"Bombardment!!!"
With the command given, over twenty Marine warships simultaneously launched their devastating bombardment. Fierce artillery fire almost instantly covered the entire port town's sky like a deadly meteor shower.
Seeing this scene, Silas, who was fighting Kong and Sebastes, tensed up immediately.
"Kong, you actually ordered an attack on civilians!?"
Silas roared angrily. Although he had already had the Black Heart Pirates help evacuate civilians, leaving only a group of vicious pirates in the port town, Kong did not know that!
Hearing Silas's voice, Kong's expression froze, and his attack on Silas halted completely.
"Elliott!!!"
Kong roared toward the warships.
"Who gave you permission to bombard?"
Having risen to Admiral candidate over the years through intelligence achievements from Sphinx, Kong understood Sphinx even better than Silas.
Sphinx was not large. Less than thirty kilometers in diameter, with a permanent population under 300,000. Resources were scarce, pirates ran rampant. If not for Silas's appearance, this country would have collapsed over ten years ago.
Within the Marines, there were indeed many scoundrels, some who looked down on civilians, only fulfilling their Marine duties to help civilians drive away pirates out of obligation.
If they treated ordinary civilians this way, it was even worse for non-affiliated nation civilians who were not even member nation residents.
But not all Marines were like this.
For example, Kong believed most pirates were unforgivable, but he would never give orders to attack civilians just to catch pirates.
They captured pirates to protect civilians.
If they attacked civilians to capture pirates, would that not be putting the cart before the horse?
Even non-affiliated nation civilians should have human rights!
"Kong, do not space out!"
Taking advantage of Kong's distracted attention, Silas, who had been on the defensive for a while, finally caught his breath and gave Sebastes a fierce beating.
This forced Sebastes to shout defensively, "I gave that order! The residents of this country are all in league with pirates. Who can guarantee they do not have blood on their hands? Would you have our soldiers land and fight pirates to the death for these criminals?"
Bombarding the island was the safest and most efficient approach. With the warships' cannon range, they could cover most of the island's area. After clearing out the pirates' defensive facilities, the Marines could land and greatly reduce casualties.
Hearing Sebastes' words, Silas said nothing, instead taking advantage of Sebastes talking to land several more devastating strikes on him.
Fighting two opponents alone was already Silas's limit. He had no energy to spare for other parts of the island. Those Marines could only be handled by the pirates' resistance.
Silas was not worried about the pirates fleeing because there was nowhere to run. The pirates could only fight the Marines desperately with their backs to the wall.
"Damn White Wolf Pirates!"
The cannon fire overhead had not stopped since it began. The impact of exploding cannonballs made the pirates' ears ring painfully.
If the pirates still could not figure out what was happening, they would have wasted their time in the New World.
The White Wolf Pirates were using them as shields!
If the White Wolf Pirates wanted to leave, they could have done so before the Marine encirclement. Why wait until the Marines arrived to fight back?
"Because this is White Wolf Pirates territory!"
A voice said quietly. "Where is the logic in abandoning your own territory when Marines arrive? Would you abandon yours?"
The speaker was an old pirate who looked weathered and aged. Hearing his words, the other pirates felt frustrated.
"So we are just eating this loss?"
"Of course not."
The old pirate smiled, a flash of nostalgia passing through his eyes.
"The Marines have many people, but we are not few either. Plus we have the terrain advantage. Just survive these bombardment rounds, and it will be time for our counterattack."
Although this world possessed many supernatural powers, and the strong could even move mountains and fill seas, most people were still flesh and blood.
Getting shot would injure them; getting hit by cannonballs could kill them.
But if there was somewhere to hide, even if cannonballs bombarded outside for a whole day, they could not kill even the weakest pirate here.
This was the New World, after all!
So the Marines would definitely land, and after landing would be the time to counterattack.
"Both Marine Admirals are being held back by White Wolf Silas. The Marine field officers are being handled by White Wolf Pirates members. All we need to face are ordinary Marine soldiers."
"This is not the time to assign blame. Besides, Sphinx was originally White Wolf Silas's territory. Even knowing Marines would come to suppress us, he did not stop us from leaving, right?"
"We are just a bunch of unlucky bastards who happened to run into Marines. Besides cooperating to repel the Marines, do we have any other choice?"
The old pirate's words won recognition from many pirates.
Now that the Marines had arrived, they could not escape anyway. If they did not cooperate against the Marines, should they fight the White Wolf Pirates instead?
Fighting Marines might just land them in prison, but fighting the White Wolf Pirates could actually get them killed outright.
Then if the White Wolf Pirates fled, would the Marines' target not be just them?
Seeing the pirates' opinion swayed by him, the old pirate grinned, looking toward where Silas battled Sebastes and Kong.
"Bastard captain, you clearly said we would disband, then secretly recruited new people. Are you saying we are too old to fight anymore?"
If he had not seen news in the papers about the White Wolf Pirates robbing Heavenly Tribute, he really would not have known Silas had secretly pulled off another big job.
Moreover...
"You should have said earlier you could beat Admirals! You had us running from Marines every day!"
Though he said this, the old pirate's face showed a brilliant smile.
Facing Admirals without retreating an inch. This spirited vigor!
This was why he had originally followed that man!
Not far away, a group of Black Market members preparing to infiltrate the pirates and spread propaganda looked at each other in confusion.
"Who is that old man? One of ours?"
"Who knows?"
"The pirates' enthusiasm is already up. Nothing for us to do, right?"
Most pirates in the port town were indeed rabble, but among this rabble were also pirate newcomers with bounties over ten million.
If these forces could be united...
"They are coming!"
Realizing bombardment could not effectively damage the pirates, the Marines finally began landing, preparing for ground assault.
Silas had already drawn away the strongest Marine Admirals.
But among the remaining Marines, there were still a full ten Marine Vice Admirals!
"Old man, you really know how to make unreasonable demands!"
But facing such powerful and numerous enemies, Ripley and Rocks showed fierce smiles on their faces.
"Then let us fight!"
[Chapter Complete]
***
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