Taunting Shout

Commander Hammer's head fell to the ground.

All his "precious" life experience was converted into experience points for Garen.

Smoker, however, remained motionless, simply standing with his back to Garen and smoking.

The thick cigar in Smoker's mouth quickly burned down to a stub under his heavy breaths, but for once, he didn't reach for another.

The ever-present cigar smoke gradually dissipated, and Garen found himself unaccustomed to the fresh air without the secondhand smoke.

"Smoker!"

Garen walked over and gently patted Smoker on the shoulder:

"Don't let the words of guys like that get to you!"

"Twisted beyond recognition, yet shamelessly trying to impart 'life experience' to the younger generation."

"If the seas were full of such 'clever people,' this world would truly be beyond saving."

Garen displayed a look of genuine disgust, then said with a straight face:

"As Marines who uphold justice, what you need to do is—"

"Never forget your original intention, and keep your mission firmly in mind!"

"I understand."

Smoker's tone was stiff.

Garen was still a little worried, and continued to ask:

"Then why aren't you even smoking?"

Smoker gave Garen a strange look: "I finished it."

"Uh..."

Garen, addicted to Talk no Jutsu, blushed slightly: "Never mind I said anything."

The problem with people is that they like to be teachers. Garen's self-righteous Talk no Jutsu was useless on someone like Smoker, an adult with an independent personality and a mature worldview.

Even if Garen hadn't stepped in, Smoker's Jitte would have smashed into Hammer's head.

After all, he was the kind of uninhibited person who would even hit his superiors when he got angry.

Commander Hammer was decapitated by Garen's greatsword, and Lieutenant Charles, who had taken a full-force blow from Smoker's Jitte, was struggling on the border between animal and plant. At this moment, the corrupt garrison of Loguetown was leaderless.

However, the chaos at the Loguetown base continued, even more intense than when Commander Hammer was in charge.

The execution and death of their leader did not make those corrupt Marine scum surrender; instead, it aroused their ferocity to fight to the death for survival.

Surrender meant eating prison food;

A desperate gamble meant the boundless sea outside the base, where all scum could enjoy unlimited freedom.

Tashigi and her thirty Marine Headquarters soldiers were blocking the base's main entrance, still fiercely fighting the corrupt Marines who had the advantage in numbers.

Flames suddenly erupted in the Loguetown base, and the sounds of gunfire, shouts, screams, and clashing metal rose and fell like waves.

Smoker spat out his cigarette butt, grabbed his heavy Jitte, and turned into a cloud of smoke, soaring into the sky.

And Garen, without hesitation, picked up his greatsword and ran towards the source of the noise.

Besides wanting to collect more experience points from the grunts, Garen also wanted to take the opportunity to test his new skill—

After killing the powerful Commander Hammer, Garen received a very generous experience point reward, which he used to level up to level five in one go.

Then came the System's familiar prompt:

Random Reward Draw
You have received a random reward: Skill [Taunting Shout].

This skill comes from the Armordillo Rammus in the game, but its skill effect, like Garen's other skills, is slightly different from the game:

"Taunt a unit, forcing the target to attack you for 2 seconds."
"Limited range of 30 meters."

Far from the original skill description in his memory, Garen vaguely sensed that the effect of this [Taunting Shout] in reality should be very different from the game.

With the idea of experimenting with the skill, Garen quickly rushed to a battlefield where a small-scale battle was still taking place, carrying his greatsword.

Several Marine Headquarters soldiers who had charged in with Tashigi were fighting hard against the bloodthirsty corrupt Marines, completely unaware that a powerful reinforcement had already arrived at their side.

And this powerful reinforcement didn't pick up his greatsword and start hacking people as usual, but instead stood by and carefully observed the battle.

Garen's eyes flickered, and finally locked onto a burly man who was fighting a Marine Headquarters soldier at close range with a large blade.

Garen used [Taunting Shout] in his mind, and couldn't help but shout at the unlucky guy:

"You scoundrel! Come and chop me!"

"Huh?"

Everyone present was slightly stunned.

If the skill effect in the game was anything to go by, that guy should turn around and rush towards him immediately...

Garen thought to himself.

Then, A gunshot rang out, and the bullet struck Garen's armor squarely.

