Surrender, or Social Death!

Blazing firelight flashed abruptly, followed by a deafening explosion!

The stone harbor gate shattered under the force of two Explosive Tags, breaking into chunks of rubble that sank into the sea.

The Marine base, which had been bustling with activity as it prepared to sail out and capture pirates, fell silent in an instant after the explosion.

"W-what happened!?"

The Marines stared dumbly at the dust cloud by the gate, wide-eyed as they sensed that something was wrong.

Just then, a roaring gale swept through, clearing a broad passage through the chaos at the gate.

Riding the wind, the Tiga slowly sailed through the wind tunnel and into the branch base's harbor.

"Good morning, brave Marine soldiers."

Kael stood at the bow of the Tiga and slowly raised his head, revealing a smile like that of a demon!

Beside him, Tashigi had completed her chant almost the instant his voice fell silent!

"O ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, flutter your wings and bear the name of man! Scorching heat and strife, roll across the sea and turn southward, march onward!"

"Way of Destruction No. 31: Red Fire Cannon!"

Boom!!!

With the young girl's soft cry, a crimson beam shot forth like lightning, streaking across the sky and striking directly at the base of a gun emplacement in the harbor.

The massive shockwave was irresistible, instantly shattering the gun emplacement.

Yet the surging energy beam did not stop there. Under Tashigi's two-fingered control, it swept rapidly toward the neighboring emplacements along with her gaze!

Against the power of the Red Fire Cannon, the gun emplacements built from ordinary stone bricks were like flimsy structures made from building blocks!

In just over ten seconds, every gun emplacement in the harbor had been destroyed!

"Nicely done!"

Seeing Tashigi so cleanly eliminate the gun emplacements that could threaten the Tiga, Kael nodded in satisfaction.

Then he suddenly drew Frost from his waist, leaped into the air, and jumped down from the Tiga onto the harbor.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!!!

In an instant, more than a dozen rifles were pointed at Kael.

A Marine who appeared to be a squad leader shouted fearfully:

"Y-you people, who are you!?"

"This is the G-153 Marine Branch! If you don't want to die, surrender immediately!!!"

"Surrender? To the likes of you?"

Hearing the Marine's shout, Kael curled his lip in disdain.

The next second, the blade in his hand flashed, and he shot into the Marine formation like a cannonball.

Empowered by overwhelming force, a slash delivered with the flat of his blade slammed into the Marine's abdomen!

The powerful impact sent him flying into the wall behind him, spiderweb cracks spreading across its surface.

"M-monster!!!"

"Fire! Open fire!!!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! ...

Witnessing the power Kael had unleashed, the Marines on site immediately panicked.

They hurriedly raised their guns and fired wildly at Kael without caring whether they could hit him.

For a moment, gunfire erupted throughout the base harbor.

However...

Faced with the hail of bullets from the Marine soldiers, Kael merely smiled easily.

His Hyper Intuition had already foreseen this scene!

The instant the barrage came flying at him, he twisted sideways and dodged most of the bullets.

Even the few that slipped through were deflected by his blade.

Sure enough, I'm getting further and further down the road of no longer being human!

Seeing himself pull off such an absurd feat so easily, Kael muttered inwardly.

But his hands did not pause in the slightest!

Taking advantage of the brief lull in the gunfire...

Frost suddenly swung in Kael's hand, and his figure flashed behind several Marines like a ghost.

Then, the next second...

All gunfire came to an abrupt stop.

Thud~

Like falling dominoes, after the first Marine collapsed unconscious, the other soldiers lost consciousness one after another and fell to the ground.

"S-so strong!"

Aboard the Tiga, Coby watched Kael knock out more than a dozen Marine soldiers in an instant. His eyes sparkled with admiration as he imagined that one day, he too would become this strong.

"Coby!"

At that moment, Kael's shout abruptly interrupted his daydream.

"Yes!"

Coby instinctively straightened up and responded like a soldier.

