A Tug-of-War Chase

"W-What happened?!"

"Get out of the way! Our ship is rioting!"

Dozens of wooden spears, each one or two sizes thicker than an adult's arm, were like venomous snakes baring their fangs, biting wildly in all directions. In an instant, chaos erupted on the deck as pirates scattered and fled.

However, given this situation, no one could remain indifferent, and the most capable officials took action one after another.

"A pile of rotten wood, watch me smash it to pieces!"

The fish-giant, over four meters tall with grayish-blue skin, wielded two spiked baseball bats, smashing several wooden guns with brute force.

On the other side was a bespectacled beauty Nacil, wearing a white lab coat over a pink cheongsam.

With long, slender, white legs, she leaped into the air and unleashed a series of rapid hand strikes at the onrushing guns.

"Hanfang Boxing Technique: Cordyceps Explosive Strike!"

[Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!]

Instantly, all the wooden spears that it touched shattered on the ground; the power of its hand strike appeared to be much stronger than a real sword slash.

"Cube Destruction!"

Behind her, the shipwright Gairam, with a garlic-red nose, slammed his huge, square iron hammer heavily onto a wooden spear.

All that could be seen was the thick, long wooden spear, which split into perfectly square cubes, all of which floated silently in mid-air.

"Cube Booster!"

The next moment, with another shout from Gairam, dozens of wooden cubes shot out, smashing the dozen or so wooden spears that were still wreaking havoc in front of them to pieces.

The three Bond Pirates officers completed this series of actions in less than a minute after the wooden guns appeared, and in the blink of an eye, all the wooden guns were wiped out.

But the boat beneath their feet seemed to be deliberately working against them. The hull immediately began to sprout new wood, but the next second it suddenly stopped, leaving only raised marks on the railings and deck.

"Tch, covering the entire ship with Haki? That guy's got some brains!" Vidal sullenly lowered his arm on the warship.

He originally intended to take advantage of the chaos caused by the wooden spears and use the power of the Woods-Woods Fruit to dismantle the pirate ship.

The distance was simply too great, making the transmission efficiency of the fruit's power too low; otherwise, he would have already dismantled the ship.

After all, even if Kuzan were to freeze an entire sea in the future, it would take time for the ice to freeze over, rather than freezing the surface of the sea instantly.

"However, this also temporarily seals off his abilities," Vidal said with a smile, looking at Ward's pirate ship.

By covering the ship with Haki, Bondi Byrnndi World's actions prevented his Devil Fruit powers from taking effect, but they also rendered his own Devil Fruit powers ineffective.

For example, he could use the acceleration ability of the More-More Fruit to directly speed up the pirate ship and charge forward, and he would also have to maintain Haki coverage at all times.

Otherwise, once the two sides get close enough, Vidal could easily disintegrate the ship that isn't covered by Haki.

In this way, the balance of power shifted, which also diminished some of Bondi Byrnndi World's Haki.

Furthermore, if he wanted to cover the ship with his Haki, he would have to stay on board. If he didn't want most of his crew to fall into the sea, he couldn't rush over alone, which indirectly restricted his movements.

Of course, Vidal also had to stand here and watch, but he was the kind of person who wasn't afraid of wearing you down!

However, looking at it this way, his Woods-Woods Fruit ability is indeed troublesome at sea. If there isn't anyone on the ship who can use Armament Haki, they could destroy your ship in no time!

This infuriated Bondi Byrnndi World on the other side, but he couldn't think of a solution for the time being, so he could only remain angry.

However, he immediately had cannonballs brought over, intending to become a human artillery platform and sink the warship from a distance!

"Momo, thirty times!"

He hurled the dark cannonballs at thirty times the normal speed, and the sky above the warship and the pirate ship was filled with afterimages of them flying through the air.

"There's no other way, you want to fight me head-on?"

Vidal looked at the barrage of shells raining down from the sky and sneered. "Fine, I'll play along. The longer this drags on, the better it will be for me."

The next second, a tree more than ten meters tall and more than one meter thick grew rapidly on the deck two meters behind Vidal, covered with lush green branches and leaves.

This left the marines on the warship, who were witnessing his Devil Fruit ability for the first time, dumbfounded, but their mouths immediately opened even wider.

Suddenly, the big tree shook, and the tender leaves on its branches instantly transformed into streaks of green that shot out.

These green shadows were like sharp blades, slicing through the shells in twos and threes and detonating them directly.

The shockwaves generated by the simultaneous explosions of more than a dozen shells were enough to widen the distance between the warship and the pirate ship.

After all, one was advancing forward while the other was retreating, which made Bondi Byrnndi World's face turn completely dark. Coupled with the cheers coming from the warship, the anger in his chest burned even brighter.

But he still had no choice; he even had to give up throwing bombs now, otherwise they would never catch up.

"Byrnndi World, their ships are big and heavy, while ours are small and light. We can catch up even on normal sailing."

At this moment, his older brother, the skinny and small Binjack, stepped forward. He had always been the ship's strategist, although many people didn't pay much attention to him.

"If you're in a hurry, you can try throwing shells at the stern of our ship; the blast wave will make us go faster."

In truth, Binjack hoped his brother would give up the pursuit; he genuinely disliked Byrnndi World's violent ways, but he knew he couldn't persuade him otherwise.

"Oh right! How could I forget that!" Bundy Byrnndi World Satori, looked down at Binjack and laughed, "No wonder you're my brother, you're so smart!"

"Everyone in the back, please make way!"

After saying that, he grabbed a cannonball with one hand and threw it backward. With a loud bang, the explosion rang out, followed by a strong wind that filled the sails, propelling the ship forward at high speed.

"Ha ha!"

"Damn navy brat, I'm going to kill you this time!"

Amidst the maniacal laughter, cannonballs slammed into the sea behind them at thirty times the speed of fire, creating towering waves.

"That's the trick again." Vidal shook his head. Wasn't that the same method his opponent used to escape before?

In fact, he could have easily staged a "Red Tree World Advent" here, creating a small forest of hundreds of mangroves to block the World Pirates' ship from advancing.

The reason he didn't do that was because he considered that blocking the World Pirates' ship too far would be beyond his current capabilities.

Now that Bondi Byrnndi World no longer has to worry about destroying the ship, can he simply use 'Geppo' and the speed boost from the More-More Fruit to catch up on his own?

Therefore, he now hopes to maintain a perfect distance between the two sides, keeping the World Pirates hanging in the balance.

While delaying the inevitable, they also wanted to deplete Byrnndi World's Haki as much as possible, thus gaining a greater advantage in the subsequent head-on battle.

Of course, this also depends on whether anyone in the World Pirates can see this and have Byrnndi World launch a Hundredfold Speed cannonball, expending a lot of stamina to catch up in one go.

So it's a gamble, but what in this world is without risk?

Vidal is not expecting any support at the moment, but of course, it would be a good thing if strong reinforcements did arrive.

But we must always consider the worst-case scenario first, which is fighting!

However, if they can find a small island to use as a battlefield in time, that would be a good thing amidst the bad outcome, since he would be more exhausted at sea.

In the following time, Vidal and Byrnndi World each displayed their abilities, and the distance between them fluctuated, resulting in a tug-of-war.

Hmm. It seems the World Pirates haven't figured out his intentions yet, and things have reached a stalemate.