The first man to fall never even had time to make a sound before several wounds opened across his chest, deep enough to expose bone.
Warm blood splattered onto the mast and trickled down its rough grain.
The screams came half a beat later.
"Devil Fruit powers-"
"Fire! Hurry up and fire!"
As ** whistled through the air, Vergo had already stepped into the crowd.
Every thrust of his bamboo staff brought a sharp crack from some pirate's knee. Pica darted like a fish between toppling barrels and ropes, the dull thuds of elbows striking ribs coming one after another.
When all three began their slaughter at once, the will to resist faded faster than the bloodstains on the deck.
Most despairing of all, this was the ocean **.
There was nothing in sight but the deep blue horizon. Even jumping overboard was only a shortcut to becoming fish food.
By the time Rossi steered the family's sailing ship slowly alongside, the three-masted ship's deck was already soaked dark red.
Pica was wiping the backs of his hands with a rag, while Vergo leaned against the rail, steadying his breathing.
Doflamingo sat on a burly ** whose captain's coat had crab-claw patterns embroidered on its cuffs.
"So inefficient."
Propping his chin on one hand, Doflamingo lightly kicked the body beneath him with his heel. "Was this guy really worth ten million?"
"I hadn't even warmed up before he stopped moving."
Rossi's gaze fell on the distinctive pair of metal crab-claw weapons.
"If there's no one else in the North Blue using weapons like those, then it's him."
He paused. "A bounty in the tens of millions might let someone run rampant in the North Blue for a while, but toss them into the Grand Line and they wouldn't even