A smile appeared on Kael's face as he pointed toward the battlefield.

"Take all the weapons and ammunition off them later, then put everything in the empty room on the second floor of the Tiga."

Those weapons and munitions were money!

The mayor of Ville Town was still waiting for him to return and make a deal!

"Yes, Captain Kael!"

Coby shouted solemnly, then immediately set off, running down from the Tiga to carry out Kael's orders.

Kael then turned his gaze toward Tashigi, who had slowly disembarked, and smiled.

"I'll leave the rest to you."

"Please rest assured, Captain Kael!"

Tashigi's bright eyes flashed as her gaze swept directly toward the Marine base building.

By then, quite a few people had heard the commotion outside. They grabbed their weapons and equipment and ran out of the base building.

"Pirates!"

"Pirates are attacking the base!"

"Hold on! Colonel Morgan will be here soon!"

"..."

"..."

The Marine soldiers rushed out in a hurry.

However, before they could even grasp the situation in the harbor...

The quiet young girl, Tashigi, suddenly let out a startling shout. With both hands aimed at where the Marines had emerged, spiritual power surged forth!

"Way of Binding No. 21: Red Smoke Escape!!!"

Accompanied by a faint explosion, thick crimson smoke suddenly enveloped all the Marine soldiers, blocking their vision!

"Damn it! I can't see!"

"Watch out for an enemy ambush!"

Within the smoke, the Marines called warnings to one another.

But the next second, another shout from the young girl rang out:

"Way of Binding No. 37: Hanging Star!!!"

A transparent giant net formed from spirit particles suddenly appeared above all the Marines before crashing down.

Several elastic cords extended from the net's edges like Spider-Man's webs, or squid tentacles, and abruptly embedded themselves into the surrounding ground, firmly securing the net in place.

Along with the crimson smoke, the giant spirit-particle net wrapped up all the Marines, pinning them firmly to the ground and leaving them unable to move.

"She's a Devil Fruit user!!!"

One Marine cried out in alarm.

But the next second, an inexplicable force pressed him down, forcing him to lie flat and rub his face against the ground.

"Sorry, soldiers."

Kael stepped on a soldier's head with one foot through the spiritual net and smiled.

"For the sake of your lives, you'd better stay quiet and wait for a moment."

After speaking, he continued stepping across the Marines' bodies as he headed toward the base building.

To avoid harming these soldiers' lives, Kael could only have Tashigi use binding spells to temporarily isolate the Marine soldiers.

The battle ahead was the true main event of the day!

As Kael and Tashigi entered the base building, they encountered quite a few scattered soldiers moving sluggishly about.

Without exception, all of these Marines fell unconscious under Kael and Tashigi's strikes.

The two made their way through without obstruction and headed directly to the top floor of the base.

Creak...

A worn scraping sound rang out as Kael pushed open the door to the rooftop.

At that moment, Morgan, the highest-ranking commander of the G-153 branch base, stood on the rooftop, glaring viciously at Kael.

"So you're the ones causing trouble on my turf!?"

"Well, well."

Seeing Morgan standing at the edge of the rooftop, Kael's expression immediately turned strange.

"Don't tell me you've been standing here the whole time, watching us defeat your soldiers?"

"Soldiers? Hmph!"

Morgan, who wore an artificial metal jaw after it had been shattered by pirates, raised his head, his eyes cold.

"Those useless fools who can't even stop pirates don't deserve to be called my subordinates!"

"I don't need incompetent subordinates!!!"

"What did you say!?"

Seeing Morgan's arrogant and overbearing attitude, Tashigi's expression instantly turned icy. She cared for her soldiers like they were her own children.

But before she could draw her Zanpakutō, an arm suddenly blocked her path.

"You really are more like a pirate than I am."

Kael looked at Morgan and chuckled.

"Hey! Big guy, I'll give you two choices..."

"Either surrender and join my pirate crew, or I'll spread the news that you captured the fake Kuro!"

"You pick one!"