Krieg Attacks

"Boss, is this pose okay?" Chiu Chiu struck a pose at the bow, chest raised and head held high, wings spread as if about to soar into the sky while gazing up at the heavens.

Mark waved the small axe in his hand. "Yes, that's a great pose!"

"Then you have to carve me looking handsome, Boss!"

"No problem..."

Mark held a wooden board in his hands. Carved into it was a Golden Eagle about to take flight, its gaze incomparably sharp and vividly rendered.

While sailing across the sea, Mark would use carving to pass the time after practicing Silent Step and the Mountain-Splitting Axe.

After learning that her captain possessed such a skill, Chiu Chiu had constantly pestered Mark to carve a picture of her spreading her wings and soaring. Today, her wish had finally come true.

"Huh, Boss, there are so many ships up ahead..." Chiu Chiu spotted a large group of ships sailing in their direction from the bow.

Hearing this, Mark stopped carving and walked to the bow, looking toward where Chiu Chiu pointed.

There were... more than a dozen large ships sailing toward them.

The lead vessel was enormous, a relatively large medium-sized ship about half again as large as the Moss.

A huge pirate flag hung from its railings.

It bore the standard skull design, but the two red hourglasses on either side were particularly conspicuous.

"It's the Krieg Pirates!!!" Mark said, narrowing his eyes.

Judging from their course, they seemed to be coming straight for him...

"Chief Krieg, your guess was right. This Mark really is heading toward Loguetown."

Gin stood beside the armored Krieg and spoke admiringly.

Krieg grinned. "For arrogant newcomers like him, he must think he's already conquered the East Blue and is ready to venture into the Grand Line. That's why we laid an ambush along the route to Loguetown. Sooner or later, he was bound to show up."

He looked at the pirate ship not far away and revealed a bloodthirsty smile.

"A rookie with a seventy-million-Beli bounty? Has the World Government gone blind?"

As a pirate commodore commanding a massive fleet of several thousand men, his bounty had only just passed twenty million.

A sixteen-year-old rookie had gone to sea with a sixty-million bounty. Wasn't that saying Krieg was far inferior to him? How could a man known as the Pirate Commodore possibly endure that?

The two pirate ships drew closer, and Krieg's gaze fell upon Mark.

"Krieg! Did you come here specifically for me?" Mark stood at the bow and shouted at Krieg, who was staring back at him from afar.

Even an idiot could tell that the other side had come straight for him.

"Mark, of the Moss Pirates?"

Krieg snorted.

"I came here today to tell those Marines that a rookie like you doesn't deserve a seventy-million-Beli bounty. In the East Blue, only I, Krieg, deserve such a high bounty."

Krieg had originally planned to destroy a Marine branch, but the Marine branch had not been as easy to deal with as he had expected.

After one battle, he had lost quite a few men, yet the Marine branch had not been destroyed. Both sides had suffered heavy losses.

As a man utterly without principles, Krieg's schemes could not accomplish much in such a direct confrontation. The East Blue Marines knew him too well.

In the end, he could only retreat in defeat. But he refused to believe that anyone in the East Blue could be stronger than him, so he came directly for Mark.

Still, to be safe, his massive fleet had been loaded with an incomparably abundant supply of weapons and ammunition.

"What a childish idea!" Mark sneered. This Krieg had actually come to cause trouble for him over such a simple reason.

Wasn't he... afraid of dying?

As the two pirate ships closed in, Krieg ordered Gin, "Fire at full power! Blow this bastard to pieces!"

"Yes, Chief Krieg!" Gin turned and entered the cabin.

Krieg looked back. More than a dozen pirate ships of various sizes followed behind his own vessel. A cold smile appeared on his face. With so many ships concentrating their fire... Mark would definitely be blown apart without even a corpse left behind.

A moment later...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cannons thundered. After more than a dozen Krieg pirate ships surrounded the Moss, their cannons roared in unison, black cannonballs streaking toward the Moss.

"Chiu Chiu, Daisy... stop those cannonballs!"

Mark shouted, pulling the Mountain-Splitting Axe from his back. Veins bulged along his arm as his axe blade moved like the wind. With swings to either side, cannonball after cannonball was chopped down into the sea.

Daisy drew the flintlock pistol from her waist and fired at the incoming cannonballs. Her marksmanship was excellent; the cannonballs exploded in midair the instant she hit them.

Chiu Chiu's method was even simpler and more brutal. Golden lightning crackled around her body as she flew into the air. Her wings sliced through the cannonballs, and the electricity instantly detonated them in clusters.

At that moment...

The advantage of having more people became apparent.

The Krieg Pirates had many men. Cannonballs continued to rain down in waves, leaving Mark and the other two too busy destroying them to launch a timely counterattack.

But having fewer people had its advantages too. After Mark slashed apart three cannonballs with a backhanded swing, pitch-black energy appeared around his right hand, which he aimed at the incoming cannonballs!

"Dark Water!!!"

Clusters of cannonballs were drawn toward Mark.

At that moment, Mark thrust the Mountain-Splitting Axe behind his back. Black mist also rose from his left hand as he aimed it at Krieg's pirate ship. A strange pulling force burst forth from his left hand.

Attraction Force, an ability Mark had developed by using himself as a conductor and other objects as the target.

It was inspired by Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit, though it manifested differently.

In the anime, Luffy was often knocked off his ship, then used the inhuman stretchiness of rubber to grab the vessel from a great distance and launch himself back onto the pirate ship.

Mark had borrowed that idea and developed this power through the Dark-Dark Fruit's attraction.

By using a massive object as the target, he could rapidly pull himself toward it with suction. Such a power was extremely important at sea.

The distance between them was roughly over two hundred meters, so there was a limit to its range.

But he was currently within two hundred meters of Krieg's pirate ship.

As the Attraction Force emerged, Mark strangely floated into the air before rapidly flying toward Krieg's pirate ship.

Krieg stared blankly at Mark flying swiftly toward him. When he saw the huge number of cannonballs cradled in Mark's right hand, he became even more stunned.

It was not just him; even the pirates around him were dumbfounded.

"Quick! Shoot him down!"

Krieg had no idea why Mark had suddenly started flying, but if the cannonballs in his right hand exploded, they would definitely inflict tremendous damage on his pirate ship.

Krieg raised both arms, and combined firearms extended from his armor.

Under Krieg's command, the pirates around him immediately snapped out of it, drew their guns, and pulled the triggers at Mark!