A few minutes later, the tsunami Whitebeard had unleashed, which Admiral Aokiji had frozen and some meddlesome brat had heated until it melted, finally began to recede after raging for quite some time.
But once the seawater withdrew and the bay gradually grew calm again, all that remained at Marineford was a complete and utter mess.
At this point, it was easy to see from the sky:
The one hundred thousand elite Marines who had packed the harbor plaza shoulder to shoulder had long since been swept away by the tsunami, leaving countless people sprawled across the ground in every direction.
Even counting those who could barely crawl back to their feet alongside those still lying across the plaza, fewer than one in ten remained!
Likewise, beyond the crescent-shaped bay, the forty-three pirate ships in Whitebeard's fleet and the Navy's fifty vessels had all vanished beneath the aftermath of the huge waves. Only a few ships could be seen scattered here and there across the distant sea.
At this point, fewer than half of the ships from both sides were still afloat or otherwise intact.
The pirates' coated ships had fared better. The quick-witted ones had already submerged again, avoiding the tsunami and its deadly aftershocks. Those who hadn't been so clever had ended up like some of the Navy's ships: swept far away, capsized at sea, or smashed into countless fragments before sinking to the bottom.
As a result, corpses, planks, crates, barrels, and all manner of debris were now floating everywhere on the surface.
Naturally, the corpses drifting faceup or facedown across the sea did not all come from the ships on either side. Judging by their clothing, it was easy to tell that a great many of them had likely come from the one hundred thousand elite