4 vs 1000

Thousand Lake Island, the Bloodhand Pirates' base.

Captain Bloodhand Brian was the pirate with the highest bounty openly known in the West Blue. Compared to the East Blue, the West Blue had more pirates, and their bounties were more than double those in the East Blue.

Even Arlong of the Fish-Man Tribe in the East Blue only had a bounty of twenty million Beli, while Brian in the West Blue was worth as much as seventy-seven million Beli.

No wonder the East Blue was called the weakest sea. In terms of pirate quality, it simply could not compare to the West Blue.

"Someone saw this guy?"

Brian was massive, nearly five meters tall. Thick armor plates covered his body, while bulging muscles showed beneath them. He looked every bit like a knight, and the weapon leaning against the wall beside him was a conical knight's lance.

"That's right, Captain. He appeared on Thousand Lake Island, over by the trade market. There's no mistake. I saw him with my own eyes." A pirate stood before Brian, craning his head up at him.

"No wonder Fat Pig and his men were nearby. So they had their eyes on him. We're about to set off for the Grand Line. Although Fat Pig and his men suffered a crushing defeat, more than thirty pirate crews have joined forces with them. There's nothing in it for us if we go against them. Let them have this juicy prize." Brian tossed aside the wanted poster in his hand.

"Captain Brian, bad—this is bad!" A pirate rushed in frantically, his footsteps unsteady.

"What happened?" Brian looked over.

The pirate panted heavily. "Captain Brian, they—they've attacked us!"

"Who?"

Brian rose to his feet, his armor clanking together.

"They call themselves the Asura Pirates. It's Marshall Rogge, the one with a fifty-million-Beli bounty. He led people in and started killing. We captured one of his companions," the pirate said.

"Hmph." Without another word, Brian grabbed the knight's lance leaning nearby and strode out.

In the open space outside, more than a thousand members of the Bloodhand Pirates had surrounded four people.

Everyone who stepped forward was killed. The four of them were like meat grinders, ceaselessly slaughtering their enemies.

Never pity pirates.

They had committed more evil than you could imagine.

Rogge himself was no good person, and there was a reason pirates fought whenever they met at sea: money.

Pirates were parasitic bloodsuckers of the sea with no ability to produce anything. They needed to live and eat, but where did those things come from? Only endless plunder—plundering ordinary people, and plundering their peers, other pirates.

Being weak was the original sin. If you did not have the strength, why the hell would you go out to sea? Piracy had always been a game for the strong.

Anime and manga made it look so wonderful, but what about reality? Pirates deserved to die.

Countless vines sprouted from beneath Jelly's feet. They burrowed underground, then suddenly rose among the distant crowd. One vine after another turned into sharp spikes, skewering pirates from the ground like candied hawthorns.

"This move's pretty good, right? I named it Ground Spikes." Jelly smiled at Rogge and the others.

"Oh, not bad. Those limp-looking vines can actually do that? I thought the only thing you could develop was the kind of use found in tentacle books. Didn't expect they could kill people too." Rogge turned his head and said flatly.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand. What are tentacle books? Are they good?" Jelly asked with a puzzled expression.

Rogge shook his head. "Haha, nothing."

"Straight Punch!"

"Boom!"

With one punch, more than a dozen people were blasted away. Ham had transformed into a human-beast hybrid, his muscles especially pronounced. His fists, strengthened by his Devil Fruit power, had grown enormous.

"Feels great. The power in these fists has increased several times over," Ham said.

"You look too ugly," Jelly found time to mock him.

"What right does a green little bastard like you have to criticize me?" Ham snapped, pressing his face against Jelly's as they glared at each other.

"Fish-Man Karate."

"Bang!"

Cook said nothing. He calmly threw a punch, and the bodies of those around him began to twist before they were sent flying for no apparent reason.

Fish-Man Karate was a martial art of the Fish-Man Tribe. By striking the moisture in the air and creating vibrations, it damaged enemies. Its attacks were invisible and difficult to defend against.

In the sea, the power of Fish-Man Karate would increase by several times. Fighting the Fish-Man Tribe in the ocean left virtually no chance of victory.

Jelly, covered in green vines; Ham, transformed into a kangaroo; and Cook, a member of the Fish-Man Tribe—most people had never seen anything like them.

"Monsters! Are these guys monsters?" said a pirate holding a sword.

"Move aside! Blast them with the cannon!" Three or four pirates pushed over a cannon and aimed its barrel at the four of them.

Jelly and Ham stopped arguing and looked over.

"Light it."

The cannon fuse was lit, and a black cannonball shot forth.

The cannonball flew quickly, but Rogge took two steps forward, placing himself in its path. He raised a hand toward it.

"Has he gone crazy?"

"He's trying to catch a cannonball barehanded? He's dead for sure."

The Bloodhand Pirates cried out, each of them convinced Rogge was finished.

Yet as the cannonball flew toward Rogge, it stopped in front of his hand. Cracks appeared across its surface, and then, with a bang, it burst apart.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Rogge's coughing came from within the smoke.

"Damn it, it wasn't a solid shot." Rogge scattered the smoke with one sweep of his hand, covering his mouth as he coughed.

"Hahaha!"

Jelly and the other two burst out laughing. Rogge had clearly meant to put on a show by catching a cannonball barehanded, but his Chop-Chop Fruit had shattered the shell while the gunpowder inside still exploded.

Still, they were surprised. The cannonball had exploded at such close range, yet Rogge was completely unharmed. Clearly, they were not the only ones who had grown stronger. After gaining the Chop-Chop Fruit, Rogge's abilities had become even more unfathomable.

"What kind of monster is that? The cannonball clearly exploded, but he isn't hurt at all?" the pirate who fired the cannon said in shock.

"What are you looking at?" Rogge leaped into the air, flipped, and stomped down on the cannon.

With that kick, the cannon barrel suddenly shattered. Fragments flew everywhere, striking all the nearby pirates. The fragments exploded among the crowd with tremendous force, and in an instant, more than a dozen people fell into pools of blood.

"If this keeps up, even seven thousand of them might not be enough to kill us all." Jelly's vines shot up from underground once more, skewering several more pirates like candied hawthorns.

"What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing." Ham sent a pirate flying with a heavy punch, taking all the pirates standing behind him along for the ride.

"Hey, hey, hey, we came to find someone, not to kill people," Cook shouted at the two of them.