A group of vicious pirates charged toward Wilder, hacking and slashing with swords and axes. There were about a dozen of them, all tall and burly, their presence alone far more powerful than that of ordinary, small-time pirates.
This group charged in, slashing indiscriminately. Of course, in truth, there was no need to distinguish between right and wrong. To pirates, a sharp blade was the only truth that mattered.
Therefore, Wilder felt it was necessary to use his own truth to teach them how to behave. They had no sense at all.
"Where are the strong ones?" Wilder grinned, revealing a set of bone-white teeth in a bloodthirsty smile. He raised his hand, palm facing the dozen charging pirates.
"Swamp—Machine Gun!"
As his voice fell, a hole suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand, and a dense, rapid-fire barrage of swamp bullets poured out toward the charging pirates!
"Aaargh!"
The dozen pirates had no time to react, or rather, they had never expected Wilder to fire high-speed, dense swamp bullets from his palm. In an instant, it was like men charging into a flood. Their forward momentum came to a sudden halt as crimson, garish flowers bloomed on their chests. They staggered a few more steps forward before collapsing, one after another.
"What excellent targets," Wilder said, slowly lowering his hand, from which a few wisps of smoke seemed to rise. He gave a wicked smile to the pirates who had stopped in the distance.
Those few pirates were too scared to advance. They had originally intended to charge forward as well, but after witnessing this scene, they thought better of it.
There are plenty of people to fight, right? Why do we have to go after that guy?
Wilder, having fired off a wave of bullets, was happy with this outcome. It was best if no one disturbed him; he could then focus on watching the fight between those other two.
At this point, less than five minutes had passed since the battle began. The scene of Kizaru and Katakuri fighting was incredibly cool and intense!
Golden light shot through the air, dazzling and brilliant!
Sticky-sweet mochi moved like an extension of Katakuri's own limbs, flooding the entire battlefield! His defense was astonishing, his Armament Haki layered on at will, its power terrifying.
Kizaru's speed didn't give him much of an advantage against Katakuri. His unique Observation Haki, which allowed him to see slightly into the future, enabled Katakuri to consistently evade Kizaru's attacks.
However, a closer look revealed that Kizaru maintained a relaxed, effortless posture from beginning to end, while Katakuri's expression grew graver by the minute.
Gradually, Katakuri began to show signs of being at a disadvantage, and it was becoming obvious. Not only did Wilder see it, but others had more or less noticed it as well.
"Damn it! Die, Marine!" a burly pirate shouted, growing anxious at the sight. He slashed down the Marine Rear Admiral he was fighting and was about to go support Katakuri.
But just then, several sharp spikes shot out, blocking his path. Wilder walked over with a leisurely stride, raising his hand as he walked, swamp mud pouring madly from it.
"Nyahahaha, Blood Blade Karai, with a bounty of 350 million Beri? I can't let you pass there. If you want to cause trouble, come and fight me," Wilder said. To Karai, Wilder's smile was extremely irritating, and his words made him fly into a rage.
"You're courting death!"
He stomped his foot hard on the ground, causing it to sink a dozen centimeters. The muscles in Karai's legs bulged as if they were about to explode. With a terrifying burst of power, his body instantly vanished from its spot and shot straight toward Wilder. His blood-soaked cleaver was raised high, and in an instant, it was less than a meter from Wilder's head.
One slash! He brought it down with immense force!
A sharp sound pierced the air as the blade cut through it. A thin, crimson thread of a trajectory formed and fell in an instant!
BOOM! Wilder's expression didn't change. He had already raised his arm, swung it back, and clenched his fist before smashing it forward!
A terrifying torrent of swamp erupted from his fist. The swamp that gushed out formed a propulsive force on the outside and back of his arm, as if increasing its power and speed. One punch! Heavy and swift! It slammed violently into the crimson thread!
A shockwave instantly exploded between the two, sweeping across the surroundings!
The crimson thread shattered like a real thread, offering no resistance. The swamp fist continued its charge with devastating power, heading straight for the now pale-faced Karai.
At the same time, more pirates charged from all sides, fearless of death!
In terms of numbers, the men Wilder and Kizaru had brought were far fewer than Katakuri's. This put the lower-ranking Marines under immense pressure, while many of the pirates were actually "idle." Seeing an opportunity to kill Wilder, many were tempted.
After all, Wilder was on Mama's kill list. The reward for killing him was unimaginable.
And so, with this thought, more pirates rushed toward Wilder from all directions. At this moment, Wilder was like the eye of a typhoon, drawing in all the scattered air currents.
Karai wretchedly dodged the heavy punch, flipped over, and charged again with his blade in hand!
His eyes gleamed with excitement, and he couldn't help but let out a cold laugh. "Jyehahaha, Wilder! So many people want to kill you. You'll die here today! Jyehahaha!"
As he spoke, another crimson thread formed from a slash shot toward Wilder, straight and horizontal, covering the ten-meter area in front of him in a single strike.
It looked like some kind of scanning infrared beam, moving forward on a fixed trajectory, leaving a trail of shattered stones in its wake.
In addition to Karai's attack, the pirates charging from all sides had also reached Wilder. Some leaped high into the air, and dozens of pirates' attacks rained down on Wilder's head and body from above.
Faced with this pincer attack from all directions, Wilder's reaction was unusual. His expression was calm, but his eyes grew colder and colder.
"Trash…"
"Should have the self-awareness of trash." As Wilder's cold words fell, the attacks finally landed!
BOOM!
With a loud bang, the area was engulfed in a cloud of dust and smoke that lingered, obscuring the situation within.
"How was it? Is that guy finally dead?"
