While Zephyr was in the sea, the pirate alliance led by the Black Shark and Vulture Pirates had arrived, and they saw the chaotic state of the battlefield.
The captain of the Vulture Pirates, Vulture Pheromone, gave the order to fire, intending to blast pirates and Marines alike into the sea.
His fleet immediately opened fire, and a dense barrage of cannonballs covered the heavily damaged warships and pirate ships.
"Captain Vulture, our Black Shark crew members are still in that area! Please cease fire!" an officer on the Black Shark ship said urgently into a Den Den Mushi, trying to reach Vulture Pheromone.
Pheromone replied nonchalantly, "The men Morton took with him are all Fish-Men. They'll dive as soon as they see the cannonballs coming. They won't get hurt, so what are you afraid of?"
"But the Golden Tiger Pirates are our allies! A barrage of this scale will send them to the bottom of the sea along with the rest!" the grave voice of another captain came through a different Den Den Mushi.
Holding the receiver, Pheromone sneered. "I can't be bothered with that. My goal is to eliminate the Marines by any means necessary. If the Golden Tiger Pirates are mixed in with them, that's just their bad luck."
Pheromone's sinister tone immediately silenced the other pirate captains.
With their own captain and vice-captain absent, the men on the Black Shark ship didn't have the courage to argue with Pheromone, but one of the Fish-Man officers dove into the sea to investigate the situation.
Pheromone snorted. He crossed his arms and looked at the chaotic sea ahead, a mocking sneer on his face. "This is a grand pirate alliance formed to drive the Marines out of the New World. There's a seventy percent chance we'll succeed. When that happens, a huge amount of territory in the New World will be up for grabs. It'll be a scramble for power, and naturally, the fewer competitors, the better."
"Captain, look! The man on that warship... I think it's the former Marine Admiral, Zephyr!" Pheromone's first mate had been observing the situation with a telescope. When he saw Zephyr blow up the cannonballs, his face went pale with fright.
"Let me see!" Pheromone snatched the telescope and saw Zephyr on the warship.
"The Marine support fleet hasn't arrived yet. Why is he here?" Pheromone's face turned ashen.
"It doesn't matter why he's here. We have the numbers now. Let's see if we can take him down," Pheromone said, his eyes darting around. He grabbed several Den Den Mushi and roared into them.
"A Marine Admiral is on the warship ahead! All ships, open fire immediately! Blast Zephyr into the sea!"
"What? Zephyr's up ahead? What are we fighting for? We should run!" The captain of a smaller pirate crew was so scared his face turned white.
Pheromone immediately berated him. "You coward! There are so many of us, and you're afraid of one man? The Marine support fleet isn't here yet. This is our chance! If all ships fire at once, we might be able to kill Zephyr!"
"Captain Pheromone is right! We have a chance! Everyone, fire! Don't spare the ammunition! If we can kill Zephyr, our names will be known throughout the seas!" an excited voice came through the Den Den Mushi.
All the captains grew excited. They aimed their cannons at the warship, and with a deafening roar, a barrage of cannonballs and rockets shot through the air, forming a black curtain of death. If a barrage like this hit the already heavily damaged ships, it would undoubtedly destroy them completely. Two volleys like this, and every ship would be at the bottom of the sea.
"Are they aiming for me?" Zephyr saw the curtain of fire heading for his warship and immediately knew they were trying to kill him.
He glanced around, then flashed forward and picked up an unexploded cannonball from the deck, weighing it in his hand. Then he threw it. The cannonball shot forward, even faster than if it had been fired from a cannon.
It struck one of the rockets at the front of the barrage, which instantly exploded. The force of the explosion created a shockwave that detonated the nearest rockets, setting off a chain reaction in the air that took out more than half of the barrage. The shockwave also deflected the remaining rockets and slowed the cannonballs following behind, causing them to fall short and explode in the sea.
With a single cannonball, Zephyr had neutralized most of the astonishing barrage. Only a few rockets made it through, and he destroyed them with two punches.
"Don't fire all at once! Spread the ships out! Fire from all directions!" Pheromone roared into the Den Den Mushi, his face extremely grim.
The twenty or so pirate ships began to spread out, and another volley of cannonballs soared into the air.
"Can you still intercept the cannonballs?" Zephyr asked, looking at Onigumo and the others on the warship.
"No problem," Onigumo said, forcing himself to stand.
"Good. I'll leave these to you. I'll take care of those pirate ships." Zephyr's eyes were cold. He saw the broken mast on the deck, and with a single hand, he picked up the ten-meter-long piece of wood, testing its weight.
"This will have to do."
Zephyr planted his feet firmly, gripped the mast in his right hand, and took the stance of a javelin thrower. In an instant, a deafening boom echoed across the sea—a sonic boom created by the mast tearing through the air.
The massive piece of wood shot forward. It was just a long shadow streaking through the sky, but in an instant, it had traveled several hundred meters and struck a pirate ship. The ship exploded on impact. The mast continued, piercing through three more ships before plunging into the sea, the impact causing the water to erupt.
In a single moment, one pirate ship had been blown to pieces, and three more had been pierced through. They were now taking on water and sinking.
One attack had destroyed four pirate ships.
The sight terrified all the pirates.
"Damn it, how are we supposed to fight this? Run!" The captain of a smaller crew saw the four wrecked ships, his face pale with terror, and screamed at his men to turn the ship around.
"The power of a Marine Admiral is terrifying." Morton had surfaced from the sea and saw the whole thing. He broke out in a cold sweat. He quickly returned to his own ship and ordered an immediate retreat.
"Run! Run! We can't fight an Admiral!" Pheromone was terrified, all of his earlier bravado gone. He also chose to flee.
"None of you are escaping," Zephyr said with a cold smile. He picked up a crate of rockets from the deck and began to throw them with both hands. One by one, the rockets shot through the air, accurately striking the fleeing pirate ships, causing them to catch fire, explode, or even break apart and sink.
Far in the distance, a small boat, no more than a few meters long, was stopped on the water. The boat looked exactly like the Sky God.
In fact, it was the Sky God, shrunk by the external space created by Bege's power.
Enel was perched on the bow of the ship, watching the pirate alliance get decimated through a telescope. He turned and asked, "Godfather, is it really okay for us to just watch and not help them?"
On the deck, Bege was lounging in a deck chair, wearing sunglasses and casually sunbathing.
"Those pirates will be our enemies sooner or later. What's wrong with letting them be eliminated?" Modi, also watching through a telescope, calmly answered Enel's question.
"But we're in an alliance right now."
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