Helpless Ants

"Looks like there were quite a few of them. Heh, even if they weren't as strong as the Headquarters' elites, they had sheer numbers on their side." Rogge carried cannonballs aboard the warship. He wasn't stupid enough to go outside and become a target.

The two sides had already begun clashing. Two hundred meters was within cannon range. Cannon fire at sea could not be guaranteed accurate because of the waves, but the Marines were different.

The fortress batteries stood ready at all times, and the warships from Headquarters possessed exceptionally fierce firepower. Even when facing ten times as many ships, the Marines clearly did not lose to the pirates in an artillery exchange.

"Bastards!"

After seeing the cannon fire destroy six or seven pirate ships yet still fail to stop the pirates' advance, Doberman could only order the warships to retreat and prepare for a landing battle, meeting the pirates on land.

The pirates' target was clearly the warship carrying the Heavenly Tribute. They also did not dare destroy it with cannon fire. What was inside was Beli; they would not be foolish enough to blow it up.

The pirates landed at the fortress, where the Marines were already waiting in formation. The moment the two sides met, fierce fighting erupted. Rogge watched from the warship's gun deck, smiling without the slightest hurry. He sat atop a cannon and watched the show, while the gunner beside him had already collapsed to one side.

"Come on, the fiercer it gets, the better." Rogge grinned. He was waiting for an opportunity.

It was Rogge's first time seeing a battle involving more than ten thousand people. Even on the battlefields of his previous life, combat on this scale had been rare. After all, weapons had already become terrifyingly powerful back then. Infantry still played a major role, but they were flesh and blood in the end.

This kind of war, fought with blades like something from a movie, was truly his first time seeing it. It was hard to imagine how brutal a battle involving more than a hundred thousand people, like the Marineford War, would be—the Marine Headquarters' top combat forces against the massive pirate crew led by one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard.

The more Rogge thought about it, the more excited he became. He wanted to take part in a war of that scale, but he was not strong enough. Right now, he was at most an ordinary person, just somewhat stronger than average. That was not enough if he wanted to become stronger; he needed outside help.

After coming to this world, he had not received any cheat powers. There was no system, nor had a powerful Devil Fruit conveniently appeared by his side. Since he had none of that, he could only take it by force. The opportunity was right before him, and Rogge wanted to gamble on it. Rather than remain an ordinary person and wait to die someday, he might as well throw himself into it in a blaze of glory.

"Impressive, another one. Was that Rokushiki? Too fast. If I went down there, I'd probably get killed instantly." Rogge saw a CP member in a suit killing people with a single finger as he leaped through the battlefield.

Rogge could not see his killing path clearly. The man vanished from sight in an instant, then appeared behind the pirates. One finger, like a sharp spike, pierced their bodies and went straight through their organs.

Watching these people fight—people who were not even considered particularly strong in this world—made Rogge's desire for power clearer than ever. He understood that there was still an endless distance between himself and becoming strong.

Look at the protagonist, Luffy. He had Garp's guidance, the Gum-Gum Fruit, and unimaginable power within his own body.

Zoro had received instruction from Koushirou, a swordsman from Wano Country, and his weapon from the start had been one of the 21 Great Grade Blades, Wado Ichimonji.

Sanji might have been an abandoned child of the Vinsmoke Family, but he had Zeff's guidance as well.

Usopp inherited his father's talent for sniping, while Nami possessed an inborn sensitivity to weather.

They were practically a whole pirate crew of second-generation dream chasers.

And what about him? He had transmigrated into this world with nothing. Aside from his physical fitness seeming to have improved slightly under this world's influence, he had nothing else. He longed to become stronger.

"Kill, kill." Rogge stared at the battlefield and occasionally fired a cannonball into it. As long as it hit someone, that was enough. He did not care whether it hit pirates or Marines. Right now, neither side knew whether the cannonballs had been fired from warships or by the pirates.

The fortress was in chaos. There were more than eighty pirate crews. At an average of two hundred people per pirate ship, they numbered sixteen or seventeen thousand. Meanwhile, only about a thousand Marines were stationed at this fortress. Adding the twenty-five hundred men sent from Headquarters to escort the Heavenly Tribute, twenty-five hundred men were facing nearly twenty thousand—roughly a fivefold difference.

However, the soldiers from Headquarters were no pushovers, not to mention the officers. Every one of them could match the captain of a pirate crew. The pirates had numbers, but they could not withstand the Marines' strength.

Several CP members had not fully mastered Rokushiki, but they had become gods of slaughter on the battlefield. Almost no one could restrain them, and lives were harvested one after another by their hands.

"That is..."

Rogge looked toward another corner of the battlefield, where over a hundred pirates had surrounded a single Marine. The encircled Marine was none other than Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Doberman.

Doberman held a long blade, his expression calm. He was visibly taller than the pirates, and his scar-covered face carried an indescribable ferocity. Any pirate caught in his gaze instinctively took a step back.

Although the pirates had overwhelming numbers, none dared attack first. After all, this was no ordinary Marine, but a Marine Headquarters vice admiral—a high-ranking figure in the Navy.

"A bunch of ants."

Doberman spoke coldly.

"Kill!"

Unable to hold back any longer, the pirates roared one after another, gripping their weapons and charging forward with all their strength.

"I said, you're ants."

Doberman slashed once. In the air, only a streak of silver light lingered for a brief moment.

Watching this scene, Rogge felt every hair on his body stand on end. A chill shot straight to his head, and for an instant, his heart seemed to stop beating.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

Like water balloons being punctured, more than twenty pirates in front of him erupted with blood.

Doberman gripped his long blade with both hands and charged into the crowd. Like Madara fighting the Allied Shinobi Forces alone, he spun and leaped through the masses. Not a single pirate could touch his clothes, yet his blade seemed to have eyes, every slash landing precisely upon the pirates.

Rogge clutched his heart and gasped for breath. He had not even come into contact with Doberman, yet the killing intent Doberman had just unleashed made Rogge feel that he was the person with the strongest killing intent he had ever seen in over twenty years of life.

"Damn it, why was everyone so strong? I refuse to accept this. I won't stop here." Rogge knew he could not keep waiting here. He had to obtain power.

After casting one deeply longing, greedy glance in Doberman's direction, Rogge resolutely turned around and left the cabin.

At the same time, Doberman, who was slaughtering enemies in all directions, seemed to sense something. He turned his head toward the gun deck of a warship not far away.

That moment of distraction was enough for someone to slash the Marine coat on Doberman's back. Doberman reacted instantly, reaching back to seize a pirate by the head and brutally smashing his skull into the ground.