Only the Flying Pirates had suffered losses.
The Monster Legion and the Beasts Pirates had not been so callous as to simply flee, either.
They needed to cover the retreat of the Flying Pirates' few remaining high-end combatants.
In practice, providing cover meant holding back the World Government's top combatants and preventing them from intervening.
The actual evacuation still depended on the Flying Pirates themselves.
Clearly, they were now at a disadvantage.
That applied to their numbers of both high-end combatants and top combatants.
Naturally, the World Government could not let them have their way.
They had slowly boiled the frog, and now that it was finally cooked, it was time to enjoy the meal.
According to their plan, once the Flying Pirates' high-end combatants had all been eliminated, the several top combatants freed up would join the battlefield at the right moment.
They would work together to weaken the pirates and seize the chance to kill a few particularly dangerous figures.
Someone like "Uranus" Reinhardt, whose death would effectively cut off one of the Flying Pirates' arms.
Although Reinhardt was not exceptionally powerful, both the threat he posed to the World Government and his standing within the Flying Pirates were second only to "Golden Lion" Shiki's.
The Flying Pirates had grown to their current scale, accommodating so many powerful fighters and sustaining their enormous organization without collapsing.
Besides "Golden Lion" Shiki's formidable strength and prestige, they depended on Reinhardt's meticulous management.
He had bound the vast Flying Pirates together. There might have been conflicts between their members, but none had erupted into major upheavals. That was an impressive feat.
The division of the territories guarded by each fleet commander alone involved a great deal of skillful balancing.
Besides him, there was Ulquiorra, who was being suppressed by Saint Garling.