Due to Maud's forceful intervention.
The elite Marines led by Vice Admiral Tsuru, who had thought victory was within their grasp, suffered an extremely devastating loss.
Any Marine who could participate in this war had to be at least a Marine Colonel, and most could use Armament Haki.
Yet even so, these Marine elites, who could apply Armament Haki to both offense and defense, were utterly routed in an instant before Maud's slashes wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, attacks that showed no concern whatsoever for expenditure.
And after Smoker was felled by a single slash from Maud, Hina was restrained by the Shadow Clone as well.
In this small-scale encirclement battle, apart from Smoker and Hina, the only Marines still capable of fighting were two colonels, three commodores, and Vice Admiral Tsuru, who had taken to the sky with Geppo to pursue Jaya.
Their overwhelming advantage in combat strength had practically been wiped out.
This was a result Vice Admiral Tsuru could never have anticipated.
After all—
In terms of combat strength alone, every Marine in Marine Headquarters had absolute confidence in an admiral.
And as someone who often participated in planning military operations, Vice Admiral Tsuru knew all too well the combat value an admiral could bring to a war.
Thus, from that perspective, her confidence in Kizaru might not have been blind, but she still believed the probability of something going wrong on Kizaru's side was virtually zero.
But the cruel reality had slapped her hard across the face.
Kizaru, one of the top combat powers on her side whom she trusted, had not only failed to suppress Maud, but could not even restrain him.
Before this result emerged, how could the Marines have believed it?
This was a Marine Headquarters admiral!
Now, look back at Marshal Sakazuki and