In the New World, in a stretch of sea not far from the Red Line—
Three smoking Marine warships were stationed there.
And from within the encirclement of the three warships, a giant snail slowly crawled out.
This was Malverick and his group, who had just entered the New World.
He hadn't expected that the moment he entered, he would run into three Marine ships blocking his path.
But a single Vice Admiral couldn't make any waves in Malverick's eyes.
Right now, that Marine Vice Admiral was half-kneeling before Malverick.
His left hand was gone—his shoulder had been bitten clean off by Xiaobi, taking the entire arm with it.
And in the earlier battle, Malverick hadn't even taken action himself.
Among the Marines, the rank of Vice Admiral was a strange thing.
Some Vice Admirals could match the Four Emperors—like Garp or Tsuru. They wouldn't fear facing a Yonko directly.
But some Vice Admirals were bizarrely weak, almost with no real combat ability, and not very bright either.
(Like the one Bartolomeo knocked out with one move in Dressrosa—he was a Vice Admiral too!)
Seeing the Vice Admiral kneeling there, Malverick patted Robin on the back, letting her sit down, and then slowly walked toward the Vice Admiral.
"Even Kizaru lost to me. What were you thinking, charging straight at us?"
Originally, Malverick's group planned to pass by directly, but this Vice Admiral just rushed over recklessly.
His courage was admirable.
"Bastard! The Marines will never let you go!"
Faced with Malverick's overwhelming pressure, the Vice Admiral didn't back down, and instead said that.
Malverick was amused.
"Interesting."
He grabbed the man by the neck and lifted him up.
"I'm a pirate. You're the Marines. Of course you won't let me go—but I also won't let you go."
Smiling, Malverick looked toward Xiaobi.
Then he tossed the Vice Admiral toward Xiaobi's large open mouth.
Malverick was no saint. The Marines had come with the intent to kill him, so he had no reason to spare anyone.
After dealing with these Marines, Malverick's crew continued sailing forward.
In the New World, Malverick already had a subordinate—
Dezoro.
He had been ordered to earn money in the New World and already accumulated several hundred billion.
But Malverick didn't plan to look for Dezoro yet.
Because he had received information that Garp was currently chasing him from behind.
Just like when Garp had chased Roger all over the world back then!
"Seriously… when I was little I got chased around by Garp, and now that I'm grown, it's still that old man!"
"Forget it, let's leave this area first. I don't want to fight him right now."
Malverick found dealing with Garp a headache.
In pure fist-to-fist combat, he wasn't Garp's match, and fruit abilities didn't work well on him either.
He didn't want to waste time on Garp.
But soon, Malverick received another piece of news—
Garp's ship also carried Kuzan—the soon-to-be Marine Admiral Aokiji.
This made things worse.
He had no choice but to go find an old friend first.
But fate worked in strange ways—
After sailing forward for only three more days, Malverick ran into the Red-Haired Pirates.
Seeing that familiar pirate flag and ship, Malverick couldn't believe his eyes.
"Is it really such a coincidence?"
Seeing him staring, Robin walked over curiously.
"You know that pirate crew?"
"Know them? I know them very well!"
At the same time, Shanks also spotted the snail ship.
Since the newspapers never described the Dark Night Pirates, Shanks didn't know that Malverick was on that snail ship.
"This pirate flag looks unfamiliar!"
"Yeah, at least put some decoration on it—it looks so plain!"
"Exactly, way too simple. What tasteless person designed that?"
For a moment, the Red-Haired Pirates were full of comments.
But then—
A powerful aura swept across the sea from the opposing ship!
The force stirred huge waves on the surface—it looked like it was trying to flip the Red-Hair Pirates' ship!
BOOM!
Seeing this, Shanks immediately released his own Conqueror's Haki, clashing against the equally overwhelming pressure.
Instantly, the waters between the two ships roared violently, and lightning even fell from the sky.
"That ship… is not simple."
Through the eight-times scope of his sniper rifle, Yasopp spotted some details.
The ship had a giant snail as the main body, but it was covered in high-tech modifications everywhere.
Like the propulsion jets at the back of the snail—
Even Marine warships didn't have things like that!
BANG!
At that moment, the clash of Conqueror's Haki ended, and the shockwave pushed both ships dozens of meters back.
Then Malverick appeared at his ship's bow, looking into the distance at Shanks, who stood on the bow of the Red Force.
[Red-Haired Shanks
No Devil Fruit
Strength Level: King
Defeating him grants:
— Supreme Points!]
Shanks also recognized Malverick.
His expression grew excited—mixed with fighting spirit.
Shanks placed his hand on his waist and slowly drew his saber, Griffin, from its sheath.
"Long time no see—let's say hello, Malverick!"
"Gladly. Let me see how strong the Red-Haired Shanks—the Marine's headache—really is!"
The next moment, a red figure and a black figure clashed on the sea surface!
Waves surged violently across the entire region.
"Malverick, long time no see!"
"Yeah, since Loguetown, we haven't met."
"You've gotten strong. Even a Marine Admiral couldn't beat you."
"You're not bad yourself—this overbearing sword aura and Haki, I've never seen anything like it."
In terms of Conqueror's Haki, Shanks was the strongest person Malverick had ever encountered—no exceptions.
In the earlier clash, although it looked like a draw, Malverick had actually lost just a tiny bit.
"Hahahaha! Then let's have a good fight!"
"No problem!"
They clashed again.
Not far away—
Garp and Aokiji had arrived.
Seeing the raging sea caused by the battle, Garp's old face tightened.
Who was fighting?
Judging from the impact, both fighters were extremely strong.
After some probing, Garp realized who they were.
Malverick and Shanks!
"Garp-san, what do we do?" Aokiji asked.
They hadn't expected the Red-Haired Pirates to be here too.
"Withdraw for now. Those two were both members of the Roger Pirates.
If we intervene, we'll be facing both of them together."
—------------------------------
Patreon Advance Chapters: patreon.com/FrostWarden