Attacked from Front and Rear (Thanks to Mr Crow for the Alliance Leader Support!!!)

The Good Guy Twitch.

Smoker turned into white smoke and flew over at speed.

Given the White Hunter's notorious reputation, Qiangsen and Morgan both moved to protect their commanding officer.

But Smoker had no desire to fight small fry like them. He swept past them like a gust of wind.

"So fast!"

Neither of them could follow Smoker's movements at all.

By rights, Smoker had no quarrel with the "local marines" before him. He even admired the way they had strung up the pirates.

But for some reason, Vice Admiral Garp, who seemed reckless in every way, had suddenly become a man of principle this time.

To settle the matter quickly and leave the old bastard no excuse to slack off, Smoker decided to achieve his goal in the simplest, most forceful way.

He would sweep their commanding officer into the air and order him to take the pirates down from the bow.

As far as Smoker was concerned, a small matter like that would probably take only a few seconds.

The two small fry had indeed reacted just as he had expected.

However...

"As long as I stand, the rat stands!"

Just as Smoker's body of smoke was about to envelop Twitch, a furious shout rang out beside his ear.

At the same time, a broad-bladed sword covered Twitch's fragile body from every angle.

Garen didn't know why Smoker, a fellow marine, had suddenly attacked, but protecting the ADC was a support's duty. Without waiting for instructions from Ma Qiao, he immediately moved to intercept him.

Smoker's lower body had turned into smoke, while his upper body remained a normal, muscular torso, floating in midair.

He glanced at Garen and found the righteous look on the young man's face immensely irritating.

Aside from pirates, the people Smoker hated most were those who looked righteous.

In Marineford, he had seen far too many people who looked righteous but were different on the inside.

That was also why Smoker usually dressed like a delinquent biker.

"Out of my way!"

Using less than a tenth of his strength, Smoker swung the unusual weapon called the Jitte in his hand, intending to knock down the "corporal" before him.

From what Smoker knew of the East Blue marines, that blow was strong enough to send his opponent tumbling without injuring him.

However, Garen was no longer the same Garen he had been before.

His equipment might have been lousy, but he was a genuine level six!

To Smoker's astonishment, his attack felt as if it had struck an iron wall. It couldn't budge the righteous marine in the slightest.

He was just about to put more strength into it, but it was already too late.

"Face judgment!"

Garen knocked the Jitte aside with his sword, then aimed a Decisive Strike at Smoker's shoulder.

Caught off guard, Smoker was touched by the edge of Garen's sword.

"It's useless. No one can cut smoke..."

Smoker muttered to himself.

He could see clearly that Garen's sword was neither made of seastone nor a black blade, and showed no signs of Armament Haki.

So, rather than turn his body into its elemental form to dodge in advance, he ignored the strike and raised the Jitte, smashing it toward Garen with half his strength.

Ah, looks like I'll have to write another report!

That was what Smoker thought.

However...

"What's going on?!"

Smoker was astonished to find that the futile sight of a blade cutting through smoke he had imagined never appeared. Instead, a wound so deep the bone was visible had opened on his shoulder.

At the same time, Smoker's lower body returned to human form.

Garen's Q skill [Decisive Strike], special effect: silence!

Smoker was shocked to discover that his Smoke-Smoke Fruit ability, which years of training had made as easy to control as his own limbs, had stopped working in an instant!

With his ability to float gone, he lost his balance and fell hard onto the deck.

"Haki? No! Seastone? That doesn't seem right either!"

Smoker paid little attention to the wound on his shoulder, focusing all his attention on the fight.

By now, he had long since forgotten why he had come aboard this ship. All he could think about was giving the cocky guy in front of him a good thrashing.

"Your ability is strange."

A trace of excitement appeared on Smoker's face for the first time in a long while. "I never expected to meet someone as interesting as you in the East Blue! Next, I'll fight you seriously with half my strength. Don't even think about using that move again. I won't let you hit me!"

"White Fist!"

Smoker roared, his left hand turning into white smoke and shooting fiercely toward Garen.

White Fist was the skill that had made Smoker famous.

Although the move had basically never landed once in the New World and could be called the fist of charity, it still looked impressive in the East Blue today.

Garen dodged the first White Fist by a hair, but Smoker's second White Fist was already right in front of him.

"Courage!"

Seeing that he couldn't dodge, Garen decided not to try.

He activated his W skill [Courage] and stood his ground, every muscle in his body tensed.

"Tekkai? It doesn't seem to be!"

Without thinking further, Smoker instinctively increased his strength from fifty to seventy percent.

Bang!

A deafening thud rang out, and the jaws of the small-fry marines watching the fight dropped.

They knew Corporal Garen was strong.

But they hadn't known he was this strong!

Garen took Smoker's punch head-on without changing expression, stepping back only three paces and suffering no serious harm.

Garen, who had prioritized his W, was strong after all. The substantial Barrier and damage reduction made his body even tougher than Tekkai.

If Smoker hadn't secretly added another twenty percent to his strength, Garen wouldn't have stepped back at all.

"Young man, not bad at all. That punch had seventy percent of my strength behind it!" Smoker admitted.

He took a deep puff on his cigar and gave Garen an appreciative look.

"You're a real man! Next, I'm going to use one hundred percent of my strength, so you'd better be careful..."

However...

"Pew pew pew pew!"

"I found you!"

Before Smoker could finish, a sleazy voice sounded behind his ear.

The shifty-looking officer Smoker had paid no attention to before had appeared behind him at some point.

At the same time, Garen, who had taken the punch head-on, showed a sly smile that didn't match his righteous appearance, with its thick brows and large eyes.

He lightly tapped the fist Smoker had yet to withdraw with the hilt of his gleaming sword.

Decisive Strike!

Though there was little force behind it, the silence effect still took hold!

Smoker's body of smoke vanished, and he returned to human form.

"It's sticky, so you can't get it off!"

Seizing the chance, Twitch, who had circled behind him, lightly tossed the small barrel in his hand, instantly covering Smoker in dark green slime.

The slime gave off a rotting stench. Not only did it burn on contact with the skin, but it was also just as Twitch had said: so sticky that it simply couldn't be removed.