Dragon Battles the Dugong?

Upon receiving the miraculous plant, the Science Unit's warships returned to port without even taking half a day's rest, which impressed Vidal with the professionalism of Vice Admiral Geda and his crew.

"Base Commander?"

Lieutenant Isoka was puzzled to see that Vidal was not returning, but instead staring at Brigadier General Dragon's warship.

"Do you know anything about coating?" Vidal asked, his back to her.

"Isn't coating just applying bubbles secreted by the Yarukiman Mangrove little by little to the ship?" Isoka thought for a moment and offered his own interpretation.

"Um."

Vidal nodded and then said, "The reason it needs to be attached to the ship little by little is because the bubbles secreted by the mangroves are not large enough, which is why it takes one or two weeks."

"Yes."

Lieutenant Isoka was puzzled as to why his superior had suddenly become interested in coating. Vidal, however, watched the busy coating craftsmen and pondered for a moment. Then, without making any move, a faint green light appeared on the ground in front of him.

First, a film of vapor shimmering with iridescent colors appeared in the green light, then slowly rose up. Only then did Isoka realize that it was actually a bubble.

However, these bubbles were quite unusual; their diameter alone seemed to be four or five meters, far exceeding the size of naturally formed bubbles on the island.

This scene also attracted the attention of the coating craftsmen. They had never seen anything so big in all their years of work. Just then, the giant bubble floated towards them.

"Take a look and see if this will work," Vidal said to the coating craftsmen.

"Yes!"

The group quickly put down the small bubbles they were holding, carefully took the large bubble, and examined it closely. After a moment, the older one respectfully gave his result.

"Reporting to the base commander, there's nothing wrong with these bubbles. If we use them on this warship, it should save us more than an hour."

"Yeah?"

Vidal raised an eyebrow, and upon hearing this, he snapped his fingers crisply with his right hand. "Then you can rest early today; consider it a perk from me."

[Smack!]

"This"

When the fingers snapped, a bright green light appeared on the ground again, but this time the area was much larger, covering almost half of the port. Just when everyone thought the base commander was going to do something big, they found that there were only nine thick, long wooden stakes, each one meter high, resembling water pipes.

This puzzled many people, but when they saw large bubbles, four or five meters wide, being secreted one after another from the ground, and then these large bubbles automatically floated to the top of the wooden stake and stopped, no longer rising upwards, they gradually seemed to understand something.

"From now on, all the bubbles coming out of this port will be this big. Those nine wooden stakes can hold the bubbles in place. I think this should make your work a little easier in the future." Vidal smiled gently.

"This is really... thank you! Thank you, base commander!" The coating craftsmen were moved to tears; it was the first time they had ever encountered such a kind person.

"Base Commander, isn't the power of your Woods-Woods Fruit a bit too convenient? This is even possible?" Lieutenant Isoka exclaimed in amazement.

"These bubbles are ultimately produced by the Yarukiman Mangrove, so they are naturally within my capabilities."

After briefly explaining the principle, Vidal waved to the coating craftsmen who were still thanking him, then turned and walked into the base.

He had actually considered creating a super bubble large enough to envelop the entire warship, but ultimately chose to modify the port's ground.

While the former allows the coating technicians to finish their work immediately, the latter can benefit their future work in the long run, since it's impossible for the technicians to come over frequently to create large bubbles for them.

Vidal understood the principle that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.

Starting today, the coating efficiency of his base will far surpass that of other coating shops on the island and the G-1 Branch on the other side, which can be considered as indirectly increasing the speed at which Marine warships enter the New World.

However, regarding this bubble, Vidal had a somewhat exaggerated, but seemingly entirely feasible, idea pop into his mind.

[Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!]

When Vidal arrived at the base's Sports Field with his secretary following behind him, he first heard a series of rapid, muffled thuds, and then saw Dragon fighting Dragon.

"Wow!"

"Wow!"

A manatee wearing a navy cap, its round little face tense, darted around Dragon quickly. When it was behind the latter, it clenched its tiny fists and charged forward suddenly.

Unfortunately, Dragon seemed to have eyes in the back of its head, easily dodging its attack with a slight shift in its footing. The enraged manatee stopped, its cheeks puffed out, and kept bellowing at him.

"Ha ha!"

This immediately amused the marines watching the battle. Vidal walked over and laughed, "It's probably telling you, 'If you're so capable, don't hide, fight it head-on,' right, little manatee?"

"Wow!"

The manatee nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice. It really wanted to use the Door-Door Fruit's power, but Vidal had previously told it not to use it lightly.

"Okay, come on."

Dragon didn't refuse. He actually quite liked this Kung Fu Dugong that had taken the initiative to challenge him, and judging from the strength it had just displayed, it was already stronger than many lieutenants.

"Wow!"

An excited expression appeared on the manatee's face. Then it took a deep breath to regulate its breathing. The next second, its thick, long tail slammed against the ground, and it shot forward like an arrow, turning into a green afterimage.

[Bang--]

Faced with the manatee's tiny fist, Dragon didn't bully it. He extended his right index finger to meet it head-on. The little manatee turned red in the face and tried to shake the slender finger in front of it, but it didn't budge even when it was exhausted.

"Wow"

This left the manatee, who had retracted its fist and jumped back, feeling quite frustrated. It had trained so hard, so why couldn't it beat anyone?

"Haha, what's with that expression? You got Dragon to unleash the Haki Manatee, that's something to be proud of!" Vidal walked over, picked up the Manatee, and laughed loudly.

Although Dragon's finger wasn't Hardening black, it did have an aura of Coating, albeit a thin layer.

"Vidal, its punch just now felt somewhat familiar," Dragon said softly.

"Yeah, the Manatee practices Master Zephyr's 'Black Arm Fist Technique,' we got beaten up by him a lot back in the day, so it's normal that we're familiar with it," Vidal laughed.

"I see." Dragon asked thoughtfully, "Can animals also learn human martial arts?"

"Not only martial arts, but as far as I know, as long as their intelligence and physical strength are sufficient, they can even master Haki and swordsmanship."

For a moment, Vidal thought of the baboons on Kuraigana Island and in Wano Country. He discovered that in this world, most baboons had a high talent for swordsmanship, just like the Kung Fu Dugongs were very good at practicing physical skills and fist techniques.

Unfortunately, he himself is not good at swordsmanship, and it seems that he doesn't have anyone under his command who is particularly good at swordsmanship. Otherwise, he could have considered intercepting the baboons from Kuraigana Island before Mihawk. If trained properly, they would be a group of fighters with great potential, at least enough to guard the place.