Although Dragon's entrance was sufficiently shocking, the Black Cat Pirates on the ship were all elite forces from the South Sea, with rich combat experience. After a brief moment of surprise, some of them had already aimed their muskets at him and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
The first loud gunshot directly marked the beginning of the battle. More gunshots rang out from all directions, and a dense rain of bullets poured over like a storm.
Seeing this, Dragon slightly furrowed his brows and forcibly suppressed his instinct to use Haki. For him, if he were to use Haki or overly powerful physical techniques, this battle would lose its meaning. He had to ensure that he only used the abilities of the Hurricane Fruit to respond.
In an instant, the rain of bullets closed in, but they were all deflected by a faint green whirlwind that appeared out of nowhere and slowly revolved around Dragon. The bullets, now devoid of force, clattered to the ground.
"So it is a Devil Fruit ability, but it seems quite different from ours, meow!"
At this moment, 'Fishing Cat' had somehow jumped over from his white ship and was now crouching on the mast of the black ship, looking down at Dragon from above.
Both he and 'Tripod Cat' came from the lowest strata of the South Sea, so they had not received a proper education. They were only taught to read and write by two kind elders for three years, and they had no opportunity to learn about Devil Fruits. Thus, their understanding of Devil Fruits was limited to knowing that they were 'treasures of the sea.'
Moreover, up until now, they had only heard of but never seen other Devil Fruit users in the South Sea, so they had assumed that all Devil Fruit users, like themselves, could transform into different animal forms.
"He seems to be able to turn into wind and also control it. The cannonballs earlier must have been blown back by him. Look closely, meow!" 'Tripod Cat,' the Black Cat, reminded his companion with a serious expression while carefully observing Dragon's combat.
Meanwhile, on the deck, the Black Cat Pirates, seeing that their musket fire was ineffective, began to close in with steel knives, daggers, and swords, their faces twisted with the most ferocious expressions.
Sure enough, this time, the suddenly appearing Marine could no longer stand still and ignore the attacks. Instead, accompanied by the green wind, he moved with an ethereal grace, weaving through the crowd and dodging slashes and stabs from all angles. Occasionally, some pirates felt their weapons make contact with something solid, but it was only a layer of semi-transparent wind.
On Dragon's side, he was suppressing the urge to counterattack while dealing with the pirates' onslaught and simultaneously sensing the power of the wind.
If Rear Admiral Avène were to see him now, he might think that Dragon was using Observation Haki. However, this was merely the perception of air currents, combined with occasional semi-elementalization.
Dragon felt that since he was now a Logia-type user, he had to quickly get used to utilizing the characteristics of elementalization.
The technique he was currently using had already been named 'Wind Dragon's Protection' in his mind. The wind power enhanced his agility, speed, and provided both defensive capabilities and airflow perception. It seemed like a rather comprehensive support skill, but it was more than that.
"Wind Dragon!"
In the next moment, the previously calm green wind swirling around Dragon suddenly surged violently. More wind power poured out, forming a coiling wind dragon that spiraled upward, violently lifting nearly a hundred pirates on the deck into the air.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
It wasn't over yet. The pirates enveloped by the fierce wind began to show dense, bloody cuts all over their bodies. The excruciating pain, akin to being sliced by a thousand blades, forced them to let out instinctive screams and cries of agony.
"My God, what the hell is this?"
'Fishing Cat' instantly appeared beside 'Tripod Cat,' staring in disbelief at the Wind Dragon circling around a tornado, with Dragon's figure faintly visible within the eye of the storm.
When the Wind Dragon first appeared, his animal instincts had screamed warnings at him. Fortunately, he had immediately obeyed his instincts and jumped down at the fastest speed possible. Otherwise, he would likely be suffering the same cuts in the wind right now.
"..."
'Tripod Cat' didn't respond to 'Fishing Cat,' because he didn't know what to say either. Dragon's abilities were too astonishing, and he had no idea how to deal with them.
Ten seconds later, as the wind dissipated, the Black Cat pirates, covered in wounds and blood, fell like dumplings into the sea. Some unlucky ones plunged directly into the vast ocean.
The most shocking part was the massive hole that appeared on the deck, right where Dragon had been standing. However, he didn't fall through; instead, he floated in mid-air, with a much smaller Wind Dragon circling around him.
What made 'Tripod Cat' and 'Fishing Cat' most nervous was that Dragon's gaze was fixed on them, causing the two to adopt a feline-like defensive posture.
However, Dragon harbored no killing intent toward these two 'cats.'
He had already looked into their backgrounds on his way here. For pirates who targeted only the nobility, spared civilians, and didn't engage in excessive killing, capture was necessary, but there was no need to kill them.
Yet, his prolonged staring finally made 'Tripod Cat' and 'Fishing Cat' unable to hold back. Acting on the principle of striking first, they charged at Dragon almost simultaneously, without any verbal or visual communication.
The Lion Cat Form and Pallas's Cat Form users, one on the left and the other on the right, moved so fast their figures blurred. In less than a breath, they closed in on Dragon.
Their claws, sharp enough to cut through metal, slashed fiercely—one aiming high, the other low—their coordination seamless.
"Black Cat Frenzy Claws, meow!"
"White Cat Frenzy Claws, meow!"
At the same time, the Wind Dragon on Dragon's body roared out, growing rapidly in the wind, transforming into a three-meter-tall, ten-meter-long divine Wind Dragon.
It completely ignored 'Tripod Cat's' slashes, instead slamming him away with the same speed he had approached. Then, with a flick of its tail, it sent 'Fishing Cat' flying back.
[Bang! Bang!]
The two crashed heavily against the ship's railing, spitting out mouthfuls of blood, their eyes filled with fear as they watched Dragon slowly float toward them, the Wind Dragon still circling in the air, staring them down.
As Zoan users, the Wind Dragon's attacks, though heavy, shouldn't have completely incapacitated them. But the overwhelming gap between their strengths was utterly despairing.
"Captain! Captain!"
At that moment, the crew of the White Cat Pirates from another ship, gritting their teeth and wielding their weapons, ran over by stepping on the ropes of grappling hooks.
They had also witnessed the strength Dragon displayed, but the two captains had always treated them well. Most of them had previously suffered oppression and bullying from the nobles, and it was the captains who had fiercely dealt with the nobles and brought them out to live carefree and free lives on the sea.
So at this moment, even those Black Cat pirates who had been cut by the tornado, as long as they had the strength to stand up, were all enduring their injuries and desperately charging towards Dragon.
"Captains, take the white ship and run!"
"Yes, run! We'll hold him off!"
The pirates from both the Black Cat and White Cat crews believed that with the strength of their two captains, they could surely escape successfully—they were Devil Fruit users after all! "You... you all..."
'Tripod Cat' and 'Fishing Cat' had tears in their eyes, but they chose not to leave on their own. Instead, they stood up and, along with their crew, roared as they attacked Dragon.
"If we die, we die together, meow—"
Dragon was somewhat surprised by this scene. He had encountered many pirate crews before, but he had never seen one so united, even willing to die for their captains.
He became curious about these pirates.
"Fine, I'll just lock you up for now," Dragon felt that time was almost up.
In the next moment, the Wind Dragon expanded violently and then exploded with a loud bang, transforming into a surging green hurricane that swept through everything around it, engulfing all the pirates and the 'Twin Cats'. The white and black ships were torn apart in the wind [Roar——————]
The haunting Wind Dragon's Roar echoed across the sea.