You Let Your Guard Down

"Stop standing around!"

"If we anger that man, we'll be in serious trouble!"

Marshall D. Teach roared.

The others snapped out of it. They still did not understand why their captain was so afraid, but they did not argue. They hurried to help prepare to leave.

Just then—

Boom!

A deafening roar erupted from the sea ahead. An enormous column of water shot into the sky, the torrent twisting and surging as rings of ripples spread into the distance.

The sea shook violently, rocking their raft.

"The Straw Hat Pirates are heading into the sky!"

Jesus Burgess pointed at the ship riding the column of water upward and shouted.

"We don't have time to worry about them!"

Marshall D. Teach gritted his teeth, his face dark.

His eyes stayed fixed on the Warship ahead. As the sea rose and fell, the ship kept vanishing and reappearing.

But he was certain Van Augur's shot had alerted the man aboard.

"Would he really attack us out here, in weather like this?"

Burgess shouted.

"Idiot!"

"Don't underestimate that man!"

Marshall D. Teach roared.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, and a chill ran down his back.

As the raft rocked and the Warship came back into view, he saw blue arcs of electricity flickering around the tall man aboard.

What that meant was all too clear!

Crackle!

A flash of electricity suddenly streaked toward them.

The sky ahead of Marshall D. Teach and his crew lit up. Then, without any of them seeing when he had arrived, a figure wreathed in lightning stood atop the mast.

"So it was you."

"You were the ones who shot at me just now?"

His low, icy voice reached them through the sloshing sea and the roar of the towering column of water ahead.

It carried an oppressive