The Crew Takes Shape

"How could something like this..." Everyone let out a heavy breath after hearing Leo's words.

The Navy allowing promising recruits to hunt pirates they could not defeat sounded utterly absurd.

But when they carefully considered their own situation, they could prove that everything Leo had said was right. It was all true.

That was how the World Navy operated.

And in the end, several World Navy Vice Admirals would capture them together. They would either be executed outright or sent to Impel Down to live out their miserable lives.

Aside from certain prisoners with political value, most others would likely only be sent to Impel Down if they were Devil Fruit Users—first, because those vicious Devil Fruit Users could be used in Vegapunk's experiments to extract and transfer their powers; second, because if they were killed, their Devil Fruits would reappear elsewhere. If pirates happened to eat them, there would be another powerful pirate. It was better to lock them up.

Those without Devil Fruit powers would simply have to pray for the best.

"So, a group of Marines has been following you?" Leo asked Ace, who was still standing there in a daze.

"Yes..." Ace could not accept it. Apparently, he had some feelings for Iska as well.

"Then defeat them. Capture them." Leo grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

"Attack the Navy directly?!" Masked was stunned.

"Aren't you Shichibukai?" Michael could not understand it at all either.

"Us?" A smile appeared on Leo's face. "Shouldn't it be you?"

!!!

"Second Lieutenant! They should be right ahead!" On the deck, the Marines were nervously preparing their weapons. They were only a single Marine company. The higher-ups allowing them to pursue the Spade Pirates at Iska's insistence was already an act of leniency.

And this was still the first half of the Grand Line, where plenty of Marine bases could provide them with aid and support. The farther they went, the lower their chances of capturing the Spade Pirates became.

Moreover, the Log Pose aboard the Spade Pirates might not have recorded the previous island. There was a good chance they were simply drifting aimlessly at sea.

Though they only had a medium-sized ship, they held a major advantage in firepower. With over twenty cannons and more than a hundred crewmen, they could bury the Spade Pirates through sheer numbers alone.

"Found them!" the lookout atop the mast shouted down to the Marines preparing nervously for battle.

"There's a large ship ahead!"

"Isn't it the Spade Pirates' ship?" Iska was somewhat discouraged, but as Marines, they had no choice. Any pirate they encountered had to be killed without mercy!

"Uncover the cannons!" In naval combat, keeping the gunpowder dry was paramount. Water could easily get into cannon barrels, so they were always covered with oiled paper until battle began.

Now, the Marines grew serious. The lookout kept his eyes fixed on the large ship ahead, yet failed to notice another vessel slowly drawing near from behind.

"Hey, are we really leaving this to them? Those are Marines from the New World. These guys..."

Ace was not aboard his own small boat. They had all transferred to this large sailing ship equipped with ten cannons and were standing at the very back of the group.

Watching the wall of people standing in neat ranks, they muttered uneasily to themselves.

Although the Cutlass Pirates were indeed no weak crew, and their captain's bounty was the same as Ace's—fifty million Beli—the Cutlass Pirates' captain and First Mate were clearly both with them. Did they really intend to have these ninety-odd men fight over a hundred Marines?

Everyone knew that in terms of individual quality, large pirate crews gathered from all sorts of people could not possibly compare to the Navy.

Take nutrition alone—small elite pirate crews could carry large quantities of food to make up for the protein their crewmen needed for training, but large pirate crews could not manage that.

A large pirate crew was doing well enough if it could guarantee its crew daily food and drinking water.

Especially on the Grand Line, not every island had supplies. If they ran into an island like Little Garden, where there was meat everywhere—no, dinosaurs—they could replenish their meat supplies. But on most other islands... landing alone was already extremely dangerous, let alone gathering food.

The Navy had military bases everywhere. They could replenish their food supplies easily and openly requisition provisions from merchant ships. In terms of resources and logistics, pirates simply could not compare to the Navy.

Naturally, their average physical condition and quality could not match the Marines' either.

Not to mention that in battles between ordinary people without Haki or Devil Fruit powers, swords, guns, and naval artillery still played an enormously important role.

The enemy had twenty cannons, and all one hundred Marines carried muskets.

Did Leo really think their ship, with over ninety men, fewer than fifty muskets, and ten cannons, could fight them?

Only by sending skilled fighters into the enemy formation and throwing their ranks into disarray could they win.

Ace and the others had abundant experience fighting the Navy.

But that was not what Leo wanted.

"All right, stand down there and watch carefully." Leo slowly climbed up the mast. After half a month of training, the people below had begun to look the part. Even standing here, they remained perfectly still.

What came next would be a baptism of blood and fire, one that would transform them completely.

"Closing in on the enemy! We can board!" the lookout aboard the Marine ship shouted.

Iska gestured upward to show that she understood, but unease stirred within her. They were already nearly three hundred meters away, yet the other side had not fired a single cannon. Had they run out of ammunition and supplies?

By rights, those pirates should have begun fleeing and firing to hold them back when they were five hundred meters away!

Or had everyone aboard starved to death? Been killed? Was this already a ghost ship?

"Not good! They're forming ranks on deck! It's not a ghost ship!" Sharing Iska's thoughts, the lookout finally saw clearly through the canvas-covered deck when they were two hundred meters away.

It was a formation so orderly he had never seen anything like it, as though they were waiting to welcome their arrival.

"It's the Cutlass Pirates! They're waiting for us on deck! They're preparing for a boarding battle!"

He shouted down at the others.

At this distance, even Leo could hear him clearly.

"Too noisy! Shoot him down, but don't kill him. Michael!" Leo commanded the Spade Pirates' crew as naturally as if he were ordering his own subordinates.

PS: First update.