Chapter 12: "Blood-Spear" Lugart
At the eastern harbor of Ash Harbor, a single pirate ship was moored. The flag of the Blood-Spear Pirates snapped and cracked in the wind. The emblem on the flag was a bleeding spear piercing a skull, set against a crimson background that looked as if it had been dyed with blood.
In an open space on the docks, the pirates sat crowded around a bonfire. An unknown type of meat was roasting on a spit, the fat dripping into the flames with a sizzling sound. A bizarre, mixed stench of charred meat and gore hung in the air.
"Captain, this was a good haul!" one of the pirates cackled, bits of meat stuck in his teeth. "Those Marines are probably on their way. We'll hit 'em hard and score even bigger!"
"Hmph. The Marines of West Blue..." A tall, rail-thin figure, built like an iron tower, sat on a nearby reef. The old scars on his pale skin looked especially sinister in the firelight. He slowly raised a hand to caress the long, sectioned spear at his side, "Blood Beak." The barbs on its tip glinted coldly.
"They're just a pile of trash."
"Blood-Spear" Lugart was draped in a cape stitched together from various plundered Marine officer uniforms. The rank insignias he had deliberately left on glinted in the firelight.
A cruel smirk played on his lips. "When they get here, I'm going to hang their leader's head on Blood Beak. It'll be a good way to let the West Blue Marines know that I'm back. Hahaha..."
Suddenly, his laughter died.
The sea breeze itself seemed to stop for a second.
The pirates by the fire sensed the change and looked up.
At the entrance to the harbor, a lone figure was walking slowly toward them. It was a young man in a Marine uniform, a long, white-bandaged sword slung across his back.
...
The moment "Blood-Spear" Lugart saw the Marine approaching in the distance, a savage grin split his face.
"Heh... So, you finally showed up!"
However, when his gaze fell on Garon's shoulder insignia, his smile froze.
"A... A Warrant Officer?! From a branch base?!"
Staring at Garon's rank, Lugart's expression instantly darkened. The veins on his forehead bulged.
"What in the hell is this?!" He stomped his foot, and the reef beneath him cracked. "I'm 'Blood-Spear' Lugart! I fought my way back here from the Grand Line! A 69,000,000 Beri pirate! And the Marines send one goddamn Warrant Officer to deal with me?!"
His rage turned to a furious, barking laugh. He pointed his long spear at Garon, his voice dripping with humiliation and fury.
"Have the Marines run out of men?! Or is it..." His single eye narrowed, his killing intent boiling over. "Are you telling me... you think I'm not even worth more than a Warrant Officer?!"
Hearing their captain's self-mockery, the other pirates erupted in laughter, their taunts filling the air.
"Hahaha! Captain, looks like the Marines are looking down on you!"
"A measly Warrant Officer? He's not even a snack for us!"
"Hey, Marine kid, you take a wrong turn? This isn't the new recruit training ground!"
Garon offered no response. He just kept walking forward.
As Garon drew closer, a lanky pirate's eyes suddenly went wide. He stared hard at Garon's face, then violently grabbed his crewmate's arm, his voice shaking. "Wait... That guy... and that sword... wrapped in white bandages!"
Lugart shot him an impatient glance. "What is it? You pissed your pants?"
The pirate swallowed, his voice trembling. "Captain! That-That's 'Pirate Hunter' Garon!"
"What?! What the hell is a 'Pirate Hunter'?" Lugart's brow furrowed.
The lanky pirate scrambled closer, hissing in a low, rapid voice, "Captain, his rank is low, but in the last year, sixteen pirate crews in West Blue have been single-handedly wiped out by him! He's a complete Marine monster!"
"Last month, 'Gold-Tooth' Hawke of the Gold-Saber Pirates—bounty 23 million—he's the one who got him!"
"And... I heard he actually got special training at Marine HQ, but his rank is being suppressed because his 'methods are too extreme'!"
After hearing his man's explanation, Lugart's eyes narrowed slightly. He looked Garon over again.
