[Splat————]
A bright flash of sword light slashed diagonally, and the three white-robed warriors wearing green collars in front of Captain Harros sprayed blood as a long gash opened from their shoulders to their abdomens. The sudden, intense pain sent them tumbling to the ground, howling in agony, only to grow weaker as more and more blood soaked the sand.
The base commander of the 194th Marine Division stationed on Watermelon Island scanned the surrounding battlefield with a heavy expression.
At some point, the artillery exchanges between both sides had ceased. As waves of Marines charged through the barrage of cannon fire and bullets into the trenches of the Slave Guard Legion, the nature of the battle shifted from ranged firefights to brutal close-quarters combat.
Swords clashed against axes, sparks flying everywhere. Fierce faces, blood-soaked sand, frantic screams, and corpses littered the ground. The entire coastal desert was now engulfed in the savage atmosphere of this primal struggle.
Initially, the Marines held the advantage.
But the Slave Guard Legion's forces seemed endless, with strong, young warriors wielding swords and axes emerging from tunnels at every moment.
They were as physically robust as Marines from Headquarters, fearless of pain or death, fighting with a ferocity that bordered on madness. As long as their limbs could move, they fought like the most fanatical death warriors, using their teeth and nails like wild beasts, relentless until their last breath.
Facing such opponents, even the well-trained Marines were gradually overwhelmed.
Reluctantly, the few high-ranking officers left on the warships had no choice but to join the fray. Not only Captain Harros, but even Rear Admiral Avène was now slaughtering the enemy with terrifying efficiency in the distance.
Thanks to their intervention, the Marines managed to stabilize the situation, but the Slave Guard Legion's reinforcements kept pouring in.
This far exceeded the intelligence estimate of around 30,000 total troops! Considering that the Kingdom of Tutmosis was engaged in battles on four fronts, and the capital also needed a garrison, each battlefield should have had roughly 6,000 soldiers.
The Marine force here was about 3,000 strong, so the numerical difference shouldn't have been significant. Yet, looking out across the desert, it seemed like the enemy's numbers were close to 10,000.
"Damn it, those CP2 bastards! The intel is definitely wrong!"
Captain Harros cursed angrily as he cut down enemies left and right, his sword dripping with blood. He was a whirlwind on the battlefield, leaving no opponent standing in his path.
Though he didn't know the Six Styles, his swordsmanship was still exceptional. Combined with the speed, reflexes, and strength honed through years of training, he lived up to the Justice Coat he wore.
Moreover, while Dragon had taken all the officers from Marine Headquarters except Rear Admiral Avène, the lower-ranking officers from Headquarters remained.
Lieutenants, ensigns, and warrant officers—these individuals, if deployed to the four seas, could each serve as commanding officers in their own right. Some of them were even stronger than Captain Harros.
This meant that on the battlefield now, there were over a hundred officers equivalent to captains, commanders, and lieutenants from the branches, even if they weren't wearing Justice Coats!
Though the Slave Guard Legion had the numbers, defeating so many skilled Marines in a short time was nearly impossible, especially with Rear Admiral Avène, a genuine high-ranking officer, holding the line.
"These guys aren't soldiers!"
At that moment, a rather dull marine from the South Sea thought he had stumbled upon a shocking secret.
He noticed that the 'warriors' from the Slave Guard Legion had gradually changed from wearing neat, standard breastplates and white robes to tattered clothes that reeked of decay, and their weapons were a chaotic mess.
The only similarity was that they all possessed immense strength and fought with desperate ferocity.
"Shut up!"
A major from the 194th Division barked at him.
In fact, many had already noticed this detail, and combined with the clues about the Slave King from the underworld, it wasn't hard to guess that these people were likely the slaves they had come to rescue.
But so what?
On such a bloody, brutal battlefield where life and death were at stake, even if they didn't understand why these slaves were fighting so fiercely for the Tutankhamun Palace, as long as they swung their axes and swords at their own side, they were enemies. They had to be killed first, and the reasons could be investigated later! Meanwhile, in Sabac, the city that truly held the key to the war's outcome, the massive warship hovering high in the sky had ceased its bombardment.
The ordinary Slave Guards left behind had already been slaughtered by fifty naval officers, and there was no need to further damage the buildings.
Moreover, it could easily harm their own side.
The entire city of Sabac had become a coliseum, where fifty elite naval officers in white coats, wielding the Six Styles, swordsmanship, and Devil Fruit abilities, clashed with the Black-Marked Guards, who were covered in black patterns and resembled savage beasts.
They fought at incredible speeds, transforming into fleeting white and black shadows, battling on rooftops, in alleys, and even in mid-air. Due to the numerical disadvantage, each officer had to face two guards simultaneously.
The five-minute duration of the Hero Water might seem short, but for these superhumans, every minute was enough for dozens of exchanges. They had immense stamina, overwhelming strength, and extraordinary speed.
An ordinary person, even if given a safe spot to watch, would only see fleeting afterimages with their naked eyes. If they were too close, their eardrums would be ruptured by the continuous sonic booms.
Boom! Boom! The earthen houses collapsed under heavy blows, and the sandy ground was pockmarked with craters. Every full-force attack was accompanied by thunderous sonic booms and howls.
There were also constant shouts, the clashing of axes and swords, and the occasional cries of pain from injuries, creating an atmosphere that was both terrifying and exhilarating.
This place was hell for the cowardly, but paradise for the warlike! Suddenly, a green whirlwind appeared in the sky—it was Dragon, who could no longer hold back and finally made his move.
He didn't understand the situation with these Black-Marked Guards, nor did he know that the effects of the Hero Water lasted only five minutes. What he saw was that the elites he had brought were constantly getting injured.
Although no one had been seriously wounded or killed yet, he didn't want to wait until casualties occurred.
In truth, Dragon had been waiting for the Slave King, King Taklama, to appear, but no matter how long he waited, the king didn't show up. So he decided to deal with these bizarre, frenzied warriors first.
He transformed into a high-speed rotating tornado, like a massive spiral drill, leaving a trail of blood and destruction wherever he passed.
No matter how frenzied the emotions or how immense the strength of the Black-Marked Guards who had consumed the Hero Water, once swept by the tornado, they met instant death! Whether it was one person, two, or even a small group, the green tornado showed no mercy, adopting an invincible stance that promised a thousand cuts to anyone who dared charge forward or was caught in its path.
Unstoppable!
At this moment, Dragon showcased the formidable power of the top-tier Logia-type Hurricane Fruit in front of all the Marine officers.
What they didn't know, however, was that this was merely a warm-up, as Dragon's Devil Fruit ability had not yet awakened.
The most terrifying aspect of Logia-type fruits lies in their catastrophic, large-scale destructive power after awakening, which seemed a distant prospect for him, having only consumed the fruit a year ago.
[Whoosh]
Just as the tornado, transformed by Dragon, was wreaking havoc in Sabac City, and the surrounding Marine officers began to show excited smiles, a massive surge of yellow sand erupted from the entrance leading to the underground space.
[Boom!]
In the next moment, the yellow sand and the green tornado collided violently, unleashing an extremely fierce gust of wind that swept across the area, pushing all the Black-Marked Guards and Marine officers out of the central zone of the city. Immediately after, the intertwined sand tornado shot skyward, rising higher and higher, soon passing the massive warship hovering in mid-air.
"I didn't expect you to be a Logia user as well. How about becoming my slave~~"
High above, in a world filled with yellow sand and green wind, Dragon heard a voice tinged with excitement and mockery.
However, his attention was focused on one question.
"What's the deal with this Slave King's ability? Is he also a Logia user? But the intel said he was a Paramecia."