Faced with the incoming barrage of cannonballs, they had to keep intercepting them to ensure the ship's safety.
Under such circumstances, once the pirates became exhausted from dealing with them, the well-rested Marine soldiers would naturally hold the advantage in the ensuing boarding battle.
In battles at sea, the Marines generally held the advantage thanks to the might of their warships. After all, warship technology had been developed through the research and craftsmanship of countless shipwrights.
Of course, the ships that warships could crush did not include the vessels of people like Luffy or the Four Emperors.
That said, while powerful individuals could reverse the weather and alter the outcome of a battle, generally superior ships remained a strategic advantage that would not be diminished by a few individuals.
Moreover, elite warships combined with cannon fire could create an even more terrifying force: the Buster Call!
This slaughter, which used cannon fire to blanket and bombard an entire island, was one of the Marines' deterrents. It required a massive fleet and devastating firepower to destroy an entire island.
"Target spotted! Pirates matching the report at twelve o'clock ahead! Gunners, fire!"
Orders were swiftly relayed across the deck.
After judging factors such as wind direction and distance, the gunners turned their cannons toward the pirate ship and unleashed the most brutal bombardment upon that weak, pitiful, helpless vessel!
Densely packed cannon muzzles continuously spat fire.
After adjusting their angles, the round black cannons erupted with earth-shaking roars once more, spewing flames and shells toward the distant pirate ship.
Still, as the saying went, for every scheme, there was a countermeasure. Faced with the Marines' cannonball-first tactics, most pirates had a trick or two for stopping cannonballs with their bare hands.
After all, that was a basic skill every pirate needed to master! Heavy fog.
A pirate who could not stop cannonballs barehanded was not a qualified pirate.
As an outstanding pirate, you could be unable to beat your enemies. You could even be a pet worth only fifty Beli aboard the ship.
But once you boarded a pirate ship, you had to know how to use your bare hands, abilities, slashes, gunfire, tools, or some other method to destroy the incoming cannonballs before they wrecked the ship.
This was basic pirate training. If you could not even block a few waves of Marine cannon fire, what kind of pirate were you?!
However, this time, these pirates truly became "the shame of pirates."
Because they had the terrible misfortune of encountering the fleet escorting Pirate King Roger.
And even as merely the vanguard, their combined firepower surpassed that of a Buster Call!
Fortunately, after nearly half of the enemy pirate ship had been destroyed, the bombardment stopped.
That was because the ship was too weak, so it had been chosen as the target for Dawn and the others' first battle.
With Dawn and the other young calves aboard, ready to test their skills, the pirates on that ship had found a blessing amid disaster—because their opponents were rookies like Dawn and the others, they still had a chance to survive, be captured, and get sent to Impel Down to pick up soap.
"Prepare for battle!"
Watching the ships draw closer, the young calves who knew no fear eagerly prepared themselves.
Meanwhile, aboard the trembling pirate ship—
"Captain Cabron! A Marine warship is approaching us from ahead!!" Amid the panicked pirates, the lookout cried out fearfully through his monocular.
The broken pirate ship, whose sails had been destroyed by cannon fire, still flew a half-burned pirate flag.
The half-destroyed black skull flag still fluttered brazenly in the air, but its owner had already turned into a complete coward.
Cabron had merely been one of the lucky ones from the North Sea. Relying on his exceptional physique, he had formed a pirate crew.
Yet after arriving in the Grand Line, he had quickly suffered a harsh blow, just like countless other rookies.
Once Cabron recognized reality, he promptly joined a major organization through an introduction from an associate and became an honorable slave trader.
As a slave trader, Cabron had lived quite well.
There was more than enough money for an entire ship to squander, and as captain, he enjoyed the most luxurious life. Women were never in short supply either; whenever he took a liking to one during a slave capture, he sampled her himself first.
However, Cabron knew his own strength well enough. He had always cautiously operated around the first half of the Grand Line, only ever capturing ordinary people incapable of resistance.
This time, the reason Cabron had traveled far from the islands bordering the Four Seas was that his superiors had captured a large number of slaves and ordered him to take on part of the shipment and transport them to Sabaody.
Cabron had actually been cautious enough about this assignment, but the thing he feared most had happened anyway. The moment he left his familiar territory, he ran straight into this massive Marine fleet!
"Prepare to surrender... At least we can keep our lives." Cabron spoke with difficulty, his face twisted viciously.
"On that ship—there seem to be only a few soldiers! The rest are just brats!" the Vice Captain in charge of lookout duty shouted, clutching his telescope.
"Hm? Let me see." Cabron snatched the telescope from his hand and looked toward the ship his subordinate had indicated.
"Those damned Marines actually sent a bunch of brats over here! They're using us as whetstones?"
Cabron was fairly clever. Otherwise, he would not have decisively found himself a patron and become a slave trader after recognizing reality.
"Perfect. We're already surrounded, and it looks like they have no intention of taking us alive. These brats are our only way out." Cabron's voice was grim.
No matter how much he followed his heart, Cabron could not suppress his anger when he saw the Marines send a group of children against them.
Realizing that escape was absolutely impossible beneath this enormous fleet, Cabron regarded those children as his only chance to get away.
"All crew members, hear my orders! Make sure these brats learn what terror means! We need to capture them alive if we want to survive, so don't strike to kill!"
Watching the warship steadily approach, Cabron revealed a savage grin. With madness in his eyes, he said, "Make these brats our talismans and carve out a path to survival for us!"
"Ooohhh!"
Driven into a corner, the pirates aboard erupted with tremendous vigor. In pursuit of their final sliver of hope, everyone went mad.
"Men, kill them all!"
Bang!
Before he could even look cool for three seconds, Dawn used the explosive speed of Shave to appear in midair the instant the slogan left Cabron's mouth. His not-too-large fist, wrapped in a Red Ring and carrying terrifying force, smashed into Cabron's jaw.
After shouting his order, Cabron had not even had time to draw the weapon at his waist when pain exploded in his jaw. Several bloodied teeth spun through the air before finally falling onto the deck.
"Captain!!" The Vice Captain's heart clenched as he moved to rescue him alongside the nearby crewmen, but Hina and the others, close behind Dawn, intercepted them.
For a moment, the pirates were shocked and furious, but in Dawn and the others' eyes, they were nothing more than the howls of defeated dogs!
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