Perospero stood at the bow of the ship, constantly waving the candy cane in his hand as he issued orders. Behind him were all kinds of ships.
Compared to the Marines’ standardized warships, the Big Mom Pirates’ fleet looked somewhat disorderly, but overall, it was still a massive force characterized by ships shaped like food.
The army of Homies was positioned at the very front. All of these Homies came from Charlotte Linlin’s ability and were expendable troops whose deaths did not matter.
Once the current battle expanded, the entire sea would become a giant meat grinder. Ordinary people would be reduced to mere numbers here, and only when the top combatants determined the victor would this war finally come to an end.
Although the Homies could feel fear, using them was still far better than piling up casualties with their own lives.
“Pawns, open fire! Knights, ready your bows! Soldiers, prepare for close combat! Mama will deal with the strongest enemies. Everyone else is ours!”
The Big Mom Pirates’ chess army was divided into different formations based on the pieces in chess, and they had now all taken up their respective positions. In front of the pirate ships, countless biscuit soldiers created by Charlotte Cracker could also be seen.
But to outsiders, they simply looked like countless Crackers, which led to reports of sightings of the Sweet Commander being sent up one after another.
Sometimes the Marines’ Intelligence Branch was incredibly capable, while at other times it seemed as though it had completely lost its mind. Because Cracker was afraid of pain, he always protected himself inside biscuit armor.
For so many years, even his wanted poster had shown that appearance, making it impossible for people to figure out what was really going on.
“Oven! That’s enough! If you keep going, even our own ships won’t be able to get through!”
The environment did not come equipped with a friend-or-foe identification system. A boiling sea attacked indiscriminately.
With their complete industrial system, Marine warships were generally more powerful than pirate ships. Aside from the Beasts Pirates, whose highly developed military industry allowed them to engage the Marines in long-range artillery battles without being at a disadvantage, the other pirate crews were considerably inferior in that regard.
Boarding battles were the form of combat that suited them best.
“Got it, Brother Perospero. Tropical Torpedoes!”
Under Oven’s control, the boiling seawater condensed into narrow streams of scorching sea currents that shot toward the distant warships. However, those warships all had bottoms reinforced with Seastone, so Oven’s attack had only limited effect.
“Perospero, I’ll leave control of the battlefield to you.”
“What are you going to do, Katakuri?”
“Help Mama, of course. Fujitora and Kizaru… if the two of them attack her together, Mama will be at too much of a disadvantage. Mama absolutely cannot lose. You need to understand that.”
Whether it was the Marines or pirates, neither side could simply let their subordinates fight however they pleased. Someone had to oversee the overall situation.
That person needed sufficient prestige, but their combat strength can’t be too high, or it would only get in the way of the fighting on the battlefield. The Beasts Pirates were an exception; only their officers are capable enough to handle every kind of complex battlefield.
Katakuri, Smoothie, and the other officers known as Sweet Commanders could not simply stand at the rear and watch. Only Perospero, the eldest son, was best suited for this kind of role.
“I understand. I’ll leave Mama to you.”
Perospero continued directing the movements of the other pirates, but this place was not particularly safe either. At least Queen had hidden himself far behind the front lines. A frontline commander like Perospero could hardly be called safe.
At the very least, some Marines had already set their sights on him.
Although the ships of both sides had yet to make contact, the Marine Vice Admirals and the Big Mom Pirates’ senior officers had long since reached a level where terrain could no longer restrict them.
“White Vine!”
Two streams of white smoke came flying in from the distance. Using the power of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, Smoker had already flown over Cacao Island and set his sights on Perospero, who was directing the movements of the others.
As a famous evenly matched fighter among the Marines, Smoker’s greatest characteristic was that he could exchange a few moves with almost anyone, but usually could not defeat any of them. In the eyes of certain people, Smoker, a Logia-type Vice Admiral, was not even considered as important as a certain Marine Captain.
But prejudice did not affect Smoker’s willingness to follow orders and fight.
