The Fall of the Five Great Families (I)

The Colombo Family's Private Coastline

The setting sun was blood-red, staining the waves and beach with an inescapable crimson, as if foretelling that this place would be soaked in something thicker today.

A murderous air along the shoreline had nearly solidified. More than two hundred burly men in matching clown outfits stood in a line, their old-fashioned flintlock muskets aimed coldly at the horizon gradually being swallowed by dusk.

Their breathing was heavy, their fingers clenched around their triggers. Sweat ran down their temples, yet no one dared wipe it away.

Behind that thin but dense wall of men stood twenty heavy coastal-defense cannons, gleaming with the cold sheen of cast iron.

Two tense artillerymen stood behind each cannon. Shells had already been loaded, fuses within reach. At a single command, they could unleash flames of destruction.

Farther away, Colombo Family snipers hid behind the shadows of every reef and atop every hastily erected wooden watchtower.

Yet the most chilling force stood at the rear. Twenty hulking men held weapons completely unlike those of the others. They were Avery's absolute confidants, and the trump card that gave him confidence he could annihilate the enemy.

Everyone, from the lowest lackey to those elite confidants, wore solemn expressions tinged with barely concealed fear as they stared fixedly at the point where sea met sky.

"They're here!!"

Suddenly, a sniper on high ground cracked under the extreme tension. His hoarse shout tore through the twilight.

At almost the same instant, everyone's pupils contracted sharply. A black dot in the distant sky tore through the air at a speed beyond ordinary comprehension, rapidly growing in their vision.

Within only a few breaths, the black dot became clear—a human figure.

Bang!

The heavy impact of landing slammed into everyone's hearts, scattering sand and gravel.

Adams landed precisely less than twenty meters in front of the gun and cannon formation. The immense impact made the front-row riflemen instinctively take half a step back, stirring a ripple of disorder through their ranks.

His gaze swept calmly over the army waiting in formation before him. He did not look at them as mortal enemies, but as though he were inspecting a pack of worthless rabble. A leisurely smile appeared on his lips.

"Oh? So this is the welcome ceremony the Colombo Family prepared for me? Quite the turnout. Avery, you're really enthusiastic."

The moment he finished speaking, the loudspeaker Den Den Mushi hidden behind a fortification crackled with static. Then Avery's furious voice rang across the entire beach:

"You little brat!! Ever since you stole the treasure I kept with the Blood Anchor Gang, you've clung to me like a parasite! Do you know how many of my plans you've ruined? And today, you actually dared to find this place... Are you really determined to fight to the death?!"

Adams snorted as though he had heard the most boring joke imaginable. He lightly rolled his neck, and his joints cracked sharply.

"The fish will definitely die. But the net won't break."

"Arrogant!"

The voice from the loudspeaker suddenly rose, filled with the rage of being slighted.

"Then let me see who sinks into this sea today! Boys! Open fire! Blast him to pieces!"

The order was both shackles and release. The already taut riflemen and artillerymen pulled their triggers almost the instant they heard the final word!

Boom! Bang bang bang—!!

The flintlocks spat thick white smoke and flashes of fire, lead bullets pouring down like a torrential storm. The snipers on high ground calmly squeezed their triggers, special armor-piercing rounds spinning toward Adams's vital points from even trickier angles.

That was followed by deafening cannon fire. Twenty heavy cannons fired in unison, red-hot solid shells tearing through the air and covering Adams and all the space around him with shrieking death.

Just as this firepower, enough to erase a small army in an instant, was about to hit him, Adams bent slightly and assumed a textbook-perfect football player's starting stance.

The next moment, he charged!

Adams surged forward like an out-of-control heavy tank. Every attack exploded against his body. Continuous explosions and fire engulfed him, while thick gunpowder smoke instantly scorched his silver hair and skin black.

Yet the terrifying force of those attacks did not slow his charge by even a fraction. Like lightning ripping through the smoke screen, he crashed violently into the Colombo Family's dense formation.

"Argh!"

"Stop him!"

"Monster!!"

Screams, shouts, and the sound of shattering bones instantly replaced the roar of guns and cannons as the battlefield's main melody!

Adams charged into the crowd, his arms becoming the deadliest weapons. With his fingers together, he thrust them out like steel spikes, easily piercing through chests.

His legs swung, kicking out vacuum blades that sliced through firearms and even small gun emplacements as easily as paper.

Efficient, merciless, and precise as a machine built for slaughter. Colombo Family members fell in droves. Before that absolute power and bizarre technique, they were laughably fragile. Their formation fell into chaos at once, panic spreading like a plague.

At the rear of the formation, Avery watched the hellish scene ahead through an observation slit from within a reinforced shelter. As he watched that silver demon harvest lives at will among the crowd, veins bulged on his forehead, and the last trace of wishful thinking vanished.

He abruptly turned his head and roared at the twenty confidants beside him, who held specially made weapons:

"Now! Forget those pieces of trash! Fire! Blast him and that garbage into the sky together!!"

The twenty confidants did not hesitate in the slightest. To them, their leader's orders came before everything. They raised those weapons that seemed utterly out of place in this era, aimed at the chaotic melee ahead, and pulled the triggers.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!! Bzz—hum—!!!

The specially made machine guns spat half-meter tongues of flame, instantly forming a metal storm powerful enough to tear a sea beast to pieces. Ten azure beams shot out at once, twisting the air in their path and radiating terrifyingly intense heat.

Boom boom boom boom—!!!

Explosions ten times more violent than the earlier cannon barrage erupted amid the crowd. Flames shot into the sky, and massive shockwaves flung building debris and human bodies through the air like toys.

Piercing wails were drowned out by even greater explosions. Severed limbs and mangled flesh belonging to Colombo Family members, mixed with charred blood and meat, rained down in all directions from the thick smoke.

The scene looked as though a corner of hell had opened.

Yet to Avery and his confidants, this brutal sight sounded like the most wonderful victory anthem!

"HAHAHAHAHA!!"

Avery was the first to burst into wild laughter, his face twisted with joy and the thrill of revenge.

"He's dead! He has to be dead! I didn't expect the plan to go so smoothly. That idiot actually charged straight into the crowd! He gave us such a perfect opportunity."

"Brilliant as always, Boss!"

The confidants also revealed expressions of ecstatic relief, loudly joining in as if they had already won.

"What so-called body of steel? Before the family's secret weapons, didn't he still turn to ash?"

"Serves him right! This is what happens when you go against the Colombo Family!"

They laughed and mocked him, ignoring the groans that might still be coming from not-quite-dead companions in the smoke ahead. They eagerly declared their enemy dead and celebrated this "victory" bought with their own men's lives.

Just then, a voice carrying a faint trace of mockery clearly pierced the lingering smoke and their laughter, striking every ear:

"Heh... aren't you celebrating a little too early?"

TO BE CONTINUED