When facing Mandrell in the past, Strawberry had his head kicked askew by Mandrell.
He belonged to the rare Long-Head Tribe, born with a naturally longer head than others. Although he received effective treatment after being kicked and did not suffer any severe aftereffects, it still left a certain impact.
At this moment, he had also become the breakthrough point for King.
As Strawberry fell, Yamakaji, whose eyes had always been narrowed, widened open, and the cigar in his mouth slipped to the ground.
There was no shortage of heavy smokers in the Marines. Being a Marine was an incredibly stressful profession. Apart from a few carefree individuals who were unaffected, the remaining officers were often under extreme pressure, making smoking and drinking their way of relieving stress.
Yamakaji was one of the most seasoned smokers among them. Whether he was fighting, listening to the intelligence, or even when facing a Calamity, he had never let go of the cigar in his mouth.
But Strawberry had been his comrade for many years. Watching a fellow officer and comrade-in-arms die before his eyes, grief still swept over his heart.
Originally, this was supposed to be a simple escort mission. They had never expected such a major accident to occur during this operation.
“Strawberry…”
The pain was fleeting. Ever since the Great Pirate Era began, the Marines had been constantly facing casualties. He had no time to grieve—he was still in the middle of battle.
With Strawberry taken down, all the pressure now fell on Yamakaji.
Clang! Clang!
There were no unnecessary techniques—King was simply swinging his blade with immense force. Under the relentless heavy strikes, his blade was already showing signs of melting.
However, Strawberry’s death had ultimately bought them some time. Picking up her weapon again, Momousagi rejoined the battle, alleviating much of Yamakaji’s pressure.
“Vice Admiral Yamakaji, now is not the time to grieve.”
“I know, Vice Admiral Momousagi. I’ll do my best to draw his attention, I leave the main assault to you.”
Among the three of them, Momousagi’s authority as the commander was unquestionable. She was young, but stronger—otherwise, she wouldn’t have earned the title of Admiral Candidate. However, compared to the full-fledged Admirals, both Momousagi and Chaton still fell short in certain aspects.
Yet at the same time, she still stood above these ordinary Vice Admirals in strength.
Having learned from the previous mistake, Momousagi was now more wary of King’s weapon. If Strawberry hadn’t been disarmed by that serrated shark-tooth blade, he might not have died so quickly.
But grief and rage did not necessarily translate into power. Though they were furious over their comrade’s death, that alone could not bridge the gap in strength between them and King.
If mere anger was enough to defeat all enemies, then training would be meaningless.
“Black Vortex!”
Extinguishing the flames on his body and recovering from the pain, Blackbeard charged forward again. His massive body suddenly moved with surprising agility, dodging King’s slash and grabbing hold of his ankle, forcing King out of his Aerodactyl form once more.
He would have preferred to sit back and watch the Marines fight King, but reality did not allow him that luxury. One of the three Marine Vice Admirals had already fallen, and Yamakaji had just taken a strike from King. If another one died, keeping King occupied would become nearly impossible.
If that lunatic was allowed to free up his hands, the one in trouble would undoubtedly be himself. For the sake of his own survival, Blackbeard took the risk of approaching King.
The combined amplification from the blue flames and transformation was simply overwhelming. Blackbeard couldn’t comprehend why King had so many layers of buffs stacked on him, but removing even one layer had to be a good thing.
Another person who intervened in the battle was Laffitte. Among those still left, he was the only one who could get involved at all—but even he only dared to launch sneak attacks on King when the opportunity arose.
As for the ordinary soldiers, the only fate awaiting them if they approached was having their names added to the casualty list.
On these seas, when faced with an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, the best option for ordinary soldiers is to retreat from the battlefield and become part of the background—unless they want their families to start collecting death benefits.
“You Marines don’t have any other reinforcements?! Are you really planning to let a monster like this return to the sea?!”
At this moment, Blackbeard was acting more like a Marine than the actual Marines were—but there was no helping it. When someone knew that a madman was determined to kill them at any cost, their greatest hope would naturally be for that person to disappear forever.
Otherwise, even if he escaped this time, he would have to spend the rest of his life fearing getting hunted.
He had nothing but contempt for the Beasts Pirates’ “beat the little one, the big one comes” behaviour—but at the same time, he wished his own side could bring in someone even stronger.
“Imperial Flaming Wings!”
A flame dragon forced Momousagi back, but King did not pursue her. Instead, he raised an offer.
“You can give it a try—or how about I give you all a chance? Let’s call for reinforcements together. Mr. Kaido has been quite bored lately—he wouldn’t mind coming out for some action.”
King wasn’t incapable of calling for reinforcements—if he had wanted to, he would have done so long ago. But this was Delia’s matter, and he didn’t want anyone else interfering. He wanted to handle it himself, which was why things had dragged on until now.
As for what he had just said, he was gambling that the Marines wouldn’t take that option.
King wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about politics, but he did understand that the Marines had always controlled the scale of conflicts and tried to avoid large-scale wars whenever possible. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have allowed the Emperors of the Sea to occupy the New World for so long.
And just as he had guessed, Momousagi wasn’t sure what the higher-ups were thinking, but without direct orders, the Marines had clear regulations: do not actively provoke a conflict with the Four Emperors and do not engage them head-on.
Only the SWORD unit was exempt from this rule—but in return, the Marines would not take responsibility for anything SWORD did.
“I already said it before—you can take whoever you came for, I don’t care. Just leave this guy to me, and we can pretend we never saw each other.”
With Momousagi, Yamakaji, Blackbeard, and Laffitte working together, his actions were somewhat restricted. If he could use a small negotiation like this to make the Marines withdraw, he wouldn’t mind at all.
The Beasts Pirates didn’t shy away from conflict, but their primary goal was still development. According to Arceus, everything was in place except for the final push. They had already waited decades—there was no need to rush things now.
“Hey, hey, hey! I’m a Shichibukai now! You guys are Marines! There’s no way you’d make this kind of deal with a Four Emperors’ faction, right?!”
Seeing the gloomy expression on Momousagi’s face, Blackbeard panicked. If she agreed, he would truly become “Blackbeard”—but the burned-to-a-crisp kind.
In truth, Momousagi was feeling somewhat frustrated. Had she known King was capable of this, she never would have gotten involved. Even with an Admiral Candidate and two Vice Admirals, they had failed to take him down.
Losing a Vice Admiral over a Shichibukai—this was a devastating loss. But at this point, negotiation was no longer an option.
Accepting a pirate’s deal after losing a comrade—no one could bring themselves to do that. Well… maybe Koby would be an exception.
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