One Piece: Marine's Justice

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, a barrage of gunfire erupted like a pot of popcorn bursting into life. Lead bullets flew in all directions, pelting the enlivened stone creatures and sending shards of stone flying everywhere.

"Those guys must be members of the Impaler Pirates too!"

Cross's eyes were cold as he swept his gaze across the chaotic scene. He quickly identified the shooters, fierce-looking men clad in an assortment of garish outfits. They had to be pirates from the Impaler Pirates, come to assist Bel von Gero.

"Cross-dono! Hurry up and revive every statue and sculpture in the city! We have to capture that bastard!" Feli ran over, repeating himself with anxious urgency.

"Shut it!"

Cross snapped impatiently, "This is a Marine operation now. You people need to stay the hell out of our way!"

His expression turned grim as he added angrily, "Besides, the Sculpture City of Skoggy has become a battlefield, and that's on you!"

Being shouted at by a teenage brat made Feli's face twitch with irritation, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay calm. "The mission to capture Bel von Gero was something your Marine HQ approved too! Don't try to pin everything on us!"

"If you hadn't insisted on launching this operation, we would've stuck to the original plan, luring Bel von Gero to the outskirts where no civilians would be caught in the crossfire!" Cross roared. "Now the battle's erupting in a densely populated urban center! The casualties here could end up worse than if all two Plague Bomb detonated at once!"

"..."

Feli's face flushed with frustration, his breathing ragged.

...

Port of Skoggy, Sculpture City.

BZZZZT—BZZZZT—BZZZZT—

"Impaler Pirates sighted inside the city! Commence purge operations!"

"Target located on 13th Street! Strike teams, mobilize immediately!"

"Bring rocket launchers! Mortars! Seastone nets! Everything!"

"Move! Move! Move! Stick together and follow my lead!"

Shrill alarms blared across the entire port, echoing like a siren of war. On the six warships anchored in the harbor, the decks suddenly erupted into organized chaos. Like boiling water, Marines surged onto the decks, instantly shifting into combat formation.

"Transmit my orders, every soldier and officer, assemble at once!"

Vice Admiral Kuzan stood at the prow of a massive battleship, shouting commands with firm authority.

"Rear Admiral Strawberry! Rear Admiral Yamakaji! Lead your HQ units and head to 13th Street immediately!"

"Rear Admiral Kadar! Commodore Cancer! You two, secure all major roads in Skoggy!"

"Rear Admiral Mozambia! Commodore Bastille! You're on reserve. If the Impaler Pirates' main force appears, engage without hesitation!"

"YES, VICE ADMIRAL SIR!"

More than twenty Marine officers bellowed in unison, their voices shaking the air.

Orders in hand, each officer rushed back to their respective ships, leading their Marine detachments ashore. They fanned out from the port, heading directly toward their assigned sectors within the city.

Meanwhile, throughout Skoggy, street patrols of Marines also received orders and began converging toward 13th Street.

Somewhere along one of the side streets, Borsalino finished speaking into a Den Den Mushi and muttered lazily to himself, "Thirteenth Street, huh… Looks like Cross-kun already made contact with the enemy. And his opponent's that freak Oli Baka… How terrifying."

The next moment, he pressed his palms together. Between his hands, a shining pane of mirror-like light condensed, then fired out a beam that ricocheted off nearby surfaces, tracing out a glimmering path of light.

"Yata no Kagami!"

...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Aim for the head! Put more rounds into it!"

"Idiot! Stop shooting the body, it won't die that way!"

"Rocket launcher! Fire at that stone giant, now!"

At that very moment, 13th Street in Skoggy had become an all-out war zone. Gunfire and cannon blasts thundered nonstop. Shouts of battle filled the air as revived sculptures and statues clashed violently with the Impaler Pirates.

But the sheer number of reanimated statues was overwhelming. Animated constructs continued pouring in from all directions, creating an enormous stone army that clogged the entire street.

To the onlookers, these revived statues looked like fearless warriors. One after another, they charged into the fray with no regard for their own destruction. For every one that fell, two more replaced it. Then ten. And so on, until every last enemy was crushed beneath their feet.

"Damn it! These things are even worse than Big Mom's damned Homies!"

Gero's expression was grim. His oversized scalpel danced through the air, carving stone knights and beasts into rubble as easily as slicing through hot butter.

"RAAAAGH!"

Suddenly, a humanoid metal statue charged forward with an eerie cry. It held a gleaming spear and let out a rhythmic clanging with each step, clearly, it was a metallic sculpture modeled after a tribal executioner.

THUD!

Gero barely dodged as the spear streaked past his shoulder and punched a hole in the brick wall behind him.

A cold glint sliced through the air.

He swung his giant scalpel across the metallic native's neck, sparks flying as metal scraped against metal. It left a deep gash, but didn't decapitate it.

"NANI?!"

Gero's eyes widened in alarm. He immediately backed away.

"RAAAAGH!"

With a guttural cry, the metal statue abandoned its embedded spear and lunged at Gero with its fists.

"Damn it, get out of my way!"

BOOOOM—!

The voice cracked like thunder in spring.

Oli Baka burst in like a rampaging storm, eyes burning with fury. He unleashed a punch straight into the statue's chest, sending the hulking metal figure flying dozens of meters through the air.

It smashed through a residential building and shattered dozens more stone constructs along the way, kicking up a blinding cloud of debris.

Thanks to Baka's cover, he and Gero stood firm amid the tide of animated enemies, like stubborn rocks holding their ground against crashing waves.

But the other pirates fared far worse. One after another, they were slaughtered. Their numbers thinned with each passing minute.

"Baka! We've gotta break through now! Once the Marine main force arrives, we're done for!"

Gero backed up behind Baka, his voice sharp with urgency.

"DAMN IT!"

Baka snarled and looked toward Cross, who was safely entrenched behind layers of defense not far away. His expression twisted with rage and unwillingness.

Then, with a guttural roar, he grabbed Gero by the shoulder and shouted:

"EVERYONE, RETREAT!"

BOOM—!!

In the next instant, he bent his knees and launched himself into the air like a cannonball, soaring dozens of meters over the battlefield. He landed heavily on the other side of the street, leaving behind a pair of deep footprints and a network of spiderweb cracks in the ground.

"He's escaping!" Feli screamed.

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