"Oh? A little interesting..." His smirk returned, but this time it wasn't just disdain. It was a trace of bloodthirsty excitement.
"'Pirate Hunter' Garon?" Lugart's gaze fell on the Warrant Officer insignia on the young man's shoulder, and his mocking smile returned. In the first half of the Grand Line, he'd seen countless "famous" guys just like this.
He wasn't afraid in the slightest.
Lugart stood up, his tall figure casting a long shadow. "Kid, you might have a little reputation, but have the Marines really run out of men? Sending a brat like you to your death?"
Garon didn't answer. His gaze swept over the pirates by the fire, flickered across the still-wet bloodstains on the docks, and finally came to rest on Lugart.
"You're 'Blood-Spear' Lugart?" His voice was calm, but sharp as a shard of ice.
Lugart sneered, leveling Blood Beak at him. "What, you've heard of me?"
"So... it's not that the Marines look down on me..." He slowly raised the spear, twisting its tip, his voice dropping. "It's that they think... you... are enough to kill me all by yourself?"
Seeing their captain's absolute confidence, the pirates roared with laughter, some even whistling.
...
Facing the mockery of the Blood-Spear Pirates, Garon's expression remained unchanged. He slowly raised his hand, fingers spread, palm facing up.
"You massacred Ash Harbor." His voice was soft, as if stating an irrelevant fact.
Lugart stared for a second, then burst out laughing. He swung Blood Beak in a crimson arc.
"Hahaha! You call that a 'massacre'? Those peasants were vermin!" He bared his teeth, his one eye glinting with a sick, ecstatic light.
"I was just teaching them a lesson..." The spear suddenly stopped, its tip aimed straight at Garon. "On the sea, the lives of the weak... are worthless!"
The coldness in Garon's eyes instantly solidified.
"Then your life..."
The air in his palm suddenly distorted.
"VMMMMM!!!"
A pure-white orb of vibration particles leaped, collapsed, and condensed in Garon's palm. The orb's surface pulsed with a blinding light, like a star compressed to its absolute limit.
Lugart's laughter choked in his throat.
"...how much could it possibly be worth?!"
As the words left his mouth, the muscles in Garon's arm tensed. The next second, he punched—not at Lugart, but at the empty air to his side.
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
KRA-KRAK!
Space itself shattered.
With his fist as the epicenter, the air cracked like a mirror. A spiderweb of fractures spread instantly, and a terrifying shockwave erupted in a fan.
Everywhere it passed—
KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!
The Blood-Spear Pirates' ship, moored on the docks, was pulverized into splinters in less than a thousandth of a second.
Planks, masts, iron nails, and sails were all annihilated into fine dust. The shockwave was so powerful it blasted a vacuum in the water beneath the ship!
SPLAAAASH!
The sea rushed back in, throwing up a monstrous wave. The pulverized wreckage was swallowed by the vortex, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
The pirates' boisterous taunts had vanished.
The entire eastern harbor was deathly, terrifyingly silent.
Lugart's pupils had shrunk to pinpricks.
His ship... all his treasure... erased in a single blow.
Garon slowly raised his head. The shockwave had blown his dark hair back, revealing eyes that were cold enough to freeze bone.
"And..." His voice was soft, but it landed like a warhammer on Lugart's heart.
"You were wrong about what you said before."
For the first time, Garon raised his hand and gripped the hilt of the black blade on his back.
"It should have been..."
In that instant, the blade vibrated. The high-frequency tremor tore the air, letting out a piercing whine. The bandages on Black Blade: Eight Desolations began to disintegrate, unspooling in a spiral from the hilt to the tip, dissolving into grey-white fragments that hung suspended in the air. The edges of the fragments shimmered with an electric, high-frequency shockwave.
Completely liberated, the blade was bared to the world. The dark red, cracked patterns on its surface exploded with a blinding light, as if the entire sword was an "awakened beast."
"...I'm the one who thinks you alone... aren't enough for me to kill."