Steel Skin

On these seas, where sailing ships served as the main warships, long-distance voyages were quite difficult.

Without islands along the way to resupply and make repairs, it was hard to support a large fleet on a long voyage. That was why Venkura had ordered the landing. If they didn't seize Whale Tail Island and merely wiped out its fleet, they wouldn't have to worry about anyone sabotaging them from behind.

But the price of doing so would be a supply line several times longer.

The enormous logistical burden would cripple the entire fleet.

So,

whether they liked it or not, they had to launch a land invasion.

At Ghost Sword Venkura's command, wave after wave of Amento Kingdom soldiers and pirates from all corners set foot on land. Like a mass of dark insects, they swarmed toward the tower standing alone amid the ruins outside the harbor.

There were more than fifty warships, though they weren't all large vessels of the same class.

The largest flagships carried nearly a thousand sailors and soldiers, while the next class down could hold more than seven hundred. The most numerous were the third-class warships, each with a full five hundred aboard. Even after accounting for the sailors who had to stay behind to operate the ships, the soldiers and pirates landing on the island still numbered an enormous force.

A full twenty thousand men had landed on Whale Tail Island.

As the saying went, once a crowd reached ten thousand, it stretched as far as the eye could see.

Standing atop the tower and looking down at the densely packed throng, crawling like ants, was quite a fascinating feeling. Especially when every last one of them had come to take your life. That made the blood surge all the more.

"There sure are a lot of them!"

Aleus stood on the terrace, gazing down at the sea of bobbing heads. Pirates shouted as they hacked at the tower's gate with their swords, while disciplined soldiers raised their pistols and pulled the triggers, aiming at Aleus on the terrace.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!!!"

The bullets flew into the sky.

But,

they had no effect at all.

Aleus swept out a hand and knocked every incoming bullet aside with his bare hands. As a user of the [Zoan: Mythical Zoan: Bat Fruit: Black Winged Great Demon Form], he had perfectly inherited all the Black-Winged Great Demon's abilities with the Hogyoku's help. One of the most basic was [Steel Skin].

Steel Skin was armor-like skin that swords and blades couldn't pierce. It was said to possess the hardness of high Spirit Pressure, making ordinary attacks useless against it.

There was nothing surprising about stopping bullets with his bare hands.

He could even stand still and take cannon fire head-on without a problem. He had tested it in the Royal Palace: without using Armament Haki, ordinary physical attacks couldn't break through [Steel Skin] at all.

Only rare blades like Great Grade Swords and Supreme Grade Swords could pierce Steel Skin without the aid of Armament Haki.

The Ekmondo Kingdom had a Great Grade Sword in its collection.

"Boom!"

The gate beneath the tower was destroyed.

But it hadn't been broken from the outside in. It had been smashed from the inside out.

The noise of clanging and banging at the entrance had infuriated the maid, who kicked the thick ironwood gate, wrapped in iron sheets, to pieces. Splintered wood sent the pirates gathered at the entrance howling in pain. But that wasn't the end of it. Fran was no one you could just brush off when she was angry.

"You're too noisy."

That was all she said.

Then she drove out a punch. A gale-force blast swept across the area, and the unlucky pirates and soldiers caught in its path were blown all the way back into the sea. In the middle of that sea of people, she had opened up a broad avenue.

"Fran, those are my prey!"

On the terrace,

Aleus shouted furiously.

"Don't you dare—" Before he could get the word "attack" out, a dark shadow appeared behind Fran. A lanky man, thin as a bamboo pole, swung his three-meter-long serrated blade down toward her neck.

"Clang!"

Fran blocked the descending serrated blade with her arm.

A faint, golden-red veil, as if both real and illusory, wrapped around the maid's arm. This insubstantial-looking layer had stopped the serrated blade dead, despite its coating of Armament Haki.

"Gazette, the Skull Hunter, with a bounty of 103 million."

Fran recited the name of the bamboo-thin man.

A smile appeared on her pretty face.

She tilted her head up toward Aleus on the terrace and called, "Your Highness, I wasn't the one who attacked first this time. This was self-defense."

With that,

she drove a swift straight punch with her left hand.

With blinding speed, she slammed it into Gazette's stomach. The Skull Hunter, still astonished by Fran's strength, was caught completely off guard. That heavy, cannonball-like fist nearly killed him. He had only survived because he'd used Armament Haki in time.

But even that surprise attack had thoroughly enraged the vicious pirate, notorious for his obsession with collecting the heads of his enemies.

"I'll cut off your head and peel off your scalp!"

Gazette roared and swung his gleaming serrated blade in fury.

"The Skull Hunter? What an idiot!"

After glancing at the fool below the tower, raging impotently, Aleus looked away. He turned around, rested his elbows on the battlements, and looked up at the man who had appeared at the top of the tower. "Ghost Sword Venkura, since you went to all the trouble of sneaking up here, why not hurry up and attack?"

"Crown Prince Sokachio Aleus of the Ekmondo Kingdom... The reports I saw said you were skilled at political maneuvering, but not particularly strong yourself... It seems our intelligence agents made a serious mistake."

Venkura held the slender rapier in his hand.

He didn't rush to attack Aleus. He had even stopped the soldiers below from shooting at him.

"Your Highness, surrender. If you can persuade your father to hand this country over to Lord Umit, I can offer your family a way to survive on Lord Umit's behalf."

"...You're trying to persuade me to surrender?"

Aleus blinked, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. What was this supposed to be?

"What? Do you think I'm being too arrogant? Or do you believe that having [Beautiful Sword] and [Fighting Dog] is enough to stop Lord Umit's will? Let me tell you, that's impossible. Even if you fly Whitebeard's flag, you still won't be able to block Lord Umit's advance."

"If you don't want to be crushed to dust, if you don't want your family erased from history, then—"

"You're so long-winded!"

Aleus was getting tired of listening.

Honestly... what stale, unimaginative nonsense!

"...It seems you won't be able to make a sufficiently wise judgment until you learn the true face of this world, Your Highness."

Venkura leaped down from the tower roof.

A cold, pale streak of swordlight traced an unbelievable arc through the air, then lunged toward Aleus's kidney from an impossible angle.