"Ah... ah..."
The pirate crew members, having stumbled onto Baizinbur, were too terrified to speak.
All they wanted was a quiet robbery, but instead, they'd encountered a pirate second only to the legends.
Cold sweat drenched their faces, and many swallowed hard, too scared to utter a single word in Kaido's presence.
"What's wrong, you insects playing pirate games?" Kaido's crimson eyes swept over the nameless pirate crew. Suddenly, he swung his arm, instantly sending them flying. "You dare interfere with my one-on-one fight? Get lost, all of you!!"
"Aahhhh!!!" The remaining few pirates cried out and shrieked. Their other comrades had been sent flying to who knows where by Kaido's elbow strike.
Kaido initially intended to attack the remaining three or four, but he stopped himself in time. In the distance, Alucard was steadily approaching on the sea surface, his wet clothes not affecting his demeanor.
"Heh, so he's not a Devil Fruit user after all," Kaido mused, seeing Alucard move freely even with his feet submerged in the seawater, finally confirming that Alucard wasn't a Devil Fruit user.
However, Kaido wasn't interested in what kind of abilities his enemy possessed; strength was all that mattered.
He just had a strange quirk regarding his subordinates: they had to be Devil Fruit users.
To put it simply, he had an "obsession."
Alucard's body was once again covered in eyes, shadowy hands rose from the surrounding shadows, and the Black Dog Baskerville floated around Alucard's body, drooling and glaring viciously at Kaido.
Kaido secretly clenched his fist. That previous punch was enough to instantly kill a Vice Admiral, yet this kid in front of him was completely unfazed.
He wasn't like Kaido, he didn't possess extraordinary defense; he simply healed, no matter the injury.
'Good! In that case, let's see which of us breaks first. Will I completely destroy you, or will you exhaust me to death? I haven't tried this suicidal method yet!'
"GRAAHHH!" Kaido covered his entire body in Armament Haki and charged fiercely at Alucard.
...
Approximately three hundred nautical miles from Baizinbur, snores echoed from the deck of a unique warship, its bow shaped like a dog holding a bone. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge, even civilians, would instantly recognize it as the ship of Vice Admiral Garp!
On a deck chair, a burly man in a black suit, draped in a Marine coat and wearing a dog-head mask, snored loudly, the snot bubble from his nose indicating how deeply he was asleep.
Beside him, on another deck chair, a tall, slender man in a black Marine trench coat and sunglasses was also sound asleep, drooling from the corner of his mouth.
It was only afternoon, yet these two were in such a deep sleep. The nearby Marines couldn't help but feel speechless. These two were Vice Admiral Garp and Rear Admiral Kuzan.
"Look out!" Just then, a scout on the crow's nest called down, "Ahead, two o'clock direction, a pirate ship!"
"What?!"
"Prepare for battle!"
"Which pirate crew is it?"
At this moment, the newly appointed Vice Admiral Sakazuki stood at the bow, arms crossed over his chest. Although he couldn't see as far as the scout with his naked eyes, the specialized heat of the Magma-Magma Fruit already emanated from him. "Evil is absolutely unforgivable! Approach immediately! I'll sink them!"
"Eh! Wait, wait, Sakazuki!" At this point, Kuzan had woken up and said with a yawn, "We're searching for Kaido. Intelligence indicates he's in this sea area. Perhaps those pirates know something. Let's ask them first."
"Crime is unforgivable!" Sakazuki retorted, unyielding.
"Oh dear, how passionate. Shall we ask Garp-san for his opinion?" Kuzan asked, rubbing his head. Hearing this, Sakazuki "hmph"-ed and said no more, giving up the idea of sinking the enemy.
The moment the pirate ship entered Kuzan's range, Kuzan leaped, unleashing his special move on the sea surface, "Ice Age!"
In an instant, a path of ice formed on the sea. Kuzan slid quickly towards the pirate ship, instantly freezing it into an ice ship.
"Hey! Come and get them!"
In less than five minutes, Kuzan's voice could be heard from the frozen ship.
"As expected of a monster on par with Vice Admirals Sakazuki and Borsalino." Seeing a New World pirate crew dealt with so swiftly, the Marines on board couldn't help but inwardly praise him. With such a lineup, even if they truly encountered Kaido, they would certainly not be outmatched!
As the Marines captured the half-frozen pirates, Sakazuki stepped forward and said, "Only this many people?"
On the other side, an Ensign approached and reported, "According to our data, they are the Kunakiri Pirates, led by a captain with a 52 million Berry bounty. According to intelligence, they should be a crew of over thirty."
Sakazuki's right hand began to burn with scorching magma. He punched through one pirate's body, leaving six others.
Seeing Sakazuki kill so ruthlessly, the remaining six pirates were stunned.
"Answer my questions properly, and you might still get to live out your pathetic lives in Impel Down. Otherwise, this will be your fate," Sakazuki said, pointing to the pirate who had been incinerated into molten slag.
This was his interrogation method: if there were two or more targets, kill one first to achieve deterrence. Although brutal and against some Marine regulations, it was very effective.
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