Sakazuki's Appreciation and Satisfaction!

More than a hundred people aboard the entire pirate ship collapsed into pools of blood, clutching their throats, in barely ten seconds. Shiryu stood among the corpses with a satisfied expression, his murderous gaze sweeping toward the remaining pirate ships.

[Boom! Boom! Boom!]

The warship carrying Sakazuki began exchanging cannon fire with the seven pirate ships. Black cannonballs, heated red-hot, screamed through the air, either crashing into the sea and sending towering columns of water skyward or smashing into hulls and exploding into huge bursts of flame.

In particular, the triple-barreled turret at the warship's bow completely outclassed the pirate ships in range, firing speed, and accuracy. The defense of its hull was even more vastly superior; even taking several cannonballs head-on only left shallow marks, causing no impact whatsoever on the Marines aboard.

Sakazuki still stood with his arms folded across his chest. He appeared to be watching the struggling pirates in the distance, but his gaze had actually remained fixed on Shiryu.

In his eyes, Shiryu had just leaped from the first pirate ship and then skimmed across the sea at incredible speed, leaving afterimages in his wake. Whenever his body began to descend, he lightly stepped on a wave, using the force of the splash exploding beneath his foot to continue rushing forward at high speed.

Sakazuki was also an expert proficient in Rokushiki. At a glance, he could tell that Shiryu was using Geppo, except instead of stepping on air, he was stepping on ocean waves.

Compared to air, waves were actually easier to step on.

Then Shiryu jumped onto the second pirate ship and began another round of bloody slaughter, making Sakazuki frown slightly.

It was not that he had any objection to killing pirates. He simply felt that Shiryu's method was far too inefficient.

If it had been him, a single Great Eruption would have swallowed every pirate ship whole long ago!

Shiryu clearly possessed the strength of a Swordsman. Logically, he should have been capable of unleashing Flying Slashes to swiftly cut ships in half. Perhaps he could not split all seven ships with one strike, but one ship per strike should not have been a problem, right?

From the current situation, if Shiryu kept killing them ship by ship, one or two ships would escape in the end.

However, before those pirate ships sailed beyond Sakazuki's attack range, he had no intention of interfering early.

At most, it would take one or two Anti-Air Magma Bombs. With the predictive sensing of Observation Haki, he could easily strike massive targets like ships with precision.

In this regard, even the warship beneath his feet was far inferior to him!

But as a commander, he could not personally act in every situation. Soldiers fought soldiers, commanders fought commanders—there was a reason for that. As a commander, he could not blindly steal his subordinates' merits.

On Shiryu's side, he slashed through a charging pirate, cutting both man and sword in half. He watched excitedly as the head behind the broken blade slid diagonally down and a pillar of blood shot into the sky.

Awesome!!

When he turned around, the ground behind him was already littered with corpses and pools of blood.

"Vice Admiral Akainu, CP5 hidden within the Medal Kingdom has sent a detailed report!" A Major on the warship ran over and reported loudly.

He had no choice but to raise his voice. Otherwise, the whistling of cannonballs flying through the air and the explosions that followed would easily drown him out.

"Let's hear it," Sakazuki said in a low voice.

"Most of these pirates were civilians of that country. Their leader is named Cas, formerly a mid-ranking officer in the royal army. Two weeks ago, his wife and daughter were taken by Viscount Caldwell of that country, and one week ago, they were sold to a slave company."

"For this reason, Cas led his trusted soldiers and incited civilians who had long been dissatisfied with the nobles to rebel. They first seized the royal army's warships at the docks, then raised pirate flags they had prepared in advance on the masts. Under the name of the Cas Pirates, they attacked the royal army, looted all the food and treasure from the dock warehouses, and bombarded the upper district where the royal family and nobles lived for nearly half an hour. It is said that the area is now a field of ruins, with the nobles suffering heavy casualties."

After hearing yet another case of nobles driving soldiers and civilians into rebellion, Sakazuki fell silent for a moment before coldly spitting out a single word.

"Idiot!"

The Major from Marine Headquarters thought he was cursing that noble, so he did not dare say anything more.

"That idiot named Cas not only got himself killed, but also everyone who followed him," Sakazuki said as he watched the pirate ships being slaughtered by Shiryu in the distance.

"If he hadn't raised the pirate flag, this matter would have had little to do with us Marines."

The Major suddenly understood. That's right. If Cas hadn't raised the pirate flag, they wouldn't have been pirates, but an internal conflict in the Medal Kingdom. Naturally, it wouldn't have drawn the Marines here to arrest them.

According to the laws of the World Government, the Marines had no authority to intervene in the internal conflicts of affiliated nations without authorization.

Unless that country's king first applied to the World Government for aid, after which the State Council would review CIPHER POL's investigative intelligence and decide, after discussion, whether to assist that country.

If assistance was approved, Marine Headquarters would be notified to dispatch troops. Then the Navy Fleet Admiral would have to submit information on the key rebels to the relevant departments to determine their bounties and prepare their wanted posters.

Finally, they would have to consider what rank of officers to dispatch and how large a fleet to send.

Even at the fastest, this entire process would take one or two days. Adding travel time, it would take at least three or four days. If the country was farther away, it would take even longer.

Clearly, the king of the Medal Kingdom understood these rules very well, so he directly called the Marines and claimed that a large number of pirates were attacking his country.

This effectively skipped all the previous cumbersome procedures. The Marines only needed to notify nearby warships to rush over.

But what was the truth?

Cas and his group had only just raised the pirate flag. They themselves had not been given bounties by the Marines.

Then could they be considered pirates?

Yes.

Because they had raised a pirate flag. According to Marine regulations, as long as a ship flew a pirate flag or had a skull painted on its sails, it was a pirate ship. They could be arrested even without bounties; at most, the bounties could be added afterward. They might not even need bounties at all, considering they had already been captured.

So it could not really be said that Cas and the others were unjustly slaughtered by Shiryu. It was simply as Sakazuki had said—they were too stupid, while that king was too clever.

While the warship crew was learning the details of this mission, Shiryu's famed blade Raiu had already slaughtered all the pirates aboard five ships.

But just as Sakazuki had predicted, two ships had gradually sailed away—or rather, were desperately fleeing for their lives.

Magma began flowing from his right arm, while billowing black smoke curled into the blue sky. As crimson magma dripped onto the deck, a thick scent of sulfur spread through the air.

[Bzzzz!!]

Just as Sakazuki was preparing to act, a broad, crimson slash suddenly appeared. It raced over the sea at an astonishing speed, severing the main masts and sails of the two pirate ships in an instant.

Once the sails fell into the sea, the ships could no longer harness the wind, and their speed quickly slowed. Before long, they drifted aimlessly with the waves, becoming nothing more than enormous wooden coffins on the ocean.

The more than two hundred people aboard could only watch in despair as that bloodthirsty devil drew closer.

Before long, miserable screams and cries of battle rang out once again. Yet they lasted only about half a minute before the sea fell silent once more.

"Very good!"

Sakazuki's eyes were filled with appreciation. He had originally considered making Onigumo his adjutant, but this Shiryu was also quite good.

Since they had raised the pirate flag and intended to form a pirate crew, they deserved to die. They had no right to continue breathing air.

Pirates were all trash that deserved to die!

Time to invest more—invest 1,000 Qidian Coins, and you can earn at least 3,000 Qidian Coins!