"Hey, is it a good idea to release so many of those guys at once?"
Inside the dark castle on Arderay, the Alucard crew watched the battle of the Red Hair Pirates unfold through a projector connected to a visual Den Den Mushi. Many of them were worried about so many infected creatures being released. Although the battle was taking place in the wilderness, what if they got into the city? Dr. Indigo himself had said that the monsters couldn't be controlled and would kill anyone they saw. What if they ran into the city?
"Don't worry about that~~"
Dr. Indigo spun around a few times and pointed to a window next to the main hall. "You can see for yourselves."
Urdaha and the others walked to the window, looking out with confusion. Before they even looked, just getting near the window made them frown. "The smell of blood is so strong."
They endured the stench and looked out, noticing that in various parts of the city, many crimson stone pillars had risen. They weren't very tall, only about two or three meters high, but there were so many that the entire city seemed to be covered in red dots.
"What is this?" Urdaha turned back, his eyes signaling Dr. Indigo to explain.
"Do you know about the technology that the Marines use for their warships to cross the Calm Belt?" Dr. Indigo asked back.
"Of course. They say it's Seastone that's been specially modified and attached to the ships to give off the aura of the sea, so the Sea Kings won't come near." Urdaha's expression froze halfway through his sentence, and Dr. Indigo nodded in satisfaction.
Everyone immediately understood. There was this trick.
"The red stone pillars are created using Captain Alucard's power and give off his aura. They wouldn't dare to kill here~"
As soon as Dr. Indigo said this, everyone below looked at Alucard with adoration. At that moment, Alucard had just put down a Den Den Mushi after making a call to someone.
"What an outrageous number!"
In the wilderness of Arderay, someone from the Red Hair Pirates screamed in fear at the monsters swarming toward them, almost filling their entire field of vision like a great flood of beasts.
Shanks' expression turned serious, and he suddenly unleashed a surge of Haki from his body, cracking the tree trunks in the surrounding jungle. It was Conqueror's Haki!
But Shanks' move only made the infected creatures pause for two seconds. After that, their expressions grew even more sinister, as if Shanks' Haki had been a provocation. They charged at the Red Hair Pirates with even greater ferocity.
"Oh no, they seem to be angry," Shanks said, making a face.
There was no need to count; they could roughly estimate that the monsters outnumbered them at least five to one.
"Captain, we should retreat!" a crew member ran up behind Shanks and said anxiously. Just seeing the sheer number of these monsters was enough to make them want to turn back.
"Are you kidding me?! This is a great opportunity to learn about that guy's abilities!" Shanks drew his cutlass from his left hip and shouted with a spirit that could swallow mountains, "Alright, lads! Let's get to it!"
"YEAH! YAAARGH! YAAARGH!"
Everyone raised their weapons and yelled.
Ten seconds later, the two sides plunged into a chaotic battle. Shanks rushed in front of the largest creature, the Wrecker, and grinned. "You can't be killed by a headshot or a stab to the heart. You remind me of your master. But can you understand what I'm saying?"
"ROAR!"
The Wrecker roared and flicked its rubbery hand forward like a giant whip. Shanks held his cutlass in a reversed grip, and with a flash of his sword, in the blink of an eye, the Wrecker's ten- meter-long arm was severed and fell to the ground.
"That guy!"
"What incredible swordsmanship! What terrifying speed!"
Many of Alucard's subordinates watching the fight were in awe. They all admitted they couldn't have pulled off the move Shanks just did.
"Well, the Wrecker isn't that easy to deal with, though," Dr. Indigo said, suddenly leaning in and whispering.
Everyone looked back at the screen, and they saw that the Wrecker's arm and its severed stump were connected by blood-like threads, and in a few seconds, they reattached themselves!
"How terrifying. Your arm can reattach after being cut off. You're just like your master." Shanks said with a meaningful tone, glancing down at his own severed left arm. "I wonder if I can do that too?"
On the other side, Benn Beckman, Lucky Roux, and the others were fighting the Dominators and Contenders. While the infected creatures were no match for the Red Hair Pirates' elite crew members, they weren't weak. And with the huge difference in numbers between the two sides, it was hard to say who would win. Shanks' greatest weapon for crowd control, his Conqueror's Haki, wasn't working, causing the battle to enter a stalemate.
"Indigo," Alucard said from his throne after three hours of fighting, during which the Blacklight infected had lost a quarter of their numbers and several members of the Red Hair Pirates had been injured and carried away.
"Yes?" Indigo quickly turned his head.
"Tell Wolf to meet them from the opposite direction. Bring the Den Den Mushi with you. We're going to give Red-Hair a little gift." Alucard said with a faint smile.
The people below blinked, not understanding what Alucard was up to, but they immediately left to prepare. As they walked out of the castle with Wolf, Dr. Indigo and the others headed in the opposite direction, discussing among themselves, "Could the Captain be planning to surround them from both sides and wipe out the Red Hair Pirates?"
"I don't think so. Let's just go to the edge of the island and wait for the Den Den Mushi's command."
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