All Is Fair in War

Inland on Bacchus Island, midway through the Primeval Forest.

Rumble!

A dull, thunderous crash came from the basin. A flock of startled birds burst into the sky like a black cloud. The ground shook violently beneath their feet, as if the island's very heart had taken a heavy blow.

The three people walking along the forest path stopped abruptly. They had just brought a hundred barrels of rum and some supplies back to the Lower Deck when the sudden tremor threw them off balance.

"What the hell was that? Is this island about to sink?"

Buggy wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"It came from the captain."

Sabo, walking in front, looked up at the scorching red glow still lingering over the basin and adjusted his top hat.

"Looks like he's found the real culprit. We need to hurry."

Just as the three were about to hurry through the woods, four or five dozen armed poachers in black suddenly emerged from the bushes ahead.

Their leader was a muscular bald man with a scar on his face and a heavy woodsman's axe slung over his shoulder. The moment he spotted Sabo and the others, a murderous glint flashed in his eyes.

"This is Lord Truv's territory. Kill these—"

"Too much talking. I don't have time for introductions."

The bald man hadn't even finished his line when Sabo stepped forward.

His deep-blue figure cut through the crowd.

Sabo didn't stop moving. He was in a hurry and had no interest in hearing these men introduce themselves.

Furious and startled, the bald man instinctively swung his axe down in a savage blow.

But Sabo didn't even try to dodge. He reached out with his right hand, coated in Armament Haki, and brought three fingers together to meet the blade head-on.

"Dragon Claw."

Clang!

A sharp ring rang out.

In the stunned gazes of everyone present, Sabo's three fingers squeezed cracks into the fine-steel axe, a weapon powerful enough to chop down an ancient tree.

Crack!

The cracks spread rapidly, and the entire axe shattered into scraps of metal.

Sabo followed through, reaching out to seize the man by the throat. Orange-red flames burst from his palm and swallowed the man whole in an instant.

Boom!

The flames exploded. The bald man barely managed half a scream before he was burned into a charred corpse and slammed heavily onto the roadside.

"The boss went down in one move?!"

The two remaining poacher officers were so terrified that their legs shook uncontrollably.

"Since you're in our way, I'll take care of you too."

Sabo turned his head, his voice calm.

"Buggy, hurry it up."

"What the hell! Getting used to ordering me around, are you?"

Buggy cursed, but his body was already moving to meet them with practiced ease.

"You frogs in a well have no idea how big the world is. I'll test my blade on you today!"

Seeing a Red Nose coming toward them, the two officers tried to take advantage of their numbers and attack from both sides.

The officer with the meteor hammer immediately raised a heavy fine-steel round shield to guard his entire body. The other gripped a pair of swords, ready to strike from the flank.

Buggy sneered, and his body instantly split apart.

His hands and forearms flew out in different directions. His shoulders and elbows shifted angles in midair, striking the shield one after another.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A series of dull impacts rang out against the shield.

"Idiot! With blows that weak, you think you can break through my defense?"

The meteor-hammer officer mocked him from behind the shield. Buggy's head, floating in midair, broke into a sinister grin.

"Who said I was trying to break through your shield?"

The two fists pounding against the shield suddenly split apart.

In the next instant, several fingers fitted with folding blades slipped around the edge of the shield. Thin blades sprang from the bottoms of their rings and stabbed viciously toward the man's eyes before he could react.

Squelch!

"AAAH! My eyes!"

The officer dropped his shield, clutching his face as he fell to the ground and rolled around in agony.

On the other side, the officer with the twin swords was scared out of his wits. He tried to retreat, but Buggy's scattered body parts had already quickly reassembled into the shape of his upper body.

A heavy iron fist slammed squarely into the man's chin.

Then—

Bang!

A gunshot echoed through the forest.

Carina, watching from behind, held her wrist perfectly steady.

The bullet pierced the twin-sword officer's knee with pinpoint accuracy, leaving him unable to fight back. He screamed and collapsed to his knees.

With their leaders falling one after another, the remaining dozens of grunts were already terrified out of their minds. They turned and tried to run.

"Too late!"

Buggy quickly landed and reassembled his whole body, laughing as he pulled out a red glass bead.

"Special Buggy Ball!"

He threw the bomb toward the densest part of the fleeing crowd.

Rumble!

A dazzling fireball erupted among the trees, sending a wave of heat and flying splinters and dirt across the forest. The elite poachers were swallowed by the flames, and their wails were soon drowned out by the explosion.

When the smoke cleared, the poacher force responsible for securing the perimeter had been completely wiped out. All that remained on the ground were broken branches and bodies sprawled in disarray.

"Easy!"

Buggy straightened his collar, raised his chin, and put on the air of an utterly self-important old hand.

"If we'd taken any longer, the captain's fight would've been over already."

Sabo praised him without reservation, then strode ahead, stepping over the wreckage in the woods.

"Tch. It was my covering fire that gave you the opening."

Carina neatly put away her Fire Pistol and hurried after them.

The three didn't stop again. They followed the cleared path and quickly made their way toward the basin in the depths of the forest.

When they pushed through the last layer of bushes and reached the edge of the basin, the sight before them stopped all three in their tracks.

The ground was cracked.

The basin, hundreds of meters across, looked as if it had just been struck by a devastating shower of tiny meteorites. Powerful shockwaves had flattened most of the ancient trees that had once grown thick there. The air still carried the pungent stench of scorched fur and soil.

At the very center of the huge crater, an Ancient Zoan wild boar as big as a small mountain lay on its side, foaming at the mouth.

Its proud, sturdy bristles had been burned to ash. Its body twitched a few times, and it had completely lost the ability to fight back.

At the edge of the crater, their black-haired captain stood quietly with his back to them.

Facing Ace, the tall, fiery red-haired cook held two bloodstained Bone-Cleaving Blades. Her gaze was fixed on him, filled with a mixture of shock and complicated emotions.

"Looks like we arrived just in time for dinner."

Sabo adjusted his top hat. Seeing Ace standing unharmed at the edge of the crater, he felt the pride and satisfaction of a member of the Eclipse Pirates.