As the pirates who hadn't joined the siege held their breath, staring intently at the dust cloud, Wilder's calm and utterly cold voice sounded from within. Instantly, like a stone dropped into a calm pond, everyone's expression changed.
"The self-awareness of trash is… not to foolishly challenge the strong. Don't you even have that much sense?"
The dust gradually dispersed, revealing the scene within.
Instantly, everyone's expression froze in shock.
Blood Blade Karai, Tiger King Kui, and other pirates, both famous and nameless, numbering over thirty in total, were all impaled on long, sharp spikes that protruded high from the ground.
The moment they saw this image, almost everyone could imagine the scene: as those men had leaped forward, brandishing their swords, spikes had suddenly erupted from the ground, piercing through their bodies.
"That loud bang just now must have been Tiger King's attack. Even a guy like that…" a pirate stammered, his pupils trembling, unable to finish his sentence.
Wilder tilted his head slightly, his cold gaze sweeping over them. It made everyone snap back to their senses, feeling as if a man-eating beast was hidden within those eyes, a single touch of its gaze sending a chill down their spines.
"Hell's Thrust." Wilder suddenly gave them no time to react. He touched one hand to the ground and unleashed the same attack again, letting them witness firsthand how the others had died.
The ground seemed to come alive. Amidst a slight tremor, an invisible wave seemed to emanate from the earth, giving one the feeling that it had taken on a life of its own. Like an unseen scanner, it swept across the people standing in this area, as if it were performing a preliminary targeting, or perhaps memorizing its targets.
In any case, every pirate's face turned deathly pale in that instant.
Uncanny!
This feeling was too uncanny!
It was as if the ground they were standing on had some ability to spy on them, as if it had life. That "gaze" made everyone feel as if they were being watched from the shadows, and they couldn't help but shiver with a cold fear.
CHI! CHI! CHI! CHI!
Spikes of varying sizes, emanating an ominous aura, shot up from the ground without warning, with sudden, incredible force. The ground was like a piece of paper, and these spikes were like needles being pushed up from below. Some were as thick as a person, others as thin as chopsticks. The result was that the people standing in this area were slaughtered like pigs and fish.
That was the appearance. The reality was that the spikes appeared too suddenly for these people to react. Even if they had vaguely sensed an attack from below with their Observation Haki beforehand, the sheer number of spikes and the incredibly strange and cunning angles at which they emerged were too much.
It was a visual feast, an artistic killing technique. Wilder named it: Hell's Thrust: Slaughter Jungle!
The name was related to its current appearance. After slaughtering its prey, it looked like a miniature jungle full of thorns, dangerous and beautiful, its thorns dyed blood-red, tragically beautiful and bewitching.
This move was an experiment for Wilder. In fact, he had used a similar move long ago, though at that time, the stage was the human body. It was with the three brothers he had encountered just after entering the New World. The reason the last two had died so strangely was because of this. Of course, the way Wilder had used it was to gradually envelop their bodies with swamp. To outsiders, that's what it looked like. The reality was that as the swamp spread, under Wilder's control, it had sprouted countless sharp micro-spikes. With every fraction of an inch it spread, countless tiny spikes pierced into their flesh and bone. At that time, Wilder had developed this move mainly for interrogation, but he hadn't expected to use it first on two insignificant pirates.
And unlike that time, the stage this time was not the human body, but the earth.
An idea, precise and subtle control, and an opportunity—this was how the move Hell's Thrust was born.
Many things were involved, the most important of which was Wilder's ability to give life to his swamp.
It was the same ability he used to create swamp monsters. But this time, Wilder had discovered a new application for it: to temporarily permeate the ground with that ability, allowing it to exist as an alternative life form. This application method was actually something Wilder had stumbled upon by accident during his last training session.
The basic principle of Hell's Thrust was to inject that magical ability into the earth, forming a unique life form. Once that was done, the move was born. The infused earth would form a connection with Wilder, just like his swamp monsters. The difference was that this was a very general ability, and the life form of the earth was not as "alive" as the swamp monsters.
If one had to describe it, it was as if the infused earth had become a "cursed land."
It had no life, yet a vague, indistinct consciousness existed. Consciousness—this was something even the swamp monsters didn't have. And this wisp of consciousness seemed to be naturally used for "spying," giving people the feeling of being watched by a "ghost" from the shadows. This entire area was its monitoring zone, its domain. Within this area, it could do many things, such as spying, identifying, and marking. It even formed a domain-like ability that could slow the reactions of those being targeted.
This was one of the important reasons why no one had escaped that attack just now.
Of course, the most important reason was still that the spikes of Hell's Thrust were too fast, and their angle and density were also crucial.
Two batches of pirates were impaled without even being able to counterattack. They were literally hung up, pierced through the stomach, chest, or thigh, and hoisted high.
In any case, the battle would not stop just because of a setback on one side. Wilder's two powerful kills also halted the steps of those who wanted to rush over and claim his head for a reward.
Just like that, a "vacuum" miraculously formed around Wilder for a short time. Those nearby who had witnessed the scene just now would naturally assess their own strength. Realizing that rushing up would likely be a dead end, they wouldn't be so foolish as to charge over. And those further away who didn't know what had just happened were still engaged in a fierce battle with the Marines. It wouldn't be easy for them to fight their way through to Wilder. So, Wilder was very satisfied right now.
He could leisurely watch the battle again. A battle of this level was a rare sight, and Wilder also wanted to see how this old man Kizaru fought when he was fighting others compared to when he was fighting him.
But the more he watched, the darker Wilder's face became.
Did that old geezer deliberately target me back then? When he was chasing me, he was clearly blasting his way through with laser beams, but now…