The growth of the Black Emperor Pirates was enough to leave people numb.
An army of twenty thousand seemed to mark a dividing line.
In this Great Pirate Era, no force other than the Flying Pirates had more than twenty thousand members.
Only in the previous era had the John Pirates, Silver Axe Pirates, and Ochoku Pirates each commanded an average of twenty thousand pirates at their peak.
During the Great Pirate Era, pirate numbers kept swelling, but the effects were felt mostly in the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line.
Pirate numbers had certainly increased in the New World too, but they had not multiplied several times over.
Twenty thousand seemed to be a dividing line, a bottleneck.
Yet the Black Emperor Pirates had broken through it with ease.
Which pirate crew had last accomplished something like this?
Everyone knew.
The Flying Pirates, led by Shiki, the Golden Lion.
After the Rocks Pirates disbanded, every crew had begun to grow. At their peak, Captain John, Silver Axe, and Ochoku had all been among the greatest pirates on the seas.
Back then, Shiki had not yet reached his peak, but he could already stand alongside them.
Starting from the same line, Shiki, the Golden Lion, had expanded his forces faster than they had.
More pirates had joined the Flying Pirates than any of their crews.
A few years later, the Flying Pirates had achieved the incredible feat of taking on all three at once, trampling those three top pirates underfoot on their climb to the summit.
Even the combined manpower of those three crews could not match the Flying Pirates.
How terrifying was that!
Now, the Flying Pirates not only boasted a host of powerful fighters, but also commanded an army of over a hundred thousand