The first reaction of the burly man with the sword after Garen's Taunting Shout was to drop his blade, draw a flintlock pistol from his waist, and fire at Garen in the distance.

Garen was slightly taken aback, and then understood the hidden meaning of the skill: it only forced the target to attack him, but did not limit the opponent's method of attack.

Garen couldn't help but feel a little disappointed:

In the game, Rammus' Taunting Shout could force opponents to only use basic attacks, forcing a bunch of squishy mages to personally engage in hand-to-hand combat with a tanky armadillo, its control power was naturally self-evident.

His Taunting Shout didn't seem as powerful as he had imagined.

However, Garen quickly changed his view of the skill.

The two-second duration of

Taunting Shout

hadn't even ended, and the unlucky guy who was hit by it reloaded his ammunition like a madman after firing a shot, posing with a fierce aura as if he was desperately trying to get another shot at Garen.

But the Marine soldier who had just been fighting him at close range with a big knife hadn't left yet.

After a brief moment of astonishment, the Marine soldier quickly reacted and slashed at the unlucky guy with his sword.

At such close range, with the big sword swinging towards him, the unlucky guy didn't seem to see it at all.

He only thought about attacking Garen again.

But the corrupt Marine's face was clearly written with fear and panic, obviously not without his senses.

It seemed that there was an absolute existence in the dark manipulating his will, forcing him to attack Garen by any means possible.

The blade fell from his shoulder, directly crippling half of his arm, and blood splattered everywhere.

The corrupt Marine, with his arm severed, immediately let out an uncontrollable scream of pain, his facial muscles contorting violently from the pain.

But even so, he still struggled relentlessly, trying to attack Garen in the distance.

It wasn't until the two-second duration ended that he collapsed into the pool of blood with a look of horror, and instantly passed out due to his serious injuries.

The whole process

Looked like an extremely terrifying horror movie.

As the user of the skill, even Garen himself felt a chill run down his spine.

The scene was silent.

Garen, the Marine, and the corrupt Marines looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

The twelve-second cooldown of

Taunting Shout

ended without anyone noticing.

Garen silently looked at another enemy grunt and muttered in his heart, "Taunting Shout!"

The unlucky guy number two suddenly froze, and involuntarily picked up his knife and rushed towards Garen.

"What, what's going on?!"

He shouted in panic, but couldn't help but think about attacking Garen in his mind.

It was an extremely contradictory and terrifying experience.

Knowing the danger and wanting to avoid it, his brain was firmly occupied by a completely different thought:

He had to find a way to land a blow on that bastard!

In order to attack Garen, he abandoned all defense and all evasion.

The Marine behind him quickly raised his musket and sent a bullet to unlucky guy number two.

He screamed and fell to the ground.

However, even as he lay paralyzed in the pool of blood, he still struggled to grab a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it at Garen from afar.

The second person died on the way to attack Garen.

The scene was dead silent.

This method of distorting people's will out of thin air was too strange and terrifying.

After a few seconds, the remaining enemy grunts all knelt on the ground and cried out:

"Spare us! Don't curse me!"

"Uh..."

Garen waved his hand at the Marines: "Leave them to you."

"Yes, yes!"

The Marine soldiers nodded hastily in agreement.

Garen turned to leave, but a familiar voice rang out beside him:

"You..."

"How did you do that?"

It was Smoker who spoke.

After Smoker elementalized, he quickly and thoroughly wiped out the rebels in various parts of the base.

When he finished his patrol and arrived here, he happened to witness this bizarre scene.

"This..."

Stumped by Smoker's question, Garen had no choice but to attribute everything to the non-existent Devil Fruit:

"This is also part of my Knight Fruit's power."

"Knight Fruit?"

Smoker questioned with disbelief:

"How is any of this like a knight's ability?"

"That invisibility from before was already underhanded enough, and now this is even more..."

"Ahem..."

Garen explained with a straight face:

"As the saying goes: In deploying troops, avoid the solid and strike the empty."

"Invisibility and substitution are precisely how a knight applies military tactics!"

"As for just now..."

Garen paused for a moment, finally gathering his words:

"Candlelight is silent, yet moths come willingly."

"The reason they were so frantically trying to cut me down..."

"Is probably because I'm too outstanding."