"You are Marines! Protecting the Member Nations is your duty!" Roya said, refusing to give up.
Basti waved his hand dismissively. "As long as everyone dies, won't no one know?"
Roya's face instantly became hideous. "Damn it! Basti, do you really want a fight to the death? Fine then, even if I die, I'll take a few people down with me! If you want to blame someone, blame those Marines! They actually discovered our whereabouts!"
As he spoke, a fierce light flashed in his eyes, and his finger on the trigger was about to pull hard!
"Wait!"
A cold and steady female voice rang out, breaking the tense and desperate atmosphere.
The crowd parted, and Tsuru walked out leading a team of elite female Marines. Her gaze calmly swept across the scene, finally landing on Roya and Vina, whom he held hostage.
"Release them," Tsuru's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable power. "I can guarantee that you will leave safely."
"Hey! Tsuru!" Vice Admiral Basti frowned in dissatisfaction, his tone irritable.
"This is the prey I discovered and surrounded; it's my credit! You have no right to interfere here, and even less right to make decisions for me! Women should stay in the back!"
Tsuru didn't even give him a glance. Her tone remained steady, but the threat in her words was obvious:
"You can choose to act, Vice Admiral Basti. However, I will compile every instance of your dereliction of duty, acceptance of bribes, and... certain even shadier transactions during your tenure in Dressrosa into a report and submit it to Headquarters."
"You!" Basti's face changed.
He glared fiercely at Tsuru and spat, "Pah! Troublesome woman!"
However, as his sinister gaze swept over Roya, who was now sighing in relief, an idea popped into his head.
He pretended not to care and spoke loudly, his voice echoing enough for everyone present to hear:
"Hmph, caring so much about the lives of a few lowly civilian girls? Truly a woman's soft-heartedness! I just wonder if these female Marines under Vice Admiral Tsuru's command, once they take off those uniforms, are as 'capable' in their figures as they are in handling cases? Let's go!"
After saying that, Basti took a portion of the soldiers loyal to him and turned to leave, leaving behind an extremely vile and suggestive scene.
"You bastard!" A young female Marine beside Tsuru turned red with anger and couldn't help but shout out in fury.
After hearing Basti's words, Roya's wretched gaze swept back and forth over Tsuru's body, which even the conservative Marine uniform couldn't hide the elegant curves of, and a lewd smile appeared on his face.
"Your internal Marine relations aren't very peaceful either, huh?"
"That has nothing to do with you. Release them," Tsuru's voice didn't change because of Basti's insinuation. "I will be your hostage."
Roya's narrow eyes rolled over Tsuru, and he let out a sneer:
"Hehehe... Vice Admiral Tsuru's great name is well known to us. Let you be the exchange? We don't have the guts, nor the interest! If you have some hidden trick, wouldn't we be walking right into a trap?"
His wretched gaze swept toward the nervous female Marine Soldiers behind Tsuru, and he licked his lips:
"If you want to exchange, fine! Use those ordinary female Marines behind you! One for one, sounds fair, right?"
Tsuru and the female Marines behind her fell into silence, struggle and anger appearing on their faces.
This scene fell into Vina's eyes, but it only made her sneer in her heart.
Hypocrisy! As expected, Marines are all the same breed!
"We don't need your fake kindness!"
Vina suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with resolute hatred.
"I don't need the Marines to save me! I'd rather die here than ever accept a favor from the Marines!"
Sia, Shi Yue, and Viya also nodded in unison, their eyes filled with a fierce determination to go down fighting. Their bodies arched slightly, completely ignoring the guns pressed against their heads, as they prepared to resist by force!
"Just you lot? You still want to resist!" Roya said mockingly.
The four girls, who had only been in training for a short time, had no way to resist the Pirates suppressing them.
"Don't!"
"Calm down!"
Seeing this, several young female Marines beside Tsuru cried out in alarm. They could see that Vina and the others weren't just bluffing; it was a genuine, desperate resolve to break rather than bend!
Almost at the same time, a female Marine named Seira took a step forward and said loudly to Roya, "I'll do it!"
Immediately after, three other female Marines also stood up one after another. "And me!"
Roya narrowed his eyes, sizing up these four female Marines who had volunteered. They indeed looked like ordinary soldiers with limited strength.
He glanced again at Vina and the others, who were like powder kegs, and quickly calculated in his mind.
He wanted to leave safely, but the way these four women were acting now, there was no possibility of them cooperating.
If he encountered that Basti again later, these civilians would be completely useless. From this perspective, exchanging them for four ordinary female soldiers was quite a bargain.
"Fine! Let's do it!" Roya gave a cruel laugh. "Keep your guns pointed at them! If they dare to move, fire immediately!"
The exchange process took place in an extremely oppressive atmosphere. The Pirates' muzzles were pressed hard against the backs of Vina and the others' hearts, and they were pushed forward forcefully.
On the other side, the four female Marines also laid down their weapons, raised their hands high, and walked toward the Pirates step by step.
As the eight women passed each other in the middle ground, at the moment the four female Marines were about to be controlled by the pirates—
"Do it!"
Tsuru's cold and decisive command exploded like a thunderclap!
This command caught everyone off guard! Not only were Roya and his Pirates stunned, but even Vina and the others, who had just escaped the gun barrels and hadn't yet run back to the Marine line, turned back in shock!
"Not good!" Roya reacted instantly, his face changing drastically as he roared, "Kill them!"
The Pirate closest to Vina pulled the trigger almost instinctively. The muzzle spat fire, and a bullet whistled toward the back of Vina's heart!
"Watch out!"
At the critical moment, the female Marine named Seira, who had just exchanged places with Vina, suddenly erupted with startling speed and used her own body to block the muzzle!
Puff—!
Blood splattered before Vina's eyes.
A few drops of warm, metallic-smelling liquid splashed onto Vina's cheek.
She stood there in a daze, watching the female Marine, Seira, who had just given her an encouraging look, as a glaring flower of blood bloomed on her chest.
Time seemed to freeze in front of Vina's eyes at this moment.
"Seira!!"
The other female Marines let out cries of grief and indignation.
Meanwhile, Tsuru's figure had already cut into the enemy crowd like a phantom! Her movements were concise and efficient, without a single wasted motion; every strike was inevitably accompanied by a Pirate falling with a scream.
The angry Marine Soldiers also swarmed up, instantly subduing the remaining Pirates. The battle was over in the blink of an eye.
Roya still wanted to struggle, but Tsuru pinned him down with a kick.
Click!
The sound of an eggshell cracking echoed in the minds of everyone around.
The intense pain made Roya's eyeballs bulge, and he no longer had any strength left to resist.
At this moment, he deeply resented Basti for saying those things earlier.
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