A new round of war began.
This war was never going to drag on like the one against the Flying Pirates.
The Overlord Dragon Pirates were not the only ones consolidating their forces and giving up territory. The Demon King Pirates had also made a token concession of a dozen or so Islands.
But the Whitebeard Pirates had no intention of handing over territory they had fought so hard to seize. They had barely gotten their hands on it!
The three top pirate crews needed to regain their confidence at the expense of other crews and replace the territory they had lost.
The Whitebeard Pirates were the first to clash with the John Pirates.
After absorbing some of the territory the Overlord Dragon Pirates had given up, the Silver Axe Pirates pressed on into their remaining territory.
Since the territory they had surrendered had originally belonged to the World Pirates, the Silver Axe Pirates now shared a border with the Whitebeard Pirates as well.
Just as Zack had predicted, the Silver Axe Pirates saw the Overlord Dragon Pirates backing down and diverted some of their forces to attack Whitebeard territory.
As for secretly sending men to strike the Whitebeard Pirates from behind, the Overlord Dragon Pirates did no such thing.
It was enough to have the Whitebeard Pirates as a buffer to the north, holding off the John Pirates and drawing away some of the Silver Axe Pirates' forces.
In the end, no scheme mattered without the strength to back it up.
Truth be told, Zack was not worried about Silver Axe. He excelled at aerial combat, which gave him a powerful advantage in a war at sea.
A brawler like Silver Axe faced considerable limitations at sea.
Zack had no intention of giving up his advantage and fighting on