“Candy Shield!”
With a wave of his hand, Perospero created a massive candy shield that blocked Smoker’s attack. As for Smoker, who had charged deep into enemy territory, the other pirates showed him no mercy either. Many of them had already locked onto him.
“Genie Guillotine!”
Charlotte Daifuku repeatedly rubbed his waist, and the blue genie followed suit by swinging its blade at Smoker. Several slashes shattered Smoker’s body, but by then, the other Marines had already arrived.
“Rokushiki squad, charge with me! Wipe out every last one of these pirates disrupting order!”
Dalmatian had already led a group of elite Marines onto Cacao Island. Anyone capable of using Rokushiki proficiently would never be an ordinary member of the Marines, and these soldiers were already far ahead of regular troops.
Having eaten the Dalmatian Fruit, Dalmatian had also entered his Human-Beast form and charged forward first, only to have his path blocked by a lion with a turtle shell.
“A turtle that ate the Cat-Cat Fruit?”
“It’s a lion that ate the Turtle-Turtle Fruit!”
Pekoms spun his turtle shell and rammed forward. This was a move he had learned from the Squirtle at the fire department while vacationing on Onigashima. His hard shell, spinning at high speed, crashed toward Dalmatian like a cannonball.
As Dalmatian caught Pekoms’s charge, Baron Tamago thrust a sword at him from the side. Relying on his abundant combat experience, Dalmatian used Pekoms’s shell to block Baron Tamago’s strike.
“Shigan: Dog Thrust!”
Taking advantage of an opening in Baron Tamago’s defense, Dalmatian stabbed a single finger into his chest, punching a large hole through it. A considerable amount of egg yolk flowed from the opening, and Baron Tamago’s body slowly collapsed.
Yet Pekoms showed no panic. Before long, Baron Tamago stood back up again.
“Time for round two, Peep.”
Baron Tamago was the user of the Egg-Egg Fruit. After taking a certain amount of damage, he would break out of his shell, be reborn, and transform into another form.
At this moment, he had already become Viscount Hiyoko, gaining even greater strength as he joined Pekoms in attacking Dalmatian.
Elsewhere, Daifuku’s genie worked together with Perospero to surround and attack Smoker. In the New World, relying solely on the abilities of a Logia-type would never be enough to rise to prominence. If one’s Haki training was inadequate, then elementalization’s only purpose was to increase the area that could be hit.
“Candy Seal! Daifuku, now! Daifuku, what are you doing?!”
Perospero seized an opening and trapped Smoker inside a sealed candy box, intending for Daifuku to deal the finishing blow. But Daifuku’s genie suddenly stopped moving and even swung its blade at Perospero instead.
“It’s not me! The genie is out of control!”
“Hahaha, if there’s only one, then I’ll borrow it for a bit.”
At some point, a handle had appeared on the genie’s back, along with an elderly-looking Marine sitting atop it.
G Branch’s Vice Admiral Bluegrass, the user of the Paramecia-type Ride-Ride Fruit. Her ability allowed her to control anything she rode. The drawback was that she could only ride one thing at a time, and her combat power depended entirely on what her mount was.
Daifuku’s genie seemed to have encountered its natural counter. After Daifuku’s own ability “defected,” Perospero temporarily fell into a disadvantage, but Cracker’s arrival soon reversed the situation.
Both sides continuously sent in reinforcements, causing the battle to swing back and forth, while the number of people drawn into this section of the battlefield continued to grow.
“Trip to Hell!”
Fujitora swung the long sword in his hand, and a force of gravity pressed down on Charlotte Linlin from above. The power was enough to render ordinary people unable to move and even crush the ground into abyss-like pits, yet against Charlotte Linlin, it seemed somewhat insufficient.
Under that terrifying force, Charlotte Linlin still maintained her original fighting stance. Although Kizaru occasionally landed attacks on her, they barely affected her at all.
“Mama! I’m here to help you! Mochi Thrust!”
