As Darren began his charge, he strode forward, and the ground beneath his feet shook violently, blasting open into a crater as if struck by an invisible hammer. The earth sank, and dirt flew everywhere.
Under this inhuman burst of strength, Darren shot forward like a cannonball, wrapped in a raging hurricane. In the blink of an eye, he was upon them.
In an instant, Vinsmoke Judge felt a suffocating pressure bearing down on him. A bone-chilling cold crept up his spine, as though he had been targeted by a monstrous Sea King.
The Marine Captain radiated a murderous aura like a demon who had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Even the sea breeze seemed to reek of blood and iron!
"Kill!! Kill him for me!!"
Remembering the brutal methods this Marine used to suppress pirates, Vinsmoke Judge's eyes filled with blood as he shouted furiously.
At his command, dozens of Clone Soldiers around them snatched up their weapons and charged at Darren.
Two gleaming long swords slashed toward him. Darren's lips curled as he shifted lightly to one side.
The sharp blades skimmed past his body.
As they passed each other,
the Marine Captain's hands, like spears cast from steel, turned into blades. With astonishing speed, he thrust them viciously into the throats of two Clone Soldiers.
Spurt!!
Bright red blood sprayed into the air, and the Clone Soldiers' eyes quickly dimmed.
Without pausing for a moment,
Darren dispatched the two men before him with ease, then charged out again like a tiger breaking free from its cage.
With a body as tough as "Iron Body," he crashed headlong into the ranks of Clone Soldiers, charging through them like a tiger among sheep.
From a distance,
the densely packed army of Clone Soldiers surrounded the Marine Captain so completely that not even a drop of water could get through. From the center of the encirclement came the sounds of flesh being torn and bones snapping.
The warm corpses of Clone Soldiers flew out of the crowd and fell to the ground amid sprays of blood.
In less than ten seconds, the ground was stained red, and body parts littered the area.
Aboard the warship, Gion and Gion's partner watched from afar, shaken to their core, their faces filled with horror.
At that moment, Darren seemed to have become an efficient, precise killing machine.
Wherever he went, none of the Clone Soldiers—whose physiques surpassed ordinary people's several times over—could withstand his monstrous body and vicious close-quarters combat for even an instant. Anyone he touched died on the spot.
He swept through them like a storm, every part of his body turned into a deadly weapon, reaping lives at an astonishing speed.
Bullets, sabers, battle-axes, longswords... all kinds of weapons crashed down on him, yet they seemed to strike steel, throwing off sparks and leaving no more than faint red marks.
The blood-soaked Marine Captain laughed wildly, his snow-white coat of justice turning crimson behind him.
"That man... he's enjoying the thrill of slaughter."
Gion stared blankly at the Marine Captain's savage, unrestrained grin. She couldn't help recalling what had happened on the training ground yesterday.
When faced with her swordsmanship, which could "cut steel," Darren had chosen to take the blow head-on.
Now she saw that he hadn't been confident in his body's defenses. He was simply savoring the feeling of being on the brink of death, reveling in the slaughter!!
"Th-this... he's a madman!"
Gion gritted her teeth and couldn't help cursing under her breath.
Beside her, Gion's partner glanced at her and saw her staring blankly at Darren's back.
As if he had suddenly realized something, he spun around and hurriedly yelled at Momonga:
"Quick!! We have to join the fight too!!!"
"I'm going to knock Vinsmoke Judge flying!!"
Momonga was taken aback. He wasn't sure why the usually lazy, pigheaded Gion's partner had suddenly become so eager. He asked instinctively:
"Are you sure? Captain Darren doesn't like us interfering in his battles."
"He's enjoying himself right now... And according to our intelligence, Vinsmoke Judge, the commander of Germa 66, is very strong. The high-tech weapons he developed—"
Before he could finish, Gion's partner grabbed him by the collar of his uniform.
His face flushed red as he growled:
"Damn you, Momonga!! Do you even know who I am?!"
"I am the Headquarters' prodigy, Gion's partner!!"
"An insignificant Germa 66 could never be a match for me!!"
He let go and abruptly turned around. His small eyes darted about, and he glanced at Gion from the corner of his eye before solemnly facing Germa 66's forces. He gave a deliberately low chuckle.
"It's been a long time since my blood boiled like this..."
"I never expected a backwater place like North Blue to have anyone capable of putting this kind of pressure on a genius like me."
Watching Gion's partner's "dashing" figure, Momonga's mouth twitched.
He waved helplessly and made a military hand signal.
The Marines immediately sprang into action. The warship's engines roared at full power as it accelerated toward the Germa Kingdom's fleet.
Meanwhile, on the other side,
Clang!!
A crisp sound rang out, like metal striking metal.
Several steel swords crashed heavily into Darren's chest, sparks flying as they broke on impact.
The Clone Soldiers before him stared at the steel blades, now snapped in two in their hands, shock flashing through their eyes.
Although Vinsmoke Judge had stripped them of their sense of pain, and they feared neither death nor betrayal, they still possessed basic emotions.
But they couldn't understand why the man before them was tougher than the weapons they had forged from refined steel!
And it was obvious that, compared with the start of the battle, this Marine's defenses had grown even stronger!
"That should do it... As expected, real combat is the best way to improve."
Darren suddenly smiled.
According to his "Insight" talent, his physique and strength had both risen considerably during the battle, especially his physique, which had broken through the 60-point mark!
"Time to get down to business."
Now that his physique had reached 60 points, the Clone Soldiers' attacks no longer noticeably improved it.
Besides, these men had been stripped of their fear. They never tired and weren't afraid of death, so continuing to fight them would only waste time.
Thinking this, Darren licked his slightly chapped lips.
A sharp whistle sounded behind him.
Several Clone Soldiers leaped high into the air, gripping steel swords as they slashed at Darren's neck.
But in the next instant,
they were stunned to discover that their swords had stopped moving when they were still a handspan from the back of Darren's head.
Hummmmmm...
An oppressive silence fell over the area.
The swords suspended in midair trembled incessantly, humming.
Then,
no one saw the Marine Captain make a move.
Yet the ground beneath their feet suddenly stirred!
Steel bars erupted from the earth like black pythons, twisting and winding together like living creatures. They formed a dense black net that swept toward the Clone Soldiers.
They didn't even have time to react before the twisted, interwoven steel bars bound their bodies completely and yanked them down.
The bars pinned them in place, their ends driven deep into the ruined ground as they tightened around them.
Under Vinsmoke Judge's horrified, almost frozen gaze,
the hundreds of Clone Soldiers within a hundred meters of Darren
were all bound by steel bars that had "grown" out of the earth, which continued to tighten around them.
Blood gushed forth as the rust-covered bars tore through their skin and flesh.
In just a few seconds,
crimson blood flowed across the ground. Their bodies were pierced and mangled by the twisting steel bars, their limbs crushed and their organs spilling everywhere.
The entire battlefield fell silent.
The highest-ranking Marine in North Blue stood amid a wasteland of blood-red corpses,
countless steel bars dancing around him like black serpents,
like a devil who had walked straight out of hell.
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