Revenge

Back aboard the Phantom, Locke saw several Marines sprawled haphazardly across the deck. They were all asleep, twitching from time to time.

Even more strangely, their uniforms were completely intact, yet blood kept seeping out from inside them.

Locke had taught this to Annie a few days ago, showing her how to harm a body in reality through dreams. He had not expected her to be so quick to grasp it, already able to use it in actual combat.

The moment Locke boarded, a puppet flew out of the cabin and landed squarely on his shoulder.

"Big Brother, isn't Annie amazing?" Annie said smugly.

"Mm! Annie is amazing," Locke praised her.

After looking around the ship, Locke found that nothing had been damaged. He returned to the deck and tossed all the fallen Marines into the sea.

Once that was dealt with, Locke took Annie off the Phantom and went to find the others, who were searching the village for survivors.

As they searched for the living, they gathered the dead together, intending to bury them one by one after combing through the entire village.

The search was completed quickly. There had been 108 households and 287 villagers in total. Apart from the three brothers trapped on Tomb Island, everyone else had been murdered.

With Locke and the others' help, the three Kuma brothers soon buried every villager.

Big Bear, Second Bear, and the others had already awakened. They knelt before their fellow villagers' graves, sobbing uncontrollably. Locke walked over and patted Big Bear on the shoulder in silent comfort.

To his surprise, Big Bear grabbed hold of Locke's trousers and demanded, "Why? Why are the Marines like this? Aren't they supposed to represent justice? Why?"

"...My condolences." Locke did not know how to answer him. He could only sigh helplessly.

After crying for a long time, Big Bear gradually calmed down. Though Locke did not know how to comfort him, he stayed by his side the entire time.

"Captain, I want revenge," Big Bear suddenly said, turning toward Locke.

"I'll help you." Looking into Big Bear's despairing eyes, Locke nodded. Then he turned to Carmen and Yun Zhinnan, who were standing behind him. "Stop watching. Go back, raise the sails, and get ready to depart. We're going to get revenge."

Yun Zhinnan and Carmen nodded, then headed toward the dock.

"Let's go too," Locke said to the three Kuma brothers.

The three brothers slowly rose to their feet. They looked once more at the graves, then followed Locke toward the Phantom.

Once aboard, Locke gathered everyone together.

"Today, three more companions have joined our ship. They will adventure alongside us."

"Next, I announce our first full-crew operation since the new members came aboard: revenge for our new crewmates."

"Revenge!" the three brothers said fiercely.

"Now, Yun Zhinnan, pull up the anchor. We're heading for the East Blue 16th Marine Branch."

Without saying anything, Yun Zhinnan walked over and began hauling up the anchor.

Not long after the Phantom set sail, it encountered three Marine warships approaching from the opposite direction. Each ship bore a large number 16.

When Locke saw the warships, he said nothing. He simply walked to the bow. A flash of purple light appeared, and a giant made entirely of ice materialized before them.

"Roar!"

With a thunderous roar, the ice giant charged toward the Marine warships.

The Marines aboard the warships noticed something was wrong as well. They quickly organized themselves and opened fire on the ice giant.

But the giant was simply too enormous. The cannonballs struck its body and only scattered bits of ice, utterly unable to halt its charge.

The ice giant soon reached the warships. It raised a fist nearly as large as a warship and smashed it down viciously.

Bang!

With a deafening crash, one warship was punched straight into the sea. Then, with a sweeping blow, the giant sent the remaining two warships flying.

It was not over yet. Just as the warships rose into the air, the ice giant transformed into a massive sword and slashed viciously between them, cutting both ships cleanly in half.

"Keep moving," Locke called to the people who had gathered because of the Marines.

During his battle with Sis, Locke had already realized that his strength had probably reached the level of a pirate with a bounty of around one hundred million. He might only be able to flee when facing Marine Headquarters rear admirals, but against a Marine brigadier general, Locke believed he could still put up a fight.

Because his Devil Fruit had awakened on Tomb Island, his illusions had gained offensive power, greatly changing Locke's fighting style.

For flames, ice, and similar things created through illusions, Locke merely needed to add the characteristics of fire or ice to the illusions he created. Their strength depended on how much stamina he was willing to expend to enhance those characteristics.

Before, with his Devil Fruit ability, Locke could at most be considered an assassin. After awakening, however, he discovered that he had become a warrior. He no longer needed to rely on all sorts of tricks just to create an opening for his real body to attack.

Now, Locke only needed to create an illusion and have it charge straight in. Unless his opponent was far stronger than him and he could not break through their defenses at all, Locke would be practically invincible.

Locke also discovered that he could make his illusions imitate the moves he had seen in the television dramas, movies, and anime from his previous life, and their attack power was surprisingly good.

As for how Locke remembered so many things from his past life, he looked toward Annie, who was currently flying around the ship on a miniature Deathwing that he had conjured.

After Annie entered his dreams several times, Locke discovered that her ability could draw out things buried deep in his memories through certain methods. Even things Locke had only seen once could be recreated by Annie in his dreams.

After discovering this, ever since leaving Tomb Island, Locke had been having Annie draw out the martial arts techniques from his previous life that he had nearly forgotten. He selected some that seemed reasonably plausible, adapted them to suit reality, and made them his own.

For example, the gate Locke had directly generated with his Devil Fruit on Bisi Island was a technique created by imitating Rashomon from Naruto.

In the days since leaving Tomb Island, Locke had developed far more than just that one technique. It was simply that the Marines he encountered on the island had been too weak. Locke had not even needed to act before they were dealt with.