Katakuri had already arrived in the area where Charlotte Linlin was fighting. Mochi formed into a long spear and stabbed toward Fujitora’s back.
Clang!
Fujitora blocked Katakuri’s sneak attack with a backward slash, a trace of displeasure seemingly appearing in his pale eyes.
“Launching a sneak attack on a blind man like me is hardly proper behavior.”
“A blind man who managed to become a Marine Admiral is obviously more dangerous than someone with perfectly good eyes, isn’t he? Buzz Cut Mochi!”
Several spikes swelled out from Katakuri’s arm, which spun like a club as he smashed it toward Fujitora. But events did not unfold according to the future Katakuri had foreseen. Even though he had predicted Fujitora’s response, Fujitora still made yet another adjustment.
For a blind man, Observation Haki was the most fundamental thing ensuring that he could move freely.
“Mamamama~ What a good son you are. That blind man is still a bit too much for you, but you only need to hold out for a little while. Once I deal with this flashy brat, I’ll come help you.”
“Yes, Mama!”
Katakuri took on some of the pressure for Charlotte Linlin, but in this battle, pressure was conserved. When Charlotte Linlin’s burden lightened, Kizaru’s naturally grew heavier.
Yet the first thing unable to hold out was not any person, but the warship they were fighting on.
Fujitora, Kizaru, Charlotte Linlin, Katakuri—even the weakest among the four possessed the power to destroy fleets of warships, let alone the shockwaves produced when they fought at full force.
It was not just this ship. Even the nearby vessels were caught in the aftermath.
Although Kizaru could fly with his own ability without relying on anything else, Fujitora could not. In a battle of this level, without anywhere to stand, he simply could not launch attacks powerful enough to affect Charlotte Linlin.
On top of that, Marines were continuously falling into the sea due to the effects of the battle, giving Fujitora a new idea.
“This… won’t do.”
Watching the soldiers who had lost their footing struggle in the sea, Fujitora decided to do something more. A purple fluctuation began to swirl around him as he aimed a powerful gravitational field down toward the sea.
Boom!
After a brief moment of silence, the sea began to churn. Under the influence of Fujitora’s gravity and antigravity, the rocks beneath the surface heaved up and down, while pillar-like objects came falling from the sky.
These had been prepared in advance by the Marines for Fujitora, allowing him to use them to establish a foothold anywhere.
Before long, a small stretch of land emerged above the sea. Both the Marines and the pirates immediately realized the importance of this area and began launching attacks toward it. Even the top-tier combatants were no exception.
“Looks like you still need some help, Katakuri.”
Temporarily breaking away from her battle with Kizaru, Charlotte Linlin made a new decision. Ever since returning from the underworld, her soul power had been replenished tremendously. Correspondingly, she could now do things she had previously been unable to accomplish.
Charlotte Linlin split off a small portion of her own soul. Reaching out with one hand, she seized the blast wave created by a distant explosion. Immediately afterward, she picked up a rock from the ground and infused the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit into it.
“Come forth, Crius! Ourea!”
The blast wave formed into a slightly translucent Homie with a stern expression, while the rock also developed a humanlike face.
Just like Zeus and Prometheus, these were powerful Homies created from fragments of Charlotte Linlin’s own soul. Her now-stable mental state gave Charlotte Linlin a much stronger foundation, allowing her to bear this level of expenditure.
Had she used her ability this recklessly in the past, not only would she have suffered greatly, but she herself probably would have been the first to go insane.
“Crius, Ourea, go help Katakuri.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Crius’s body swelled continuously as a violent gale blasted from its mouth, while Ourea condensed a massive boulder the size of a small mountain and hurled it toward Fujitora.
Watching the Homies symbolizing “wind” and “earth” join the battle, Katakuri’s mouth beneath his scarf revealed a long-lost smile.
“Mama has become even stronger. You Marines… are in for it now!”
TN: Hey guys, I have picked up a new Pokemon novel: Life in the Post-Apocalyptic World After Pokémon’s Descent
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