"Alas!" Sengoku sighed inwardly. Before long, the Marines vanished from everyone's sight.
In this battle, he had calculated every possibility. Even with Ryan's Blood Sword Pirates aiding the Whitebeard Pirates, the Marines still held an overwhelming advantage. The outcome should not have changed. He had even prepared enough swimming coating for the possibility that the bubble barrier surrounding Fish-Man Island would shatter.
But he had never imagined that Fish-Man Island would be the reason for his ultimate defeat—the Fish-men he had never taken seriously.
Sengoku had never thought the Fish-men would become the obstacle preventing him from wiping out the Whitebeard Pirates. In his eyes, although Fish-Man Island had five million people, they were nothing but a rabble, not worth mentioning. Yet these inconspicuous Fish-men ultimately became the decisive factor in determining the battle's outcome.
Even the wisest man could make a mistake. After all his calculations, everything had come to nothing!
After the Marines left, the Whitebeard Pirates and Tiger finally let out sighs of relief. They did not want to keep fighting either.
There had been no winners in this war. The Marines, the Whitebeard Pirates, and Fish-Man Island—all three factions had lost.
The Marines had failed to achieve their goal of destroying the Whitebeard Pirates. Instead, they had lost many elite soldiers, arriving in high spirits and leaving in defeat.
The Whitebeard Pirates had suffered even more grievous casualties. They had arrived with great momentum and full ranks, but after two major battles, including their allied pirate crews, more than seven thousand people had dwindled to fewer than two thousand. The worst losses had been among the Whitebeard Pirates' individual divisions, which had always fought on the front lines.
They had come with fifteen divisions and over fifteen hundred men. Now, only a little over twenty remained.