Man-Made Disaster

Chapter 10: Man-Made Natural Disaster

Ten thousand meters above.

A figure darted through the dense, dark clouds, stirring the entire sky with its hands.

BOOM!

Vast amounts of mist were conjured out of thin air by the figure.

The thick cloud layer was whipped into a massive dark mass by the figure's speed, which surpassed the speed of sound.

At an altitude of ten thousand meters, the clouds were constantly piling up.

As the heavy dark clouds slowly descended in the sky due to their own gravity.

The figure then continuously flew out from within them.

In the dark cloud mass, where the balance had been broken, water droplets were squeezed out.

And as these water droplets began to gather and drip down from the uppermost layer of the dark clouds.

Due to the cold air at ten thousand meters, these condensed water masses were immediately frozen into giant hailstones the moment they detached from the cloud layer.

The dark clouds were constantly being depleted in the sky, while the figure continuously created clouds.

From a distance, it looked as if a natural disaster was descending.

Yet, the figure constantly leaping in the sky seemed to be enjoying itself immensely.

Artificial rain and hail were occurring in the sky.

And directly beneath these dark clouds, the Krol Kingdom was experiencing an unprecedented disaster.

Hailstones the size of watermelons, or even water vats, were falling with the acceleration of gravity, no less potent than meteorites descending from the heavens.

A pirate who was just moments ago full of life might, in the next instant, be smashed to pieces by the falling hailstones.

The Krol Kingdom was now completely shrouded in a hail storm.

In the face of this natural disaster, pirates and civilians alike were all equal.

Of course, the ones primarily being hit by the hail were the pirates.

This was because, among the civilians of the Krol Kingdom, the brave ones had already been killed off during Patches' attack.

As for the cowardly and fearful ones, with the constant influx of pirates from other regions into the country in recent days.

These individuals had either joined pirate crews to aid and abet evil, or they were taken as captives and abused by the pirates.

In any case, this subordinate nation of the World Government was now predominantly populated by pirates.

"Help, help me!

I don't want to die yet.

Uh, can someone help me move this gatepost?"

A pirate was trapped beneath a collapsing house.

His former comrades, running around in all directions seeking cover, ignored his cries for help.

In the face of death, all beings were equal; no matter how loudly they shouted about brotherhood in the past.

When truly facing such a deadly natural disaster, wasn't everyone only looking out for themselves?

The hailstones in the sky grew larger and larger. Initially, they were only the size of apples, then they became the size of watermelons, then water vats, and now some hailstones were even comparable in size to carriages.

This unprecedented natural disaster filled everyone with despair. However, the eyes of the tormented civilians revealed a hint of relieved ease.

Vast quantities of hailstones continuously pounded the territory of the Krol Kingdom in the dark night.

The pirates, who were usually ferocious and arrogant, now let out miserable screams.

This was a silent, fireless, extermination massacre.

Tonight was destined to be a long night of cold and bloodshed.

If the past few days had been hell for the citizens of the Krol Kingdom, then tonight, the scene of that hell had descended upon these pirates.

"Damn it, what in the world is going on? Why is this hail so big!"

Standing atop the royal palace, which had been reduced to ruins by the hailstones.

Patches looked at the hellish scene before him with a grim expression.

His subordinates, who had been like wolves and tigers just a moment ago, were almost instantly smashed into puddles of blood.

Cries for help and screams of agony filled the entire kingdom.

As large amounts of hail continued to fall.

Patches' heart grew as cold as the temperature.

Just moments before, he had felt like he was at the pinnacle of his life, but now this hail had directly shattered his arrogant dreams into pieces.

His loyal subordinates from the past were now desperately crying for help under the hail.

And those so-called new core members who had pledged allegiance were also in a sorry state under this disaster.

The hailstones in the sky were showing signs of getting bigger and bigger.

Patches, realizing something was wrong, clutched his aching chest and began shouting loudly, calling all his subordinates to prepare to retreat and flee.

This level of natural disaster was not something humans could withstand.

Although Patches was powerful and would be fine here, his subordinates, if they remained, would be annihilated 100%.

He cast a reluctant glance at the royal palace destroyed by the hailstones, and at the beauty buried beneath it.

The core members of the Black Eagle Pirates quickly gathered around Patches, braving the hailstones from the sky.

A hawk's cry echoed in the dark night.

Patches, originally two meters tall, suddenly grew in size, transforming into a black eagle circling above the royal palace.

Zoan-type Devil Fruit users naturally possessed powerful bodies.

His wings, as hard as iron, collided with the hailstones falling from the sky.

Beneath his wings at this moment seemed to be the only place of refuge for the pirates.

The pirates who were still alive all fled to the area beneath Patches' protection.

Ten thousand meters above the sky, through the Echo Map.

Roy could roughly judge a portion of the situation below.

Within the giant mass of dark clouds, a hailstone larger than an ordinary warship was being lifted by Roy and continuously condensing.

"Oh, you want to run away with just this much? A bunch of clueless fools, you might as well stay here and be smashed to death by the hail!"

Roy aimed the giant hailstone and blasted it down.

"Everyone, hurry up and keep up! We're almost at the port. As long as we reach the sea, these hailstones won't threaten us anymore."

The group of battered pirates no longer had the arrogance they had moments before.

Now, they were nothing more than a pack of defeated dogs relying on their captain for survival under the hail.

"Ro, Rode, look at that."

Among the fleeing pirates, one pointed to the sky and shouted to his companion with a tremor in his voice.

His mouth agape, swallowing repeatedly, he couldn't believe his eyes at all.

"H-how can there be hailstones this big?"

A hailstone larger than a ship, no, a small iceberg.

It was falling from the sky, smashing down directly above the pirates.

The acceleration due to gravity gave the iceberg an almost unstoppable force.

What was even more deadly was that this iceberg was not the only one.

Patches, flying in the air, could see with his eagle's eyes that this wasn't just one iceberg, but ten!