruit—Bison Form!(Dalton)
Zoan, Bird-Bird Fruit—Falcon Form!(Bell)
Zoan, Dog-Dog Fruit—Jackal Form!(Galdino's subordinate)
Zoan, Dog-Dog Fruit—Dachshund Form!(Lassoo)
Zoan, Mole-Mole Fruit!(Miss Merry Christmas)
Paramecia, Thorn-Thorn Fruit!(Zala)
Paramecia, Wax-Wax Fruit!(Mr. 3)
The distribution method for the Devil Fruits was very simple.
They would be allocated from the top down.
First would be the Four Heavenly Kings.
Once the selection of the Four Heavenly Kings had been completed, the Eight Tribes would have their turn.
After that came the cadre candidates and brigade captains.
Then the squadron leaders.
Then the squad leaders.
Finally, the grassroots members.
Of course, because the rewards being distributed were Devil Fruits, anyone who already possessed a Devil Fruit ability would not be eligible for selection.
The system was designed to ensure that the resources of the War Pirates were distributed to those who could make the best use of them.
The higher one's position, the greater the priority.
The stronger one's potential, the greater the resources one could obtain.
This was exactly what Kaito wanted from the Great Martial Arts competition.
It wasn't merely a competition to determine who was stronger.
It was also a means of restructuring the entire War Pirates.
Those who were strong would rise.
Those who had fallen behind would be replaced.
And the resources of the pirate crew would flow toward those capable of turning them into greater strength.
With the Great Martial Arts competition finally concluded, the War Pirates had undergone a complete reshuffling from the grassroots members all the way to the highest-ranking cadres.
The next step was to make full use of the resources they had accumulated.
And for Kaito, the distribution of the Devil Fruits was only the beginning.
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