Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!...
Shells rained down in wave after wave along the Kuja Pirates' path.
The three giant snakes pulling the ship were forced to stop, and the hull rocked.
"Your Majesty!"
The sudden bombardment interrupted their conversation. The queen's guard steadied herself against the swaying and hurriedly looked toward Eilinsna.
Eilinsna narrowed her eyes, her face expressionless as wisps of killing intent radiated from her.
"Lay down covering fire."
Her cold voice rang out, followed by volley after volley of Haki-coated arrows flying toward the warship in an orderly barrage.
There was no denying the wonders of Armament Haki. Arrows coated in it had not only tremendous range, but tremendous power as well.
Each hit blasted a hole in the deck.
A rain of arrows descended on the warship.
The soldiers coated their bare hands or weapons in Haki and knocked the arrows away.
On one side were elites selected from an entire nation, who had roamed the seas for years.
On the other were Marine elites who had yet to mature. Cries of alarm soon filled the warship.
"Hiss!!"
"It hurts! It hurts!!!"
"How are these arrows so powerful?!!"
"Aargh!"
"Ah!!!"
Clang!
Ting! Ting!
The soldiers using weapons cried out in shock at the arrows' power.
For the soldiers without weapons... every point of contact with an arrow felt like a bomb going off. Cries of pain rang out incessantly.
Meanwhile, Sakazuki stood on the uppermost deck, his Observation Haki fully extended, thrusting his finger out again and again.
Every arrow coming from a tricky angle that would have severely wounded a soldier was knocked into the sea by Sakazuki's Flying Finger Pistol.
Before long, every soldier aboard had been injured and bore multiple bruises.
Some had also been struck by arrows, but none of those wounds were fatal.
Under the pressure of life and death, the soldiers fought ever more fiercely. Their use of Armament Haki grew more proficient, and their reactions became faster as well.
Whoosh!-
A faint whistle cut through the air. Sakazuki's figure flickered on the uppermost deck, vanishing in an instant and reappearing beside the warship's railing.
"Everyone, fall back."
Sakazuki's voice rang out. Before anyone could react,
Sakazuki, now on the deck, swept his hand.
A curtain of magma coated in Armament Haki rose along one side of the warship.
An unbroken string of explosions left everyone aboard with ringing ears. Then,
beyond the magma wall, under cover of the empress's sustained assault,
the Kuja Pirates rushed toward the warship.
Sakazuki's Observation Haki detected this too, and he frowned.
"You're courting death."
"Brass Knuckles."
He withdrew the magma wall and formed a Finger Pistol with his right hand. His index finger glowed red, with magma faintly flowing within it.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...
Like bullets, black Magma Shells coated in Armament Haki shot from Sakazuki's index finger toward the Kuja Pirates.
The Kuja Pirates paid little attention to the incoming, bullet-sized Magma Shells.
One fighter after another leaped onto the bow, drew a longsword, coated it in Haki, and swung.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!...
As the Kuja Pirates' fighters slashed at the Magma Shells one after another, the shells were not knocked away.
Thunderous booms rang out as Armament Haki clashed.
Then a horrifying sight unfolded before everyone aboard.
After each strike against a Magma Shell, a boom rang out, and the shell rapidly swelled and expanded as a furious roar erupted.
The Magma Shells transformed into Molten Lava Giant Tigers trailing thick black smoke and pounced on the fighters.
Huge tiger paws slammed into the fighters, accompanied by repeated bangs as flesh burst apart.
"What?!"
"Aaaah!!"
"Bang!"
"Help...!!!"
"Aargh!!!!"
"Pfft!!!"
The enormous force slammed into the fighters, reducing most of the terrified women directly to clouds of blood.
The few who reacted in time coated their bodies in Armament Haki, but were still sent flying backward through layer after layer of ship planking.
The Molten Lava Giant Tigers had no intelligence. They could only pounce and charge relentlessly forward.
They would stop only when shattered or when they left the range of Sakazuki's power.
In just a few breaths, the Kuja Pirates suffered devastating casualties at the bow.
Fury surged within Eilinsna, empress of the Kuja tribe, and her Conqueror's Haki erupted, sweeping forward.
Disrupted by her Conqueror's Haki, the Molten Lava Giant Tigers at the bow froze for a moment.
In the blink of an eye, several black arrows shot from the fighters who had recovered their wits and slammed into the giant tigers' heads.
A string of explosions blasted the Molten Lava Giant Tigers' heads apart. Everyone thought it was over.
To their surprise, the headless Molten Lava Giant Tigers blazed with red light, and a wave of scorching heat washed over them.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Like magma bombs, they sprayed magma in every direction, engulfing everyone in a vast deluge.
The entire ship became an inferno shrouded in billowing smoke.
Quite a bit of magma struck the three giant snakes pulling the ship. The pain of their burns made them writhe frantically.
The ship began rocking violently as well.
Then an overwhelmingly domineering aura, accompanied by killing intent, slammed into the giant snakes.
The terror in the three giant snakes' hearts overwhelmed the pain of their burns, forcing them to settle down.
"Everyone, put out the fires!"
Suppressing her anger, Eilinsna forced herself to remain rational as she gave the order.
Then she leaped off the ship, sonic booms bursting repeatedly beneath her feet.
Eilinsna's figure flickered through the air as she charged toward the warship.
Raiding ships was commonplace. Even after being surrounded and attacked by warships multiple times, they had never suffered such losses or been left in such a wretched state.
For her, the empress of the ancient Kuja tribe, these losses and this humiliation were unforgivable.
Watching Eilinsna approach from the distance as though using Geppo,
"Escaping a few Marine encirclements made you think the Marines had no one capable of dealing with you?"
Sakazuki's indifferent voice rang out. The Marines simply had no resources to spare for a large-scale campaign here at present.
There was only this one island nation in the Calm Belt, and conquering it would serve little purpose.
Transport was also extremely troublesome, with the constant threat of attacks from Sea Kings.
But that was no excuse for a mere Pirates Nation to act with impunity.
Sakazuki stamped his foot and shot diagonally upward, without needing to step through the air.
He flew straight toward Eilinsna, turned his body slightly to the right, and drove out a punch with his right arm coated in Armament Haki.
Clang!
In midair above the sea,
Eilinsna's right foot, wreathed in Conqueror's Haki, collided with Sakazuki's fist.
A metallic clang rang out as they locked in a stalemate.
Their auras buffeted the sea below. As though torpedoes were exploding beneath the surface, countless columns of water blasted skyward.
Crackle-crackle-!!!!
Sparks of black lightning flickered faintly at the point of collision.
A moment later,
a figure was sent flying, crashing into the corpse of the several-hundred-meter-long Sea King from that morning.
After smashing through an unknown number of enormous spines along its back,
Boom!!!
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