Pursuit

"The Marines are getting away!"

Kong and the others' movements were quickly noticed by Rocks' side. Watching those warships speed away, a trace of deeply buried fury flickered in Rocks' eyes.

"Stop them!"

Boom!

He swiftly slashed with his sword, only to find that the attack's range was insufficient to reach the departing warships. He then turned his gaze toward Newgate.

"Can your earthquakes and tsunamis reach them?"

Newgate estimated the distance, raised a hand, and launched an attack. In an instant, the world seemed to turn upside down as a surging tsunami swept toward the enemy.

But it still fell short. It was not enough to overturn those warships, merely causing a slight tremor in the sea beneath them—far from enough to stop their escape.

"I'll go after them!"

Watching this unfold, Oak spread his wings. With the near-teleportation speed granted by his Vampire Fruit, he could certainly catch them.

"Can you take someone with you?"

Rocks asked without hesitation. As long as Oak could bring him along, then unless that monster from the Holy Land was among them, no one who had come today would leave alive. Rocks said so!

They had dared use the Giant Tribe to drive a wedge between him and Harald, and this also involved classified matters within the crew. Rocks was truly determined to kill today. He had to leave behind the key figures of this Marine fleet.

"No!"

Yet Oak shook his head. His near-teleportation flight speed was not his body's normal speed, but one of the Vampire Fruit's abilities. He could not grant that speed to anyone else. Bringing Rocks along would force him to fly at his regular speed. Although that was still fast, after estimating the distance between himself and the fleeing warships, as well as their speed—

The enemy had likely accelerated using paddle-wheel power, and they were moving extremely fast. At his normal flight speed, they would vanish beyond the horizon before he could catch them. Without a direction, he would not be able to pursue them at all.

Clearly, they had never intended to fight them to the death from the start. They had carefully planned their escape route.

"Then go after them first!"

After hearing Oak's explanation, no matter how unwilling Rocks was, he could only let Oak pursue them first.

Patting Oak on the shoulder, he told him not to fight them to the death. As long as he could hold them up for a while, it would be enough for Rocks and the others to catch up.

As for Oak's safety, he was not worried. Even if the other side had an Admiral, Oak's current strength would let him hold out for a while—long enough for them to catch up. When that happened, whoever came would die!

Oak nodded at this. He immediately activated his ability, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant. When he reappeared, he was already several hundred meters away. Crossing such a distance had taken no more than the blink of an eye.

As Oak vanished from sight, Rocks' side began moving as well. He directly ordered Shiki to use the Float-Float Fruit's power to control the pirate ship and chase after them.

On the Marine side, Kong had already led the remaining fleet beyond the coastline. Looking back, the battlefield they had just left behind was reduced to nothing but a tiny black speck. Only then did Kong let out a sigh of relief.

Facing the Rocks Pirates with Rocks personally at their helm, even as an Admiral, he had been under indescribable pressure the entire time. After all, Rocks truly had the power to kill an Admiral!

"Admiral Kong!"

At that moment, Tsuru spoke beside him. There was something she could not understand, and she would not feel at ease unless she asked.

"What exactly was the purpose of our operation today?"

At first, Tsuru had believed they were here to support the International Alliance Charity Monastery and drive away the Rocks Pirates. But it was now clear that was not the case. If so, what had they come all this way for?

Looking over the surrounding fleet, more than a hundred warships had arrived, yet fewer than half had managed to withdraw. The rest had been lost in the battle just now.

The Marines had suffered devastating losses this time!

Kong sighed at that.

"Sigh!"

"This operation was ordered by the government's higher-ups. In truth, they had received word in advance that the Rocks Pirates would attack the International Alliance Charity Monastery.

"The higher-ups also understood very well that with the Marines' strength, it would be difficult to deal with the Rocks Pirates if all of them were mobilized. If we forced a battle, we would likely suffer catastrophic losses. That was why only one Admiral—me—was sent this time, rather than deploying more forces.

"The purpose was not to clash with the Rocks Pirates, but to test them—to test the Giant Tribe's attitude..."

By the time Kong reached this point, someone as intelligent as Tsuru had already figured it out.

Harald, the current king of Elbaf in the Land of Giants, had always wanted Elbaf to become one of the World Government's member nations, to bring peace to Elbaf. To that end, he had submitted applications many times and had even encouraged his nation's warriors to join the Marines and help suppress the increasingly rampant pirates across the seas.

Yet rumors had long circulated that Harald and Rocks were friends, and that Rocks had repeatedly invited Harald to join the Rocks Pirates.

Both the World Government's higher-ups and the Marine leadership had reservations about this. They feared that Harald's desire to join the World Government was merely a pretense, while his true aim was to work with Rocks from within and pursue even greater ambitions.

Therefore, today's operation was a test for the Giant Tribe—a test to see whether their warriors would attack the Rocks Pirates. If those Giant warriors were unwilling to even attack the Rocks Pirates, then it would prove that Harald and his Kingdom of Elbaf definitely had some kind of plot.

Tsuru thought even further. Perhaps the government's higher-ups had also intended to sow discord, and would be pleased to see casualties today.

Whether it was the Rocks Pirates' side or the giants' side, as long as someone was killed or injured, then no matter how good their relationship had been before, cracks would inevitably appear. They might even turn against each other entirely. That would make the higher-ups more comfortable using Elbaf's strength.

After understanding everything, Tsuru sighed. These methods were far from honorable.

If those Giant warriors had not joined the Marines, it would have been one thing. War was never about fair play. But those Giant warriors had joined the Marines long ago. They were already comrades. Was plotting against their own people not enough to chill everyone's hearts?

She had wanted to say something, but then she remembered that although she had been promoted to Vice Admiral and was one of the headquarters' staff officers, she was still not truly part of the core leadership. Any suggestion she made would be insufficient to influence Marine decisions. In the end, Tsuru chose silence.

Whoosh!

After a moment of silence, a shrill sound tearing through the air broke it.

"Something's catching up to us!"

Kong turned around and saw a blood-red streak drawing closer through the air behind them.

It was incredibly fast—so fast that the naked eye could not even make out what it was.

Kong's heart clenched. He feared that Rocks had caught up with them. If that was the case, they were truly in trouble today. All of them might end up dying here.